Abominable Showmen - Centre For Life 26th November 2009

The gig was a sellout - call back for photos, video and the like.

Here's the missive from Jim :

"All

Just wanted to let you all know that we raised £570 on Thursday night.

This will be divided equally between Cure For Parkinsons and St Oswalds Hospice.

Thanks to everyone for helping raise this amount.

Cheers
The Abominable Showmen
---------------------------------------------
All

We just wanted to thank everyone for a great night last night.

We had a brilliant time and we hope you enjoyed yourselves.

I’m not sure exactly how much we have made as I still have some to come in but I’ll let you all know as soon as I find out.

As usual we would like to thank the following…..

Graeme Bell and Tim Hines for setting up and manning the PA,
The Centre For Life for letting us have the room for free and to all the staff for their help,
Tom and Mike for selling shirts and tickets

And especially to all you that came along, bought shirts, tickets, copious amounts of alcohol and helped make it such a brilliant night.

Thanks
Chris, Richie, Stephen and Jim"

Abominable Showmen - Next Gig 26th November 2009

The supported charities for this gig are St. Oswald's Hospice and Cure Parkinsons Trust.

From Jim

"All

Just a quick note to let you know that the SSS band The Abominable Showmen are playing at the Centre For Life on November 26th.

The room will not be as big as it was last time as we will have it partitioned off so the number of tickets will be less than previous gigs (about 120 – 130 I think but I need to confirm this)

I know it’s a few weeks away but let me know if you would like a ticket, they are £4 each, with all profits being donated to charity (to be decided)

As usual we will be selling shirts as well and they will be around £10 each depending on how many orders we receive.

The gig will have an 80’s theme to it (although not all the songs will be from that era) and the T-shirts will reflect this.

Let me know if you want any tickets and if you want shirts please let me know what size.

Thanks
Jim

email: jim dot stevenson atsign sssworldwide.com (to stop spambots)"

=========================================================

We have decided to go with the A-Team design.

We have also decided to get some camouflage shirts printed, (please note that the camouflage shirts are smaller fitting than the usual shirts we get).

Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like the Black or Camouflage

The cost for these will be

Black £10.00 (£13.50 girls) Camouflage £12.00 (£13.50 girls)

If you want one please let me know size and colour please.

Cheers
Jim

Summertyne 2009

The Summer Festivals are coming thick and fast and the Tyneside Americana Festival under the Summertyne banner is another great one.This year must be the best one yet with a superb turn out and an incredible line up. Some goigs are paid and some are free and it's a combination of live acts and films shown both inside and outside of the Sage.

Because of the clashes , the fact that there was hardly an inch of free space outside , the hot sun and all that , I ended up catching just a couple of the acts .

Two Fingers of Firewater and Eliza Gilkyson produced some excellent country sounds , but unfortunately I missed out on the headlining Hot Club of Cowtown , due a major sun induced headache.

However Ryan Shaw was a major revelation , the band starting with a reasonable funk / soul instrumental workout , before Ryan appeared with a stunning rendition of the Jimmy Cliff song "Many Rivers To Cross" , this was followed by one of their own song featuring gorgeous backing vocals from the band. If you want to download the album you can download it here. Here's them in 2006 doing "We Got Love":




Had to cut the gig short to catch Baby Gramps inside for his fourth set of the day!! I've seen Baby Gramps before and theres a lot of debate as to whether he's real or animatronic!!. Let me put you right, the guy is a total gentleman as I found out talking to him after the gig . The gig itself featured a new pirate song , and a hell of a lot of audience participation. A Baby Gramps gig is an experience you will never forget, this him with the Akron Family doing "Cape Cod Girls" on Letterman:



Bands Featured :

Memory of a Free Festival - MOTFEST Sunday 2009

The Mouth of Tyne Festival has been going for a number of years now (see the website here)and still maintains the essence of a decent free festival , no wristbands , no fenced off areas, decent music and you can get a decent drink either at the Iron Horse Saloon in the Priory on at one of the many pubs along Front Street such as Hugo's and The Turks.

The rain kept off and early in the afternoon with visited the trad jazz stage. I'm not really a fan of this sort of music but the bands fit the event and it's enjoyable to lie on the grass, drink beer , and soak in the atmosphere. We caught the Hot Five Jazzmakers from Canada and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band from Switzerland , both were excellent. Any bands available are on the carousel at the bottom of this post.

