In the Flesh Blog

The End is nigh

2012-01-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

Copied from the main website.

24.01.12 - Goodbye Cruel World... In The Flesh call it a day.

It is with great sadness that we report In The Flesh have announced they are breaking up.

There is no single reason for this, and certainly not because of artistic differences, but rather a myriad of changed personal priorities of its individual band members.

Unlike many other Pink Floyd tributes, In The Flesh was not a manufactured band made up of session musicians designed for the sole purpose of killing off other Floyd tribute bands around them, but a group of enthusiasts, playing for enthusiasts. Most of the band members had been playing in groups together since their teens, and the enjoyment of performing together has meant this was a decision not taken lightly.

In The Flesh are proud of their achievements, and are very thankful to all of the fans who have supported them over the years.

They will perform their final show, appropriately in their home town, at the Palace Avenue Theatre in Paignton on Friday 27 January.

******

I will be closing down the blog and hopefully writing a final blog after Fridays show.

Polly

And so this is Christmas

2011-11-16T11:54:00.000-08:00

And so this is Christmas.......well not quite but it approaches fast and so did the end of our touring for this year, our last show being at the Ipswich Corn Exchange on Friday 11th November. Looking back it’s been a mixed year with lots of highs and lows. Speaking to people after the shows is always a plus as we get to listen to feedback and comments in person and we have met some very genuine and friendly people. We still get people assuming that every show we put on will have lasers in it but the sheer cost of using these (£3,000 a show) is just not viable and is something we won’t be repeating unless we win the lotto. We rely on ticket sales to fund the production costs and in this grave economic climate we live in at present we are barely managing to break even. It’s not cheap to stage a Pink Floyd show even at our end of the scale. Maybe if we had a backer things would be different. However, one thing for sure is that we don’t compromise on the music. We don’t claim to be the best of the best etc bla bla bla, but we do put our hearts and souls into it and we hope that comes across. Okay, Les Dawson makes the occasional appearance and sometimes things don’t go as smoothly as you would like them to, but hell, it’s live music....if you want perfection put a CD on.

In general audiences are very kind to us but you do get the occasional nutter that would be more at home in the Star Wars bar. How anyone can turn up regaled in Pink Floyd T – Shirt and not enjoy Echoes ( quote : “Ooh, that last song in the first half was a bit long...I was getting fidgety waiting for it to finish”) is beyond me. We have to start from the basis that we are not going to please everyone and some songs will get left out, otherwise we would be up there all night.

There’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes and sometimes it can be a war of attrition just to keep things moving along. Theatres are not blameless in this either as most of them don’t bother promoting the shows, okay they’ll slap a couple of posters up here and there but that’s about it. The amount of print they ask for pre show doesn’t tally with the amount they actually use and you would be surprised at the amount of unused flyers we retrieve on a regular basis from said theatres. Now if they bought your show in....then that would be a totally different thing...they’d promote the arse out of it...why?....because they have to.

We’ve had our problems with personnel this year as well. Pat, our long standing bass player left last November to pursue a career as a Paramedic. We were lucky enough to have Pete Garland stand in with us for a while and that carried us through what was quite a dark period for the band, one which left us feeling uncertain about the future. Following Pete’s departure we were lucky enough to have Alex Tsentides depping for us and more recently we have Mike Taylor depping as well.Getting the personnel issues sorted was a major step forward for us in the latter half of the year and we have now emerged from the dark tunnel we were in and can go forward more positively in 2012

Footnote from the Ipswich show.
Got told off by an irate person after the Ipswich show for playing "that Dirty Woman song" (Young Lust). Due to the Ipswich murders in 2006 he said it was totally insensitive and he parted company from me with a stern "Don’t do it again" leaving me no chance of right of reply. Needless to say I was speechless. The words “Get a grip” sprang to mind.
In our defense we never even thought about any murders and at the end of the day we were just there to perform the songs of Pink Floyd regardless of any connections people might make with the songs. I'm sure Floyd didn't have any such inklings in their minds when they wrote this song.
I did however notice from my vantage point on stage that the audience enjoyed the song.
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Pink Floyd tribute shows.
Okay....have a great Christmas and hopefully we’ll see you in January.
Steve.

Weston Super Mare - 7th October 2011

2011-10-09T09:24:00.001-07:00

This is just a shout out to Geoff and Lynn for their kind message, I cannot reply any other way I'm afraid but wanted you to know I got it!

The Weston gig was a success I hear. No amusing stories to be told I'm afraid, although I think someone traveled over from Ireland to see the show! Mick O'C, the band appreciated the effort!!

Grimsby 6th October - New backing singer!

2011-10-07T06:14:00.001-07:00

Hi to all blog followers

Unfortunately this is where I will be leaving you, Chris and I are having a baby so it's time to hang up my singing hat for a while.

In my place we have a wonderful new singer called Meghan Callaghan. If you went to the Grimsby gig then you would have seen her.

Both Fredi and Meghan came to my attention through my theatre classes and both girls have won our singing star competition over the years. They are both highly talented girls and i'm sure you will also agree, far too pretty!!! Ha ha

Fredi on the left, Meghan on the right.
Stolen from Megs facebook from last night in dreesing room I expect !!!

I will ask the rest of the band if they would like to contribute to the blog but not sure they are as into writing as me! Any pictures that come my way I will post however.

I am told the gig in Grimsby went well, Alex Tsentides was dep'ping on bass and he was great I'm told. Here he is in all his floyd dimension glory!!

Breaking news!
If you have seen one of the bands programmes then you will have seen the pictures of all the bands they were in from teenagers.
One of the these bands back in the day was called Dr Frank and it contained 3 of the current in the flesh line up -Chris(vocals) , Jeff (drums) and Ross(sax). I have heard rumours that a new bass player will be with the band soon, called Mikey and yes you've guessed it he was in that same band Dr Frank all those years ago!!! Mikey has been a professional musician for ever as far as I know, touring with shows such as Joseph. It will be great to have 4 of that original band playing together again! What a blast from the past! I as a teenager would go to watch them play all the time and the pubs were packed all the time!

Stevenage - Saturday 9th July 2011

2011-07-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Again, apologies I wasn't there, still felt ill and could not have coped with the drive. Chris tells me it went well.

The band stayed overnight somewhere near London and according to Fredi's facebook status she did not enjoy the travelodge!!!

Here are some guest comments from the website.

John Taylor from St Neots, Cambs. | Sunday July 10, 2011. 17:17

After our seeing the Band in Stevenage on Saturday,we were totally amazed at the presentation and brilliant musical performance. We will always book for your future dates.

Angela from Stevenage | Sunday July 10, 2011. 01:01

This is the second time I've seen you guys and I can honestly say that after listening to Steve's solo during Comfortably Numb, his performance tonight was at least equal if not better than David Kilminster's at The Wall concert in the O2 - no really! All of you are so talented, I wouldn't like to choose a favourite - together you gave a brilliant performance. Thanks for making me happy.

This gig marks the last for a few months, so if they are any updates or pictures to add in I shall be letting you know, keep checking back sporadically, oh and I will get round to finishing off the Guernsey blog!

Bye for now bloggers.

Torquay, Princess Theatre - Thurs 7th July

2011-07-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

Well this was our local gig, so I didn't even need to show up til much later in the day. I wasn't feeling my best anyway so was glad that Fredi was taking the lead tonight on great gig. Her family were all coming so that was a nice treat all round. My students from my theatre school arrived at 5.30. There was a bit of hoo ha with my mic not working at the start of sound checking, but then it did so don't know what was going on there.

The choir didn't get to practise til gone 6 I think so a bit of waiting around and then when they were done, they went off to town or the chippy. They watched the show from the back of auditorium, both Fredi's brother and sister were in the choir, Arnie was the one on crutches, having broken his leg while we were in Guernsey.

Show went well, I struggled to get through it to be honest, but tried my hardest. Have no idea how someone like Lady Gaga could pull off a show feeling like I did. Ahh well.

I pretty much went straight home afterwards but briefly went out to see my sister and Michele who were working the merchandise for us. Saw Patch (our old bass player) and Georgia Chris T's niece.

Ciao for now.

Camberley

2011-07-11T05:35:00.001-07:00

I'm afraid I wasn't at this gig, but from all reports it went well. Good comments on the guest book. Sorry I can't give any more info. Band are welcome to send some snippits to me to put on here!

Guernsey, Beau Sejour Leisure Centre, Friday 10th June 2011

2011-06-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

Ok this may be a long entry so will publish it in stages!!

Our first trip over seas! We started off Thursday 9th at 5.15 am. Holy Mackrel I don't like early mornings. I was in Pauls car with Paul, Fredi, Jeff and we picked up Pete in Exeter. Got to Weymouth Ferry port at 8 ish. Met up with our other van containing Mr & Mrs Loar. So where is Chris T I hear you ask? He was flying over later in day, as he was very ill on the last ferry trip he took. (I have to point out that I feel travel sick more often than him normally)

I got a bit blase and ate my egg sandwich. As the ferry was pulling out me Fredi got seducd by the sweets - 3 bags for 2 of natural confectionary products! So I ate a few of those, an hour or so in I started feeling a bit rough so went outside to sit on the back deck. It was windy and fairly chilly but better than the stuffy heat of inside. I sat staring at the horizon and eventually after my 3rd travel tablet I stated to feel better. Different people came out to see me during the next 2 hours to check on me, Paul was great, he got me sick bags in case and an extra coat. my fingers went completely numb but I wasn't risking going back inside as I had heard reports of people being sick on the floors ! Yukky pukky.

Ferry was 1 engine down so crossing was longer 3 and a quarter hours.

Also on the ferry we met up with Adam and Max our lighting crew from Cornwall who were with us at recent Truro gig and Falmouth. Also met Vasken, who was driving the sound van doing a live recording of the show.

On the other side, the trip really began. We got picked by by Karen the promoter and her brother Colin, they had big hire vehicles for us all to fit in. Some of them drove to the Venue and left their vans there. We went on to the Hotel called La Colinette. It was very nice. Karen (who was a total star the whole way through) had organised a buffet lunch for us at 1.15 so we had a chill in our room them went downstairs. I read all the bumpf in the room and found there was a old German bunker on the grounds of hotel. I didn't know anything much about the history of Guernsey in the 2nd world war until now.

The flying people arrived. Glenn (manager) and Jane (his wife) John (monitor engineer) and Ross (Sax) who all flew in from Gatwick. Chris arrived after them from Exeter.

He took this picture of our home town of Brixham from the air. The southern point is Berry Head and you can see our pier and Marina very clearly jutting out.

(He missed the buffet) he did get here just in time to get changed and meet the other downstairs for our meal on the nearby Island of Herm.

It was a 20 minute crossing, no cars are on Herm which is a lovely island with sand dunes. There are a few restaurants, and some house but not a lot else. you can go camping on Herm. What a tranquil holiday that would be! Lovely flowers and an almost mediterranean feel I felt.

