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Archived news from previous weeks

Breaking News:

Donna 'n Jerry

New Boy Dave

Invisible Lady Lada - well she can't see us so that means we can't see her OK?

Michal Playing The Atmosphere

Please note owing to:
(delete as applicable),
poor light/ increasing intoxication/ happiness of mood/ poor resolution available to a mobile phone camera - picture quality this week is ahem perhaps with more room to grow that usual. Rest assured the photographer is having a serious talking to himself as we speak.

Comic Book retailer and lifestyle guru Ian. Not a band member but a bedazzled spectator of apres playing players.

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email your breaking news/ secrets/ lies/
recipes by clicking here.

Shine on Michal

An afternoon at The Elms 19th Sept 2004

Tuesday 20th Sep: Welcome back Fred

Alfredo, Em!

Jerry, Lada, Monica,

From left: 2 nice vibe players, Rachel,Jim-The-Guitarist

Tam, random bloke (and jolly good sport) Ian and m35ha participating in an impromptu workshop

From left: Em n Lucie, M35ha, Thea n Lucie

On the right is possibly P&O's last ferry to Portsmouth on Tuesday 31st Sep 04

Above is what the sky looked like on Tuesday 31st Sep 04

Please note that moving the mouse over the pics can often surprise

Please note that moving the mouse over the pics can often surprise

Pics from the 5th oct 2004: The Elms
Clockwise: Em's flatmate, Lucie and Em,
Random bloke in the navy, Sharron, Tam
Lucie and Thea (twice) with Thea and a
Check friend inset.

Sunday 10th October: The Elms

Possibly Bob the guitarist (Jim inside)

Leon n M35ha

Rachel n Bob

Thea

Sunday 17th October: Jammin with the Rhythms of Resistance at the ESF

M
3
5
H
A

M35ha and RoR Dancer

Tuesday 19th October 2004: Fawcett Inn Southsea

Thea n Em complete with light show - yes it really did look like this!

M35ha

Tam, Lucie with East Side Torin

Thea - radient as ever

Add your text here

Sunday 24th October 2004: The Elms

Jerry and the Pacemakers no scrub that - Vibemakers

Lucie and Em! Reachin out!

Welcome Tam2

Welcome Tam2's Fanclub

Tam2's Chum and occasional guitarman

Tam 'n Fran

Tuesday 26th October 2004: The Elms

Jerry and Newboy Rob

Angels and Lucie

M35ha playing some light music

This weeks correct answers (Click Here)

This weeks correct answers (Click Here)

Please note that moving the mouse over the pics can often surprise

Please note that moving the mouse over the pics can often surprise

Please note that moving the mouse over the pics can often surprise

Sunday 7th November 2004: Farewell Elms

Jerry beating M35ha in his sleep at Chess. From megastars to this??

Tam 'n' M35ha note that we have moved on from controlled drugs to a nice cuppa coffee

Tuesday 9th November 2004: Bubba bar

Lucie got a little cold, while Tam kept it steady

Who is that masked man???

Jerry in action

Thea is always watching you

Sunday 14th November 2004: Reclaiming the Bandstand

Tam demonstrating drumstrap etiquete

M35ha and Jerry

Em blotting out silence nicely

Tim Tam and note the audience - with taste.

Hope you like my panoramic shot of bandstand taken with my phone

Sunday 28th November 2004: Declining the Bandstand

Introducing Suzy

Saturday 4th December 2004:
Our Band in Havana

Clockwise: M35ha(armshot), Lucie, Jerry, Torin, Angels, Alfredo, Em

This triple headed shot was made possible by tam's phone:
M35ha, Angels, Torin, Lucie and Alfredo



