Roadhouse Live at the Skegness National Festival of Blues & Rock – 28/1/2012

Our first contribution to the Skegness festival (which was sold out this year) was to play our traditional pre jam session set. It was great to see so many people in the venue early on the Saturday afternoon. And the whole set was played to fantastic support from the crowd. We opened with a storming ‘Too Tired To Pray’ (out of the 8 songs put up by people on Youtube, this is the one I’ve had put in the video section of this website).

  Ria Hallwood made an excellent Skegness debut, impressing many people with her great tone. It was great to have Suzie.D back in what was a 3 girl line up. Suzie always gives the vocals a professional smoothness and musiciality, great job. The picture I’ve put up here by the talented photographer Steve Dulien, gives a real sense of the great atmosphere of the afternoon.

One of the highlights of the set was the debut of the new song ‘I Can’t Say No’ (which is not an autobiographical lament – honestly!). We’ve great hopes for the song!!!

After an encore we were into the jam and at this point there was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen in JAKS. the que to talk to me and sign up for the jam went from the merchandise table across the stage area and close to the entrance. In a mad 10 minute spell, I managed to sign up over 40 great

musicians.  Over 65 people played in the jam and the overall talent and standard of playing was great. Far too many people to mention all, but it was great to see Carlos play so well. Gizmo made a great contribution to two sets and Sharon from the Blues Bar in Harrogate delivered her great version of ‘Stormy Monday’. It was lovely to get Maggie back up on stage, especially as she had delivered a great set on that stage on the Friday night. Also Sue of BBC fame delivered some vocals that were straight from the soul. The fact that there were 7 harp players kept me on my organisational toes, but I’m pleased to say that by the end all but less than a handful of people got to play.

So many people came up to me over the weekend and told me how the jam was the pinnacle of the festival for them. I am so proud of how many people really have come to love it so much. As long as we have the invitation Roadhouse and I will carry on running the jam as we believe in giving something back to the people.

What a great afternoon

Gary

 

Roadhouse Live at the Bulls Head Barnes – 12th December 2011

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

Roadhouse Live at the Wrotham Arms Broadstairs – 29/10/11

Our first time back at this nice venue since we played here in February as part of the annual Broadstairs Blues bash. This was a welcome invitation to return, especially as we have been asked to play in the festival again in 2012 and will be appearing back here on the 17th February 2012.

A massive thanks to Geoff for all his hard work in arranging our return. He also ensured that the band were well fed and watered at this friendly venue.

Live at the Boom Boom Club – Sutton FC – 23/10/11 – DVD Launch Show

Bearing in mind the newspaper, website and video based publiciy that had gone on before this event, we really hoped to do better than the 50 paying punters and 70 plus people being in the room for this show .  As usual we decked out the tables with candles and food to give the place both a Blues Club and party feel…

Support came in the way of a great acoustic set from Ramond Goose…A bit of a closet Roadhouse fan, he ellicited a great response from the crowd.

It was our 20th-21st anniversary depending on who’s stats you read and interpretation of events you believe. We launched our new DVD (Limited Edition) Centre Stage, featuring our live set on the main stage at this years Butlins Skegness Blues Rock Weekend to around 2,ooo plus people.

A massive thanks to all who came out on this Sunday night…. how many times can you see your fave (or one of your fave bands ) play, has now become a bit of an issue for us old timers. If you were not there you missed some classic material, ‘Slip Away’, Voodoo Queen’  and others interlaced with the best bits of the Dark Angel tour. My personal fave was a killer version of ‘Dark Angel’ itself. Our new Singer Ria Hallwood did a great job and received a terrific response from the crowd.

At the end Pete Feenstra was up on stage making us take a bow and that has not happened before. The Band were very, very good on the night. A massive thanks to Pete (Feenstra) and Eric (Harvey) for believing in the quality of Bands and songs and not selling their souls totally to the  false gods of Tribute……

Thanks to all

Gary

 

Roadhouse Live at Blakeney Harbour Rooms Norfolk – 9/9/2011

We returned to Gary Mears great large room/big stage in Norfolk after a break of around 2 years. We were well looked after at this lovely venue (good sound engineer and PA). Well we may not have pulled as big a crowd as Nine Below Zero, but our crowd figures were up 20% on our last visit.