Heres some pics from the trip to Herm

Pete, very smily! and Ross a bit smily.

Max in background, Jeff looking happy! Fredi and Mrs Loar taking pics of themselves and us respectively!!!

Oh my Mrs Loar in a picture my goodness!

Falmouth, Princess Pavilion, 4th June 2011

2011-06-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

It was quite a nice day for driving, we had to hire a van as our remaining van could not be fixed in time! I drove my car as we couldn't all fit into Pauls car. I took Chris and Ross and we stopped off in Cornwall for a Mcdonalds, (was this a mistake on Chris' part? - see later in blog!)

The first road to Falmouth was blocked by a police sign so we had to go a different route but we still got there in plenty of time.

It was a smaller venue than our equipment is used to, so the screen had to remain backstage and we projected on a white back screen they had instead.

My camera has a problem! -

it's taking pictures off centre and is making a funny noise. Oh dear!!!

Lots of posters backstage of previous acts.

Here's a pic of a few of them. Cara Dillon has an amazing voice.

Lots of illness going round!

Fredi had tonsillitis and couldn't make this gig. Chris complained of not feeling good before the show. Pete also had a bad cold but the show must go on.

A view from backstage load in, lovely sailing boats!!!

The crew were very helpful, and the guy had a nifty portable 'monitor desk on a screen to walk about with, which meant he could adjust them while standing next to you. Not come across one of those before!

Show went well, people seemed to enjoy it. We couldn't unfortunately meet anyone after as they had shut up the marquee / bar.

I had to do the driving home as Chris wasn't feeling well. Nearer to home he took a turn for the worse and then as we arrived in Torquay to help unload the hire van (at 3.30am!!!!) he was shivering uncontrollably. He ended being really sick, and needed looking after the next day! (Not sure if it was Mcdonalds?)

Norwich UEA, Friday 15th April 2011

2011-04-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

A bit of an uncomfortable journey up and I was lucky as I was in front seat. Poor Fredi was very squashed between the boys in the back. After day 1 and current total on blog is .....

8200

That's 97 views - Quite good in one day!

Have found wifi so i'm blogging from the dressing rooms above the UEA union. There's a noise curfew until 5pm so once things are set up everyone must just hang around as we can't fire up the sound system or anything.

Heres some pictures I have just taken from the venue and outside.

Local stage crew helping with the get in.

An array of mic stands, waiting to be set up.

Not a great shot - but here's the stage during set up.

The floor where people will be standing tonight.

A view from inside venue of the student union shops

Outside the front doors of venue, last year we went and sat by the lake that is off to the right...

Pete reading in the dressing room.

If you are coming this evening, see you soon! Come and say hello after the show.

Wimbledon, New Theatre, Thursday 14th April 2011

2011-04-14T03:26:00.000-07:00

It's 11.27am and we're well on the way to Wimbledon. This is a new venue for us, so who knows what's in store? We're travelling up in chris' car today as betsy 3 died on our last journey and she has not yet been replaced! Does anyone fancy giving us a free coach? Fredi is currently sat in the back between jeff and Pete- A Rose between 2 thorns as steve quoted at the services stop off.

What is it about travelling that makes me super hungry at 10am!

Out of interest gonna see how many views the blog gets over next 2 gigs. We're on 8103 at the moment!

Drove through Barnes, it had very posh looking houses! Went over the Hammersmith bridge..

Arrived at theatre about 1ish, there's Wifi - hence why i'm typing in my dressing room.

Lovely looking theatre, will go take a picture shortly..

The mirror ball before being hoisted into place.

The full height of the stage

A painting in the backstage corridor

It's now 16.11 and things are going in full swing. I've just heard i'll be trying in ear monitors tonights, so that be very different! Hope they don't fall out!

...Just tried them in sound check and it was ace......Pictures from sound check

A womble as we're in Wimbledon! See if you can spot him if you're coming to watch this evening.

The drums looking smashing! Quite Spacey!

The new addition to the clan on the Hammond Organ. Pig number 2!, Chris is now looking for another different pig, a sheep and dog but he is quite fussy about what it looks like.

Here they are with the flash on!

After the show, we had a few friendly punters chat to us. Here is a few chatting in front of a fetching thomas the tank engine poster! I didn't know he was touring?

Phil and Tim here...

Now Tim (on the right) is from Norwich which is where we are playing tomorrow, so he said he would come and see us there also. If he does, then that will be impressive - 2 shows on 2 consecutive nights, i'm sure that hasn't been done before!

TIM, you'd better come!!

Not too far to go before bed, stayed in heathrow Travelodge.

Wilde theatre, Bracknell, 27th March 2011

2011-03-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well hello blog readers, it is 3.30 in the morning and I'm writing this from the cab of an AA van while the man loads up betsy 3. The clutch / gearbox finally gave way at the services when we stopped to change over drivers! She was due to see the mechanic tomorrow morning to get her through the MOT but now not sure if she ever drive us again! At least she got us an hour and a half from home. Still it's gonna be a lot later to bed than planned! Last week the other van had to relayed home as the breaks were dodgy. Typical that it would happen to us the very next week I suppose it was good that it happened after the 2 shows and not this morning!

The time of Betsy 3's demise.

The gearstick in question with Chris phoning AA!

Jeffs final sleep in the Betsy.

Eyore, gently weeping at the loss of Betsy 3.

Paul looking altogether too happy in back of AA van.

Back to the show : It was great, a nice full crowd.

Spoke to Tim Bastock, here's a pic of him. - well there will be soon.. oops!

Random fact, a shot of lime at the theatre bar was 61p?? Why was it that expensive and why the extra 1p?

Can't believe it was June 2009 that we last played here! The time goes so fast.
Lovely day and the venue has an arts centre in a nice building next to it, in the middle of a park. Chris and I took a stroll and I took some pics!

Finally the following morning heres Betsy 3 being stripped of al her wares before going to the scrap yard! It's genuinely sad, after all the hard work she's put in.

What will Betsy 4 be like?

The Artrix, Bromsgrove, Sat 26th March 2011

2011-03-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well here I am sat in the dressing room at Bromsgrove, blogging as we speak! I can hear the drums booming out from downstairs which might mean sound check has started.

When we arrived their youth theatre were on stage, doing oom pah pah from oliver, I instantly felt my teacher mode coming on and wanted to go and shake the young things into giving it a bit of oomph!

The dressing room all to myself where I have been blogging!

The view of a football field out of the window!

Steve on his guitar.

The Artrix Venue

Andy setting up the sound gear!

This chap is one of the in house crew, he's called Tom...I made him smile for the pic!

Chris and Pete going over Fat old sun, which I think is back in the set tonight.

Here's Jeffs buff bins again, Bromsgrove 2010 was my first ever blog

and I mentioned his brand new kit!

Here's the new pig I bought for Chris yesterday, his first show tonight, think he might be a bit nervous! His name shall be Sergeant Pigster. The last 'pink' pig got stolen or misplaced we're not sure, he hasn't turned up since!

The Foyer of Artrix

Me and my mac are now sat on stage after having sound checked my vocals, modern technology hey!!

Hope there's a good crowd tonight, I shall update later.

*****

The show is finished I'm back in the dressing room and as promised an update. Good show, an appreciative crowd. I recognised a young chap in the foyer before the show started and he and his dad came to stoke on trent only 6 weeks ago.

So here's their picture!

Paul (dad), Will and Sophie

We also had two very enthusiastic boys who came out and said can I have your picture to Steve, so I said can I have your picture, so here they are also, the Hake Family, with two boys John and Chris!

Gary and Anna were at show again too, and as Pete on bass said, they must have been to more gigs than him!! I am super dooper tired now, can't wait to get to Hotel!

Ciao!

The Grove, Dunstable, Saturday 19th March

2011-03-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Delayed Blog.....again with the excuses I know....but I have been mega busy this week! Just about fitted in the gig! I even worked teaching kids the following day for 12 hours after having 3 hours sleep! I am officially exhausted!

Here's whats went on at Dunstable my fine blog followers.

On the drive up I noticed that the wicker man is not standing alone any more... for all of you from up North or East I guess you won't know the wicker man in somerset (next to the M5)! Here he be!

Well they seem to be building lots of huge factories/offices / big buildings and now he kinda stuck amongst loads of work things - tractors, diggers etc.... poor wicker man!

M25 pics

Some sort of accident in the distance! check out the smoke cloud!

The give Peas a chance sign! - google it!

Backstage at Dunstable, they obviously must have used this sign in a show....hmmm what was the name of that show with the dance school....hmm oh dear..... only kidding...

Chris sliding on a rolling thing - this was the moment he realised that it would be bad if he broke his legs and quickly got off!

Dressing room, Mrs Loar will hate me for this 'mid eating' snap. That picture on the wall is new i'm sure! I will have to go back to 2010 Dunstable blog and see.

The kitcheny part of the green room, with Harriet and Fredi, think Chris is checking microwavable instructions for his chicken ding as he calls them (things that go ding in microwave)

Sound Check (hence the smokey pic - lots of haze on stage!)

Fredi looks dead in this. It's a strange pic I just had to put it up on here.

Show was good, Fredi was on Great gig this evening, and even did it with a cough. There's something about the adrenalin that seems to get you through it, I've sung it with all sorts of throat ailments.

After the show, we met up with Glenn our manager and Ross our regular sax player who was watching Harriet tonight as they live near by. He originally couldn't make the show, hence Harriet was dep'ping but then a change of plans and he came to watch. There were some drunk or just very noisy people who were talking a lot through the show. I have to say I feel quite sorry for those who want to be able to focus and listen to the music. Why people would want to pay good money to talk their way through a show is beyond me, and well in a theatre situation - a bit disrepectful don't you think? Go watch a pub floyd band! Rant over......

Here's Gary from Gary and Anna fame, and their daughter who doesn't seem that impressed! They are talking to Pete our bass player.

It was paparazzi time for Harriet!

Me and the lovely Harriet, gosh i'm tinsy winsy!

Oooh it's a bit of a close up but hey ho! This chap was called Danny England and he made me take this pic!

Gravesend, Aylesbury & Edinburgh, 3-5th March 2011

2011-03-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

Well unfortunately I am not at these shows, however I shall be at all the rest this year (hopefully). I have been kept updated as to the goings on and even received a few pics. I heard that the shows have been well attended and some of the best atmospheres to date, which is wonderful seeing as I'm not there!!! Currently they are playing to the Scots in Edinburgh, it's 10.20pm so I reckon it must be Comfortably Numb time.

I have asked Chris to write a blog, i'll see what he comes up with.

I am currently very busy producing shows with my Theatre School but hope to be back to full blogging soon!

If you went to see the shows this week, I hope you enjoyed them, if so tell all your friends, leave a guestbook message and hope to see you again soon!

Byeeee

Chris hasn't written the blog for these shows and he's probably forgotten the details by now!!

