not just a band………an
experience!
nce upon a time, in a small wooden cabin deep in the Black Country, four long-time
boating friends, all of mature years, got together. One of them, John, was a guitar man. He played all sorts of music all over the place
and his music was known to all the pals. Colin, Roger and Carole had asked John
to teach them to play guitar. In his innocence John, being a friendly guy, said
‘OK’.
any weeks passed, and the students were
progressing, but they were having a bit of a problem with strum patterns
(whatever they are). On the night of which we speak, another long-time boating
pal walked, blissfully unaware, into the small wooden cabin. “Hello” said Jeni
(for it was indeed she)”How’s it all going?” “Mnfnnfmph!” said Colin, Roger and
Carole. “Ah-ha” said John “Good! Jen, you can sing a bit. Sing along with these so they can get the
strum patterns right.” Heedless of where this might lead, she agreed. On many nights thereafter she joined them,
being helpful and encouraging. Little did she know what she had let herself in
for.
ome time later, a younger chap, also with boating
connections, joined them for guitar lessons. Kevin was his name and he was too
young to realise what might happen when he innocently mentioned that he really
played keyboards. “Bring ‘em in!” roared the pals with (almost) one voice. So
he did.
week or so later, Carole announced “We need to
sort out a set list. We’re playing at
his all
happened in 2002, and since then we have attracted a drummer, Danny (the
Animal) and a bass guitarist, Phil; yes,
they’re boaters too. We’ve had a couple of keyboard players, Dee and Margaret,
Colin moved over to mandolin and Carole moved to keyboards. We’ve had the
services of a flautist, Laura, and a trombone/trumpet player, Warren. Another
occasional guest is Nick, who lends extra weight to the guitar section and
helps out on keyboards, and recently
any of
these friends have had to move on to other things for one reason or another,
but sometimes return to help out when the gig list gets crowded. Our most recent acquisition fell into a
similar trap to Jeni. David ’Wheat’ Steele, a nice guy who didn’t really
deserve this, heard the band at a gig at Hopwood. He told us how much he’d
enjoyed it, mentioned he played guitar and was invited along to rehearsals to
jam a bit. Yes, you know what happened to him……
ne group of people we haven’t mentioned are
the stalwarts who set up our increasingly-complex sound system. Without Paddy,
Gill, Trevor and Graham, we’d never get the atmosphere we want for live gigs –
after all, the audience do need to hear us, poor things!
ince that
first gig we have played, on average, one gig a month, usually at boating
venues but we also do parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs – whatever! We play folk, rock, 60s, 70s, 80s, wartime,
sad ballads (and bad salads) and a lot of novelty and comedy numbers. We have
recently made a foray into Country and Western, learning loads of new numbers
because we just had our first line-dancing gig this October.
e’ve managed to raise over £6,000.00 for various
charities and our last CD sales donated £568.00 to Breast Cancer Awareness. We
are currently mixing our next CD “Wot we doin’ now?” and this will be sold in
aid of our current charity, the Sunfield Children’s Home in Clent. Last year‘s
charity was the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, for whom we raised over £800
between September 2005 and September 2006.
We
donate everything we earn, after expenses like petrol and strings (particularly
Roger’s strings!) to charity and we do it for fun.
Join
our mailing list to receive gig dates and details on upcoming charity work
involving ‘Penny Short’.
Here
are the adverts…………….
To book us for your special function, in a field or in
a mansion as long as there’s a plug……
….and get a three-hour
interactive audience participation show…….
….or a themed evening of
your choice…………
e-mail: caroleroden@hotmail.com or
or call Jeni on 07974
302979