Any Les Dawson fans out there? Well there’s a lot going on right now, and most of it is fairly positive for a change.
On a personal level things are a little bit more stable now, though there is still a lot to be done. I am amazed at the number of people that actually visit this blog and I wish I had some stunning insights that I could share with you all but unfortunately I don’t. It’s been fairly hectic on the gigs front with the Elephants Shelf & the Delta Ladies mostly out London which is good but I am suffering from a little bit of motorway fatigue as I have seen quite a bit of the M4 and the M25 in the last couple of months (mostly at about 03:00 in the morning).
It’s refreshing to find so many really good venues providing live music with really enthusiastic audiences, and we seem to have found quite a few lately.
Saturday May 8th was a great night at the Blues Room in St Albans backing the rather good >> Earl Jackson which was basically a Rock & Roll night. We did an opening Elephant Shelf set and get Earl up to keep the folks rocking till about 12:30 so another 3 hour set fueled only by 2 pints of draft Guinness. A great bunch of people there and I think they really enjoyed it, and they were up and dancing right till the end. We also had a guest appearance from Rollo Marquee a very good blues harp player who will be playing at the Blues Room soon too.
Sunday May 9th of to ST FM in Burnham Essex to do a live to air set with Elephant Shelf .
We did four songs, with an interview with the band sandwiched in-between. We were on the Sunday night show with Veteran Essex musician, journalist and broadcaster Tim Aves ‘Blues is back’ show.
Elephant Shelf viewed from the Piano at the ST-FM studio
We met Tim previously when he played with the shelf at the Blues Room. Tim is a very well-known, award-winning figure on the national UK blues scene, as a performer, writer and event organiser.He sings and plays harmonica and guitar and spent 17 years on the road, clocking up more than 3,000 gigs across the UK and continental Europe in the 1980s and 1990s with legendary Essex rhythm’n’blues band AUTOMATIC SLIM, who shared stages with a huge range of major artistes, including Status Quo and Dr Feelgood. He later spent a further 13 years fronting the highly-regarded (but sadly, now disbanded) Texas blues outfit, THE ROCKIN’ ARMADILLOS (The band also featured Saint FM Rock Show co-host Paul Lester on drums and Gasbags co-presenter Jane English on vocals.)
We enjoyed the experience and we hope to be back down in Burnham on Crouch in the not too distant future . The live sound was mixed by Pete Crisp who engineers at the St Peters Studio and who also gave us a copy of the tracks that went to air. Then another Real Ale and a Veggie burger, and off home to London.
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