inacityliving

Being brought up on The Beatles, I could often be found in my bedroom banging a couple of lengths of dowel on my bed in rhythm to Lucy in the Sky with diamonds or Good morning, Good morning off the Sgt Peppers lonely hearts club band LP. Cissy tracks such as Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby or She's leaving home, which only contained string quartets were banished - sacrilege I thought - no drums. I now realise these tracks for the marvels they truly are.

Pretty soon, the little gang of lads who were my closest friends were getting guitar pangs. Brian Connor, no doubt influenced by hippy Harry, our Science teacher's lab assistant who practiced his acoustic to the thick Beatles songbook in his little back room, bought a striking jet black Colombus six string. Paul (Paddy) Muscatelli and his cousin Carl Poland started coming down to where I lived for prackies. Ever supportive, my dad got me a second hand kit out of the echo, the bloke brought it down from Billinge and showed me a couple of beats including Fleetwood Mac's 'Albatros' with a couple of ball ended sticks on the cymbals.

Our house, the caretakers flat actually to the Blackburn Assurance building on Dale Street was ideal as we had no neighbours to complain about the racket and we had a big empty basement room (which was actually at ground floor level - because we lived on the 1st floor and upwards) - this was used for rehearsals. I remember us doing the Animals 'House of the rising sun' primarily because Carl knew it and played it well.

Eventually Chris Baccino got a guitar too before eventually buying Brian's Columbus - Hessy's and Curly Music on Stanley Street must have got fed up of seeing us as we broke more strings and sticks than learnt songs.

Well things happen, people move on, you know how it is. Brian was now a dad and living with his girlfriend Maureen in Ronald St, Old Swan. Chris was courting Marie from Jenkinson Street, Carl's visits from Wavertree got less and less as our ideas of grandure and appearances on top of the pops lessened - and too with it Paul's interest. Another line-up was around the corner - take two.

Perspective - A diary account - 1980 - 1982.

Robbie Moorcroft and Colin Mansfield had been in my year at secondary school, in fact Colin and I had shared a class for the first two years. They were now attending Mable Fletcher music college in Wavertree together with a lad who would become our singer - John Dean. Robbie, playing Lead guitar and Colin on Bass meant that at least there was now a structure forming - not just 3 or 4 lads wanting to strum rhythm. During the summer of 1980 we were to get together at Ged's shed - our name for the ground level basement i'd previously mentioned. On Sunday 9th November we let ourselves loose on the world - well William Henry Street to be exact - and the Windsor Castle public house, known to one and all as the Bents.

This was to be the start of an intense 142 gig - 14 month lifespan. Colin had a Wem bass amp, Robbie a Vox, (just like the Beatles), as well as a fuzzbox and wah wah pedals, my dad took out a loan with the HFC bank in St. John's precinct and a real deal blue glittery 'Olympic' kit was mine - the P.A. system which enabled John to reach the high notes on the Police's Roxanne was a 'Flame' - red in colour too.

Some of the songs we were to cover over the following year were:
My Sharona by The Knack. 2-4-6-8 Motorway – The Tom Robinson band. I got you – Split Enz. Three by The Police: Roxanne, Message in a bottle and Dee do do do Dee da da da. The Beatles I feel fine, Come Together, Get Back and Got to get you into my life. Just what I needed by The Cars. Another brick in the wall – Pink Floyd. Down the dustpipe - Status Quo. Don’t believe a word – Thin Lizzy. Dancing in the moonlight – Thin Lizzy. Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry. Different for girls – Joe Jackson. Is She really going out with him – Joe Jackson. And even a few originals written by Colin and Robbie: I’m Down, New Wave blues,The clap song (before the clap meant v.d. thank you), Keep it to yourself (this could have been about v.d. though) and More than a woman.

Beggars can't be choosers and as John was the only one of us capable of driving but wheel-less, we relied upon the good faith of Eddie Gilday and Tony Wright who owned the obligatory white van rust bucket though we did sometimes cadge a lift in Riley's white and yellow sunblest 7.5 tonner wagon. Riley being friends of ours and the fore-runner of well known local group 'Groundpig'.

By the end of the year we now had three regular gigs. The Windsor Castle, The Red Star (commie club) in Shaw Street and The Henglers Circus on Everton Road. We ended the year by playing at a new, fourth venue, the Clock on Salisbury street, a 100 yard walk from Robbie’s in Field Street, the gig being on new years eve and notable as it became our biggest pay packet to date @ £50 and the first time we were ever photographed. In contrast I was earning £16.55 in my 9-5 Shipping job in Dale Street on one of Maggie Thatcher’s new Work Experience Programmes.

When we weren’t playing we were nearly always practising to get the set repertoire tight and up to the late twenties in number. Colin and Robbie announced another two venues respectively, the Mitre which was just around the corner from the ‘shed’ where our debut of 3 sets taking in a bumper 34 songs went down a storm and the Throstles Nest, a well known rough house at the time on Scottie Road. It raised eyebrows amongst us, particularly when it was reported that the reason for the vacancy was because the last group on there were ‘bottled’ because they were shite.

Robbie assured us that his brother Mark and mates Tony Vaughan, Ben Allen and Kevin Wharton (who used to come down to the shed to watch us rehearse) knew all the ‘heads’ along the road including the manager, 'Knock', and with them in tow supporting us, we’d be alright – after all we were doing 'joint' favourites Floyd and Genesis (if you know what I mean) we were, going down great, to the backdrop of the local Errol Flynn lookalike glass collector 'Charlie' shouting ‘Hollywood’ at regular intervals

Perspective at the Throstles Nest - 1981. And below.

Perspective at The Clock - Salisbury St L5 - New years eve 80.

The following month was eventful as it was announced that Les O’Connell, brother of Riley’s Johnny was joining us. This added another string to our bow as he was a pianist - yes, a pianist I said. New songs were rehearsed and added to the set from Mon 9th March, these being.

In the air tonight – Phil Collins. Breakfast in America – Supertramp. It’s still Rock N’ Roll to me – Billy Joel. Lady Madonna – The Beatles. Let it be – The Beatles. Easy – Lionel Richie. And, we also worked on and introduced a Genesis instrumental medley consisting of Dukes Travels, The Musical Box and Los Endos which went down a storm with the local pot heads.

On Mon 9th, we also invested in a small Vauxhall Viva van. Deany was the only one who could drive so more work was lumped onto his shoulders, being quite handy he also made a roofrack out of an old pallet. I swear that sometimes the stuff on that rack increased the van height by double – we were once stopped by the Police for overloading and some of us, there were the 5 group members and half the equipment in the back, had to get a taxi.