Next up were the excellent Soznak in Front Street . They should have been on the main stage. If you've never heard them think Baghdaddies with African instead of Middle Eastern influences. And the video is the rather wonderful "Weekily":


Unfortunately , we had to leave them early to see the wonderful Teddy Thompson who even covered Abba's Super Trouper , has the most amazing voice and held the crowd spellbound for an hour. The guy is a genius , just like his dad.

Amazingly the headliners Dodgy were even better , being greeted by bright sunshine and steaming through hits and album tracks delighting the crowd. Someone got "Staying Out For The Summer / Good Vibrations" here:


The problem was that the Baghdaddies were in South Shields when Dodgy were on so here's them doing "Not Drowning But Raving":



Here's some stuff from the afformentioned bands on Amazon:

Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?.. It Certainly Can!!

..a tribute to the not so early, but still great Lux Interior , late of the Cramps, who shuffled off his mortal coil earlier this year. This post will grow as I sort pictures and video, so give me a day or two . The videos for Jeepers Peepers will NOT be youtubed unless they specifically want them done.

The night was organised by Mr Dave Campbell , circus master extraordinaire, providing us with a veritable cornucopia of delectably depraved entertainment , in keeping with the memory of Lux Interior.


The excellent Jeepers Peepers Burlesque group opened up the festivities and provided superb diversions throughout the night...

Here's some images from the event , accompanied by Link Wray's "Rawhide" available here.

Incidentally the Cluny are hosting the "Female Tournament of Tease" to select the "Naughty North" entry.

We then had a suitably shambolic magician Steve Drayton, straight out of the Wheeltappers with an array or tricks and jokes which stretched the meaning of the word "entertainment" . Definitely he has to be seen to be believed!!







First band of the night were Staggerin' Jon Lee and His High Class Chancers with and interesting fermentation of Link Wray , Pedal Steel , and Fifties crooning, appropriately attired!!







Then came bug eyed escapologist
Chris Cross seen with the
master of ceremonies (left)
and on stage (right).





Due to a band dropping out , Ratty and The Shitkickers, filled in
admirably with their own brand of entertaining psychobilly.









The Light Brigade provide a superbly Cramped set of echoey Human Fly Rock and Roll!!








The finale was the almighty Coyotemen, all backed by some incredible B movies ("The Mad Butcher", "Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks" and "Teaserama" are three that I can recall at this point). All this cost a fiver . It was really like have your very own time machine!! Besuited , and suitably masked the set was a litlle slower than normal as this was a Cramps Tributes , but still as impressive as ever , and it was good to hear that the still "Take Shit From No One"!!!!


....and finally The Coyotemen's rendition of "Teenage Werewolf"

.......

Billy 'Souldad' Batey - Charity Night at The Cluny - 4th April 2009

From Lynn Campbell

"Last year my friend Soo's husband lost his fight to cancer, so Soo is having a charity bash in his memory, if anyone would like to come along":

Charity night in aid of Marie Curie Hospice
In memory of Billy 'Souldad'
Batey to be held on Saturday 4th April 2009, 7.30 pm at The Cluny.

featuring "Ratty and the Shitkickers" (rockabilly) (or the 5h1tkickers for the more sensitive) and  dj's playing some of Billys favourite soul music, and chip butties if you're feeling peckish.

Tickets £5, with all proceeds going to the hospice, are available from The Tyne, The Cluny, Tilleys, The Strawberry and Lyn

Here's a taster of Ratty & The Boys doing Johnny Burnette's "Lonsesome Tears In My Eyes" at the Tyne:



And from the night, heres Ratty and The Shitkickers featuring the Sh'tettes performing "Betty, Betty"!!!

Over a thousand pounds was raised on the night for Marie Curie, watch this space for next year's gig.

and some photos:










The photos werent displaying in Internet Explorer. Hopefully this bit of text should help you see!!

Abominable Showmen - November 2005

The Videos:
All My Lovin'
Paranoid
School's Out
Teenage Kicks

The Charities:

£800 was raised on the night and from subsequent underhand dealings which was split between Debra and Saint Oswalds Hospice

T Shirt Design: