Welcome to the tour bus!
20/03/05
Lastly but not leastly (if that’s a real word!?), we trucked on down the old fair lane to Paris for an afternoon/evening dance at the historic Chez Gegene. A great old dance hall right on the river where the likes of Maurice Chevalier used to sing and the folk would dance and the waiters still wear blue and white striped shirts. Swing and boogie dancers from near and far came to dance away a balmy sunny afternoon and warm breezy soir/eve.
19/03/05
Our main concert of the festival at the Theatre Beauvaisis, was a blast. A great crowd cheered and clapped with abandon making us feel very welcome and sad to leave. There are some very nice people in Beauvais — thank you, Merci, to all of you, the hard working organisers especially. We played the show with great Blues singer Lea Gilmore from Baltimore, USA.
18/03/05
Tonight was a big night, supporting Rock ’n’ Roll legend Chuck Berry and at 79 years old he still knows how to rock the house. We opened to a crowd of 3000 and warmed em up nicely for Chuck. He then played all the old classics from Maybeline to Johnny Be Good to My Dingaling and the rest. You can see why he’s a living legend and he’s a professional who obviously still loves to play. He constantly teased the crowd with the intro of Johnny Be Good, as it is featured on many of his other songs, feigning forgetfulness at the end — “Did I do Johnny Be Good yet?” — then launching into the song they have all been waiting for inviting eager girls to jump on the stage and dance. Nadia was up and jiving next to Chuck — in her Jive Aces T-Shirt of course — and we have a photo to prove it!
Another surprise of the week was bumping into Hitchem Abida, owner of Rocket Records in Paris which is France’s best spot for all rockin’ swingin’ or blues music of any kind. He was set up in the foyer with a fine selection of music for sale and, by the way, stocks all the Jive Aces albums, so anyone in the Paris area should pop along to his shop.
17/03/05
The “worst” thing which we have to endure is that we are forced to eat three course meals of delicious cuisine at the finest restaurant (well, it’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it!). The restaurant chain who help sponsor the festival all have Bleu (that’s not a typo but the French spelling for Blue) in the title. I think they have a theme going there.
Tonights gig was also with the Swing Commanders (check out their website at www.swingcommanders.co.uk), this time at the Magic Mirrors which is a circular, 1920’s travelling ballroom covered in mirrors on the inside.
16/03/05
It’s been a while since we updated the BLOG so I thought I’d take the opportunity to detail our second foreign trip of the year. It started out with a blessing in disguise as we had found out that Calais was shut for a few days we were forced to find an alternative to our usual route. We ended up taking a Speed Ferries catamaran from Dover to Boloigne which took half the time, was half the price and took us closer to our intended destination of Beauvais. Can’t say fairer than that really!
With our good friends, Ian and Shelagh Hartley in tow who followed us all the way from Manchester, we arrived in the beautiful town of Beauvais for the Blues atour du Zinc festival (which apparently means Blues at the Bar because the bars were made of zinc metal) which is about 50 miles north of Paris and boasts the highest vaulted ceiling in a cathedral (and it is a mighty impressive cathedral too!). To our pleasant surprise we found out that the evening’s concert was with our mates the Swing Commanders (also from Manchester) and ended up with an all out jivin’ western swingin’ jam up at the end.
12/03/05
We were invited to appear and help represent the entertainers of the UK on the BBC 1 TV show “Test the Nation”. Anne Robinson introduced us and we got to play a brief “Saints Go Marching In” resplendent in our yellow suits (with the Scottish Rockettes cheerleaders dancing behind us, who also did a great cheer) and also didn’t do badly in the test of our entertainment knowledge. The studio was packed with a great crowd of entertainers, surfers, dustmen, Women’s Institute, vets, the bankers and a panel of celebrities from Coronation Street etc.
7/2/05
In the afternoon we did a “Sag Nein Zu Drogen” (otherwise known as “Say No To Drugs”) event in Odeonplatz (four shows until 3:00 am just isn’t enough to do?) and despite the freezing cold (literally 0 degrees!) Stephan, Irmi, Dietmar and Nelli came and danced, or rather ice-skated on the frozen platz (place), and joined us for a much needed warm coffee break.
Back to the Bayerische Donisl for another round of pretzels, bread dumplings and Wiener Schnitzel. Then a sound check at the club and back to the Donisl for the third time in two days for some more slap-up Bavarian fodder. You can say we like it, can’t you!
