No sooner had I got home to bed than I seemed to be up and back at The Kings for a jam session starting in the afternoon and organised by local lead singer Keri Johnson and family members plus the charity raffle draw for a 42″ plasma tv.
It was surprisingy busy, and warm again, as Balding Bloke kept everything on track as various singers sang away the afternoon with some very interesting song choices and for me The Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, Keri with the Foo Fighters “Times Like These” plus Keri’s cousin with a song I have no idea what it was, especially stand-outs.
The draw for the 42″ tv was won by Kerry Millward to loud cheers from her friends and little did we know the treat which we were about to have as first Mick Stones and then Kenny Mayle turned up straight from work and proceeded to delight their fans with several classic blues tracks including the tremendous Bob Dylan “Tangled Up In Blue”, a first-timer I believe, in fact they were probably all first-timers!
A very tiring weekend however all well-worth the effort and the last I heard about £860.00 had been raised for Cancer Research UK, many thanks to all who donated and made the weekend such a success.
The Saturday night of the weekend had London band the Sawdust Caesars team up with local band The What for a charity gig in aid of Cancer Research UK and was it warm in The Kings or was it warm! The Caesars opened up the evening with a superb all instrumental first set, and for those who were not aware, since their lead singer Clive Button was diagnosed with cancer shortly after their last visit to The Kings this last March therefore Richard and Sharon wanted to show their appreciation to his family and fellow musicians.
The second set and on came The What with their usual band of supporters knowing they were in for a good night since Anton was in an evidently devilish mood and they did not disappoint with a fabulous selection of classic tracks from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Van Morrison and The Who however it was the third set when both bands combined and created a wonderful set with yet even more classic Beatles, Stones and Who tracks, definitely a night to remember for covers of three of the biggest and most popular bands of all time and, surprisingly, very rarely covered at The Kings.
A superb and very steamed-up evening thoroughly enjoyed by all and plenty of cash emptied from people’s pockets for charity.
There’s a joke in there somewhere, I haven’t quite got to it however I will! I keep thinking of Xmas but we’re not quite there yet.
New local band Born In A Barn turned up minus two of their guitarists since, I’m told, they got stage fright! Little did we know this was their first-ever public appearance therefore what better night to perform a charity gig than this. Obviously with only a drummer, a guitarist and a singer Balding Bloke was going to be challenged however the lads acquitted themselves very well and considering they reckoned they only had about 60 mins of music they shortchanged themselves since the second set alone was more than an hour.
Naturally there was some AC/DC “Back In Black”, Black Sabbath “Chidren Of The Grave”, Oasis, Beatles “Twist And Shout”, Blink 182, Weezer’s “Hash Pipe” and The Undertones “Teenage Kicks” however the real surprises of the night, and I missed this but was told it was excellent, and that was Eric Clapton’s Ramblin’, nice one and most probably a first-ever at The Kings.
Naturally the main theme of the night was for the BBC’s Children In Need fund raising night and as last year many of the guys dressed up for the Miss(ter) Kings Head competition…honestly they took hours getting ready and some of the wigs were quite incredible but they must have been roasting underneath. When I know who won and how much was raised I’ll post further.
Any band that commences the night with Ian Hunter’s (Mott The Hoople) 1975 classic “Once Bitten Twice Shy” clearly knows their stuff, yep, this was definitely a first-timer, and then to follow it up with “Cocaine” and George Thorogood’s 1982 “Bad To The Bone”, we just knew it was going to be an excellent evening. A trio of excellent ZZ Top tracks, “La Grange”, “Tush” and “Fool For Your Stockings” ensued with “I’m Sick” followed by a tremendous “Superstition”, “Hook Line & Sinker” and amazingly Free’s “The Hunter” wound up the first set.
Starting the second set and straight into classic AC/DC “Back In Black” and I’m fairly sure another first-timer with Dr Feelgood’s “She Does It Right” and was this a first-timer with Free’s “Roadhouse”? Cream’s version of Robert Johnson’s 1937 “Crossroads” and then one of Jimi Hendrix’s biggest hits, the immediately recognisable 1968 “Voodoo Chile” complete with on-stage antics by all. The night was simply getting better and better and yet with another first-timer from Dr Feelgood, their 1974 debut single “Roxette”. With lots of audience participation lead singer Neil Garfitt got them all revved up with The Small Faces 1966 “All Or Nothing” however it was very evident his voice was cracking up a bit…more water please!
The band completed their night with yet another couple of ZZ Top numbers from their 1983 album “Eliminator” with “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and that was it. A great night with excellent musicians who clearly thoroughly enjoy their music and a superb selection of classic rock covers. I have absolutely no doubt that The Bazooka Band will return.
Back for their third visit of the year Where’s Ted? couldn’t have returned on a more quiet night! Was there a big red X above the town signifying it was closed? Whatever it was all the town centre bars had a reality check.
Added to this Where’s Ted’s? regular drummer injured himself and at the last minute “Tim” stepped in and depuptised and what a fantastic job he did as well. Despite all this Where’s Ted? displayed their classic rock cover skills to a very appreciative audience and several times they tantalised us and had us guessing what their next number would be with some totally different intros, great fun.
Naturally we had some Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Free, a great bluesy almost totally instrumental track, I could do with more of that I tell you, and a fabulous melange of the 1957 Larry Williams “Bony Moronie” which morphed into the 1958 “Tequila” from The Champs and then back again to “Bony Moronie”. Very impressive, right up my and quite a few others’ street, more please. As the night came to a finale probably a couple of the most frequently requested covers, firstly AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie” and finally Sharon’s all-time favourites, Led Zeppelin’s storming “Rock N Roll”.
We’re just compiling the 2011 What’s On Calendar and Where’s Ted? have already been booked so keep an eye open for their dates.