The cat (mostly) in the hat goes North...

This weekend saw The Chicago Blues Brothers traversing the length of England and Scotland for a series of three gigs in Newark, Langholm and Glasgow.

Friday was the Princess Theatre in Newark. It's a lovely theatre which had been given a lick of paint since we were here last year. Unfortunately though there's not much that can be done about the low beams in the corridor leading to the dressing rooms, which cause considerable problems to those of us over 6ft! With sound check out of the way, it's off to find some refreshment. After wandering around the streets of Newark with limited success, we settle on a pub down the road from the theatre. It's a little local place for local people, so we receive some sideways glances when our number roll in making noise and sporting our strange, unfamiliar accents. Once we were finished there, it was back for the show. It's Matt's second show with us and the first time he's playing the Preacher and Cab Calloway characters. He does brilliantly, the crowd love the show and are dancing in the aisles within the first few songs. A good night is had by all and we get lots of positive comments and thanks in the foyer after the show.

Then it's off to The Hop Pole Hotel in Ollerton for the night. It's an old Grade II listed building in a small town and we're all in agreement when we arrive that it looks both fantastic and haunted (much to Tracy's dismay!). As the bar is still open when we arrive, we decide it would be rude if we didn't have a drink. It's a Samuel Smith pub, which means that rather than the Carlsberg, Stella & Strongbow you would expect to see, we're met an array of Sam Smith ales and organic ciders, most of which were sampled and all of which were delicious! Then it's bed, followed by a lovely breakfast, then the next leg of our journey, to Langholm (via a services on the A1 to pick up Matt, and Adam who's playing trumpet for the next two nights). I should mention at this point that in charge of our in-flight entertainment was Richard the sax man, who'd brought along a 4-movie dvd set that he's picked up for 99p! We popped on the first movie, which was the very camp 1970's comedy Grand Theft Auto, starring Happy Days favourite, Ron Howard. The next offerring was far more questionable - the early 90's sci-fi drama, Lawnmower Man, starring a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan. By the end of it, most of the band were gripped, while still declaring it one of the worst films ever made. However, several sequels were suggested, such as Hedgecutter Girl, Strimmer Boy and Leafblower Woman... we haven't heard back from Hollywood on those?

Langholm is a beautiful town just over the border into Scotland. There's a river running through the heart of it and the whole place could scarcely be more picturesque. The venue we're playing is called The Buccleuch Centre (no, I wasn't sure how to pronounce it either!). It's a new place and they're really working hard to establish it as a venue for high quality theatre shows and musical acts, and judging by the sort of acts they've got booked to appear there, they might just succeed. It's not a huge venue, but the crowd more than make up for that with their enthusiasm. And barring one small error (where yours truly walked half way on to the stage for the second half, before realising I wasn't wearing my hat!) the show went very well.

We're staying in The Eskdale Hotel just round the corner from the venue and while it doesn't have quite the same character as the previous nights accommodation, it has a hospitable landlord, cheap drinks and hot & cold running pies, so we can't complain! There is however a disco happening in the basement, which attracts herberts and scoundrels from far & wide. But other than Squirrel having to step over one of the on the stairs, we're not really bothered by them.

The next morning we get up for breakfast, which included square sausage and black pudding- we must be in Scotland! Then we've got time for wandering around the local shops and across the town's wobbly foot bridge, before piling back into the bus for the journey to Glasgow!

The journey takes a little longer than it should, because we take a detour to Lanark in the hopes that we'll stumble across a lovely little pub to have lunch in. Those hopes prove misguided, but we do find a rather quaint little sweet shop where a few of us pick up, among other things, a quarter of Rhubarb & Custards! On to Glasgow then and to the Pavillion Theatre. It's a big old place right in the city centre and from standing on the stage I have to say it's one of the nicest I've seen. It really is a beautiful theatre, with a great tradition judging by all the old show posters they have framed around the dressing rooms. Once showtime arrives, it turns out to be a great way to finish our little jaunt as the show goes fantastically well. I keep my hat on throughout and Matt goes from strength to strength. The crowd were brilliant, making loads of noise and nearly raising the roof when Matt hit his party tricks of doing full box splits - how low can he go!

