News

Happy New Year etc

Bill — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:23:00 +0000

Yup here we are, 2010 and all that…seems as though just yesterday it was longer than that ago, if you get my drift!

Well we’re starting off the new year with a hiss & a roar, first gig up is Southern Cross on Friday Feb 5th.

The other thing planned is the workshopping of a number of new songs. We’ve each got a little backlog of songs but last year was kinda busy so they didn’t get much of an airing. Hopefully we’ll be having some new songs in the ever-expanding repertoire soon.

What's be happen

Bill — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Well, quite a bit…it’s just that we’re a little slow in the keeping-you-updated department. There have been several gigs at Southern Cross, Ruby Lounge, Bristol Hotel, and another at Sandwiches.

The Sandwiches gig happened on one of the most awful nights in recent memory-howlin’ southerly wind, rain, cold…so we were pleasantly surprised at the turnout. Many thanks to all of those who turned up, including some of the best swing dancing swing dancers we’ve seen!

Note that Neil’s singing from a semi-standing position, thanks to the Royal Singing Stool. Still recovering from serious knee surgery, he seems to be singing better than ever. Which is kinda counterintuitive but works mighty fine Brer Rabbit. Seems his ears are now more in line with the amps & drumkit (or something). Anyhoo we’re not looking into this in any detail in case we blow the mojo.

The Ruby Lounge gig was fun-nice to have a really good house PA, complete with someone who knows how to make it work-take a bow, Tony. We recorded the gig and it sounds great. Also nice to arrive at the gig and find the mics all set up & the system ready to roll. I could live like that.

Hey ho, here’s Christmas, arriving unexpectedly next month-it does this every year, doesn’t it? 12 months of shopping days, yet it always seems to be a scramble. I wonder why that is. Anyhoo we have a few gigs left before it all happens, including Southern Cross (tonight); St Paul’s cafe, and just setting up another at Sandwiches if we can marshal everyone together enough to be in the right place at the right time. Not easy in the Silly Season-here’s hoping.

Small Hiatus...but not fer long.

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:21:00 +0000

The most recent gig was at the end of June-in the most amazing house I think I’ve ever been in, playing at a 30th birthday party! This house must have been well over 100 years old, with a huge performance space in it, surrounded by a balcony/mezzanine area. It was a blast! Many thanks to the organisers and to the great folks who attended and got into the spirit of things so enthusiastically.

Since then things have been on hold a bit-Neil has had to receive some serious leg surgery regarding the hard time he’s given his body in much sportier times. Whoever said that sports was “good for you”? It’s a lie, I tells ye! Anyhoo he’s survived that and is making great…erm…strides (!) in recovery so we’ll be back tearing it up before you know it. Stay tuned to the “Upcoming gigs” section of this web site.

In the meantime the good ol’ New Orleans Dinner Club has had to call it a day. What a disappointment for all involved. Not only have we lost a regular gig, and not only have our favourite dancers lost a cool venue, but Wellington has lost one of the best gumbo places in town. I think we’re all a little the less culturally rich for its demise. Thanks to Nick & Don for putting together such a nice place, however so briefly!

The nice thing though is the latest NZ Musician magazine features a full page article on us, and the “Fresh Cut” column has a really cool positive review of our latest album-“Night on the Town”. Of course, we already KNEW it’s a great album but it’s always nice when someone else agrees! So big ups to all the folks at NZM for their unstinting support of NZ music in general, and of us so much over the years. Check um out at www.nzmusician.co.nz

Also in the meantime we’ve been putting together some hitherto half-finished ideas for new music so we will have some new songs to debut. If they’re at least up to some of the quality of our most “finished” new song, Geoff’s “The Southern Night Sky” it’ll be a further step forward.

The wintery blast continues...

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:03:00 +0000

…meanwhile we’re playing music to warm the very cockles of your heart, whatever they are. Never really been THAT fond of seafood that isn’t fish and chips. However, if it’s great food you’re after you could do worse than check out the New Orleans Dinner Club in Blair St-which is where you’ll find us playing, every other Friday night, 9pm til later. The food’s great, the place is warm, and the band is HOT. May Nick keep up the good work he’s doing down there (gotta pay for those old VWs somehow, eh?)

Played the Southern Cross again a couple of Fridays ago. It’s a great place to be-both inside and out! There’s always a warm spot to be found if you want just a quiet drink & a catch-up with friends. And if you want to groove-well, let’s just say it was great to be able to stretch out a bit with groovemeister and king of swing himself, Mr Richard Te One on drums. It’s a privilege having him play with us, and he turns the Wellington Heads into one kick*ss li’l band. Yay. (Yes, we keep an eye on the little red light…)

CD Launch and all

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:01:58 +0000

Hey yup so that’s the CD launch done-what a blast! Thanks to all who came. For those who didn’t make it, sorry you missed a really cool event. Big ups to Tony P who did the sound, Syd with the lights, Barry with the cinematography and all the Sandwiches staff who helped to make the event the outstanding success it was.

