Mothering Sunday

The first gig of the Jacques Cousteau Tour will be on Mothering Sunday - NOT 'Mothers' Day', which is a horrible Americanisation of a fine British tradition. (See 'Groundhog Day' vs. 'Candlemas') It's a good thing Granny Flindt isn't around any more, or she'd be tracking down all those referring to 'Mothers' Day' and beating them round the head with a bag full of rock cakes.

Anyway, talk at rehearsal was of a new band pic for the occasion, featuring us all with daffodils. And just look what I found in Granny Flindt's huge drawer of old pictures:

 

 

My big brother, who took the picture, has helpfully written on the back: 'Charlie being a poof.'

Ah, the good old 1970's, eh?

 

Last night's rehearsal

There was a small gathering in Shed 3b as we all realised that there appears to be a tour on the way. Dave couldn't make it due to pressures of work, and Tod is, of course, still on honeymoon in Oz, no doubt thrilling his new family with interesting facts about the geology of South eastern Australia.  Good luck with that, Helen.

Capt Kidneystones dropped in to help out with backing vocals and insults - the experience no doubt helping to soften the blow of not getting the job with the Chalk Flowers. Here we see him and John enjoying a well-earned break.

 
 




















We had a good run through of the set list, skipping the odd one or two which were impractical due to missing personnel. I'm not sure we were very good - 'rusty' would be a polite word for some of our renditions. In fact, were we a tribute band dedicated to an 80s white reggae band, I know what we'd call ourselves.

Another gig

Great news - another gig has been sorted, and, once again, it's in our home pub. See the Jacques Cousteau Tour page for details.

There has been a request for some Glenn Miller for this gig - a great idea. But where, oh where, would we find someone who plays (or used to, in 1975) trombone?

The Tour Poster

A big thank-you to Ian, who, despite being overwhelmed with work in the office, knocked this up:

The reserve bassist's birthday

January saw the reserve bassist's 19th birthday. And, as is traditional, there was a small gathering of his family and friends for tea, which included the compulsory caterpillar cake. Something rather odd had happened to the icing, and the once cheerful caterpillar was shedding sad black tears.We decided that it was now an Emo cake.

"That's handy" said one of reserve bassist's mates. "It'll cut itself."

Bad taste, but brilliant.

Changes in personnel

There have been a few changes in the last seven months. Mindy has left the West Meon Area, and gone to pastures new. There has been much discussion on a replacement,. but, as we all know, Mindy is unreplaceable, and so we're just going to have to do without her.

Exciting news that Ian the drummer has been replaced by Quentin from Advertising......mind you, he seems uncannily familiar in some ways.

There is a rumour doing the rounds that another well-known West Meon band have had a bit of a cull of female vocalists, and - even stranger - that Capt Kidneystones has been for an audition. Can't be true....can it?

Right, let's get this thing re-started

After a break of six - or is it seven? - months, the time has come to restart the blog.


Not a lot has happened in that time. We did a couple of low key gigs - one was in a tent at the Thomas Lord. The tent was very small, and was decorated with fairy lights, so we half expected to have little girls sitting our knees and telling us what they wanted for Christmas. Luckily (in these post-Saville days) nothing like that happened.


We did another gig at the Tichborne Arms, which was not our (or, specifically, the huge pianist's) finest hour. You couldn't move for toys being thrown out of prams. Anyway, they seem to have forgiven us, 'cos we're going back there.


Which brings us neatly to the main reason to restart the blog: without anyone trying very hard, a tour has materialised. It would appear that six dates have been booked with varying degrees of certainty. They have been listed on the Tour dates page.


Big thanks to John for coming up with the perfect name for the 2014 tour.


Please check your busy diaries against the list of gigs.