Belle September 2010

September 5th 2010 - this month's B&B is an all acoustic afternoon of live music - 6-8 (tbc) gorgeous acts spread over the afternoon - mellow music and entertainment for all the Belle et la Beaters.

ANNE CLUNN makes her B&B debut, followed by BRIAN THE DANCER, he's been to rock school over the summer so we're expecting a special set for his return performance!!! SIMON DEE will play his 12string acoustic and sing some well known covers for us. IAN TREHERNE is also making a return visit to B&B - he's been flat-out producing art work for various exhibitions and commissions around the town so it'll be a nice change to hear him play guitar. CANDELABRA will be playing their eclectic and varied set of original songs and finally FLAM JAM, (aka Paul and Ian) will play out the afternoon with their beautifully crafted flamenco guitar pieces - traditional and original!!

TBC - Ashley and Ray's folk inspired BLUE IN THE FAITH and SOUTHEND UKULELE ORCHESTRA.... watch this space !!!

Looks like it's going to be a great laid back, mellow and tunetastic afternoon. Because the music is all acoustic this month we'll have the children's colouring and craft in the main room with the singers - see you all on Sunday from 1.30pm,

Michelle and Wendy xxx

belle et la beat 25th july 2010

it's that time again, the line-up has changed and mutated about six or seven times now; we overbooked, lost a couple of acts, were undersubscribed and now there's too many people on the bill but they're all wonderful and we can't leave anyone out (:

so the Beer Garden B&B is:

ashley jarvis - comperes...
DARREN JONES
MIKE FROM THE ENDS
ARTGRUPPE
ST HUCK
BAND WITH NO NAME AS YET
SOUTHEND UKULELE ORCHESTRA
LUCKY STRIKES

no idea how we're going to fit them all on, maybe we'll all have to play at the same time, but it's going to be a wonderful afternoon. I hope the sun shines for our first outdoor Belle et la Beat... can't wait!!!

April's B&B

Sunday 25th April:

A 2.30 kick off with ArtGruppe was swiftly followed by a B&B debut performance from King Bandit, aka Justin.
King played a 20 minute set of original material, this was his first gig in 10years and all the songs had been extra-specially written for the event!

Carterhaugh returned to B&B this month bringing their blend of folk and rock... frock? Kerry's sonorous tones and a textured rhythm section.

At 4.30pm Foreign Legion took to the stage, they were great, full of energy and beans! Matt has a very distinctive voice along the lines of Reef and Jordan and Tom provided a solid punchy back-beat!

Columbo ended the afternoon with a mixture of original songs and covers, from classic soul to The Who... they were fab as always and the high kicks made my day!

Thanks to all our brilliant helpers and wonderful audience people, can't wait 'til 6th June for the next one,
ciao Bella Beaters xxx

Masks

At 7.30 this morning we received our first blow-out text... sadly, for various reasons, one of our bands couldn't make today's Belle et la Beat and neither could our lovely compere, Ashley Jarvis.
Delicious PR were wonderfully helpful and sent round an email asking for a last minute stand-in but we were already half-way through the day when the offers started arriving.
It didn't matter though.....

Lost Harbours played a beautiful, ethereal and sometimes chilling set. Their songs are a little like Gregorian chants overlaid on waves of flute, guitar and and other less identifiable noises.

We were thrilled to have The Abrahams play today. John Bennett writes warm, summery songs and his guitar playing appears effortless.

Sadly Facade couldn't make it along.

ArtGruppe played a variation on their usual set. We did our Bunnymen cover, Pictures on My Wall and seven of our own songs. The audience were fab and clapped in all the right places.

At 5pm, 10 minutes before they were due to go on, The West Brothers arrived. Whilst they set up we gave out prizes for the mask-making competition and drew the raffle.

The West Brothers brought along a full band line-up including drums, electric guitars, and a West Sister on acoustic and backing vocals. They were great, Steve Miller-y, bluesy, a little rocky..... not at all the acoustic, banjo, blue-grass combo that we'd seen so many times at the Preview!!!

Brilliant day!!! Ian did a cracking job on the sound desk and Christopher was wonderful with the children's arts and crafts.

We are really looking forward to the next one on Sunday 25th April.

The Abrahams......

We are delighted that the Railway Hotel love having us on their premises and so we have settled on doing these events every six weeks! Extra dates mean more room for local bands as well as out-of-towners, hoorah! We are just in the process of confirming the March line up and here's what's happening so far.....
The Abrahams is the brainchild of John Bennett, he plays beautifully crafted songs performed in a rich acoustic style. John played at Glastonbury Festival with Coal Porters in '93, he played guitar with Grand Drive in '94 and joined the High LLamas and signed to Sony Records shortly afterwards. High LLamas toured Britain, Europe and the USA. One of the highlights of their career was being Love for one night, Arthur Lee's backing band, at the Garage in Highbury!!! John supported Pavement on an 11 night tour and guested on guitar for them too. Radio appearances included sessions for Mark Radcliffe and Steve Lamaq. Recently John has been performing with The New Giants, a Neil Young, REM-esque vibe. John informs us that, 'with a little encouragement I can be lured into performing Love or High LLamas songs.' This is The Abraham's first date with us and we're really looking forward to it!..

7th March Belle et la Beat

I haven't been on here for a while, I've had my head turned by other things the last few weeks but it's all positive stuff. I've been to lots of gigs and have also been working on the ArtGruppe demo...

Our next Belle et la Beat event is on Sunday 7th March, 2.30 til 5.30. We tried to go quarterly but The Railway asked if we would do a few more so here goes....

7th March - ArtGruppe + Lost Harbours + The Abrahams (we are just waiting on confirmation of two other acts) - I'm trying to come up with a crafty theme for the kid's room, any suggestions welcome!

The year is unfolding quickly though, 6th June will be part of the Southend Fringe Festival, Bearcraft will be headlining. The Fringe is an alternative forum for arts/crafts/music anyone with an idea can register an event to be held in June.

September 5th will be our Family and Friends' End of Summer Party, featuring all local bands and a big blow out to celebrate the children going back to school after 7weeks off! (:

filling up the year!

We've made it mid-way through January - the sky was full of bright shiny sun today and the world was a good place to be!

January 31st - the line up has been confirmed for the next Belle et la Beat:
2pm - Blue in the Faith , our super compere Ashley Jarvis and Ray Charman play traditional folk songs but also a few more modern and unexpected surprises.
2.40 - New Subjects - are John Thorpe's brainchild - a funky-soul rap and guitar duo.
3.20 - Phillious Williams - Southend's favourite purveyors of Heavy Western, beautiful songs with an audible edge.
4.00 - ArtGruppe - harmonies, melodies and heartwarming tunes on a back drop of indie-pop beats.
4.40 - St Huck - play anything from the Stones to the Stooges, rocky-garage/punk - featuring Kim and his congas!!!

I have obtained some silver card and glitter glue from a local outlet and am looking forward to making some rocket and space-based pictures with the children in the little room. I am in the process of trying to persuade my daughter and Rai Rai to do some face painting - watch this space!