The Los Dawsons

Activity Activity OXJAM GREENWICH

2011-11-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

After a few less gigs than normal, (due mainly to Mike Dearings non working fretting hand after slipping a disk..) we are now back on the road again...

We are looking forward to the Oxjam headliner on Saturday 19 November which should be fun.. it is at the Duke in Creek Road Greenwich Deptford borders - I cannot remember the last time I gigged there.. I think it was when Erich Hofer was still the landlord so it must have been some time ago..

Upcoming Gigs...

2011-04-01T02:01:00.000-07:00

After a busy first couple of months, last month was quiet for us - just the 2 gigs; though this month we see some new venues, returning to old favourites in Battersea and Gravesend, and a showcase at the Sydenham Blues Club which has a sterling reputation for hosting great acts... So try to catch us in April... Were looking forward to a busy month...

Busy Busy Busy

2011-02-01T04:08:00.000-08:00

The Los Dawsons are slowly getting the itinerary together for 2011, we are hoping to broaden our choice of venues this year so hopefully out to Kent Surrey Sussex and Essex and even maybe North London... as a few recommendations have been given so fingers crossed.. we will keep everyone posted...

A Happy New Year to all our friends...

2011-01-17T16:37:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your support, we have a raft of gigs in the wings! Cattleyas The Pelton The British Oak The Bull at the top of Shooters Hill, The Swan at Wittersham and the Distillers in Smithfield so all in all it should be fun...

New Bohl Logo - now a quartet!

2010-11-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-17T15:38:00.000-08:00

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…..

2010-09-21T03:31:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-06-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-02T02:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-07T04:36:00.001-08:00

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....

2010-03-01T06:20:00.000-08:00

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......

2010-02-18T00:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-05T01:10:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-01-26T08:11:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-21T05:53:00.000-08:00

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

Gluttons for punishment; Powercuts, Juke Boxing and Frozen Hands...

2009-12-09T12:19:00.000-08:00

After nearly being booked for a couple of function gigs, and a sonically wondrous gig at the old library in Charlton house for the Picnic in Greenwich Parks Movement, we had some gigs that became more of a challenge than we expected.

An old college friend arranged a special evening for her significant other halfs' half century celebration, intitially we were going to try and fit in a rustic snug bar when the power gave up, whilst it meant that we had to break set in the pitch black (exciting!) we then had to move everything upstairs into a large rather bland conference room, as one can imagine the organisers were fraught.... We got on with rigging the band and thought at one point we may have to play totally acoustically - but we rigged the power from the pub kitchen got on with it turned the lights down and created the vibe - it went down very well and a big thank you for Jim Kimberley who covered percussion and drums beautifully... I also had the added frisson of us performing one of my songs from college days - crikey...

Then Sunday at Catteleyas with the Juke Box second set - where we get the audience to shout out numbers from the Juke Box flyer - this is very tricky as they tend to chose songs we don't always play, whilst this keeps us very much on our toes it can be a bit difficult...

Then Frozen toes, fingers, noses etc, back at the East Greenwich Pleasaunce for the Christmas Open Air party - Carols, Choirs, Santa, Mulled Wine, Mince Pies and an aptly chilled Los Dawsons..

But we brought the sun with us again (in the summer it poured with rain and then was fine for the rest of the day) and similarly the inclement weather disappeared for our two rather chill(y) sets.. I found that if I wore cycle mitts it kept my hands warm enough to start playing.. Ben and Dave were not so lucky, but Kate from the committee thought we kept the audience happy and a lot of people came up to express their amazement that we were to prepared to play outside in December, a record I reckon... So as usual we are trying to keep the gigs diverse.. Im currently trying to sort out a charity gig for Crisis in Smithfield for mid January and I reckon that could be interesting too...

Oh what a night!

2009-10-18T03:24:00.000-07:00

The LD’s rock Plumstead’s One Day Café

We can quite understand why you wouldn’t want to turn out on a dark, cold October evening, especially to the depths of Plumstead, but, we’re sorry to say, you missed a cracker.

