Thought I’d share this photo of Anthony and Simon in our ‘tour bus’ on our journey down – we’ll be trying to post as many pictures, videos and other interesting things as we can. Keep an eye on our tumblr page which is where we’ll upload most stuff, or follow @beatspiecesband on twitter where all the tumblr posts will be automatically tweeted – for a more personal touch follow me (Ben) @beatsnpieces

See you at the next gig in Manchester on Feb 16th!

Full list of 2012 dates (so far…) as follows:

28th January – Turner Sims, Southampton (details/tickets)

16th February – RNCM, Manchester (details/tickets)

20th February – Ronnie Scott’s, London (details/tickets)

24th March – The Sage, Gateshead (Gateshead International Jazz Festival) (details/tickets)

28th March – Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple (details/tickets)

More dates to be announced so keep an eye on our gigs page, and full details on the album release to follow very very soon…

Very excited to announce details of the release of a live EP next month, which was recorded in June at Band on the Wall in Manchester. You’ll be able to download it from our online shop on Monday 17th October, and there will be an extremely limited edition physical release available alongside the download – more details to follow soon!

We’ll be launching this EP with a big old knees up back at Band on the Wall on Thursday 20th October – tickets available NOW… If you were there in June for the recording, you’ll know that it was a really special night and this promises to be another amazing evening. This will also be our last Manchester date of 2011 which has been an incredible year for us (European Young Artists’ Jazz Award, Ronnie Scott’s twice, live recording etc etc!) so there’ll definitely be a party atmosphere!

See you there…

Also I have a few posters left over so if you’d like one, just make a donation of £3 or more to cover postage using the yellow ‘Donate’ button on the right (include your address) and I’ll send you one – first come first served!

Adding to the excitement, here’s the poster design that you’ll shortly be seeing around and about Manchester, designed by Efpi Records‘ Artist in Residence Angela Guyton. I’ll buy a drink at the gig for the first person to tweet @beatsnpieces or facebook (here) a photo of one in the wild, so keep an eye out!

More details on the Band on the Wall website here – you can also get your advance tickets from there, bargain at only £7.50. If you’ll be there say hello on facebook too!

All of us in the band are really excited about this and we can’t wait! See you there…

- Efpi Records‘ very own Anton Hunter

- Saxophonist, promoter and all round nice guy Phil Meadows

- Sebastian Scotney of the amazing LondonJazz blog

- Various people on facebook including GoGo Penguin and the festival itself

If you’ve emailed in you’ll have had a personal response which just goes to show that the council are listening and will be taking this into account when drawing up the budget – if you haven’t contacted them yet do it now! The address to write to is budget.enquiry@manchester.gov.uk

Sebastian’s post on the LondonJazz blog not only demonstrates the importance the festival has on the whole country’s jazz scene, but featured this video which I’d forgotten about and that perfectly sums up everything that it means to musicians, punters and the city as whole.

The council is an important source of funding for the Manchester Jazz Festival and NWJazzworks, and they certainly won’t be immune from these cuts. However, its possible that the extent to which their funding is cut could be restricted if jazz musicians show their support for the organisation and demonstrate how valuable a resource it is – the festival is one of the leading commissioners of new music (especially now through its mjf originals scheme; congratulations to Adam Fairhall by the way!), and a big part of its programming policy is designed to support musicians living and/or working in the North West. Even for the 11 non-festival months of the year, NWJazzworks does sterling work promoting events, raising awareness of musicians and their activities, as well as helping us out with funding applications and career development. I know that Beats & Pieces certainly wouldn’t be at the stage we’re at without support from Steve, Mick and the team!

You can register your support by emailing budget.enquiry@manchester.gov.uk – you may be doubtful that just writing a quick email can make a difference, but Birmingham Jazz was recently in a similar situation and managed to avoid the worst case scenario, partly due to public support and pressure. Manchester jazz needs you!

Also the tour has been made even more official by the fact that it now has its very own facebook page… Tell the world you’ll be there by clicking here, and whilst you’re on facebook why not become a fan!