Winston's (formerly Gems). Thank you so much to everyone who came. Especially Howie.
We'll be back on Christmas Eve.
2nd December:
Mike played his first full show with us in a somewhat low-key venue, The Leigh Arms. Steve Dean came along and so he witnessed Mike's debut, which went quite well - especially considering the lack of rehearsal he's had so far, because of him only being in the group a couple of weeks!
The night was noteable for the world premiere of a track from the third CD, which has never been played live by the group before.. and a very reasonable donkey kebab afterwards.
6th December:
Mike has been doing his homework! We have a full length show's worth of songs now. We are going to look at getting some brand new songs in early next year when Mike has got a few gigs under his belt. We have a couple of definitely good new ideas, which we are very much looking forward to working on. We have taken some more gigs for next year at the Cherry Gardens, Wigan. Probably our very favourite venue. Thank you, Russell.
7th December:
The group played a private function for a bunch of mad teachers in Wigan. Pissheads. We were on with an Elvis act whose wig was stolen by some girls. A fun night. We played a second set (off-the-cuff) of songs we never usually play. Some of these will have been played tonight for the last time, as Ian H leaves us soon and these songs won't surface at our normal gigs.
10th December:
A new year coming up and effectively a slightly different group with our new guitarist Mike joining us. So why not a new-look website? We will be doing mainly the same songs with Mike to start with, but there will be new stuff soon. It's a great pity that Ian H is leaving us to go to Spain. We WILL miss him tremendously. It's been a great couple of years.
17th December:
Thank you to the venues with compus mentus and unfrazzled landlords who have got their act together to book us - despite unsocial licensing hours and the very strange behaviour of the BT phone network - enough to drive us all bonkers!! Much appreciated. Ta.
We are still working hard on the band diary for 2008. We are now only going back to the venues that we really like in 2008, as a couple of places have double-booked us in the last few months and so we have stopped dealing with them. We are also contending with a slowly shrinking venue circuit, due to the smoking ban. Please can you good people let us know where any good venues are - and if you like us, please mention us to the venue's landlords!!
20th December:
It's picking up on the gig front now... We have taken a number of gigs this week around the Bolton area and have a few more venues we are talking to at the moment. The new 2008 gig list is now on the site.
24th December:
Winston's, Wigan - always a good venue. Once we had convinced some of the punters to move to make some room for the group to set up, we got on with the job at hand and had a really good time. Ian H got out the trusty BAH HUMBUG hat during 'Merry Xmas Everybody'.
Boxing day:
The Cherry Gardens, Wigan - A show we always look forward to doing. A really good turn out, lots of fancy dress in Wigan on Boxing day - something to remember when we ae there next year. A very long second half (about 90 minutes long!)
29th December:
Ian H's last Wigan show with the group at The Boulevard, Wigan. We hopefully played quite well and took a bunch of requests mid-set from RentACrowd. We have taken two more dates there for early next year, which will be great. We have also added four dates at Winston's and two at The Railway, Ramsbottom - all of which are in the gigs section. We got a mention on Century FM from someone who came to see us at The Cherry Gardens. They said they thought we were 'ace' when they watched us and they promptly got blitzed afterwards. Thanks for the mention, if you're reading this!
New Year's Eve:
The group played our very last show of the year at The Fleece in Ashton. It was also our very last show with Ian H on guitar and was quite an emotional experience for us. We will miss him tremendously. Good to see a good number of our friends turn up to watch. Howie, Cozy, et al.
Our new guitarist, Mike, got up to do a couple of songs with us and he is absolutely buzzing to get out playing with us. There were a few video cameras around, so hopefully, we will get to put some footage up where it can be seen.
Our thank you list for the last year:
Ian H for being our great mate and a miraculously good guitarist as well.
Howie and the guys at the Eagle jam night in Ashton.
RentACrowd for turning up time and time again and being really good to us.
Mark at Frog Studios.
Chris Mulvaney for photos and being there.
Chris H, Andy, Amy and our chums for being there.
The venue landlords who have really got their act together and who haven't messed us round!
Hamer Guitars and basses.
Rimmers / Harker and Howarth, Wigan.
Sound Control, Salford.
You.
