So onto our famous, annual Xmas bash at the Bulls Head. Gail force winds and pouring rain made travel conditions trecherous, which took the edge off of what was a very respectable sized crowd.
With an all star cast of friends appearing on the night, the weather cost us the amazing Jules and Lorna Fothergill, however, the late addition of Drew Barron to the bill went a good way to making up for that. First up was the amazing Drew, playing with the legendary Dr Noel Brown. Both guitarists having survived a 4 year spell in Roadhouse they, along with John Scott on the bass gave us a great opening set.
The amazing talent came and went, with more incredible music from Robin Bibi, John O’Leary, Pete Sargeant, Tim Matthewman on the bass, the crowd rose up to these amazing performers.
The Roadhouse set demonstrated how much Ria Hallwood has grown into her role of Roadhouse vocalist. Her voice is deep, powerful and so many people commented on her gorgeous tone, for many she really stole the night.
Joining us for her first ever version of ‘The Big Easy’ was Rachel Clark. Rachel joined Mandie on the vocals for a nice version of ‘Slip Away’ in which Danny played a great solo. Bill and Roger held the whole set together. A special thanks to Roger who drummed the whole night away!.
The set list was thrown out of the window due to demands from the audience for ‘Dark Angel’. I’m pleased to say that we did the song some justice and I was personally pleased with my guitar solo…….
A cast of thousands occupied the stage to finish the night (brilliantly managed by John O’Leary)….Merry Xmas to all the lovely people who made the effort to come to this show, they were not dissapointed…
Gary