April, The Michael McDonald Version

That's right! Everybody's favourite Session Singer features heavily in my blog this month! Read on to discover why...

April has been a long month, but a fun one! The month began with the first of the Haven Holiday Camp gigs with Spinoffs! We started at Thorpe Park in Cleethorpes, then to Reighton Sands at Filey. The following week, we were at Blue Dolphin and Primrose Valley holiday parks in Filey, and the next week we saw Haggerston Castle and Berwick Holiday Village!

It's been really great to work with the Haven staff and the Funstars to play for some really appreciative audiences! These gigs have been tremendous fun so far, I'm very much looking forward to the coming weeks! And yeah, at each camp we've been putting Quackers the Duck on top of the bass amp as a Spinoffs tradition. The staff told us only to return him safe and sound once the gig was over.

Quackers atop the bass amp at Blue Dolphin Haven Camp Filey

These gigs were my first with my new Minerva In Ear Monitors! They are simply fantastic and have really given live performance a new perspective for me. The monitors are fantastically clear and extremely useful for live backing vocals! It's a novelty to actually hear the other 4 members of the band singing! Joking aside, a massive thank you to Minerva for all of the our in ear packs, we look forward to using them every gig!

Also this month, I was fortunate enough to receive some tuition from guitar legend Mike Walker with the band "Alcajazz." This consisted of us playing a variety of different styles of music (INCLUDING STEELY DAN'S SONG PEG WHICH FEATURES BACKING VOCALS FROM THE ONE AND ONLY MICHAEL MCDONALD). All in all, a fantastic couple of days that really opened my eyes to playing as part of a rhythm section, with a lot of helpful tips for playing different styles of music in a stylistically correct manner. Let's just say I have a tendency to overplay. Didn't see that one coming!

Finally, April also saw two absolutely electric RNCM Session Orchestra gigs! Some absolutely fantastic playing across the band and for me, a really great feeling to hear it all come together after months of hard work! So a massive well done to everyone who was involved in the project from me, but a special mention to my arranging compadres who really helped to add an extra kick to the whole band's sound. I'll look forward to sharing the footage when it comes back, but for now, here's a picture of me doing a bass slide. (For those of you who remembered the title of this blog, we did the Michael McDonald versions of Higher and Higher and For Once in My Life on the Session Orchestra gigs amongst other great songs).

Playing Bass for RNCM Session Orchestra in the RNCM Theatre

That's it for now! May is about to start, my assessments at college are looming ever closer, but for now I'm excited. The sun came out the other day, that's good? I'm going to stop typing now.

Alasdair

P.S. I don't like Michael McDonald

The man himself

March, Sister Acting

So here we are in April, but nonetheless, I am going to talk about March.

March started off with a great gig up at Brewdog Glasgow with New York Brass Band! This was a fantastic opportunity to play some drums and see some friends who I've not seen for a while! As well as the gig in the evening (which was a great laugh) we did some busking in the city centre, where as good fortune would have it we stumbled across a member of Scottish royalty! Britain's Got Talent finalist Susan Boyle just so happened to stop by as she was shopping with her niece on Buchanan Street. She stayed and listened to the band, and after we finished playing, we took a picture with her!

New York Brass Band and Susan Boyle in Glasgow

Another highlight for March was the RNCM St Paddy's Day Party Gig. This took place at college, and I played as part of BYOB (Bring Your Own Band). This gig was a lot of fun and also an opportunity for members of the band to do some lead singing! Something that we wouldn't normally have done! Furthering horizons and that...

This month, I was also involved in depping for two bands on gigs that were a long way away. The first was with The Saints in County Durham, and the second with Lucas at Butlins Skegness. Both gigs went without a hitch and were a lot of fun! Thanks to Jamie Brewster and Sam Weston respectively for getting me involved!

And finally! This month I was very fortunate to have been involved with the ATG production of Sister Act at the Liverpool Empire Theatre! This was a fantastic show with a superb and enthusiastic cast! The band were also outstanding and I have to say, it was very exciting to return to the pit band side of the music industry! Unfortunately I had to dep the final gig out to Sam Weston due to doing a function back in Manchester, but all in all, a fantastic week in Liverpool!

So, for the next few months, my life is going to be run by Spinoffs! For those of you who live under a rock, Spinoffs are the party band that I play for! Haven Camps, we're coming for you!

Alasdair

February, Birthday, Holiday Camps and Slush Puppies

Here we are at the end of February! This month has felt like one massive blur to be honest. Never knowing which way is up, this month has been busy, hectic and productive!

I started the month with a covers gig in Bulith Wells in Mid Wales with Tom Stott, and Ollie and Martyn Harding. This gig was a lot of fun and well worth the 3 hour car journey from Wigan that morning! In this month, I also turned 20! On the 4th of February I officially stopped being a teenager! And what better way is there to do that than singing karaoke in our local pub and falling over? I can't think of one.