The first driving job was to take our new posters we’d had made up to the Throstles to advertise our forthcoming appearances. New venues were now coming thick and fast and in the month of April we added a private party gig in the Deysbrook Hall off Deysbrook Lane, the Dovecot, Gatsby’s, The Almond Tree, Our Lady’s, Crawfords Club and the Thatcher.

Things were happening, Steve McMullen, a local well known ‘head’ whose family ran the Westmoreland on Scottie road, better known as the Honky Tonk aka Dolly Hickies decided he’d become our manager, he’d heard us somewhere and who were we to argue as he muscled in on our rehearsal sessions with his meatheads.

To be fair, whilst they didn’t really get us many gigs or further money, they didn’t want anything out of it either, probably just to be connected to a bunch of misfits who could help them pass their time away whilst sharing a joint or two, and I don’t mean Sunday roast.

Our gigs were now moving a little further afield. The Dovecot and the Thatcher were in Dovecot and Cantril Farm respectively, or should that be ‘Perspectively’ and Gatsby’s actually advertised their forthcoming attractions in the Liverpool Echo so our name was nearly in lights, definitely in print. Gatsby’s was somewhere that I frequented with my mates Chris, Ditty, and Walshy every weekend anyway and it was always packed. They put us on Thursdays though to try and generate some extra bodies in the place, we always brought our own little crew so we more than paid for ourselves. The Almond Tree was way out in Skelmersdale, West Lancashire – a true distant gig across the moss, thirty or so minutes away, why, we were nearly booking an overnight stay so we could thrash the hotel room like real rock stars – no, only kidding.

Crawfords was a one off where we played at the biscuit factory’s club in Binns Road with our friends Riley and top comedian Davy Royal was also on the bill. Another gig on Thursday 23rd April was to celebrate the Throstles Nest centenary week as it was open 100 years. There was a beer drinking contest as local boxer Joey Frost downed three pints in 23 seconds and promptly returned them just as fast. It was the occasion of our 2nd photograph session too. (as seen above)

One night after rehearsals, we all piled into the van having been invited to a party in a house somewhere in Toxteth, one of those big high ceiling Georgian gaffs. One or two of the lads knew of a newly formed, up and coming band who were making a name for themselves locally. Apparently they had a tour of Scotland coming up and were looking for a warm up band to go on before them. We were touted, it was discussed and my mind wandered to the Beatles Larry Parnes auditions where they backed him up in Scotland before they were famous, then reality set it.

I remarked that I’d already had two weeks holiday out of my four weeks allowance in work. That was that then because this was a two month tour lined up. They argued that this could be our big break, but I never thought that doing cover versions would ever make us it big on top of the pops or anything, everything being released was new, not like these days. The band turned out to be a new romantic outfit, famed as much for their bizarre hair as their music – A flock of seagulls, who went on to have two chart hits with ‘I ran’ and ‘Wishing’ as well as making it massive in America. Oh well.

By the end of the month we’d added a 14th venue – The Pembroke club in Pembroke place. Known as the Dorchester it was a far cry from a posh sounding hotel as it was a cellar dive in the Cavern mould with cheap ale and was very dark and atmospheric with a little nook and cranny stage area – it was great actually. In fact our first date there was a Sunday afternoon on 26th April and we had to do a quick set down and get off afterwards as we were playing the Mitre the very same night. A Kirkby Labour Club gig reaping in £60 became our biggest earner to date in that, another eventful week which also saw us play Brady’s which was formerly the world famous Eric’s in Mathew Street. This was a sort of gigathon with other groups on the bill, the best of which were probably the Front Room who were actually selling their new single there called Joe Public.

At this point, I was outgrowing my drum kit and after subtlety mentioning it to my dad, he, as ever, came up trumps when he said we could trade my old one in and get a bigger and better Premier kit from the Acme drum shop in Cheapside, it was like all my Christmas’s came at once and I’m still eternally grateful. It was a glazed off-white set with triple toms which were open bottomed and had a great sound to them.

The end of that week saw us playing publicly for exactly 6 months having completed 80 gigs.On Saturday 16th May we played at C.F. Mott College of Higher Education at Liverpool Road, Prescot on behalf of the students union who contracted us to play having seen us two months earlier in the Dovecot. This for me was possibly our finest hour and as luck would have it we taped it on a cassette recorder carefully placed so that it got a real mix of all the different instruments. In fact the Philips C120 tape was so good that it was lent out, passed from pillar to post and eventually all track was lost of it so unfortunately it was never returned. Maybe someone was keeping it for when we made it big, I’d like to think so but it's more likely that it found its way into a landfill via the binmen actually.

It was a vibrant gig, witnessed by a load of head banging beer swilling students on an end of term drinking spree. They could have been hard to please but we went down so well that we were invited back for their September end of year event.

The next new venue was a freebie of sorts on behalf of our manager, Ste, who the previous week had invited us all up to his big house off Sheil Road for a nights drinking whilst watching Rocky on his, as yet then unheard of, big screen tv’s. The Variety Club on Norton Street had a very steep staircase leading from the street up to the bar level on the first floor. I remember being at the bottom end of Les’s electric piano, it seemed like a ton weight. As I set up my drums I looked behind me and was amazed to find that the wall and floor were coming away from each other and I could clearly see daylight below. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before the building was condemned and demolished, the new coach station stands nearby now.

Some of our advertisements

Our posters went up in each of these 3 pubs as well as on derelict warehouses around Mathew St where we were competing with the likes of the far flashier posters of 'Afraid of mice', 'Pete Burns', 'Deja Vu' and 'Blue Vein' In all we played the Throstles on 32 occassions, The Henglers Circus on 20, The Red Star club 15 and the Mitre - 11.

Some of the Echo advertisements put in by the pubs in question, others included Daley's Dandelion and 'The She' club. I'm also seen here in 'the shed' practising. Our only contract coincided with our best performance (imho) also be taped on a cassette at the C.F. Mott college where we had to please the 1981 end of term students and we did. The tape was subsequently lent out and lost - or is it?

