Matt & Rowena jump the broom stick!

Pete writes:-

Matt has been on the periphery of The CBB Show for a number of years and it was only when he finally joined us full time in March that he established himself as the final and essential piece of our jigsaw.
For about a year prior to Matt joining, the show was good mainly due to the phenomenal sound created by the band and Mike Hyde’s perfection as Elwood. Once Matt stepped in as Jake, the chemistry between Matt & Mike clicked almost immediately and the sheer energy, passion and talent that emanates from the stage is immense.
Enough to say that he is now an essential cog in the wheel that is the CBB.
Last Friday, Matt got married to Rowena – his undoubted soulmate – and the whole day - ceremony and reception – was absolutely perfect. From St Olave’s Church in picturesque York to the Hospitium in the Museum Gardens to the Ceilidh Band at the reception, it was brilliant.

I would like to say on behalf of all of us in the show, family, friends and fans, we wish Matt & Rowena all the very best wishes for their future.

Swiss role

5am Tuesday 30th June morning and the alarm is not completely welcomed, but, then an important meeting in Dublin awaits Nick Taggart – our new promoter – and me.
We take off from Gatwick on the allotted hour and land in Dublin at 11am and are duly picked up by a potential future business contact. The meeting is a complete success, and we make our way back to the airport for our 7pm flight only to be told that our flight is delayed ‘til 9pm….DOH!
Bed beckons at midnight.

5am Wednesday 1st July alarm goes off again and no I am not experiencing Ground Hog Day, but need to get to London City Airport to fly to Zurich. Jayne and myself intend to spend a couple of days embracing Switzerland….namely, Lucerne… before driving down to Fribourg to meet up with the band on Friday.
Well…..from taking a cable car up 8,000 feet to the top of Mt Pilatus to cruising Lake Lucerne, we enjoyed the area in around Lucerne immensely – Jayne even found a C&A….Double DOH!!!!

Friday 3rd July and we enjoy a leisurely drive through the Swiss countryside taking in Bern and Lake Neuchatel on the way down to Fribourg.
Strangeness abounds…weren’t they speaking German this morning in Lucerne? Then why are they speaking French here? Are we still in Switzerland? Well for the uninitiated – me! – Switzerland has 4 national languages – German, French, Italian & Rumantsch – Greedy & Confusing Lot!
I arrive and immediately start setting the stage and going through line and monitor checks in preparation for the arrival of the rest of CBB – due at 3pm.
Due to some unknowingly rare traffic jams, the guys arrive at 4pm and whizz through check in record time. Time for food…….
As we are headlining the night's shenanigans, the two support bands – The Charlie Morris Blues Band from the USA and local blues maestros, 5 Blind Boys From The Parish, arrive to embark on the epic sound checks. Blimey…each outfit must have played their whole set at least twice….and that was just for checks!
By the time we take to the stage – me donning the hat & glasses again as Jake – the somewhat raucous crowd has swelled to around 2,000 and are very ripe for the picking…..and we did not disappoint!
The set was thoroughly enjoyed on and off the stage and the highlight, for us anyway, was when Mike tried to over exert the stitching in his trousers during a particularly energetic ‘Shake a Tailfeather’ and he ended up exposing his rear end to a gaggle of teenage girls – who had chosen to join us on stage. It was fortuitous that he had not gone commando!!
The back slapping from all and sundry continued back stage for a while whilst sleep beckoned for a number of us….but Zurich was still 90 minutes away.

Saturday 4th July beckoned with Jayne waking me at 6.45am to tell me that we had overslept…..we did not need to be at the Airport until 9.30am!!
Another early day then… The flight home was graciously uneventful, onward and upward to London City Airport!
Early arrival at 11.30am, swift security checks, baggage through is record time, into the cars, flying down the road to join the M25 to Guildford, then wallop! The M25 south was a car park…stationary traffic as far as the eye could see.
As we had a bit of time – not needing to be at the gig ‘til 2pm – we decided to go North, the long way round. With Gay Pride happening in and around London, all routes were at best slow. We finally arrived at 3pm – just in time to sling the small PA up, change into ‘blacks’ as Dave, Leigh, Mike & me were to partake in some ‘reception’ music.
Next door in Marquee, Bondy was feverishly working his way through the late band arrivals, making sure they were line checked and ready for the main gig at 8.30pm.
The Jazz set was extremely well received and after a comforting chat with the powers to be, suitable refreshments and food were laid on prior to the ‘main’ event.
With Gibbo, Richard & Marc away on ‘other’ duties, Roger Cotton, Bev Miller & Steve Heynes more than covered all the required duties.
The gig went extremely well – it does surprise me how raucous a wedding crowd can get when incited by two lunatics in hats & glasses!
It must have been the quickest pack away in history…God I was looking to my sleep.

Just a quick note, I would like thank everyone involved in Fribourg and the Tech Boys at Guildford who made our lives so easy. These guys get so easily overlooked and I from one never forget that without them we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

Onto the next adventure….

Cheers- Pete.

Photos show Pete with Ronnie from our Swiss agency Show Connection, and the stage in Fribourg at soundcheck time.

Then and now

On the eve of our appearance at The Freiborg Jazz Festival keyboard maestro Ian Gibbons shares his memories of his first visit to Switzerland, and of our last performance there...

The first time I went to Switzerland was in the summer of 1965 when I was 13. We took nearly 2 days to get there leaving at 9.30 a.m. on a coach from school driving to Dover where we took a ferry to Calais, got on a steam train (!) and went overnight to Basel. I remember leaning out of the window of the train watching the cinders fly past. I had a great time in Interlaken and remember it vividly. There is a lot more to this story- maybe some other time- I didn't lose my virginity but I nearly got put in the girls' dormitory as my name had been put down as Jan on the rooming list. Needless to say a place was quickly found for me with the boys!

Back to the present day and The C.B.B. are off to Zurich. It's winter, snowing and a very early leave (4.30 the bloody alarm went off!) and after a safe trip to the airport we boarded the plane on time (well it was Swissair) but due to a frozen cargo door we were stuck for 2 hours on the plane. I slept snored and dribbled as did many others but they eventually sorted a weight distribution problem by shifting some fatties from the front to the back of the plane. Hurrah, off we took.

Arriving at the beautifully clean and snow covered Zurich we were met and taken to the gig, a pucker corporate do i.e. no thought for the band, more about the decoration. For some reason we shared our stage with petrol pumps and various other American diner props but we couldn't see each other. We were to back Steve (Elvis) and we rehearsed his set of approx 25 minutes worth of Elvis hits. Once we were down to the required volume (bloody quiet!) we went to our hotel where I got my own room and not a dorm as on my first trip. An hour later after a quick coffee shower and shave we went back to the gig for food prior to getting on stage and playing 30 minutes of lounge music whilst our guests filed in to sit down for dinner. After bluffing our way through a few favourites with much jamming and instant arranging we then had the pleasure of hanging around for about 2 hours whilst the guests were fed and watered. I have to say that we were well looked after with wine, beer, soft drinks and snacks etc but it was the usual hurry up and wait with not much to do except exchange banter with each other which is always fun and always loaded with sarcasm and putdowns which we musicians seem so good at. If I wasn't so paranoid I'd have enjoyed it! We eventually got on stage with Elvis opening the show, Steve did a great job but the Swiss can sometimes be a bit restrained and conservative it wasn't easy to get them going and they seemed happy to sit and watch. Then again dancing might have been a bit risky given the amount of food and drink that had been consumed. I must say that Steve looked great in his Las Vegas suit and £9.99 wig! The voice was spot on and the leg was perfect. Anyway he did ok; it was then time for a short break for speeches and then on with the show.
So here we are on stage. After the Peter Gunn theme and the brother's entrance there was a stunned silence as the suits took in what was happening. It sank in and we got a round of applause, a few numbers in and they were dancing at the sides and a few people got to join in with the singing as Pete and Mike went into the audience with radio mic's to get them a bit more involved. An hour later we were at the bar being complimented on the show by all and sundry. Meanwhile we were getting on with the complimentary drinks!! An hour after that I was tucked up in my enormous bed reading and looking forward to a good kip.

The journey home was on time and Swissair proved once again that their in flight mag was great for inducing a nod on the plane. The drive home was uneventful but I couldn't help noticing the tons of filth on the side of our motorways made even more obvious by the comparison with those wonderfully clear verges on the Swiss equivalents.

Nice one Ian! - L.H.

'How do you girls walk in heels like these?!?'

