The Covid, No Good, Lockdown Blues

What a two years that was! Will 2022 be any better we wonder. Well, at least we have two bookings in the diary (see Dates in the right hand column). We just have to hope they get to go ahead as Covid lurches from variant to variant some more infectious than others but all serious and devastating to some families.

During 2020 and 2021 we have played a grand total of two dates. This was 2020's September outing, playing for a wedding. We had to abide by the current rules, so we were side by side, socially distanced and not facing each other. This meant me having the keyboard in front of me rather than to the side as is our usual configuration these days.

But we went down well and it was an enjoyable event for all. Not bad considering we had been very limited in terms of how much rehearsing we could do during the year! Actually we just went back into mode as though we hadn't just had nine months of not playing together.

And so into 2021 during which we had to wait all the way into December for our one and only gig, playing in a Blackpool hotel at the Christmas lunch of a group of British Gas Pensioners. David and Miss Jeannie are ex-British Gas and members of the association so we were able to partake of the excellent meal before heaving ourselves up to play.

Once again feedback was 100% positive and we now wonder what 2022 will bring us. We have been particularly pleased to receive an invite to return to Eccleston to play the Saturday night at the large Steam Fair - Heskin Steam Rally at Malt Kiln Farm, Tincklers Lane, Eccleston. We have played this event every year that it has run since 2005 and it is always one of the highlights of our year. Hopefully it will be able to go ahead this year. Check out their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/HeskinSteamRally.

We also have a private booking for an 80th birthday party in August and now it's over to you as we invite bookings for events and parties or just a good old night's entertainment. We started as a group in 2001 and now as a duo since 2009 we have always relied on word-of-mouth and the enthusiasm of people who have seen us to spread the word. We hope to see you once again in 2022.

Return Trip to The Union, Kendal

Saturday 9 November 2019. We found ourselves back at the New Union in Kendal playing for another birthday party.

In fact this one had been booked by someone who had attended the birthday party we did there in September and we received the enquiry on the day after whilst we were still obviously on their minds!

Anyway it was another brilliant night and the pub was packed too which was a good bonus for us.

I think everyone enjoyed themselves, judging from the many comments we received afterwards!

A Birthday Party in Kendal

Saturday night saw us battling against the very wet weather as we drove from Blackpool up to Kendal to play for the birthday party of David's little sister, Elaine.

We were playing at the New Union - formerly the Union Tavern - and this proved to be a very nice pub with a welcoming host and a nice range of speciality beers and spirits.

Whilst we were in a side room, I could see the landlord and bar staff singing away to us behind the bar, so I think it's fair to say we gave them a good night with one of our famous four-hour non-stop sets.

Whilst some brave chaps got up to dance once into the second half of the night, the ladies were up on the dance floor all night and there were some anxious faces of men from the bar area who had to pass them to get to the gents... Some managed without having to dance either on the way there or the way back...

We must have given them a good night because we have already had an enquiry for another booking from someone there!

A Rainy Night in Southport

Saturday 26 January 2019. Our first gig of the year took us on a stormy journey to Ainsdale near Southport to play at a 70th birthday party.

The venue was Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club where we found the best "can do" staff and an enthusiastic audience who kept the dance floor occupied throughout the evening. We kept the dancers busy and were asked to do our version of the Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin which earned us a standing ovation. Thanks to all concerned - we had just as fabulous a night as we hoped you did!

Creeping Bentgrass Gigs in 2018

We've had a couple of gigs so far this year. The first I'm featuring here was in Garstang at the Banqueting Suite by the canal.

It was for a Golden Wedding celebration so we were wearing our gold sequinned ties for the occasion. We have gold, silver, ruby pink, blue and black versions of these ties, which means we can usually fit in sympathetically with different party events!

At this event a slide show of the happy couple was being projected over our heads onto a screen throughout the night!

Our second gig was in Chorley and we arrived to find both a scattering of snow and a flatteringly large advertising banner.

At the end of the night someone said "is that your white van outside?"
"No I have a black car," I said. When we got out though it was our white van... I had no gloves and clearing all the snow off left me with very red painful hands! Ah well... David got to take the poster home for his collection of CBG memorabilia!

Double 70th Birthday Party in Darwen

Saturday 3 September 2017. Last weekend we motored across to Darwen to play at a double 70th Birthday Party. One of the couple's birthdays was in June - the other in December. September was the obvious time then!

We had a great night with a full room and lots of enthusiastic people in the audience. Thanks all for the booking and the wonderful feedback and comments. It was a pleasure playing for your party.

Golden Wedding Party in Garstang

Last night found us driving out to Garstang to play for a Golden Wedding party for two lovely people who have booked the band in the past, several years ago and remembered us from then.

The format of the party roughly followed the format of the wedding, 50 years ago, with speeches by the Best Man and Groom. There was an Irish Raffle. We hadn't heard of this before but basically prizes chosen had to remain on your table in front of you and more tickets were drawn than there were prizes. Once the stock of prizes ran out, winners were allowed to pinch a prize from someone else, which made for a lot of fun and a much-travelled bottle of champagne! The tin of beans didn't move about anywhere near as much...!