May 81 was our most productive month as a touring group with 19 shows, even working on 7 consecutive nights from the 12th through to the 18th but we were only to perform six more gigs in this present guise as family commitments meant that Deany, becoming ever more unreliable went on his merry way and was promptly replaced by Robbie’s sister, Anita. These new set of circumstances meant that we had to quickly learn a new set and get back out there to keep the continuity going, suiting Anita's dulcet tones, this would become more of a Social Club type repertoire. The new set would consist of:

I’m coming out – Diana Ross. Southern Freeze – Southern Freeze. I want your Love – Chic. Good Times – Chic. I will survive – Gloria Gaynor. Stay With me till dawn – Judy Tzuke. River deep mountain high – Ike & Tina Turner. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac. Because the night – The Patti Smith group. Brass in Pocket – The Pretenders. Shakin' all over – Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. The Logical Song – Supertramp, and again, a few more written by ourselves, Take my time, Who knows the answers, Don’t try and stop me, Sections and Jazz Rock.

Exactly one month later on Sunday 20th July, Anita made her singing debut for us knocking out 13 numbers on one straight set to a lively audience at her local – The Clock. We were back there just over a week later, this time with 20 numbers, we still kept the Genesis Instrumental medley in and a couple of other instrumentals which previously gave Deany’s voice a well earned rest as regular intervals.

The first few weeks of August saw us debut at three new venues on the trot. The Mayflower in Fazakerley Street, Daley’s Dandelion in nearby Dale Street and the Prince Alfred on Rice Lane, Walton. I remember in the last place a group of lads were about to get off when Les started practising the Genesis medley during a sound check shortly after setting up, one of them came over and said ‘Do you do that song, do you do Genesis’, we said yes, so they stayed. They had to wait until the very end to hear it mind you.

It was around this time that we got with an agency in Anfield, the idea being they could get us into the social club circuit and increase our earnings too. Gig number 100 was at the Kensington Fields social club on Hall Lane on Sunday 30th August. We also played the next night on this bank holiday weekend at the Clock, taking our earnings for the weekend to nearly £100.

Childwall Social Club was next up followed by Speke Rugby club and then our return visit to C.F. Mott College. I felt we weren’t received quite as well as the previous outing in May but that was a lot to live up to anyway. I felt the change to a girl singer with a much changed set was the reason for this, however, it was a slightly larger fee than last time so figure that one out. Yes, they were expecting the same as before.

Seaforth Social club, St. Domingo’s Club, The 174 Club, Walton Hospital S.C. and Whispers wine bar in Bold Street were all new additions during the month of October. Sandwiched in between these were the ever faithful Throstles Nest and Clock and we’d soon clocked up (pardon the pun) the first 25 performances with Anita as singer.

Around this time, a bloke called Terry, who the lads knew from Mabel Fletcher college started to pop down the shed to rehearse a few songs with us. Known to them as ‘The room upstairs’ – a private joke I think, this Charles Manson lookalike, a beefy bloke with a full beard and beady eyes, would get up and do a rousing rendition of Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven followed by the Kinks, You really got me and Alright Now by Free. He was either well into it or stoned off his head, at least he didn’t try to strip off on stage like he did whilst rehearsing it, he'd show up at the Throstles and get up on stage with us belting them out.

The Henglers Circus came back on board on Monday 2nd November, our first performance there in 6 months. Another newy, courtesy of our agent was the United Services Club off Park Road in the Dingle. Local youth club, Shrewsbury House (the Shewsy) off Roscommon Street which is attched to St. Peter's church and hall became the penultimate gig of the month, we were well and truly used to playing on the big stages now, set high up, above and apart from the audience.

The Hillside, facing C.F. Mott on the Huyton to Prescot road was somewhere where we’d called in on our travels up there to tout for business and it was to become our last ever new venue in mid December of 81. The Christmas and new year period turned out to be fruitful with a flurry of 5 performances in 12 days including Christmas night in the Throstles and the new years eve show at Childwall Social club earned us a clear £150.

Sadly, only four more gigs were to take place, all in January 82 ending at the ‘Shewsy’ on the 15th which was Anita’s 49 performance and the bands 142nd. Anita was leaving and whilst we rehearsed some new songs with Deany who was thinking of coming back, songs such as Abacab by Genesis, Wishing Well by Free, Bloody well right by Supertramp and Have a cigar by Pink Floyd, what could have turned out to be one of our best sets was thwarted when both Deany and myself decided to call it a day.

My work meant that I was sometimes rising from my pit just hours after returning to the ‘shed’ after mid-week and Sunday night performances, what people don’t see in this amateur game where roadies are not afforded, is all the setting up and setting down, then getting back to base etc. The other lads on the other hand were not in full time work, this was their work as well as their hobby. It just felt the right time to call it quits.

The 2nd coming - Fast forward 25 years on - The Story of The Gardens.

Whilst Perspective were wearing out pub carpets throughout Liverpool, Paul Muscatelli, you’ll remember from the Ged’s shed sessions had teamed up with a fellow neighbour from Gerard Crescent, Liverpool 3, Paul Sudbury. Subbo, on guitar, along with friends John Colfar keyboards) and Peter Clarke (drums) – both from nearby Cazneau Street, Clarkey being the son of the Denbigh Castle landlady had formed a band called Media. Lillian Allen (no, not that one), from Comus Street completed the line up as lead singer. After rehearsals at St. Joeys club, the line up eventually changed to Mark on drums and Simon on guitar and following an application to the Outlandus Trust, run by Sting, John Colfar managed to secure the band a Fender Rhodes keyboard. Sadly, only one gig was to follow at the Christian Street community centre which was formerly the children's lending library. (see pic at the bottom of the page)

The set performed around June 1983 included 'Picture This' by Blondie, 'Back on the chain gang' by The Pretenders and 'Because the night' by Patti Smith. This wasn't Paul's first attempt at stardom though. Sovex, named after his workplaces internal mailing system in the National Giro had been formed back in 1981 with John on drums and Martin McGhee on bass guitar. On 11th Feb 1981 they performed 4 Beatles numbers, namely - 'Do you want to know a secret', 'Things we said today', 'Ask me why' and 'From me to you' at the Giro talent competition.

Paul and I had already reacquainted ourselves with one another by 2005 through his film 'Gardens of Stone' and my books 'In a city living' which covered the same subject matter. Franny, Paul’s eldest brother, who along with his other brothers and their wives had always lent support at the screenings was with the love of his life, Ann Green. Sadly, Ann was suffering from Ovarian cancer and we were all devastated when we learned that she’d lost her long battle at the beginning of June 06. Franny wanted to put on a celebration of Ann’s life, a night out for all her family and friends which would be a charity event, all ticket, a raffle, song and dance with all proceeds going to fight ovarian cancer. There was something else though, he wanted a live band.