The gig was for the One Day Café, an enterprising group in Plumstead headed by Jane Fenton, that is trying to establish a community café/venue an area that’s full of artists, musicians, actors etc. but completely lacking in any decent venue or indeed café. Seeking council funding to secure a permanent venue, the One Day Café organisation has been putting on gigs in various Plumstead locations and Friday 16th October’s event was an imposing brick sh*thouse-like building nominally titled the Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion. But with a little bit of TLC by Jane and her crew it was turned into one of the cosiest, intimate venues we’ve ever had the pleasure to play in. Attendance was very good too. So a very big thank-you to all the One Day Café-ists who turned out — not to mention a few Los Dawson ‘groupies’ (you know who you are!) and shame on you other Los Dawson-ists who couldn’t summon the courage to venture to Plumstead (and no, you don’t need a passport to leave Charlton!). Seriously, we really appreciate all your support.

Actually there was a bit of Blitz spirit to the evening. Ben was otherwise engaged so bass duties fell to our old buddy Nigel ‘Reggie’ Pierce who’d been working away leaning some 30 songs at very short notice. Paired with his old drumming partner Mark Walker, however, Reggie fitted like the proverbial glove. Handy too that he was playing an acoustic bass, not an upright double bass like Ben — the ‘stage’ was on the small side, barely room for Mark’s kit and our egos let alone Ben’s huge bass. And mid-way through our second set the power went off plunging the venue into darkness and muting our PA and amps. While the organisers hurriedly re-lit candles and ventured to find the problem, Mike serenaded the audience as only he can — the power came back on and we didn’t miss a beat. See, we said it was a special night.

So, a big thank-you to the One Day Café for putting us on. Their next gig is on 4th December (www.onedaycafe.org.uk) featuring the Steve Pringle Trio, a Greenwich-based trio of some of the UK's best up-and-come jazz musicians from Trinity College of Music.

If you want music in your area this is exactly the sort of event you should come along and support. We won’t be playing that one but some of us will definitely be propping up the bar — please join us!

September and Onwards

2009-09-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

We had a gig without Ben this last Sunday, and Reggie filled in with great aplomb, Dennis came and sat in then disappeared with the PA for some secret Nine Below Zero Mission.... BTW what a great version of "you never give me your money" with Glen Tilbrook on the Mojo CD this month... I bet Macca is made up...

We have a flurry of activity in a couple of weeks... lets keep our fingers crossed for even more interesting opportunities we like odd gigs...

Mike

Los Dawsons Break Records

2009-07-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

Phew! The weekend of the 25-26th July was a busy one for us. A private function on the Saturday night for the quartet yielded our biggest income for the year. Hurrah! We can now afford new strings (well, not sure about double bass strings). Special thanks to Sue & Peter Boyles for putting on a great party. Clearly that’s all you need for a good evening: people, beer, garden and the Los Dawsons!

Some of us — we’re not saying who but he plays the nylon string guitar — were rather ragged around the edges come Sunday evening’s regular slot at Cattleya’s in Charlton. We turned up to find the place full and by the time we’d started playing it was standing room only (we broke the house record again) and unfortunately some people had to be turned away. Special thanks to Candy and Helen for helping out behind the bar to make sure those who could get in got a drink. As any of our regulars know it can get very, very busy so we always advise that you book a table in advance. Just call 0207 642 1014. Our next gig there is on 23rd August, 8pm start.

We were joined by the ever-youthful Dennis Greaves from Nine Below Zero who sat in for rollicking renditions of Let’s Stick Together and the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ She’s Tuff freeing up Mike to blow harp. The ‘Zeros have just put the finishing touches to their new album ‘It’s Never Too Late’. We’ve heard the finished tracks and suggest that you all rush out a buy a copy immediately. Their best album for years? We think so! More info www.ninebelowzero.com
So, apologies again for the over-packed Sunday at Cattelya’s, don’t forget book early for the next one. See you on the 23rd August!

We've had a quietish month so far

2009-07-22T03:45:00.000-07:00

Dave was away so we had a bit of a break; now we're ready to go - we have a party on Saturday night as the quartet, and at Cattleyas on this Sunday (26th July) as the trio, and if eveything is even we should have a good bunch of people down, I am hopeful....

