New Bohl Logo - now a quartet!

Some of our more eagle-eyed dawsonistas may have noticed that the old trio Picasso pastiche has been updated with the edition of Dana our drummer, a big thank you to Lance Bohl the graphic designer who rustled up the original and has now upgraded it - Our only hope is that we dont add anymore musicans as the logo will take on poster proportions... Big up...

Gigs Past Present and Future

Well weve had a good set of gigs from a performance perspective, and we are playing really well at the moment - lovely vibe and dynamics, weve been paid some nice compliments by serious musicians so all in all a satisfying experience.. we are looking at more dancers for next year rather than our love of esoteric songs - the difference between the blind boys of alabama and the alabama three is lost at function gigs, so its some upbeat standards we are intending to add to the set... I remember from the 1970s when acts were denegrated for being "commercial" . The reality is that we have to chose upbeat standards that are fun enough to play and find new perspective in them.... hey Im going all Jazz... here..

Gigs past, A Charity do, Some Pictures and interesting gigs in the future…..

I suddenly realised that it was a long time since I had posted to the blog, we have had a busy summer, playing outdoors quite a bit, establishing the Pelton Gigs on a Sunday evening, doing a few gigs out of town and finally playing at the City & Guilds Pakistan Flood Relief charity bash in Smithfield which raised c £1000 so that was a very good cause.

Weve just had some new publicity shots taken and we are pleased with the initial results, whilst sadly I don’t look in my twenties, not even the fabulous photographer Mr Burrluck can do that, but the band at least looks interesting; potentially a kind of cross between Get Carter/a slightly demented looking Klesmer band and us…..

The next month should be fun as we are playing at the British Oak, Cattleyas The Pelton and a great pub in rural Kent. Were rather hoping that Mr Tilbrooks series of Tuesday gigs at the Hope & Anchor will start up again as they made Tuesday evening a real joy…

May? Where did that go?

Well, we’re not quite sure where May went — another gig-filled month for us and already we’re into June!

Our last gig at the Pelton Arms was on 30th May; that venue is getting busier ever time we play and we now have (at least) one Sunday gig there a month and one a Cattelya’s so please check our gig list so you don’t go to the wrong one.

Once again we’re playing for the Greenwich Parksfest. We started at the East Greenwich Pleasaunce on 6th June and despite heavy rain being forecast it was a beautiful balmy afternoon and very well attended too. Our next one is over at Avery Hill Park on July 10th 12-5pm. There might be some misty eyes from Mike and Dave who both used to attend the college before it became Thames Poly or even Greenwich University. And yes that was so long ago that there were dinosaurs in the park (well, at least some punks!). These are great family events and so long as the weather holds are a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

As to the rest of June, we’re back at the Pelton Arms on the 13th (7-10pm) then Cattelya’s on 27th (8-11pm). Our bassist Ben will be off gigging in Finland so Gus Glen will be filling his shoes. It’ll be a bit of a reunion as it’ll be the first time the ‘original’ Los Dawsons (Mike, Dave and Gus) will have played at Cattleya’s for many a year. Don’t miss that one.

Thanks for all your support and see you soon!

May Day Weekend and we are at Cattleyas 2 May 9pm

Its a typical long weekend holiday - mixed then ghastly weather, tonight we are back to our normal quartet line up which should be fun as Volcanic Ash paid havoc with quite a few musicians we know, strandings in Africa and Japan, cancelling gigs in Norway so all in all, to quote "Have I got news for you" there were winners and losers, so we were lucky to keep playing under these circumstances, thank you Dennis and Gus for your help here...

All that behind us we have some interesting gigs this month, more work at the Pelton and The Canal Tavern in Gravesend next weekend and we are chasing work in Sydenham and potentially Smithfield as well - lets see what the outcome is...

have a look at our upcoming gig list

Gigs, Happenings, Functions Experiences et al...

We seem to have played quite a few gigs already this year... we have had a great start and broken some new venues in different areas, and played with quite a frequency at some of our favourite venues , we never expected to do so much pub music either - that has been a success - we have a set of regular dates at the Pelton Arms coming up, we have been approached by other venues and are hopeful the Whickam in Brockley finds us suitably enthralling...

The gigs we did with Glenn Tilbrook, Dennis Greaves, Mark Feltham and Lord Large at the Anchor and Hope have had a lot of hits on You Tube, and Dennis said he was pleased with the result - that is big praise as hes very discerning - search for the fabulous Snipturn on You Tube if you're interested as hes the fellow who put the fabulous vids together - a big thank you to Simon here..

As ever we are are regulars at Cattleyas, and our original Bass player Gus Glen was back from Switzerland and sat in with us - quite like old times... hes back for a bit so look out for him on the circuit as hes fun to watch... and Im certain you will see him sitting in with us now and again...

The Pelton..... WOW!

What a lovely vibe, a uniquely Greenwich experience... a place where everyone has their own space... we really enjoyed it... Thank you Geoff - we're looking forward to the next one..

Cheers...