One of Paul’s pastimes was golf. At his golf do’s, he and his Alliance & Leicester workmate Ron Bennion would bring along their guitars to serenade the listening hoardes at the 19th hole. They knew more than a handful of songs off by heart and who was I to resist an invite to be the drummer in a newly formed get together for this truly worthy cause. John Colfar, still living a stones throw from Cazneau Street and still Paul’s friend was the obvious pianist having been an original part of Media, Paul’s son John, aged just 15, and so bringing the average age back down from the hundreds completed the line up as luckily he was just getting into the bass guitar – talk about fate again. Paul came up with the name ‘The Gardens’ in commemoration of Gerard Gardens.

John Colfar helped set up The Everton Development Trust which is housed on Great Homer Street in the old premises which was the Lamplighter pub. We could use the ground floor offices as a rehearsal room, snatching three hour sessions most tuesday or thursday nights and perhaps the odd saturday lunchtime until the big gig. With tickets selling fast in excess of 300, Franny had to change the venue from the Seaforth & Litherland Constitutional club in Field Lane, Litherland to the Silvestrian on Silvester Street.

The gig saw us complete in matching tee shirts of the Bruce Springsteen E Street band tour dates ilk but our wording said 'The Gardens on tour - The Silvestrian: Friday 13th October 2006. Future dates cancelled due to popular demand'. The full songlist set consisted of:

Stuck in the middle with you/Long Tall glasses – medley. Stealers Wheel/Leo Sayer. Dance the night away – The Mavericks. Daydream Believer – The Monkees. Dancing in the moonlight – Toploader. Dancing in the dark – Bruce Springsteen. The Ballad of John & Yoko – The Beatles. Brown eyed girl – Van Morrison. 500 Miles – The Proclaimers.Twisting the night away/Please Mr Postman medley – Sam cooke/Beatles Take your mama/Benny & the Jets/Saturday night’s alright (for fighting) medley – Scissor Sisters/Elton John. Altogether Now/Movie star medley – The Farm/Harpo, and an encore number: Don’t look back in anger – Oasis.

Hitting the road again 25 years on. A bit greyer, ok - a lot greyer but with 3 teenage girls who wouldn't be? With nappy changing well and truly out of the way (they only keep us up in the early hours with the partying now), it was time to twirl those sticks again. A hastily assembled Hohner drum kit from the window of Youngs on Stanley Road and it was off we go, just like we'd never been away.

THE MATHEW STREET FESTIVAL 07

Buoyed by our performance and the audience reaction at the charity gig for Ann the previous October, we decided to have a go at the prestigious Mathew Street festival which is part of the Beatles weekend on the August bank holiday, an event enjoyed en masse by locals and many from overseas who make the annual pilgrimage.

For this, a special Beatles set would be arranged but the first snag to overcome was that John Colfar, our keyboard extraordinaire was still changing his underpants from stage fright after his nervous yet almost note perfect performance last year and so decided to opt out of any future gigs, having found his fame and fortune in property management – lucky sod.

This also meant that a new rehearsals room had to be sought including consideration of rooms in London Road and the dock road. Eventually, Ron was able to acquire the use of his brother-in-law’s warehouse in Widnes which was used for fork lift truck training during the day.

The place was large and hollow which led to good acoustics. Paul worked on laying down some trumpet solos via his Yamaha Keyboard so we could have an adventurous go at the likes of Penny Lane, When I’m 64 and Abbey Road tracks. The timings against our ‘live’ performance didn’t work so we settled for tried and tested 3 guitars and drums tracks instead. It was spring going on summer by the time we got going seriously so the warehouse wasn’t too bad and we got a lot done before there were enforced absences due to each of us having family holidays in July and August.

I was the last to get back, just a few days before the big gig which left us just one day for a final rehearsal on the very eve of the gig itself but we needn't have worried. At this session it was decided we would drop some of the weaker numbers, these being ‘I’ve got a feeling’, ‘Can’t buy me love’, ‘Don’t let me down’ and ‘Norwegian Wood’.

We’d secured the Head of Steam in Lime Street some weeks before which gave us a goal to aim for. A couple of lads ran an operation called Piecake Promotions who were responsible for the entertainments there and we were in. We’d be using their equipment as the whole day would see a number of groups take to the stage on a rolling basis. The format would see us doing an afternoon and an evening session, the audience ever changing throughout the day except for our long suffering – err I mean loyal following of family and friends.

The build up to the Mathew Street festival had been fraught politically. This was our Capital of Culture year 08 but the city’s big dig around the L1 Grosvenor development on Paradise Street and the Pier Head canal link had meant that the city council had scrapped all the outdoor venues on the specially erected stages they’d constructed in past years.

There was a huge outcry but we thought that this would mean more people having to cram into the indoor venues such as where we were playing. The uptake was slow on the day, perhaps the scheduled 1pm start was a bit optimistic, people would shop first then turn up laden with bags and make a day – and night of it. The running order was put back a couple of hours then Ashey, one of the organisers got up to do a little acoustic set.

Before we knew it, we were on. Starting with tight, tried and tested standards we’d been practicing till we knew them backwards, the idea being to get off to a good confident start with nothing too demanding. ‘Things we said today’ fitted the bill perfectly and is a lively number too, followed by ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ – the only song we’d done previously at our debut gig. Paul introduced this song by telling the ever increasing crowd that we’d now be doing a Beatles song, the only one of their singles that didn’t contain the title of the song in its lyrics and did anyone know it? ‘A hard days night’ came a shout from the audience – we knew right then we had nothing to fear.

After ‘The ballad’ came ‘All my loving’ – our own re-worked version which saw Paul almost talk the first verse to a single guitar strum per passage as in the ‘A taste of honey’ intro off the Beatles first album. Then we all entered straight into the ‘I’ll pretend that I’m kissing, the lips I am missing….’ Given this was the first time ‘proper’ we’d performed this just how we’d arranged it, it was going well. ‘No reply’ came next, a song not often covered, this was a ploy by us, dig out some of the more obscure album tracks, we knew the Beatles festival party goers, the ones really into them would know these and they did – even a couple of the other band members seated near the stage were heartily singing along.

