Sunnyside 2011 - Friday 18 March

Phew - it's been one of those weeks out on the road eating up miles and not getting much chance to sort out photos or thoughts! So let's go back just over a week to last Friday and we piled everything in the trusty MPV and breathed a sigh of relief as we considered that, had it had rafters, it would be full to them! We were taking our full set of gear down this time so with PA and speakers, keyboard and guitar, gig bag, stands and luggage and four people, we zoomed off down the motorway, stopping at every second services - drat these pills... The hotel we've used the last two years is now a Travelodge and a communal breakfast-free area so we were staying at the Sunley Conference Centre of Northampton University, who were providing a large room for the Friday night jam session. Lots of familiar faces there from years past and also some new ones. Some that I knew from the Billy Fury forum but had never met. In fact the first thing we saw was the Danmobile! Daniel Heeney, is a long-standing member of the billyfury.com forums but it was our first meeting. "Long-standing" suits him - he's a tall fella! And I loved his act on Friday night! Cathy and Jean were on hand to give me my first cuddles, Katie, Marie and Jan hadn't been able to make it alas! Likewise a few others but there was a good crowd of us. The Furygirls' favourite, Johnny Storm was there to wow them with his voice. Miss Franny came over all accusingly at me because he did one of her favourite Michael Bolton songs - er... yes, it's a while since we've done that one I know... MC, the fabulous Rob Dee called us up. Creeping Bentgrass took to the stage area and we set off with a Billy song - Like I've Never Been Gone, one of my favourites! We had a bit of help with Johnny B Goode (below) - he can be a bit of a handful that one! And at the end of the night we were surprised but very honoured to be asked back to play a live backing for all the performers from the night to sing Billy's best known hit, Halfway to Paradise. All the photos from Friday night are in a set at my Flickr account and the video of Like I've Never Been Gone is at the band's YouTube channel. Saturday night report to come...

Suspicion at Sunnyside

Am soooooo much in need of sleep after wonderfully welcoming weekend (a bit of alliteration for you there!) at Sunnyside, Northampton for the Billy Fury weekend.

A more detailed entry to come but for now before I climb or crawl up the stairs to dreamland... the opening number from our set last night: Elvis's Suspicion. G'night all...

CBG in Catforth

Last Saturday night Creeping Bentgrass played a social "Dance Nite" at Catforth Village Hall. My SatNav tried to take us down a dead end again. Luckily we recognised it as one that we tried before, having to turn back when it became a rut and yawning chasm-filled dirt track. Instead we did a somewhat circuitous route to get there... The journey back was much quicker as we decided to ignore the SatNav!

We set off with the usual country and folk sets to an enthusiastic audience. As the hall warmed up (literally), a couple of balloons exploded quite spectacularly close by my head - talk about playing under fire...!

We had a break whilst a hotpot supper was served and then came back complete with sparkly ties to play through the late 50s and 60s sets and a selection of smoochy ballads for dances "in hold" as David described it...

A great night with plenty of folk on the dance floor and lots of happy faces singing along at the tables.

We usually play for around 3 and a half to four hours on such nights and lots of friends ask how we can play so long.

Well if you play guitar regularly you just build up corn on the ends of your fingers and although some of it wears off after a full night's playing, as witness that night's photo of my fingers, it doesn't hurt any more than feeling a little tender and the following morning my fingers were back to normal again.

The next gig is the annual Billy Fury bash in Northampton in a fortnight. Looking forward to that!!!

Tickets for Catforth 5 March

I'm told there are still a few tickets left for our show at Catforth Village Hall on Saturday 5 March 2011.

Starting at 7:30pm through until 11:30pm the night is advertised as a "dance nite" and the admission fee of £10 includes a hot pot supper.

More details about the event available by following the link, including contact details of the organisers for tickets etc.

You can find a map here.

On The Wireless...

This morning we were the studio band for Preston FM's Saturday Brunch, a light-hearted music and chat magazine-style radio programme.

We had an absolute ball, the programme had some great guests including Neil Thomson from Blackpool's Grand Theatre and Henry Metcalfe, currently playing Jacob in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Preston's Charter Theatre.

We got to play seven songs with a range of different styles from Gypsy Woman (Country) through Irish (Fields of Athenry) to 60s folk (The Boxer), through the 1950s and 60s with Billy Fury, Buddy Holly and Creedence Clearwater Revival and we finished the show with a rock and roll self-indulgence - Johnny B Goode!

