Easter is a great time of year - it's probably the first real all-inclusive reason to have a party in the year. I mean, there's Valentines, but being a happy singleton, it doesn't really feel like an event I can get behind, and I'm sure many people feel the same. But we're British (Bri'ish) and it's a frickin' bank holiday, and we know what that means - it means the good times are on the way and summer is around the corner!
To mark the very first of the Bank Holiday weekends, Andy's Live Events were straight in with a line-up across the weekend that had something for everyone, and all the egg puns you could possibly hope for!
We had a great weekend in store, with a double-wammy of two gigs in two days, so we were buzzing to get going at The Lounge on Saturday evening. We also had a very special reason to celebrate.
Our Beloved Jane
If you were with us on Saturday at The Lounge, you'll have heard that we were very happy to have Jane celebrating her birthday with us. On the actual day! Now, Jane is a wonderful human being with a beautiful heart, and we just adore her. She supports us SO MUCH! She's usually the one who encourages people onto the dance floor and she has been to so many shows and captured us on videos and just enjoyed our music with us.
We were super happy when Andy booked us for The Lounge for 8th April and discovered that it was the same day as Jane's birthday. The Lounge is pretty much her local so it was just a perfect set up. Jane's son and daughter also joined her during the evening, and it was so great to meet them! There's another band that I know Jane is absolutely in love with and has supported for many years, and so...
The Reggaelators
Reggaelators were in the house!! A number of the fantastic reggae and ska outfit joined us at The Lounge and also celebrated Jane's birthday with her, which makes us so happy! You know when Reggaelators are in the house because they cut such a unique image - many of them are brothers (well done Mama and Papa) and they're tall, dark and handsome, so you know there's some cool af people in the crowd! We were so pleased to see so many of them! Owen and his beautiful wife have come to quite a few shows in recent years, but some of the gents I hadn't seen since MY very first Reggulites gig, so it was amazing to see them! Now, we first came onto The Reggaelators radar early on, because suddenly lots of people were like 'Oh, you're playing at such and such on Saturday' and they were like 'No, we're not' so when I met them for the first time they'd come to see the band who everyone thought was them! I mean, I can see the similarity in names but it's not that similar! Anywho, we're both very different bands and we have the most respect for The Reggaelators - they've been in the business for a long time, done a lot of big things and played a lot of big stages, and we're so happy that they came to enjoy some 2023 music, because we've changed a lot over the years!
DJ Gorgeous Bunny Pants George
Biggest respect to this dude. DJ Gorgeous George is, well, gorgeous. His musical knowledge is also gorgeous. The way he works a crowd is artistic and the way he works with a band is top notch. There's really so much more to DJing than pressing play or picking a tune to play next, and George has got it He did a great job warming the party up before we went on. The only problem with DJ Gorgeous George is it takes us forever to get anything done when we're not playing because we keep having to dance! I'm not joking, the PA equipment was in the van and the sound engineers had left before we even put our stuff in the car on Saturday, cause the vibe was popping and the tunes were absolute bangers.
Our Sound Family
Our sound engineer was Brendon for Saturday night. He's brilliant! But his hair has gone missing all of a sudden! We were also joined by Harvey who came to support Brendon, and of course, Grandad, who we now struggle to play without. Nan and Mom also joined us later, and Nan bought us choccies for Easter, which was just the sweetest thing, and trust me, I can't stress how much that chocolate was appreciated after we'd played! We were also joined by Luci and her shiny boyfriend, who we fully converted to love reggae. They're such a cute couple!! We were also invited to Luci's 21st birthday party and we're so excited!!
SkaMan Ade!
The hugest thanks to DJ SkaMan Ade and his lovely lady for joining us for the ENTIRE weekend of shows. We're playing alongside SkaMan Ade later in the year when we support The Dualers in Wolverhampton! It's gonna be amazing.
RudeSix in this ting!
We had once again stolen our bestest boy, Harry, for the drums. It was great to see Liv come down for the show, and for being so hospitable when we all descended upon her house the following day, too! It was great to see Baz again too because the man is just music incarnate and he just loves a riddim. Thank you so much for the support, guys! We'll also be swapping about very soon and The Horns Ladies will be joining RudeSix on stage for a couple of shows! We're very excited and looking into how to make ourselves less wrinkled. Hehe.
It's all about Reggae Winehouse
Sweet Sensimilia arrived all peek-a-boo stylee, which was hilarious and wonderful, along with the stunning Leonie. Many hugs were had. It's been a whole new year since last time we saw them! And what a great time to see them, so we could be like, come back tomorrow for Reggae Winehouse's Easter Sunday set! They were joined later by the lady herself, Imani, and so we had all three vocalists of Reggae Winehouse out for support! Thanks so much guys.
Playing Soldiers
If you've seen us anywhere, you'll know how much we LOVE Steel Pulse. We have Soldiers in our set most of the time, but we hadn't recently. In fact, Saturday night was the first time this year we'd put it in the set. And the Gods were with us, my friends, because we played Soldiers, and part-way through managed to summon the man, the myth, the legend Basil Gabbidon and his beautiful wife, Lady G. They actually walked in while we were playing it. Someone wrote that script, I'm sure, but it wasn't us! We were blown away. So great to catch up with Basil and Cathy because they're truly amazing people.
New Additions
We debuted our new songs - Melt Away by Max Romeo and Last War by Beres Hammond with Zap Pow. We also segued into Come Around by Collie Buddz, which, if you're in your thirties like moi, is in fact a total banger. It went down really well! We were super pleased. Both those tunes are very US. They have seriously groovy bass, phat horn lines and soaring vocals. Tasty.
Party Hardy
It always amazes me how much The Lounge are up for the party. You guys just LOVE music. We had such a great time. It was great to be the Saturday night of the Easter Weekend lineup at The Lounge, which included FrontRow on Friday and Reggae Winehouse on Sunday. It's always a good night with Andy's Live Events and we're privileged to be a part of his entertainment. Thanks, Andy!
And of course, we wouldn't be able to share our music with you all if it weren't for all of you that come to join us and party with us! Sutton Coldfield people are just the coolest. Thank you everyone!! Also, Carl, if you're reading this, thanks for hugging Sugar. I'm not explaining any of that.
Our gig on Saturday was at The Lounge at Boldmere, a great venue with free entry to live music. Check them out here:
The event was organised and run by Andy Thompson, at Andy's Live Events - The best night's out in Birmingham:
Our sound engineers and PA equipment are supplied by the fantastic dB Acoustics:
We were joined by The Reggaelators band, who play a mix of the best Ska and Reggae from across the years:
We were joined by Reggae Winehouse who play Amy Winehouse hits with a reggae twist:
We were surprised by the legendary Basil Gabbidon of Steel Pulse and his lovely wife, Lady G, who you can see here:
And we are forever grateful for the relationship we share with vibrant Ska Punk outfit:
We played the day after FrontRow, who play a mix of indie, rock and pop and who we've been checking out on social media and think are fab!
Our next performance is at the The Suburbs, part of Holroyd Arms, Guildford on Friday 28th April:
Peace out, keep music live and support Birmingham music!
The Reggulites x
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