This was also hopefully a historic night, as it marked the first full gig of our new female vocalist, Ria Hallwood. Bearing in mind that it was her first full show, she did an awesome job. Mandie is a hard task mistress and she has put a lot of work into getting Ria ready. Ria herself is a perfectionist with a great temprament and her voice is very strong. This was a good gig and we have high hopes for the future.

Thanks to Gary for having us and all the great friends and Skegness regulars that turned up and gave us their support.

Hopefully we should be back in here in about 18 months a highly recommended venue.

Thanks to Danny, Bill and Roger  for playing their arses off and then driving half the length of the Country to get the whole Band and the equipment home by about 4 in the morning…….

The two encores made it all worth it

Gary

Roadhouse Live At Abbeyfest – Merton Abbey Mills – 27/8/2011

Well to the last of 3 big festivals in a row…… this one being on home turf. For us it was nice to be back in the headline slot, having shared it with Pappa George last year. We are used to a crowd of around 800-1,000 here, but the weather on the days leading up to the show was terrible. The night before, the audience had got half drowned in the downpoor and all day before our appearance there were showers and dark pendulous cloud formations, much more akin to winter.

So a big thanks to the fates for laying off so that we could perform our show…..and a massive thank you to the 400 or so people who were there. Many said it was the best Roadhouse gig that they had ever seen….

 

With the amazing Suzie.D joining Mandie on vocal duties the overall sound balance was fantastic (thank to Brian and his crew)….We blasted through our tried and tested festival set, featuring lots of songs from Dark Angel, including a great version of the titl track which brought an ovation from the crowd.

Bill and Roger were bang on form and Danny was whirling round the stage like a dervish, on totally top form……..

It was great to do two sets in those lovely open air surroundings under a Bandstand by the river.

The guitar duel in Rock Me Baby also brought a great reaction from the crowd…………By the end of the encore, Preacher Man it was hard to work out where the 100 minutes had gone. Biggest result of the night was the introduction of new Singer, Ria Hallwood….. Ria came in and sang  ‘No Place To Hide’ and Tellin Lies with us to great effect. It was a kind of ‘Ria Entry’ (Boo boom)……. She’s got such an amazing voice we are sure that there are great things to come….

CD sales were fantastic, a thank you to all

Gary

Roadhouse Live At The Rythm Festival -  26/8/2011

It was great to invited to play at Jim Driver’s acclaimed festival. This was a big one, the festival grounds stretching for an enternity, 5 music stages, plus a comedy stage, with enough tents lined up to house an ancient army.

Having battled our way though through Friday night traffic coming out of London en route ot Biggleswade, we were ready for a chance to blow of steam. We were playing inside a very large tented area and the stage Manager Ray was a diamond. Before we went on we met with our new top Publicist, James.H.Soars who is now the force behind the revitalised launch of our new CD, Dark Angel, this coming month. After seeing us at the Cambridge festival James offered his great services, as in his view the CD was ‘Excellent and deserving of a major launch process’. This is much bigger than the CD has had up to this stage.

The tent really filled up before we went on and it was great to see so many Roadhouse regulars in the crowd. A spanking version of ‘Tellin Lies’ later, we were on a 1 hour 20 minute rollercoaster. Suzie.D was back working in tandem with Mandie.G and their vocal blend really is something special, it gives me chills.

Roadhouse Live At The Cambridge Rock Festival – 7/8/2011 – Massive Apologies For the Cancellations in  Leeds and Harrogate on the 5th & 6th

A good analagy for getting old is imagine yourself to be a car. 50 odd years down the line somethings going to break or snap, or wear out……. I’ve been waiting for an operation on a very nasty, ‘sc fi’ type condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia, or TGN (google it for nightmares). Known as the ‘Suicide pain’, it’s not something to be wished upon your worst enemy. I’ve an operation to remedy that, set up for the 18th August and drugs were keeping the bulk of the symptoms at bay. So in line with my general luck I was really diassapointed about 10 days ago, when the symptoms/pain, broke though the drug barrier.

I managed to play the Jook House, but when Roger came to pick me up for the gigs at the Blues Bar Harrogate and the Duck and Drake, Leeds,I was literally on my knees. There was just no way…. so apologies to Danny and Bill who had to turn back on their journey. Apologies to the dozens of Roadhouse fans who had made arrangements to attend… I’m really, really sorry. Roadhouse missing a gig = about 6 times in 20.5 years.

