Monkey Chat

Live at the Lansdowne

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:55:00 GMT

It had been a while since we had gigged as most of our free Monkey time was spent recording with our friends at Mooncalf. So it was with great anticipation we gathered for the re-scheduled Landsdowne session.

We set up clearly a bit ring rusty with organisation taking much longer than usual and the team arriving from various work and other commitments in dribs and drabs. After much chair and bench moving Hitty Monkey was at last happy with the stage set up and we prepared for our night of loudness.

We were due on at 9pm and some of our ever faithful and merry fans had travelled far for a chance to hear our new set list and re-acquaint themselves with some old faves. We infact hit the stage at around 9.30pm and launched into our solid 'sound checkers'. We also had pleasure in announcing once or twice the upcoming Monkey mini Album in the name of "Munken Drunky" which was met with the appropriate enthusiasm.

The fun really started with the second set and after far too much beer it became apparent to most of us that Hitty was at half pace. Despite this and a few jokes about Red Bull's and rockets up thingys we laid into the much requested Radio You and Feelin' Good.

A great night was had by all especially my posse who ended up the evening sharing a lovely chilli kebab with our Afghan Taxi Driver!! Yep, thats right, you dont want to know....!

Shouty XXX

Mooncalf Recording Sessions

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:30:00 GMT

HOORAY!!! A heyooge event has taken place for the Monkeys this weekend past. We finally made it into Mooncalf Studios in Wiltshire, to record some tracks for an upcoming mini album/EP.

After much time and debate we decided to try to lay down the basics of 3 of our best loved covers, (White Shadows, Feelin' Good and Take Me Out), and an ambitious 4 of our own (original) tracks.

We arranged to meet (at a civilised 11am) our Engineer, Nick at a local garage as the studio is very hard to find. Indeed it was, however fully coffee'd and tea'd up, we accustomed ourselves to the surroundings and settled into the comfy sofa.

The plan was to record drums, keys and bass on all tracks 'live' with guide vocals and guitar. This was an ambitious plan given the 7 songs we hoped to get down and the work required. However, Macca and BasSi did an amazing job of working really, really hard and concentrating even harder to lay fantastic takes down in one day. Considering the songs are so varied and individual, the focus needed to be top notch from them both and incredibly, it was! Even naturally nervy and shaky Bass Boy nailed the rhythm section and was delighted how good his guitar sounded! Come Sat evening the drummer had a headache and Si was falling asleep......!

.......However, we managed to drag them out to the pub for an exquisite meal at the world renowned Landsdowne Arms in Derry Hill. We all decided that staying up late and drinking too much was not going to be the plan (for once) considering the amount of graft and stamina we would need the next day (Sunday). Si and I ignored that though and came back to mine and decided to chat about the world and life in general whilst sipping red and scotchuntil the small hours! Not to worry, we had a late start at 11am and after a high fat brekkie cooked by me (smugness), we felt as good as Badgers.

After some fiddling about, and Nick feeling a bit jaded after a heavier than planned night, we set about the guiter, keys clean ups and vox. Given the amount of work we needed to do, we managed to get all of four songs completed (more or less) and demo mixed. We need to get back to the studio asap to finish off the other 3 songs and mix everything properly. Given that Macca had pretty much finished his hard work on the Sat it left him with idle hands and mind! This was the cue for a new monkey 'twitter' page that you will see at the front of this site, and a lot of hilarity with photo's etc that are both here (Gig Pic's) and maybe on the new album cover somewhere.

Needless to say, we are delighted with the first 'cut' and can't wait to get the rest finished and completed ready for the year's gig getting!

Enormous thanks (so far) to the ever patient and overworked (for two days anyway), Nick at Mooncalf for putting up with us and telling us we sounded good (even when we really didn't!) and to all the extremely patient ladies in the background who allow such ridiculous ambitions free rein and without whom etc etc.The experience is amazing and hopefully you will agree, the result equally so! Keep watching for the final product.