Pete has posted an early promotional film of the show from when it was known as SWEET HOME CHICAGO onto YouTube. Have we come a long way since those bygone days of female impersonation? Click here and see what you think...

Cheers- Leigh.

'The future's so bright...'

Well... we've finally severed all 'negative and draining' ties with the previous regime, bring on the future!
Have we got some great dates for you!!!! Coming up in the Autumn we will be playing venues from The Lowry in Manchester to The Eden Court in Inverness and many many more in between.
2010 is looking to be monster! Bring it on!

Cheers- Pete.

Keep on running

Hi everyone, Mike 'Elwood' Hyde here.

I've been asked to write another blog entry into these hallowed pages, on the subject of my most recent achievement - running in the 2009 Bupa London 10k Race on Bank Holiday Monday, 25th May. As the name suggests, this is a 10km (approx 6.3 miles) charity race, held in London. As with the London Marathon, there are lots of amateur runners, club runners, people raising money for charities, etc. There were also some 'elite' runners, the best of whom on the day was Great Britain's Mo Farah, who broke the British record with a time of 27:50.
I've only been running for a few months, and even then only once or twice a week, so this was my first organised race. I was running with a friend, and so we got the train down to London that morning and made our weay across to Hyde Park Corner to register and get on the start line in plenty of time. The race started on Birdcage Walk, went up past Big Ben, up the Embankment, into the City, past St Paul's and back down to finish on The Mall with Buckingham Palace making a fairly wonderful target down the home stretch. Most of the course was lined with spectators, despite the forecasted rain - very little of which actually materialised. It turned out to be a lovely day with near-perfect conditions - fairly cool during the race, bursting into sunshine almost immediately afterwards.
I must confess that, even though I've run 6 miles on a couple of previous occasions, this race was tough. Partly, I think, because extra concentration needed when you're running with a LOT of other people, having to look for gaps to overtake and making sure you don't get your legs tangled with anyone else. Also because of running an unfamiliar course, so you're uncertain of where to push and where to ease off. But I think mostly because you're giving so much more effort, due to it being a one-off big event, so you want to make sure you give everything and run the best time you can. My target had been simple; to enjoy myself and run a time of under 50mins. In the event, I did both those things. We had a fantastic day and I ended running a 48:22, which (incredibly) put me in 846th place out of around 12,500 runners! I'll take being in the top 7% (if my maths is right) of any race, especially one in which the British record gets shattered!
I couldn't be more pleased with how the day went, both in terms of my performance and my enjoyment, though I suspect the two things are linked. This was only the second time this race has been held and I have to say, it was great. The organisation of the whole thing was spot-on from start to finish. The atmosphere was terrific and I don't think they could have made it any better. My plans are to step it up a notch now and run a half-marathon either in the autumn or early next year depending tour schedules etc. So fear not cherished readers, I'll be hitting you all for some sponsorship money soon enough!

Thanks for reading, and if this has inspired you to go out and do something active - my only advice is do it, and enjoy it! You don't have to go out road-running for miles and miles, it can be as simple as going for a walk round the park, kicking a ball about with your kids. Get those endorphins flowing - the weather couldn't be better!

Mike Hyde

Change is good…….

Well, it’s been a while and after all, there has been a self inflicted news black out for the passed few weeks.

Thanks to all involved with the Spring shenanigans, in and out of the CBB fold; the dates have been truly enjoyable and much craziness was experienced by one and all – on and off the stage.

The end of the Spring dates heralded the end of another chapter in the ever growing book of the CBB. We are now very pleased and proud to announce that we are now THE OFFICIAL CHICAGO BLUES BROTHERS SHOW with a brand new UK Theatre Promoter, NICK TAGGART of NETT UK.
Yes, there have been some very necessary casualties in dates and personnel – hopefully there will not be anymore - but then, sacrifices must be made to safeguard the stability and future of this show, which we love.
The date sheet is swelling as we speak and I am very pleased to announce that we will be coming in from some of the provincial theatres and performing in a lot more city centre venues – which will make it a lot more difficult for the old chestnut, “Just couldn’t get to that one!”
No excuses then and the new list will be ‘uploaded’ to the website once all the contractual formalities have been duly completed.

I will close on a saying that is synonymous with a certain President, and is something I truly believe…..

THIS IS CHANGE THAT WE CAN BELIEVE IN!

Cheers- Pete Tobit (producer/president-in-waiting)