Johnny and Pam

September, October & November News

Hi everyone

I hope that you are all enjoying yourselves as much as we are.  Living the dream is how I’d describe our lives on the road, yes, of course it has its dark side.  A good example is our recent mishap, namely when our motor home broke down with a busted gear box.  But how many people are as fortunate as us in that we absolutely love our work and yes, the word “work” is still definitely the correct term for our occupation if you count in rehearsals and the travelling etc., the small details which are sometimes forgotten by the general public.  However, when it is condensed down to the actual times spent on stage and with our host of friends, what job to could be remotely compared to ours.  We have just returned from our tour of the west country and the season of good joy is almost on us.  Speaking of which, we have lost our New Year’s Eve gig which had been arranged around 18 months ago.  It was to have been in Braintree. Essex but the club lost so much money last year, that the committee decided to cancel completely.  It was, to say the least, a blow because over that period of time, we had turned down three offers from clubs who have since found their entertainment for that night.  So for the first time ever, it’s looks as though we wont be playing on the party night of the year.  Well, that seems to be all the news that comes to mind.  We hope you enjoy the gig news up to November..

Hi everyone. We hope the world is well with you.  We are both fine and still enjoying our music.  Although it’s true to say, that the legacy of the recession is still affecting us.  We have recently lost three of our bookings because the clubs themselves were forced to finish through lack of attendance.  We were informed at very short notice for all of these which of course left us without work and with very little chance of a replacement for those nights lost.  Well that’s the bad news out of the way.  The good news is that as well as our regular annuals, we are booked at several venues which are new to us.  At the time of writing this, we are just home from two which fell on the very same weekend.  Both went well and both places want us back next year.  So our cup is definitely half full.  Our travelling wagon developed a problem recently.  The clutch started to slip so we’ve been nursing it along for the last 300-400 miles on finding that we couldn’t get it booked in for over a week at that time.  However, on the day previous to having it fixed, John noticed that the slight noise had dissappeared and after flooring the accedlerator in third gear, the clutchj duid’nt slip so we cancelled the garage and decided to adopt the rule “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”.  For those of you who are mechanically minded, we reckon one of the clutch springs had broken up and for a while part of it lodged between the plates.  But it still remains a mystery.  Fingers crossed for the next trip. 

Well,  that’s about it for now, we think.  Hope you enjoy reading the latest gig news for June, July and August. So keep smiling, keep dancing and keep coming along to see us.  All the best.

APRIL AND MAY NEWS

At the time of writing this, the weather is perfect.  It’s 7.30 in the morning and I’m feeling good to be alive.  For all the ups & downs of our British weather, this is still a wonderful place to live and I never take my home here in the countryside for granted.  We recently visited our dear friends, Terry & Mary, who also live in a beautiful area in Wiltshire.  Terry has recently had his second knee replacement and is doing brilliantly.  You can’t keep a good man down!

We’re still enjoying our job tremendously travelling around to all the clubs andstill managing to find some good songs to play.  At the present time, our most recent additions to our repetoirs are “Man of constant sorrow” and also “Honkytonk life” which are going down well with the dancers and listeners alike.  But of course, there are some songs which we never get tired of singing.  Songs like “Galway Girl.”  I heard a chap, who runs a disco remark recently that he’s fed up with playing it.  Well I have to say that there’s a great difference between popping a disc in a machine and singing it live to an audience so it will certainly remain on our list for the forseeable future.  The audiences seem  to feel the same way as it is often requested.

We hope to see you all soon at a gig near you or anywhere else you fancy travelling to.  Enjoy yourselves and catch up with our news reports from the clubs we’ve visited on our gig news page.  We hope to be putting some photos from the gigs on our gallery page soon.

The weather combined with this recession has affected our business drastically.  We have had more cancellations, juggled more bookings and overall lost more work than ever before.  This is of course, a problem which we share with all of our friends on the circuit not to mention the clubs themselves.  A few of the confirmed bookings have been cancelled and replaced with cheaper acts; other established clubs have finished permanently. There are even a few, who have replaced some acts with a disco.  All of which adds up to doom and gloom if you allow yourselves to dwell on it.  So let‘s look at the positive side.  Less clubs so better attendance for those that remain.  There you go there is a silver lining if you look close enough and as far as our personal outlook is concerned, next year is filling up nicely.  So the best is yet to come.

The February reports of our gigs are now ready on the gig news area of this web site.

January has been a great month for gigs even though we lost a couple due to the snow.  We started at Trimley St. Martin near Felixstowe, followed with the Outlaws at Ely FC and then had a brilliant gig at Heathcoat Hall in Tiverton.  Have a look at our news pages for the months gig reports.

Our gig guide is now up and running and we will be updating this regularly.

If you have any queries about our gigs, please give us a call and we will give you any info you might need.

Welcome to our new web site.  We are currently updating it and will continue to use it in the future.