He did however tell me that some clever person who had clearly read my blog, asked him 'do you have any cd's? followed by a wink and a 'haaaaa'

Saturday 12th Feb, 2011 Tunbridge Wells.

2011-02-15T03:33:00.000-08:00

The venue at Tunbridge Wells

The drive to Tunbridge wells took about 3 hours from spalding, we stopped in little chef in the end, we had been driving for ages and not seen a road side snack van so it was a necessity.

Tunbridge is a lovely looking town, Royal Tunbridge wells in fact, a spa town like Bath, Wells, Royal Leamington Spa. There are only 2 with the Royal before them... It had beaitiful houses above the shops in town. Lots of expensive looking shops too with nice house type things... I spent a lot of money on food in Marks and Spencer! but it was worth it to not eat the same old things..

Harriet was with us on Saxophones, here she is with her mum in the kitcheny type room

and here she is with Fredi on stage

during the show well there was a lot of wolf whistling when she was on stage. Come on Mr Whistler I know there are some lovely ladies in the band but wolf whisling really??? Once he even whistled about 3 times in a row.

Good show again, Crowd loved it as usual. Comfortably numb really has an amazing guitar solo and Paul does a great job on the sound, I love the bit of the solo just after the mirror ball has been lit, it almost has this out of this world quality sound wise, i have to remember that it is acutally us creating it, it is quite magical. Pete was on lights tonight, a really nice chap who really works hard to enhance the special moments. He also keeps hurting himself - he head butted the mirror ball tonight before it was lifted into position.

We drove home over night, I don't know how the boys do it, but was worth it to be home on the sunday, as I had the best day sunday!

Friday 11th Feb 2011, Embassy Theatre Skegness

2011-02-15T03:17:00.000-08:00

We stayed over night in Heathrow travelodge and started the trip to skegness at 9.30. Found a roadside snack bar, I had a egg in nice crusty baguette. Journey to skeggy was about 3-4 hours, on the way there were some of the longest straightest roads i've seen in this country. They seemed quite new! There were fields upon fields of cabbages, brussels sprouts and other green leafed vegetables, this must be the area for such produce. We also spotted a field of white sheep nibbling away on a load of cabbages, we think they were rogue sheep, they had a guilty look about them... It would have made a great picture but didn't get my camera out in time...

I felt tired today and a bit grouchy, you just never seem to get enough sleep to feel refreshed and then have a really long day ahead of you with the travelling, setting up followed by a 3 hour show...Good job the music lifts you when you go on stage!
Skegness didn't dissapoint it was a sea side town and a half! The theatre 'the Embassy' was on the parade by the seafront, with roller coasters and big wheels next to it, and a sign for the pleasure beach! It all seemed shut down, I bet in summer it is buzzing with lights and noises, but theres something quite nice in seeing it out of season. I went and got some fish a chips from the only one that was open in a long line of them...I also bought some Skegness rock and a fridge magnet for my mum who collects them from where i've been.

Here is our dressing room / tea making station!

Here is Steve going through the lighting cues with the in house Tech

Tonight was a night for some good quotes off our punters.

To Steve (our lead guitarist) - Great Sax playing!
To Jeff (our drummer) - Great guitar work!
To Ross (our sax player) - Who taught you to play sax?, Dave Gilmour!

There was also a much re enacted moment, i shall write it as a script for you to read..

Man - Do you sell any Cd's?
Chris - No sir, we only have T shirts and stickers at the moment
Man - Oh.... So how much are the Cd's?
Chris - We don't have any Cd's, just the t shirts and stickers (gesturing to table)
Man - How much would the cd's be?
Chris - Um.... £10?

This man clearly wanted a cd..

We met a lady with a lovely long plait...
A man called John who was good fun and had white trainers that i saw even when he was sitting in the crowd...hasn't he got a cute grin!

A lady called Cath whose husband was struggling to take a pic with my camera, also in this pic is Ross and Chris and Fredi from the band.

After the show while the pack down was going on, I went to the 24 hour macdonalds that was just next door... I bet girls aloud don't go to Macdonalds after shows, thats why they are so skinny!

Bye to Skegness, it was an hour drive to Spalding (where they make tennis balls etc. i'm told) for our over night stay, got into bed at 1.30am

here's a little video of sound check, I doubt it was at skegness, but it was one of these shows!

Thurs 10th Feb 2011, The Beck, Hayes

2011-02-15T02:51:00.000-08:00

This was near where my mum started her life in Hillingdon, random fact for you there... It was a nice brown building just set back off thew road. We found it quite easily as not far off the M4. A long long row of shops near by where we later brought a curry. The crowd (forgive me for saying this crowd) were a bit slow to warm up, but by the second half they were fantastic, really really good in fact... maybe they'd had a few drinks in the interval or were more familiar with the 2nd set songs? This brings me to the fact that I have discovered over the time of touring that it only needs one or two noisy, enthusiastic people to be having a good time and the crowd relaxes into it sooner! Sometimes our audiences are terribly 'English' for the first set, so come on if you're in our next audience just go for it, the more you smile and enjoy it then we can see that and you can't help but feed off it. I must point out for any new readers to my blog and if you haven't seen our show that there hasn't been a show yet where the hasn't been a standing ovation at the end...

Which leads me to our top 3 crowds so far...(criteria includes: enthusiasm throughout the show)
For me the ones that stand out are:.....drum roll please...

Dunstable (which we are playing again soon woo hoo) - Both times we have played there, these guys cheer loudly as the lights go down at the start.

London - Shepherd's Bush Empire - This crowd really knew howe to have a good time.

I shall ask the band to give me their feedback for a third...

Fredi did great gig tonight and did a fab job, got a great reaction from the crowd. We are taking it in turns, and the way you know who will be singing it when you come to watch a show is who is standing the furthest in to the centre (ie nearest the drums) ....If she is blonde then it is Fredi and if she is a brunette then is is me (Polly).
Emotions were running high during wish you were here and comfortably numb, I saw a lad not that old sitting maybe three rows back in a red tshirt, wiping away what I can only assume were tears, theres just something about the screen images that makes you think, I'm glad i'm not out front as i'd be a mess!

Kudos to the guy in a black /skull motif? t shirt quite far back, I could see him getting into big time all the way through!

An amusing momnent was Jeff threw on patchs wig for roll call, made me chuckle.

Lovely people and lovely comments after the show, t'was a pleasure.

Photos to follow.. sorry bout this photo nonsense. there is a reason.

Victoria Halls, Stoke on Trent, Sat 5th Feb 2011

2011-02-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

Didn't take us long to get to stoke as we stayed quite near by, it was rather pleasant to not have a 4+ hour drive. We found a big Tesco extra which meant breakfast!

Think Fredi was cold.

It was huge, you could have lived in there quite happily, it had everything you could imagine except maybe beds, so perhaps living there wouldn't be so good after all. It was 5 minutes til 11.30 when they stopped serving breakfasts and there was a huge queue behind us and they started to run out of stuff and said 'thats all of the tomatoes', and too me and Fredi, sorry we don;t have anymore Veggie sausages! Turns out they can't make any more if it's getting close to the cut off point, bit annoying really! So in the end I had beans, hash browns and eggs, and that was about it, meant to be a six piece breakfast. Fredi was on the rampage when the guy at till said she had to pay for each individual item (which came to more than the price on menu) and the lady had given her two of something to make up for the lack of varied items. She got her way, but boy don't try and diddle Fredi!

Great Green room, had a sixth form common room feel about it, there was much iphone action, sharing of you tube clips which made us chuckle.

Paul had his nails painted in bright Pink, Chris Loar did it, then Fredi had to touch it up!

This will be last mention of toasties, as think you get the jist that there is a lot of toasty making!

Our dressing room, Fredi thought it had a prison cell feel about it..

I had some guests at tonights show, Denise, sister and hubby to a good friend of mine, they tell me they saw me sing Karaoke years ago at a local pub while dressed as something unusual, Oooh I can't what remember now! (that was them dressed up not me!) They thoroughly enjoyed the show which was splendid.

A young couple who were chatting to Chris, he was a drummer.

iphone entry.....hence bad punctuation / capitals situation...!
the show is finished, the get out is happening as I type. They kicked us out of our dressing rooms extremely early this evening! The man did say that we sounded fantastic but still, kicked us out! Would they kick out a big celebrity? The show went really well, a good crowd, a few people who were VERY into it! Shaking their heads around, I would have been dizzy!

R. I. P Llangollen thurs 4th feb 2011

2011-02-04T03:20:00.000-08:00

Well hello peeps! I'm writing while we are travelling up to Llangollen - north Wales. Just passed Bristol and chris is at the helm, minibus which I'm told is named Betsy 3 is cruising along quite nicely. Weather- grey! Eta to venue is about 3 hours. We have already been here before a beautiful Welsh town, and I remember a nice bridge near by! Currently in the back of van is Paul-sound man, Pete- bass, Fredi-vocals, and jeff- drums. The last two are glued to the DVD player watching keanu reeves in some film about demons. We have discussed the reeves' lack of acting ability but jeff assured us he doesn't have to act much in the film.

I'm currently wondering if anyone will read my pre show blog today from Llangollen And also if we will stop for a coffee somewhere as I have a cadburys twirl giving me the eye!

Here are some pics from the bus of the last few minutes before getting to venue

Over the lovely bridge, that water looks fierce!

A lovely 'hillock', this is my word of the week, I have used it twice in 2 days!!!

Sign for Llangollen

Venue from the outside

The backstage area reminds me of a leisure centre with the cubicles for changing.

Fredi on Toasties

Last time we were here we had Chris and Leigh providing the sound equipment and they were here today also. We played Geek power last time (top trumps in other words with pics of geeks on each one) I can't believe that was so long ago!

Venue from side stage

I liked this big piece of Art in the foyer!

Post show blog: show went well, saw Gary and Anna and their daughters. Also Geoff and Lynne from Liverpool! So nice to see familiar faces. Down to our last 2 pig style t shirts and they are double xl! Am trying to write while driving to our night stop in Crewe, but man it's tricky on an iPhone! Also it's very windy, seen 2 trees across the roads already! Onto Stoke now....

Oh falling asleep was heaven in our travelodge.

Theatre Royal, Brighton, Thursday 20th January 2011

2011-01-22T10:19:00.000-08:00

The view from on stage

From out front

My first gig back after a long break, the journey up was A303, windy roundabouts etc and I felt a bit icky!
My trusted Iphone got us to the venue, it was a beautiful old style three tiered Theatre.

Steve and Chris went off to park the Vans, a long way away it seemed as they were gone for ever... I had was a grumbling phone call from Chris about putting wrong money in meter, he wasn't a happy chappy and later admitted he had thrown his toys out of pram.

Me, Freds and Mrs L went for a jaunt around Brighton which seemed like a hip and cool city by the sea. I was enjoying the fashions, and hairstyles I was seeing and the is that a boy or a girl game.