Rock on

ShoutyXXXXX

Corporate party

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:50:00 GMT

This one was an early start and meant that we we were one Monkey light due to work commitments! Poor old Goffer Monkey!! I mean, I had to be picked by the van and the man and the trailer and everything at 1.15pm.........Sheesh, I had to get up early.

Anyway, Andy the main driver man and our now must have van arrived on time and looking very plush indeed. We crammed my gear in and headed off for Chippers and other such like hickey villages. After managing (just) to get all of our gear in the back and leaving the annoying trailer behind we headed off for rainy Eton!

And wow, what a trip. To say we had luxury was an understatement. We had PS2, films, videos music vids etc on a Hard Drive, a radio/CD/MP3 AND WiFi leather reclining seats etc etc!!! We also most importantly, had a driver. He was Andy and HEYOOOGE thanks go to him and the guys at Vans For Bands in Oxford for looking after us so well. We had a breeze. Beer, sweets, sandwiches and video games. I was good at rallying on the way out, not so hot on the way back! Not sure why.....

Anyway, we arrived to meet up with Sound Monkey and set up in the prestigious Eton Rowing Club. First floor and all that so much lifting etc needed. We then went to our green room after a not too easy sound check (Eh Nick? Our secret yeah??). The chicken was loverly and so was the free booze!

Anyway - we got our call and proceeded to run through our 1.5hr set. All went well and but for a few dancers it would have been a perfect night! We got the few remaining up at the end and then proceeded to finish off our beer and pack down. Having done that we fell back into the Monkey van and challenged each other to racing PS2 games all the way back down the M4.

Ho Hum - now we always have a van from VFB, our prices have to go up don't they guys? Guys??

Hugs and see ya next time

ShoutyXXXX

Halloween with The Wurzels

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:50:00 GMT

Hey

So after a too long break and nearly playing gigs and having bad throats and stuff, we had a gig! We were playing in Trowbridge for a cracking charity and a delicious lady called Claire who had also lined up a small band called The Wurzels. Dunno if you've heard of 'em? Quite fun they are! Anyway, we were to be playing at 8ish and had to be up and sound checking by 6pm! It took Manager/Goffer Monkey ages to put up our new and very impressive and sexy backdrop! What do ya all think?

As always, the ever brilliant and fantastically sound meastro Sound Monkey AKA Nick had made his way there and was assisting the non-too experienced sound crew with the set-up. We got to check late as there were troubles but nontheless, Sound Monkey got us sounding terrific when all else were losing their heads!!!

We kicked off our set and debuted our sexy new song Muse/Nina Simone's 'Feelin' Good' and boy we almost nailed it. We played for an hour having leapt up the road for the proverbial Burger and cheesy chips. Considering we were slightly under rehearsed due to holidays etc we played well and seemed to go down well.

After a quick change around The Wurzels hit the stage and boy they know how to get a crowd going. We stayed and had a few piccies taken with the lovely Hostess and then we headed off to the mighty Derry Hill for a Halloween sing song!! As usual we had to visit the kebab van on Bumpers in the early hours to make sure they dont go short of trade and headed wearily home for a well earned rest.

Looking forward to Eton soon!!!

Shouty XXXXXX

Newt Beer Festival

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:35:00 GMT

North Newton, Nr Bridgwater in Somerset. Quite simply, you have to go next year if you weren't there this year. Wowee..........What a gig, what a place, what people, am-az-ing!

Unusually for us, we all arrived at different times, Sound Monkey got the wrong end of somebody's stick and turned up at mid-day. Others of the band arrived mid-afternoon, and some of us stumbled down in the late afternoon sun! Yes - sun. However, it wasn't to last too long. Arrival was interesting as back stage passes were like rocking horse doo-da and security was solid!

Eventually we got in and we were faced with the 'yard of ale' contest. Cool. Respect to all those that took part. I hope you made it through to the next morning. We sampled some of the million beers on display at the beer festival, (I have never in my life seen so many under one roof, well, canvas). I didn't realise at all why the bar seemed much less busy on the right hand side. I seemed to get served much quicker up there. It is only now, a week later, that it has been pointed out that the beers were lined up in strength order, weakest to the left! Mmmmm...... no wonder....