A little added pressure was provided with the presence of the organisers of a local Battle of the Bands! Here were two guys well into their music. Luckily they seemed satisfied with what they saw and heard! Well at least they didn't laugh!

Our thanks to the show's presenter, Mark Howard (runs a marathon during the show to take the mic to different people around the tables) and the really laid-back "techie" Richard, patiently keeping his hand in the air counting down the time until Mark looked up to see it!

We loved it! I keep trying to scrape the smile off my face, but it's stuck...

Garstang Festival Booking 2011

This year we have been booked for 3 days at the Garstang Arts & Music Festival.

You'll be able to see us on Saturday 20 August, Saturday 27 August and Bank Holiday Monday 29 August. For a preview of what you can expect here's a video of two old geezers playing Concrete and Clay at the 2010 festival!

Join us for Saturday Brunch!

Ooh, here's a bit of excitement!

Creeping Bentgrass will be the live studio band on the radio programme Saturday Brunch broadcast between 10:00am and 12:00am on Saturday 19 February on Preston FM.

Broadcast in the Preston Lancashire region on 103.2 FM or online at http://www.preston.fm

Radio, so no need to wear masks... If any listeners would like to know what we look like, we are in our early 30s, tall and slim, straight hair and curly teeth... We each have our own full set of cutlery.

Christmas and New Year Gigs

A couple of gig reports. Fran hadn't picked her camera up for the first one but yesterday David gave me a disk of photos taken by Jeannie so I can now include a report here!

23 December 2010 saw us at the Wyrebank Banqueting Suite in Garstang, battling snow and ice to get there to play for a rather unusual event.

This was a pig club - a group that had reared a pig and was celebrating this night with the fruits of their endeavour. A meal of pork sausages and mash with plenty of sausages was followed by a sale of yet more sausages and a raffle - no they had other prizes for that!!!

Generously they invited us to sit with them for the meal and whilst David and I hardly ever eat much before a gig, (belching down microphones is never good...) it was an excellent meal.

Then we played for the rest of the night before slipping and sliding back on the ice to load the car in rather cold temperatures! Oh - and we were given a big bag of sausages as a bonus! They are rather yummy...

Last night we played the New Year in at Lancaster Golf Club. As I tuned the guitar just before starting I hit the end of a string with the tip of my thumb, feeling the string go right down into my thumb.

Muttering a surprised "Good Gracious!", I had to stick a plaster on the end of my thumb to avoid getting blood all down the neck of the guitar which would have gone sticky and perhaps not looked as aesthetically pleasing as I'd have liked.

Unfortunately the only plaster they could find was designed to cover the whole of the upper torso... Still, after a couple of songs I was able to take it off and apart from a mild soreness the thumb performed it's usual task of keeping the neck of the guitar pressed against my fingers with no problem!

And what a night! The dance floor filled as soon as we started to play and as we counted down to midnight there were balloons, confetti, cheers, hugs and kisses all round. No sausages though...

Tithebarn Mayoral Evening

What a brilliant night we had last night! It was one of those nights where we could do no wrong!

Garstang's Tithebarn was full to the rafters (I know because I could see them!) and they were well up for a night of music and laughter.

I think David and I could have spent the night doing a comedy stand-up, but we got them singing along to our selection of country, folk and irish, fifties and sixties through to more modern songs and then after a hotpot supper, the dance floor filled!

Well alright - there wasn't a dance floor as such, but the space in front of the toilets became full of people swaying, stepping, gyrating and it wasn't because the toilets were engaged at the time!

Garstang's mayor, Gillian Lamb was pleased with the night and as the evening coincided with the official Lancashire Day we had a loyal toast to the Queen, the Duke of Lancashire.

To top the night off, as we were loading the car under a brilliantly dark sky, filled with stars, Jeannie and I saw a shooting star streak momentarily across the central sky. Well it could have been a lost spanner from the space station, but it made us both gasp and brought forth instant queries from the other two as to what we were doing...

Frolicking in Frodsham

Are you allowed to frolic in Frodsham? I'm not sure - this is, after all, the posh area near Chester and we went out to the Golf Club last night to play for a 50th birthday party.

It was a double celebration as the birthday was that of twins Michael and Carolyn. Does that make it a 100th birthday party? Oops no...!

Michael even joined us to sing Jim Reeves' Welcome to my World and got a huge round of applause for his efforts!

Michael is seen here with wife Yvonne, listening to us trying to follow his spot! Another highlight was a quiz which asked guests to identify which of the twins was the first to walk, talk and be potty trained...!