‘This Boy’ slowed down the set a bit, we included this as although it drones on a bit early on, it picks up in the chorus ‘oh and this boy, would be happy…’ ‘You’ve got to hide your love away’ saw harmonies between Ron and Paul, done acoustically, my role being strictly tambourine. ‘Ob la di – ob la da’ lifted the tempo again and then another little known track we threw in was the ‘B’ side to the Beatles debut single, a lively little number which uplifted the set again in ‘P.S. I love you’. Paul did an instrument change to mandolin at this point as Paul pointed out to the audience we were going from the Beatles first single, right up to date with McCartney’s new offering ‘Dance Tonight’ complete with mandolin solo. An edited version of both the afternoon and evening sessions of this song is available to see on youtube by clicking the link below by the photographs.

Paul stayed on this instrument, acquired in the USA just a month or so before, for the next song which was another album track called ‘I’ve just seen a face’ – a fast, fit as many words into a single verse as you can sort of song – very uplifting. ‘Revolution’ came next, not the slow white album version and not really resembling the single version either but more of a ‘Revolution’ – the Gardens way. Possibly the weakest and least worked on of the set but that’s just my take on it, the watching and listening public would never have noticed – mind you – that’s my take on it too. After that song, with all its changes and all, a simple one next – ‘One after 909’. This was written by John Lennon back in the 1950s but only saw the light of day more than a decade later during the ‘Let it be’ sessions. Paul ad libbed some lyrics to include ‘packed my bags – at lime street station’ which after all was where we were playing.

We carried on the ‘rooftop’ theme next with ‘Get back’ which we also somehow managed to morph into ‘The End’ off Abbey Road which gave me the chance to try and emulate Ringo’s only ever real drum solo – nothing too challenging there then, Lennon had already stated that Ringo wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles – no pressure there then. Just like on the Abbey Road album, ‘The end’ wasn’t really the end as there was actually the singalong finale still to come. McCartney had given us this idea from all of his ever frequent but welcoming world tours when year on year ‘Hey Jude’ complete with audience participation would end the show. Ours was no exception and went down just as well, well it seemed so after six bottles of Magners, particularly the evening session’s version which included an impromptu special guest appearance by a friend of Ron’s and Paul’s in John Cummins belting out for all it was worth on tambourine as the audience danced and swayed before us and sang from the rear – Naaa – na na na na na naaaaaa. The show was over, a gig well worth repeating maybe – watch this space.

A few pictures taken at both sessions. Paul even managed to edit together the daytime and evening versions of our take on McCartney's then newest offering 'Dance Tonight' complete with note for note Mandolin solo which can be seen and heard on youtube

FESTA VOLANTE - A LIVERPOLITALIA EVENT AT THE SILVESTRIAN

With Paul's film 'Gardens of Stone' being integral to the 'Little Italy' area upon which Gerard Gardens was eventually built, Ron Formby of the Scottie Press soon had Liverpolitalia contact him. The outcome was Paul's film would be shown, my model exhibited and as somewhat of an afterthought, it was disclosed that these two geezers were part of a music group too.

Sunday 3rd February was the gig date, the event would start at 1pm with talks, buffet, more talks, the film show and then musical entertainment. It was decided amongst us that Paul, or perhaps I should say Liz, his wife, would endure the sounds of our rehearsals at their abode in Croxteth Park to save trundling down to Widnes all the time.

New equipment was being added along the way now with a more powerful P.A. system in the form of Peavey speakers and a proper mixing desk. We knew we had the tried and tested lively songs such as 'Stuck in the middle', 'Brown eyed girl', 'The Ballad' and 'Dance Tonight' so it was just a case of adding a few more. John had acquired a new electric guitar for Christmas so the idea was they would mix and match depending on the song. A few new electric guitar based songs, giving us more a feel of an electric group would be rehearsed. We practised 'The last time', a Rolling stones rock standard as well as ‘Proud Mary’ made famous by Tina Turner, 'The one I love' - a repetitive little ditty by R.E.M. and to bring us right up to date 'Valerie' which had just made the charts originally by the Zutons but also new female sensation Amy Winehouse. Valerie would have to wait until the next gig though, deemed unfit just now.

Also dismissed after a couple of tries were ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ by the Deep Blue something and Simon and Garfunkels ‘The Boxer’ – well it was a gig in tribute to a boxer wasn’t it? A sprinkling of Irish favourites were to be included though which would make it all the more worthwhile in Paul utilizing his mandolin, instead of only on 'Dance Tonight'. These were 'Whisky in a jar', 'The Irish Rover' and 'Dirty old town' - probably the best known versions of these were covered by Thin Lizzy, The Pogues and The Spinners respectively. We’d also give ‘Squeezebox’ by the Who the Gardens treatment too, minus the squeezebox of course.

The basis of our rehearsals would now take the form of an informal gathering in Paul's garage which became a home cinema come snooker room but was now in its 4th guise as a mini recording studio. When tight enough and sure of our arrangement of the music, we would move on to the lock up in Widnes for a real bash at full pelt. This we did on one of the coldest days of the year, so with coats left on, we sorted out the arrangements and this accomplished, we were ready for the gig.

Although not going on stage until 6pm to bring proceedings to a close, we had to be there from around 11am for Paul to sort out his film, set up the dvd, sound levels etc and for me to erect the model and resident listings board. With that done, the equipment was set up and we ran through 3 numbers to get a feel for the size of the hall and the sound levels. This done, it was a case of enjoying the day as family, friends and a full house audience arrived to listen to tales about Dom Volante from boxing association big wigs and his associates and family.

One of these, local historian and personality Frank Carlyle, himself ex Gerard Crescent like Paul and I exhibited a piece of Gianelli’s chippy memorabilia in the form of the glazed dish which had took pride of place in their window display from way back when. Frank, having had a few bevies by now with family and friends placed the said item very gingerly on a precariously balanced makeshift stand hastily erected just before the speeches, thankfully it remained in situ for the endurance or it could have been a disaster.

The time soon came for us to take to the stage in our ‘band’ Capacity. We always ensure the first few numbers get the audience in the mood so ‘lively’ is the order of the day, starting with our usual repertoire which went down well before keeping them on the dancefloor by entering straight into the three new Irish offerings. Such was the success of the day that an unexpected bonus for us was an extra dropsy at the end of it all. Yes, we were enjoying this all over again.

The Gardens take to the stage at 6pm. Earlier in the day, a packed hall including ex Little Italy residents had recounted memories of the Gerard Gardens area, taking a look at the model and resident listings. Peter Wilson and Gerry Murphy of liverpolitalia held a raffle including a signed, framed picture of Dom Volante for whom this event was held.

