It’s a great small venue, and we’ve always had a brilliant time there.
And this Friday we play Upstairs at the Ritzy in Brixton again.
It’s just £5 for two full sets.
And we’re rather proud of our poster.
It’s always good to play at Camden’s Dublin Castle as it such an historic music venue – home for many the early gigs of both Madness and Amy Winehouse.
We only had a short set as we were support to the entertaining and energetic Skangsters and f0llowed a great set from easydread.
It’s always a bit of a rush with lots of bands so we didn’t have time for any photos.
But this is what we played. It may have been a short set, but thanks to excellent sound it was a good one.
Next is two full sets at the Ritzy next Friday (April 15 2016).
Yesterday we braved wind and rain to play in aid of the Royal National Hospital for Neuro-Disability on an outdoor stage at St Mary’s Church, Putney – just by the river.
While the weather was not with us, we still had fun and helped raise some money for a great cause.
This is what we played:
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We had a terrific gig at Croydon’s Oval tavern last night.
The pub was packed, and there were people dancing almost all the way through both our sets.
We took the opportunity to try out four new numbers:
My Baby just cares for me, which although a song from the 1930s will always be associated with Nina Simone. But while sme may not have been aware of it, it is very definitely a ska rhythm going on in her right hand.
London Calling – there’s lot of reggae and ska influences in the Clash, but perhaps not so much in the original of this. Now it is ska.
Hall of the Mountain King is from the Peer Gynt Suite by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. We thought turning this into a ska tune was wildly imaginative – and then we found that Madness had done a version.
Come Dancing is a great Ray Davies song that was a hit for the Kinks. We just like it a lot.
Each seemed to get a good reaction from the crowd, which is not always the case. Sometimes something can sound good at rehearsal and then be a bit of a flop.
This is what we played in our two sets. And we hope it won’t be too long before we get invited back.
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Next Saturday – Feb 27 2016 – we play two full sets for free at Croydon’s Oval Tavern.
The Oval Tavern is at 131 Oval Road, CR0 6BR.
The gig will start at about 8:30.
And we have a few new tunes to try out.
When Phineas Fogg set off to get around the world in eighty days, he left from the Reform Club on Pall Mall in the heart of London’s club land.
And this is where we played a gig last night.
It is a very grand building that reeks of history, and the many distinguished people who have passed through its doors.
As it’s so grand, we had to dress up. The pre-gig refreshments was also a cut above what we sometimes get.
And this is what we played in one long set:
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We had a great time playing the New Cross Inn earlier this month.
Thanks to Studio Brixton we now have video of almost the whole set.
The whole gig was live-streamed using a number of cameras, but unfortunately there were some technical issues with the stream, which meant that our part of the gig often went dark.
But video and sound from one of the cameras was saved – and here it is in three parts.
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A great time was had by all at the New Cross Inn ska night yesterday. It’s fair to say that we were the closest to ska’s roots, but each band had an interesting take.
The gig was livestreamed on YouTube – and we hope to have a copy of the video so we can share the best bits.
As Leah had a family funeral, we were lucky to get Mari to join us on tenor sax for the evening. Despite the short notice, no-one would have known that this was the first time she was playing with us.
This is what we played:
People sometimes say that they like our videos but wonder whether we can play as well live, as studio trickery these days is supposed to make anything sound good.
The short answer to that is that we by and large record live in the studio. What we gain from the studio is the opportunity to record in a good acoustic, use better microphones and balance the levels of the instruments in the mix afterwards.
The long answer is that we were able to record and video a gig recently. Of course it does not sound as good as a studio recording as we simply took a feed from the PA and were unable to do any mixing after the event. And Veronica had a terrible cold.
Neither is it a very exciting video as we had just the one camera.
But we think it does give a good flavour of what we are like live – and the audience seem to be enjoying it.
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We had a great time playing a sixtieth birthday party in Southgate last night.
It was a bit special as the party was celebrating the birthday of Chris’s mum – so we put him centre stage.
We got to play a full two sets, and as a special request, we slotted in some Stevie Wonder tunes – only one of which has any relation to the ska, rocksteady and early reggae that we play, so we made Chris play the tricky bits.
We don’t have any photos, but this is what we played.
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