We settled back stage and prepared ourselves. Nerves were running high amongst a few with much standing in the now foul and heavy rain, easing nerves with nicotine and ale. 2,500 thousand happy, well oiled punters were listening to a quite brilliant funk band by the name of Freshly Squeezed.

Our time arrived and we set up and as always, before we realised it, we were playing. We kicked off with 'Take me out' and we were away with the rock kings.

The crowd were awesome. They loved absolutely every minute of our set and were there for some serious fun and frenzy. If we are honest, we didn't play our best with a few schoolboy errors occuring (latter confession session has resulted in the discovery of a rather over zealous sampling of the many and varied tipples on show by a couple of us!). However, did anyone care, did it matter? Well we were going to have a ball and so were the audience which makes for a top gig and brilliant atmosphere. Chelsea Dagger saw the whole crowd joining in with the chorus and Chasing Cars nearly brought the marquee down. Radio You again got a great response. We tried to get somebody on stage during 'Big Spender', and while successful, it had escaped their notice as to what they were supposed to do once up there! We encored and got off to enjoy the other excellent bands and a couple more pints of the gentle stuff.

Quite simply brilliant guys. North Newton rocks and we love you! It would simply be a priviledge to be invited back next year. You rock.

Love as always

RichXXXXXXXX

Lapstock Music Festival

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:20:00 GMT

We were due to be playing down at Lapford at their infamous 'Lapstock' festival at 2.50pm! Now, we have a full cast of seven members, and can you imagine the chances of getting seven guys down to deepest Devon well on time to set-up and play? Well no, neither do I, but believe it or not, despite the Lions 2nd test being on, we ALL made it, and even met up for a coffee at Taunton Deane Services we were that well organised!

I did get us slightly lost due to a queue avoidance measure that as normal cost us around 35 mins. We were uncertain what to expect to be honest as details were hard to come by and our local knowledge down in sunny Dorset equally scarce. However, we were greeted by a very jolly gathering that was both well organised and very friendly and welcoming. The site was compact but perfect and due to the weather (Scorchio!) the event was well attended. We quickly enjoyed a quick pint (or two eh Ro?) of the excellent 'Yellow Hammer' that was new to me but gorgeous and easy to drink(!!). The burgers were also lovely but a shame we missed out on the mystical Chilli ?..... We were a little apprehensive of the sound rig a) cos we always are at festivals and b) cos we always are! but Sound Monkey was present (with the gorgeous Emily) and soon had us on our way. We only had a 35min set to play and we were a little bit loud and full on for early afternoon after some very pleasant folk and C&W music - but we went for it anyway and enjoyed ourselves.

I think it fair to say that we played our very own 'Radio You' really well and were totally pleased with how it went down and sounded. It rocks and we love it!

We finished off the set with the anthemic Chasing Cars and a puddle of sweat - boy was it hot in that tent - and decided we needed a few beers to cool down. Cool down we did with much revelrie and giggles before all too soon it was time to head home. Funny how it always seems a shorter drive back when you have had a couple of cooling beers. Anyway, Thumpy Monkey, Fingers Monkey and Shouty Monkey all decided to just round the evening off in the local for one more cooling beer, it was still hot and then it was home to watch the Sky+ recorded Lions travesty!!

Oh well, we had a great time and are really looking forward to our upcoming gigs which we no-doubt will be much more sensible on and they will be cooler affairs anyway.

Hugs and love to all

Shouty Monkey XXX (PS See 'Gig Pics' above for more photo's of the day)

(PPS - Love from all of us to Nicky Swan too - she is an excellent singer/songwriter - check her out and buy her CD's too - XX)

(Thanks to Brian and the team for a great day - See you next year eh???)

Namfest

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:40:00 GMT

WooHoo!! We did it! We have now gigged with our new line-up and it rocked!

We rolled up at the Olympiad in Chippers at around 5pm to drop off our gear and have an impromptu sound check. We met the wonderful people from Midas Sound who were engineering for the night. Wow! What a sound it was too. As soon as Thumpy Monkey heard the power of the kick drum he was in seventh heaven. At around 7.30pm we had arrived at the venue with better halves etc. We all pretty much admitted to having nerves - new and super Bass Monkey confessed to having been nervous all week and the rest of us suffering a bit with a mixture of excitement and the all important tension!!