Back to the show, it went well, good crowd, enthusiastic in all the right places. I definitely noticed the gap of not singing for a while though.

I must mention the chap in the front row who appeared to have fallen asleep, his head was tilted right back but in truth I think he was just feeling the music.

I didn't take any pictures, but found some above...

Will get back into the swing of blogging soon folks do not fear..

Glasgow, Carlisle, Workington, Buxton - GEMMA'S BLOG

2011-01-22T10:16:00.001-08:00

Ok i've been away from the blogging for a while. Christmas was quiet for gigs, but 2011 is a shaping up to be a busy year again. However, I could not make these run of shows... so I sent along my trusted friend in my place 'Gemma' who came home from working in New York not long ago!

Gemma's blog coming soon......i'm having problems copying and pasting it!!

Birmingham, Alexandra Theatre

2010-12-09T07:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry for delay bit busy this time of year, and been mega ill.

Here we are in the dressing room, most of them were being painted so there was a whiff of paint in the air... nice! It was cold as you see from Chris' get up. Fredi had the sandwich toaster on as extra heating, Patrick didn't know and touched it by mistake, he was not a happy bunny.

Went for walk in town, so Christmassy, some sort of German market going on!

Patricks last show for a while as he is soon to be a new dad, hopefully he will be back he will be missed a great deal, especially Jeff!

During the show we saw Gary and Anna in the crowd, they had been delayed because of sat nav problems, but we spotted them in the crowd when they arrived! They bought me and Fredi flowers and a lovely card made for us by the daughter....Lots of time and effort had gone into it, and we very much appreciated that!!

More pics to come.

Need more followers

2010-11-23T00:22:00.000-08:00

I have been encouraged by the amount of hits the blog has been getting yet we don't seem to have many followers? If you check in regularly maybe you could become a follower to show your support. It would make me happy to see this..

O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, Friday 19th November

2010-11-22T01:46:00.000-08:00

After all the places we've travelled, London seemed really close by!! We got there with plenty of time so Fredi went shopping in Westfield shopping centre which was literally down the road.

Here we are on the listings outside of building.

We saw Jason again, it's been so long! He came to do our lights, Paul G came too so it was nice to see familiar faces who've been on this journey with us at some point.

Jeff in sound check

So many lights the drum kit has disappeared into a puff of smoke!

Jason getting to grips with their lighting board.

Stage looks small from here! It wasn't huge but wasn't tiny either..

Fredi and two blokes, Ben and something that rhymes with Ben? Len? that doesn't seem right, i'll consult Fredi. ( In fact it was 'Ken' - thanks for the comment putting me straight! )

It's a proper old theatre with the ghosts of stars past at every turn, the walls back stage are covered in posters of people who've played there, I liked the Alanis Morrisette one especially as I grew up listening to her.

Not a fancy backstage at all, i've heard that all west end theatres are pretty grotty backstage.

Our dressing room was up 3 flights of stairs! what's that all about?

The crowd was fantastic, true floyd fans, they cheered at the first notes of most songs! I got the triple applause for great gig, ie applause in between the three sections. One guy in crowd looked like he was having an out of body experience, as if he were a teenage girl and we were the Beatles! Hilarious!

Packing screen away after the show

The super view from the stage, and the screen in pieces.

Cambridge Corn Exchange, Sunday 14th November 2010

2010-11-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

Our second visit to the Corn Exchange and it was great! Cambridge is all very posh looking as you drive through the streets, you can just tell there a fancy University there! We were chuckling at the amount of push bikes, and scarves there were. It's SOOOOOO English!

A lovely surprise today was from Lynne and Geoff, they came to see the show in Southport only last week, Lynne said Geoff hadn't stopped talking about it since and as they were on a little jaunt to Leicester for the weekend they had decided to travel to Cambridge especially to watch us. They happened to meet Steve out by the vans while we were setting up so we invited them inside, took their picture for good measure, the chap on the right was helping the sound guy Mike tonight.

Lynne and Geoff are the centre 2

Here's the venue from the stage, loved the swirly lights!

During sound check, think the funniest moment for me was when Patch tried to do a scissor kick in his socks and came down a bit heavy, and then hurt his back a bit!! Maybe this is why he is sitting down in this pic?

Ross in sound check

Probably our best gig ever, everyone was on form! The crowd were fantastic and it just had a great vibe, seeing as a lot of the Floyd are from Cambridge or studied there, it was just special you know?

Jenny Spires who was Syd Barretts girlfriend came up to us all the end, she was lovely, a gorgeous woman! She was really impressed which meant a lot!

Fredi made the mistake of saying she thinks Roger Waters is a hot older man! The offers she was getting after that! Yes they did just say that!!

Travelled home next day saw this poor car... reminder to drive carefully out there everyone!

And so ends my blog, Cambridge you were ACE!!

The Regent, Ipswich, Sat 13th Nov 2010

2010-11-18T12:02:00.000-08:00

The first picture is not from a recent gig or anything but it's funny so i'm putting it on here. When we stayed at my sisters she did a photo shoot of us all, heres is one of the group pics! The pink frame used to be a part of my nieces wardrobe, the colour pink is appropriate though!

Back to Ipswich gig news!

A fairly long drive, and I was a bit late to the meeting point oops!

A nice big venue, the last time we played there we had a choir, it only came back to me when we got there and I spotted the place we had rehearsed with the local kids.

Today was an interesting one as having found wifi backstage I had video chat with my pal in New York, she then also watched the sound check via skype, and she also watched a couple of songs from off stage during the show in evening too. Modern technology hey!

We had a good crowd there, chatted to Kat who worked at the theatre. She had to look after the Jedward boys when they were there, she said they were a nightmare and that you wanted to stand on them to stop them jumping about. I can imagine wanting to do a lot than that to those pesky man boys!! We had a picture with her after the show... Hi Kat!!

We met these ladies after the show, Hello Karen, Clare and Sarah. Mum and daughters!

We stayed in a lovely hotel, and ate a feast for breakfast. Keep it a secret but there was much stashing of small pastry things, mini nutella and mini cheeses in Fredi's handbag! Here we are by the xmas tree in hotel lobby before we left for Cambridge!

Southport Theatre Wednesday 10th November 2010

2010-11-11T10:37:00.000-08:00

Southport, was a lovely town, right up above Liverpool. I have never been there in my life before so it was quite interesting. Seeing signs for Bolton and stuff made me think of Peter Kay. Yet again Patrick was asleep in the back and no-one told me! It took a long long time as there was some huge traffic jam on the M6, we saw a big articulated truck that had smashed into the back of another one taking up two lanes, luckily on the other side of the road. Don't know if we'd have even got to the gig otherwise as the tail back was ridiculous on the other side! But as soon as we'd been past this accident the traffic started moving at a speedy rate! So was the jam on our carriage way because of people slowing to look at the accident?? I will look into the possibility of this.

These are pics from the bridge that took us to the pound stretcher to buy new mugs for everyone. We left our tea making stuff in bristol and have been able to make do with venue stuff since, but alas no facilities at this place.

Loads of Swans

Freds and Mrs Loar on said bridge..

Fredi in B & W during sound check..

The venue

During Sound check I took some pics

We had Pete on lights, he did them for us last time at Mansfield too. He's done lighting for other Floyd tribute bands before so he did a bang on job!!

Patrick was feeling camera shy..

Fredi shaking her tambourine in sound check - brick part 2,

and a sneaky shot of Ross who had popped on stage.

After the show, I heard 'POLLY!!!!' And there was Tommy and Sue again, good to see their friendly faces, this time I got a nice clear pic of them. the guy behind had a unusual nickname that i may now get wrong, Gegsy was it? (pronounced Jegsy in my mind though)

It was hard hat area on stage during the get out. Patrick posed for this pic in corridor and then when he looked at it said 'what the hell am I doing there?'

Dunno who took this cos I sent Patrick out with the camera, Village People me thinks....

They are such children!!

After we'd packed down it was about 12am and some were hungry. Went to Macdonalds 24hr drive thru (why do they spell it wrong??) We tried to order at the drive thru window on foot as we didn't think the vans would go under their height restriction barrier, they said they couldn't serve us on foot, that they would lose their job and cruelly turned us away. Undeterred we ended up getting the vans to the drive thru window but not by conventional means!!

Got to Travelodge Warrington by 2am, Fredi was so cold she slept in this whole outfit the whole night, I kid you not, the hat and everything.... this is her drinking tea the next morning that I very kindly made her.

Patrick sent us this pic along with the message, 'Chris promised a bed each!'

Phew this blog took ages...., i've also had an update of the blog design, hope it looks a bit more interesting now.. Found a new 'counter' thing and there's loads more views than I thought with repeat viewings, so come back as often as you like, I like to see the counter going up for a change!! Spurs me onwards to think of new things for the blog!

Byeee

Polly

Jeffs Illness and The Palace, Mansfield Sunday 7th November 2010

2010-11-11T08:51:00.000-08:00

Firstly before I commence my blog about Mansfield, I shall be filling you in on Jeff's illness that some of you may have read about on our news feed.

From what i've been told. Jeff was told to go straight from the doctors to the hospital and ambulance came for him and everything. When Jeff was in the hospital he emailed us all.

'I really thought I was going to be fine. Went to bed early to try and sleep it off but woke up really bad this morning. Actually really quite scared me, I'm used to having a tight chest but this was a whole new level. They're actually keeping me in overnight. (editor: which turned out to be 2 nights in fact!) Not happy about that. Blood oxygen level is very very low! So here I am in a ward with 3 old men, having just eaten a meal that made mcdonalds look like masterchef'. And there are no hot nurses!!!

Just a fat booth version of Jeff for funsies!

Patrick being Jeffs best pal of many many years went to see him in the Hospital and took the following pics. Patrick is used to all of this stuff as he's an ambulance driver in his spare time!!! If you don't like needles then don't scroll down but don't worry it's not a close up!!

Jeff said the nurse (or should I say Murse - male nurse!) was a trainee and it took many many attempts to take blood, he said he very nearly threw up on him. I have a 'thing' about blood being taken already and I will refuse to have a trainee after this story!!! In fact I feel a bit squeamish even writing this now!

This was the pic when he was feeling better!

He said that they have given him a different inhaler now, mentioned something about 'steroids?' and since he has not needed to use his puffer anywhere near as much. Lets hope he stays super healthy from now on!

ON TO MANSFIELD GIG

This one is a bit delayed, sorry folks, I need more encouragement from people who read it at gigs!! Mansfield was a long drive, they all seem to be long drives lately... It wasn't till we were about 3 hours into the journey I realised that Patrick was asleep on the back seat, I had no idea and had been talking away at the top of my voice to Fredi. He woke up and moaned about how loud we had been, oops he should have let me know he was there. He had done a night shift the night before and was having a 'few' hours sleep!!! There is no way I would be able to do all he did that day on only 3 hours of sleep. He's todays hero! When he was awake he gave us a some iphone tricks /tips, one of which was this handy trick of photographing whatever is on your screen at the time. We had no sat nav and were blindly following the other van (I refer to Steves blog! - sat nav from joke shop) so I was using my iphone as a navigational tool and updating everyone with the distance left to go in hours and minutes. I'm quite sad like that! Anyway here's a fairly useless picture of what was on my phone when we weren't far away!!

