So it’s been a while since we last updated our blog – sorry about that!

We’ve been beavering away with local shows in V Bar, Pat Molloys etc (in Colchester), recording our new demo which should be ready within the next few weeks, booking shows for later in the year and getting prepped for wedding season. We’ve got a couple more chances to see us in a public setting over the next few weeks, and then we’ll be almost exclusively playing weddings throughout May, June and July (although that’s not to say that we’re not available for other shows so do get in touch if you want us to play your party, pub etc).

It’s worth noting that we won’t be available through most of June as I (Mike) am getting married myself and then heading away on honeymoon – be back for around 26th June.

Watch this space, demo and more news to come very soon

Wedding Season!

Another quick update – we weren’t due to have played any more shows by now when we wrote the last blog entry, but in the last week and a half we have ended up playing TWO additional shows!

The first show was last Friday 10th Feb at Molloys in Colchester. They had a last minute cancellation in the early afternoon and called us up to fill in. I reckon if you called up any other combination of 4 people in their mid-20’s they’d have been busy… not us it would seem. Well, I say that, it was my brother’s last night out in town before moving to Spain so there was a huge group a people all out for the night, and they ended up packing the place out Awesome show.

The next day we got a call from… get this… the Essex University Law Society! They were holding their annual Law Ball on Saturday and wanted us to play for their black tie dinner dance event. Again, we were all free The venue was Stoke By Nayland Golf Club (as pictured to the right) which we’d never played before, but we do have a wedding booked in the very same function room in June so it was a good practice run to familiarise ourselves with the layout and facilities.

This was our first black tie show so after setting up in our casual clothes, we donned our suits and ties and sat in the bar whilst the Law Ball went ahead. After their dinner and various speeches, we took to the stage for around 9:30. We went with 2 long sets as we had to be done by midnight (well, the bar closed at midnight!), both of which went down really well – we had people up and dancing for the very first song and the slightly more rocky sound appeared to be welcomed by all involved. We do actually have a little video going up on Youtube soon with some 30 second clips of a few of the songs, so that’s something to look forward to!

So, the next show is this coming Friday 24th Feb at Molloys in Colchester, and then we’ll be at V Bar in Colchester the following Friday 2nd March. Come on down and have a dance and a drink with us!

Suprise Shows & Essex University Law Ball

Just a quick update to bring us into February – not a huge amount to tell you about since the last blog but thought we’d let you know about our first ever show in Hadleigh.

I’ll be honest, we were a bit unsure as to how well we’d go down at The George in Hadleigh as it’s a slightly more traditional drinking hole in rural Suffolk – a slightly older clientele and perhaps more of a bluegrass/country vibe… we’re a little bit more rocky than that, but the sets are pretty varied so we thought we would just go with it rather than try and tone it down.

In fact, the show went great! We decided to stick with 3 sets to break it up a bit and give people a chance to have a few more drinks, and opening with some slightly more poppy music seemed to go down pretty well. The weather was forecasted to snow from 9pm and sure enough, as we started playing it stayed true to it’s word and by the end of the first set there was a light dusting of snow on the street outside. The turnout was okay, but I suspect the weather may have confined a few people to their homes, especially seeing as Hadleigh is fairly remote (it’s a good 10/15 minutes from the A12 from Colchester or Ipswich). That said, the crowd were nodding their heads and tapping their feet… I think that’s a good thing

We made a friend at the start of our final set – later to be dubbed “Vince, the Tambourine Man” for obvious reasons, he really wanted us to play Mustang Sally. We’ve never played Mustang Sally but figured we’d jam it as an encore with Sam on drums and Nathan coming out front to take bass duties. Jam number 2 of 2 consecutive shows, and it just about worked. Not sure whether Nathan has ever been front of house – he’s more used to hiding behind his kit… not that it showed.

Oh, and we’re recording… we’ve actually started recording, drums sorted! I can’t actually remember which ones we’re doing, but Play That Funky Music and Forget You are definitely in there. More to come soon!

On another note, because I’m pretty sure you’ll be interested, I went down to Castle Park in Colchester today in the snow That’s me on the snow shovel – slightly more hazardous than a sledge, and I definitely took out at least 2 kids… SLEDGING IS FOR ADULTS!

Mustang Sally FTW

So it’s almost the end of January, and we thought we’d give you a bit of an update as to what we’ve been up to. We had a few weeks off gigging whilst we all settled back into work after Christmas and New Year, learned a few new songs and managed to sneak a couple of shows in towards the back end of the month.

The Duke’s Head, Stowmarket (21st Jan ’12)

We kicked things off last Saturday night at The Duke’s Head in Stowmarket – it was the first EVER time they’d had a band playing so we were honoured to be the band to start the new monthly live music nights. It’s a really cool pub with a buzzing atmosphere in the heart of Suffolk. The High Street was pretty busy following the new opening of a Wetherspoon’s right opposite and it seemed the music was enough to pull people away from cheap pints to a proper pub The layout was great for live music as there was a reasonable space to stand in front of the band and dance if you were up for it, and if you preferred to have a quiet pint and a chat with your mates then you could head round the corner and have a bit of quiet time. All in all a great night, and we can’t wait to come back for more.

The Grapes, Bury St Edmunds (28th Jan ’12)

This was our first time ever to visit Bury St Edmunds, and after the Sat Nav took us through a huge detour across country roads only just wide enough for the van to squeeze through, we eventually managed to find The Grapes in what appeared to be a deserted town centre… the streets were completely bare with the exception of a few cars stopping temporarily outside the Blockbuster store opposite the pub (I didn’t realise people still used Blockbuster!).

