NEWS FROM THE ROCK SECTION
12/07/2018 Jon Well, The Arts Café went pretty well, though we lost a lot of audience at the end for some football match... sad to say no such distraction on World Cup Final Day next Sunday. But we're looking forward to wowing the bikers! Thanks to Arcadia, who broke the ground for us with an excellent set - the first of three for them, on a scorching day!

 

 

 
18/06/2018 Jon After a bit of hiatus, we have two gigs coming up within a week. The first, back at Axminster Arts Café, is on Saturday 7th July. It's a double bill with Arcadia Jazz Band, and we're following on from them around lunchtime. The following Sunday, 15th July, is another return booking at the Devon Air Ambulance Bikers' rally in Teignmouth. We're on first, around 12.30. New material for both gigs, including stuff by the Police, Status Quo, and relatively recent additions from Stevie Wonder, Family...
01/01/2018 Jon A New year, and a successful New Year Gig at Lyme Regis Golf Club, despite the aftermath of my Christmas cold. It suffered the usual "function" glitches of over-running meals, people getting into the mood to dance just as it was time to go home, and requests to play Abba songs (Stevie Wonder vocals are hard enough with a cold - do I have to clone Agnetha and Frida too?). New rockers from Family and Status Quo went down well. Many thanks to club captain Lee for organising the gig.
21/09/2017 Jon "Fabulous weather for The Rock Section last Saturday. Great selection of music - fantastic sound... A wonderful Music in the Garden treat all round. Many thanks to all." Jenny Fells, Music in the Garden, Axminster Arts Café.

Well, we enjoyed it too! Olivia's first gig with the band went really well - and good to see Jackie in the audience, too. It's amazing how many people sing along to Blodwyn Pig, bop along to Gentle Giant, jive along to Bill Haley and shout for more Gomez, along with the more mainstream stuff!

01/09/2017 Jon Sat 16th Sep 11.00am - we're playing Music in the Garden at Axminster Arts Café. Admission is free. After that, working on yet more new material from Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Gomez and whatever else turns up.
10/07/2017 Jon The motorcycle ride out gig went well yesterday, despite a blown up sound system meaning we had to go on late and do a shortened set (though they extended the close-time by a quarter of an hour for us - thanks). Appreciative comments from the sound team and organisers: Devon Air Ambulance Fundraising Director Caroline Creer "We are extremely grateful to The Rock Section for choosing to support Devon Air Ambulance at our 12th annual Ride Out. They gave a smashing performance with a great selection of upbeat tracks and we hope to see them at another Devon Air Ambulance event!".

Sadly this gig was the last for Jackie, who is moving on to other things and will be much missed. The good news is that we have a talented new bari player in Olivia Benger, so we look to go on to reach new heights.
10/06/2017 Jon Next gig is 9th July at 4pm at the Devon Air Ambulance Motorcycle Ride Out. See us arrive there in our leathers on the Rock Section tandem...
18/04/2017 Jon A bit of a hiatus over the winter, but we're playing at the Exeter Food and Drink Festival on Sunday 30th April (Bank Holiday Weekend) from 3.30-4.00pm. Sunny festival set all prepared, so join us there!
09/02/2017 Jon Well, after a few marathon sessions of recording and production, we've added an audio page to the website (and a demo to shock everyone who finds their way to the site!).
06/01/2017 Jon Rather than rest on our laurels over the Christmas period we've started work on half a dozen new numbers from Jack Bruce to Bad Manners, via Adam Ant, on the last of which Jackie gets to play her new Peppa Pig tambourine! Oh, I forgot to mention Yes and Jethro Tull. And Dexy's Midnight Runners. Rock on.

01/10/2016

 Jon Great fun in Chard last night, playing in the upstairs living room of an ancient Manor House in Fore Street. A very appreciative audience drawn from miles around, with superlatives flying around I'm far too modest to quote here. It was an interesting opportunity to play with the saxes unmic'd, which worked well in a venue that small. We all felt a lot more relaxed second time round, and all we need now is a large festival gig to cover most of the likely playing situations. Organiser Julian Dorse promised us a return engagement, and a lot of people took cards, so hopefully the word will spread.

Photo: Julian Dorse

24/09/2016

Jon

TRS's first gig was a great success last night at The Beacon, Kilmington. It was a "friends and family" thing to try out the material (Brian even produced a feedback questionnaire in true 21st century fashion!), but we actually got maybe sixty people crammed into an intimate venue, and a few other people sent apologies owing to bugs, transporting relatives around and so on.
Saxminster turned out in force, together with three friends from Eight to the Bar. The audience enthusiasm was invigorating, and the only real complaint was about the balance of vocals to saxes (not enough of the former - very gratifying for me as singer, of course). We'll sort that out easily enough - and Andy wondered if the horns were all having so much fun they just blew too hard.
We have another gig next Saturday, at a music club in Chard, but I think that's a members' thing - we'll keep you up to speed on whatever we get up to next, though.

Photo: John Ensall