The first excellent band, King Rat and the Desperados completed their set and before we knew what had hit us - we were being introduced and on stage at 8.20pm. We kicked of steadily with Somebody Told Me and then proceeded to relax into the whole Namfest thing. We completed our set with our own debuted song, Radio You (which we officially love!) and Chasing Cars. No time for an encore and off we went, happy and buzzing with the result of several months of hard graft and fun practices! Bass Monkey has now been fully initiated (watch out for the official ceremony though Si!!) and grinned the whole night through.

Ten minutes after we left the stage, half of Chippers, including the venue blacked out power wise and we all had to leave the building. We kept our spirits up with a quick run to the offy (thanks Boss Monkey) and a sing song before proceedings continued again post power outage. Bad Lizard were incredibly tight as usual (we love you guys) and Miss Vickery set the Fest alight with a brill session. The evening was concluded with the Halagoogoo boys which was original and exciting too! Loved the Bass player's pants! What a guy!!!

Things became a little blurry for the rest of the night as we seemed to lose Boss Monkey and MWT in some bar and Sound Monkey and me stayed up into the small hours importantly putting the world, the music industry and our lives to rights before eventually retiring, tired but happy to our warm snuggly beds.

Quick massive thanks and congratulations to Ben and Laurence for the whole Namfest thing and we hope you raised tons of cash for your extremely worthy cause 'Make a Wish'. We had a blast and hope you enjoyed it too.

Loads of love and hugs

Shouty Monkey xXxXx

Seend Beer Festival

Mon, 04 May 2009 13:25:00 GMT

Good to be back in the groove again after a few months off, Many thank to the great folks of Seend for making us welcome, especially Richard and the team, who kept us fed and watered, a great night.

Well, there we were again, rocking and rolling like we had never been away! Been a strange few months all in all but hey - were we all glad to be back? Due to a fantastic stroke of luck, Steve was able and willing to play a farewell gig for us here at Seend. He is a true pro and we love him so much for it. He played the gig like it was our first and most importantly - loved every minute of it!!

Whilst saying goodbye to our top guitar man on the one hand, we also said 'Hello' to our new Tour Manager - Ian (Fixit) Else! Welcome aboard the crazy machine man and good luck with all the fun stuff we have to do.

Ian got the first thing right and managed to get us a van that fitted all the gear in - well......Just, with a squeeze, and a prod etc etc. Fully loaded we arrived at the venue and they had a proper stage with curtains and all. Plenty of power, Sound Monkey could set up front of house - all was cooking. We kicked off early cos there was a fear that due to great weather, the Beer Festival might run out of beer!

Off we went, and wow - we got a great reaction from the off. In fact, we had to do a little juggle as the crowd started dancing in the first set before our indulgent slow numbers. The band were a bit ring rusty and we decided to slow it down when the guys were complaining of arm ache!!! More practice required methinks!

We broke for a well earned breather and enjoyed the beer on offer, then rocked on with the final set. We played, and played, basically until we had run out of songs and I couldn't even speak. Shouty Monkey was also ring rusty (or is it always like that?)

We collapsed in a heap, the fantastic crowd got off the tables (Robert??) where they had been singing and dancing during our set (seriously brilliant crowd) and we packed up. Ian and I enjoyed the obligatory kebab alone as we had the fun task of dropping all the gear off.

A brilliant night, a great farewell and Seend sold out of beer. Must have been a good night!

See you all in a few weeks at Namfest!!!