These were two of my fave venues, run by the lovely Simon and Sharon Colgan (great singer)….        all they sent me were massages of encouragement – top people!, we’ll be back for them and or friends up North as soon as possible.

So, after a dark period where I was living the lyrics to a lot of my songs, people started to say to me, if we drive you if we carry your gear, if you take extra pain killers, could you, could you, could you do the 1 hour apprearance at Cambridge.

So to the wonderful Cambridge Rock Festival. It was so good I think you should call it the Carling Rock Festival, as it was so well organised and artists were really looked after. The stage and auditorium were great and all under canvass. the sound was awsome!.

So, pumped full of pain killers and with only Mandie to keep me company on the vocals, we hit the stage. People who were there say they cannot believe how aggressive we were, as the band really went for it……

As we hit the intro to ‘Tellin Lies’ people came streaming ino the tent.

By the middle of the second number it was packed.

Crowd reaction was brilliant and so many friends and supporters were there. From “Telling Lies” to a great version of “Rainmaker”. Swamp Girl lead to ‘House of The Rising Sun’ where Mandie got an ovation. Next  was ‘Too Tired To Pray’, with killer slide from Danny.

‘Roadhouse Blues’ (full of my usual self indulgence), ‘Voodoo Queen’ and the encore ‘Preacher Man’ completed one of our best festival appearances for a while. Roger and Bill were really tight……

Live At the Cambridge Rock Festival

By the end I was fit to drop andI was pretty ill the following day. But what a great festival. We hope to be back next year. My operation next Thursday should take care of this medical problem..

Thanks for your patience and passion

Gary

Roadhouse Live At The Jook House Worthing – 30/7/2011

What a great venue, big stage, PA, lovely seating area, large capacity.  A lot of the big Bands have played this venue which is in the mid point of its first year of existence.  As usual, with any new venue its a struggle until it’s name gets known….Well done to Bob for running this great place. Bob’s partner in this venture is the soundman and he was amazing. according to many Roadhouse regulars it was the best sound they had ever heard at a Roadhouse gig

Another great feature of the place is that the resident DJ is none another than our very own Mr Clive Rawlings, DJ Journalist and agent for Shelflife productions… Clive played some cool tunes…..

What really made this gig was the appearance of Roadhouse legend Suzi.D, working with Mandie in the classic pairing that has seen us acheive so much success and critical acclaim…

Of course both ourselves and the Jook House would have liked a bigger crowd, but only about 6-8 people were brought in by the publicity/walked in off the street. Another  20 or so Roadhouse fans and friends joined in the fun and along with the staff and their friends, there was enough people to make it feel like a proper show (and god were the people their noisy – it was brilliant)…

The band blasted out two long sets and were well up for the show. Great versions of “The Lying Game” and “The Big Easy” by Suzie (Suzie shown in centre of picture). A marathon “Roadhouse Blues” was one of the highlights, as well as a storming “Voodoo Queen”. The party peices on the band introduction section of Voodoo Quuen, were nice and ‘camp’ as well as technically on the money. There was a big shout for an  encore and so we ended the night with a full on version of “Preacher Man”..

So overall, a great shame that more people were not there to enjoy a great venue and a great show. However, according to Bob we will be back and hopefully things will have picked up for this exceptional venue.

Gary

Roadhouse’s Special Independance Day Show, Monday 4th July at The Bulls Head Barnes

Our last show before a brief (but in my view, well deserved summer break)….Playing at this legendary riverside Jazz venue we were able to feature a number of friends on an all star bill.

First on were the excellent Delta Ladies, a super outfit in their own right, but featuring many members of the acclaimed Band, ‘Elephant Shelf’. Fronted by Vicky Martin and featuring some stand up double bass, plus the superb fiddle playing of Diana, the good sized crowd had a roots music feast.

Next up was a special treat, the return of legendary Roadhouse guitar player Drew Barron, returned from Canada. Drew played for the Band for over 3 years and is a big  favourite with Roadhouse fans. His superb contribution to the Broken Land CD more than stands the test of time. Playing with John US Scott on bass and our very own Roger Hunt on drums, Drew blasted out a great rocking set …

We were up next……Mandie was joined by the excellent Rachel Clarke on vocals (shame she had a bit of throat infection) and the set was a stormer…….Blues Highway, Too Tired To Pray, Rainmaker, Swamp Girl, the Lying Game, House of the Rising Sun. They all blurred by to a great crowd reaction. Next up, Drew joined us for a monumental version of Voodoo Queen and the invitable rock out on the encore Preacher Man. Drew and Danny guitars to the sunset, delieved that 4-5  minute feebird style outro, with some style……. A great night.

The magnificent Blues Icon, John O’leary joined members of Roadhouse on stage for a final song as my ‘fave’ Monday for a long time came to an end..

Thanks for your magnificent support and to all our great, talented friends

Gary

 

Drew Barron Rocks Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roadhouse Live At The Podium, Schiedam (Rotterdam), Netherlands – 12/5/2011

A return to this great canal side venue . Our Dutch agent and super friend Hester had as usual paved the way for this show. After a record breaking drive and ferry journey to Schiedam in which Roger only had 4 attacks of road rage (he’s mellowing out!) we arrived at Hester’s. Time for a blow out dinner and rapid consumption of red wine before the difficult canal side unloading at the Podium.

It was a shame that it was quiet in this really atmospheric venue. However, a good influx of people just before the start took the crowd to respectable levels (but not to the levels of the packed house we played to last time). This was Sam’s first trip to Europe with us and the crowd soon took her to their hearts, as she delivered great versions of ‘The Lying Game’ and ‘ The Big Easy’ .

We played a much rockier set here than usual and by the end there was much legendary Podium table hammering and shouts for more.

At the end of the evening their was some grouching from the Management with regard to our overall volume, whch apparently was at global thermo nuclear levels. As we left at around 2am, we heard the beginning of a nice row between them and their sound engineer, the charismatic Louie.

The next day Hester took us for a barbacue at a lovely plot of land that she owns on the outskirts of Schiedam. It was great for the Band to chill and spend time with one another for a change. We were then invited to play at a jam being held at the Podium for a local band friend and musician. Within five minutes of our arrival Mandie and I were on stage to a packed house belting out ‘Stormy Monday’ alongside local guitarist Frank. Sam soon joined us for ‘Rock Me Baby’ and then Danny was riffing it out on his own with the locals.

So it was a day off, but somehow we had managed to play another show……. Belgium tomorrow

Gary

Roadhouse Live At The Clowne Blues Club Derbyshire – 24/4/2011

Our first visit to this established Blues Club in Derbyshire. The recently refurbished room was quite an obstacle, as the sound was incredibly boomy and loud. Roger was laying off of the kit and it still sounded as if it was massively miked up!

However, after we managed to get the sound balance under control this was a great gig. A massive thanks to all the Roadhouse fans who made the journey to see us that night, what a great turnout. We even had a guy who drove up from Bognor!. A special thanks for all the people who saw us on the main stage at Skegness this year and came back for more. Set wise we again heavily featured songs from the new CD, Dark Angel. ‘Too Tired Too Pray’, ‘Rainmaker’, ‘Swamp Girl’ and ‘Working  Class Gospel Drinking Blues’ all had a good airing. One of the many stand outs of the night was how the Band are settled into playing ‘Play with Fire’, Mandie’s lead vocal on the new album.

Encores abounded and CD/DVD sales were really positive. Its nights like this one that keep the Band going. thanks to all for your great support

Gary

Roadhouse Live At East Harling Blues Club, Norfolk – 23/4/2011

We’d been gigging hard to promote Dark Angel and I felt had earned 3 weeks off. We came to East Harling for this friendly little show, a venue that we’ve played at for the last 7 years, mainly to warm up again.They are friendly lot at East Harling and it was nice to see two good groups of Roadhouse ‘Die hards’ as well as long time friend and supporter, the excellent photographer, Alan Harvey.

Overall, it was a quiet night on the crowd front. However, we had a good night and instead of being ring rusty, the Band were on great form. We brought one or two additional covers into the set to cope with the social club type nature of the venue and audience, ‘Not Fade Away’ going very well, despite a long absence from the set list.Mandie and Sam seem to form more of an understanding every time that they sing together and the new harmonies on ‘Rock Me Baby’ were great. Vocally I was on top form, I mention this because since this gig I’ve had some problems with straining my voice and losing range. This has happened from fairly early in the first set onwards. Bill and Roger were really ‘tight’ and it seemed like they had not had a break at all.

Even though there was only about 40 people there, there was a remarkable shout for an encore and it was our pleasure to obligeWe return to East Harling on the 12th November.

