Restormel Arts - St Austell Brewery
It was a sunny but very long drive down to Cornwall from London but we were rewarded by the view of this lovely cottage which was our home our viist. It was such a lovely place with a warming fire - it started to rain heavily as soon as we arrived - and beautiful views. Sadly we didn't stay too long as we had to leave soon for our soundcheck at the brewery and were up early the next morning to travel to Exeter where we performed a live track for Judi Spiers show on BBC Radio Devon.
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| The lovely cottage we stayed in |
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| George, Dave & Milo during soundcheck |
The Brewery as a great venue - unusual and beautifully quirky. Apparently their
Admiral's Ale was voted as the best bottled beer in the world. I'm reliably informed by the band that it was very good although I didn't indulge as I'm more of a cocktails lady myself!
The gig itself went really well and we had a full house. Phil who runs the Jazz at the Brewery programme for
Restormel Arts treated us very well indeed. It really makes a difference to musicians when we spend so much time travelling to be greeted by a consderate and well-organised promoter. Even something as small as the offer of a cup of tea on arrival is much appreciated (especially by drummer Milo who is very partial to a nice cup of tea!)
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| With 2 lovely ladies and more pics of some of the audience members below |
The Be-Bop Club Bristol
After our quick visit to the radio station in Exeter we drove straight to Bristol and had a pub lunch. We then checked into our hotel which was very unuaual in that it was a totally automatic 24-hour hotel where entry to the front door and all rooms was by key code! No reception staff, nothing. A bit like a version of those EasyHotels if you've seen one, but we did have proper rooms and bathrooms instead of "pods". A unusual type of place but I quite liked it really.
We soundchecked at the club which has its home in the back room of a pub called The Bear. It had just been renovated to the surprise of Andy who runs the club and there were huge tables in the room instead of the usual small caberet style tables which meant it was a bit of squeeze for everyone to get in! It's a very small room so it didn't take much to fill the place and there was a lovely atmosphere. As ever, I met some lovely people in the audience - see pics below.
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| Demonstrating their superior sense of style and taste by buying a copy of my album. ;-) |
Chapel Arts Centre, Bath
We had a bit of a lie-in on Saturday to make up for Friday's early start and then went for brunch in Bristol before setting off to Bath. What a beautiful place! I went a bit mad with the camera but don't worry - I've only included a couple here.
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| Bath Abbey - stunning |
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I wondered at first if these were Bath's version of the Barclays
Boris Bikes... but think they were some sort of promo thing |
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So many buskers on the pedestrianised streets of Bath - felt
like a bit of a cross between Covent Garden and Brighton! |
When we first arrived at the venue, I was a bit worried as it was all covered in scaffolding and green baize but it was still business as usual! It such a wonderful space. The perfect size for a jazz performance and although there weren't as many people there as I would have liked, because it was arranged with cabaret style tables with candles and the audience were warm and encouraging, there was a lovely ambience.
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| George, Dave and Milo soundchecking |
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| Shot of the audience taken during the interval |
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| Another lovely lady demonstrating her superior taste! |
As she was leaving, a lady came up to thank me saying that when she had arrived that evening she had been feeling very down but listening to us had reminded her of the joys of life. It really moved me to hear that. Connecting with people and bringing something positive into their lives is one of the reasons I love performing so much - even if it sounds a bit cheesy!
