All about our Reggulite adventures over the weekend 10th and 11th September...
Welcome to your weekly instalment of The Reggulites on the road! We've had such a varied weekend, guys, and it's been highly emotional, and we're wiped, but in the best best way!
The week leading up to all this
This week has been one for the record! I am fully prepared to tell you that this band works SO HARD and that it's usually all my fault. We had a busy agenda for rehearsal this week. In we piled to Robannas, with a brief Hello to Rob, Stacey and of course, the baby cats, which are walking around now with their own ideas, which is terrifying.
Bit of a spoiler, we are putting a few new tracks together for Skeggae Reggae and the WSBB Fundraiser next weekend, so this was on the agenda for rehearsal already, but then we picked up the gig at The Night Owl for Sunday, around Monday or Tuesday I believe, and we wanted to put some extra surprises in that gig too, so 2 hours of rehearsal had a lot to squeeze into it. We got everything done, though, and then it was just preparing for the weekend.
Lydia and Paul's Wedding
First on this weekend's adventures was a trip over to Shrewsbury. to a venue called Stanford Farm, which was just lovely. I believe it is still very much a working farm, but they've transformed the barns and some of their land to make a cracking wedding venue. There's little wooden huts all around the grounds where you can go off for a little private conversation or a snuggle up with your significant other, a large tepee with a fire pit in the middle and cable barrel tables with pallet sofas all around it, and the main venue itself is gorgeously done out with string lights all around, large bench-like tables to get all your guests together, fully equipped with a bar and a stage for your entertainment.
There was a little extension of carpark round the back to access the venue's stage where we could all pull up (and get changed, yes, most of us got changed on the car park!) and we were well out of the way of the guests until it was time to get on stage, which was wonderfully thought out by the venue. The lady we met from the venue staff was really lovely, as well.
The most fun part of this day, for me, was that we decided to do something a little bit different for this wedding. Obviously, the band has to posh up a bit for a wedding performance, but it got me thinking when I was talking to Lydia about how important colour schemes are to weddings. The couple spend hours planning out how to colour scheme their day, so we could jump on board with that. Long story short, we got ties for all the gents that matched the colour scheme; so, pink, yellow and orange for Lydia and Paul's wedding. The men looked absolutely tidy and smart! Here's a picture of us all scrubbed up:
All credit to Will and Grandad for taking such a gorgeous photo!
While we're on that subject, Will has been very very busy this year, expanding his sound company and personally providing the sound for Neville and Christine Staples of The Specials in their tour, so it was an absolute pleasure to have William back with us for the sound for this event. We do miss him when he's off doing big things! Unfortunately, Will 'thought he was clever' (his words, not ours!) and went and played rugby without a shred of training, and had hurt his ankle in the process, but you would never have known because the man is just a true professional. It was wonderful to have Grandad and Will back together (Yes, Grandad is actually Will's Grandad).
Lydia and Paul had an awesome drum and bass tune for their first dance, sang by a beautiful lady who I didn't catch the name of. But all the same, the first dance was very emotional and lovely.
(Managed to get a sneaky pic from our hiding-hole at the back of the stage!)
With the first dance, speeches and cake-cutting out of the way, it was time for Reggulites to strut their stuff, and boy, did they?! The band played absolutely brilliantly, and the guests were really getting into the dancing.
By the end of the night, we'd danced them into a frenzy, there was a lot of embracing and canoodling going on, and it was a job well done by the band.
We didn't actually get a chance to speak to Paul, but we did see him doing a lot of dancing, and we believe the alcohol had been flowing in the right direction! Lydia came to say her thanks and goodbyes, just after we had done a little video for one of our beautiful followers to say Happy Birthday.
Thank you to Paul and Lydia for inviting us to be part of your day. We were actually originally booked back in 2019, with the wedding due in 2020, but as we all know, that couldn't happen, so it was great to finally have the chance to meet you and to perform at your long-awaited wedding.
With all tasks completed, it was time to convoy home (we love doing that) and fall into bed at 3am to catch a snooze before getting ready for The Night Owl.
Sunday Funday, September Version!
As I said, we were actually filling in for a cancellation for this Reggae Cookout, and had only been asked about it on either Monday or Tuesday, so we were madly rushing around trying to pull of something a little bit different and special for you guys.
