Really nice weekend of gigs - starting with O'Neills in Southend on Friday. A good, bouncy crowd and a wedding proposal to boot!

Dave Shalloe on Facebook: 
"Great gig last night at O'Neill's in Southend. We got to properly christen the new PA bits, there was lots of crazy dancing and plenty of singing along from the audience and a few familiar faces. We also had our first mid song marriage proposal during Chasing Cars! Congratulations to Crissie and Adam!! xx"

Then a slightly unusual, 'acoustic' set at the Star in Ingatestone on Sunday PM/Evening which was Brilliant - thanks to Liz & Arthur for letting us take over the pub with our noisy family & friends!

Our mate Lawrie Barton sums it up like this...
"Great stuff today guys. SO many smiles - you really lit up provincial Essex in your inimitable way. A few 'faces' missing (you know who you are!) but those present were definately movin' to the groovin'. Keep it coming..............."

Just got back from our fantastic wedding jaunt to Petritoli in Italy - a magic place!
Here is a sample of some of the chatter on facebook:

Dave:
"What an amazing trip! Thanks to Ian and Marie for inviting us to play at their wedding in the bellisimo village of Petritoli in Italy. Also, thanks to all of Marie's lovely family and of course thanks to the Barrett and Cumbers clans for making us feel so welcome and for being such party animals! xxx
Also thanks to wedding planner Jo for taking great care of us and to all the people of Petritoli for putting up with our poor italian, our loud late nights and for coming out to boogie with us last night :o)"

Stef: 
"Hear, hear Dave! Also like to thank the proprieters and staff at the Bar Gelateria Tre Archi for their eternal patience, great coffee and panini's. Also our Italian friend at Fanny's wine tasting, for his interesting acoustic rendition of a pornographic Italian folksong. Made even more interesting by the proximity of Father Joe in the audience!"

Leena:
"Stef - that was classic, wasn't it! Especially as he introduced the song as "a beautiful love song" ! And until he started translating, we were all listening to it with sweet smiles on our faces!!!!! Hahaha! That's still making me laugh!"

Marta Tomassini:
"grazie a tutti voi per il divertimento!! :D"

Bar Gelateria Tre Archi:
"Thank you all for making me spend a fantastic and memorable weekend in this small village called Petritoli!!! :-)))"

Corrado Maranesi:
"Congratulations for your best performance of last night in Petritoli!! I would like to know who I have danced with.=)"



All the rest of the pics are now available here!

Ok, so it was just another beer festival then, right? 

WRONG!!!!!

It was THE LEGENDARY VIPER BEER FESTIVAL, on EASTER SUNDAY!

Apart from a little bit of rain, it had all the best ingredients:

The Bands: Breakforcover, Breaking Strings, Amy Howe - hell bent on raising the roof, rocking out and making Chris's hangover worse!
The Barstaff/Food bar: Donna and the guys, worked their collective guts out all day long, with big smiles on their faces (no small animals were harmed)!
The Electricity supply: Ha Ha - the power went out yet again - wouldn't be the same if we weren't cut off at least once during the day!
Saving the best for last:
The Crowd (you know who you are): What can we say? You lot make it all worthwhile - there isn't a better (or louder/table-top dancier) bunch of loyal mates around, when we play it feels like just one big BFC family. Guys we salute you  - YOU ROCK!!!

Here are some Facebook comments:

 Kev Howe:
Just home from the Viper Beer Fest. Big thanks to family and friends (both old & new) for coming along and making it such a success. Special mention for Breaking strings for a great set and my Amy for joining in with us on 3 numbers, (yellow has never sounded better). Also a massive thanks to Donna and all her staff at the Viper for looking after us so well. :O)

George Clifton:
Another great Viper made possible by the best cover band in Essex (sorry Pete lol) - well done to every member of the band, especially to Chris who looked like death warmed up at the start :) - congrats to 'Breaking Strings' for supporting - (great wellies Kel) and a big thank you to Amy with her great performance. Finally, I can honestly say that I have never met a finer group of people who both play and support BFC. They're the ones who make it so special - am proud to be uncluded within their number :)

Dave Shalloe:
An amazing day at the Viper beer festival yesterday. The whole marquee was full of people dancing on tables, jumping up and down, singing at the top of their voices. You made it a very special gig for us, thank you!! Special thanks to Breaking Strings, Amy Howe and to Donna and all the staff who worked their socks off. xxx
Mission accomplished at The Chopper Club rally on saturday and The Viper beer festival on sunday. Next stop Italy!!

Kerry French:
Thanku for inviting us to play and stepping in as we were one man down..you guys are abs fab :) x

Bernadine Merryman:
"thank you for another brilliant day, cant find how to post this on the bands wall..... was a brilliant gig it really rocked....... xxx"

Leena Shalloe (Pictured below):
That was one fantastic gig! A big thanks to BreakforCover for coming through for us yet again - as they always do. Also, a huge thanks to the band's loyal followers for creating such a rocking atmosphere for all of us - where would we be without them!




Dan conceding total and utter defeat...

Check out Leena's brill pics here!

The 4-piece version of BFC were out last Friday night in Oxford Circus. Ian was busy risking life and limb in some corner of a foreign ski slope leaving the guys to battle bravely on without the aid his magic fingers (ooer missus).

We were one of the 3 acts performing at a charity night called 'Boogie For Good'. The night started with Tom Norman armed with only an acoustic guitar, he did a great set, with a lovely line in patter and had the crowd firmly in the palm of his sweaty hands.

Next up was 'The Jays' who, were absolutely superb, their combination of tight, punchy, melodic/anthemic songs along with their committed performance really won us over, if you want to hear more download their single 'Sixth time lucky' from iTunes for a mere £1.29.

We were on last and charged with the job of getting everyone on their feet, which I think we did - the crowd were bloody brilliant as usual and helped us out no end! Thanks Chris and Debs for putting the whole thing together - I'm sure there will be a knighthood in it for you both somewhere along the line. Looking forward to your wedding bash next year now - yippeee!

The high point of the night was Dave the hippy actually suggesting that we do 'Mustang Sally' - his most hated song...

 Sunday morning BFC rehearsal conversation:

"What we going to play then"
"Dunno, what do we want to play"?
"Dunno, what CAN we play like, acoustic on the radio?"
"Without keyboards?"
"Yeah..."

"Dunno"

And so another dynamic BFC rehearsal starts, with just over three hours to go before the show...

Luckily, the plucky lads managed to cobble something together and made it to the studio on time. Genial host Bob Simpson (a very likeable, patient, long suffering yet appreciative chap) guided us through the revealing interview, though we weren't giving much away...:

Bob: "So do you write your own songs?"
BFC: "Mmmmm - yes"
Bob: "Do you play them in your set?"
BFC: "Not really"
Bob: "Why not?"
BFC: "er... we don't really like them that much..."

Bob: "Whats it like playing all acoustically?"
Ian: "It's like wearing trousers but with no underpants..."

Bob: "What's your relationship with Squabbler?"
Ian: "er... They are our Father's..."

And so the 45 minutes allotted zoomed by very quickly, with acoustic versions of 'Everlong' / 'Losing my religion' (see vid below) / 'Born to run' / English Rose' / 'Long Cool Woman' / Show me the way' / 'Chasing Cars' (with the obligatory dedication to Leena) / 'Come on let's go'.

Next thing we new we were winging our way to the Swan in Brentwood for the evening performance of the full electric set - and boy what a night that was!

Below is the webcast vid of  'Losing my religion'. Click here to see other songs from the same session