I didn't take many pictures today, but there was a great green room just off the stage and the staff were very friendly. I talked to a lovely young lady who worked there and she said it was like a big family at the Theatre, her dad worked there and there were even three generations in one case. The show went well, a good crowd. After the show we did our usual chatting to people I spoke to Suzanne about 'Great gig', I was telling her how I had learnt it, she was also having a go at it and was getting stuck in some sections.

Here's me and Suzanne and her friend Paul

I also had a quick blast with the video camera function on my phone. This is only posted on here because I did such a rubbish job of taking photos and this entry was looking a bit bare. The quality isn't great but it's of the merchandise selling at the end of the show, you can hear my annoying voice asking if you can zoom out on the phone and at the end you can see Steve talking to his granddaughter Olivia, Patch selling some t shirts, and some of our audience. It's on 18 secs long but it gives you flavour!

Journal Tyne Theatre, Newcastle, Fri 22nd Oct 2010

2010-10-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Steves blog went down a treat, he did a great job! His next one will be along soon enough.

Well back to Newcastle, this was a really really long way to go for one show. It took about 8 hours to get there, we saw the Angel of the North on the way, like a dufuss I forgot to put my memory card back into my camera, so had camera but no means of using it! Therefore will rely on google images to help me out today.. and the others iphones!

Angel of North... impressive!

It was a thoroughly grey day. Many of us had brought hats and scarves, reminding me yet again that winter and all things Christmassy is upon us!

A really quaint old theatre, the Journal Tyne.....

Heres is some info on the place.

This outstanding building (Grade I Listed) opened in 1867 and was designed by William B Parnell. It remains, substantially, today much as it was when it first opened.

The theatre later became the Stoll Picture Theatre in 1919 (window in stained glass bearing new name still intact) and showed films exclusively from a projection box constructed in the 2nd (of 3) balconies until closure in 1974.

When the screen was removed it was discovered that the final theatre set was still largely in place!

It was restored as a live theatre but suffered a disasterous fire in 1985 when the stage was burned out (auditorium largely undamaged).

The early Victorian stage machinery was painstakingly reconstructed and the theatre reopened.

One of the most beautiful auditoriums in the country, the Opera House is well worth a visit if you are in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Fredi instantly said, this place must be haunted when we walked in and it did have a feel about it.

We didn't have long to set up, so even I carried some boxes! Not our regular soundman Paul today so Patrick and Jeff between them were operating the sound effects and samples from the stage. It made for more nervous tension, before the off, and apparently the mini disc player which the sound effects were on, decided to stop working before the show until Chris very firmly 'told it' to work and quote from him 'I s*** you not', it started working straight away! Ross also said he was convinced while watching side stage that there was someone standing next to him, so spooky goings on?

Great enthusiastic crowd! I chatted to a couple of people afterwards, Alison or Amanda Simpson (sorry, I didn't write it down!) and her neighbour Jim Slater who were locals and had enjoyed the show from what I gathered.

After being on the go for 18 hours, I got the guys some food after the show and while they were eating they were told to get a move on loading out the gear by the staff. Oh for the days when we have roadies and we can just jump in a coach and go to the Hotel! It was a particularly hard slog today but spirits were very high on stage and we really enjoyed the show.

Not too far from the hotel, and we just crashed out straight away. Ross flew home early Saturday morning and we all met for breakfast (first time in forever we've sat around and had brekkie together!) Then the horrible horrible drive home in which we were stuck in tail backs so many times. Here is a pic Patch took of a awful looking crash, not even sure how appropriate it is to put on here, but I did see some kids and dad standing with the ambulance looking quite smiley so hopefully whoever was in it got out before it caught fire!!

Here's the funny message Jeff wrote on back on the other Van, it is referring to the two drivers.

Sunny Croquet & Ricardo Chubbs

We then caught the stop starty wave effect on way back through Bristol Jeffers was getting really irate.

Think it took well over 8 hours to get home, I am now writing this blog and my body still feels like i'm at sea!

Oh and at the Venue, we signed a book that all performers have been asked to sign, and Fredi was impressed with Russell Brands!

Cardiff, St Davids Hall, Sun 17th Oct 2010- Blog by Steve

2010-10-20T10:03:00.001-07:00

Polly has asked us all if we would like to contribute to the blog so here is my attempt for what it’s worth.

St David’s Hall, Cardiff was the destination for this show and we left Torquay about 11am on a beautiful sunny October day. Travelling to gigs wouldn’t be the same without some sort of mishap and we got off to a fine start with Chris having to return home about 10 mins into the journey to retrieve his stage wear that he had left behind.

We eventually met at our regular fuel stop on the outskirts of Torquay and fuelled up and set off to pick Polly up from our meeting place at the bottom of Telegraph Hill

This is us flying down Telegraph Hill with the minibus in front.

and there’s the minibus at the bottom of the road after having picked up Polly.

“Have you got your sat nav set?” was the question.

“Of course I have says I.” Problem being I set it for the City Hall instead of St David’s Hall. Mishap number 2¸which proved to be the instigator of much amusement and abuse at my expense later in the day.
Jeff asked if I bought my sat nav from a joke shop....but he didn’t put it as politely as that.
Speaking of Jeff and following on from his renowned penchant for all things toiletry and nautical, I duly informed him that the “Council Gritter” had been well and truly stoked with the aid of a “Balti Bomber” and that the “Admiral” was expected in port at about 2.30pm Cardiff local time.....probably berth 2.

He likes to know these things and has even been known to acquire photographic evidence.

Anyway...on with the journey........

Here’s the fabulous Mrs L playing Farmville on her phone and our slightly portly Bass player Patches O’Hoolahan.

And there goes Jeff again....raggin the ass off the minibus at about 80mph.

Bless him.

It really was a beautiful day and here’s a nice shot of us going across the bridge

It was a bit tricky taking these photo’s while driving...especially while I was trying to drink my coffee and answer the phone all at the same time....but hey.......I managed. (cough, cough)

This is us lost in Cardiff.......

And this is us lost again...

Success....we eventually made it without the aid of the Kelloggs sat nav which may just have been set for Botswana...

The plaintiff cry of....”Yeah, but I got the co-ordinates off Google Earth” could just about be heard over the barrage of abuse.

Here’s a nice picture of Paul sporting some rather snappy head gear. I’m not sure what look he was trying to achieve but....

“You look like a tw*t” was one of the suggestions.

Obviously all in the best possible taste.

Here’s the Commander in Chief with a well earned mug of “Shut the f**k up”

Or tea as it is generally referred to.

And this is the delightful Fredi doing her “Waddup dawg.” thing that she does.

I haven’t got a clue either. I mean we are talking about a girl who fires up a sandwich maker just to keep her hands warm.

Here’s Fredi and Harriet waiting around to sound check.

This is Dave “Lofty” Lockhart doing the on stage monitor mix. Dave really looks after his gear and all his PA equipment was immaculate. He can actually hear from about 50 metres away if you tread on one of his mike leads. God bless ya Dave. As a matter of interest Dave tours frequently with the Blockheads.

Oh look....here’s Buffwad taking a break from playing “Angry Birds” on his phone. Go on Buff....show us yer war face

Being as I’m doing the blog this week I thought I might give you a peep at my gear...this is the point where the rest of the band yawn.

Here’s my set up. It’s Matchless all the way for me and I wouldn’t use anything else. Both these amps are 1996 Mark Sampson originals with only one owner.....me. It looks a bit over the top but one rig is used as a back up.

Next picture is my effects....

I also have a smaller board which I use for the Lap steels.

Anyway, enough of that. Here’s Freddie and Polly in deep conversation and showing much concern after just finding out that Jeff is suffering from haemorrhoids. We are having a whip round to see if we can raise some cash to get him a soft cushion or inflatable bottom ring to put on his drum seat. As a measure of his popularity it’s heart warming to know that we have so far raised 17p with only Glenn the manager remaining to chip in. We are hopeful that we will achieve at least 20p by this Friday.

Some shots of the girls about 15 mins before the show.

Here’s Harriet slumming it.....

Fredi drying her nails...

And Jeffrina.....spanking Angry Birds....again

Finally, a shot of the front of house mixing position. More of Loftys gear.

You can’t make Cappuccino on it so it’s pretty useless.

A quick shot of the stage...

And last but not least....yes....I wore my Homer Simpson socks...

Many thanks to all who come to see our shows. Come say hello afterwards. We are more than willing to chat.

See ya.

Steve

Salisbury Friday 15th October 2010

2010-10-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Trying to get this blog in quick as we're off to Cardiff tomorrow morning for another show, we're certainly getting around a bit at the mo!

It might be a quick one til I can fill in the blanks...

Firstly I need to share to the strange gig habits of Miss Fredi Wright to you all. She has taken to putting on the toasted sandwich maker to keep her WARM!!?? Here she is doing just that..

I Spot a Spier and the spot a Fredi competition is back.. (she's behind the lamp post btw)

Me and Fredster took a stroll around the lovely town.

Patch looking almost Angelic.

The venue

Jeff doing his teenager jeans impresssion. Never understood why they dont just fall down

Note the new sequencer on the left...

Paul doing his bingo calling, and i'm a teapot impression...

Mrs Loar must have been a ballet dancer!!! Check out the 'first' position feet!

I like how Ross isn't phased at all by Patch..

Working out the extra flute bits to Fat old sun.

After the show with Sabrina,who saw us at Christchurch too.. I'm shamelessly short in this picture! I also look like i'm drunkenly collapsing on Fredi..

Other stuff

*Patch's sister came to this show.

*We sold a lot of T shirts after the show hope you are all wearing them with pride!

Truro Hall for Cornwall

2010-10-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hello my blog followers...

Truro, always a bit further away than I expect... being Devonians and it only being in Cornwall! My photography skills were somewhat under-par this time, most of the pics just seem a bit blurry!

I had to do my accounts in the dressing room, how interesting huh?

We used a company from Newquay for the lights, the operator guy was called Max I believe, but he was like a whisp of a ghost cos I didn't really have any recollection of seeing him... probably because of doing the accounts, not cos I'm a diva and ignore people or anything!! ..

I noticed during the show that there was a rogue mug still on Jeffs drum riser. How very rock and roll huh, a mug from an earlier cup of tea!! We have also had, over the months, a packet of digestive biscuits left on the front of the stage! ha ha! We like to leave them there incase the front row were peckish!

Here are a few from sound check.

The stage from our perspective!