RichXXX

Halloween 2008

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:15:00 GMT

Well this gig promised much. Chis and Chris' local, tickets sold out and a whole host of people feeling the need to dress up like scary things(see pics)! As we hoped, the night warmed up well with excellent food and beer provided by all the lovely people at the Landsdown pub (as always) and many familiar faces. We kicked off at around 9.30pm and played a normal kick ass rock set including a new home grown Monkey song. It seemed to go well and we were practising it for our recording session in Dec! Chris B on keys decided it would be funny to dress in full cloak and 'Scream' mask, Herr Munch would have been proud as he did not take the mask off for the whole of Set 1. He did look an ass but whats new there huh? After he had cooled down we played Set 2 and that went even better. Dancers danced and Steve rocked on guitar, we were encoured enough to even drag out 'Big Spender' for the finale but nobody got naked which was a disappointment to Ro! We debuted Quo's Little Lady that we almost nailed but by then nobody cared anyway, Mac was hitting anything in his sight and my voice had long since given up the ghost! haha, see what i did there???!!!...........................

Wroughton Festival

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Hi All - Well this gig had been one that was made for us and we were all looking forward to - big stage, outdoors and lots of people! I guess it also reminds us why so many Brits holiday and move abroad!!! The weather summed up the Summer really, it hammered it down all day and all night. We were headlining this show and were really up for it. The gear had arrived in one van - thanks again to Remstor, ably piloted by Steve. We were well looked after by the backstage Chef churning out Burgers for Sound Monkey like they were the last food he was gonna consume for weeks - oh, I forgot - it was the last food................

Anyway, we got on stage after some other cool bands and strutted our stuff, just as the heavens really let loose like we were at Glasto or something. It didn't seem to put off the revellers that were already soaked and enjoying the music. We rocked out to our new(ish) set and felt we had done pretty well considering. The highlight for all of us was playing Chasing Cars while the fireworks went off behind and over the stage. As we hit the rock-out bit, the REALLY big fireworks went off like we had choreographed them to do so (we had hadn't we?).

We really look forward to next year when we hopefully can lift the spirits of so many more people in the sun this time!!

Hugs to all who went and big love to all the volunteers that make this sorta gig possible. We salute you.

Shouty MonkeyXXX

(PS Steve can drive a big van so well that if anyone ever needs a driver with tight maneuvers required then Steve is yer Man! He only had a whole field to spin the thing round in and boy -o-boy did he show us how it should be done.............HeeHee, only teasing mate!)

Karen & Steve Party

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:46:25 GMT

Another fab night at Bowood Gold and Country club to celebrate Karen and Steve's wedding (suprise party?). Performed a complete set with our usual professional alacrity and managed to get most people up and dancing for the 2nd set, which rocked out til around about 15 minutes past midnight. This gave the disco guys a chance to play some of the Abba requests that had been thrown at us during our performance. We really should learn Dancing Queen (not!). Fantastic crowd of friendly people, great atmosphere! Congrats again to Karen and Steve.

Kims 50th Party

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 01:45:32 GMT

This was a 50th Birthday party for the Director of coaching for the Olympic Diving team Kim White, (Top Bombing). Held at the impressive Bowood Golf and Country Club. We put on a strong performance for both sets opening with Ruby for both of them at Kim's request. We managed to persuade Kim to sing along at the start of the 2nd set and were very impressed with his performance, particularly the chorus. Not so sure about the backing singers he dragged along, but it all added to a fun evening. Shame that Chesney couldn't make the party!
Further congrats to Kim and to all the qualifiers (particulary the 13 year old Thomas Daley) for the Beijing Olympics Diving team- a truly impressive result. Good luck in Beijing. Further congrats to Kim and Wendy on the birth of Cory.

The Concorde

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:29:11 GMT

This Cancer Relief gig was arranged following our stunning (!) performance at the Lock Keeper. We got to the pub at between 5 and 7 on the Saturday night, and had to fit in setting up, chinese curry and Strictly Come Dancing before the Rugby Semi Final at 8!

Needless to say, with seamless organisation, we managed to achieve all and even though the venue was very small we settled in to watch the match. We won but i had a slight issue after as my voice was a bit sore after shouting at the telly for 2 hours!

We rocked through our sets with the locals complaining we were a bit too loud but Nick likes loud. He is in control of the desk and he knows best!!! It was hot in there though! A few of the locals decided to get a bit naked at one point which is always good and the Hen Party that were there thought we were able to do 'I Will Survive' and 'Its Raining Men' at any moment they asked.