This, the last night at the Bayerischerhof Night Club, was packed and this evening mainly with swing and boogie dancers including Lindy Hop legends Marcus and Barbie (the world lindy champs, teachers and keepers of the swing tradition) and Anna the Boogie Woogie champion in 2003 and many more of our Munchen friends.
By the time the Fashing/carnival revellers streamed into the club it was already in full swing and a great night/morning was had by all.
6/2/05
A very long drive today, all the way from Lyon to Munich along some Roman highway no doubt. Playing at the Bayerischehof definitely has its perks. Staying in the five star hotel with it’s immense champagne breakfast buffet is definitely one of them. Not only do they have everything you could possibly want for breakfast (and some things you probably don’t) but just in case, just in case you are really fussy, they have a chef on hand to cook your heart’s desire!.
Anyway, the time of the month is “Fasching” which is the annual carnival that celebrates the end of winter so the streets were packed with merrymakers from all over Bavaria. Before the show we snuck out to one of our favourite restaurants, the Bayerische Donisl, right in the heart of town next to the Radthaus (town hall). Serving up the finest in Bavarian dishes (which happens to be my favourite food — Alex) and a dose of Schlager music to wash it down with, we ordered up fast. Some went for the traditional Wiener Schnitzel with the warm potato salad but the more adventurous of us opted for a variety of pork dishes covered in crackling with either Kartoffel Knoedel (potato dumplings) or the more popular amongst the band, Semmel Knoedel (bread dumplings). Another speciality of theirs are the bread pretzels which you dip in a sweet mustard. We got through a few of those!
The show was jammed in the basement club at the Bayerischehof. Our good friend Chuck Hermann even popped in for a visit as he was DJing upstairs at the salsa party. We have worked with Chuck a number of times at his regular jive club, the Max Emannuelle Brauerei.
5/2/05
A short drive to Lyon today and again the show was with the Harlem Hotshots who are touring through France and England (they perform at the Savoy Ball in London next week). It’s been a whole year since we were last in Lyon and Claudio from Disc ’n’ Roll had a similar problem with his previous venue being too small. It was great to see all our old friends from Lyon and even further afield. Stephan and Sandra drove all the way from Paris for the night, Octav drove from Geneva in Switzerland and Paula and her hubby flew all the way from England especially to bring us a box of her fabulous home made truffles (which didn’t last long ’cos they were so nice! Please make some more!!!). Three time world Boogie Woogie Champion Melanie Stocker-Bucher was also teaching at the event and has brought a whole box of our new album, Life is a Game, home with her to Zurich so if you want to get hold of one as we haven’t been there since it’s release then email her at melanie.stocker@bodyemotion.ch.
4/2/05
After an extremely hearty breakfast including the finest selection of regional cheeses including a particularly stinky blue one melted all over the eggs provided by Brices’ mum (Brice our sound man) we set off on the road again heading for Grenoble. Stopping half way for a makeshift picknick comprised of food we had raided from the Galibert larder (beats Burger King any day!) we arrived in Grenoble in good time. After the success of last years show word had spread throughout the dance community and Mario Grimaldi had to move the show from his already spacious venue to a bigger hall. A great surprise for us as well was that the Harlem Hotshots (formerly the Rhythm Hotshots who we last worked with several years ago at the world Lindy Hop championships) from Sweden did a whole 80 minute review as part of the evening.
30/1/05
Last night some of us stayed at Ian Hartley’s, the coolest B and B in town, and even though we got back very late and had to get up horribly early this morning a lovely British breakfast sent us on our way. Our way being a fast drive back down to Cricklewood in London to Ashton’s to perform for their Ceroc Tsumani fundraiser tea dance (a weekend of fundraisers, cool huh?). This was well organised and very well attended with them having to turn people away when the attendance exceeded 500. The dance floor was packed solid with a great buzzing atmosphere. A lot of friends and people we know were there and a great time was had by all — including ourselves who got a good few dances in after our show — and all for a good cause. Over £5000 was raised for the Tsunami appeal, well done to all!
29/1/05
This morning we drove up to Manchester where we did two events raising funds for Tsunami relief. The first was a performance at the Printworks to kick off their two day band aid event which went very well with support from Ian “GI Jive” Hartley and his good lady, Sheilagh, who danced and encouraged the crowd to get in a dancing mood too after we recieved a great intro from Fred Fielder from Greater Manchester Radio. This was well set up by the Printwork’s own Fred Booth and Kate from the Royal Bank of Scotland and many relentless bucket carriers who collected the money.