Barry and Marlene, it was a pleasure to play for you again, I just hope we have that sort of energy when another ten years goes by to Miss Franny and my own 50th Anniversary! Heck... I wish I had that much now!

And just to bring past gigs up to date, here's a couple I missed over the Christmas and New Year period...

The 29th December saw us out at Darwen, playing at the house party of some long-standing friends. Very informal and lots of fun. We were pipped at the post this year and missed out on a hat-trick of winning Brian's quiz...

New Year's Eve saw us playing at the Thurlby Club in Preston, where we had played earlier in the year. A game of Bingo was held to raise funds for necessary repairs to the roof. David won and donated the prize back with a wish that they did the bit over the stage first...! A really good night with a load of laughs!

Birthday Party at Coast Riders

Monday 13 June 2016. We had been asked to play at the significant (must have been 21...) birthday party of the lovely Andrea who rules our favourite venue, Blackpool Coast Riders Diner & Bar, with a rod of iron. (That is what you asked me to put isn't it Andrea?)

Here's the birthday girl with the two of us after our set. The venue has recently started a carvery project which we went to try out the other Sunday lunchtime - yummy!

Not only was it Andrea's birthday celebration but someone else who had reached the age of 70. Obviously I cannot mention a lady's age, but added together they would have been 110... Hang on kids... Did you just blow those candles out...?

I'd brought out the ice blue guitar at Myerscough on the previous day, so tonight I gave the woody a chance to come out and rock and roll! A lovely looking guitar, but I still personally prefer the tone from the cherry red guitar. Everyone else says they can't tell the difference, so maybe it's just different, not necessarily better. Another great night at Coast Riders - and (why was I expecting this?) a couple of challenges for next time in the form of half-forgotten songs from way back!

60th Birthday Party in Darwen

Last night we headed out to Darwen to play at a 60th birthday party. It was quite cold in the room to begin with and my strings were not eager to stay in tune until we had played for an hour or so and enough people had come in to warm the place up a bit!

We had (rather rashly perhaps) agreed to sing Let It Go from the Disney film Frozen for a couple of little girls who were going to be there. This was the first time I've ever sung the line "...and it looks like I'm the Queen"... A voice killer, but it went down an absolute storm and earned us a standing ovation after the entire room erupted with singing! A whole new career beckons...

Back on more familiar ground, every gig features a couple or more songs where I ditch the guitar in favour of playing the keyboard live. Not sure when Miss Franny took this photo but it could be on Peaceful Easy Feeling or It's Now Or Never or the crowd pleaser, Penny Arcade.

Happy Birthday Chris!

House Party at Christmas

Once again over the Christmas period Creeping Bentgrass headed over to Darwen to play at a large house party.

With all the weather that had been going around we were pleasantly relieved to get there without having to wade the car through any floods. What an awful time many people have had at a time of year that should be enjoyable.

Ours at least was an enjoyable night and plenty of the party-goers told us how much they looked forward to it every year. In fact I'm sure there were more people there this year! And we heard from the organiser of the Harvest Festival we did earlier in the year that audience members from that event had been asking for our return too!

A huge than you to our hosts Brian and Christine!

Gig Report Catch-Up!

My respected colleague and sometime crooner has pointed out I have glossed over a couple of gigs without a mention. So duly admonished I now add a few photos for your delectation and approval...

Both of them were at one of our favourite venues: Coast Riders Diner and Bar at South Shore in Blackpool. Therefore the backdrop to the photos of us on stage may be somewhat similar to others already on these pages.

This was New Year's Eve, 31 December 2014. We had been asked to play out the old year and there were many familiar faces in the audience! You can tell from the next photo that we enjoyed ourselves. I have to say that 2015 was well under way by the time we left the premises!

The second event was Miss Franny's special birthday in March. She can be seen below talking to her brother, Bob. Surely, she should be listening to us???

90th Birthday Party

Last Saturday we played for one of our own. Miss Jeannie's mum, Joan, was 90 years old and we gathered family and friends together at our favourite Blackpool venue, Coast Riders under the care and catering of our good friends Pete and Janet.

There was a fabulous buffet laid on and I have to mention the Southport bikers' club members who turned up with a huge bouquet of flowers for Joan. She didn't seem to want to take up the offer of a ride on the back of a motorbike, but I'd swear it was declined with a twinkle in her eye...!

Here's the birthday girl with Peter and Miss Jeannie, her son and daughter on the two sides and Elaine, her son-in-law's sister and Miss Franny adding their congratulations.

We tried out a couple of the new songs, knowing we were amongst friends, but "Happy Together", "Keep On Running" and "I Like It" sounded so right that I'm sure audiences in 2015 will get a chance to hear them!

And just in case you think that at the grand age of ninety the birthday girl would stay off the dance floor - think again!