	Saturday 4rd December 2004CE - Heading to Havana Down to Tam for setting up we met at Havana Bar Southsea at 1pm and played almost right through until about 6pm ish. What an afternoon. I admit I was concerned at us not having too many places to play at but wizard Tam cast a spell and Magicked us up a venue: HAVANA. On the Tuesday Ems phone was used to call RANDOM ROB to invite him to play. The poor fella didnt know what to expect but dutifully turned up with random James, Random Sarah, and Other Random friend I can't remember. Torin was there as was Lucie Jerry and Tam. Tam couldnt be pictured cos he was too busy taking them. The ingredients came to the boil nicely with Alfredo lending his bass Angels lending he hands to percussion duties. tracks included: kenneth's kebabs, My dog, several testosterone fuelled work outs. Before we called it a day. * Good points - they want us back next week to Jam with a DJ and to widen the group perhaps with flyers. Cool. * Bad points - Tam lost his bike, Thea lost her phone, M35ha lost his phone (missing from Tuesdays escapades - hence Tam on picture duties), Thea missing in action. Later that day some of us decamped to Em's for a cheese/ wine and reggae evening before moving to gatecrash another party. En route - some of us - a little hungered by the days events - saw fit to walk in and sing KENS KEBEBS, KENS KEBABS, KENS KEBABS IN O-S- B-O-R-N-E ROAD.Y'a see what we did there. That's right we changed it to meet the occasion. 'cos we can. After a little hassle in another kebab store it was onwards to another soupcon of random. This time a party of strangers with a DJ whose gear kept dying. I took the opportunity to briefly expand the band by a whole front room of people singing Dave, and Ken's kebabs - bit of a running theme today. Hey ho. Thanks to Tam this week who provided technical support in making this page possible. Eat fruit and don't forget ya change. PS New song: Badges, We don't want your stinkinng badges. Tuesday 30th November 2004CE - Awkland Kokopeli bandstand World Tour Brrrrrrr twas a tad cooler this week. God Im sounding elderly again. just pause to wonder who the prime minister is before my nurse gives me a sponge bath.....Ho Hum. Now what did we do. Well we: Tam Jerry Em Lucie Thea Greeted Lewis - now Global-Lewis from his antipodean travels where he told us he was making Djembes. Cool. So we drank. Went to kokopeli's drank more.and then after much drinking and not much forethought for my head the next day found myself saying to Thea n Lewis "I'll come to the bandstand and play." The rest was a blur:- I know I played. - Kens, my dog, Dave,R Whites I know I sang GOD Rode my bike 'cos sure as eggs is eggs I mknow I didnt!! The next day El Diablo was dancing on my scalp. AHHHHHH! But lovely to be among the band. Sunday 28th November 2004 - Shhhh We're hibernating Well over the last couple of weeks we met up once. Drank loads but ahem have't been playing. There are several causes for this interuption of our usual premium rated (by us) service: * Brrrrr its got a bit nippy, * All de pubs are being closed down (Specials 1981, Dammers, J.)) * Oooeee its darker at the mo and we keep losing each other. * "Oo My bloody head is splitting after what I: Drank/ Ate/ Smoked/ Inserted/ sliced off the previous night." type stuff. So I guess in lieu of any news of substance - appart from the fact that the president of the Ukraine looks like David Brent - I'll introduce you the reader to Suzy. A long term cyber pal of the band. She's actually on a mision in Barcelona but we can't say too much about that. HEY SUZY Hope ya feeling Spangly and tingly. Keep listening we'll be back soon,. Sunday 14th November 2004 - Going Back to Our Roots Not the song from the early 80's. The Bandstand. The weather was c c c c cold but sunny . Texted were sent and the soup got made. First came Tam n Em, then M35ha, then Jerry, then Tim. Tim is soon to move back to his roots (Wales) but it was great to have ya here hearing ya. Musically, it was songs without lyrics but nonetheless songs. Em opened with a nice breakbeat that kicked it all off. Nice to see Tim pounding hell and fury from his chosen piece of percussive assault. Crowd-wise well there were several children. And they were adncing to us - and dancing too!. It was as if the iffy last week was a distant blur. SO what if the adults in their cosy bars got a tad queasy over us. The Kids got it. (Johnny Rotten paraphrase commin up) - And they liked it maaan. (there you go) Tuesday 9th November 2004 - Bobbing up at Bubba A rendezvous at Bar Black before casually popping into Bubba Bar. (This instalment has been sponsored by the letter "B"). It was for me a spooky thing. All these drummers yet, Shhh we had to be a lickle quite so we could be there again. Personel on this rhythm takeover were, Lucie, Jerry, Tam, Em, Thea and M35ha. We kicked out a few moments of greatness. Many without name. Good food, wine company. Then