Then after the show it's time to pack 'em up, move 'em out, Rawhide! ...sorry about that, got a bit carried away! Where was I? Ah yes, packing up and getting on the road for the daunting journey back home. The first sign for 'The SOUTH' was met with considerable cheers from the band and we end up making excellent time. I'm at home tucked up in bed by 6:30 and that's the end of this little adventure. My word, I appear to have written a novel! But then, having spent 3 days and 2 nights with the band, LOTS of things tend to happen - you should see the stuff I've left out!!! Now it's roll on Epsom Playhouse on Wednesday!

Thanks for reading

Mike 'Elwood' Hyde

My first night as Jake with The Chicago Blues Brothers

Having negotiated the wonderful Norfolk tractor express way, I found myself in a blustery Hunstanton at around 2pm.
I had a little time till I met Pete, Jayne and Squirrel at the theatre so I took the opportunity to check out some old haunts from my childhood holidays in sunny Hunstanton. £10 worth of 2p's later I was broke, frustrated and ready to throw those stupid slot machines into the sea! Time to meet the guys I think!
We loaded in to what is a lovely little theatre and with the help of the top draw house crew, we were all ready in double quick time. The rest of the band arrived not long after and I was formally introduced to them all (I have met and worked with most of them before) and I have to say the family vibe of the whole show kicked in almost immediately!
After some rehearsals to try and hammer in some dance moves to my increasingly hard head, we all enjoyed the Norfolk coasts greatest export.....Fish and Chips. Then all that was left to do was try and remember what came where and when, get changed and get on with it!
Now I have never been nervous about going on stage- as far as I am concerned the more people the better- but the only thing I do get nervous about is letting the people I am working with down. In an earlier life I fought internationally in a discipline called Knockdown Karate where obviously the objective was to knock the opponent down or preferably out! I was honestly never afraid of getting hurt (that was what I was there for) but I was afraid of letting down everyone that I had been training so hard with and that had given me so much of their time over the months before. This was a similar fear!
As the music started though, any nerves seemed to disappear as both myself and the audience became infected by the music. Mike and I walked on to stage and straight away I felt at home.
There were a couple of dance moves I messed up or completely forgot, and the odd harmony was missing but on the whole we all seemed to gel quickly as a unit, helped in no small way by Pete coming on and ripping the stage apart as the Reverend and later singing 'Minnie the Moocher'.
The show flew by and before I knew it we were taking our bows and being cheered off stage. Sweaty but happy we rushed to the front of house to sign some CD's and meet the audience, who to a man and woman loved the night and congratulated us all on a job well done.
On a personal note I would like to thank everyone of the band for their help and support and in particular Pete and Mike who got me through my first night and I hope on to many more with "The Chicago Blues Brothers". Bring on Newark!!

Matt

London, Belfast, Paris, Zurich…..

Following our successful sortie in Belfast, the very next day found me on the Eurostar bound for Paris to spend some quality time with Jayne. The Paris weather was extremely kind to us as we experienced clear skies and temperatures in the mid teens.
Escapism is certainly good for the soul- however all good things……

On Friday morning at 5.30am, Paris was a million years ago whilst waiting in the cold for Squirrel and Gibbo. Zurich was beckoning.
Check in at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 was painless as Steve ‘Elvis’ Ballard and the normal ‘A’ Team made our way through to the departure lounge. Boarding was also fairly eventless; however, that’s when the sketch writers from Monty Python took hold of the whole scenario.
The Pilot informs us that the luggage hold had frozen shut and a very heavy container was effectively being held captive in forward compartment. Now.. they can’t get the container off, apparently the weight ratio is off kilter and the weight has to be redistributed. The following statement is not a joke and actually occurred on our flight.
Cue all the ‘larger’ passengers from the front of the aircraft to be redistributed in the rear to balance the weight to enable a stable flight. This happened…..no….really!!!!
Zurich is picture postcard perfect with snow all around, no doubt deep and crisp and even.
The gig is at a local Stadthalle with the attendees featuring a number of government personnel, high profile company hierarchy and various ‘IT’ people (that’s ‘in the know’ people and not mundane computer nerds!)
The gig is brilliant and we are heralded as a total success as we get the majority of the non English speaking audience on their feet and dancing.
A quick mention must go to The Trend Hotel – top place and a definite recommendation for all Zurich bound readers.

The return leg is somewhat event free…except for the 150 mile an hour head winds, dodgy air pockets and the unfortunate event that happened to me whilst try take a wizz in the rear toilets of the plane during the severe period of the turbulence.
Enough said…..

Pete