Blog

In the last couple of weeks I have discovered two new (to me) acts which I really like. At a recent Piranha Bar event a very wise gentleman stated, along with a huge compliment about being the best thing they'd had in there for a long time, that we had the sound of Flora Purim about us. I was intrigued and when I got home I went to the wonderful You Tube to investigate (see two blogs ago, see I'm repeating myself now, that's a worry!). Ah, yes I see what he means, a mix of latin and jazz which alot of our original stuff has in it. Her voice is not far from mine also I thought, she has the same sweetness which I continually bemoan whilst wishing I sounded more like Bessie Smith, I may need to drink more whiskey for that though. So this You Tube link led me to Tania Maria, who I like even more! She is a beasty pianist and singer with a real edge and again there's that latin jazz sound but slightly less modern jazzy than Flora. So my musical education has moved on and the house is ringing to the sounds of these lovely ladies. Marv!

This week saw me taking a group of lovely people from a group called 'Give, Gain and Grow' (GG&G) http://www.gosportvolunteercentre.org.uk/volunteers/support/ into the studio to record their anthem song. GG&G are there to help people with mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression, to get involved in group volunteering tasks with the aim of raising self esteem, confidence and employment opportunities. We had all worked together over the preceding weeks to create the lyrics to the song which we wrote to the music of a well known charity song, slightly changed obviously. So for the last couple of weeks the group had  been practising and about 25 of us all gathered at the Dugout http://www.dugoutstudio.com/ with the lovely Geoff and warbled our heads off. It was such a scream, everyone worked really hard and the resulting songs (we have three versions) which Geoff and I mixed straight away (he did all the hard work you understand I just gave creative nagging), are terrific! I can't wait to play the songs to them at next weeks meeting!

We will be previewing the song live at the Discovery Centre on Monday 8th October at 8pm in celebration of World Mental Health Day, followed by a little Walker Broad session for a bit of further dancing and merriment. If you are not busy do come along and support us and if you are busy then obviously cancel that and come and see GG&G singing their new anthem!