home in time for bed. For me it felt like eating in a posh restaurant yet needing something to eat later on. Sunday 7th November 2004 - Salut Elms Well for one reason or another - in the interests of fairness I won't elaborate here The Elms wishes to dilute its contact with the band. No acrimony and so forth but the news put a dampener on last weeks procedings. For the record Tam, Jerry, Em, M35ha and Thea were flying the flag however this meant that we ended up in a cybercafe - part owned by Thea - playing /(or in my case) frequently beaten by Jerry -games of chess poker and backgammon. Cultured and coffeed though not quite scratching the itch I sensed myself and Em having to play. Hmm well we did knock out some real mellow backing stuff to the Elms Juke box but it was no gig. Tuesday 26th October 2004 Quite a warm night. Not many about. Arriving to meet Tam2 the soup that is the band began to form: Jerry, Lucie, Tam, Lucie's chum Angels, Sharronthelandlord, Em. Welcome Rob who added a little soupcon of djembe magic. We did a versh of R Whites, some mixed percussive stuff. Generally the vibe was stripped down and chilled. I guess the pics demonstrate that. If tonight's soup had a flavour I'd say minty gazpaccio. Sunday 24th October 2004 Welcome new guitar player(s) Arriving early at the Elms to be greeted with Tam. Nope not Tam percussionista recent returnee from Italy and jolly good chum of Em and indeed all of us. Nopey nopey no. Enter Tam2! She plays guitar and writes songs. She disclosed that she was a tad nervous and said she'd like a jam. Welcome to the band. She had family with her that all seemed to be up-ferr-it so the scene was set. Enter Jerry, Em, Tam(number1), New bloke Fran - light percussionist and an allround well jumpered person. Missing in action - er she's got a new job - Thea. One other man of mention - random drunk bloke who kept blaming the guitar's tuning. He was a lively sort and added a little unpredictability to the procedings. He kept saying how dtrunk he was but was certainly able to be stringster quite competantly. "But what did you play?" I hear you ask - * a coupla Tam2's own tunes * a lovely Muse cover of Unintended * a Velvel Underground medley * Ken got a mention * several percussive outbursts Sharronthelandlord jammed with us as is now the custom. A neat afternoon - word to Tam's family member Diane who vibed it up really well giving us much energy to play with. Tuesday 19th October 2004 Elms. Dark. people looking at us to say SHHHH. A couple playing chess. Sharron kindly got us a workshop gig playing to a crew that live in a residential care home. This is in a few weeks time. Meanwhile we all needed somewhere to play: Jerry n Tam (both back from Italy) Torin (back from nightshift), Em, Thea, Lucie and M35ha. We decamped to the Fawcett Inn in Southsea. A random gothy/new agey pub with an open mike. We watched a coupla punk folkies (Pokies anyone?) before we jammed with some dude and his buddies with a mega keyboard set up that looked more like NASA material than pub gig stuff. They were cooking up some goblin/ Radio Gnomey/ Gongey influenced rock. One by one the band started to play. Word to Torin for an amazing bongo solo. The rest of us percussed while I did a medley of R Whites/ Ken/ My Dog and Burberry. We left having made a few new friends and worried the manager who feared we may lose him his licence. (soreee) Sunday 17th October 2004 Jammin with the Rhythms of Resistance at the Fuck Bush Demo Well the night before some o the band were wishing Gary a happy 30th. (Gary nice guy lives in Camberly with Ruth plays drums). The next morning was an early start for many and meant piling into a coach at 10am tio meet up with the Rhythms of Resistance. I couldnt wait. Its been since April since I met with them and the Sheffield crew. Boy what a huge crowd of people. My guess was 100000 (the press reckoned 7000 - what do they know?) A rousing send off from Montague Road almost 100 sambistas and dancers. The vibe was better than Mardi Gras is Brazil and Notting Hill combined. The demo was to raise objection to the continued occupation of Iraq and to convey a message to El Pesidente. 5 1/2 hours solid playing with split hands and a rush of endorphins i was as high as a kite. I usually play demos barebacked with a feather boa. Immediately after we stiopped playing thunder and lightening. the feathers were soaked. Brandy was all I could think of. This sweet older lady gave me a Che Guevara t shirt she was gonna give her grandson. She saved me from hypothermia. Thanks. So this elaborate text is my way of saying soreee I missed Sundays jam but I was telling the bushster to Ave A Word. Tuesday 12th October 2004 STOP THE PRESS ENTIRE BAND MISSING IN ACTION! er it was just one o those nights. I texted the crew as I was detained in London and couldnt come back. Work eh? Sunday 10th October A nice sunny afternoon, I'd done a bit of Tai Chi in the morning and had