We think we want to add some newer material to the repetoire and are even starting to consider adding some original material - Crikey, watch this space.... Currently we have potentially four varied sets (over 50 songs) circa 4 hours of music so to add some more material should be fun - trying to memorise all the lyrics can be a challenge, thank goodness I dont have to sing Dylan or some of the more wordy Springsteen songs..

Though as one of our (as usual) perceptive punters remarked - we play covers material in such an unusual manner that we shouldnt necessarily worry too much about these not being originals... Oh well lets see what happens... its all a journey...

Mike

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

2009-06-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-12T03:21:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-05-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

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..

2009-04-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

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

A Surprise at Catteleyas 5 April

2009-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

Its funny, when we think we're going to have a few quiet gigs the condensation runs off the windows.... I guess it helps in smaller venues with the amount of people and our frenetic activity.... we thought the Sunday at Catteleyas on the 5 April would be a man in his flat cat and a sheep dog... How wrong were we......

We had Matt the minister and a party to celebrate his wifes birthday (wed done a surprise bithday gig in his garden last year). Dennis Greaves and Dean Powell and their partners and friends turned up, Sharon from the Special League was there and too many others to mention - absolutely tremendous.. I had to rush home to get some lyrics for Dean as our repetoire doesn't include the Faces.. and grabbed an old harmonica that half worked to have a blow with for a bit of a joke (I used to play harp in a few Rhythm and Blues bands 25 years ago...) to whit I ended up supporting Dennis Greaves on I cant quit you baby.. which is a bit tricky with a 50% harp and a quarter century of no emblature and practice.. however the response was - we didnt you know you could blow you should do more... food for thought indeed...

Truly fabulous performances from Dennis Greaves (and hed just done 4 gigs in
Germany on the bounce... and flown back from the ruhr in the morning - a consumate professional...) Dean Powell rolled off a few faces and small faces classics with aplomb, should he ever want to give up boxing managing and promoting he could give Weller a run for his money...

Ben and Dave as ever were on the money (strange term that... as I reckon weve never made a brass farthing from music... hahahaha do we care...)

Its an inspiration as I then have to start the noprmal week on the Monday morning...

April News.. and hunting gigs...

2009-04-03T02:00:00.000-07:00

Well we put in considerable effort for the Steve Morrison gig, got some lovely music arranged and then the Gig was cancelled due to circumstances outside our control, we were all a bit despondant as the vibe was lovely - so were now looking for a venue suitable enough for the guitar orchestra; Ive heard that Dr King's Jailhouse at the East Dulwich Tavern may be a goer, though I cant find kingys email pah.. I wonder if hes the same Dr King that dressed up in a bear suit with Jim Moir at the Parrot Cafe all those years ago, if it is it would be fun to recount old stories... so we will have to investigate, another likely venue maybe the Hob in Forrest Hill ...

we are getting quirkier gigs this year so were pleased - there seems more momentum...

see you all at Cattleyas on Sunday evening there should be some good music on...

Mike

Busy Times - and some...

2009-03-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 8 March we did a private party with Dennis Greaves Mark Feltham and Glenn Tilbrook and a great time was had by all - wall to wall music, and we had such a great time that we are currently discussing a potential gig with all of us doing it again - the Albany Saturday lunchtime sprang to mind, of course that is if Cameron the chap at the Albany is interested...

and Glenn said hed endorse us so you cant say fairer than that..

Adding to the mayhem yesterday we did the first rehearsal with the quartet plus Steve Morrison for the long lane gig; as Mark now does more gigs with Steve than us it may have been more the trio joining Morrison and Walker - sweet as a nut which ever way we concoct the outfit - it was awesome... Ben and Mark - great Rhythm section... Steves genius and a brand new repertoire.. crikey... you must come along...

2009 for the Los Dawsons; ligging, new gigs, new venues...

2009-02-28T00:11:00.000-08:00

Numbers! well weve been doing some interesting stuff already; we have increased out repetoire to c70 songs so we can now do 2 independent 3 setters, Im trying desperately to learn all the lyrics- no mean feat...

We were recently hanging out down at Glenn Tilbrooks studio seeing some of the final touches being put to the new 9 Below Zero offering.... which already in its pre mix down format has had an airing on Janice Longs Radio 2 show with great reviews..... we really like what we've heard I reckon its Dennis Greaves and Mark Felthams Exile on Main Street, fabulous....!!!!

Whilst Dave and I were there we were also dead chuffed to be given a couple of pre release "Pandemonium Ensues" which is Glenns new CD and is really good - I love it - very blue eyed soul... And we had the privilege to see Glenns Ivor Novello award up close and personal - blimey they're heavy! cast out of bronze or something....

We have put the final touches to some new work where we are to be the the guts of another friends Cabaret project... Steve Morrisons Guitar Orchestra which will have its first outing on the 4 April at Long Lane Pavillion; this will be very good night, please email and we can tell you who to contact for tickets - we will also be using our Los Dawson quartet drummer Mark Walker who we introduced to Steve and they've been making madcap music together in a baaaddd rockin duo ever since ...

We are also in conversation with some other great musicians to build an acoustic function band.. so that should be fun when weve finally sorted it out... we are also excited about this we may yet be the "funk brothers of Charlton"...

More great news: the Fabulous Oxleas Cafe Sunday gigs are now about to be Los Dawsoned... they currently have a rock covers band once a month and we are going to alternate fortnightly with an acoustic alter ego with the Los Dawson quartet.. hundreds of people turn up - bring their own bottle have some fantastic cafe fare and chill out to the festival vibe - perfect for our kind of performance... Ill have to ping the Greenwich Phantom about this...

We also liked a music pub in Croydon that we think wed fit well in, and are in negotiation with a venue in Beckenham, lots of stuff going on.... though wed like to play more local venues, Glenn is heading up an Acoustic Roster at the Albany today... though I may pop into Rectory Fields to catch the Rugby first as theres some talk of us doing a regular session there...

Mike

And a big Thank-you to all our guest sit-ins in 2008

2009-01-09T07:14:00.000-08:00

The last year has seen some regular guests who have helped make our evenings go with a swing, Notable thanks go to Glenn Tilbrook, Dennis Greaves, Mark Feltham, Dean Powell, Steve Morrision, Reggie Nigel, Mark Walker, Jim Kimberley, Phil Dearing, Andy Ropek, Gus Glen, Mark Trounson, Keith Parker, Mike Porter and some other more anonomous players who if I have forgotten anyone many apologies...

and those of you who have promised to come down please do... you are always wellcome - but give us a ping first...

The 2009 Los Dawson catch-up

2009-01-09T06:47:00.000-08:00

Well its been a busy last year; 3 bassists, we reckon about 60 gigs, some good venues, some ghastly ones, lots of new songs but more consistently we think better music and more variation, we have developed a varied repetoire and we now have close to 4 x 45 minute sets, not that we ever expect to perform all of them in one evenings entertainment.... make us a challenge!

Further to the issues above: we now have a new Bassist Ben Hillyard who is a fine musician, thanks for making the transition a pleasant one... We have stopped the Thursday nighter in Old Kent Road/New Cross because we felt the venue wasnt suitable, an issue was either punters who seemed disinterested or psychotic; "stop tapping your feet when youre playing" well I think that was what he was trying to tell us... but seemed a trifle non compis mentis

One new venue we liked was the Vanbrugh Arms though they were trying to establish a Sunday acoustic venue with too little publicity- it deserves to continue and has a lovely vibe... We are looking to establish a residency on either the alternative sunday to Chu and Chos or on the Thursday evening, we dont know where yet but we are working on it - weve heard good things about the Nuns Head in (unsurprisingly) Nunhead... cor this establishing acoustic gigs is hard work...

If any of you out there in blogdom have amny ideas please get in touch

busy busy busy and a new residency in New Cross

2008-12-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

The last week in November has been an eventful one for us, and (thankfully) in a good way… The previous Sunday evening we did a great gig at the Vanbrugh in Maze Hill with Ben on Double Bass, which was fun as we are always trying to play more venues.

The people there are trying to establish a live music presence on Sunday evenings and as such have a fabulous vibey environment with a very clean and dry acoustic, but not many punters know about the gig currently. The problem with any Sunday evening gig is that it’s a long haul, the manager and the band have to spend the time establishing it…We know we’ve done Cattleyas for nearly 3 years; there are only so many fans who can turn up, we have a loyal fanbase but we get different people turning up to different gigs

At the Vanbrugh we had some loyal friends turn up, so hopefully we may get a few more there – but we have to play it consistently for people to be aware that its us and established.

Ken from the White Hart Hotel 184 New Cross Road SE14 5AA had seen us at Chu and Chos and wants us to establish an acoustic sit-in on Thursday evenings starting 4 December and he knows it takes time so we will see whether New Cross Gate is ready for us, we are looking forward to it as New Cross almost has a Camden approach to live music…

On Tuesday we had to prep up Nigel/Reggie Pearce from the Tinnies (Tin Gods) for yesterdays gig at Chu and Chos as Ben wasn’t able to do this one. So armed with 8 pads he then had to guess the remaining 17 songs which he did with aplomb.

To add to the frisson, Glenn Tilbrook turned up for a birthday party so we couldn’t really not ask him to play: so for you squeezistas out there he played and sang “Labelled with love”, “Gershwin’s You cant take that away from me”, Peter Green’s “Oh Well, as well as sitting in with about six or seven of our usual numbers.”

Nigel did extremely well and it can be a bit awe inspiring for everyone when someone as capable as Mr T gets going… as he was and still is definitely the guitarist/musician of his generation, watching him play and sing with us is a privilege and if I’m really honest a bit of an education..

Our special Christmas Bash

2008-11-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

we are currently trying to work up something special with Nataliya at Cattleyas on 28 December so, we will announce it here when we know more

Special League Charity Xmas Bash 11 December

2008-11-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

It seems that the fantastic drummer Jim Kimberley with the band Bruise will be sitting in on Drums for the Specialleague Xmas charity do at long lane in Blackheath/Kidbrooke Dursley Road SE3 on the 11 December which is always a joyous gig, so get in touch with Sharon for tickets, at http://www.longlanejfc.co.uk/mainpages/special1.html

Another Double Bass Player - the spinal tap moment

2008-11-18T08:03:00.000-08:00

last Sunday 16 November featured our new Double Bassist Ben Hillyard who is rather good, he has a good ear and fingers and he got a universal thumbs-up! he will not be able to do the 30 November so then we will have Reggie playing who is most super too...

Looking for a bass player

2008-11-07T04:56:00.000-08:00

Mark has had to go back to Cornwall to find some unmusical day work we wish him well in his endeavour.... great player...

So unfortunately we are looking for another Bass Player, this is a great pity as we are currently playing very well and we have a few gigs in the pipeline, so if anyone out there in the wonderful world of blogdom wants to play for the Los Dawsons then please get in touch, we have a bass and backline so you only have to turn up with your talent as it were...

fingers crossed

Some new activity, Broadcasts and Bassist

2008-10-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

We have a new double bass player Mark Trounson who is a great player and a few years our junior, and a music graduate so hes rather musical... A big wellcome there

We have just been broadcast on the web on Graham Hollands "It's A Frog's Life Acoustic Podcast" in fact we opened up his 66th show "getting my Kicks" with a song that we wont win any prizes in guessing what it was - thank you Mr Troup.

We are putting two new sets together, one of poppier Christmas stompers, and a set of originals to augment our existing three sets of varied material, perhaps 2009 will be our seasick Steve year? we are definitely starting to sound "quite something" to my ears so I am quite excited by the future...

Mike

A Bit to Report, and another review

2008-09-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

The most excellent Greenwich Phantom gave us a very fair review and was very complimentary….
http://www.thegreenwichphantom.co.uk/2008_08_01_archive.html Thank you!

We have done a few gigs at Bobs social and con club in Charlton Church Lane, we have been well received but we seem to be playing when there is no-one there which is a great pity, not least when we learnt a few Elvis numbers for the Elvis death Party. On the other hand Chu and Chos seems to be well established and we have had good volumes of punters throughout the quiet summer holidays. We are hopeful of a gig at the Pilot and hopefully the British Oak which are local pubs which have a nice vibe… and the Pilot is my favourite Pub locally, incidentally the Oak runs a close second…

We have a couple of functions coming up including one as a quartet with our fabulous sometime drummer Mark Walker, a young lad Mark Trounson has been depping double bass at some recent gigs that Chris hasn’t been available for and hes done well, chapeau for scoring a black shirt from the coffers…

And last but not least the incredible Dennis Greaves from 9 Below Zero seems to enjoy our playing as he had been a fairly regular sit-in which has really boosted our confidence as hes rather good...

Recent gigs, Deans post Bout croon

2008-07-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

After the success of Dean Powells tutilege (can I use this about boxing training?) with Amir Khan, his other talent (that of singing) was exercised with Dennis Greaves from 9 Below Zero at our last Catteleya gig - a nice number of people and a lovely evening - its actually quite fun.

We had a garden gig where we played to a Vicar and hid friends and family, where he did a lovely version of Nat King Coles "when I fall in love" - ours was slightly less lovely as we hadnt played it before, so the co-host rushes up stairs found it on the internet and prointed it out for the three of us (as usual the formatting is wrong - puts the chords in the wrong place and there are some truly odd chords on these internet fakes...

Bobs Con club has proven to be an interesting gig - we get a regular audience but we are moving it to later as its difficult to muster an audience on a summers afternoon when the wimbledon final is on..... another few functions and some regulars to come along...

My Martin is settling in well though it prefers heavier guage strings, dave has a fantastic Farida parlour guitar he was playing bottleneck on at the last gig - fantastic

Bobs Afternoon at Charlton Conservative Club — 25th May 2008

2008-05-27T02:24:00.000-07:00

As far as I know, none our ensemble has ever voted for the C-word. But, highly principled as we are, we accept a gig at the frankly dubiously titled ‘C’ Club in Charlton. Sluts? Youbetcha! I mean we play the blues (ouch!) and we do Blue Moon of Kentucky. How bad could it be?

Setting up in the bar there’s not a cravat or hooray henry in sight and lurching into our first number there’s just a ripple of applause — no ‘bravos’ or ‘top notch chaps’ to be heard. Mind you by the end of our second set the bar seemed fuller, there were tapping feet to be seen and one lady was actually having a bit of a bop. Was the ‘C’ Club falling under the spell of the ‘Dawsons? Or was it simply that they’d been at it since midday and now, by 4.30pm, the sherbets were hitting their mark?

Easing into our third set the cavalry arrived in the form of Nine Below Zero’s Dennis Greaves (and entourage), swiftly followed by Glenn Tilbrook (with young son in tow). With our 6pm end in sight both were quickly given guitars and we launched into various supergroup line-ups as Dennis and Glenn traded their proverbial, and frankly world class, licks and tonsils. Time up we finished with the Monkees’ I’m a Believer with Glenn – and most of the bar — on vocals though he nearly passed out with vocal effort as we — that’s me, actually — struggled to remember the ending. Sometimes we honestly can’t stop. The house was truly brought down.

And after a bit of charity-induced bribery, Glenn was persuaded to carry on giving the by-now packed bar a whiz through Squeeze’s greatest hits in his one-man voice-and-orchestra style. It’s quite something to witness. Okay, it wasn’t quite on the scale of Live Aid, of course, but for an impromptu, unadvertised gig on a grey May afternoon in Charlton, it’ll do nicely thank you.

We’re back — with or without our famous friends – on Sunday 8th June at 3pm.

Dave Burrluck

Working Hard Sunday 18th May with Glenn Tibrook, Dennis Greaves and Mark Feltham

2008-05-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

We thought it would be a quiet night, Chris delivered his amp to Cattleyas before picking up the Double Bass he said it was empty, as there were only a couple in with their kid… So we were all prepared to play a set of new numbers which is always a slightly avant garde experience as we tend to break a lot of new numbers in when there are fewer people in case of glitsches (which we’re good at… Los Dawsons by name Les Dawson by nature).

However a group of recognisably pro musicians turned-up as we were getting ready to play; they were clocking the gear which is always a bad sign… Thankfully a double bass adds to the equation, so we are not going to be playing Sultans of Swing (ah then yet again perhaps we should). I could swear I knew the young lady in the party (a bassist I think) and the chap in the corner was Christopher Holland, and our Chris knew another fellow who was a producer etc and then Glenn Tilbrook arrived so they were indeed his rather capable band.

ah……… the guitarist of his generation, a fine singer, songwriter extraordinaire and damn hes just about the finest acoustic guitarist in London, and suddenly I’ve got to play a solo – my fingers suddenly become leaden and my voice out of key… We know Glenn as hes sat in a few times over the years and we are always a little nervous cos hes just that bit too good… he didn’t disappoint here either… like a greyhound out of the traps; three songs that brought the house down. Follow that if we can ….

Just as Glenn is disappearing with his band the Fluffers and the production chaps (apparently they’re in the Studio recording) Dennis Greaves and Mark Feltham turn up – two more world class musicians – Thankfully I am less nervous with these guys as I’ve played with them a few times and I know what and how they do their stuff. Though we still have to make certain that I don’t stuff it up as they don’t make mistakes.. and we are busking…. we then spent the rest of the evening working our socks off to make certain we backed these two most excellent guests…. An enthralling but tiring performance- an exacting standard was set. Dennis plays guitar with a drive and enthusiasm that is infectious and when coupled with Marks virtuoso Harmonica playing the audience were on the edge of their seats.

Dennis’ son Sonny played Djembe on a few numbers, and we thought for a young lad he did well, good timekeeping and telegraphed well!

Thanks gentlemen it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to make music with you, Both Chris and Dave played beautifully all night - a good one

see the link above about the mad night.....

Mike

Pleasant Valley Sunday Party; last match of the season at Cattleya

2008-05-07T02:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday 4th May 2008

Well... we decided to start a lot earlier than normal to play to the Addicks and any other supporters that were there…. so much for “forever blowing bubbles” type of songs. Our listeners seemed a remarkably sophisticated music loving audience..... and the chap (I believe) who wrote Valley Floyd Road was in attendance for the first set and seemed to be tapping his feet

Seemed a nice vibey evening with 35 or so songs delivered hopefully with a bit of aplomb we must nail Pleasant Valley Sunday

Super Geeky stuff – our equipment

2008-04-23T08:24:00.001-07:00

Someone at the last gig wanted to know how we have a distinct clarity when were playing: (which can be a disadvantage if we make a mistake…) So apart from not playing very loud, and being acoustic and not doubling parts; here is what we use for the tech heads out there.

Daves set up is simple – he uses a top of the range spruce and mahogany cut away Alhambra Spanish nylon strung which has a pickup in it, straight into a AER classical combo amplifier.

I use a variety of steel strung guitars – a cutaway lowden 012 with a fishman magnetic active humbucker p/u, a mahogany 000 martin with a fishman active humbucker, a Hohner Gruhn with a lace magnetic passive or piezo (I think its an artec) or a Maton EGB 808 which is piezo, all of them through a Trace Eliiot acoustic combo, I prefer the fishman sound set up with a jazzy tone though Dave prefers a sparkly acoustic sound, so the Maton currently gets the biggest thumbs up.

Chris uses a Double Bass (usually my Hungarian ply one) with a David Gage transducer into a Gallien Kruger combo. We use condenser AKG handhelds on phantom power into a Peavey PA for vocals only. so nothing that special really. We are very aware of not stamping over each other which may have more to do with the separation of our sound.

The British Library Gig for Perforce

2008-04-17T02:10:00.000-07:00

We were invited to provide the musical entertainment at Perforce Softwares annual event which this year was at the British Library. We were very well treated by Perforce, Leiths (the event company) and the Library security.

