Great night Sole Bay Lads

Where do I start this morning? Think this might be a long post..I must say that the Sole Bay Gentlemen were GREAT last night, the jazz was again different because of the line up and much enjoyed by one and all, so thank you all for a fun musical evening. I had a good one of you Bill but you moved or was it me, but good to see you again ..loved the trombone playing..

During the evening Dave took over the drums from Neil with Geoffrey on his Bass guitar playing for a session, here with them is dear Derek (love those knees )!

I make no excuse for posting this one "Father and Son"...

Could not resist this one either nice smiles, glad you all enjoyed the evening..

I was rather a way back when I took this..Mike giving us some really good songs.. nice to see you again Mike do not leave it so long next time..and Neil in the background, drummers are often hidden...as are Bass players Tony always hides, but the double bass always sounds great.

This is one I rather like, although not a great piece of camera work! but this is our Landlord, who is not really into jazz, but obviously he enjoyed last nights live music. So are you begining to like us Phil?
Thanks for the lovely food ..nice salmon yum!

Later Chris gave us a song as well....although I did not catch a good face sorry! but you sounded good, nice to see you Ruth and Chris..and thanks Rosemary for the company, of course Duncan and Colin as well..even though I do get a lot of stick!
June as always a star for taking us, think Stella had a ball!

Next week one of our dear ladies, Shiela, has to go into hospital so we wish her the very best and look forward to her returning to the fold as soon as she can, we will keep our eye on Keith!
And Don such good news, so good to see you and litle Keith, and more knees from him, certainly was like a summers night there....all those shorts!

Good to see so many fans there, look forward to next week.I make no apologies for chattering on as I hope you got that it was great Live Music with Good Company..

Golf Cake

I have not been doing many cakes of late, as my hands and back (ah poor old thing!) are not as good as they were, but three friends have rung up and so I decided to try again, here is the first one, apparently according to my friend it was well received and it tasted as good as it looked, so maybe I have not lost my touch after all...

Better get the others finished now!

29th September 2011

On Thursday the Sole Bay Jazz Gentlemen will be entertaining us with some more great live music at the Buck.

Lining up for our pleasure this week will be..

Alan Cugnoni..banjo/guitar..Tony Jullings..double bass..

Neil Kane..drums..

A lovely return of Mike Leigh.. Bill Brewer.. Derek Cubitt..our guests this week..

Looks like a great night hope to see a nice crowd to support the band..

BIG BAND SUNDAY

June and I had a good day out yesterday, with lunch at the Buck, and then on to the Air Museum where the Big Band was playing.

Good music and meeting up with lots of friends and lovely weather, a nice way to spend a September afternoon...

It is always a good place to visit lots of things to see even on an ordinary day, but the special days are really worth going to, a lot of effort goes into the day, well worth it as a good crowd once again..
Nice to see all ages there as well. A good way to remember all those who not only gave their lives for us, but for all the folk left behind who have lived a life with injuries from the war, and more so for the wars that are still going on, a good way to Help the Heroes of today as well.

The singers were good as well...
There were some great swing dancers, but they were rather fast and the pics are blurry they were fun to watch and feet were wanting to get out with them.

The only picture I could get of our Dave who was well hidden! but sounded great..a drummer with a great heart, sounded good Dave..

The flight that was supposed to come over could not take off as where we were it was good weather, but where the flight was going to take off from was very windy and of course the Battle of Britain areoplanes are so precious they have to be well taken care of. however a local chappie has a Mustang and he did some great runs, my little camera, or is it me? could only manage to take this one, but at least I got it!

Then a pleasant walk down to the river before returning for the second half of the music, made it a lovely Sunday.. Hope you enjoyed yours wherever you were..

JAZZ AGAIN!

Thursday night at the Buck in Flixton, once again the Sole Bay folk gave us a great night, albiet that there were only 5 of the band to entertain us, so they had to work very hard..and they sounded good as always.

With a very appreciative crowd that turned up to cheer them on. Nice to see some new faces as well.

Great to hear and see Craig, was not expecting him this week, such a great drummer this man and always a smile on his face...

Luckily Roy was about so he came and gave us some great songs, so thanks Roy think you and the guys gave us some fun.... even if they did try to put you off on some of the numbers...

Here is Trummy with his other the ... (you know what Tim calls this,) and his trombone playing is so good never heard so many notes coming from the trombone..

I seem to have missed Alan off the photo this week, sorry but great banjo and guitar playing as always...

Looking forward to next week already, hope to see a nice crowd to support the Sole Bay, they play great live music and live is always good..

Thanks again June for driving us and for the good company...

Missed Colin and Duncan this week, so hope to see you next week gentlemen....think you may have lost your seat to June, Duncan, looks like you may have to sit near me next week, tee he.

Must also say that our landlord Phil actually mentioned he enjoyed the jazz this week wow that is a good sign...

ART DECO

No photos today but what a great night. Wish I could have taken a photo as they all looked so good in their best clothes! as we usually see them in their casual outfits.. if you look back I am sure I have put a photo up of them as Art Deco, very smart...

The Beccles Music Festival who gave us Art Deco at the Waveney House Hotel last night, were as always a pleasure to see and hear.

You know who they are as I write about them in some form or another every week, when most of them play for us at the Buck in Flixton..

But Ray Simmonds..Tim Densham..Alan Cugnoni.. Tony Jullings..Neil Kane..who are part of the Sole Bay Jazz Group always seem to have such fun when they play as 'Art Deco', and of course the lovely Simon Denny who sings with them, looked great in his tux, and sounded as always so good, even with his bad throat and cold so thanks to them all for a good night out.

What a great crowd as well and good that they gave such an appreciation of the band, how lucky are we regulars at the Buck to get to listen to them on a Thursday night, I hope some of those who paid for their seats last night will filter through to come for some nights at the Buck and hear more.

Thanks gentlemen as always live jazz at its best.

Sorry that you could not make it June hope you are soon better, but Janet enjoyed your place, Jan so good that you could make it even though you were feeling rough, nice to see a lot of the Thursday night crowd there as well....

Goodwood photos from Dive

Could not resist borrowing these from David and Phil's annual visit to Goodwood at the weekend..
They have countless pics of cars etc, but they also like the gals! and as they are in 40's dress which we love at the jazz with the swing dancers thought I would pop them on here...

Enjoy, and do not forget to come to Jazz on Thursday night..

Jazz at the Buck 22nd September

The line up for this Thursday will be..

Tim Densham..Sax and Clarinet..Alan Cugnoni.. Banjo and Guitar..

Tony Jullings.. Double Bass..Neil Kane.. Drums..

Guest this week will be Dick (Trummy) Mayhew..Trombone..

Of course you never can tell who else will come along and give us some jazz music.. so hope to see a nice lot of jazz lovers at the Buck....

Beccles Music Festival

Two posts in one day but had a busy time yesterday!

With some good friends (and a few of the fans of the Sole Bay Gentlemen) we went to St Michaels Church here in Beccles to see and hear Jacqui Dankworth in concert, with her backing group of Roy Dodds-drums (great solos) Dudley Philips- bass (lovely finger picking) and the great Chris Allard -( a wonderful guitarist).

Jacqui has a great voice and sounded so good in the echoing church, and what a full house, she of course refered to her Mum Cleo and her Dad John, all in all a great night of entertainment.

A pity they did not have a higher stage as I think most of us had a stiff neck trying to see them as the church maybe is not a good venue for everyone to see, but the sound was good and as we were in the back pew was able to stand now and again to see them all..

Even the bats came out for a while and flew around...They are used to being quiet I expect in mid week at the Church!

Well done to all the helpers at the venue as they worked hard, and looked great in their suits and dicky bows...all went smoothly and lets hope the good work continues for the festival...

There are a nice lot of entertainment for the coming week, We are off to the Waveney House Hotel next Tuesday to see 'Art Deco', which is of course our own Ray Simmons, with Tim Densham, Alan Cugnoni,Tony Jullings and Neil Kane who entertain us on Thursday nights...and Simon Denny him of the lovely voice that sometimes we hear at the Buck as well...

Enjoy it all everyone who attend even some of what the Festival is providing, we are proud of our little town and nice to hear good things as well as all the many unsavoury stuff that goes on around us in this world today, nice to sit back and relax and enjoy life.