Anyway, to business! This month I enjoyed my first holiday camp gig! This was with Spinoffs at Holiday Resort Unity Brean, which is at Burnham on Sea. The gig was a lot of fun, everyone had a great time and we were well received by customers, and members of staff! A fantastic gig, another hell of a drive in the van, and I'm looking forward to returning later this year! Oh yeah, and I relived memories of being about 10 by drinking slush puppies all day. I am going to consider this a quarter life crisis?

Enjoying a Slush Puppy at HRU Brean

Another gig for Spinoffs took place at Barnsley Central Working Men's Club! Another appreciative audience, and another absolutely electric gig. Again, I'm looking forward to returning to Barnsley later on this year for another show.

In other news, I went down to Loughborough earlier this month to purchase some in ear monitors! This is a very exciting part new part of my gear as this should help my live backing vocal singing and overall musicianship! For anyone wondering, the company who are making them are Minerva Hearing Protection and 3/5ths of Spinoffs now support them! Fantastic gear, and I'm really looking forward to using them!

And finally, it is with great joy that I announce that I am going to be playing bass in the next RNCM Session Orchestra project! I'm very excited for our upcoming gig, which I'll post more info about a little bit closer to the time! Needless to say, attendance is mandatory.

I'd better go just now as I am gigging in Glasgow tomorrow and I need to be up bright and early! But until then, that was February. See you in March.

Alasdair

January, Blackpool's more than just the Pleasure Beach

Ok, so 2014. I've been back at college a little while now! Apologies for the lateness of this blog as things have been a bit hectic with the end of January start of February type of time. But here is what's been going in January.

Last time I mentioned doing a showcase with Spinoffs it was the Keeping it Live Showcase in Coventry back in November. I did a lot of talking about Session Orchestra that month, so I'll go into the showcase itself a bit more this time. The showcase is an opportunity for acts to perform in front of agents who book acts for Holiday Camps and Venues across the UK, so if you do a good job, you get lots of gigs! Quite simple really.

Spinoffs Performing at Keeping it Live Coventry

This time, we performed at a venue along Blackpool's Seafront called The Horseshoe. Each act performed for 10 minutes. Through the whole session, we saw a whole variety of acts including Jessie J Tribute Acts, Soul and Motown Experience Shows, Ventriloquists, Magic Acts and Comedy Acts. However, what we offered was fairly simple in comparison, a 10 minute medley of pop and soul tunes. In this case, we broke the Keeping it Live record for most songs played in 10 minutes, as we actually played parts of 12 different songs.

The whole experience was a lot of fun, we were last on so naturally we were thankful for all the agents that stayed for our performance! And although it was 11:30, we still gave it our all, running around and dancing and such!

I'm quite pleased to say that the phone has been ringing following our performance which made our trip to Blackpool very successful! The band diary for 2014 is looking very full which is always positive! As a band, we celebrated one year together in January so it is great to be working hard and seeing it all pay off! So hopefully no matter where in the UK you are, you'll see us at some point in the near future!

Spinoffs are on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SpinoffsUk?fref=ts) Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/SpinoffsBand) and finally, we have our website (http://www.spinoffs.co.uk) So check us out if you fancy! We could do with likes / followers / views! So that's it for January! Check back in February where I might talk about something else!

Alasdair

December, 8 Hours to Go

Today is New Year's Eve, and as such I thought it would be nice to do a retrospective end of the year type of blog.

A lot of different exciting things have happened in my music career this year. These include gigs all around the UK, showcases, a tour, concerts, functions, rehearsals, the lot. It's been manic, but every second has been fun, even the bits where I didn't know what day of the week it was because I'd been working so hard.

So some statistics, the furthest South that I worked this year was Bath for my Godfather's Blues Band. The furthest North with New York Brass Band in Newcastle. The furthest that I worked East was with the RNCM Session Orchestra in Ockendon in Essex for the Out of Essex Project for Music for Youth. And finally, the furthest that I've been West for work this year was Aberystwyth in Wales with Black and Gold Function Band.

Other adventures of this nature involve seeing both ends of the M62 in one weekend. Firstly just short of Hull for a gig with Spinoffs, and the next day travelling to Liverpool with Under the Covers Function Band. Also, day with New York Brass Band where I travelled to Gosforth in Cumbria (seeing the Irish Sea) and then to a gig in Scarborough (seeing the North Sea) in the same day. Mad.

It would take a while to outline all the fun things that have happened in any kind of detail, so I'll say that I've had a great time with all the bands / friends that I've worked with this year. I've also enjoyed learning my way round my new region of the North West and I'm looking forward to continuing my study at the RNCM. 

The diary is starting to fill up for next year, so I'm looking forward to getting going with all that stuff. Hopefully next year my travels will take me north of the border to work in Scotland! But then, who knows what's going to happen.

Cheers everyone! Have a Happy New Year.

Alasdair

November, Royal Albert Hall and that...

