Pulling At The Leash- Ready To Play!!

January almost over, Blue Monday behind us and a slight thaw in the big freeze, here in The North of England at least.

 So time to dust off those goggles and set the compass for the first small batch of gigs around the home area, before the band decamp to "The States" for the propensity of March.

BB are to play two of the major U S Steampunk Conventions, Wild Wild Con2, Tuscon Arizona over the second weekend of March and Anomaly Con3, Denver Colorado on the last weekend.

 Gigs to keep the guys "focused" inbetween are being arranged and if anyone knows of any venues, within reasonable distance of Tucson/Denver looking for a top Anglo/Germanic Steampunk band, please contact via the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/BBBLACKDOG?fref=ts.

Soon after their return it will be "The Day Of The Dog" for which tickets will shortly be available. Many Thanks to Libby Chatfield for generating the flyer for this event, shown at the top of the blog.

As a reminder this is to help raise some funds to replace the bands stolen equipment, none of which has surfaced as yet so "Keep 'em pealed!"

On that subject, with a little over a month remaining a decent sum is being accrued on the fundraising site at http://www.indiegogo.com/bbblackdog. If you haven't  had a peep at this, worth seeing what you can receive in return for your donations.

Now where were we? Oh yes actually playing again. The first show is a tasty one, at the hopefully soon to be glamorous again "Grand Pavilion" in glamorous Matlock Bath. It isThe Psychedelic Steampunk all dayer on Saturday February the 2nd, market from eleven in the morning and bands from 2pm. For tickets and details see http://www.facebook.com/BBBLACKDOG?fref=ts#!/events/114762252027017/.

Some of the proceeds from the show will go towards the restoration of the building which bridges seamlessly into wishing well to good friends "Birthrite" who are playing on a bill at Dudley's JBs this Friday(Jan 25th) to raise funds to restore the their town's Hippodrome Theatre.

Still a little time and space left to reflect on the German leg of BB's first tour back in 07.

It all kicked of swimmingly, according to Dale's account from the time, with Dale arriving at Lubeck airport as planned on September 4th, giving the band a couple of days to polish up the set and add a few audience participation bits.

Two shows on the 8th, an afternoon slot at an outdoor Summer Fest in the heart of Lubeck, good sound, fair weather, well looked after and a nice hour plus set to settle the nerves.

A fairly short drive and an second show at The Forum in Neustadt. A nice 300 capacity venue run as a co-operative. Dale wagers Stefan, the making of a full English breakfast for all the band and crew, that they top the 100 attendance mark.

Stefan made the breakfast, just.

Although only around a third capacity, the crowd were vociferous and felt bigger in numbers, the audience participation going well. Dale is rediscovering an endearment for German beer and all accept an invite to a club, which carries on into the early hours - Thus begins one of those chain of events.

The next day Dale accompanies Axel to pick up his van - If only the club invite had been declined, the van wouldn't have required recovering.

Since they were in town they decided to avail themselves of the fare at a nearby hostelry, Dale choosing a local delicacy Jager Schnitzel - If only the van had not required recovering, then the meal wouldn't have been eaten.

The following day Dale is becomig feverish, his well being depreciating during the day, with sickness and a touch of the Montezuma's creeping in. So fearing the "flu" he retires early with "Hot Toddys", purely for medicinal purposes, of course.

And in true "Jackanory" fashion, " that's all we have time for this week"