(Thank you to Jane Guest for the picture!)
It was great to see so many people come to support us again! Big shout out to Jane Guest, Grandad and Grandma, Street Dreadz Dudley, Michelle, Brian and the girls, Leonie Smith, Marcus, Riss and the boys, Katie Hipwood and her lovely fella, Mom and Dad, Audrey, Kadesha, Jake Cunningham and to the many more, but I won't give everyone away here because it might let on to those who weren't there what happened in the show!
OK, so The Reggulites rock up at 12:30pm a little bleary eyed, but excited for the day's plans!!
SaxyAnna had a little idea for this show involving Sugar's son, Taevon. Now, Taevon has been learning how to play the bass, only since around January/February this year. But I'm telling you the kid is an absolute NATURAL. And we've been hearing about little developments with his playing and how his Dad has been suggesting a few things for him to try the bass lines on. ONE OF THOSE TUNES HAPPENED TO BE IN OUR SET LIST so we invited Taevon along (with no pressure) to see if he'd like to come and do a little guest spot on the bass, and, well, he only said Yes like an absolute rock star. Taevon joined us on stage at The Night Owl and played 'Let Him Try', which isn't an easy bass line, and he did it flawlessly. Watching from the crowd was his lovely mother, his brother and sister, her fiancée, AND an Auntie and 2 Uncles. He did an absolutely tremendous job, and it meant the world to Sugar to have his son on stage with him. Obviously, the Horns Ladies were both fighting back the tears!
(Credit again to Jane Guest for the photo. And doesn't he look like his Daddy?!)
Then we had another little surprise up our sleeves in the form of Will. For a long time now, we've been telling Will he needs to pick up an instrument again - Yes, Will plays many things! Including horns of varying sizes and shapes! And what are we missing? A trombone. And Will can play the trombone. On Monday I had a rather long phone call with Will about this that and everything else, and we talked about how he clearly wanted to play something again. The thing that's obvious about Will and how he conducts his sound company is that he strives for perfection at all times, and that's wonderful, unless you're trying to convince someone that they need to just jump in and have a go! So it was touch and go whether Will would actually join us if he didn't think it was good enough. But he did, and trust me, it was AMAZING. The sound that comes out of that trombone is to die for! So we had a three-person horn section for a rather large chunk of the set on Sunday, thanks to Will joining us. He never rehearsed with us and put it all together in a matter of days. We think he's absolutely amazing and we know Grandad and Grandma were over the moon to see him playing music again.
As you can tell, it was a very emotional day with Taevon and the family joining us, Will and Grandad and Grandma joining us, and of course, it's always amazing when we get to see our one and only DJ Marcus Copesta, but because it was a Sunday afternoon and family friendly, we got to see the whole gang. His children are absolute firecrackers and just beautiful kids.
The day was finished off with their youngest, Kingsley, singing the intro to Three Little Birds, which he apparently wasn't leaving until we'd sang, and I'm fairly sure he's taken my whole heart home with him after that. Sugar usually goes off into the crowd and finds people to join him singing. The voices in the place on Sunday, though?! Just superb. Again, another Sunday of pure Birmingham vibes.
We'll be uploading some videos of the weekend over the next few days, so stay tuned, and once again, just a huge thank you for everyone who supports us because we are IN LOVE with the music that we make and we are honoured to have the opportunity to bring so many smiles to so many faces.
To see where we rehearse, find Robannas here: Effection (robannas-studios.co.uk) To check out the gorgeous Stanford farm, take a look here: Rustic Farm Wedding Venue, barn wedding in Shropshire, West Midlands (stanfordfarm.co.uk)
To see what's happening in Skegness next weekend, take a look at our events section Skeggae Reggae | The Reggulites or here: https://fb.me/e/1gTHgluVC
To find out more about the fundraiser Katie Hipwood and her family have organised for WS Blood Bikes and in memory of Reece, you can see our events page: WSBB Fundraising Event in Solihull | The Reggulites
To see what else is happening at The Night Owl, check out:
To find out more about dB Acoustics, our sound company, have a look here:
Our next public performance is Skeggae Reggae in Skegness, Friday 16th September, followed by Saturday 17th September for the WSBB Fundraiser in Solihull, which is sold out.
Blessings,
The Reggulites x
Comments