CONCERT AFTERGLOW!

 

Well, the concert at St. George's is now over and we can look back on a performance to be proud of, as it was a great success. The new songs, that will later this year feature on our new album, went really well. The overall sound was good and the new foldback monitors gave us a reassuring balance on stage which was just what we wanted.

 

We can now look forward to our next gig, another BBQ for the GamBLE charity, at the end of August, where we hope to try out a few more of our new songs amongst the more well known playlist. The BBQ has a quite relaxed atmosphere and there is good fun when we jam with some of the regular local musicians. Fingers crossed for some dry weather!

 

Regards - John

Happy Anniversary!

The band have been asked to give a concert as part of the festival to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the church building. As the band played a concert when the church first opened this also marks ten years of live performances after a long period off the road concentrating on writing and recording.

The concert will feature a few of the new songs that will be on the new album that will be available later in the year. Some of the material has particular relevance for this year. One of the songs, 'Amongst the Roses' references the Battle of Waterloo which, coincidentally, has its 200 year anniversary a few days after the concert. Another song, 'The Agincourt Carol' celebrates the 600 year anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. If 'Broadside' makes the playlist it will mark 350 years since the plague of 1665. I am not sure I have time to write a song about the Magna Carta to commemorate 1215!

Concert at St. George's Church, Ashtead

Concert at St. George's Church, Ashtead

 

On the 23rd May We played a concert at St. George's Church in Ashtead, Surrey which was in aid of the Dell Project, a new building to provide facilities at their sister church, St. Giles. It all went very well and over £1000 was raised.

 

Unfortunately, Alice had a throat infection and was unable to sing on the night and her songs had to be covered by Dave and myself. It was obviously very frustrating for Alice having to be on stage playing the autoharp and frog but unable to participate in the singing apart from some choruses.

 

There was a lot of positive feedback from the audience and it would be great to play there again as it was such an enjoyable evening. I would like to thank Ian, Paul and Nathan for all their help with setting up and operating the church's sound and lighting systems for us.

 

Regards - John

 

John, Bruce, Alice and Dave giving it some wellie

 

Two thirds of the band took part in a fund-raising concert at Christ Church in Colliers Wood last night and did an acoustic set of four unaccompanied songs - Pastime, When Winter Walks, The Good Old Way and Shepherd Arise. It's a long time since we've done a gig where we haven't had a PA system and lots of equipment to set up and then take down. It's certainly a nice change to be able to walk on stage and perform without having to worry about any of the techy stuff.

 

Working up an acoustic set is certainly something we'll develop in the future alongside the full electric set up. With an acoustic option we'll be able to do small gigs and things like house concerts. I certainly won't miss humping equipment about on every occasion when we perform.

 

Regards - John

St. George's Church concert

A shot of Bruce, Alice, Dave and Derek (just) from the St.George's concert - courtesy of Conrad

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the concert at St. George's Church on Saturday 29th September, especially Robin and Nick for the great lights, Sue for the sound mixing and Anna, Ian, Rob and Clare who also helped out with the setting up/taking down of the stage/gantry on Friday night and Saturday night and not forgetting special thanks to Alice for the banana bread and Romey for the chocolate cake that kept us going during the day.

The concert was a great success and featured a number of songs from the new album, Shadowfall.

In the next few days we'll put up some more pictures from the concert and in due course there will be some video clips once they are downloaded and editted.

Regards - John



A quick note to say that the new album, Shadowfall, is finally ready and is available direct from the band and will also be on sale at our forthcoming concert at St. George's Church on the 29th September.

Regards - John

"Drumming through the mist" - (picture courtesy of Ian Gilchrist)

I can now report that all recording for the album has been completed with the final session of drum and percussion recording on Saturday. These parts are now being mixed in alongside the instrumental and vocal sections of the songs already mixed.

So, we are almost there and the album should be ready for release in the near future.With the album in its final stages the band are now concentrating on rehearsing for their next concert at St. George's on Saturday 29th September.

Regards - John