We managed to raise £414 in total which isn't a bad amount for one nights work! Thanks to the Concorde, their staff and the punters for their generosity.

We even managed to get home at a reasonable hour and get some sleep. However, my ears bled as always due to Guitar Monkey's inability to hear his own stack from three feet away. He 'claims' drummer Monkey's cymbal is too loud! Ahhh...................

Big love as always

RichXXXXXXX

Bromyard Cricket Club

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:17:11 GMT

This promised to be a great night/weekend for the Monkey's. I (stupidly!) offered to drive all the guys apart from Ro (he had a wedding to go to afterwards). Two hours after setting out from home we hit the M5 northbound for Herefordshire after visiting the butt end of Bath and Bristol for the boys.

We got there with no problems just 20 minutes late for the start of Englands Rugby World Cup fixture with Samoa. Drivey Monkey Andy and the lovely Jane were already there with all our gear (huge thanks as always to Remstor and Andy). We set up after the game in the Marquee the party was due to take place in with few problems and a nice big stage.

We retired to our lovely B&B for a quick freshen up, and returned at 8ish for our free beer and pork rolls! Steve and Nick decided to make use of the free pork and proceeded to try to eat the whole pig on their own. They would have succeeded if a small matter of a gig hadn't got in the way.

We rocked out for our 2 hour + stint to the party goers. The audience was a little unsure of the dance steps but much fun seemed to be had by all. A wide variety of paying charity supporters were present and lots of support was given to both us and the bar!

Chris, our organiser and host seemed to be very pleased with the turnout and much cash was raised for his very worthy cause and mission to India.

We arranged cabs back to our B&B - which was an interesting trip in itself! The so called 6 seater taxi actually was a four seater with 2 milk crates and a couple of cushions in the boot!!! Slow to arrive drummer and keyboard Monkeys drew the short straws and proceeded to have their asses badly bruised as the less than charitable driver gave us a very good impression of the Lombard rally through the back roads of Herefordshire. I think he was paying us back for earlier in the evening as we kept him waiting for a whole 10 minutes when he picked us up. We managed to keep smiling as always and ignored his attempts to show us the true Bromyard greeting from a cabbies perspective!

We got back to a fantastically 'hot' reception room, as our landlady had set up a lovely log fire which promptly sent all the older members of the band asleep. Well, all of us actually! Nick and I thought we would attempt a triple summersault on the heeyooge trampoline in the garden but decided we were both too hammered and it was too wet.

We awoke to a perfect cooked breakfast on the Sunday morning and a gentle trip back to the south west. We decided it was a top weekend for the boys and vowed to do it again sometime soon, provided the taxi's at our next venue have some valid insurance and proper seats!!!

Anyone out there fancy putting us up for a stay-away gig soon???

Hugs

RichXXXXXXX

White Hart Band & Barby

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:17:41 GMT

Well Hi again Monkey fans!

This was a strangely interesting gig at our fave pub (honestly Miranda). Not least because of the weather. It was THAT friday when the monsoon hit central Britain. It lashed it down with rain constantly in the area for about 6 hours. I was playing golf in Bristol in the morning and got somewhat wet! I ambled carefully back down the M4 at middayish and boy was it serious stuff even then. By the time i went to drop my gear off at the ever supportive and brilliant Remstor in Chippenham I couldn't manage to get there without some careful negotiation of big floody puddles.

In the evening when i was getting picked up by Chris B, we struggled to get out of my village as the floods were all around! Little did we know that Drummer Monkey was having even worse problems! He was in London and we set up without him and put together the drum kit beautifully. Sound checking was out as he is by far the loudest person in the band so we did the only thing we could - we drank some beer!

After much travelling fun via Reading, Basingstoke, Salisbury, Westbury and Derry Hill, Drummer Monkey finally turned up around 9.30pm. We promptly got on stage and ran through our first set which rocked. Good job too as the few that had made it over were getting impatient.