Tonight we played for the Royal Northern College of Music who also set up a great Tsunami fund raiser in the a venue called the Footage in Manchester and it was packed with a lively bunch of students who of course being music students had impecable taste (they like us don’t they?!).
22/1/05
Our first time playing in Windsor yesterday at the Station shopping arcade right in the shadow of the magnificent Windsor Castle, home to our queen. The Windsor Observer even came down to cover our “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life” event so that should be coming out soon. Today at our second appearance there we even had a couple of dancers down and the crowds poured in.
After a quick stop for a cup of tea and some bickies at Steff’s house in Ashton (thanks very much!) we were off to Eastbourne for a short appearance at Sarah’s Modern Jive Club. Held in the Town Hall (which was reminiscent of a mini Hogwarts) we played for a great bunch of dancers.
15/1/05
This afternoon we played at the Printworks in Manchester. Despite two football matches, there was quite a crowd, many digging the jive and swing for the first time. Ian Hartley and his good lady, Sheilagh, came and danced, helping to entertain the crowd. They even had locals having a go themselves.
Ian, AKA, G.I. JIVE, was also the promoter and DJ for the Bowden Rooms which is the gig we did this evening in Altrincham. It was packed with a cross section of different jive, swing and rock and roll dancers. The floor was full the whole evening — for both our sets and for the great selection of jive that Ian played. We also introduced a couple of new songs to our set which went down very well — “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”, “Slow Boat to China” plus the excellent “Three Cats Called Louis” (which is on the new album but we hadn’t gotten around to playing in the show yet). This is the song which pays tribute to the great 3 Louis’ of jazz, jive and swing — Louis Jordan, Prima and of course Armstrong. The Louis trinity of jive!
Although booked into the local Ritz, some of us took Ian up on his offer to stay in his great and magically historical house, full of original juke boxes and a veritable living museum of jazz, jive and swing music and dance — plus a great British breakfast in the morning (Ian you should open up a B and B for touring musicians!). Also if you remember and are interested in the old-but-great children’s TV and Radio shows check out his book, “Goodnight Children...Everywhere” which is a fascinating history of childrens broadcasting in the UK. Cheers!
7/1/05
Once upon a time, many years ago, when the Jive Aces were just forming, we used to play in Romford, Essex. We used to street entertain (the polite term for “busking”) near the fountain outside. Every Saturday we would play for the shoppers and became a familiar sight. This is where it all started and this week - Wednesday and today - we returned for the first time in eons to perform a couple of concerts for the “Say No to Drugs campaign”. Our stage landed slap bang in the market square (the area where we used to play is a shopping mall now) and once again entertained the good people of Romford (after a good breakfast in the nearest cafe).
We couldn’t believe how many people recognized and remembered us and the local newspaper the Romford Recorder even covered our return with a photo and article in today’s copy headlined “Back to Their Roots”. Thanks for the welcome, it was good to be back!
Special mention - Tsunami: You may have noticed we have a few fund raising events for Tsunami coming up so please help where you can by attending and digging deep. Someone we would like to commend is the brother of Brice, our very own sound man and road manager. Those who know us well will know he is from the south of France. His brother Sylvain lives in Thailand and on seeing the news got straight on a plane into the middle of the chaos to do what he could to help. Being a Scientology Volunteer Minister, he is used to getting in there and helping but here he was confronted with a little more than your usual accident scene, especially getting there so quickly. However he has been working day and night with the authorities and a team of volunteers and was even featured in two major French newspapers commending him for his work. Bien fait!!! For more info on what the Scientology Volunteer Ministers are doing to help in the Tsunami disaster areas, visit www.volunteerministers.org/eng/news/
31/12/04
Well it’s now 2005 as I’m writing this so Happy New Year to all that are reading it! Tonight we played in our home town at the beautiful Saint Hill Manor, home of humanitarian and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. You may have noticed the slightly different attire, that’s right we were in kilts and only we know if we were being true Scotsmen! Terry Elliot MC’d the night and played a great DJ set so thanks to him and his family and friends and all the dancers for coming down. Here’s to a prosperous 2005 for all our friends and fans!
