And so this is Christmas

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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!