This marvelous triple CD collection is a fine example
of what a nice bunch of people there are that live here in Pattaya.
The album was the brainchild of Rick Bryant, who after
being Musical Director of the Jesters Care 4 Kids Charity Drive, both at
the fair (this year at Diana Driving range on North Road Sunday 16th
September) and the Pub Night (this year at Shenanigans next to the Royal
Garden Plaza 2nd Road on Saturday 22nd September), came up with the idea
of recording a CD live, to promote this year’s events and hopefully
raise a bit of cash for the Jesters Charity Drive as well.
Pattaya’s
finest musicians were assembled, a mobile recording studio engaged, the
pub stage booked, and the vision turned into a reality.
Friday 3rd May is the official launch party for the CD
(today, if you’ve bought this newspaper the day it comes out). The same
musicians have bonded back together again to give us the same show at
Shenanigans, with a few extra surprises thrown in.
The CD will be available to buy at the concert - what
you get for your buck is three CDs of wonderful music all clocking in at
‘over the hour’ mark, taking you back to the glorious days of Pub Rock
in the mid-seventies when the talents of bands like “Dr. Feelgood”,
“Chilli Willy and the Red Hot Peppers” & “Ducks Deluxe” trod
the boards of London Pubs.
The first CD features the multi talents of Irish
singer/guitarist Declan who plays a superb collection of acoustic songs
including his version of “Walking Stick” which Declan has turned into
his own, showing off not only his strong voice, but his unique guitar
style.
C.D two, perhaps the meat of the concert where “Pops
Pattaya All Stars” are joined on stage by musical director and driving
force Rick Bryant, who’s guitar style has been viciously ripped off by
Keith Richards, and Harpic (so called as she drives husband Rick round the
bend) on vocals. These songs wonderfully show off Harpic’s vocal range,
with the amazing Jill Thomas on keyboards & vocals. The song “So
Young”, originally by “The Corrs” shows off all facets of the band,
with its acoustic intro, swirling keyboards, the intertwined lead vocals
of Jill and Harpic, Pop’s explosive guitar, and the rhythm section
creating layer upon layer building the song to a frantic peak, only to be
taken a step further when Mott the Dog joins in on backing vocals to push
the band to even higher peaks to drown out the dogs howls. The double bass
drum play of Kae would be the envy of any powerhouse drummer.
The third CD is left to the talents of Pops Pattaya All
Stars who bring the show to an exciting conclusion with a selection of
Rock & Roll standards, where you can actually hear band and audience
having the time of their lives. When the whole band launch into “Wild
Thing” it is as exciting as Rock ‘n’ Roll gets.
But to give you the complete story I shall reprint
Rick’s page from the marvelous 8 page colour booklet you get with the
box set:
“A live album to raise money for the Jesters ‘Care
for Kids’ Charity” I said. Just another idea like so many which is
dreamt up late at night over yet another bottle of beer. However, on this
occasion, rather than falling on deaf ears a certain Mr. Kim Fletcher was
amongst us at our table. This man with enough enthusiasm for all of us put
together threw in a few ideas and suddenly it all seemed possible.
And so the idea was hatched. All we needed was a few
musicians, a good PA system, a sound engineer, something to record it on
and a venue to do it.
Musicians would not be a problem, as I knew I could ask
Pop and his band to come and help. (I.e. take them away from their job for
the evening which feeds their families and ask them to work for nothing).
Once again the very generous Kim came to our aid and not only offered the
use of Shenanigans for the venue but also to cover the cost of the
evening.
Rather than having just the one band I was determined
to make the evening a mixed and varied affair so I approached Declan, a
very popular local performer who I knew would entertain the crowd. That
was it really, the date was set and the rest is history as they say. So
the performances were recorded and if you are reading this they must have
made it on to CD. However, don’t expect a multi-million pound production
here, this is just as it was on the night with no overdubbing and a raw
live sound which captures the atmosphere of the occasion.
Finally it’s down to thanking so many people for
their support on the actual night. Top of the list has to be Kim Fletcher
and all his tireless staff at Shenanigans, the musicians Pop, Kae, A, Baem,
Jill and Declan, the soundcrew Piek, and Baem, Blowfly and Jon Wilson for
the great photographs taken during the evening, Roger Brown for his
tremendous efforts to compile the graphics and for the video, Francois,
Rian, Liesl, Pierre and Phil Mollens, representing South Africa, Pablo,
Gustavo, Franco, Gonzales, Vanessa and Maria representing Argentina,
Stefan, Dorothia, Evelyn and Vincent representing Belgium, Ib, Kanika,
Walter, Oiy and friends from the Captains Corner, Gethan and Marade, Pinty,
Roger, Aom and Om, Graham Macdonald, Lewis Underwood, Jeremy Coles, Dr.
Iain and Peter from the Pattaya Mail, Mark, Phil, Lisa, Karen, Graham, Ung
and Au who always make it but had to miss this one and last but not least
everybody too numerous to mention who helped to make the night so special.
That just leaves Harpic who I would like to thank for
trusting me when I told her 8 years ago that she could sing and hopefully
she now believes me.
Thanks for buying the CD and giving your support to the
‘Care for Kids’ Charity.
If you want to know more about the Care 4 Kids Jesters
Charity Drive please look up the website at http://www.care4kids.info
When
you get down to it, it certainly is an “airport novel” with aging
flyboys who have seen better days (and planes) lining up to fly aging
aircraft which have seen better landing strips. However, they do appear to
go together and author/aviator Nicolas Merriweather, himself now coming
under the category of an “older” pilot, puts enough technical jargon
into the text to give the reader the feeling that he has actually made it
to the flight deck.
Manfred
and Sid find a human baby by the side of the river; the mother dies and
they decide to take the child back to his people. Manfred and Sid have no
choice but to enlist Diego (Denis Leary) as their tracker, what they
don’t know is that Diego is leading them into a trap.
Mott’s
CD review: