West End Live Leicester Square Sunday 21st June

Well I have just got home after finishing the bottle of Veuve Clicquot we ordered at All Bar One in Leicester Square after our gig. The show went off VERY well - have just posted up a load of pics on our flickr site-www.flickr.com/theredstripeband.com
but above is one pic of me with the compere for the day - Mr Christopher Biggins.
The square was packed and we did a great rendition of Caldonia to open up - we were the first band on for the day - previous presentations were by the West End Shows like Jersey Boys , Thriller etc
We had a half an hour slot. The most poignant memory for me was the homeless girl who I recognise from Soho standing in the front row. Every night she sleeps in a different doorway and is heavily into crack. She was waving like mad in the front row and looking straight at me. I couldn't ignore her.
All in all a great day and my meeting after the show with Omar from the biggest entertainment agency in India went well - so perhaps we will be on our way to India soon........

Jerry Springer in Soho

Well, I don't like to say it but "it would only happen in Soho". I had invited an ex-employee and friend who was a very very attractive young girl to attend with me an evening with Sebastian Horsley (google him) He is a Soho Neighbour of mine and I have read his rather entertaining book "Dandy in the Underworld" I make a habit of reading books written by people I know. It was at the Union Club in Greek Street - part of my fascination was to visit the Union club as I had never been inside having viewed it from the outside for years.
Well , we both enjoyed the night - Sebastian perhaps needs a few lessons in performance but nevertheless has a good message - he is totally honest for a start - even though some of his views might be frowned upon.
Anyhow - once the show was over , we ventured to my local Jazz After Dark, and sat down with a vodka and tonic - after congratulating Lewis McLeod (google him) on his newborn.
And low and behold - who should walk in Jerry Springer - I kid you not !!!
Very bizarre and slightly surreal it has to be said......
He sat down with his companion and enjoyed the music
Well I never did - we had a great night catching up and talking about a lot of commond ground and Jerry seemed to enjoy himself too.....
the end

only in soho............................

Brand New Party Promo DVD

Party Promo


So we all pitched up to a deserted warehouse on a friday night in Dagenham, Essex (naturally - where else!?) Spirits were high and the bottle of Lanson and cans of Boddingtons were augmentative (is that a word?) to those spirits !
We were lucky to have secured the services of the young and very talented film editor Richard John Taylor (http://www.richardjohntaylor.com) who has done some brilliant work on East Enders and countless feature films.
He had a clear idea of what was needed - I wanted to capture the energy of the band to give the viewer a little insight into our show...
Gemma and I did quite a bit of messing around which he caught well. Often during our shows, I will stand on the piano stool (well it is actually a drum stool) and keep playing the piano. The band always take the mick - so when I jumped up on the stool during the shoot , they were shouting out less than appropriate comments which , as you can see, made me chuckle !
Everyone reacted perfectly to the wrong note on the intro to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" - I especially love Ed's grimace !!
Richard did very well to finish with a shot of my jump from the piano(drum!)stool
All in all a good few hours work and a very nice curry in Canning Town afterwards washed down with Raspberry flavoured Sambuca (yes Raspberry flavour - whatever next ...?)
I think the results speak for themselves - enjoy !!!!!

Rex Rheni

We have just got back from a week on the beautiful Dutch Riverways aboard the Rex Rheni and had an ABSOLUTE ball ! Four shows in five nights which were a mix of talks by yours truly about the history of our music and instruments and songs from the decades from 1920's to the 1950's. Sold a stack load of CD's and ate and drank very well. The sun didn't stop shining and the crew of the ship were VERY VERY accommodating - they couldn't do enough.
Naturally I have a lot of photos and videos. The ship had 25 crew and around 100 guests.
On the second night we all went into the little town of Enkhausen where we were moored to try and find some nightlife - we chose the Non-Irish pub which was one of only two places still open - being only a small town.
A lovely young dutch barmaid joined us on the razzle - dancing gave way to silliness and I ended up sucking a glass of spilt wine from my t-shirt on the way back to the boat.
You might be able to make out Martin and Erica doing some "break dancing" together:



We spent our last day in the lovely city of Amsterdam - and partied into the early morning after our final performance.
Up at 6.30am Sunday morning (ouch!) for a drive back to the UK via the euro tunnel and on to a private 21st Birthday party in a lovely Oxford Hotel.
Now recovering..........

Stretch Limo.....

Well, it seemed a sensible thing to do at the time - sold up in Surrey - left accountancy - Sep 2002 and so I cashed in my endowment on my mortgage and bought a really solid investment- a stretch limo! So I entered the world of the Lincoln Towncar - ten a penny in the US but stretched and sent to the UK to service the hen parties and stag nights. I wanted one to go to my gigs in - so I bought one. It wasn't long before I recruited a budding driver in the shape of Richie Christmas - who I met at Blase wine bar in Walton where I played for six years on a wednesday.
I bought him a genuine cap in New York and here he is holding the door open for me when we took the trip down to Cannes to the annual music industry conference known as MIDEM. It was a long way to go in a limo and we turned a few heads at customs at Dover ....


I had the limo sign written "Red Stripe" and we had such a great time - in a small town on the way down we were going down a very narrow street and it was getting narrower and narrower but little Christmas( my driver) wasn't freaked out at all - he just kept driving - no problem - he is now driving HGV's on the continent - he was born to drive.
Many a night he took me to gigs and got me home in one piece sometimes with a bit of a detour depending on who was on board.....



And I made a lot of friends too - when we were down in Cannes , one night we took a couple of girls to Monaco for the evening and I recently bumped into one of them in Limassol - it is good to keep in touch


We used to run competitions to the Red Stripe Mailing list and the winners would come to a gig in the limo with Red and champagne on ice - here are a couple of lucky winners.....



Then there was the "limo bitches" as they liked to be called - we had quite a few nights out drinking more champagne - in fact buying the limo was to create my love of champagne. It really is a nice way to travel - DVD , stereo, champagne on ice and kind lighting - I used to arrive at my gigs not wanting to get out !!!



There are a thousand and one stories I just can't reveal publicly but do you know what - after a couple of years it became a bit boring ! Being driven around in a stretch limo became boring !
So it had to go and I lost a packet on it but it was worth EVERY PENNY and I thoroughly recommend it - - live for the moment !
Goodnight Zebedee....

Tommy McCardle's Birthday Party

Most of the people using the internet right now won't remember "Brookside" the innovative Channel 4 soap of the eighties - let alone the villain of the piece Tommy McCardle. He was brilliantly acted and put the fear of God into you believe me. So when I attended a New Year's Day soiree at a mayfair neighbour's flat this year, I saw the face of McCardle and indeed spoke to him but wasn't able to place him - perhaps the twenty five years which have passed blurred my memory somewhat.
It was only when being invited to a birthday party last night at one of Soho's famous private drinking clubs that I googled Malcolm Tierney and discovered that he indeed in a previous life had been Tommy M. He is doing very well at 71 years of age and still full of acting spirit.
Tommy McCardle's Birthday Party - only in Soho !! It would make a great song title

Seven Seas Club Limassol Cyprus

We all got on the very early morning flight from the lovely new Terminal 5 at Heathrow bound for Larnaca. We had a TON of luggage and on arrival the rather miserable check in girl wasn't having any of it - even though we had a special "letter" giving us extra baggage allowance. Never mind - we got through after payment of a small bribe to BA. The guys tucked into the free booze on board and on arrival in Larnaca we got in a minbus and went straight to this BEAUTIFUL club which has just been built http://www.7seaslive.com. We were all knackered as you can imagine after a 4.00am start but that is rock'n'roll! The first night went off a treat - we were up on the bar dancing - Martin with his tenor, Erica with her baritone and me with my "strap on" and the bar staff were chucking shots of tequila at us . When we got back to the villa - I just had to jump into the (non-heated) swimming pool - 10 degrees - pretty cold but very refreshing. This became a bit of a ritual although only Erica and me did it at night (jumped in the pool that is.....) We were looked after VERY well by our Cypriot hosts - a substantial drinks rider each night, villa with pool and the use of a BMW 520i. Eddy the entertainments manager was the perfect host and really looked after us. Let's hope we will return one day. I took a little video just before we left the island of the club and stage below. There is loads more photos and vids to follow - our entire show on the Saturday night was recorded using an HD camera.....