30/12/04
Well, 2005 is looming up hard and fast and what better way to spend New Years’ Eve Eve (That’s two Eves!) than bringing some hot jive to the people of Harlow (again) at our “Say No To Drugs. Say Yes To Life” event and then swinging our stuff at a packed out gig. Dance Riviera at the Acacia Ballroom had their highest ever attendance and the crowd was jumping.
29/12/04
After a few days hiatus over Christmas with some well deserved battery re-charging time we were straight back into the thick of things with a long drive up to Chesterfield for a night at the Winding Wheel. And what a night it was, in fact it’s the first time the Rock ‘n’ Roll night has been sold out with people having to be turned away (if you are one of those, then sorry about that and book your tickets in advance next time!). Thanks to Ian and Sheila for all their help and also to Ian Bailey for getting us a great deal on an ad in the Stockport panto programme.
24/12/04
Well, the last couple of days leading up to Christmas have been a little wild, as have been the last 2 months. We were invited back to the Essex city of Harlow to help liven up the market during the last throes of Xmas shopping and promote the “Say No to Drugs” campaign. Despite our rather large stage landing between their stalls and coffee shops we were welcomed warmly. Crowds of last minute shoppers gathered to watch and in some cases warm themselves up with the occasional dance.
Our CDs are available at the HMV and Moondance stores in Harlow but they were selling out due to the demand created by our shows in Harlow. Then, thanks to Mark and Chris on the jewellery stall nearby, our album and single suddenly became available at the market. After each show queues of people lined up at their stall to buy the CDs and get them signed. So thanks to Chris and Mark and Allen (for his requests for “Mack the Knife”) and selling loads of CDs right there. Maybe we should tour the markets of England — this is where its all happening!
In the evening, this night before Christmas, we travelled up to London where we were playing live on BBC London radio. We arrived at the BBC studio and indulged in the coffee and mince pies provided while setting up the equipment. The studio is rather small and normally has only the two hosts in it, but this time the six of us were added, crammed in around the microphones playing, singing and taking Christmas requests. The show went very well with people calling in from far and wide — including one fan from the south of France who was listening on-line. We were on from about 10.00 until 11.00pm and then as our mad 2 month intense tour came to a brief close the team went its separate ways, a very unusual move, and went off to visit their families for the Christmas period.
More adventures in a couple of days, until then have yourself a Merry Christmas...
23/12/04
Captain’s log, supplementary
‘Twas the-night-before the-night-before Christmas. This evening we were travelling in London to appear on Talk Sport when one of our fans told us they had called Capital FM to request White Hot Christmas and the DJ for some reason hadn’t received his copy. Being close to the Capital studio we decided to drop one in for him and we were listening to the station when the DJ, Dr. Fox, mentioned on air that he really fancied a mince pie with cream and a cup of tea. So, on the way we popped into Starbucks and got a nice big cup of steaming hot tea and a mince pie with lashings of cream and went into the studio to deliver it for Dr. Fox along with our single. As we got back to our van, Ken, who had been waiting for us, was startled by the sound of White Hot Christmas as Dr. Fox played the single and said what we had done thanking us for his tea and mince pie and wishing us a Merry Christmas! Thank you Dr. Fox, there is still a real live spontaneous DJ left in London and there is some magic at Christmas time after all. Thanks too to all the other DJs who played it, but this is a nice funny story.
18/12/04
Another great Ceroc night, this time at the Baden Powell centre (He’s the guy who started the Scouts in England) and as usual it was packed. Playing their Christmas party had it’s advantages, i.e. plenty of mince pies for us.
Thanks to Mike and Linda, who incidentally are in charge of the whole Ceroc network and doing a really good job in making it one of, if not the, fastest growing partner dance groups in the country. Check out their site with links to all regional venues: www.ceroc.com
13/12/04
Two Cerocs in a row, more to come this week. Last night we were at the Berkhamsted Town Hall and it was packed and a nice helping of mince pies and cherry bakewell tarts too! Tonight we were at The Grand in Clapham where I (Alex) haven’t been in about 10 years. Great to see the dancefloor packed. Check out www.ceroc.com for all their venues around the country and indeed around the world as they are expanding abroad too.
11/12/04
Well, we are always busy but it seems to be getting wilder. Yesterday we were up before the crack of dawn and on the way to London at 6:00am to the US Embassy (morning is not a musician’s time). Then we rushed up to Leicester to do a couple of radio interviews, (and a phone in to BBC Cumbria, where our White Hot Christmas single is record of the week and the “Firm Favourite” for the day — obviously an area with great taste) then to Stafford to play for the Ceroc Midlands Xmas party.
