TrumpetBoy

This weekend I’ve taken an unusual step for me - I’ve depped out a couple of shows!! On previous tours I’ve done this hasn’t really been an option so on the Rat Pack 2004 tour I never got around to it. However, in the name of personal sanity, I’ve taken the plunge.

The reason behind it was the chance to do a couple of gigs with one of my favourite bands; "AlmeidaGirl & Descarga". I’ve played with them occasionally since recording on their CD last year and it’s always so much fun. It’s an 9-piece line-up fronted by vocalist Kirsty Almeida and organised by bassist Matt Owens. Between them they’ve written a great set of original Salsa and Latin-Jazz tunes as well as some interesting arrangements of well known tunes. You haven’t heard "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" until you’ve heard the Salsa version! They’ve also put together a great band of guys from the Leeds and Manchester areas.

We played last night (Friday) at The Brindley Theatre in Runcorn to one of the oddest crowds ever! Many of them were from a local salsa class and it turned out that there had been some confusion over how the gig was to run. The teacher from the local class was insistent that she’d been booked to do a class before the show. Others got equally insistent that we were advertised as playing at about 3 different times! No one seemed to quite know who was right so we went on at 7.45pm to appease those who thought we were late already. We started with an instrumental opener and apparently during it we missed an altercation between the Dance teacher, our liaison at the Theatre and Kirsty! The teacher was outraged at not getting to do her class and insisted that none of her students would dance to the band out of loyalty to her. It got calmed down and we did get a full dance floor for much of the 1st set but talk about local politics…

Tonight we’re playing at Po Na Na in Manchester which should be good fun and then on Sunday we’re taking part in a Tsunami benefit at the Forum in Sheffield. It’s great to have a chance to play with this great band (as well as simply doing something different) again before we head back over to Europe with the Rat Pack tour. Who knows? Maybe I’ll take the bold step of depping out again!!