30s, 40s, 50s….jazz, swing….upbeat for dancing….. romantic and smoochy…we do it all!
….bride…..and groom, because we’ve been booked to entertain at our first wedding! Yay! How exciting! We’ve got lots of new numbers ready to learn, and maybe a new one for a First Dance, which will be delightful.
It’s not till August though, hopefully we’ll have loads more gigs before then…..
I’m often asked what sort of music we do, and I say ‘swing’ – but that’s not the whole story. We’re rather precise with our period – and although Mack the Knife is indeed older (originally 1928) we stick to our guns with this!
That’s not to say that we would refuse to perform a couples’ favourite tune for their First Dance at their wedding for example, that’s different, and special!
But we’re not looking to be a ‘covers’ band, doing watered down versions of Lennon and McCartney – that’s just not us!
After Saturday’s triumph, tonight’s rehearsal was more of a meeting (although we did play some tunes, of course) – listening to different versions of new numbers for us to buy, to expand our repertoire, and discussing what gigs we’ll do….exciting!
We’re also looking for a new bassist, as John has had to leave us – he’s too busy now to fit us in. Shame, he’s so good! But there’s been lots of interest in our advert, so I’m sure we’ll find someone very soon.
Last night was our biggest gig yet – a Valentine’s dinner dance. And it went swingingly! Everyone had a good time…including us, and we weren’t even drinking!
Here are a few pics from before we started – rigging and setting up.
Ben had to leave us because of his new job, but as our new drummer, Simon, has commitments this weekend, lovely Ben has stepped back into the breach to help us out at our gig this Saturday – good man!
So we had an extra rehearsal last night, just to familiarise ourselves with all the music again – and all the tweaks and changes we’d made. It was all a bit strange and daunting at first, but soon we all just swung back into our usual style! No probs!
How exciting! It should be a good do, with such a great audience…I hope they all bring their dancing shoes….!
Room 10 is complete again. With Simon the drummer agreeing to join us, and Adam the pianist a couple of weeks ago, we’re now getting the sound we’d hoped for back in 2017, when we started it all off…such a big band sound, just brilliant!
Getting ready for our next gig, it’s a pretty steep learning curve for our new players…
Here are the details of the gig, if you’d like tickets contact any of the band, or use the contact form on this site.
PS It’s in Filton Golf Club…I forgot to say!
We have a keyboard player, at last! Adam came along last night and fitted in really well – it was so nice to hear those piano parts we’d not heard for about a year, since lovely Emma left us…like all those twiddly bits in ‘The Way you Look Tonight’!
Our next gig is just in a few short weeks, so lots of work to do before then….
We had our room 10 Christmas dinner last night, and presented Joël with a goodbye gift – Ailsa made a little souvenir version of our music stand banners. Cute!
No meet ups till after New Year now, so Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from room 10! Keep dancing!
Phil has joined us, after a few rehearsals, so when Jöel heads back to France we’ll be ok. Phew! We’d hoped a pianist/keyboard player would come along tonight, but for various reasons he couldn’t….but watch this space!
Lots of work to be done before our next gig, it’s just as well it’s not till the New Year!
room 10 