Gary

Roadhouse Live At The Tropic Ruislip – March 2011

It was only 5 months since our last gig at this great, big stage Blues & Rock club. However, following the clubs success on a Friday, it was decided to trial some gigs on Saturday night whenever the large hall was not being used for a function. Flatteringly, we were one of the first acts asked to try out a Saturday night.

Overall we were hoping for a crowd of over a 100, but with around 60 people in the room it was still a great night. This was a gig where we saw Sammy.C.Richards really take centre stage. Her vocals were a good as ever, but on this night she really rocked out.

By the end of the second set the crowd were really going for it and we were delighted to play a couple of encores.

Thanks to Philip for having us and for Darren and Anne for the promotional help

A fair few songs were filmed by Colin Harrison (and a damn fine job he did of it too), you can search on Youtube under MrGig2010 . One can be found under the video section on this site

We should be back next year

An enjoyable night

Gary

Roadhouse At The New Inn – Witney – 26/3/2011

After all the high profile shows we have done in recent months, it was our turn to do something for live music at more of  a roots level….

Martin the Landlord is a great guy and has a real passion to try and get the New Inn off the ground as a venue. However, the crowd size was  dissapointing overall and seems to be transient in it’s nature. People tend to circulate around the many watering holes of  Witney at the weekends.

However, we turned in a great performance. The whole night was made worthwhile from our perspective by the return to the group of Rachel Clark. Rachel turned in a stunning performance and is now available as member of our incredibly talented squad of female singers.

Upwards and onwards…..

Go and support live music at this great little venue. The crowds and dynamic needs to change before we consider coming back.

Thanks for your support

Gary & The Band

Roadhouse At The Famous Monday Blues Club – The Bullingdon – Oxford

It was great to be back at the legendary Philip Guy Davies big stage venue. It looked like it was going to be a little quiet, on a Monday night, but by the third number there was a good sized crowd.

Kelly was working with Mandie on the girls vocals, taking time off of her sabbatical and it was nice to see her back.

The sound though a bit seperated on stage, was according to many regular supporters one of the best live Roadhouse sounds that they have ever heard. We played well, the crowd were great and we’ve been asked to come back and play the Xmas Party…

Another win, upwards and onwards….

Gary

The Hope Tavern Blues & Rock Club – Holton Le Moor – March 2011

Our  7th appearance at Graham’s excellent Blues Rock Club, set on a level crossing in the middle  of  ‘Nowhere’.

I’m pleased to say that our recent big stage appearance at the massive Skegness Blues & Rock festival pulled in a lot of new faces. This was the biggest gig attendance at The Hope for several months.

With Mandie singing in tandem with Sam Richards, both sets really rocked. The great thing about the warmth and intimacy of the Hope, is that you can hear the fans singing along with you (they also tell you when you get your own words wrong!). It also means that when a member of the audience goes to the gents, they have to sqeeze past the corner of the stage (So you can sing “We know what your doing”)

 

Two great encores, a great drum solo from Roger and Danny on good form. CD and DVD sales were strong too.

We’ve never failed to play a really good gig at the Hope, long may the tradition continue

Gary

The Broadstairs Blues Bash (Festival) –The Wrotham Arms – 18/2/2011

 

It was our first time at this great festival. A massive thanks to Geoff for making it all possible and Jackie for having us at her lovely venue.

 

This was one of those festivals where each venue had a band on and people could circulate. We’d heard that the Wrotham Arms was the biggest and the best of the venues, so we were delighted to be asked to play there on the Friday night. The venue filled up quickly and by the time we opened the first set with ‘Too Tired To Pray’, people were ‘sardined’ all around the playing area .Some had to spill onto our makeshift stage to be able to access the toilets and from what we saw some people had difficulty moving just a few feet to the bar. It was so busy that It was hard to put a number on total size of the crowd.

 

 

With Sammy.C.Richards back in the fold (and well on form after her absence), singing with the legendary Mandie.G, the girls were the only females appearing at the festival. The whole band was on top form following our main stage appearance at Skegness and 2 long sets just flew by. At the end of the second encore the crowd were still shouting for more. In middle aged, knackered, desperation I shouted “Haven’t you got a home to go to”, “No” was the emphatic reply. So 3 encores it was as we finished with a version of ‘Watchtower”. A great night and hopefully we will be back at the festival and the Wrotham Arms or both…..thanks to all

Gary

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