SCOTTIE ROAD REUNION 08

Ron Formby of the Scottie Press, the longest running community newspaper still in circulation decided that based upon the success of the Scottie Road reunion some 5 years back, it was time to bring the old community back together again in this year of Liverpool's capital of culture. Last time, he reports that he could have sold the tickets four times over, with bands, comedians and dance acts wowing the crowds who were spread over two concert rooms from noon till midnight.

Sunday 8th June was the next deadline we had to aim for and a few new songs were to be rehearsed in the meantime. As with our last practise sessions, we would do the bulk of the laying down and arrangements over at Paul's house with the full blast at the Widnes lock up to follow when the weather got a bit warmer. We knew the usual songs so well now that four or five of them could be put on the back burner to concentrate on the new additions.

‘The Last time’, ‘The one I love’ and ‘Valerie’ and other additions such as Del Shannon's ‘Runaway’ – complete with lead solo, ‘Proud Mary’, as practiced earlier, ‘Crackling Rosie’ by Neil Diamond and our very own version of Elvis’ ‘Suspicious Minds’. To commemorate the Scottie Press in some small way, Paul established that Rod Stewart’s ‘Maggie May’ was No1 in 1971 as the first Scottie Press rolled off the err – press, and as if by magic, the song was also in Paul and Ron’s 101 Guitarioke songbook so what other criteria was required – it was a goer. Another REM song, ‘Man on the moon’ was tried but binned and Wings’ ‘Mull of Kintyre was also mooted but we’d left it a bit late to pracky with a piper though there would be one or two scheduled to play.

May saw us with a number of midweek ‘home’ prackys, followed with a sunny Sunday afternoon at Widnes, that was until the mixer gave out again, bang on cue before a note was even played. It wasn’t the only thing smoking as Paul fumed at the prospect of another trip to Dawsons – they’d hate us, but wait a mo, this was brand new stuff, it shouldn’t be giving out like this on only half pelt. Paul decided to upgrade to a Yamaha, the difference was immense, you could hear now that there was definitely something up with that last crap.

The morning of the gig itself went well with a quick run through half a dozen of the songs to get the sound levels sorted. We mixed it up a bit as there were acoustic based songs, mandolin and lecky guitar for the last few. The Lord Mayor opened proceedings at noon to the accompaniment of a lone piper, fresh from his parade through the city centre on the previous day. Various styled bands including pipes, drums, flutes, the James Larking band and solo acts strutted their stuff and soon after Stevie Faye, the comedian had been on, it was our turn.

Overhearing remarks such as 'They were the best band of the day' makes it all worthwhile - oh and that pay packet too but this is fun really, we'd given up on the millionaire/top of the pops route long ago. The night ended with the resident DJ playing some classics in between some karaoke stints by the ample sized audience that stayed until the doors closed.

Our friend and ex band member, John Colfar took these pictures at our Widnes rehearsal warehouse. We value his honest opinion to get the sound levels right and he also attended the Silvestrian soundcheck and performance.

The gig itself. Scotland Road, famous the world over and this event was via beamed via satellite to 600 million people in 200 countries. Well ok, maybe not but we enjoyed it just the same and took our curtain call an hour and a half later.

ARE AVAILABLE FOR PUB WORK AND PRIVATE FUNCTIONS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY. PLEASE CONTACT GED ON ged.fagan@rosewoodtrucking.co.uk

ADDITIONAL PHOTO GALLERY

MEDIA - 1983. The band members seen here from left to right are Mark, John, Lilian, Paul and Simon.

Mabel Fletcher College, Sandown Road, Wavertree as pictured on 7th Feb 1972, quite a few years before Colin, Robbie and John of 'Perspective' would be perfecting their trade - did I say perfecting?

The Stage at C.F. Mott College where arguably our finest moment took place. The chairs were replaced by cheers as we wowed the hoarding masses with covers of The Police, The Cars, Floyd and Genesis.

C.F. Mott was addressed as 'The Hazels' - Prescot but was only a little higher up from the Bluebell in Huyton. Whilst taking a break, we nipped opposite to the Hillside pub and arranged a date there for a few weeks later.

The Throstles Nest became a regular gig during 1981 with 32 appearances. The entrance we used was in Chapel Gardens as the small stage was almost facing. Many a time our little Vauxhall Viva MK1 van would pull up outside casting a shadow as the roofrack was piled high with amps, how we were never on police, camera, action - I don't know.

The Mitre which is now the Ship & Mitre was a venue we got when the lads called in one night en route to the rehearsal room which was just around the corner. The debut gig a short while later was a mammoth 3 sets with 34 songs, some of which i'm sure we must've done twice on the sly.

The Mayflower, Fazakerley Street and The Prince Alfred, Rice Lane. Both of these we first played in whilst with Anita, debuting in August 81. The Mayflower advertised us in the Echo whilst the Alfred was the place where a gang of lads were getting off until they heard Les rehearsing the Genesis medley during the soundcheck.

The Bents house on William Henry Street where it all started. Eddie Gilday's van just about started but it got us there on time until we forgot a lead and had to rush back down to the shed. We got back to Robbie's wrath as he said the manager had been giving him daggers as we weren't on yet. - Oh happy days, I bet Ozzie Osbourne never had this trouble.

The Almond Tree was so far out in West Lancashire that we considered an internal flight before realising that Skelmersdale didn't have an airport. No overnight stay either, just a trek back down the M58 and another late night unpacking the van into the early hours.

As previously mentioned, Paul and Ron work for the Alliance and Leicester bank, formerly the National Giro. Their designated charity for 2008 was Zoe's Place, indeed Paul had created a book of his Gardens of Stone film documentary and screened the film at their premises with all proceeds to the charity.

It was learnt in the autumn that other A&L workers including Lawrence Critchley were hiring part of the world famous Cavern club in Mathew Street on Friday 5th December 08 to play there in their group Xplorer. When this news got to Paul, he offered the services of 'The Gardens' as the support act and our next, and biggest gig was confirmed.

The get the opportunity to play at the same venue that the Beatles graced on over 200 occasions and in particular on the same stage that Paul McCartney adorned on 14th December 1999 with the likes of Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour and Deep Purple's drummer Ian Paice was another dream come true after playing the Mathew Street festival the previous year.

Paul soon learnt that another co-worker, Siobhan McMahon was going to guest on vocals with Xplorer and made a joking sideswipe that she was snubbing the Gardens for them :o) Explaining with shock that she didn't know Paul was in a group, she agreed to guest with us too, only so good was she that it turned into nearly half the set with a very credible 8 songs and it was Xplorer who were snubbed.

