APRIL WAS A VERY BUSY MONTH WITH 3 GIGS, AT HONITON, BUDLEIGH SALTERTON, AND NEWTON TRACEY. HEREWITH A LARGE SELECTION OF PHOTOS FROM ALL THREE.

Special thanks this month are due to Danny's parents Nick and Wendy, and also to Tillie's parents Mike and Alison who raised large sums of money for the band.

Friday April 1st : HONITON

A gig which everyone enjoyed hugely. Thanks to Nick and Wendy, the audience donated £140 into a bucket for us ! A lovely feature of this gig was the overwhelming friendliness of the audience. Even the most elderly - and there were several well into their extremely late .... teens, joined in the singing and dancing.

Pre-performance planning meeting	Setting up and checking sound

Dan's mum Wendy took care of the vital refreshments	We had a nice, friendly, and very co-operative audience

Note Trudy at the rear, keeping a watchful eye on us.	Audience member Stephen, resident in a local care home, helped us with a song.

Joan made the mistake of saying she knew the words to Puff The Magic Dragon. She was "invited" to assist us.	The audience enjoyed the rock and roll especially and joined in on the dance floor

The end of a lovely evening at Honiton.

April 16th 2011 : BUDLEIGH SALTERTON

This was a re-booking to compensate for the first time we tried in January but unfortunately Bob got hauled off to hospital. What marked this gig as somewhat unusual was the presence of a lady called Jayne - she is the paramedic who attended Bob in the ambulance back in January. It turns out she is a singer in her spare time and agreed to come to our gig. She joined in with the band for a few numbers and also entertained us during the refreshment break.

Jayne has a professional name of Meredith Ellis. If you would like more details and photos then she can be found via her Facebook page which is located here : http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Meredith-Ellis/100001785964249

Getting into full swing at Budleigh Salterton - the public hall boasts a wonderful stage
Carl's mum Jayne - lower centre left enters into the spirit	Looks like Terry is about to breakdance !
Nice to have a responsive audience	Meredith Ellis entertains amid the band's clutter
Meredith singing with the band - its great having others join us	Steve texting whilst Meredith entertains us all during the refreshment break
Left : Carl caught stuffing his gob	Dunno whats happening here - but it looks fun !

April 30th :  NEWTON TRACEY

The gig actually took place in the small community of Lovacott which is just around the corner from Newton Tracey.

Newton Tracey is the home of the organisers of the event, Mike and Alison Jackson who are also parents of band member Tillie.

Mike and Ali organised the gig in order to raise some funds for the band. They succeeded brilliantly and presented £200 to the band at the end of the evening !! It was a brilliant evening, very well attended and it was lovely to have several special needs folk there. Its really gratifying and very interesting to note how the attendance of special needs folk seems to loosen up the inhibitions of an audience.

Grateful thanks are due to this couple, Tillie's parents Mike and Ali Jackson. They organised the gig and raised £200 for the band

For those with a long memory (ie, us older ones) you may well remember there was a lovely entertainer by the name of Percy Edwards. His speciality was the impersonation of birds and he could imitate around 300 different species. Well this gig saw a hidden talent in Tillie who, in the latter part of the evening was able to give a very creditable imitation of the sound of a vintage tractor attempting to start. Poor Tills had eaten something that did not agree with her and which unfortunately caused her to vomit. Luckily she made it to the Ladies, unluckily she did not switch off her wireless headset microphone and so the audience was treated to some very wierd noises. When Bob realised what was happening he switched off Tillie's mike at the mixing desk.

The afternoon started with thunder, lightning, and a considerable downpouring of rain. On the right, Trudy and Mark watch from a safe - and dry - distance !

No one else to be seen during the brief but very wet storm.                       Terry in technicolor dreamcoat

Having a boogie during set up.                There was a nice big friendly audience at Lovacott village hall.

"Volunteers for signing during "Puff the Magic Dragon"          Miha with her new friend Honeytone Gemma

This is what you call audience participation - rousing versions of Honeytones favourites

Audience member Mike sang "You Raise Me Up" beautifully ..... .. then tried his hand with Terry's conga !