Cadillac Jukebox

Ian finds keeping the public informed more gruelling than he thought

I have discovered, after more than three years of owning and running a blog site, that I am even less like Samuel Pepys than I thought.

It’s difficult to know how much to reveal on a website blog, especially when all the people I know socially or through work are linked to via other social media, and so I don’t.

I did however, want people to know that we are still going strong, playing the occasional wedding, special birthday or corporate do, and with a select couple of public hostelry’s getting our public ventures a couple of times a year, it’s not a busy hobby, but still very much an enjoyable one.

We are playing two gigs before the end of 2011 (I know, rock and roll!):

The City Vaults in Bradford, on Saturday December 10th

Simonstone Hall, Hawes, North Yorkshire, on Saturday 31st December (or New Year’s Eve, if you prefer).

I hope to see some familiar and new faces at each of these, very different, events – a testament to our versatility.

I would love to see some comments from people who have made use of our services, or seen us playing a humble pub gig, so please don’t be shy.

(there is a rumour that we have / are working on updating our set lists, but don’t get too excited)

This time last year, we were approached by a friend of a friend, about playing at a wedding. In Aberdeen.

Phew, we thought.  Blimey!  That’s not very near to Leeds at all.

And so it proved.  However, to sweeten the pill we had another gig arranged for the Friday night, so that (after 7 hours driving through amazingly hot early July weather) we could give our very best performance in front of a truly crowded house*.

* some of the above may not be true

Then Saturday dawned – and after a night of truly biblical rain (this is Puritan Scotland, so actually it was quite restrained), the sky cleared and we were able to sunbathe as part of our vital pre-match preparations!

At 5pm, we wandered up to the location.  Top of a hill, farmer’s field, a circle of ancient standing stones (from the 1980′s I think), meadows, mountains, 85 degrees – you know, the usual for Aberdeen.

And there she was, the marquee.  100ft x 80ft, and the hottest place on the face of the earth that late afternoon.  I watched (I am the singer after all) as the rest of the guys got really hot and sweaty making cables that would work with a diesel generator, and setting up the mountains of kit.

Occasionally I loafed about outside enjoying the rare breeze that was wafting from the sea and onto the Grampians, and had a sneaky lager.

To top it all, we had prepared a special, first dance, song for the happy couple.  Some of the band were nervous about playing it, but not me (ahem) – Aerosmith’s “Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”.

(Adrian – Donna really liked the relevance of the bag-pipe thing you did at the beginning).

Happily the gig went fantastically, and there was much rejoicing and stripping of the willow by the attending men in skirts (the ladies in skirts were much more attactive – to me at least), and we left Mr DJ to finish the evening with the traditional Andy Stewart knees-up (I’m not kidding either).

Thanks very much for the invite – we’ll be back next year, I promise!

When I get around to it, I will add reviews we have received from our satisfied customers.  In that vein, here’s one we made earlier…

http://www.mikepadgett.com/reviews/concerts/the-lion-roared/ 

Well, Christmas was coming, the goose was getting fat (and it wasn’t the only one), and Cadillac Jukebox had earned themselves a corporate Christmas Do, with Gratterpalm (an excellent marketing company based in Kirkstall).

Luckily for us, we got to play at the Leeds Club on Albion Street, which was extraordinarily posh, and just a little bit daunting.

A black tie and posh frock kind of do, we were set to go and play on Saturday 10th December.

A two hour love-fest of rock, funk, soul and disco was duly delivered, and (as far as we could tell, it seemed to go down very well, and much fun was had by all.

p.s. do all marketing firms have no male staff? I’m not complaining, oh no, but just thought I’d raise the point!

Cheers,

Ian.

Cadillac Jukebox website is live!

Thanks to the sterling efforts of Mr Mike Padgett, the long-awaited website of Cadillac Jukebox is here.  All that needs to happen now is that I learn how to use it / update it, and get the studio album (Live at Straytown) uploaded onto the music player page.

 More news as it comes in (assuming I can work out what to do).  In the meantime, if you want to know anything more about Cadillac Jukebox, please contact my good self at:

ian.mcmullen@cadillacjukebox.com

Ian.