Party Antics

Saturday night saw us once more at the fabulous Coast Riders Diner Bar, playing for Pete's 65th birthday. Themed as Luau-cum-holiday night, the room was filled with rather loud shirts and one or two snorkels...

An interesting night - I was playing against a persistent tinnitus background hiss and was a bit paranoid that I might not be able to hit the right notes. I mean singing rather than the odd guitar/keyboard whoopsie! Anyway a few new tunes got unveiled. Apart from Pete's birthday it was the anniversary of Elvis's passing so In The Ghetto got a first play, as did a 3-song medley of Teddy Bear, Don't Be Cruel and Hound Dog. The last time we were at Coast Riders I made a rash promise that we would come up with a version of Roy Orbison's Penny Arcade and also The Beatles' P.S. I Love You came out.

And I have an awful feeling we may have... no surely not... but yes... I definitely remember playing Dancing Queen...

Birthday Party in Chapeltown

Last night Creeping Bentgrass played for a 70th birthday party at the Chetham Arms in Chapeltown.

We once wore red shirts to our first gig at this pub and they were the exact shade of the wallpaper. We just blended in and the audience were treated to two floating heads... We thought we might be safe with these shirts!

It was a good night and when we started a few of the pub's regulars were looking in at the door to the function room. I like to think they were impressed by the music rather than them going "What on Earth...?"

Driving through the Lancashire countryside late at night, I was dying for a bag of chips... No chippies open at that time of night and skinny ex-frozen french fries from an all-night papier mache burger bar just don't hold any attraction. Nipped out this morning for a walk along Fleetwood prom and had my supper for lunch! Result!!!

Creeping Bentgrass in Darwen

On Friday 27 December we were out in wildest Darwen. It was the weather that was wild, not the inhabitants, I hasten to add. We were blown about on the road a bit on our way there, but we arrived safely and played for a private house party for our hosts Christine and Brian.

We have played here several times before - we usually play both a garden party in summer and a Christmas house party for Christine and Brian and have come to know many of their regular guests and neighbours. A nice relaxed gig for us too. It's a good place to try out new songs and this time The Tremeloes' Suddenly You Love Me got an airing and went down extremely well with its sing-a-long chorus!

Surprise 60th Party

Friday 5 April 2013. We were booked to play at a surprise birthday party.

Surprise birthday parties can be a risky thing to accept bookings for as the last one we were booked to perform at was called off after the birthday boy - who knew nothing about it - booked a holiday instead! But here everything went according to plan.

We were at the Raikes Hotel in the centre of Blackpool - a nice change for us as although we live there, most of our gigs tend to be out of town! The birthday boy was a biker and there was a fine collection of tattoos in the room!

A great night all round!

If you would like live music at your party or event, please find our contact details in the left hand panel and give us a call!

Christmas Party

Our last gig of the year was a house party where the night started with an apology from the hosts. This is where we did the summer garden party when the dreaded midges struck! It wasn't the fault of the hosts of course. It was that over-excited singer I hang about with, who refused to listen when I said I was being bitten and just said "One more!", meaning half a dozen more...

This time there were no midges. We were indoors. And Miss Franny was keeping a close eye to make sure I got no little nibbles anyway... spoil-sport!

We played to a full house, literally! Thanks once again Christine and Brian! We got some great comments and there were lots of people singing and tapping feet!

Scorton Village Diamond Jubilee Party

You know, that rain that started last night kept it up all night and into this afternoon. So it was with some relief that we knew there was an alternative to the open-air field for Scorton Village's Diamond Jubilee Party.

We unloaded into the Village Hall and set up in a corner, whilst we waited to see whether anyone would brave the rain to turn up.

By heck they are indeed made of stern stuff in Scorton - the place filled and all the seats were taken and they still came in until there was a whole line of people standing at the far end. A special Jubilee Grace was said and then I got to play the National Anthem on the keyboard. Something I had only played once before and that only half an hour previously as a practice when we first set up before anyone came in! (Sorry, your Majesty...)

Miss Franny and Miss Jeannie had surrounded us with bunting and very pretty we looked too... It did mean that sneaking off stage for a trip to the loo involved ducking and choking or limbo dancing but hey... why not?!?

We kept to the less raucous songs for the afternoon and by the time we got to the end of the afternoon we had clocked up nine hours playing within a period of 21 hours given that we had been playing last night in Chorley. My finger ends are a touch sensitive...

Many thanks to the wonderful people of Scorton for asking us to perform and for all the lovely comments we were given at the end of the afternoon. It was a pleasure to play for you.

Birthday Gig

On Saturday night we were playing a private booking for a birthday party in Thornton - a gig close to home for a change!

The birthday girl was very keen to secure our services and both she and the rest of the party-goers were enthusuastic in their applause during the night and their praise at the end of it.

We enjoyed ourselves too, giving Elvis's Burning Love its first public airing.

To book Creeping Bentgrass for your own party, event or club, email bispham2@hotmail.com or telephone on 01253 301324