Which brings me round nicely to mention how much I enjoy watching the crowd. It is like a little show in itself. I get long moments when not singing and use this to have a good look at what people are up to. The audience doesn't realise that we can see them quite well when the lights are right.., the head bobbing to the music, the occasional sniff, wipe of the nose, the usage of mobile phones to film, the theatre staff telling them to put their phones away... It's all quite entertaining...

Not sure what patch was going for here but its quite amusing all the same...

Again met some nice peeps after the show, a young boy was called Michael. He had some of our badges and stickers, bless him!

Memorable moment from this evening was the deathly silence after Chris said we were from Devon.. Oops, sorry Cornwall!! And I liked this subsequent comment on the guest book!!

Ken Gilbert from Bodmin | Saturday October 09, 2010. 13:37

Thanks guys, great show at Truro, just like Floyd in the seventies. Find somewhere better to live though!

Exmouth Pavilions, Thurs 7th Oct 2010

2010-10-08T01:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this was the quickest gig to get to, only about 25 minutes as I'm in Exeter anyway!! Right next to the lovely sandy beach... The Pavilions was bigger than I had remembered from last year, think I was getting a couple places muddled in my head.. It has some rather nice giant christmas decorations baubles as lights..

A close up of the lovely baubles...

There was some serious feedback issues in sound check....

Great show tonight, Patch had lots of people from his work there, he had a great introduction in the band line up, something like, the fabulous, beautiful, stunning, incredible, we wouldn't be anywhere without him, Patches O Houlahan.. Chris surpassed himself with that one!!!

Oh also after someone shouted out 'Patch' while Chris was talking about the website link, he then added, yes there's pictures of Patch on the website.. for our gay fans...

I had the nicest chat ever with Ross today.. reminiscing the past...

Here is Ross doing autographs...

This is Ben, he came to see us in Torquay, I recognised him anyway from somewhere else. Here is is with the Fredster!! (Craig in background too!)

Patchs work colleagues.

The bar staff who danced/sang their way through the songs at the back, we were watching you!!

This is David, he shook the mens hands...and that hair is very well styled don't you think.

Patch had been drawn on the face by Jeff with the red pen by this point!

Alex the in house Techy.. 'good job fella'

home and in bed by 12.30, yeah, sleeps is the best!!

Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan, Oct 1st 2010

2010-10-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well this blog will mostly be coming from Drummer Jeff (see pic), I have given him his deadline!

But a couple of things he might miss out so i'm putting in a mini pre -blog!

Hello to young 'Matthew Bird' again who came to see us at Narberth back in May 2010. He swapped a plectrum with Chris and he did another swap tonight. Next time we must get a pic of Matthew, he has shot up in the last 6 months i'm sure!

Also Gary and Anna (top fans) were at show. It was Annas birthday a few days ago so we gave her a pressie! They came to Frome only a couple of weeks ago and are also coming to Cardiff in a couple of weeks too! I have also looked back through this blog to see which shows they have been to, Cardiff was their first (I wasn't blogging then), so we're coming full circle in a few weeks!

Not sure if i've missed any..

Cardiff

Monmouth

Weston Super mare

Lincoln

Torquay

Bristol?

Frome

Cardigan

Thats impressive! Thanks again for all your support, it really does make a difference!

Finally here is Jeffs blog..

Cardigan, 1st October 2010.

Sorry for the lateness of the BV, er, I mean drummers blog. All good things come to those who wait.

Horrendous weather on the drive up, seemed to take forever, although we were very encouraged by knowing we were playing to a sell out audience. There were even people on a waiting list to get in, many thanks to the good folks of Cardigan!

Here is the view from the engine room of the band.

(Polly interjects- 'The raising up and down stage at the front, imagine if it didn't go down and the front row was really sitting that close to all the instruments!!!' )

Great atmosphere for the show, we usually find the audiences in Wales to be very passionate and vocal, and judging by the sounds coming from the folks here they enjoyed the show, and so did we. The buzz from the show (um, and the strong coffee and the stuff that gives you wings) powered us home, all in all a good day.

The wig wearing section of the evening...

The Assembly, Leamington Spa, 23rd September 2010

2010-09-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well todays post will be mostly about the green room! There were lots of unusual things in here to play with... as you can see from following pics.

Someone suggested this smurf was doing a rude gesture, oh no I can't possibly think that!

The best bit was this trailer parked in the green room, yes it was a big room. It used to belong to Tammy Wynette, the famous country singer. How very pink! So many mirrors too! How the blazers did they get it in there, as room was all breeze blocked up!

I'm very disappointed to not be in this pic! its such a nice one of everyone!

Not sure why the regal chairs or why the silver railings even but designer Laurence Llewelyn bowen was the guy who redesigned the venue from an old Bingo hall and Garage so maybe this is his doing?

Interior shot

The venue, cherubs! Very LL-Bowen!

The sunlight was hitting the cherubs in a very spiritual way...

View from the stage

Harriet having a relax on stage.

Oz (Oliver) in house guy who did the lights, and what a fab job he did too!!

Some pics from the show that Glenn took with my camera!

Special Lights

Met some people after the show, the names Jim and Simon are ringing a bell. I tip my hat to the lady who danced her way through the show on our left. It was a physical mix of contemporary and freestyle sqautting. She was sooooo into it, it was fab!

We really really enjoyed the gig, the crowd were great and we were on form!

toodle-oo

Frome, Somerset, 17th Sept 2010

2010-09-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

In the morning it was like being on school camp or something, everyone fighting for use of the bathroom, boys walking around in towels, (ok school camp wasn't like that!)

The band vans parked up in a sleepy somerset village!

Chris taking in the villagey feel, which reminded Fredi of the film hot fuzz!

The old Co-op and photo shoot studio!

Patch and I went to local shop for bacon and eggs and Patch cooked up a feast!

My sister and Paul in said Kitchen that made the very nice egg / bacon sarnies!!

Photo shoot time! It was payment for staying at Charlies place.. She has a photography blog project where she takes pictures of everyone that visits her place! Here is the link to the blog, our pics won't be up there yet though, but keep checking back, it'll be worth it, just for Patchs pic!

http://ourvisitors.blogspot.com/

Trust Jeff. This was something I picked up once at an auction, My sister took it off my hands!

After photo shoot, arrived at Frome.

Et Voila, Memorial Theatre Frome.

Our saviour Paul on the left came to do the projection for us, my brother in laws, brother in law! He did a fabulous job considering he hadn't seen the show before! Chris Loar has Glandular fever, get well soon Mrs L!!!

A rare pic of Paul Woodhams smiling during the day, he's usually quite stressed at this point!!!

Having been told to smile more from someone we knew the night before, the boys took it upon themselves to go the whole hog in sound check, this was 'Money'. Jeff played the whole song in sound check with this face and lots of eyebrow action it was very funny!!

(Rock stars aren't required to smile are they? They are always too cool for school!)

Patch doing his best happy performance face, swinging the guitar too cheestastic!!

Here are our hosts for the previous night Charlie and Marc, who came to the show. Marc looks like he's poking out his tongue a bit, I should have taken a couple of pics really!

Heres is Harriet with her pal, Polly! Yes there were a couple of moments when we both answered!) I'm not used to it! Polly is usually such a rare name!

Oh and so I don't forget, Frome laid on food for us!! Good Stuff

Hi to Gary and Anna too!!!

The Orchard, Dartford 16th Sept 2010

2010-09-19T09:11:00.001-07:00

Well off we went to Dartford, home of the tunnel! Went up the A303, so scenic route today! Went past Stonehenge, finally managed to get a shot as we went past... Still have never been, really must one day..

Here's a shot front out front during set up.. with some green lights going on.. Quite like that pattern in the middle of the screen.

The Orchard has these lights running around the auditorium, here they are in red but they change colour, it's very 50's Diner! I liked this, makes the venue a bit different to all the others we've been to!

There are many posters backstage, noticed another floyd tribute show poster up there, pah!! Here is Harry Hills defaced poster, presumably defaced by him himself?

In the Wardrobe room, where we made tea we found these tumble dryer hoses which we then used as arms. cool huh! Oh yeah Fredi had dyed her hair!!!

Us girlies backstage before we went on, Harriet Baker on the right (our Sax player depping for Ross as he's just become a dad!) We posed in this order for the three shades of hair!

We're such girls!!

Great show tonight, had a good feel on stage, and the band were happy chappies.

Here is Gary and Sue that we met.. I'm sure we've met a different Gary and Sue way way back in the blog? Manchester opera house i'm thinking... We had a little chat before they left, very jolly couple, hope they laugh when they see themselves on here! Famous now guys!

Here's me and my school pal, Paula oh the things we used to get up at school!! This is her lovely hubby Richard too. So glad that they came, she hasn't seen me sing since I was at school I think, and here's another little story for you, Paula is a big part of why I'm doing this today as she was the one who asked me to go with her to the auditions of Bugsy Malone at School when we were 12 or 13. I was very shy about speaking in class but for some reason, give me an american accent and away I went!! Didn't know I was a half way decent singer til then..Got the bug and well the rest is history.. So thanks Paula, hope you feel in someway responsible.

We then travelled over night to Somerset and stayed at my sisters place... there were blow up lilos all over the place. Quite amusing, see next blog for full story and pics!

Bristol Hippodrome, Wednesday 18th August 2010

2010-08-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Well the Hippodrome was so easy to get to, only hour and a half drive! I went after work with my pal Rae who was driving me home after the gig. Fantastic venue, really old english style theatre, nice tele's in dressing rooms....

Picture of the outside, yet on the inside.

Few pictures from on stage during the sound check.

The other end of our dressing room. I believe that these dressing rooms are really only meant for 1 person as there is no lock on the shower/bathroom door, and there isn't a lot of space for makeupping.. I wonder which stars have been in this dressing room...
Show was fun, it's nice when you have a friend watching...

Chatted to Ged backstage, one of our lighting guys, found out all about him and his son Freddie who was operating the lights out front. I love a bit of family history! I wont share it on here though.

Nice to be home and in bed by 12.30pm!!

Thanks Rae for the company and the driving!!

On a separate note I have just bought a Korg Triton le (keyboard) for playing at home and possibly in future shows if necessary. It's what Chris already uses, so his will now have a girlfriend, I have decided mine is a girl.

Cromer, Pier Pavilion Sunday 15th August 2010

2010-08-17T12:37:00.001-07:00

Here a break down of the gig

Drove a very long way, 8 hours for most of the band and that was just to get there!

Got to know John Jackson on the way up as he came to help us out today. A very amiable fella, he did rather well on the sing a song by this band game, but then he is a DJ!

Got to Cromer, saw the holiday crowds by the sea, bit like Paignton! Said, 'ooh it really is a theatre on a pier', (thought to myself) how very Jimmy Tarbuck'

Saw a lot of people fishing for crabs off the pier (apparently it's famous for it)

The load in door

Ate some chips and curry sauce on the pier, it was a cold, windy grey day, typical august weather!

