New Essex Bluegrass Band: Past gigs 2006

Our thanks to Rick and his team for organising a most enjoyable evening (at least for us!) We were delighted to see so many folks who turned out despite the torrential rain and high winds.

Once again, we would like to correct a statement made by Dixon (our banjo player)... We do not all live in a tree with the squirrels; you need five strings on your instrument and a nut collection to qualify for an arboreal residence.

A large and appreciative audience enjoyed a pleasant evening of bluegrass-centric accoustic music. It was a pleasure to see so many old friends and to hear all the bands giving of their best in aid of such a good cause. Music was provided by: Ann and Steve, Deep River, Biggin Hillbillies, Acoustic Astronauts, Monroes Revenge, The Morris Boys and The New Essex Bluegrass Band. It was interesting to see that the majority of the bands were using a single microphone. The NEBB would like to thank the organisers for inviting us, and also a particular thank you to the sound guy, and to Betty for doing all the gofering and the AAs for all their hard work.

Finally, we would like to correct a statement made by Dixon (our banjo player)... It was not Ditch and Culvert Quarterly that voted us the best bluegrass band in the UK. It was, in fact, the MWSNEBB (Mothers, Wives and Sweethearts of the New Essex Bluegrass Band) annual Christmas newsletter. An easy mistake to make, I'm sure you will agree. We put the error down to Dixon being somewhat flustered at the start of the set. He broke a string just before we went on stage and had to use a right-handed banjo string on his left-handed banjo. Fitting the string took much longer than usual due to the loop being on the wrong end.

The New Essex Bluegrass Band appeared by kind permission of Frog and Donut Records.

During the afternoon we played an hour set for the people who had come to the festival. To make it interesting, we had a noisy fairground behind us, an enthusiastic PA announcer on one side, a ferret race on the other and a sheep dog trial in front... I kid you not. It was somewhat noisy. The public side of the festival closed around 5 p.m. and in the evening we played a couple of sets for the canal boat owners; this was much more enjoyable for us as the fair, PA, ferrets and sheep dogs had gone home.

There are quite enough pictures of us playing in a tent, so you can imagine the gig! Instead, above is a picture of Vicky and Charlie Tustian's Dutch barge, Ro-An, where we spent some time picking during the day. To the left is the band with Vicky passing a pleasant afternoon.Thanks to her and Charlie (and Joe) for their hospitality.

Here we see Dixon strutting his stuff in the bar during one of the 'rain stoped play' interludes. The rain seems to have affected the bass, which burst into bloom. We also took advantage of the day (and Chris Richardson - who was there with his cameras) to try to get a video of one one of the band numbers. Click here to see (and hear) the result of his efforts.
Before starting up the dancing part of the afternoon, Rick Townend needed someone to 'make a noise' while he sorted out the PA. The NEBB were happy to oblige. The figure on the right is Rick trying to get us to stop! Note the cunning method used to convert 5 microphones into one single mike.

Special thanks to Colette for her enthusiasm and bringing the family.