We awoke this morning to a good English breakfast and hot footed, or wheeled, it down to Harlow in Essex where we performed a few swinging sets for the Say No To Drugs campaign. Despite the frosty weather the good people of Harlow were out in droves getting the prezzies and they gave us a very warm reception. After that we tucked into yet another English breakfast and a mug of coffee at a friendly nearby cafe owned by Ozzy.
Then to Cheshunt, for the evening for the Just Jiving gig. On the way we popped in to organizers Mick and Cheryl’s house as they nicely invited us to the warmth of their abode for tea and crumpets — jolly nice after an afternoon in the cold! The night was great, a full house and a very full dance floor. Even got a chance for a few jives ourselves — thank you ladies.
9/12/04
As Christmas is fast approaching and we are madly promoting the White Hot Christmas single, we took advantage of the rare occasion that we were not actually playing a gig (that’s right, we are still working on our day off!) and shot a music video for the single. Calling in favours from friends and family, we put together a nice little film. If you happen to be watching West Brom playing football this weekend you’ll see it on the big screen in the stadium along with 40,000 other footy supporters. We’ll also have it available as a download from the homepage of the site soon, I’ll keep you posted.
6/12/04
Back again at the 100 Club in London, this time for a special promotional release of "White Hot Christmas". We had a great crowd in there tonight, it keeps getting better and better and the floor was jumping! Nadia did a great turn as Mrs. Claus and introduced the band perched atop of Warren from the Jivin’ Lindy Hoppers’ shoulders. Thanks to Simon for running the longest running swing club in London and keeping it alive in the capital. We heard rumour that Duncan and Lee from Blue were turning up too, did anyone see them? They must have been incognito.
While in the US we grew accustomed to the obligatory milkshake in the 24 hour diners with all the dancers. There is a distinct lack of 24 hour anything in England, however we have found a great bagel shop in Brick Lane on the way home that is 24 hour and does a great range of...er...well, bagels. Oh, and the odd cake and other baked goods too. I recommend it to anyone stuck in London in the middle of the night and starving!
5/12/04
Wow, what a swingin’ party! Our Swingin’ Christmas party was a hot blast on a cold day. Thanks to all who contributed in selling tickets and promoting it. We had over 300 in a packed hall and the atmosphere was great. Special thanks to Terry Elliot for a great DJ set (yet again!), First Move Dance and all the Saint Hill staff who helped put on the event. Also, thanks to Starbucks in East Grinstead for the raffle prize donation. We reckon we raised about £1100 for the Greenfields HELP centre. We are still counting everything up but the full story will be on the latest news page with photos and details etc.
4/12/04
As Christmas is fast approaching and we are madly promoting out Christmas Single, White Hot Christmas, we decided to stop off in Gloucester today on the way home. After setting up right out side the Guildhall with kind permission of the Gloucester Town Council, we performed five sets for the Say No To Drugs, Say Yes To Life Campaign and threw in a plug or two for White Hot Christmas. It seemed to work as the manager of the local HMV store said they have been inundated with orders for both the single and the new album, Life is a Game, and they would had just ordered a bunch of copies of both to keep up with the demand. So for anyone who didn’t get one on the day, go back to HMV as they will have it in stock when you get there!
We ended off the night by visiting the Horsham Rock ‘n’ Roll club at the Drill Hall in Horsham. The Firebirds were on and played a great gig to a packed house. Tall Paul has done a great job with promoting the club and it has a really good atmosphere. All the proceeds also go to charity so well done on the good work so far and keep going! We’ll be playing the venue next April so see you there.
12/11/04
Last night we were at the famous Willow Arts Centre in Corby, Northants, which is famous for good reason. It used to be council run and about three years ago they cut the funding and the bulldozers were scheduled to come in after the last performance. Then, in a spontaneous moment of resistance, the entire audience sat in the theatre and refused to leave, halting the destruction of the arts centre. Local art and theatre lovers came together as volunteers and won a chance to prove the centre’s worth and it is these volunteers who set up and promoted the gig we did last night. Well done chaps! keeping the fire of live entertainment alive! A special thanks to Jazzy Jeff from Northampton and Bedford Swing Society for the dance lesson he gave, it really made the night go with a swing! Also, another big thanks to Sue Bartlett for bringing along such a big crowd, many of whom had their first foray into the adventure of Lindy-Hop.