Phew... A mighty amount of activity....

Since the last update weve done five gigs which is quite good going, we have had some nice responses from the festival and open air concerts, a big thank you to Rob Wilson who sat in so nicely at Wadfest, he had learnt all the tricky bits better than we know them... Chapeau as they say...

We had some lovely responses from people who came up to us and said they hadnt expected to see an act as interesting as us - our hats wont be fitting soon if this carries on....

I returned the gesture to Glenn Tilbrook by giving him a copy of our new CD, as he so kindly gave us his the last time we met... the main difference was that our budget was most likely exponentially smaller...

Hope to see you all at the British Oak, it should be a good one...

The New CD is completed.. and ready for sale

Its called Cattleya Nights, Its live, Its 10 tracks, Its had the front cover illustration designed by Lance Bohl which is a lovely Picasso Pastiche.. It will be ready for sale at the Oxleas Wood Gig this Sunday for a lovely £6 each all we need now is the weather to be fantastic..

In the Studio Today and the East Greenwich Pleasaunce Picnic

We started the recording session at 10am, finished at about 6.15pm and we managed to complete 10 live take songs from our set list, we were a quartet with Mark playing drums and percussion, so the groove was really great... we think we have a good CD for all of you out there in wonderful webland/dawsonista land... it should be mixed and mastered in time for the Oxleas Wood Cafe gig which we are very much looking forward to... if you can make it the new CD will be an added bonus...

We have a really funky gig at the East Greenwich Pleasaunce Picnic, hopefully Glenn Tilbrook will be headlining on Sunday 7th June 12-4pm - we should be playing at 2pm all being well, the last few events there have been really special - its a glorious open space... and we will bring a few CDs along too...

Parties, Rehearsing, Studios and Open Air festivals

We played at a really hectic Party in Camberwell for our friends Dean and his partner Lisas’ Birthday, it was a fabulous night which is a testament to good organising; and we played well too..

Dean sang, and so did some other guests including Steve Ellis from Love Affair singing Stand by me and a young lady called Alex did a sterling interpretation of Summertime..The Restaurant should be given a mention as we were extremely impressed with their enthusiasm, professionalism and food… so Caravaggios in Camberwell gets 5 stars…

We did a very in depth rehearsal yesterday evening for the Studio session that we are doing later this week; it will be a magnum opus as we are recording 11 numbers live on the day that will be mixed next week ready for the Oxleas Wood Café gig…

So we need to get some good photos together for the artwork and we have to be very focused… but if the results yesterday evening are anything to go by I am very hopeful…

It seems hopeful that we have the East Greenwich Plaesaunce Picnic gig which will be a lot of fun and we are hopeful about some other very interesting outdoor local gigs later in the Summer… And we are in conversation with Kingy at the East Dulwich Tavern too (EDT)

May 2009 - gigs - CDs - ideas etc etc.

It was a busy weekend, Dave went to see Steve Morrison & Mark Walker play at the Spice of Life last Friday and by all accounts most excellent they were... Uh oh....Dave then found out that locally on the Bank Holiday Sunday at the same time we were at Cattleyas (4pm - 10.30 pm) we were competing for audience with Steve Morrison and Al Richardson at Olivers in Greenwich and Bruise were at the Pelton Arms in East Greenwich so suddenly we thought wed have a quiet one... as we have common fans....

Coupled with this we had to do a BBQ gig in between sets that alot of our regulars were invited to, so we thought we were onto a hiding..... thankfully it was cooking all night and the people stayed with us from the off...

A few cards given out and some new people on the Dawsonista mailer... the Charlton fans seemed to enjoy what we were doing and even danced a bit too... so the gloom surrounding relegation was nullified

Yesterday (May bank Holiday) We went to the British Oak to see our old mates play in the Mish Mash Band - and stomping they were too... I wonder whether the Oak should get us to warm up for the next one.. now that would be a great gig...

We are also liaising with the East Greenwich Pleasaunce picnic to perform, trying to get closer to Charlton House because we think we could offer a great package there... (as other friends are interested in joining us) and we are desperately trying to find any other interesting outdoor or indoor gigs that are unusua.... if you have anything in mind pitch it back to us...

We will hopefully have our new CD ready for the Oxleas gig... anyone out there with a good pic of us that we could use?

Big News - Were going to record a new CD...

We thought it was about time we recorded something that reflects our current abilities and line-up. So we are hoping to have a CD ready for the Oxleas Wood Cafe gig, as we think that would be an appropriate launch... If any of the dawsonistas out there has any nice black and white photos of the boys in action it may be considered as artwork for the new title, we havent got an idea what to call this one yet...

Also HOT PRESS we will be doing an early 4pm'ish set on this Sunday 3 May before our usual session due to it being the last match of the season at the Valley..

Be there or 4-sided...

The British Oak Easter Sunday: The Quartet.. and a new mail id..

We quite often go out as a quartet if we can, as its a joy to perform with Mark Walker as he is very inventive drummer/percussionist and his washboard playing is er sublime...

(I have to say here that when Mark cannot play we also play with Jim Kimberley who is just as much fun, we are privileged that two so musical drummers want to perform with us).. I digress..

We were offered an opportunity to play at The British Oak at their BBQ afternoon on Easter Sunday, we used to play there before before it changed hands so whilst we are always a bit worried by bank holiday afternoons as London can become a ghost town, we didnt want to lose the opportunity... We like the pub and ro be honest we had given up hope a bit as perhaps we thought were not the landlords kind of thing..

So we were pleasantly surprised with the call and so it had to be.. A lot of the acts in the 'Oak are primarily "music" rather than "music and entertainment" but the audience there are intelligent and will encourage acts if they fit in... were a bit different as we encourage a fairly intimate experience.. we are used to engaging, thankfully there were a few familiar faces and they were local people who will go to the Oak again..

The Gig: 4 musicians, a vocalist with a bad chest infection, 3 sets, 33 numbers, condensation on the windows, audience clapping and joining in, Dawsonistas from Southwark and Balham, the Oxleas people coming along to make certain were the right kind of act...

All in all it went extremely well, the Landlord said hed book us back, and I got to play some more harmonica (it may be catching....) and as the dawsonistas are aware they now receive a dedicated email from thelosdawsons@gmail.com to tell them what is happenning - if you want to join in send us an email and youre included too..

thank you - all of you you are making certain I can keep on playing guitar singing and now picking up harmonica again (ill have to make certain I play well enough if Mark Feltham turns up.. phew)

Mike