R.I.P Donald "Duck" Dunn

Donald “Duck” Dunn, the bassist who helped create the gritty Memphis soul sound at Stax Records in the 1960s as part of the legendary group Booker T. and the MGs and contributed to such classics as “In the Midnight Hour,” ‘’Hold On, I’m Coming” and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” died Sunday age 70.

Dunn, whose legacy as one of the most respected session musicians in the business also included work with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers as well as with Levon Helm, Eric Clapton, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, died while on tour in Tokyo.

News of his death was posted on the Facebook site of his friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour. Cropper said Dunn died in his sleep.

He is survived by his wife, June; a son, Jeff; and a grandchild, Michael.

Snow is falling...well not quite!

Some of the Uk has had a spot of the white stuff in December but for most of the country Shakin Stevens could not have been more wrong!

Firstly an apology, it has been some time since our last blog post but we do have a bit of xmas news to share with you.

We have been busy since last we spoke with the culmination of our Butlins Minehead & Skegness shows (more of which later) a couple of theatre dates, a couple of great shows at Bibis, some private functions and Duo shows a plenty.

We have 2 special xmas appearances as a 4 piece at Butlins Minehead on Boxing day and Bank Holiday Tuesday to round off the year.

2012 already has some theatre dates in Chelmsford and Weston Super Mare in the diary and we have just been confirmed to return to Butlins Minehead throughout the year (30 wednesday dates already in), and are waiting to see if we are to return to Butlins Skegness and possibly even Debut at Butlins Bognor Regis.

More news as we get it but for now we'd like to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

Summer's Gone... Did you spot it?

Well it has been a variable summer weather wise in the end, but that hasn't stopped us being incredibly busy.

We've been at Butlins Skegness every Wednesday with the house band and over the summer holidays the 4 piece band were augmented with a horn section and some female backing vocalists. Back to the core band now until the end of October.

We've been at Butlins Minehead every Thursday night opening the entertainment lineup in Reds, now the holidays are over we are back to our closing the evening slot til the end of October.

We also managed to squeeze in a great show at Bibi's in Leeds and some other gigs all over the country.

Coming up next over the Autumn are full show band theatre gigs at The Palace Theatre in Redditch on September 30th and the Pavilion theatre in Cromer on 21st October, plus some more dates at Bibi's in November & December

hope to see you there

Summer's here

Firstly we hope everyone had a good easter and enjoyed the royal wedding, there sure has been a lot of bank holidays.

With the weather of late being fantastic we seem to have jumped from Winter straight to Summer, and it also feels like that for the band as our Summer Season residency shows at Butlins resorts have kicked off in earnest.

Jake & Elwood will be performing with the house band every Wednesday night in 'Reds' at Butlins Resort, Skegness from now until the end of October

The 4 piece band will be performing every Thursday night in 'Reds' at Butlins Resort, Minehead until the first week of November ( except sept 22nd)

In addition to that the band will be playing a selection of theatres, festivals and private functions over the next few months kicking off with a full 8 picece theatre show at The Millfield centre in Edmonton, London N18 on May 13th.

festival wise the 6 piece band will be at "Trikefest" in Littleport, Cambs on 28th may and at "Hograost" (deliberately spelt like that!) near Andover on July 2nd.

hope to see you soon

The BBB

A capitOl night out

Back into the theatre with The Capitol in Horsham last Friday, what a fantastic night and an amazing audience reaction!

A band of two halves as Richard "Ant Blues" Owen was playing the part of Elwood, Gary Sculpher was on guitar with Gabriel Garrick and Nathan Hawken on Trumpet & sax respectively. We had a really good night, and the in house crew at The Capitol were outstanding.

Mario and Richard had been down to Horsham the week before with the Bluesmobile doing some flyering and meeting the locals and got a great reception, so it may become a regular thing before shows (look out for them in your local town centre soon!)

Those who attended the Horsham show may have noticed a few cameras dotted around the stage as the guys were approached by a company whilst flyering, who offered to film the show. We await the results and will hopefully post some footage on the website in the near future.

Talking of the future.... we will be back to Butlins in Skegness & Minehead a couple of times during April and fitting in an appearance at our favourite italian restaurant as we return to Bibis in leeds on April 13th.

FYI The next full theatre show in the diary is The Millfield Centre, in Edmonton (London N18) on May 13th.

hope to see you there

February.. The BABY Blues Brothers!

here's our february update...

Firstly we'd like to congratulate Matt Hewitt & his wife Rowena on the birth of the their first child Maximilian James Hewitt on Wed 16th February. All our best wishes go to them.

In other news we have been working on Jake & Elwood choreography in anticipation of our first theatre show of 2011 at The Capitol Theatre in Horsham on Friday 18th March.

We will have plenty of practice ahead of then as we head to Chelmsford tomorrow to perform at the incredible looking Boreham House. This is followed swiftly by the start of our Butlins resort residency with Jake & Elwood performing some half term shows with the houseband in Skegness on Wed 23rd Feb then as the 4 piece band at Minehead on Thurs 24th. We are then off to Romania again for an 8 piece show on March 5th.

hope to see some of you there

Congratulations Dave & Lili

A little picture of Jake & Elwood (Mario & Matt) with "Hairy Biker" Dave Myers and his wife Lili at their wedding reception in Barrow in Furness this weekend. He actually said the band made his wedding day which was really lovely of him. We'd like to thank them for inviting us to play for them and thank all the guests for making it one of the most enjoyable shows we're ever done.