So I don’t know if you counted, but at one point we had 14 (count em!!) people on stage-the band, augmented with four backing singers (SingaPation) and Alan Norman on accordion.

So a good time was had by all, we had a packed out venue and sold a truckload of albums, great sound quality in a room that has great acoustics. Let’s do it again some time (but maybe not too soon)!

In the meantime, we’ll maybe see you down at the New Orleans Dinner Club.

Up & Running

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Hey now hey now thanks to the wonderful lads & lassies at Glue we now have our news column back! Welcome everyone to the new year (well, we’re a few months into it now, but…). We started ours off with a hiss & a roar,on New Years Day, playing on the Interislander on our way to Nelson for the Nelson Jazz Festival.

The jazz fest itself was a great time-big ups to Ro (again) for her great organising skills-not a thing left to chance (except our playing) which meant that all we needed to worry about was actually getting to the gig & playing. Which we did. Lots. With Richard Wise drumming, Nick van Djik and James Tait-Jamieson as the horn section, the band was unstoppable. Yay.

Following the jazz festival, we continued our World Tour of the top bit of the South Island, playing at the wonderful Mussel Inn in Golden Bay, Park Cafe in Marahau, and Riverside Community in Moutere.

A total of 13 gigs in 13 days, all up. Many thanks to all who attended and who were so appreciative. (Especially those wonderful folk who bought so many of our cds! We can eat again).

March looks to be pretty busy for us-check our “Gigs” column. A new place for us to play is the New Orleans Dinner Club in Blair St. The folks running it are great, and the menu looks even better. If you’ve got a Jones-ing for some gen-yoo-ine gumbo, this here’s the place. Come on either Friday 13th (heh!) or 20th and you’ll get the Wellington Heads thrown in for free!

See ya there or somewhere soon.

What's goin on

Bill — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Well it’s been a while since the last time anything went here. Since then a myriad of things have been happening, including a way cool gig at Southern Cross (once again, thanks to all the good folks there!)and additional recoding adventures. These included having the one and only Alan Norman (Windy City Strugglers, Warratahs etc) play some wonderfully atmospheric accordion on one of our songs. The album’s all but ready to go now, just gotta get those backing vocals on there (Geoff & I getting all angelic haha). We’ve got a rough mix of the tracks-spent AT LEAST 5 minutes on each track for the mixdown and already we’re thinking what do we have to do to improve on that?? Looks as though Andrew has done a fantastic job in capturing the band en flagrante so ta speak! The songs are the best we’ve written (but I WOULD say that wouldn’t I?) and the recorded sounds are as they should be.

Anyhoo, we’re a bit distracted by the work we’ve all put into the upcoming Neil “Shy Guy” Worboys & The Real Timeliners album. This has come up beautifully-once again, big ups to Andrew & Mike at Trident. Ode records have picked it up so hey. CD release is actually tomorrow night at Bodega, in case you haven’t been listening. A splended time is guaranteed for all, so see you there.

Forward Planning

Bill — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

We actually got together this week and started to plan out our next series of gigs, recordings etc. Wow. Pretty organised for a bunch of guys who don’t even know how to SPELL orgnd…augend…being sorted.

We’ve been contacted to play the Nelson Jazz Fest again over the ‘09 New Year period-knowing what we know now it’ll still be a blast! It was earlier this year…

Further recording dates booked for late May and early June should see the album finally finished. So far the rough mixes are sounded really great. Thanks Andrew.

We played at the Southern Cross a few weeks ago & since then have had a few private gigs-weddings, birthdays-but have slowed down slightly while Upright Jazzy Geoff gets over his inner ear infection which is currently making it difficult for him to REMAIN upright. Still, upright-ness is in his nature so there will be NO keeping him down.

Tauranga Jazz Festival

Bill — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Once again we were a blur of activity over Easter as we again got to play at Tauranga at the Jazz Festival. As for last year we were stationed over at the Mount at the wonderful Latitude 37 bar/restaurant. The street was closed off and we played to an enthusiastic crowd, taking in the sun as well as the sights and the music.

Had an awesome time, played 2 knockout gigs with a really good horn section & a whole bunch of new horn charts-the best I’ve ever heard the band I think. Met up with some old friends (hi Murray! Loved yr bus!!), plus a whole lot of people that heard us the year before & came back to hear us again. We know cos several told us…one guy had his cd he bought from us last year stolen (along with others, it wasn’t a thief with Really. Good. Taste) so he had to buy another! Made me think there’s an opening here for a contract thief to go out & nick all our albums from peoples’ collections so we can sell em all again hahaha.

For one of the gigs Roger Fox played trombone with us. That was pretty cool, his being a legend and all. He was ably accompanied by James Tait-Jamieson. The next day he was replaced by Nick van Dijk, yet another legend. One of the great things about being in this band, you get to listen to all these great players up close!

Once again, many thanks to all those who encouraged us on to better things and who bought all those albums.

Also

Bill — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Forgot to mention-the photos were taken over the Wellington Heads World Tour of the Top Bit of the South Island.