Investigated around backstage with camera, here are some the things that were lying around..

under the stage...

Listened to the crashing of the waves around us while in dressing room!

Small stage, surprised we all fitted.

Auditiorium

Did the show to a nearly sell out crowd, bit of a squash on stage but cool all the same.

Met some great people after the show.

Packed up our stuff and left at 12ish am, drove through the night (well Chris, John and Paul did - well done for keeping us alive). I got home at 6.30, 2 hours sleep then up for work!

Rock and Roll baby!

Winter Garden, Eastbourne 4th August

2010-08-05T04:50:00.000-07:00

Well how do I begin. I cannot say all I need to say on here but suffice to say you have to take my word for it, it was an interesting show for us. Started firstly by many complications as to whether the show would/could go ahead. A huge change for us with the line up, crew, and people driving many hours to get there at last minute, and many other things to mention so all in all I thought we all did surprisingly well under the difficult circumstances. It's strange when you get into a comfort zone, but it's good to shake things up a bit to remind you of that nervous excited apprehension you used to feel.

Only the band and those connected to it will know the true in and outs with this show and I know a lot of you really enjoyed it, and are coming to see us again in Brighton in january but if it wasn't quite what you were expecting then please please give us another watch...for me go on!!

The things that stood out for me today were, the lovely people from the winter garden - the staff were great, had a good gossip with one of the chaps that was there during the day, we talked all about the 'cage fight' they had had there where people were promised Alex Reid and Katie Price!! (needless to say they didn't show)

I helped out with the merchandising stall which was fun cos you get to see all the people walk in and totally ignore you...

Met a guy who sold a vinyl copy of some pink floyd record collector for 150 pounds!

And one other thing that amused me, not that the audience would have known, but from where I was there was a huge shadow of my head on the wall behind the audience and for some reason the drums cymbal was a shadow right next to my head, so every time Jeff hit the drums in shadow land he was smashing me over the head... I had to smile during a few songs when he was really going for.

There was a power cut too! It has only happened once before and strangely that was on a friday the 13th oooh spooky..

so thanks for Alex Tsentides for stepping in at last minute on bass, he did a sterling job with only one rehearsal. Nice one Alex, and good luck with your own floyd band

Heres todays pictures...

The Merch stall ladies and gentleman

You can buy Pink floyd books for a discounted price of £20.

Written by Glenn Povey our manager

Badges and stickers, thats what I'm talkin' about, come on, yeah!

The new leaflet, hmmm lovely... this is free by the way..

The last one of it's kind, sold today (not sure why this is in blue i didn't ask it to be!)

Here is Glenn (right) (our projectionist for the evening!) and Dave Keyboards (left) from Alex's PF band.. just love the very smart way he's sitting in this! Darn it, it's still blue!

The winter Garden inside!

Sound check with Alex on the right

The view from my dressing room of the Eastbourne Lawn Tennis place, quite well known amongst the tennis players, Chris told me twice this was the one before Wimbledon.. http://www.visiteastbourne.com/tennis.asp

And just cos he wasn't there.... Patch, one for the ladies that follow the blog. ha ha!

Mrs Loar, we missed you muchly too... xxxx

Adios peeps.

Band videos coming

2010-07-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well hello. There are no gigs for a while and i've been busy trying out imovie on my mac. I have made a few videos for you to have a gander at. All the recordings are taken from live shows and they weren't recorded for this purpose so it's not what you hear out front, but it gives you a flavour I hope. There is a special one made up of fans pics too. (Yes you people featured on the blog!!)

The videos can be found at

http://www.youtube.com/user/inthefleshuk

Basfest 2010

2010-07-05T01:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Chris' BLOG

Well as Polly wasn’t able to join us for the weekend so she asked me if I would take over the Blog duties. So welcome to Chris’s Blog.

Just to add to our show at High Wycombe I had a little altercation with a traffic Warden after they had ticketed one of our vehicles. Apparently when the Theatre was built the local council bought the surrounding land and left only one space on the Theatre ramp for cars! Bearing in mind that most touring companies turn up with more than one car it seems like a nice little earner for the local council. Suffice to say I won’t be sending them a Christmas card.

Apart from that it was a great night and met lots of nice people including our new Sax player Harriet Baker, great job on her first show.

This brings me to our day off at ‘Povey Towers’. Our Manager had kindly offered to put the remaining band members up for the weekend prior to our show at Basfest on Sunday afternoon. Steve, Jeff, Paul and I were thoroughly entertained by our managers fine hospitality and thought the arranged trip to the Sunday market was a real insight into how the other half live.

Later into the day the BBQ was fired into action, not before Steve and Jeff fell asleep watching the football, and we had a full on meat fest with Jeff’s home made burgers, which were not all that bad!

During the day we felt is was our duty to send photo’s to Patch as we didn’t want him to feel left out.

Paul BBQ Chef

Steve and Jeff watching the football

Glenn and Chris

Good nights sleep and off to Basildon for BASFEST 2010!!!.

Well to be honest I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised when we turned up. It was a lot bigger that I was expecting and very sunny. These were Perfect festival conditions. This festival was well organised and all the staff and stewards I met were great so credit to you guys.

The only problem I had was the Hammond. Due to the fact the Hammond organ realise on a 230 volt supply to give the Hammond the correct frequency to run at concert pitch, when the generators 240 volts went in so the pitch went up and I had an organ which was about a semi tone sharp!! Didn’t sound to good I can tell you.Fortunately Patch was on his way, sporting very nice straw trilby, with my digital organ and saved the day. Phew!

We played a new hour1/2 set, which was well received by the crowd of several thousand, oh and the stage sound was loud, real loud. I thought my head was going to implode at one point.

We had a great laugh and Ross joined us on Sax, which was a real pleasure.

Quote of the day, ‘ C’MON, LET ME SEE YOUR HANDS’ priceless.

I conclude that I love the festival atmosphere although I feel this will change the next time we do one in the rain! Lets hope that never happens. More festivals for next summer, may I suggest a facebook group ‘In the Flesh for Glastonbury 2011’.

So I hope I have done this blog justice and that you continue to keep up with the band, All the best.

Chris. x

Crowd before

Crowd during!

Here is a clip I have been sent from onstage at Basfest.

Here's one for the blog. This is Glenn and Janes dog Buzz getting over friendly with my leg.....all part of the Povey hospitality package.....ha ha

from Steve

High Wycombe Friday 2nd July 2010

2010-07-03T03:15:00.001-07:00

Well the first thing of note was that the minibus van wouldn't start. So I was ready at 9.30 and then checked my phone to see that they were still in Brixham. 2 hours later and a lot of faffing and time wasting on my part I met the vans. The indicators were on strike so there was some good old fashioned arm signalling on the motorway. Chris and Jeff worked well as a team on the left arm signal!

Oh the hilarity with the wig. Please note the placing of Chris' hand in this pic, you are not imagining things, there was a cheeky squeeze!

Disappointing amount of pics taken today. Oh well, I just wasn't feeling snap happy. Here is Harriet Baker, our dep for Ross, (and a previous student of his) She was fab and it was nice to have another girl with me in my dressing room.

Here is a little feature on young Zac, Alan his Dad is obviously a big floyd fan and has seen us before but brought Zac along this time. This young man had a huge grin and when I asked him what he thought of the show he just beamed and said 'amazing'!

Zac and Me

Here is Zac with Chris (think he looks more impressed being next to Chris!)

Zac with Dad Alan

Here's three friendly fellas, who I asked to be on the blog.

This brother and sister combo were helping sell the merchandising.

I didn't write down their names, I shall find out from Wendy and update!!

The Princess Theatre, Torquay 19th June 2010

2010-06-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

Back on home turf, way hay! It was strange to think we had played in the pub just down the road from the theatre only 18 months ago. I arrived later than usual as had been rehearsing with my theatre group, I had my mum and sister with me, (my entourage as I called them) we made tea and coffee and then we waited for the choir to arrive for sound check, During the usual faffing about I got asked to take the following pictures (posers!)!

The 'not very long' adventures of Jeffy And Patchy

HA HA HA!!

THE END!

After a long winded sound check, I got quite excited at the prospect of having our family and friends watching.

Show started and I wasn't even nervous, I just felt totally at home on the stage tonight. Here is me and Fredi in a moody blue, I like this pic!

My fav moment

General shot from the audience

Thanks to my friend Alan Miller for sneakily taking the show photos above! Good job or I'd have had no record of the TAF choir who sang brick in the wall..... here comes the SHAMELSS PLUG (which were from my Theatre school Torbay Acting Factory!)(6-18yrs after school group for Singing, Dancing and Acting!!) (www.torbayactingfactory.com)

Here they are in all their attitudey finery!

Special mention to Dan the only lad (the other 3 dropped out on the day!)

Here is Anna, wearing Garys home made T shirt, these guys travelled a long way to see us, and stayed in the travel lodge in Torquay, It meant a lot to see you guys, I was looking out for you, finally spotted you in the balcony.

This guy seemed rather taken with Fredi, who wouldn't be huh?

'Miss Torbay 2010' I'll have you know...

My family and friends, thanks so much for coming!!! (the young guy with his eyes closed behind is not part of my lot btw!)

Fredi's family and friends (Tom her boyf with the big grin behind!)

Thats all from Torquay, we've got a couple weeks off now, so will be back blogging again after High Wycombe 2nd July.

Mirupafshim (goodbye in Albanian!)

The Alban Arena, St Albans 17th June 2010

2010-06-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Having had a 3 weeks off, it was nice to be back on the road although I was supremely bored on the journey up.. There were only 3 of us in our van, Jeff, Chris and Me. Fredi was coming up after her exam with Paul our sound man.

It was about 5 miles away from the venue that it started to feel familiar and then I asked if we had played here before to be told YES! I had really forgotten, isn't that bad? about a year ago apparently.. When i got there it all came back to me. the green room space etc.. the stage door. The very echoey stairs up to the stage - good for practising with some natural reverb!!

I didn't take many pictures actually, how very lazy of me!

The Alban Arena

The most exciting part of the show was that we were to have Ross on saxophones for the first time, well not the first time actually....... This leads me to me trip down memory lane!! ........... (cue wobbly music like they do in rubbish programmes when it's a flash back scene!!)

Now for those who don't know, back in the day in Torbay there was a band called Dr Frank, made up of a group of school boys from the different local schools. The line up was

Vocals - Chris Thomas (Whats he doing again? lol)

Guitar -Barney Dine (Now fronting a band who is supporting Will Young this summer in The Devon Festival)

Saxophone - Ross Purves

Bass Guitar - Jan Tribble (now an architect)

Trumpet and Keyboards - Mikey Taylor (now touring with Joseph)

Drums - Jeff Glover (hands as he's now known!)

