TURKEY WITHOUT THE DRESSING!

Just back from a truly restful and much needed break.
I took the picture above whilst enjoying copious amounts of EFES PILSNER.
Now… to those that have visited the country of Turkey – especially the Dalaman Coast – will bear witness to its extreme beauty and hospitality. The areas of Calis, Fethiye and Olu Deniz warrant high praise indeed.
Anyway…..

‘Stitching up’ various members of our fraternity by posting caption competition seems to be fair game and very popular of late.
Not wanting to miss out – and somewhat reversing the scenario – I have also posted my own pic which I will gladly put up for a suitable caption ……. and eventual ridicule!

Yours,
Pete Tobit
Producer - & very occasional ‘JAKE’!

BRING ME SUNSHINE……..

The Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury must be situated in the some of the loveliest countryside that England boasts.

Well as some of you may or may not know, the late great Eric Morecambe suffered a massive heart attack on the stage at The Roses Theatre and passed away in dressing room #2 – good job Tracy doesn’t know as she certainly would not have occupied that one.

In actual fact, Tewkesbury was the site of the last CBB visitation from the ‘other side’! We were staying at The Royal Hop Pole Hotel and after a terrific gig and a certain amount of ‘partaking’ in the bar we all retired to a sound sleep – some more soundly than others. Our drummer of the time – the infamous Roger Jacobs – was, shall we say, visited by a young lady! Hang on… I hear you shout! No this wasn’t a young lady of substance, but one of a ‘see through’ variety that happened to talk to him, sit on his legs (he was in bed and under the covers at the time) and then proceeded to vanish – Doh! The next morning presented the rest of the band with a rather shaken and dishevelled drummer.

Well enough of the Derek Acorah stuff and onward with the show…..

An initially very reserved audience soon gave way to the usual raucous shenanigans and once again CBB have worked their magic and given that we are back next autumn, the audience must have gone away extremely happy.

Here’s to next year and hopefully the only spirits we encounter then will be in a bottle …… hopefully marked Remy Martin!


Cheers- Pete.

'I actually ordered two- and could you please not throw the other one...'

It's time for a caption competition. Here's a picture of Mike relaxing in the luxurious surroundings of the departure lounge of Marseilles Airport on our recent visit there. Can YOU come up with a snappy one-liner to sum it up? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Cheers- Leigh

Purple Hayes

I thought I'd say a few words here about last night's Beck Theatre show- it was that rare thing for me, a local CBB gig. Having spent most of the previous couple of weeks fending off phone calls, text messages and e-mails from people asking for free tickets I spent the days before the show attempting to shake off a rather peculiar virus that among other things caused my hands to swell up (Pete alluded to it in his last posting about our Dunstable show) and my limbs to ache. Come the day of the show I still wasn't feeling 100%- I was asleep until about 10 minutes before we had to leave for the venue- but in the end everything went well with everyone I spoke to after the show saying how much they'd enjoyed it, and my Dad complaining that there weren't enough guitar solos!

Excellent!

Thanks to all who made it all happen- you made a happy man feel very old...

Leigh.

…on a wet Tuesday in Dunstable, CBB ROCKED!!!!!

Imagine a theatre that has everything a touring production needs to make sure they have a good night:
Great Parking, Perfect Access, Great Technical Crew, Fantastic Stage, Phenomenal Theatre, Helpful Front Of House Staff, Amazing In House PA Rig……..and a full house, and you must be at The Grove Theatre, Dunstable. Hurrah!!!
The Cast raised their game and the Dunstable gig will definitely go down as one of the finest in CBB history.
Leigh’s hands were on fire (literally!), the guys sang out of their shoes, Tracy was….Tracy, Marc, Ian & Squirrel out did themselves and finally the Brass players even behaved!
The show was memorable in so many ways I would not even try to list them, except by saying a huge CONGRATS to all involved – on and off stage.
Where to from here? Well, Hayes in a couple of days, and it’s Leigh's home town gig. I really hope his hands are better by then!

Pete Tobit
CBB Producer Chappie

Hello Harlow!!

Driving into Harlow I am reminded that the Government of 3 or 4 decades ago must have had a template for new towns as it feels just like Basildon or even Stevenage!
Once the ring roads and roundabouts are successfully circumnavigated (!) the Playhouse Theatre looms ahead, and very modernistic it is.
With Mario away undertaking ‘Briefcase’ duties, I, once again, am forced out of self inflicted retirement!
The theatre is great with the production crew even better and all too quickly we are sound checked and ready for the off, with one exception – Leigh O’Guitar! Leigh calls to say that he is involved in a bomb scare in Uxbridge and will try and be there before the start – well, he will be, because we can’t start without him.
With the ‘G’ forces still apparent on Leigh & Shirleys faces (they managed to make it from Uxbridge to Harlow in 45 minutes. "’onest M’lud, they didn’t break the speed limit!" Yeah, right!
The show goes up on time and is a stonker with only a couple of lapses of foot in mouth on my part – Hey, I haven’t done the theatre show since….the last time!
Onward and upward then and all go for Dunstable where we’ve got quite an audience, apparently.
Anyway, time for a curry in Old Harlow!
Pete Tobit
Producer - & still very occasional ‘JAKE’!

To Marseille and Beyond……….!!

How can anyone possibly whinge or moan when you are privileged to do our job! It would take some hard hearted person to think negatively of our trip last weekend.
We, once again, graced the shores of the South of France and the weather was nothing less than magnificent.

Following the scenic route through Marseille, arrival at Le Brusc (see pic) and the ferry across to the private island, we turned up at the venue – the ballroom of the hotel where we were staying – to a fully set up stage (did we request backline techies?) and so, sound check took a whole 10 minutes; and that included resetting some of the stage!
A private table was reserved for us in the gardens of the hotel restaurant where food and wine flowed like…….good food and wine really!
By now it’s 10.00pm and we really must do some work so we head back to our rooms and re-emerge 10 minutes later ready to rock. The show is received enthusiastically and following a couple of encores we retire back to the gardens to enjoy a cocktail or seven!
Very unusually, Leigh & myself retire around 12.30am leaving the others to make up for our shortfall – we believe the 3.00am still saw a hardy few – who shall remain nameless – still enjoying the hospitality.
9.00am welcomed more than a few heavy heads and after breakfast the ferry was waiting to return us to Le Brusc whereupon we transferred to the cars for the return to the Airport and then onto and upward to Blighty.
I would like to finish, where I started, by saying we really are privileged to do what we do, and I for one, never take anything for granted and enjoy the journey to the full.
‘D’accord’, I wish you all ‘Bientot’ and look forward to seeing you at a show near you soon,
Pete Tobit
Producer - & very occasional ‘JAKE’!