A little sneaky peek at what we do to prepare for your gigs!
We've done a few blogs now about our gigs and performances across the country over this GORGEOUS summer that we're having. We thought we'd do something a little bit different and talk about our rehearsals.
We ALWAYS rehearse at Robannas in Birmingham. Rob is just the most awesome and his studios are tidy and everything works and it all runs like a very well fitted tap. You'd be amazed how many studios there are out there that have so many key things missing, like... a toilet, or a toilet with a lock on the door, or the facility to grab a drink when you need one, or the amps don't work, and so on and so forth. Robanna's is so smooth and easy. If you need something, it's right there. If you forgot your keyboard stand, sure, go grab one. You don't wanna bring any of your breakables to practice for the drum kit? You can just hire them once you're there for next to nothing. The best thing personally about Robannas is that Robannas has CATS. You heard me. It started with little baby Cleo, named after Cleo Lane. Then Cleo had two little girls: Ella (Fitzgerald) and Barbara (Streisand) . And now both second generation Robannas' cats have had their own kittens. Literally in the last two weeks. So there are adorable little balls of fluff everywhere and I am so in love.
But anyway, back to the music. This week we've had to do quite a lot of personal preparation before rehearsal, because we are playing a private festival at the end of the month called Regfest, and Sugar and I thought it would be an absolutely brilliant idea to resurrect some of our retro repertoire. It's not so difficult to spruce up tunes you played out for twelve months. However, most of the band that was doing that with us at the time are no longer with us, so essentially, to everyone other than Sugar, Anna and I (Helen), these are going to be new tunes.
In this case, we arrange the set list, distribute it to the band members performing on the gig, and then everyone does their own little 'homework' to learn their parts. Then, once we enter the rehearsal space, we can structure the songs and lock them down.
We're pretty excited to see how different they're going to sound. The band has moved along and upwards a lot since those early days and that's why we wanted to try them out and see how they'll work.
We're resurrecting 'I Shot the Sheriff', 'Everything I Own', 'Police and Thieves', 'Shanty Town', 'My Girl Lollipop' and our absolute favourite, 'War inna Babylon'.
With Al on the drums now, we know that 'I shot the sheriff' is going to be absolutely transformed. 'Police and Thieves' will be wonderful as it always was, hearing Sugar up in that high register. 'War inna Babylon' will most likely also resurrect Anna and I's iconic dance moves from the early days, which is just hilarious to watch.
We're really hoping we get some footage of these old/new tracks to share with you. We may post some snippets in rehearsal over the next couple of weeks.
We're performing at The Night Owl this Sunday afternoon from 2pm onwards, so if you'd like to come and say HI that would be amazing. We've also just launched a new promotion, where if you approach us at a gig and ask for one, you'll be given a discount code for the website's shop, so do feel free to ask us for one of those. Oh, and we've just launched Gift Cards, too.
We're really sorry that we won't be with you in public again after that until 2nd September, but that gig is going to be AMAZING. Brand new venue. Leicester, as well. We're beyond excited.
If you'd like to take a look at Robannas Studios (and their amazing cats) you can find them here:
If you'd like to see what we're up to over the next couple of month, check out the EVENTS section of our website. You can also navigate to any of our socials via this link:
Keep an eye on the website, YouTube, Facebook or Instagram for footage of our re-hashed oldies :)
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