a lickle run so I was ready to really give the skins (drum) a serious pounding. Arriving at The Elms with Bongos I met with Lucie, Jim, Rachel, Thea. Word to Leon (still mighty) who took his bass along with amp - only to be told it was an unplugged affair. OUCH! Musically we accompanied the 2 acoustic players who hooked out some blues and rock from the sea of sound. It felt sooo relaxed to play along to. See Pics. Tuesday 5th October Before I get carried away with all things band shaped, I'd like all the readers of this newsfeed to just put out some kind thoughts toward Zoe's Husband and sometime player Justin. Justin's grandmother died this week. And so did Zoe's small furry rat friend. What a week. Zoe if we can do stuff zap me here at the page and the word will be global. So I guess dedicating the weeks events I turn to our Tuesday night fiesta. Welcome back Jerry from Corfu. You look nicely rested and ready to play. And play we did. Only not at the bandstand as usual. nope. We found ourselves in the Elms and Sharron - landlady and bloody good egg - indulged us by letting us stage a micro takeover. The line up this week was Jerry, Thea, Tam, Em, M35ha, Lucie, x2 Check friends - over for the week, 2 sailor men and Sharron herself. The pics will be on for Saturday so dont worry im sure we got ya best side. Word again to Em for being shiny enough to be a picturemeister AND POSIVIME. (Positive Vibe Merchant). Numbers we did were mainly instru - OK I felt too weird to do the vocs indoors without an audience. We did a lickle My Dog..., a Lickle Burberry Sun..... I feel deprived of a certain eating emporium from Rue Albert!! HMM?? Tam's vocals are getting shinyer: a really lilting chant he did to float over our beats. Yeah.Ian a regular at the Elms is now a member of the band. Ian shine on you shimmering ball of greatness. Did i mention the 2 cool guys from the navy. Not words you will see often on this site. But they saw they played they vibed and they added to ANOTTHER FABULOUS NIGHT. Thank you men. As I write this I look forward to the Saturday Jam outside the pyramids 9pm onwards. Bring your friends and theirs too. Tough lets hope its a hot one! Thank you band folk - thats instrument players and vibe players you most sincerely rock. Its what Tuesdays are made for. Sunday 3 October - ELMSTOCK I arrived before the rest of the ingredients to meet Rachel and IanorJimorJohn (I can't remember his name but he played a fine guitar.) He was throwing together some originals and some covers with Rachel. I was playing bongo and then a little guitar for a change. One by one the ranks of Ave a word reached critiqual mass: Thea, Tam, Em, Lucie. Musically we were jamming but the technical aspects were of a dance between Afro/ Cuban/ Brazillian beats along with guitar and vocals. rachels vocals were evocative of celtic roots/ olde English sounds. Highlights of the afternoon included covers of Sympathy for the devil, Medicene Woman. We experimented with a little funk and inevitably we had a loud thrashout moment. This resulted in us "hitting red" on the noise limitation register. So the we chilled it down. Thanks to Em for cam duty in addition to bass coordination. Tuesday 31st September Stripped down grooves Quite a stripped down session: featuring tam, Em Thea and M35ha. We were able to throw a few good beats together along with Thea's rousing interpretaion of My Dog.... It was a little abbreviated in part owing to number and part to lack of light. Evidence of this is in the blackness of the photos. Mistakes were made in texting Jerry who as I type is in Corfu. We retired to Tams new base camp for some white-grape-must-I-cant-believe-its-not-wine drink with a few grapes dropped in. Mmmm nice. Sunday 26th September Last night the bad was represented by Jerry Fred the and myself (M35ha) at Drumboree. A monthly meeting where newbies and seasoned drummers can play along together sharing vibes and friendship. This is a good way to network and for the band to expand with even newer blood. This brings us to this afternoon's proceedings at the Elms: we welcommed Alfredo at the now weekly jam. As the majority of us are influenced by Afro/ latino rhythms it was really refreshing to play alongside someone who comes from a different part of the kitchen. The Jazz cupboard! As you know I refer to the band as a soup - well Jerry and I concluded that today we had found the spicy pepper. MAMA MIA THATS A SPICY MEATBALL! Indeed he was - throwing us angular curveballs of backing vocals and rhythm. Also on the medals table this Olympiad were EM! now subsumed as a hand percussionista offering fillins where needed. Also present was Tam - Services to Table top beat management. As I said in the news feed - its as if Roy Castle never left us. Zoe was also experimenting. This time with the Bougarabou while Jerry and me did what we do. Toward the end of the afternoon Monica and Lada joined for some cool beats but their show stealer was a haunting vocal to our back beat. Sadly we say farewell to them this week. Ooo did I mention the guitar? The soup now has a spoon to stir things courtessy of the Elms' Landlady. Sorry about the sound up setting those cute lil doggies your landladyship. shh at the back. As for the sound. It was some old but as previously said with the added dimention of Alfredo. So in summary - sunshine beats drinks smiles chillin jazzin feelin look forward to hookin up Tuesday Is it too early to think about a prechristmas party?