At the end of April we spent an amazing few days at the jazzahead! jazz trade show in Bremen, Germany where we were one of almost 100 bands and artists invited to perform a showcase in front of over 2000 delegates from all over the world. You can watch our showcase set here courtesy of ARTE Live Web, along with some of the other artists who performed as part of the European Jazz Meeting series of gigs – they’re all definitely worth checking out! Thanks to all at jazzahead! for having us, and also massive thanks to the PRS for Music Foundation for supporting our trip to Bremen through their British Music Abroad funding programme.
There’s some photos from the trip over on our photo gallery, with some choice ones also below – I particularly like the one of Django Bates looking a bit scared following a conversation with Sam Healey… There’s also a cool video made by Ben Watte with even more behind the scenes footage, often fuelled by copious amounts of always excellent German beer.
While we were in Bremen we were also really pleased to be asked to be part of the GREAT Britain MINI Tour, an initiative organised by the British Embassy in Berlin to promote British trade in Germany. For those wondering, we managed to fit 12 and a half of us inside the mini, without causing too much damage to the car… We also played a bit whilst inside/on top of/around the mini, check it out below! Featuring additional car horn courtesy of Simon Lodge’s foot
mini photos and video copyright Bodo Brüsehaber, British Embassy
Posted by on 16/05/2013 at 18:44 in gigs, misc and tagged bremen, gbmt, germany, jazzahead, mini, photos. Leave comments here.
So (as it says above) its been a pretty good few weeks for us – in chronological order:
- we won the Best UK Newcomer award at the inaugural Jazz FM Awards in London at the end of January! It was a really great night and we were chuffed to be amongst a rather impressive list of winners… Here’s a photo of the award itself taken minutes after we’d won it (amongst a lot of wine glasses), and a photo of us all with the award at our rehearsal the week after
- we played our first gig of the year in Lancaster on February 7th which was a really nice one, thanks to all who came along! The first gig of the year is always pretty exciting as we look ahead to all the stuff we’ve got planned for the months ahead, and I promise there’s plenty in store… Watch this space
- finally we all had an amazing time in Ireland over this past weekend at the 12 Points festival in Dublin. Its a really amazing festival with 12 emerging bands from all over Europe playing and hanging out, and it was great to hear so much cool new music and meet so many lovely new people. The gig itself was really fun, the audiences over all 4 days of the festival were really receptive and open to such a wide variety of music. Thanks everyone at 12 Points for having us, we hope to come back to Ireland very soon! Here’s us on stage (taken from the 12 Points blog) and the obligatory picture of Graham and Fin with some Guinness – more from the weekend to come in a separate post soon…
We feel very lucky, thank you all x
Posted by on 19/02/2013 at 19:59 in gigs, misc and tagged 12 points, dublin, guinness, jazz fm awards, lancaster, lica. Leave comments here.
Just a reminder that we’ve got our first gigs of 2013 coming up over the next couple of weeks – firstly we’re up in Lancaster on Thursday February 7th for our first gig in the North of England for ages, and then its over to Dublin to take part in the really exciting 12 Points festival! We’ll be playing on the festival’s last night (Saturday 16th) but if you’re in town you should really check out the whole week from Wednesday 13th – check out the video below for a sneak peek of what’s in store…
And get your tickets in now! For both Lancaster and 12 Points – see you there
Posted by on 30/01/2013 at 19:27 in gigs and tagged 12 points, dublin, february, gigs, ireland, lancaster, lica. Leave comments here.
Just before Christmas we made our first trip to France to play a couple of nights in Paris – firstly as orchestre de cérémonie for TSF Jazz‘s You, the Night and the Music event at l’Olympia, and then a couple of shows at the really lovely Duc des Lombards club (that’s us all above after the second gig). We had an amazing time at both venues and it was great to see a bit of Paris in the daytime too – thanks to everyone at TSF Jazz and Duc des Lombards for inviting us over and for their help making this all happen!
There’s a few more photos below and lots more on our photo gallery – also our saxophonist Ben Watte made a little video with some more unseen photos and a little clip from the live radio broadcast from the Olympia…
Posted by on 04/01/2013 at 11:11 in gigs, misc and tagged duc des lombards, france, olympia, paris, tsf jazz. Leave comments here.
Happy new year! Thanks a lot for your support in 2012 – it was a pretty big one for us with the release of our first album, a really productive residency period in Devon in September, and loads of gigs all over the place including a hugely enjoyable collaboration with Ensemble Denada from Norway and ending the year with our first ever trip to France… But it was only such a good year because of you all listening to our music and coming to our gigs, so thanks so much again – it means a lot to us.
Looking forward 2013 promises to be another really exciting year, and I’m pleased to announce the year’s first few gigs! Particularly excited about our trips to Ireland and Germany to play at 12 Points and jazzahead respectively, and also our return to play in the north of England – it’s been a while… Dates are below, more details as ever can be found on our gigs page. And there’ll be more to follow, promise…
Hope to see you out and about!
7th February – Great Hall, LICA, Lancaster (info)
16th February – 12 Points festival, Dublin (info)
27th April – jazzahed!, Bremen (info)
Posted by on at 10:04 in gigs, news and tagged 12 points, 2013, bremen, dublin, jazzahead, lancaster. Leave comments here.
Seems a long time ago now (sorry for being so late posting these…) but way back in November we did a couple of gigs at the London Jazz Festival with the fantastic Ensemble Denada from Norway – it was a really fun couple of days for everyone from both bands and the response from the audiences at both gigs was amazing so thanks very much if you were there!
Here’s a few photos by our drummer Finlay Panter from the rehearsal day and the soundcheck at the Purcell Room, followed by an shot of Denada performing onstage taken by our guitarist Anton Hunter from our viewpoint in the best seats in the house at the rear of the stage – really I guess I should fire or at least heavily fine him for using his phone onstage during a gig but I’m feeling generous…
Thanks again to everyone who came along to the gigs and to Arts Council England, the British Council and the Culture Programme of the European Union for their support of the project.
Our packed rehearsal room
Lunch in the big smoke
Purcell Room stage during soundcheck
Ensemble Denada on stage
Posted by on 11/12/2012 at 17:28 in gigs, misc and tagged ensemble denada, london jazz festival, purcell room. Leave comments here.
We’re delighted and really really excited to announce that we’ll be playing a few Christmas shows in Paris next month. On Monday 17th December we’ll be ‘Orchestre de Cérémonie’ for You & The Night & The Music, French radio station TSFJAZZ’s annual end of year bash at Olympia Hall alongside a whole host of other artists from France and across Europe – then the following night (Tuesday 18th December) we’ll be playing a couple of shows at Duc des Lombards, one of France’s most famous jazz clubs. All the details and ticket info for both nights are over on our gigs page – tell your French friends! À bientôt, Paris…
Posted by on 08/11/2012 at 11:42 in gigs, news and tagged duc des lombards, france, olympia hall, paris, tsfjazz. Leave comments here.
Copyright © 2010 Beats & Pieces Big Band
Enormous Wordpress theme by Upstart Blogger Ashley Morgan.