Now I remember doing a few pink floyd songs even back then, can't remember which ones

There were a few band changes over the years, I even did a stint as a backing singer but I was pretty unconfident at this point. I remember doing a few pink floyd songs even back then, can't remember which ones. They were extremely popular with all the young people in the area and looking back they really were good! I will try to dig out an old picture!!

After a stint in London they went there separate ways, Jeff and Chris stayed together and eventually formed a new band with.....

Guitar - Steve Loar

Bass -Patrick Forbear.

(sounding familiar?)

These guys were called 'Starskey' and played the circuit for many many years. Functions Weddings and pubs.

Steve went to Spain for a while to live where i'm told he would still play the old set to himself on his guitar just to keep the memory alive! He couldn't stand it and thankfully he came back again and took up where they left off.

A mere 10 years or so on! A few floyd songs came into the set and were going down well. The band then got asked to headline the Brixham Happenin festival in 2007 (?). Feeling they needed some backing vocals, Chris turned to me and asked if I was up for it and did I know anyone else, I called Audra and we did a show in the at the Happenin, with the Brixham people dancing around in the field in the rain, jut like glastonbury! ha cough! I gathered together a choir of kids from my youth theatre to be the brick in the wall kids. We played a mix of songs, originals, covers and finished with a few floyd numbers including comfortably numb!

I disappeared to Egypt for the summer and when I returned the band had decided to go full time with the floyd stuff, Audra was on backing vocals and when the theatres started coming in I joined up again as second BV!... 2 years on and we're going strong, the family atmosphere has got stronger and even though there have been a few changes we've made it through the other side. Which brings me back to Ross paying on saxophones again after oooh about 15 years or so.

He was really genuinely pleased to be playing us, and he did a brilliant job after 1 run through with the band in sound check!!

Here's Ross

Ok so back to the show. It was being filmed this evening by ESL (event sound and light) who also do our lights for the shows. The purpose of the filming is to have some clips for you tube and promote the show so when it's out I will let you know (if you don't find out some other way) and then you can all share it with your friends and get them to come watch us too!!!!

Steve - Restringing his guitar summer shorts style!!

After the show we met two lovely people 'Jayne and Richard', I believe they have written on the website guest book too! They are big floyd fans and we had a good gossip about the show they went to in Welwyn Garden City recently. Jayne told me she reads my blog and said it was a bit like reality television, really good to see what goes on behind the scenes and that she feels like she knows the band from all the stories. My counter said that not many people have visited the blog lately so I was a bit disheartened, I think maybe it is wrong cos a lot of people say they read it. If you do, come and let me know after a show as it keeps me going!! Hence this super long entry!

Au revoir! xx

Chesham and Weston Super Mare

2010-05-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

The Elgiva Theatre, Chesham 27th May 2010

When putting in postcode to sat nav we found a road name in Chesham called bottom lane and so we went on a magical mystery tour with the sat nav to find it. It was down many wind roads. Eventually we found it and here is the photo result. Look away if easily offended!!

The venue from outside today

During the show, lots of people came in after we had started and as the seats were mainly taken they had to stand on the outside edges..

There were a lot of younguns there this evening. Saw a girl (maybe 11yr?) in a sparky bolero like me, swaying, in a similar style to me, I secretly hoped she was copying me. Her face lit up when we played Brick in the wall. Parents must be huge floyd fans!

Everyone seemed very relaxed on stage, couple band members were throwing some shapes, seeing if they could get in some muscle poses when they weren't lit to amuse each other. Apparently they did it through my Great Gig, I had no idea as I go off to my own little world anyway..

Lots of nice comments afterwards and very friendly people!

The Playhouse Weston Super Mare 28th May 2010

The pier was shut! - boo!

Tonights gig was mostly about the T SHIRT for me! Gary and Anna our old blog friends, were there. Gary had had a T shirt made up with the words 'I follow Pollys blog on it' HOW COOL IS THAT!!

Here it is after the show!

100% Effort!

Craig (from Torbay) and his mates were there also, so had a picture with them. Here me with them

Here's Fredi's folks who dropped her off for the show.

2 nice kids came and asked for our signatures. Megan and Alistair, here they are by the merchandising stand after the show.

Some high 5'ing on the move was practised during sound check!

During wish you were here Jon on lights threw a muscle pose at us from the back, wasn't expecting it so had to try not to laugh.

Fareham, Worthing, Welwyn Garden City, Tring

2010-05-26T02:50:00.000-07:00

Thursday 20th May 2010

Started off the journey with some smoke coming out of the wheels coming down Telegraph hill. Paul was under that van in a flash. We decided to carry on anyway (not with Paul under it mind you) and blame it on the braking down the hill and heavy load.

First stop off was in Fareham, Farenham Hall.

There was a huge green room upstairs with lots of dressing rooms off it. There was much toasted sandwich making. There was a load of nonsense with the projector AGAIN!

The one good thing to come out of it is that I have learnt what key stoning means. Jon took the camera and took some mighty fine pictures. I shall let him loose again!

Also the devil plectrum I mentioned in previous post was out during sound check..

Few shots from the show that night, courtesy of Jon.

Friday 21st May
The next day we took a stop off in Arundel which was nearby. Lovely castle, we wanted to look around but didn't have any time, chatted to the tour guide at the front gate. Funnily enough someone later at gig said to chris that he had seen us at the castle and knew we were 'in the flesh'. Better look a bit more decent in the mornings from now on!

We had a walk around the outside of castle and there was a stream, and lots of ducks. Here is one I managed to get close to.

Got to Worthing, the stage had two tiers to it so me and Patch went on top level. Jeff went centre stage with the other two either side, bit different!

Ticket sales had practically doubled in the last week which was a bonus. Good show, (nice high 10 from Jeff and Patch at the end)

Jeff insisted this head band (made of bits cut off the arm of one of the band t shirts was cool! hmmm)

Saturday 22nd May 2010

Stayed near gatwick airport overnight, the next morning chris was late to the van so we stood and watched planes taking off. Sounds pretty dull but my word there were men camped out with flasks of coffee with massive cameras there too!

Paul came out with his boots on the wrong way round - the numpty, he'd had a bit of a crazy night the night before.

Pig was feeling the heat.

Drove to third venue, this was Welwyn Garden city. I asked if the 'Garden' bit meant it was very green to be told no i don't think so, but it darn well was! full of trees and very beautiful After the third show it was all starting to blend into one. The set up the tea and coffee making etc blah blah blah, manager Glenn was there which was different however and we all had breakfast in what I thought was a wetherspoons but turned out to not be. It was super dooper sunny so I made a little blanket and cushion arrangement outside the stage door! Had to keep coming inside to cool off!
note to self, strange eery silence during show.

Campus West, Welwyn Garden City from stage

Steves Jimi Hendrix Tattoo

Last of the 4 shows was Tring

Pretty pretty town,

There was much sun bathing and chasing fish around a pond, thats all I have to say on the matter.

Liked this sign in the cafe we had brekkie in.

Narberth, 14th May 2010

2010-05-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

Rainy day up to Narberth, which was a long way plus windy roads, not my favourite type of journey! When we got there the venue was quite a lot smaller than we had imagined and there was a lot of trying to sort out where everything would go. Here is a shot of Jase and Pete (lighting boys) filling up half of the room with their empty boxes!

Witnessed a very minor strop from Jase as a light went ping, and he stomped up the ladder and blew his floppy fringe out the way too with exasperation!! (made the last bit up)

He was still focusing lights when we were sound checking, so it all took a lot longer than usual!

Chris bought along a George 'Formby' (yes I know thats wrong!) lean mean grilling machine that Wendys dad Pete bought, so had to mention that. It did four toasted sarnies at once! Here is the factory line! Fredi's a whizz on buttering bread!

Narberth is a pretty town so had to do a few pics! The sun had come out by this point making even prettier!

This is the venue from the front.

Shot from my position during sound check.

The lady (Lynne) told us to expect a walk up and she was right loads of people turned up on the door! We had it as a standing venue with seats around the outside, so the atmosphere picked up as it went along and people were dancing. Extraordinary amount of filming on phones going on! The quality must be shocking but I suppose if it gives them a chance to relive it then we will stay in their memories!

Show went really well, and I really enjoyed the more intimate crowd, all the other band members were a bit close for my liking though. The instruments were so loud because they were near!

After the show we met some super people, but two people stood out. A young man called Matthew Bird who was a budding guitarist and asked for a plectrum (well his aunty did). Chris gave him one and in return he gave back a red 'devil' shaped plectrum that Chris promised to play with! I will take pics Matt to prove it!

We met a most amusing lady called Katie Honka-Tonka Williams. She told us she was quite drunk but to me she was just great and funny! She was very enthusiastic and complimentary about everyone, she called Patrick 'Colin Farrell' as there is a resemblance ( if you squint!) ..Oh and in the line up Chris called him the 'mildly attractive Patches O' Houlahan' which is my favourite Patch intro yet. She asked us to find her on facebook, which I have tried but nothing came up, so Katie your task is to find us from the band facebook page.

A long drive home, but all in all a thoroughly enjoyable gig!

Adieu (From now on I will try to sign off in different languages) xx

Lincoln, Sunday 2nd May 2010

2010-05-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Well it was a long ole Trek to Lincoln, but the Theatre was so cute, it was worth it.

Nice boxes for the rich folks back in the day.

The usual shots of stage and auditorium from my spot. (this is so I can look back and remember the places we've played in)

The best Green room too. A nice chilling/hanging out space.

Not much really happened to report, the same old really, clutching at straws with this gig to make a story.. Fredi tried out brown hair to see what she'd look like..

She'd look good with any colour I think!

We checked out the pictures in foyer, This 1911 poster caught my eye as I'm directing Midsummer Nights dream at the moment!

There was an incident with someone filming me demonstrating and doing the running man in the interval, but we won't say too much about that and hopefully the video will be kept locked away until I feel less embarrassed about being such a fool and not realising it would happen when people have these all singing and dancing iphones!

Such a great Crowd!!!

This a sneaky shot I took as everyone was leaving!!

After the show we met Gary and Anna, read previous post!! Here they are in their T shirts!

This is Lesley who was selling the merchandising.

Chris was very happy with his display today...

So that concludes my entry, sorry it wasn't very exciting, but Patch said he never reads the words anyway just look at the pics!

My apology to Gary and Anna

2010-05-03T14:41:00.001-07:00

Ahhh, realised on the bus on way home last night that I called Gary and Anna.... Tommy and Sue! They didn't say anything either bless them!! It was because Tommy and Sue wrote on the Website that they were coming to a gig soon and then when Gary and Anna popped up last night I remembered the names from the recent web comment! EEK So sorry guys! I'm usually so good with names.

They are becoming like old friends, it's nice when you see the same faces coming back, cos we know we're doing something right!

I will get the names right next time, which is at Weston Super Mare!

Maybe they didn't hear me call them the wrong names and this is all for nothing but hey why not write about them anyway!!