(Thank you for getting on the mic and grabbing everyone's attention, Charlie Moore!)
Look at all those gorgeous people! How much of a great time did we have at The Night Owl on Sunday 14th April? Absolute bucket loads!
When your band has been established for a while, and there are certain wonderful venues that give you repeat bookings, it really becomes more than a gig, it becomes a part of your life as a musician in that band. The Night Owl for us has given us a platform to express our creativity, test our limits and entertain wonderful customers and staff. Our first performance there was in 2018 at a charity event and from there, we've just come to love each other. The wonderful thing about playing at The Night Owl is the relaxed atmosphere they provide for us to play in and the way that, as long as you do the job you're being paid for, the rest of it is entirely up to you! Some places can be rather strict or a little more hands on than The Night Owl, but as we've got quite a bit of history, I feel like between band and business owners, we've established a level of trust which means we can really transform our shows creatively, and we absolutely adore them for that!
We have never played the same show twice at The Night Owl. Whenever we play there, there will always be something new! We've done some really memorable things for us at The Night Owl - like inviting Sugar's son to play on stage with us when he'd only picked up a bass mere months before, and he smashed it! We had a wonderful gig here where our sound engineer, Will, joined us on Trombone. We've invited up multiple artists to join us who've come to support us in the crowd. And we always make new friends, that's for sure!
This time being back at The Night Owl has made us super happy, because if there's a reggae cookout, it means that summer is coming! As I said, certain gigs really shape your life - you can measure your year by them sometimes! We've just played the first reggae cookout of the year, and we're about to slide straight into wedding season, and that means the sun isn't too far off meeting us there!
For this gig, we had our most recent usual suspects with us - Harry Bryan, Angus Sharp and Charlie Moore, but we were missing a bro! Teebs unfortunately couldn't make this one, and we missed him so much! But we dedicated Teebs on My Pillow and the crowd gave him a round of applause regardless, and he for sure felt it, even though he wasn't there. We had to have a bit of a rethink about our set due to not having keys in, as we do like a little Teebs feature, but it worked out well and the band played super good, if I do say so myself.
We love collabing with DJ Milo Sadler - he's the coolest and he brings all the nice tunes to warm it up. I think we've worked with Milo for a few years now, too, and it's just a comfortable set up. As always, I forgot to give him the set list early enough, because I'm a professional, and then we laughed about how the thing that had reminded me to give him the set list was that he was playing our opening tune. That's showbiz, ya know!
It was amazing to see so many people we haven't seen for a while! Fiona, Dawn's sister, and her husband Roy and their daughter came and joined Kenya who is Dawn's daughter, and they just bring the coolest vibes. I am still considering sneaking into their house and stealing Roy's jacket. I know where you live!! I must say a huge thank you for the videos and pictures you sent on as well - they've made up the majority of the content we've produced over the last week!
Jim and Maggie and the crew. My goodness. It's been a HOT HOT HOT minute! It was so amazing to see you! They came all the way from Rugby to join in the Night Owl vibes and they had a wonderful time! Move into my house and come to all the gigs! It was so great to see you!
Family Hipwood. Legendary Night Owl dwellers. Solihull Royalty! Thank you so much for coming down. Hopefully we'll be seeing you guys really soon!!
Our best friend through music, Jane - we can never have enough of you! Errol Cubase Burke, it was fantastic to see you again! Big Tall Sam coming straight from a rehearsal with Oya Batucada and their Super Samba Sunday workshop!
We made a new friend! Vybroc Shiloh Ceesay - who's music is possibly the most uplifting thing I've heard in a while, came to join us and show off his moves, and he's a wonderful fella, and we really appreciate your support and kind words.
We have TWO MORE DATES this year at The Reggae Cookout, and I can't stress enough how much of a vibe it is! Early Sunday afternoon, usually sunny, relaxed and happy atmosphere, the smell of Jerk BBQ from DiningbyDalton, the free entry, the family-friendly, and back home in time for a hot bath and a chill before the working week starts. Seriously, there's everything to love about it!
A huge thank you to everyone who came and made the day special with us, and a huge thank you to the band. We'll be missing Charlie Moore for the next few, but everything is busy in Charlie Moore's life right now, and we wish him the very best of luck with that!
Check out the links below and continue to support live music in Birmingham and beyond!
We played The Reggae Cookout at The Night Owl in Digbeth.
Our DJ was DJ Milo Sadler for the day.
Our drummer, Harry, plays in another and called Last Tree Squad.
They also have something really cool coming up at Lobster. Check this out:
Fiona sings in Birmingham Marley tribute, Xodus.
Our new friend Shiloh and his lovely music.
Errol Cubase Burke plays in The One Love Band.
Big Tall Sam came straight from a session with Oya Batucada.
I'm really sorry if we've forgotten anything!
We'll be back at The Night Owl on Sunday 14th July!
And you could always buy a merch shirt!
Such a fabulous afternoon with the Reggulites at The Night Owl. So lovely to see you all. Can't wait for the next one x