Xmas gig news

Hurrah! Skamp have just secured a last minute gig at the Pitville Pumprooms,
Cheltenham for a local internet company. We'd better start learning some
Christmas songs - watch out Slade here we come!

Another successful audition!

Great to meet Alex and Duncan who had travelled all the way from Leominster to audition us for their daughter's wedding next year. Luckily for us they liked what they heard and we got the gig! Hopefully their daughter, Emily and future son-in-law Bryan, will agree in the night. The happy couple are obviously very trusting!!

Pitville Pumprooms, Cheltenham 24 Oct

We always enjoy performing here as the staff are always very nice to us. Colin and Jaqui looked very happy to be married and seemed to enjoy our rendition of Whitesnake's 'All I want, all I need'.
The guests were really up for a good night and danced from start to finish and only stopped for the rather tasty BBQ. Another great gig from the Skampters. This is just about our last gig this year so watch this space for new song updates and other info including news on our photo shoot and recording some new songs. TTFN.

Chavenage House in Tetbury

The venue... well a bit of it


Rob, Clare and Ad tuck into cheese 'n' crackers


Probably the oddest changing room we've ever had - a church?


What a great venue, probably the best acoustics we've had for a while. The first dance (Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars) went down well. The crowd were up for a good night and danced for most of it. We had a lovely spread for our break, cheese 'n' biscuits and Port - very nice. Thanks to Richard and Helen for booking us. We had quite a few enquiries for gigs and gave out a few business cards - lest hope we get some gigs from it. TTFN.

Pump-it-up-on-de-dancefloor

On Tues 25 we met up with Colin and his wife to be, who are getting married and having there reception at the Pump rooms in Cheltenham. It's another gig secured for Oct and best of all it's local. Sorry no pics this time as Steve forgot to take one with is flashy ipod phone... ooooh.

We also tested our rehearsal PA that Rob bought. It was a thumbs up from the gang on that one. We won't need to worry about packing the gear up every time we have a gig. Ace!

Wedding, Puesdown Inn Sat 15 Aug

What a super venue. The stage area was looking good with the black sky and starry background and to top the cake we had the classic chessboard dancefloor. We had a few problems with the electrics but when sorted it all worked a dream. Rob and Vicki (groom and bride) looked great and seemed to enjoy the evening. Skamp were on form and kept the crowd screaming for more. Pizza and bacon butties for supper and ipod favs until 1am. We even got told to turn the noise down from a village 3 miles away - I bet The Who didn't have that. What a crazy night.

Hello All

We haven't updated the blog for a while. We're still here getting ready for next weeks gig. Plus I wanted to just say that Ive finally managed to crack my digital workstation. It's taken a while but finally it's working. Who said computer music was easy?

SKAMP-STOCK

Superb gig for Jonny & Liz in Pilning on Saturday night. They turned their garden into a mini festival site! Great party with great guests who didn't want to stop dancing! Same time next year?

Ad rocks ahead of next Gig

At long last we've found a rockier version of Duffy's "Mercy". We spent tonight learning it from scratch. If you're at our next gig you'll love it. With thanks to Third Degree and The Ministry of Sound.

SAS Gig Update - ouch!

We've just had a lovely thank you card from Jill & Steve who we played for in Hereford. Apparently one of the Scottish guests danced so hard to our music that she broke a small bone in her foot! I knew we were good, but not injury inducing!

Amy & Matts First Dance

Hurrah! They got hitched and we got the gig. if you search the blog you'll find a picture if Amy & Matt when they came to audition us. Their venue was the beautiful Homme House near Ledbury. Gorgeous. Great night, but very hot!

Army Barracks, Hereford, 27 June (2 of 2)

Cheers from SKAMP! We do love our Bolli!















Now we know who we are even after 10 glasses of sparkly.




















Steve poses as a butler, while a camera pass ensues.

It's wedding number 2 for this weekend and it's a hot one. Unusually we all went separately to the venue. It was quite exciting as we got signed in by security, had our id pass + photo and then went in convoy to the officers mess. After setting up, we were treated to a slap-up steak'n'chips supper washed down with a small glass of champagne - nice! People took a little while to get going due to the hot evening and the fact they'd been drinking all day. Luckily Rob's voice lasted well considering he'd just recovered from a throat infection - well done son! Another successful evening and SKAMP lasted the double gig weekend.

Cripps barn, 26 June (1 of 2)

The party goers GET DOWN!

Er Rob, what are the chords for The Birdie Song?

The international sign for "do you want a beer"

Well it was a Friday gig, which we don't do many of these days, and the evening was fine and dry. We've played the venue a few times and it's always great. We had a nightmare because we forgot the PA leads so one of us had to dash off and get them - DUH! The evening went down well and the groom sang a couple of tunes with us - the crowd loved it. It was cheese and crackers at dawn and we stood around the fire outside to chill out before the drive home. Great night. One down, one to go.

Wedding, Powderham Castle, Exeter, Devon

The band changing rooms

SKAMP tuck into supper

Where's the band?