For any musician or other performer corporate events have a slightly surreal quality, as the logistics make an interesting pathway to the actual performance... Compliance with risk, health and safety and electrical applance safety testing go hand in hand with whether weve managed to consider the right balance for the sets we have to provide for our audience.

This is all before youve actually struggled round the odd oneway system that now exists round the back of the new Kings Cross St Pancras conurbation, I remember reading a blog of a classical double bassist saying that musicians should be exempt from the congestion charge: I think the congestion charge is a good thing, but it doesnt seem to actively discourage the many vehicles we were in competition with to get into London for 4.30pm.

The thing that seems dramatically to have changed over the twenty years of playing in the west end apart from the increase in the sheer volumes of traffic is the total inability to find reasonable cost for parking as there seems to be nowhere to park, what I like about Italy or France is that it doesnt seem to be one large parking meter like London seems to be these days. Rant over..... I found somewhere to park (with the help of thr Library security man) that didnt have a yellow line - wow a rarity.. and an enormous thank you...

Now theres an idea for a membership website, a route finder for avoiding the congestion charge and then free parking - back to 1980s bliss...

And back to the gig; everyone we were involved with were charming, thoughtful and helpful.. A big thank you to Anna Spiering and her colleagues at Leiths, and Dave Robertson (Director of European Operations at Perforce) his colleagues and Fay for her fantastic Front of House duties.

We seemed to go down well and we were paid a few compliments, a nice evening all in all..

Influences; repertoire and how we sound...

2008-03-13T03:33:00.000-07:00

One of our regulars reckon we have a Southern Swing to us, as with most bands we dont really know exactly how we sound... these are the common originators of the repetoire we perform so if you like these - you will hopefully like us, our music spans early Jazz and Blues to recent acts, through rock, Bluegrass, Country, Rockabilly, latin and Swing, Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Punk, New Wave, Indie etc.. so a mixture indeed... The Rolling Stones Ry Cooder Muddy Waters Elmore James The Stray Cats Big Joe Turner Ray Charles Captain Beefheart The Revered Gary Davis Blondie Nat King Cole James Taylor Frank Sinatra Thin Lizzy Gilberto Gill Mose Allison Nina Simone Roxy Music Wilson Picket The Police Martha and Vandellas Albert King Tom Waits Kurtis Stigers Sonny Landreth Jackson Brown Townes Van Zandt Bruce Springsteen Counting Crows Bessie Smith Chuck Berry Joni Mitchell Razorlight Van Morrison The Beatles Billie Holliday The Monkees Lyle Lovett Elvis James Brown Big Bill Broonzy Gary Moore.... and a few I've missed too ...

Chu and Chos 9th March and another potential venue also beckons...

2008-03-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

We tried out a few more varied songs than is usual and the repsonse was very positive.

It also seems that we are going on tour as the Manager at the Conservative club at the bottom of Charlton Church Lane wants us to play there; if the British Oak at Old Dover Road comes good too... and <> a gig in the clubhouse at Rectory Fields (Blackheath RFC) our lives would be complete.

The Meridian magazine are to run an article on us too, are we hitting the big time?

Mike

We have now set up a Los Dawsons Google Group

2008-02-27T03:55:00.000-08:00

This is for as many of the Acoustic gigs as we can find, and to generate some interest and activity heres the link http://groups.google.com/group/the-los-dawsons join in!

As ever the more the merrier

Mike

An invite for acoustic music aficionados

2008-02-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Come along and have a homespun Sunday evening in Charlton, we are always surprised at who turns up, (there are occasionally some really famous people who come and sit in) and it makes a far better start to the week than worrying about work next day at 9am....

Come and enjoy a varied well played and energetic acoustic performance...

Gus our old bassplayer is now living in Geneva (good luck Gus and Elin) So we now welcome the fantastic Chris Morgan to our trio acoostica The Los Dawsons... and a fine bassist and addition he is...

As ever the gig is free and Natalias hospitality is legendary...