As you’ll see in the image above, the space was huge, and The Grapes was pretty empty when we got there at around 7:45pm. We were a bit concerned we may end up playing to an empty room, but we weren’t starting until 10pm so there was plenty of time for the place to fill up.

The Grapes is a really cool place… as well as the huge space in front of the stage area, there are plenty of tables and chairs so loads of room to sit down if you’re in there with a bunch of mates (we had around 8 round a table), a big outside smoking area with outdoor pool table… it was pretty cold but it was sheltered so you didn’t feel it as much.

We hit the stage at 10pm for 3 x 45 minute sets – it had filled out a little by the time we started and there were a few people dancing… but midway through our second set the place was absolutely packed, with people filling the dancefloor and even packed in round the side of the stage. No idea where this lot came from because it was like a ghost town only an hour earlier! We managed to pull off all the new songs and it turned out that there were a few heavy metal fans there – given our heavy metal roots (\m/) we figured it would be rude not to attempt a Metallica track, even though we’d never played it together and I don’t think Sam (bass) had ever played it! Seemed to go down pretty well though, Sam managed and we love a bit of Metallica so it was really enjoyable for us as well.

If you’re checking us out in the future and you like a bit of metal then just shout for it and we’ll be more than happy to oblige

Next up, The George in Hadleigh, Suffolk on Saturday (4th Feb) for a beer festival, and then Molloy’s in Colchester for Sat 24th Feb. Be there, or be… square… or something.

Thanks for reading!

Heavy Metal Jam

So it’s the New Year, 2012, and we’re well underway building on our set and booking shows in Essex and Suffolk – we’ve got shows in Colchester, Stowmarket, Hadleigh and Bury St Edmunds over the next couple of months so if you’re in and around any of these areas then pop along and have a dance with us! There’s also talk of us recording a new demo in the next couple of months, just to give a bit more variety on the music page. If you’re lucky, we may even get a bit of video footage up as well.

We’re hoping to add 12 new songs to the set by the end of January… these will include a pretty broad mix of genres as we’ve got Cee Lo Green, Guns ‘n Roses, McFly and Kelly Clarkson so far, and then over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at adding more by Aloe Blacc, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, The Feeling, Joan Jett and whatever else we can think of that will go down well If you particularly want to hear anything, drop us a message on our Facebook or Twitter pages and we’ll add it into the mix of possible songs to learn… it’s growing by the day!

Also, if you don’t see any shows booked in your area but you’d like us to head down your way, just let us know which pubs or venues put on covers bands and we’ll do our best to get in touch and book a show. Again, drop us a line on our Facebook or Twitter and we’ll get right on it.

Just as a bit of a teaser, check this video out – it’s a cover of F*ck You by Cee Lo Green by another band called Proceed, and we kinda like it! Needless to say, we’ll be taking influence from this in our own version… watch this space.

New Songs Added To Set

What a month December has been! First 3 shows done and dusted, and it all seems to have gone down pretty nicely

So we kicked things off at The Judge & Jury on Saturday 3rd December – a bit of a strange one as it’s more of a venue than the corner of a pub… and the stage stands around 3 metres high (slight exaggeration… it’s probably more 1 metre). We were the only band playing and honestly, most of the people there were family and friends so a nice way to start.

Then came Pat Molloys at the top of North Hill, Colchester. Tuesday nights aren’t exactly known for being packed out in town, especially when it’s coming up to Christmas so all the students are even more broke than usual! Fortunately, the plumbing went at Yates towards the end of our first set so the place was heaving by the time we hit the stage for the second set – happy days.

Last but not least, V Bar on Colchester’s High Street on Friday night – what a night! A packed out crowd of people seemingly having a great time, and plenty of beer flowing And to top it off, we got a wedding booking off the back of it… our first one in fact as Dog In A Side Car off the back of our quest to rank in Google to rank for “wedding band essex”! We shall look forward to that in June (once I’m back from my own honeymoon!).

So we’re looking to get some shows booked up for the New Year now, so if you run a bar, pub or venue, you’ve got a party coming up or you’re getting married and like what you hear on our music page, just drop us a line and we’ll sort something out.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Merry Christmas from Dog In A Side Car

Hello and welcome to the first ever Dog In A Side Car blog post – exciting I know

We will be using this area to keep everyone up to date with what we’re up to, the shows we’ve played and have coming up, new songs added to the repertoire… all that sort of stuff.

So the story so far is that we’ve spent the past 3 months rehearsing to bring our set time up to a reasonable length (whilst having a couple of spare tunes in case we’re asked!). We’ve worked on getting everything super tight, and we are now at a stage where we’re ready to hit pubs, weddings, parties, functions etc. We’ve even (finally!) had some photos taken as you’ll notice!

Our 5 track demo features tracks originally by Biffy Clyro, Pink, The Killers, Lady GaGa and Cameo, and they can be found either on the music page or on our Facebook page. We have also invested in a PA, microphones and all the necessary stands & leads etc so we’re ready for any venue that wants to have us!

We’ve started booking for 2012, and our first 4 shows have been confirmed as follows:

Sat 3rd Dec ’11 @ The Judge & Jury, Colchester
Fri 16th Dec ’11 @ V Bar, Colchester
Sat 26th Jan ’12 @ The Dukes Head, Stowmarket
Sat 4th Feb ’12 @ The George, Hadleigh (Suffolk)

If you’ve got a pub and you want live music, or if you’ve got a wedding coming up in 2012 then drop us a line… unless you want us to play on one of the above dates… we won’t be able to do those… obviously!

We’ll be back with more updates soon. In the meantime, why not follow us on Twitter @doginasidecar and like us on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/doginasidecar.

Mike

First Ever Blog Post!