November has been an extremely busy month for me. The majority of the first fortnight was taken up with the RNCM Session Orchestra project. For the first week or so rehearsing it, and then two gigs. The first concert that we did was in the RNCM Theatre which was immense fun. We played 2 hours worth of repertoire featuring everything from Michael Buble to songs from the musical Wicked, Earth Wind and Fire to Hairspray. The whole gig went extremely well, and everyone had a fantastic time. For me, it was the most self indulgent equipment set up I've ever used. This included my Overwater by Tanglewood 5 String Bass and my Overwater by Tanglewood Jazz Bass, but also my Electric Upright Bass and Frank Morgan's Fretless Squier Jazz Bass. Things only to be done once eh?

RNCM Session Orchestra in the RNCM Theatre

Two days later (Including an RNCM Sax Day Rhythm Section Workshop in-between) I was back with the RNCM Session Orchestra to play at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This was an amazing opportunity to play alongside the Greater Gwent Youth Orchestra and the "Out of Essex" project. The Out of Essex Project was fantastic fun, it involved the Session Orchestra working with 600 School Children from the Essex area. Together, the whole ensemble played Karl Jenkins' piece "Rondo Latino" which was an absolute joy to hear after the work that we put in to the project. We also performed Elbow's One Day Like This which sounded fantastic in the RAH. All in all, a once in a lifetime experience. I enjoyed it all immensely.

RNCM Session Orchestra, Greater Gwent Youth Orchestra and Out of Essex perform in the Royal Albert Hall

Two days after this, Spinoffs went down to Coventry to perform at the Keeping it Live function band showcase. We played very well on the day and have had a number of emails enquiring about booking the band! You can't ask for more than that! The diary is starting to fill up for 2014 which is great! Also this month, Spinoffs played at Selby Rugby Club for a birthday / wedding anniversary party. Shoutout to Charles Macdonald who depped for the band that evening.

Amongst the regular plethora of Jam Nights and Pub Gigs, a highlight for me was playing as part of a Jazz Trio at the Manchester Music Show at Manchester Central. The band featured myself on Bass, Liam Waddle on Piano and Will Unger on Drums. We played to a very appreciative audience and had a great day at the show!

And last but not least, the RNCM Revue show took place two days ago (bit of a theme here...). I enjoyed playing with The Hughes Brothers (Blues Brothers Tribute Band) complete with sunglasses and Duck Dunn head bob. Everyone loved the high energy performance given by Owen Hughes and Tom Stott as the Hughes Brothers and the backing band which included Myself, Ollie Harding, Charles Macdonald, Liam Waddle, Jamie Sharp and Aaron Wood. And to close the show, Keep Swinging did a high octane set of Pop songs which was a great way to end a fantastic evening of music.

Alasdair "Duck" Simpson playing with The Hughes Brothers in the RNCM Revue Show

That's it for now! I suppose we will have to wait for the madness that is Christmas to start! Fingers crossed I make it to 2014 alive.

Alasdair

October, What Happens on Tour, Stays on Tour

October has been an interesting one. A lot of adventures, a lot of college time missed, but all for the best! I'll try and sum up what's been going on...

So October started with a trip to Essex for me. The RNCM Session Orchestra Rhythm Section travelled down south to workshop an improvised piece with local schools; this is ahead of our performance of the piece with the schools as part of the Music For Youth School's Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London! We had a very enjoyable few days working with different Young People all across Essex. It was great to see such talent and enthusiasm across the board! It was also great to work alongside Paul (a lecturer at Guildhall School of Music and Drama) to create a really unique and exciting piece. And of course, it was great to be back in the capital.

The following Saturday saw a rehearsal with Classical Crossover singer Mark Llewelyn Jones and the band. This was a great opportunity to work in a different genre of music to what I'm used to. Mark was impressed with our interpretation of his songs from his album and is looking forward to our upcoming gig at The Atkinson in Southport.

Monday the 14th marked the start of the Atom Live tour with James Christy and the band! The whole tour was a fantastic experience, we performed to audiences in York, Darlington, Manchester, Lincoln and London. It was great to experience life on the road in a tour bus with your band mates. A special mention should go to our fellow Atom Live Bands: Vanderjact and Frost-D. Also, our Stage Manager Matt, and Tour Manager Trev were absolutely sound guys. It was a fantastic week, I'd do it all again at the drop of a hat. However, I'm sure the rest of the band will back me up in saying that we never want to have to walk bags and gear through London's Underground System ever again.

JC Band, Vanderjact, Frost-D and Matt on the Atom Live Tour

October including another storming gig with Spinoffs in York! Everyone had a great night, and we're looking forward to a function band showcase in Coventry next month! I'm very excited!

As you'd expect, with the Session Orchestra gig fast approaching we have been rehearsing hard at college! It's going to be an awesome gig, and I'd urge everyone without a ticket to get one for the gig on the 9/11/13 at RNCM! There's no excuse!

And finally I'm just at the start of another Ensemble Week at RNCM! The task this time around is to learn and perform 10 songs from the band... TOTO! Needless to say, I'm absolutely ecstatic about this. I have longed for the day when it would be socially acceptable to play AOR in a band in public. I'm looking forward to the end of the week gig immensely. But until then, there are some tricky unison riffs to see to. Yay.

Alasdair