Before rehearsals could begin, Ron informed us that the warehouse in Widnes we had previously used was now out of bounds but it didn't take him long to organise a replacement with his friend John. This would be a lock up/unit in St. Helens which was handy for us all.

The practicing took the form of midweek jaunts to Pauls music room in West Derby which was altogether a more intimate affair as we packed closely into his room organising the structure of each song and indeed the running order of the set.

We would start with the tried and tested 'Ballad of John & Yoko', 'Stuck in the middle with you' (minus the Leo Sayer, Long tall glasses medley) and being the Cavern, straight into another Beatles track which we'd done at the Head of Steam, 'Things we said today'.

Siobhan would then make her bow with Amy McDonald's 'Mr Rock and Roll'. With the nerves settled Siobhan would then alternate on every other song or two, and typically, as a woman would combine this by multi tasking on the tambourine as well ;o)

The only new songs we would be adding to the set from previous gigs concerned Siobhan due to the new range of songs it allowed us to perform. We would gather at St. Helens at 11.30am every sunday, myself coming straight from football at Burscough. We would practice until around 2/2.30pm repeatedly going through new numbers such as 'Be my baby' by Phil Spector's Ronettes, Roberta Flack's 'Killing me softly', 'Big Yellow Taxi' - made famous by Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith's 'Because the night' which i'd done previously in 1981 with Persepctive and Paul had done the same year with Media.

We switched vocals on 'Proud Mary' over to Siobhan too, so now, in effect we were doing the Tina Turner version rather than the Creedence Clearwater Revival take on it. Getting right up to date, Duffy's 'Mercy' came next with a little twist to it. As it's in the same key as the Beatles' 'She loves you', and it was the Cavern after all, we started it with the 'She loves you, yeah yeah yeah intro before going into Mercy itself and then finishing with She loves you. The last track, the final encore would be another that's been performed by both male and female vocalists, the Zutons 'Valerie' but done by us in the style of Amy Winehouse.

Ticket sales were going brilliantly, so much so that upon an evening visit to the Cavern to discuss the gig with the management, it was decided to cancel their resident band in the other room and give over the whole cellar venue to us for the night. Sold only within the confines of the A&L, the staff there soon took up the mantle to support both the chosen charity and their songsmith workmates. In fact, as each ticket was individually numbered and as it reached 500, concerns were raised as to whether some of the revellers would be outcast to the other room, only viewing us by an audio and visual link and so sales were halted.

The day itself involved a one hour soundcheck as we would be using the Cavern's own equipment, including the drums which were miked up to a central mixing desk which also controlled the lighting system and static camera. On top of this the gig would also be recorded to a cd and dvd via the same mixer and there would be official roving photographers and video footage.

We arrived at 3pm, running through songs that involved changing over instruments and foot pedals so that we had the correct levels and everyone, including the Cavern's own sound engineers were happy. Upon arrival for the gig itself, there were upwards of 150 there by 8pm, many coming straight from work that evening. We made straight for the 'out of bounds' private dressing room area which had a full length mirror and a cream leather 3 piece suite that was adorned with felt tipped pen graffiti of previous acts to appear there. The walls too were scraped with band names to the point of no spare space.

Although scheduled to appear at 9.30pm, it was in fact nearer 10pm when after a short film clip of Zoe's place, which the night was all about, we took to the stage. We organised the set so that the first 9 songs featured Paul on his red Ovation guitar, whilst John played Hofner Violin bass. Paul took up Mandolin for the next 4 songs as John continued on bass and the last 7 songs entered the louder electric phase with John on his Ibanez as Paul took over the Hofner. Ron stayed with his U.S. imported Takamine guitar throughout.

One hour and 15 minutes later and we were buzzing after playing a set including an encore, which we held back and the crowd were going to get whether they asked for it or not, luckily they did. So another success, indeed so much so that discussions with Xplorer in the cream room which was heaving after their brilliant set means there might well be a repeat in 09 so watch this space.

The Set of 20 songs:

Ballad of John & Yoko, Stuck in the middle, Things we said today, Mr Rock and Roll, Brown eyed girl, Be my baby, All my loving, Killing me softly, Big yellow taxi, Dance tonight, Wild Rover, Squeezebox, Dirty old town, Because the night, The one I love, The last time, One after 909, Proud Mary, Mercy, Valerie.

The Cavern gig poster. The ticket sales went so well within the confines of the A&L that this poster didn't see the light of day elsewhere. Just as well, since Mathew Street was spelt incorrectly. Perhaps a rare item when we make it big? Ticket No. 148 and the letter given to each reveller on their entry to the club.

PIC 1: Paul and I warm up backstage. The 'green room' was buzzing with musicians, sound engineers, photographers and well wishers. PIC 2: Paul launches into the vocal to the accompaniment of his famous 'McCartney' Hofner violin bass. PIC 3: Forget me - look at that 'Cavern' backdrop. Proud as punch to play on there. PICS 4 & 5: Ron and John make their guitars sing in this very all black affair. Ron's ever faithful Takamine as John alternates between bass and lead. PIC 6: Siobhan is intense as she's Killing us softly with her song PIC 7: How about this for a back four as the dancing girls in the audience get in the mood PICS 8 & 9: These colourful montages give you the feel of the vibrant night.

Paul concentrates on his 'Dance Tonight' mandolin solo as the stage backdrop changes to green. Ron, John and Siobahn are lost deep in the moment as we near the end of the set.

Next up - the Giro club - Friday 6th February 2009

Events during the winter with large American banks going to the wall had an unfortunate knock-on effect throughout Europe and especially the big players like Germany and here in the UK. Spanish conglomorates like Santander had already swallowed up the Abbey National and now, the Alliance & Leicester (who had previously bought out the National Giro some time back) This had unfortunately resulted in some workers leaving their beloved Giro after many years service and this was epitomised no more than for our next gig which was for long time servant, Sheila.

Paul changed some of the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkels 'Cecilia' to read 'Sheila' and the Giro members of the band knew of Sheila's love for Cliff Richard and so 'Congratulations' was a must to be performed on the night, ''congratulations on getting out of the Giro'' many said and so these two songs opened the performance at 10pm. We had also learnt Delilah which a member of the audience was going to sing but she backed out at the last minute when reality finally hit home that she'd be there under those big bright lights with all eyes on her.

