03/05/07
Ah...the first day in the City of Derry, Northern Ireland, for our fifth year at the Derry City Jazz and Big Band Festival. This is a great festival - the people are so friendly and the gigs are wild - seven gigs in four days!
Our input must be affecting the choice in bands as this year there were many jive and R 'n' R bands; King Pleasure, the Extraordinaires and Greggi G and the Roaring 40's to name but four...
We awoke and went almost straight to BBC Radio Foyle to play live on Mark Patterson's radio show - you can see this on line on the BBC site at
www.bbc.co.ukThen the opening festival gig at DaVinci's. The Extraodinaires started off the evening getting the crowd warmed up then we hit the stage with all the pent up energy of an unleashed pit bull - it has been a whole year since we played for this great crowd. Everyone here is always up for the craic and ready to dance.
Ian and Sheilagh Hartley, better known as GI Jive, are here as part of the show to dance with us and they cut a rug to our Big John's sax feature "Flying Home" and really get the crowd jumping.
04/05/07
It's Friday and our first gig of the day is at the Foyleside shopping centre. Hundreds of shoppers join the regular jazz fans to watch and dance and the kids are very cute.
The evening takes us to Rafters restaurant where this year we play upstairs due to the large amount of people unable to get in last year and more space to dance.
05/05/07
Before our first gig today we went to the City of Derry museum which has been renovated since we were last here. Its very nice and learnt a lot about the history of the fine city - definitely worth a trip if you're in town.
Then a cappucino at Louis cafe where local hero Gay McIntyre is playing and a chat with singer Zoe Gilby, who has beautiful true Irish red hair... but comes from Newcastle.
Then to the Strand bar where we always play the Saturday afternoon and many families come along with the kids who dance and jump about at the front. This is a quite restrictive stage with a bar in front of us so we spend a lot of time singing and playing on the bar top and running about in the audience. We were followed by the Mind Benders (thanks for the loan of the P.A. guys!).
In the evening its a night at the famous Gweedore which once again was ram packed to the beams with locals and a long queue outside - next year we'll have top play upstairs in the bigger room. It was wild as usual and a great audience who insisted we ended up dueling horns on the bar, and who are we to let them down?
We were in the local Derry newspapers today too, lots of photos of the yellow suits and even a great review of our Life is a Game album.
06/05/07
After another very late night we jumped (dragged ourselves) out of bed to head for Harry's on the road to Donegal where always play a fundraiser gig for the Red Cross. One of the best bits is that on arrival they feed us with a wonderful meal with desserts that make you want to do the show sitting in rocking chairs after a few helpings. Of course we don't sit for long and the meal is soon converted to ergs of energy on the stage after local rising star Claire Sproule finished her set. She also got up and jammed with us singing "Ain't Misbehaving" during the afternoon. It ended with an auction which Alex and I helped with. When we ran out of items to sell I proposed an auction of Alex juggling bread rolls while a member of the audience sang "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and restaurant manager Donall joined in juggling - it sold well.
We popped to the City Hotel to see George of the Roaring Forties band who had just driven in from Cork. We had a chat and then back to sound check.
As is traditional we ended off the night at the grand finale at DaVinci's. The place was packed and sold out weeks before. Our old mates from Brum, King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, started off the night and then we came on to give our all in the last gig of the festival. I had the lights turned up so as to see the Derry people's smiling faces as the night became full out party time in what I hope is true the tradition of the showbands of old Ireland - "send 'em home sweating". By the time MC Mark Patterson from BBC Foyle called for an encore the place was heaving. We called KP and the Boys back on stage for a full out jam session on a stonking R & B "Allright, OK, You Win"! It being after 12.00am and my birthday being the 7th Mark announced it and the Hartleys and Lin-D-Hop (of Maggies Blue Suede news fame) gave me my present - genuine Irish shamrock boxer shorts!
07/05/07
Sad to leave but an event awaits in Dublin. We drove through the beautiful countryside to Dublin to do an outside gig in Grafton Street, one of the busiest streets in the isles, for the "Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life" campaign. A good place to spend my birthday (21st of course!) and a lovely place to play. The Dublin Swing Dance Society came and danced the afternoon away and a huge crowd gathered. At the end, tired but very happy we went to Eddie Rockets American burger bar before heading to the ferry. We also bumped into Joanne who's fiance, Mark, had driven her all the way from Belfast to Dublin just to have an Oreo Cookie Milkshake in Eddie Rockets for her birthday so Ian had to get a picture with her just for sharing the same birthday!
An early morning flight from Haugesund to Stansted and then a drive straight across country to Wales. Our first appearance at the Brecon Jazz Festival was a blast. We shared the stage with old mates such as Mike Sanchez and the boys from Oceans Seven, Ben Waters with Chris Jagger and Ray Gelato was playing down the road. It was a jive fans dream!
It was great to see all the lindy hoppers down from Bergen and Stavanger and good to catch up with old friends such as Harry Conolly, George Hassan and Gay Macintyre, the Fallen Heroes and we also got to see who we have officially titled "The Worlds' Greatest Jazz Band" (TM), the Jazzin' Babies. If you want to see, hear and feel exciting, hot, traditional jazz that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, check these guys out. They are from Oslo though but do travel occasionally.
Another day another country! We flew to Germany today to the Jazzival in Gladbeck. Not having done this festival before we were not sure what to expect but the sight of 2000 jazz fans cheering you is very welcoming. Acker Bilk and Rod Mason were also on the bill.
An early start after a late night and a drive to the centre of London for Joanne Goode's breakfast show. Also on air was George Webley who provided this action shot.
Thought we could take it easy after yesterday's madness? Think again!
Check out the pics, on stage, with the dancers from the Oxford Swing Dance Society and Helen and her brand new Harry Potter book which she bought and read ont he first day of release during the airshow!
Today we spent the entire day at the War and Peace show. We started of the lunchtime set as usual and then played to a sell-out crowd for the evening dance. Thanks to Terry Elliott for not only playing a great set of tunes but he also organizes all the entertainment for the war and Peace Show every year!
Another lunchtime set at the War and Peace show and then off to Reading for another year at the Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival. Last Year we broke the Thursday attendance record and this year was no different and we topped it yet again! Thanks to Richard Leach's seven Stars of Jazz for a great set of New Orleans and Swing tunes.
Summertime Swing. By all accounts the most successful year so far. With over 850 people attending and a slew of special guests it was a day to remember.
Thanks to all our guests including the Jivettes, Wee Willy Harris, Toni Elizabeth Prima and Mr. Acker Bilk. Thanks also to our wonderful DJ and MC Terry Elliott and the dancers the Jiving Lindy Hoppers and the London Swing Cats who supplied some great dance cabarets spots and a surprise jam up together on Flying Home.
A whole day of setting up for Summertime Swing before dashing off to London.
After a very sunny "Say No To Drugs" event in Stevenage, Mark Feld invited us back to his Rockin' pad for some pasta where we reminisced while perusing his vinyl collection (including Red Hot and blue's album with John playing a guest solo on a few tracks - very rare!). Check out his bass collection.
Then it was straight back to the studio for a hard nights recording. Rusty Frank and Drew Harrison joined us for a little sketch we let them loose with as an intro to one of the songs. It was so funny that we have to release the out-takes somewhere!
