By skamonic
The run-up was not promising.
Half the band got stuck in traffic grid-lock on Kingsland High Street. I had to rush home between sound-check and performance, and somehow between tuning and the first number, one of my bass strings went seriously out of tune.
Our set list was not going to work as our time on stage was shorter than expected.
But it was still a triumph.
The short set-list meant that we chose our best numbers. The errant string was quickly tuned after the first number.
And the sound engineer was really good, and had quality kit to work with. Not only did we have great sound on stage, but some intelligent mixing went on during the set. Neither of these is guaranteed.
But best of all it was a great audience. They liked the old ska chestnuts, and our “unexpected covers” Tainted Love and Enola Gay – even if had to drop our mystery new song.
I don’t think that we have had a mass sing-along before, but the instrumental verse of My Boy Lollipop certainly saw some collective karaoke.
Just three weeks til our next gig . Feb 27th at the Last Days of Decadence.
By skamonic
Don’t forget that we are playing at the Gypsy Hotel this Saturday (February 6th).
As part of our determination to never play with the same line-up more than once, this will be our first gig with three horns – two saxes and the trombone.
Some rapid re-arranging has gone on to produce parts for three horns. Quite a few bands have very simple horn parts, with each often playing the same notes. There’s nothing wrong with this, and it can make for great music.
But – perhaps because of our jazz backgrounds – we like to make things a bit more complicated, so there’s quite a lot of crunchy jazz harmonies when we play.
We also hope to debut a new entry in our ‘bonkers covers’ category. But you’ll have to come to find out what that might be.
The Gypsy Hotel night takes place at Barden’s Boudoir which is 36 – 44 Stoke Newington Road London N16 7XJ.
By skamonic
Don’t forget that we are playing at the Gypsy Hotel this Saturday (February 6th).
As part of our determination to never play with the same line-up more than once, this will be our first gig with three horns – two saxes and the trombone.
Some rapid re-arranging has gone on to produce parts for three horns. Quite a few bands have very simple horn parts, with each often playing the same notes. There’s nothing wrong with this, and it can make for great music.
But – perhaps because of our jazz backgrounds – we like to make things a bit more complicated, so there’s quite a lot of crunchy jazz harmonies when we play.
We also hope to debut a new entry in our ‘bonkers covers’ category. But you’ll have to come to find out what that might be.
The Gypsy Hotel night takes place at Barden’s Boudoir which is 36 – 44 Stoke Newington Road London N16 7XJ.
By skamonic
This was once the catchphrase for cheap LPs of cover versions of current hits – a kind of low-rent predecessor to the Now that’s what I call music series
The answer the the question – of course – was always yes.
We hope that you can tell the difference between what we play and the original1960s versions of the ska classics in our repertoire.
But if you want to hear the originals, here is a We7 playlist.
There’s one cheat as it has Amy Winehouse singing “You’re wondering now” rather than an original version. Indeed I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the original as the earliest version we know is by the modern incarnation of the Skatalites on Hi-Bop Ska. This is not on We7. but those with a Spotify acount can listen it here. (Spotify is better, but you need an invite to listen for free – but We7 still has lots of brilliant 60s ska.)
Nor have I put in original versions of some of the bonkers covers we do as our versions bear little relation to the originals, and we like to surprise at gigs!
By skamonic
We are playing at the Last Days of Decadence, 145 Shoreditch High Street, Hackney, London, E1 6JE on February 27th.
You can now buy tickets from Ticketweb at £7.
But you don’t have to wait that long as we are at the Gypsy Hotel on Feb 6th.
By skamonic
We were just ready to announce that we were due to play Buster Bloodvessel’s Skafest in April when they let us know that they have moved the date to August.
Not sure that we can play the new dates, but watch this space.
And it’s sure to be a good event, even if we can’t make it.
By skamonic
We were just ready to announce that we were due to play Buster Bloodvessel’s Skafest in April when they let us know that they have moved the date to August.
Not sure that we can play the new dates, but watch this space.
And it’s sure to be a good event, even if we can’t make it.
By skamonic
We are moving to North London for our next gig.
We will be playing at the Gypsy Hotel on Saturday February 6th.
The Gypsy Hotel night takes place at Barden’s Boudoir which is 36 – 44 Stoke Newington Road
London N16 7XJ.
We played a similar night there a couple of years ago and had a lot of fun.
By skamonic
Pictures from Upstairs at the Ritzy, Brixton, Janury 8th 2010
By skamonic
We had a great time at Brixton’s Ritzy last night.
This was our first gig using two horns and more vocals than we have usually done at previous gigs.
This meant doing a number of new songs and new versions of old material – including some vocal versions of songs that we had previously done as instrumentals.
Our ska version of Enola Gay went down particularly well, though it is probably not worth thinking too hard about doing a lively upbeat version of a song about dropping the atom bomb.
Everyone was in fine form, even if Veronica was laid a little low and husky by a nasty cold. It at least allowed us to introduce her as being on catarrh and vocals.
Upstairs at the Ritzy is a fine venue (even if all those stairs are a bit tough when you’re carrying up guitar amps).
It made us realise how many of our songs are film related -at least Guns of Navarone, the James Bond theme and Misirlou.
But best of all – being a cinema – they put your name in big letters outside with all the current films.
Here’s a not very good quality mobile photo.
Our name almost in lights