Thursday night 15th Sept

A night of really good jazz, but not many fans in, where are you all? on holiday? or sick, well hope that by this Thursday we will have a nice big crowd to help the Sole Bay Jazz band along, they give a lot of time to keep Live Jazz music going, so please come along and support them.

Barbara on banjo and Derek on sax... giving us some great jazz...

When Alan sends me the list for this Thursday will pop it on here..

Alistair

This is an old photo of Alistair and me in Norwich several years ago, he is much more handsome now and I am older and much less bubbly!

As I have often been asked how I came by the title of "cakes and al" and for those who do not know.....

In 2003 Alistair Griffin was a singer on Fame Acadamy and it being the year after I lost my John I found that watching the programme made me feel good.. Now of course Alistair would rather forget the Fame Acadamy label, but if he had not been on this I would not have met up with him or some of the wonderful people that followed him around the country.

When the programme finished I was wondering what was happening to him so I joined the fan club on the internet, much to my boys at first being rather worried that at my age I had gone a bit too far...and called myself feelgood as that is how he always made me feel when he was singing.

I thought I would never see him live, but soon some fans suggested I got on the train to York and one of the ladies who lived near here said lets go together, so after years of being a stay at home person, I turned into a travelling over the country meeting up with a good crowd some I am still in contact with..

This morning I have received a cd of Alistair, thanks to a dear friend Lesley who got to his gig the other night and bought me one..

Typical Alistair who has a wicked sense of humour it is called Mogganaut.. it is probably only on sale at the moment at the gigs...But it is great only 4 tracks but it has made me appreciate all the journeys made to see him live...

One of my Sons joined me one night when Alistair came to Norwich with Jake Humphreys (who has now gone on to be a reporter on TV...) he took the above photo and now he is a fan as well.

I hope he goes on to do more great music because he has talent, and has given me years of listening pleasure so thanks Al hope one day to see you again...

And of course the 'Cakes' piece of the title is my hobby of making and decorating cakes.

Thursday Jazz

Another good night of live jazz plus a nice lot of songs, and those of us who were there had a good time, it was unfortunate that not many followers came this week suppose holidays and illness prevented a large crowd...sad for the band who played so well, but maybe next week we will have more support.
Sorry Tony seem to have missed you and your double bass, from the photo..you hide at the back so much ..

But as I said it was a good night and nice friends with live music cannot be bad...so hope the lads enjoyed the applause as they were appreciated.

The line up for next Thursday the 15th will be...
Tim Densham..Neil Kane..Tony Jullings.. with guests..
Barbara Greene..Derek Cubitt.. John Gooding..

So hope to see a nice crowd at the Buck to support these jazz musicians...

SUNFLOWER +

What a wonderful bonus from the sunflower seeds I have in the bird feeder....! and the bee is enjoying it as well..

Sole Bay Jazz 8th September

Here is the line up for Thursday night at the Buck ..

Tim Densham..Neil Kane..Tony Jullings..

with guests this week...

Simon Nelson.. Tony Parsons.. and on the banjo Barbara Greene

That sounds another good line up
so hope to see a nice lot of folk to support the live jazz music..

Dixiemix again

The men in red! thanks for the music and the great company..
If you look in Simon have a great photo of your little girl but will not post it unless I have your permission so mail me?
As usual click on the photo for a clearer view...

DixieMix Reepham

Hope this will work... Yesterday I got spoilt again and went to see the Dixie Mix Band in the delightful setting of the Kings Arms in Reepham..

Great day out thank you to Tim and Keith, the very pleasant company and the fun afternoon listening to some really good live jazz.

Of course the video does not give the best sound, but it gives you the hint of what it was like.
I will post some photos as well soon....

Sole Bay Jazz

Yet another great night of live jazz music...Nice to see a good crowd to support the band..
Good company and some nice food!
Did not get a photo of Simon who came and gave us some lovely songs thanks Simon...

Nice to see Barbara again and for the next few weeks great banjo playing...

Nice to see the Swing Dancers there, even if there was not a lot of space, and not good to dance on a carpet, have a nice break and come and see us again soon...

Happy Birthday to Jane today, hope you liked the song for you last night!

Look forward to another session next week. will put the line up on when Alan gets it to me...