Solomon Burke R.I.P.

US soul singer Solomon Burke, who wrote the classic song Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, has died at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport aged 70.

Born in Philadelphia, he began his adult career as a preacher and hosted a gospel radio show. In the 1960s, he signed with Ahmet Ertegun's Atlantic Records - home to Ray Charles. His first hit record was a cover version of the country song Just Out Of Reach. The self-proclaimed King of Rock & Soul was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and won a Grammy in 2003. Burke, dubbed by legendary Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler as "the best soul singer of all time", continued to perform and played Glastonbury's Jazz World stage in 2008.

Burke leaves behind 21 children and 90 grandchildren....He certainly practiced what he preached.

Autumn with the BBB

ooh it's turned cold hasn't it.

We noticed the change in the season at Maidstone Mela when the heavens opened and soaked the crowd. But what a fantastic night, thanks again to everyone who braved the weather and gave us such a warm (sic!) reception. Gary Sculpher played guitar for us that night with Wayne Lee on keyboards, otherwise it was the usual suspects.

But what else have we been up to over the last month...

Mid september we performed as an 8 piece for Howden's Joinery at their dinner dance/awards event at the rather spiffing Grovesnor Hotel on Park Lane, London. We played a 30 min set at the end of the evening after Jimmy Tarbuck entertained the packed room with a motivational, informative and hilarious recounting of some moments from his life and career. Matt Hewitt was due to perform as Jake (Mario being oop north for a friends wedding) but had to call in sick last minute. Luckily close friend and fellow allumni from "the official tribute to the blues brothers" Mr Paul "Mcgoo" McGee was free to stand in alongside Chris Cartwright at the front of the stage.

In fact McGoo stayed with us the following weekend at the wedding of a family friend of Kylan's. Matt Hewitt returned from illness to play Elwood with Paul as Jake alongside Wayne Lee on Keys, James Arben on Sax and Giles Straw on Trumpet (all other players as per team sheet!)

Then onto The Sands Venue in Gainsborough where we had a top night and some morer changes to the team sheet. Ant Blues appeared as Elwood , Gary Sculpher on guitar, and a completely new horn section of Tom Tait on Trumpet and Russell Henderson on Sax.

Looking forward we have Mario & Chris doing a duo show at Castaways restaurant this Friday (8th) and a few corporate shows over the next couple of months in our 4 piece lineup. Add to this a visit for the full band to The Lights Theatre in Andover on November 20th and four shows in December at Bibis in Leeds and we are all busy blues bunnies.

Back to School

Well the summer holiday's are done and dusted, but we are still on the festival circuit (more later!)

After Camperjam and the Hersham beer festival in July (which were great) and a smattering of corporate, wedding type gigs over August we climbed back into the westcliff theatre in Clacton on sea yesterday and blew the cobwebs off some of the tracks we don't get to play that often.

We welcomed Chris Cartwright back as Elwood after a prolonged absence due to illness (hopefully we didn't break him again!) and Ryan Jacob stood in for Will Smith on Trumpet. Otherwise the usual suspects were treading the boards including Rob Yeo on Keyboards who is now officially the first call band member in that position after playing most of the shows this year anyway. We have not yet officially finalised a nick name for him but have a couple in contention.

And so to the future which includes our final booked festival appearance of 2010 at Maidstone Mela this saturday night. It is a FREE festival over the weekend of 11th/12th Sept designed to celebrate cultural diversity in the Maidstone area. We will be performing on Saturday night in Mote Park after the Prince of Bhangra Jazzy B.

We will also have a special guest keyboard player on the gig at Maidstone as we cement a new dep for the now full time Rob into the band. Mr Wayne Lee finally gets onto the stage with us after a false start earlier in the year after Haverhill was cancelled . Wayne is the son of guitarist Albert Lee, and is currently the keyboard player for The Hayley Oliver Band.

After that we have a few corporate bookings before heading back to Theatreland at The Mill arts centre in Banbury on Oct 1st, followed by the Sands venue in Gainsborough on Oct 2nd!

as always keep an eye on the website, Facebook, Myspace & Ents24 for all the latest information

Festival Time!

The summer is here and we're glad we have our shades handy for a weekend of festivals in July.

First up is CamperJam 2010 at Weston Park, Shropshire (where they hold the V festival). We will be playing as a 6 piece on Friday 10th for all the VW enthusiasts. Then on Saturday 11th we will be appearing as a 4 piece at the Hersham Beer Festival in Surrey which supports 1st Hersham Scouts and The Princess Alice Hospice.

Most of the usual suspects will be on stage, Rob Yeo will be on Keys for Camperjam and is rapidly cementing himself in as the top man for the job after covering again for Matt Evans at Bibi's in Leeds at the end of July. "Ant Blues" will be on Elwood duties for both shows after a sterling performance at The Brewhouse, Taunton (once again, get well soon Chris!)

hope to see you there

Organising a p*ssup in a Brewery!

All will become clear later, but first a quick look back at May!

Unfortunately the show at Haverhill Arts centre on 21st May was cancelled, apologies to anyone that were due to come along, this also meant that we didn't get the chance to play alongside Wayne Lee on Keyboards, but since he's learnt the show now we are sure to see him making an appearance with us in the the near future.

Other bad news is that Chris Cartwright (Elwood) was taken ill mid month and the current prognosis seems to be positive, yet recovery may well be lengthy. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

So we had to draft in someone to fill the hat & glasses at the last minute, and Simon Dixon did a fantastic job appearing at our Grays and Stevenage shows in the role. He will be reprising the role on some occasions whilst Chris is recuperating.

So onto our slightly cryptic title as we look ahead to shows in June. First up will be the BREWHOUSE theatre in Taunton this Friday night. (See what we did!)

We have some corporate/private functions filling up most of the rest of the month but we can be seen at BiBi's restaurant in Leeds on Wednesday 30th.

Further into the future we have been booked for a VW festival near Stafford called "Camperjam" on 9th July and an outdoor show in Maidstone on Sept 11th. There are more shows in the planning stages for this year so as always keep an eye on myspace, facebook and ents24 for the latest gig info.

Here we go gathering Gigs in May

A few shows to tell you about this month

Jake & Elwood will be doing a Duo show at Castaways in Pitsea on the 15th and then it's full steam ahead for full theatre shows at Haverhill Arts centre (21st), Thameside Theatre, Grays (22nd) and The Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage (22nd).

Rob Yeo will join us again on keyboards on the Grays & Stevenage Shows after a stellar performance at Cromer. We would like to welcome Mr Wayne Lee (Albert Lee, Everley Brothers, Hayley Oliver Band) onto the keyboard stool for the Haverhill show.

Full details as always are on our ents24 page, website , mySpace & facebook!

April Fools!

Here is your (currently monthly) update.

March saw the 6 piece band playing at Bibi's in leeds with original drummer Adrian Ogden on drums and local boys Dan Burnett on Keyboards and the awesome Matt Hewitt on Elwood duties. We do love playing the venue, if only for the stunning decor and amazing food.

Heading into April we have a corporate at Woburn Abbey on the 9th with Gary Sculpher sitting in on guitar as Simon is off being a proper rock star with "Chicane" at ministry of sound. Then we are off to the seaside for a theatre show at the Pavilion in Cromer the next day.

Rob Yeo, who performed with us at The Sands in Gainsborough last year, will be on Keyboards as Matt is having to miss a lot of the shows this year due to his commitments as MD for the Alton Towers Hotel band. We hear it is all going well and hope to see him on a gig again soon.

We'll be ending the month with a 6 piece show in The Venue at Chelmsford City Football Club on the 30th, we will post the event details on ents24 and facebook asap as we have only just got them.

As always keep an eye on the blog, ents24, facebook and myspace for all the up to date info

One month since our last confession....

Just a quick update on our February....not a visit to the Penguin!!

On the show front we started the month with a last minute trip out to Bucharest, Romania for a couple of nights. Mario, Chris, Simon & Matt were joined this trip by Stuffy, Brad, Sean and Oien who stood in for the usual suspects who couldn't move mountains at short notice to be there. Well done to the guys who all performed admirably. The band were very well taken care of by their hosts and we would like to thank them for inviting us, everybody had a blast.

When back in the UK we played a great show at Solihull Arts Centre for the council whom we had performed for outside in the pouring rain in the "summer" last year. Luckily the weather wasn't a factor this time.

New theatre shows have been booked for Haverhill and Andover full listings are on ents24 or our myspace as they are announced, with more event information released on our facebook page 3 months before each show.

In March we have a private booking in Reading on the 6th, and an appearance at Bibi's in Leeds on the 24th, both with the 6 piece band! Mario and Chris will also be performing as a duo at Bar 51 in Windsor on the 25th so pop down if you are in the vicinity.

The BBB sell out!

Well, we did sell out Chelmsford Civic theatre anyway! We had a fantastic gig last night and would like to thank everyone who came for making it such a fun night. We'd also like to thank Pete & Jen for all their help with lights and staging, and our good friend Giles for a sterling effort on sound duties.

The new show is getting better every time we do it, the Cab Calloway jacket eventually arrived form the US so Jake could wear it in "Moocher" and the new set intros worked fantastically. We have a couple more production details in the planning and will introduce them soon.

Until then we are off to Romania to do a couple of shows this week and return after the weekend for our next UK performance at Solihull Arts Complex on Thursday 11th Feb.

Hope to see you there!

A Wild "WiIde" Night

Thanks to everyone who came along to The Wilde Theatre in Bracknell on Sunday. We had a great time and hope everyone else did too.

The show went great and considering it was the first time we'd run the new show in it's entirety in front of an audience all went smoothly and there were no serious hiccups (phew!)

Sadly not all the costume changes we had hoped to do were possible in time for the show due to shipping issues but we hope to add them in to future shows as the relevant garments arrive.

We are all looking forward to Chelmsford Civic Theatre on Saturday which we have been informed has been selling extremely well, but if you want to come along there may be a couple of tickets left if you hurry!

Got the Horn (sic)

After an excellent production rehearsal today we can announce our new "first call" horn section, Mr Jon Shenoy on Sax, and Mr Will Smith on Trumpet! They have previously performed as a section with the band at The Beck Theatre in Hayes last year and we are glad to have them on board on a more permanent basis. We hope to get a couple of pictures of the guys and some more info about them on the website in the near future but your first opportunity to see them "in the flesh" will be this Sunday at the Wilde Theatre in Bracknell.

We have added some new Theatre dates in Banbury, Clacton & Taunton, as well as a six piece band return to Bibi's in Leeds to the diary, which can be seen in full if you click on Tour Dates in the links. There are many more plans in the pipeline for further Theatre gigs this year along with public dates for the six piece, 4 piece and duo show so keep an eye out for us around the country at a venue near you.