Another New Venue: The Pelton Arms in Greenwich 14 and 28 March

Ive always rather liked this establishment, to my way of thinking it is exactly as a pub should be, nice vibe, good beer, nice food, congenial landlord and staff and some quality (not too loud) live music.. and to my mind this is perfect Los Dawson territory - we are having a fortnight trial alternating with a Jazz trio - which we wont get too see as we are at Cattleyas.. which is a pity..

This pub is very easy to get to, close to Maze Hill Railway Station, off Trafalgar Road go north along Christchurch Way where the big church is.. and then onto Pelton Road - a couple of minutes max...

The Sunday lunch is excellent and reasonably priced; why not make an afternoon of it?

The Eagle Tavern and Battersea....

The last time I did a gig in Battersea was at venues that do not exist anymore... Both have been pulled down; The Nags Head where Jimi Hendrix famously played, and The Old Swan? which had an oddly nautical theme in pre-stressed concrete which was a famous punk gig where the Damned and many others played. I reckon that I might have played the 101 club in Lavender Hill more recently (maybe 1982?) but then is that Battersea or Clapham ? The jury is out... either way I have missed Battersea for c 30 years...

However, what a nice gig; with great management, a good vibe and a nice audience... We had the rather odd experience of a local Battersea gentleman Charlton (and Squeeze) supporter asking us whether we knew a Charlton footie song 'Valley, Floyd Road' which funnily enough Dave knew only too well as he played on the recording - stranger than fiction.. sadly we couldn't compete here as the rest of us didn't know it...

Thanks to all of our friends who turned up, and our fabulous You Tube cinematographer Simon (see snipturn for great looking and sounding videos on you tube)..

Hopefully we will be back there soon...

Big Up to the Pied Pipers of Charlton and Musical Momentum and Mayhem......

Well we've had an amazing Kipper season... January and February is rarely a period of joyous music making, it rains, it snows, its cold and few people brave the elements - it doesn't tend to matter how fabulous the act is...

However.... Glenn Tilbrook with his usual flair decided to challenge these norms... he got his band the Fluffers, a group of local friends; Dennis Greaves, Mark Feltham, Siobhan Parr and Paris to join in his experiment on the river...

Glenn and Dennis also asked us to perform as part of the series of Tuesday nights, this is at The Anchor and Hope on the river in Charlton SE7, and it is an awesome evening.... hopefully this will continue as the Pub has a great vibe and is very musician friendly. tell your friends and keep it going...

To my mind this gig has galvanised the local musical atmosphere, we are slowly establishing the local scene, and I am certain we have been offered other gigs on the back of this...

Further to this, we have a gig at the Eagle in Battersea Park Road on Saturday 27 February and potentially a new gig at the Pelton Arms in Greenwich - were going places! well at least around the 'burbs...

A busy old time.... and a new face

Id like to introduce a new member of the extended Los Dawson family; Dana Myzer drummed with us at the last two quartet gigs; the British Oak 30 January and Glenn Tilbrooks and Dennis Greaves special surprise gig last Tuesday at the Anchor and Hope. All our regular drummers were busy so that says something about good drummers and quality acts in the current musical market - they are distinctly at a premium...

Dana blew our socks off! Originally from Austin Texas, he is now resident in our fair borough. He has a tremendous musical heritage having been the drummer in the powerpop act Cotton Mather (who had a couple of big hits in the 1990s and supported Oasis round the world). He can play anything we threw at him (rather brilliantly) and the fellow didn’t have a rehearsal either... We were extremely pleased... Big UP for Dana..

On a completely different note - see whether you can catch Dave Burrluck (our illustrious classical guitarist) at the One day Cafe in Plumstead 5 February playing with the Dos Rosas trio, kicking off about 8pm http://www.onedaycafe.org.uk/events.htm

The last few Cattleya gigs, and the Oak this Saturday (30 January)

We have had a series of busy and successful gigs at Cattleyas, it has consistently been a fabulous vibe with some great guests; Dennis Greaves has graciously sat-in on more than one occasion as has Glenn Tilbrook; to have two professional musicians of this calibre playing with us is a joy.

Dean Powell gave his all singing on a couple of songs, and Paris a new fellow on our scene gave us his interpretations of a few of our offerings... These have been well received; to such an extent that we have asked him to come and sing with us at the British Oak this Saturday..

Heres some food for thought; Paris sang on the TV so he has sung to more people in one shot than I have sung to in my whole life... amazing..

Recent Gigs Reviewed & Local Momentum!

We have just done a couple of gigs where we have had the good luck of working with Glenn Tilbrook, Dennis Greaves, Janny Ballard and Paris (the Voice).... We have experienced much joy; the guests have been so thoroughly musical and have knocked the socks off everyone who was there. The evenings have been extremely busy as well, reflecting that class music can happen locally... as ever you just have to know where its going down...

Coupled with this there also seems to be a bit of momentum happenning locally with Glenn Tilbrrok and the Fluffers pushing a series of surprise gigs at the Anchor and Hope which have been sublime, and the British Oak is offering some really great acts this month