March 2007

We will be playing at the W'Ashington Music Club, Sandy's usual haunt with the Travellin' Band, on April 6. We will also be back at the Sportsman in Amberley soon – date to be advised.

The charity gig proved to be a success, with more people squeezed in than we originally planned. Thanks to all the musicians involved for making it a memorable night for the village and for helping raise money for Action Medical Research. It was a lot of fun for the players, and it seems that it went down well with the audience as well. Thanks to the other helpers too.

We have tried out a few new songs recently, including Ronnie Lane's Debris. Watch out for more new tunes soon

January 2007

We are back at the Sportsman on Jan 20, and with a few guests playing along with us. There will also be charity gig in the Church Hall on March 3, with our friends in the Travellin' Band and the outstanding Southdown Ramblers, should be great fun. It's all in a good cause – Action Medical Research is the leading UK charity that was founded by Sandy's father. Tickets at £6.50 available from Sandy. Apart from that, we now have a new PA – have gear, will travel.

November 2006

We had a lot of fun playing the Sportsman in Amberley. There was a good atmosphere, and while the crowd was quite small (probably as result of competition with Guy Fawkes) they seemed to enjoy. We played two one hour sets, with a couple of guest spots from Travelling Band members Bryon and Dave. Some new songs were played for the first time – including some from the pen of Mike and one from Sandy – and some re-interpretations of some soul classics. We also dusted off some songs we hadn't played for a while. We will be back at the Sportsman soon.

Sportsman picture

Sandy is now turning his attention to rehearsals for an electric blues band being put together for a charity dinner. Two rehearsals and a lot of adrenaline.

October 2006

Gig news - gig news - gig news

Deacon Guthrie will be playing at the Sportsman, Amberley, West Sussex, on Saturday November 4, from 8.30pm.

The Sportsman is at Crossgates, Amberley, BN18 9NR. Mike and Sandy are putting together a full evening of music, including some new songs. Entry will be free, there is real ale and the Sportsman is a lovely pub.

More information about the Sportsman can be found at www.amberleysportsman.co.uk.

Hope to see you there.

Mike's solo gig at Goring on Thames was a great success. Watch out for him playing there again in the future.

September 2006

Mike may be playing solo at Goring Village Hall, Goring on Thames, Oxon, on September 15. Sandy has had several extra gigs with the Travelling Band, the house band at the Washington Music Club, West Sussex, as well as the regular first and third Fridays of the month at the club. More details on our MySpace pages for the moment – see the Friends page.

May 2006
Deacon Guthrie played a successful gig at a private party, at which Mike unveiled a couple of new songs.

February 2006
Our latest gig was a special one – it marked Sandy's 50th birthday, and was held on home turf at the Amberley Church Hall in West Sussex.

Deacon Guthrie played two sets, including some new songs, while Mike also played a solo set. Sandy played with his regular colleagues from the Washington Music Club's Travelling Band, and also with the Half Century Band, a electric blues band put together for the night.

Thanks to everyone for making it a spectacular and memorable evening.

August 2005
Deacon Guthrie on the same bill as Mavis Staples? Well nearly – on the same page of the programme of the 2005 Blues Passions at Cognac, France. It was our second visit to the festival, and this time we graduated from a jamming stage to an official one called the Magic Place in the Place Francois 1er.

Great sound and a good crowd helped, and we seemed to go down well if the people coming up to us afterwards is a good indication. In one case, we were approached by someone several hours after the gig to say how much they enjoyed it, which was very pleasing.

We kicked off with "Big Boss Man", now containing a new funky passage in the middle, followed by Tom Waits' "Long Way Home" which Mike discovered on a Norah Jones CD. It was the first public outing for Mike's reworking of Townes Van Zandt's "White Freightliner Blues" with moody harp from Sandy – it seemed to work well. Inspired in part by the performance of Tony Joe White at last year's Cognac festival, we did our version of his "Rainy Night in Georgia", followed by the first of two Little Walter songs that we have incorporated into our repertoire, "My Babe".

The second Tom Waits song of the afternoon was "(Looking for) the Heart of Saturday Night" which is now an integral part of the set and a song we both love to play. Then we did Little Walter's "Mean Old World", only the second time in front of people for this one but it seems that both Walter songs are likely to become fixtures. They were the two blusiest songs we did together, and it was a blues festival, after all.

Sandy's meagre French was being stretched to (and beyond) its limits for the introductions, especially when Mike did the usual guitarist trick of needing time to seek strange tunings (only joking – it's worth it!), for example on Aveugle Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues", which he played solo as usual. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Mike was playing a different Dave King guitar for this gig, not his own, and the luthier himself was in the crowd. It was certainly a big enough audience to be termed a crowd, too. Jagger/Richards' "Dead Flowers" was next, with Sandy playing a low F harp (for harp anoraks), which led to a last-song warning from the wings. This was probably just as well as we had one more song at our disposal with Mike's "When the River Breaks". We felt this was a strong set closer, and it went down well.

Now is the time to add a few more songs to the repertoire, but as it stands, the set list achieved the variety we are looking for. It's not 100 per cent blues, but that suits us. We should thank the crew at the Magic Place for the opportunity to play and for their help and expertise. The sound was fantastic. Thanks too to our good friend Charlie "Bluesmouse" Salt for his excellent video work and organising the audio recording. He and Stumblin' Andy K were responsible for a storming set on the same stage the day before as the Bluesome Twosome. Great work, Guys!

March 2005
Gig update.

We have a few gigs coming up to report. On Saturday March 12, 2005, we will be playing at the third annual Big Road Blues UK Festival at the Mill on the Soar, Broughton Astley, Leics, LE9 6QA. Big Road Blues is a blues website, and the UK members have a get together with workshops during the day and music in the evening. There should be some great music from the members, and everyone is welcome to the evening session. Visit www.bigroadblues.com, or phone the Mill itself on 01455 282419 for directions. They won't know much about the gig, but they can tell you where they are!

On Friday April 1, 2005, we will be headlining at the monthly Washington Music Club at the Frankland Arms, Washington, West Sussex. The evening runs from 8.30 to 11pm, with a mixture of acts. We will probably play two sets, one at the end of each half. Entry £2.We are also planning to return to the Blues Passions festival in Cognac from July 28 to 31, 2005. Having played there last year, we are hoping to do so again – and maybe play a bit more than last time.