The rest of the set sat loosly around what we'd already performed a thousand times before in rehearsals and on the road, Giro lad 'Whitey' again getting up as he had in the Cavern to lend his vocal skills to 'Wild Rover'. The only other two additions to the tried and tested set were the Bellamy Brothers 'Let your love flow' which incidentally had just been resurrected from the memory via a current t.v. advert and we finished the night with arguably the best song of the night, as the lady revellers formed a circle around Sheila as we blasted out another new one for us, Tina Turner's 'Simply the best'. Next......

With other personal commitments out of the way and deep into the summer of 09 with a few gigs lined up, it was back to Paul's on the last thursday of July to lay down a few new tracks. We loosly ran through 'Stay with me' by Rod Stewart and the Faces as well as 'Torn' by Natalie Imbruglia, 'The Whole of the moon' by the Waterboys, 'One way or another' by Blondie, 'Real gone kid' by Deacon Blue and 'Under the moon of love' by Showaddywaddy though my voice could never be as deep as Romeo Challengers - Come on little darling take my haaaand.

With the loss of our usual 'full band' rehearsal room at St. Helens, we had sounded out Vulcan Studios on the dock road and so it was to there and Room 'M' in particular that we next met on Sunday 2nd August. Here, we spent 4 hours as we tidied up the above songs, getting the right key and structures as well as adding a run through of 'Chasing cars' by Snow patrol.

Apart from the new editions we also ran through a few of the usual suspects such as The Ballad of John & Yoko, the One after 909, Mercy and Valerie just to keep our hand in and it was like we'd never been away.

Thursday 6th August at Paul's saw the introduction of a new band member in the form of Gary Hackett. Although more than capable on keyboards and acoustic guitar, Gary will be our new bassist and having done the circuit since the 1970s, he seemed to know the bass line to every song we threw at him, thus cutting down learning time and fitting in like he'd been there all the time. Being an Evertonian with an ice blue Yamaha bass, it was also time to redress the balance a bit too.

We quickly ran through near perfect one offs of our long standing repertoire such as The Ballad of John & Yoko, Stuck in the middle with you, Brown Eyed Girl and The One after 909 whilst awaiting the arrival of Siobahn from her wedding rehearsals before we tidied up our working versions of Torn, One way or another, Real gone kid and Whole of the moon. We finished the session with Proud Mary, Mercy and Valerie, Gary now being fully integrated and eagerly awaiting our next meet up.

Diary entry for Sun 9.8.09: With Gary already committed to something this weekend and Siobahn finalising the most important day of her life, no not the Cavern gig, but her wedding, it was down to Paul, Ron and I to fly the flag and go through a number of songs that we'd be doing at the next gig which will be male vocal orientated. With Vulcan booked from noon until 4, and Paul having brought his Yamaha keyboard for this session, the proposed set list went like this.

Acoustic/Guitar set: The ballad of John & Yoko, Stuck in the middle with you, Brown Eyed girl, Just wanna dance the night away, One after 909, (Medley) - Twisting the night away-Stand by me-Please Mr. Postman.

Mandolin set: Dance tonight, Squeezebox, Dirty old town, Wild Rover.

Keyboard Set: Benny and the jets, Whole of the moon, Real gone kid, My girl, Sweet Caroline, Chasing cars, Suspicious minds, Daydream believer, You're 16 and a T-Rex medley of Ride a white swan/Hot love.

Thursday 13th August: Our first real band sesh all together down at Vulcan booked in yet a different room from 7pm until 11pm and what a great pracky it turned out to be with a full sound and our tails up for the gig a week saturday Saturday - no margin for error now as we ran through all the probables like we'd been doing them for years - well some we had.

The Gig itself was for my cousin, Vinny McGreal's 50th birthday party and it turned out to be our best yet. The day started off with glorious sunshine as we set up from 11am at the bottom of his garden and after our soundcheck, were away by 1pm. The night was warm and mild, the ale was cold and lager. Staring off at 9pm with confidence fillers for ourselves and lively dance tunes for the revellers we ran through old faves 'Ballad', 'Stuck in the middle', 'Brown eyed girl', 'Dance the night away' 'one after 909', 'Things we said today' and the 'Twistin' medley before moving onto the Mandolin set before moving into the rest of the old favourites with the keyboard including Vinny on vocals for Daydream Believer and Your 16 (changed to you're 50 for the occassion). After it was all over, Paul and I were back up backing Vinny's lads on Suspicious minds, 500 miles and a rousing rendition of Hey Jude to close the live performance for the night gone midnight - a job well done. Did I say job, we loved it.

Oh what a night.................

THE GERARD GARDENS REUNION GIG - 30.10.09

From when Christine Hanratty and Bobby Parry set about organising a Gerard Gardens Reunion event, a full 22 years after the demolition of our old blocks, it was all systems go throughout the month of October to be ready for the night. Christine and Bobby had set up a facebook group entitled 'old pics of Gerard Gardens, Gerard Crescent and Holy Cross' which within weeks was 400 strong. The 300 tickets for the event, to be held in the Silvestrian club, Vauxhall, selling a week ahead of the event. We knew this was going to be a good, good night - and so it was.

With our format now set as informal, but very constructive practice sessions in Paul's of a thursday then the full, more time consuming set up down at Vulcan studios, we tightened up the usual set to the highest standard yet whilst adding a new number for Siobahn and resurrecting our medley from our very first gig with a complete new ending of a song from our last gig.

We introduced the proper guitar start and bass middle to Stuck in the middle and started the set with that, demoting The ballad of John and yoko to second fiddle. After 'The Ballad' was Siobahn's first number 'Proud Mary' followed with 'Just wanna dance the night away', 'Valerie', 'things we said today', 'Dance Tonight', 'Brown eyed girl' and 'Squeezebox'. The first new one of the night was the old Dusty Springfield classic 'I only want to be with you' but done in the 'Tourists' style of the 1980s with a prominent drumbeat. After 'One after 909' we went into the Creedence Clearwater revival classic recently rejuvenated for a tv advert 'Bad moon rising'. We dropped the 'She loves you' start and ending on 'Mercy' treated it as a song in its own right which it was well deserving of, the ladies of the crowd now well and truly dancing. We ended the set with 'Whole of the moon' with it's 'Crescent' lines pertanent to 'Gerards Crescent' on the night, the encore being a rousing rendition of our 'Twistin' medley featuring 'Twistin the night away - Stand by me - Please Mr Postman and Hot Love with it's never ending finish 'Na na na na na na naaa'. Old friend and Crescent resident Nicky Shea got up to blast out a hastily rehearsed version of U2's 'I still haven't found what i'm looking for' - Look a little harder Nicky.

Piczo