Long time no post - well in the past 2 months I have been very busy music wise - JustB (going to have to change the band name) have had two gigs:

• Rutsfest - June 2016
• Ming Chew's 40th Birthday - July 2016

Rutsfest was a great outdoor gig, with two large stages, a summer festival if you will. Unlike some venues there was no preference given to bands with each band getting 30 mins to play, even those late in the evening. Sound was good as there was a sound engineer running the desk / PA / foldback. We had a great time (despite one or two musical hiccups) and are looking forward to playing there next year. The only downside is that Elliot and I had to rush off as we had a party to get to in Southampton.

Ming's Birthday was a much more private affair at a discrete venue in Kennington - http://www.toulouselautrec.co.uk/ Usually it is a jazz venue, but on that evening we introduced it to a bit of rock! This was solely a covers evening and due to the mixed audience we decided to mix up the setlist to include a wider range of genres and also added a female singer (Lisa) to bring some extra variety.

It was also a special evening for me and it was the public debut of my other band 'BleachBurn' - a prog metal band. We did a short 30 mins set consisting of 3 originals and 2 covers (that'll be the prog songs taking up the lion share of the 30 mins then!). As far as performances go I think I can say I was very happy as we performed our original tracks very well, which was quite a trick considering that Peter the drummer had to deal with a drumkit with a lot fewer toms / cymbals - he had to re-write his drum parts on the fly. Even better the music actually went down quite well, with my hardest critic (Carol) being complimentary :)

With 2 1/2 gigs so far this year I am hoping that we can do some more, you never know it might even become a regular thing ;)

Tags: band

Since 2004 or so I have been in the band “JustB”. From its humble beginnings in the spare room of the keyboard player to the now cavernous space of the keyboard players garage our weekly practices have always been loud - until now.

Tags: band, jamhub

Well the first real gig with the function band, aka Ming and the Chews has been and gone. (I say first as I won’t count the gig the previous week ;) )

We played the White Hart in Wimbledon

I think we can class it as a success as we even got paid so it couldn’t have been that bad!

Tags: band, pub

Well its been sometime since my last post, but hey I needed to post something right?

Quite a few things have happened since I last wrote – I am now married (very happily) and music has paid a bigger part in my life.

Having played at my friend Ming’s wedding the opportunity for another gig came up at Christmas, where my band JustB ended up playing the Wandsworth Council Children’s Services Christmas party. After a hectic setup and sound check we played very well. The organisation could have been a little better as we had to cut down our set due to other parts of the party over-running, but I felt it went really well – we certainly had people up and dancing!

Now to top that off I have two new bands on the go. I have started a prog-music project with a couple of friends, and have now been asked to join a function band. So two music projects completely different.

Thats all for now but next time I promise to post an entry with at least 1 picture – all this text looks really boring on the page!

Tags: band

There must be something in the air, as it seems to be a year of weddings (could be very expensive!) So far this year my brother has got married, next up is my fried Jon, then my friend Ming, and then finally me :)

Now you would have thought that the latter wedding, my own, is probably the one causing most concern, however no, I have volunteered to play at Ming’s wedding in a band that he is putting together.

Originally it was simple, he needed a guitarist, but due to one reason or another it got more complex. First a drummer was needed, I asked Jay, drummer in my band JustB, he said yes. Then after a few practice sessions we decided we needed another guitarist, brother Ell was roped in.

Long story short we now have the entire JustB band playing at Ming’s wedding, plus other instrumentalists. Thats:

2x Keyboard players
2x Guitarists
1x Drummer
2x Bassists (Ming is playing at his own wedding, plus my dad bassist in JustB)
2x main vocalists (Justin singer, plus singer / keyboard player in JustB)
The extra fun part is the choice of music, slightly out of my comfort zone it is proving quite fun to play and creates a different dynamic from the Rock / Metal that I usually enjoy. I have a feeling it will turn out rather well.

Watch this space for updates!

Tags: band, wedding