Back on the road again (ish)

Following our successful pub debut at the Wayfarers back in November, work and other band commitments kept us off the road throughout December. But we've kept busy.

Three of the band members (Dave, Chris and Vince) played a set at last year's Whitby Gospel Music Convention and we went down a storm. We were repeatedly asked afterwards if we had a CD of our music and we had to say no. Well, we've been invited back again in 2012, so I spent some time over the Christmas break in the studio recording tracks for what we hope will be three albums in 2012.

The first CD will be the Gospel Album by Dave Clemo & Friends. Although not strictly a DCB album, it features all the members of the band plus a couple of special friends on some of the tracks. As I write this, we've completed the recording of 14 tracks and will begin final mixing in the next day or two.

This weekend I started work on our first "official" DCB album. This has the working title of "Other People's Greatest Hits", and yes, it features versions of songs by other artists. If you've seen us live, you'll know what to expect.
Once that's out of the way, I want to record an album of original songs, plus some traditional tunes and more folk style songs. We have a working title and all will be revealed....

Last night we played out first full length show since November. We played a short 30 minute set at the Shed in Leicester at the end of December that went down well, but not as well as last night's show at the Dukes Arms in Woodford. I love this pub. I love the people, the atmosphere. It was our friend Stevie Poole's 60th surprise birthday party, and the place was packed with family and friends.

It was a long night. We arrived at the pub at 6.00 and began setting up. The pub was filling up by 7.00 and we played our first set at 8.00 (rather than the 9.00 as I'd anticipated). We had a break while food was served. It was a Burns Night supper, so Haggis, Neeps and Tatties was on the menu. I declined.
The second set had everyone dancing and singing along. We didn't finish loading out until way past midnight and the party was still in full swing.

I don't drink these days, but was stopped by the Police and breathalised on the way home (a first for me). Apparently my van crossed the white line on the side of the road. They let me continue my journey and I tumbled into bed at about 1.30.

It was a good night.

New contact details

Chris has designed a new business card, Here it is. I think it looks great

November shows

We played two shows this week. The first was at Joules Yard in Market Harborough on Sunday lunchtime. It was a cold foggy day and the town was busy with a historic car rally. The venue is down a passage betwen the main shopping street and a car park and is full of little shops. I've played there as a solo act on a couple of occasions and we arrived in good time and began carrying our instruments into the venue. It took a short while to set up and get everything working.
As well as the four of us, our good friends Steve and Carol Poole also came along. Steve had his squeezebox and tenor banjo with him, so we made use of his fine playing on a couple of songs during the set.
We've had to learn a load of songs in a short while in order to play for 90-100 minutes, and this show was a chance to try the songs out. Most of the songs we played were fine. We just have a couple of tweaks to fix the others.
The time flew by. We played over 30 songs and tunes to a small but receptive crowd and I chatted to a few of them afterwards. They'll be recommending the band to their local hostelries. We could do with a few more bookings. One a week would do just fine.

Then on Wednesday we played our first pub gig as a band. The Wayfarers is a pub to the south of the town centre and we arrived in good time and loaded in. We soon set up and were ready to play.
We had competition from the football on the TV at the other end of the pub, plus a pool match, but as we played I could see people taking notice and singing along- always a good sign. We planned to play 13 songs in each set (and I hoped that we had enough material).
I needn't have worried. The first set over-ran by ten minutes and we had to cut three songs from the second set, so no worries about dearth of songs then.
I really enjoyed it. Dave the bass player told me there were a number of fellow musicians in the pub and he spoke with them and could only report positive comments.

Me? I spent my time chatting to friends and acquaintances (some of whom were on Facebook.) It's nice to meet a Facebook friend in the flesh so to speak, and I hope they'll do a good job in spreading the word.

The band is good. The audiences like what we play. All we have to do is get a few more bookings. I'm not too fussed about travelling far at the moment, after my health problems following on from the Nicki Gillis tour when I was in hospital twice and off work for two months, but I'm happy to play in the Kettering/Corby and surrounding area. We do have a couple of shows booked next year that will take us up to Whitby, but we can stay overnight on those.

Good times. My friend Rachel has taken some photos and I hope to post some soon.

Forthcoming shows- December

The band is stepping up a gear and is now ready to play full shows,starting on Sunday November 20th at Joules Yard in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.
This is an informal lunchtime venue with a steady passing trade. It should give us an opportunity to run through all the material for our show at the Wayfarers in London Road Kettering on Wednesday November 23rd.

We're expanding our repertoire all the time. Just watch this space....

Featuring Vince....in a kilt

A few months ago a friend saw the band for the first time. He liked the sound but was concerned about our image. He thought that Chris was memorable because of his hair, Dave because his bass is taller than he is, me because of my hat, but Vince...
Look at the post from the show in Corby back in July, and compare it to this...

Vince and I had a chat and we decided that he'd look good in a kilt. Not just any kilt. This kilt (The Hamilton tartan?)is in different shades of grey, so it matches our "men in black" overall image. No mistaking him now eh?

The Potbelly Festival, October 2011

We played at the recent Potbelly Festival in Kettering. It was about six months since our debut as a band, at the inaugural event back in March, so it was interesting to see how far we'd come.
We had a different fiddle player guesting with us this time, the excellent Barry Ford. I hope we can call on his services again in the not too distant future. I think the extra instrument adds something to our sound.
We decided to include this song in our set at the last minute, and I think it worked well. What do you think?

Back on the road again

The band has had a three month hiatus following Dave's tour with Nicki Gillis. He got quite ill while on tour and ended up in hospital with a mouth ulcers, a severe throat infection and an inflamed bowel that gave him constant diarrhea. Tests then revealed an inflamed appendix so that had to come out. To cut a long story short....

This weekend the band are playing the 2nd Potbelly Folk Festival in Kettering. We're realy looking forward to playing together again. We've only played a couple of shows since June and we're raring to go. We've a bunch of new songs and tunes and we've a special guest sitting in tomorrow- Barry Ford. Barry is a well respected and awesomely talented musician and luthier and he'll be playing fiddle and dobro with the band. I'm hoping to post some photos in the next few days.