Rob meets the happy couple

Well we finally made it to Devon after contending with 3 traffic jams and a huge detour because the M5 was shut. It was a beautiful day and luckily the van had air-con. With minutes to spare, we setup, drank lemonade (rock and roll), met the bride and groom and sped off to our hotel. We had a lovely supper, Rob had 'cocktail of the week', then we zoomed back to the venue at the castle http://www.powderham.co.uk/. It turned out to be a short one as time ran out. We all enjoyed it though and went back to the hotel for a Skamp party. That's as much as I can remember....

Sally & Chris First Dance Rehearsal

We are now getting started on Can't Take My Eyes of You......Crikey there's lots of chords in that one!!!! but starting to sound good after the 20th time we ran through it , well done guys ! Should be pucker for Sally and Chris' big day on the 26th June at Cripps Barn.

Skamp on Tour at Clearwell Castle.

The most interesting gig ever

Well what an interesting action packed gig we had on Saturday at Flagstone Fm in Condicote. Just for the record we had free beer, tennis, snooker, cats (x3), cheesecake, bails of hay, foxes mints in the porta-loo, cold wind and a crowd that wouldn't let us stop playing. Thanks to Heidi and Adam!

Here's Rob walking into our dressing room.

This is cat no. 1

SKAMP with cat no. 1. Nice aerial Rob!

Supper... yum!

Adam + beer = broken wall

Some of SKAMP playing tennis.

Heidi and Adam dance around a giant cymbal.

Quick rehearsal

As we were short on time and the main gear was in our band lockup, we did a practice in full acoustic mode. This is us having a run through of 'In your light' by John Allen that we played at Clearwell Castle.

I can see "Clearwell" now the gig is gone....

See what I did there? Pic shows the start of last night's fantastic gig at Clearwell Castle in the beautiful Forest of Dean. It looks like everyone is ballroom dancing but they're not! This is at the start of the gig when we did a few laid-back tracks to warm up the crowd.

Here's the outside of the castle
















This was the amazing disco booth (looked better with the lights running)
















The crowd were great and didn't stop dancing from 8 til midnight!! We had a brilliant night. One of the best gigs in a long time. For those of you that also like your rock trivia, the room we were playing in was once a recording studio and rehearsal space where bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath used to come to for inspiration. So that's why we rocked!

And another great audition night!

You can tell we're getting into our busy season now. A successful first gig of the year last night and last week another audition for our gig this weekend. It's at Clearwell Castle and we're all looking forward to playing there. We've also got a good challenge on our hands to add a third set and a new track. Better get practicing!

Audition Night

Great to meet Amy & Matt who have booked us for their wedding this summer. Sounds like their guest list is full of dancers which suits us fine! We jammed a couple of new tracks tonight after a few weeks off. Now gearing up to our first gig of the wedding season next week. Jack Johnson is sounding sweet.

First gig of 2009

We kicked of our first gig at Cotswolds Water Park for Rob & Angela on form. The band played well considering Rob's bad throat. The first dance went down well, a song by Jack Johnson - I'm sure this one will stay in the set. We're looking forward to our next gig in Gloucestershire next week.

The Eagles have landed

Well we've finally managed to play the Eagles hit, 'Life in the fast lane' all the way through. It's sounding pretty good, so hopefully we can peform it at our next gig. Next week it's a Jack Johnson number... well, we are better together.

Finally...

Ha, finally got round to signing up.

So we're off for a band nite out at the Shong Long Thai restaurant in Cheltenham tonight and possibly some enebriated pole dancing afterwards.

Watch this space for follow up piccies.

Audition Night

Another successful audition. Thanks to the lovely Georgie & David who have booked us for their Christmassy wedding in the North Cotswolds. They have some musos in the family so we're looking forward to a good jam on the night! We always love having people in to hear us as it gives us a chance to get to know them before the gig. They can also decide if they like what we do or not - which they did tonight! (despite me forgetting the key to the first track we played.....)

Studio.....done

The studio is finished! Need to get a few new cables and tidy them away a bit. Still plenty of software issues to resolve but that's part of the fun, isn't it?!

The Killers live at the NEC

Stunning gig. If you ever get the chance to see them live take it. Great band, great show. We do Mr Brightside better, though...

Blog with the best

Wow! Not only do I get to blog for the first time but I'm invited to blog with the best... Skamp that is......

Well here's a big hello to all skampsters from Rob-on-the-vox...

Cheers m'dears

The Studio...

The Studio is taking shape. A couple of wiring issues and it'll be ready.

BPE Summer Gig

At last we've managed to secure the party for BPE at Cafe Rouge in Cheltenham. It's gonna be tight setting up in time for 7pm but it should be a great night. Thanks to Hannah for organising the details.

Back to it

So, after a week of snow and cancelled gigs it's back to rehearsal tonight....as long as Ads isn't snowed in. Will hopefully have a bash at Life In The Fast Lane. Trouble is there'sno keyboard part and it was my idea to do the track. Damn. Oh well, a bit of piano might make it sound nice. If not then the bongos might get a bashing.

Snowed in for the second day

Yes it's been a cold few days on the west side of Cheltenham. I've been working from home and managed to find a few moments to customise the Blog. Check out the the new header... nnnnnnniiiiiiiccccccceeeeee.