/ meal/ social?? Word to Jerry - have a fantastic time on ya hols and bring us back some Greeks beats! Tuesday 21st September Brrrrr getting nippy! In spite of the cooler weather the band - albeit with a slimmed down line up this week: Thea, Zoe, Jerry M35ha and WELCOME back Fred did the deed. On the night we did lots of percussive instrumental tracks. Zoe great to hear you moving over to the dark side of the drum. We did "My dog has no nose", "Peanuts", and a little "People are strange". We called it a night and retired to the black bar, satisfied the night and beach was ours for a few more moments. I still look at the big passing ships all lit up like licke children look at the Christmas tree. The Black Bar had the unusual idea of opeing the front door allowing the almost freezing wind to blow through. As if they didnt want us there - and this was at 10.30. We may resume the Awkland next week. In the interim it's DRUMBOREE 6-11pm at Peters Church Fraser Road Somerstown Rhythm collectives and drum workshops etc. Look forward to seeing you there. Sunday 19th September 2004 We Took The Elms For a while we had been planning to take advantage of The Elms (fine hostelry in Southsea) as they had offered for us to play there on a Sunday. One reason or another we just had not got round to going there. Until now. Line up: Em, Thea, Jerry, Lucie, Monica, Michal (whose abbrieviated name is mesha!) with Lada on sitting down duties. Musically is was stripped down drum and beer music. Several moments of brilliance that even the old fella in the white flat cap applauded. That day I was on some health kick - having ran 7-8 miles in the morning then having no beer just loads of tomato juice. It was as if I was craving it. A downer of the day was having to to say "na vas Dravi" one last time to Michal. Michal joined the band in time honoured random fashion: bringing his drum to the beach and hooking up with us. We soon realised he knew Leon and had several friends including his sister Lucie. he leaves these shores for Italy. Good luck our shining friend. The bar loved us to the point of sticking on some credit in their juke box and giving us a round of drinks. So in summary The ELMS a gogo! Tuesday 14th September 2004 The soup that is our music has got spicier. Last week we bid farewell to Lewis, this week the cold winds of the tail end of Hurricane Ivan was I'm sure what blew in the talents of DONNA and LADA from our favourite Eastern European Republic called Check. We also welcome Dave - another convert via sonic priestess Zoe. Despite what Quentin tarantino says we don't want her killed....... The rest of the round up included: Thea - suffering for her art via her hands; Jerry - like the space your useing but stop the press did you hear his violin and his flute playing yadda yadda WOW! Star Performer of the week; Tam he's got a kinda metal approach to percussion - loud/soft keep it up it works. Michal - man you are another brother from my universe your beats are wild as ever; Lucie doesnt just beat she dances too. Weatherwise is was longsleeves and kinda autumnal. Still nice to be near the sea and watch glowing illuminated ghostlike ships go sailing past. What of the music: Plenty of tunes featuring Lada and Monica offering very haunting lilting vocals. In Check. I wish I could speak it although after a few bottles of Corona and a word with IAN (of Books and Comics fame) it felt like I could! What to me reflects as a celtic Jig type tune with Jerry on violin girls on flutes with the rest of the band doing a collective boran thing. Ken's Kebabs. This was complemented by Lada and Monica's backing vocals. These eventually took over while i took 5 and yakked to Jerry. Simultaneously Michal described the tune as good as a female orgasm. That means he liked it. For me it was like we had made a baby creature that was now starting to walk ........WITH AN IPOD AND ATTITUDE. Peanuts: er me yelling out the old Golden Wonder tune this dropped my voice by at least half an octave. For some reason people at work wanted me to speak a lot today???? So what lessons did we learn? Well we learnt that the Corona in the Black Bar is just as good warm. That Zoe has a huge and growing collection of fab and cool people she knows at work. Zoe has now come over to the dark side. HAND DRUMS wooooo great to have you back. To end this weeks installment we hope to be at THE ELMS bar on Sunday 19th 230/3pm. Ta Ta