2012

O'Neill's Friday / The Star, Ingatestone, Sunday

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:56:05 GMT

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..............."

Bella Italia!

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:05:00 GMT

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!

Easter Bank Holiday - The Viper Beer Festival - Now the stuff of legend!

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:10:00 GMT

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!

Boogie For Good!

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:41:59 GMT

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...

The Phoenix FM Live Radio Session - Sunday March 11th

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 02:25:00 GMT

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

The Katie Standen Party - Friday 9th March

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 02:00:00 GMT

Well - all stops were pulled, film star costumes donned (then ahem - removed, Chris Jnr?), pickled eggs were scoffed and generally wild things happened at Katies 30th on Friday.

To those who don't know the wonderful Katie, she is Chris & Wendy's daughter in law - and in the best traditions of the Standen family she knows how to enjoy herself!

As you will see from the pics here the fancy dress theme was film stars. Chris went as 'Crocodile Dundee' or somebody similar (answers on a postcard please) and the rest of the band played themselves as Spinal Tap (see Dave 'Derek Smalls' below), complete with bespoke T-Shirts with famous Spinal Tap quotes, and a lovingly crafted (by Kev) miniature 18" high scale model replica of the famous 'Stonehenge' monument. However, Chris's insistence in having his own personal theme for his costume has already fuelled more rumours in the tabloids that he is, in fact planning a solo career (plus he's got his own guitar now too).

A fantastic night was had by all - thanks for all those who turned up in the amazing costumes!

BFC on the Radio!

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 03:50:00 GMT

Hi folks - just a quick heads up to what is happening next weekend -
we have two gigs on Sunday 11th March, the first will be a live acoustic only set on PHOENIX 98FM Radio at 3.15-ish, then we will hightailing it over to the Swan in Brentwood High Street for a night of fun and frolicks with Dan, Ryan, Lawrie, Teresa and the rest of our buddies from old Brentwood town - see ya there!

Kelly's 40th

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:15:00 GMT

We don't normally do blog pieces on our private party gigs, but I just have to say, what a great night we had on Saturday night! It was Kelly's 40th at the Freighthouse in Rochford, and they really pulled all the stops out with a fantastic fancy dress/themed evening based on 40's clothes, music and decorations. Everybody put a huge effort in with their wartime period costumes, hair and makeup it was all so well done! Thanks Kelly - it was a great night!

Just in - a lovely email from Kelly:

"Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for an amazing set on Saturday, it really made my Birthday. We had so many comments about how good you were. I had a fantastic party, my feet still hurt from dancing so much, and I'm just about recovering. Thanks again for all your help and the great music, it's a night I won't forget!
Hope to catch you at a venue near us soon!"

Kind regards,

Kelly

Lovely sweaty Crown gig!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:15:00 GMT

Dave Shalloe:
"Another great night at The Crown in Ingatestone last Friday night! A hot, sweaty fun filled gig, hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did! :o"

Phaedra Pamphilon-Green:
"When and where is the next gig? It was a great night guys!"

Lawrence Barton:
"Nice to see Dave B. back on chair again - he's so much better than apprentice Dan!"

Nice to be back at the Swan!

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:05:00 GMT

Stef: "MAGIC night at the Swan in Hatfield Peverel last Saturday night. It was nice to be back after 10 years. You were a lovely, shouty, dancy, appreciative bunch. Big thanks to our loyal friends, wives and fams for the huge support (Chris is wearing it today, but we'll share it around later in the week...). Great news - the landlord wants us back!"

Leena: "The band was on fire last night - brilliant performance. And so good to see the 'friends of BreakforCover' add to the infectious energy - as they always do. Dan was great on 'Dakota' ! :o)"

Dave: "Really good night at The Swan in Hatfield Peverel last night. Big, big love to all those who made it along, you know who you are! xxx"

Last gig of the year @ The Fleece - you all smashed it!

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:20:00 GMT

Kev Howe:
"that was one great gig last night. The fleece was packed solid and rocking. midnight finish turned into a 1.45am finish we were having so much fun. Massive thanks to all that turned up . Cheers to rock dog Pete for getting up and belting out Zombie as only he can. It was great to see so many Friends and family members of the band, together with most of Chelmsford partying all night long. Thanks for helping us finish the year off with a bang and see you all in 2012. You rock !! :O)"

Dave Shalloe:
"It was an awesome night, thanks everyone. Special thanks to Brett and all the staff at The Golden Fleece! Hope you all have a great xmas x"

Mark Kennedy:
"I've woken with blocked ears, feels like I've eaten the contents of a budgie's cage, looked in the mirror and seen George and Pete's artwork on my face, seen the video clip of George and me doing a spirited but inaccurate backing vocal to Living On A Prayer and still wondering where my take-away chips ever got to. Another excellent evening care of BfC. Happy Christmas guys"

We also have Leena's superb pictorial evidence of the carnage - click here if you are feeling up to it!

Great to see you Ray!

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:15:18 GMT

Saturday night at O'Neil's in Southend was extra special for us as our old mate (and sometime road manager) Ray came to see as as part of his trip to the UK.
Great to see you fella!