At half time we downed another couple and then rocked out through our second set including a new cover of Coldplay's 'White Shadows' which worked - apparently. I certainly had a great time and I hope those there did too. Sound on stage was a little difficult to hear as as always Guitar Monkey was TOO LOUD!!!! Front of house though was superb due as always to Sound Monkey, Nick who rocks and is a real hardcore Monkey now.

I think a great time was had by all, I think I rolled into me (oh so lovely and welcoming) bed at about 3.30am and fell fast asleep dreaming of flooded stages and late Monkeys.

Huge thanks as always to Nick and Andy from Remstor. You guys are the best and make sure all our gear arrives safely and help with the hardest roadie jobs of all. We love you as well cos we can all drink a couple of pops too. Huge thanks as well to Sound Monkey Nick who as always remains calm, cheerful and makes us sound better than we really are ! And finally, thanks to Miranda and the staff at the White Hart who seem to enjoy our nights there almost as much as we do. Miranda was on stage again singing a duet with................ well anyone that wanted to sing with her really. Big hugs to you too!

See ya in Bromyard in September - or maybe Bristol for a Cancer Research gig the week before. Keep watching, we may slide a couple of cool gigs in before then as well. I am off now to Italy (I think), keep the faith and watch out for the mind police.

RichXXXXX

Lock Keeper Gig

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 02:02:51 GMT

Well this was a night for the lads! We luckily were able to persuade Nick from RemStor in Chippenham to provide a van and fantastic Driver (Cheers Andy!) for the evening. It makes our lives so much easier and adds to the fun for us as we can all have a bevvy or two. We got to the venue at 5.00pm to set up and the weather looked bad for an outdoor gig.

After waiting to decide where we were to set up and for Steve to arrive we got to work. We set up high on the veranda area outside the back of the pub which gave us a great view of the garden and the thronging masses. Setting up came with the normal abuse aimed at whoever was in earshot as we busily sorted our bits out. Nick our amazing sound engineer smiled through the whole scene and kept us on the clock. (He had to be away at 6.30pm post sound check, to set up another gig in Bristol!).

2 hours, several beers and a few humungously ginormous burgers later we were ready to rock. We ripped into our set, put together by Steve for a change which made the whole thing fresher and more interesting for us. At half time we were feeling good. Friends and colleagues had arrived to swell the crowd and the normal comments and so called support came forth (thanx Billy!)

By the second set we were getting well into it, guitar licks were tripping out and even drum endings were crisp and wholesome! Well, I thought they were but I was a few Bombardier's down by that stage. We ended with my normal favourites, the slow ones that are mostly about vocals (!!! only joking guys) before doing Bye Bye Johnny to blast out with. The crowd had stayed mostly till the end and we raised nearly £300 for Cancer Research which was the point of the whole gig in the first place.

The audience seemed to have a good time, including the Pirates and we came off stage for our normal couple more drinks and back slapping moments. Amazingly the weather had pretty much held all evening with even a drop of the orange stuff appearing later on. Then the normal misery of packing down which is always easier when slightly the worse for wear and with willing helpers. We were slightly disappointed with the overall takings and felt the Lock Keeper folks could have done slightly more to help collect cash at the bar. They also promised a donation in return for our no fee agreement but that is still yet to arrive! Come on guys, it's for Charity right??

Anyway, we headed back to our beds at 1.00amish and Mr Burrows and I chewed the fat until gone 4 but thats rock 'n' roll ain't it? Huge thanx as always to Nick (sound) and Andy (Van) and all our loyal long suffering supporters, we love you all!

Till next time

Hugs

RichXX

Bath Rugby Gig

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:31:23 GMT

The Monkeys where out in Bath last night, supporting the Bath Rugby Community Foundation, A big thanks to all at Bath Rugby who made us very welcome, beer and water supplies being brought on stage whilst playing, what more could you ask. Four bath players joined the band to sing "turning japanese" which went down well with the crowd, and Matt Stevens belted out a solo performance of My Way, what a voice. A storming rock set had the crowd dancing from the first song, in the magnificent Guidhall banqueting suite. Hopefully loads of money raised for the the foundation, and a good night was had by all.

Monkey See Monkey Do