The REOFFENDERS are on an indefinite break. Never say never, but we currently have no plans to play. However, we had joy and we had fun... and we blogged about it. Enjoy reading and reliving some good times.
I went over to a friends for an evening of excessive wine to be surprised by a little creation that Si had come up with as a tribute to The REOFFENDERS. I felt proper choked up listening to it, noone's ever written a song about me/us before and I feel rather honoured.
So give it a listen. It's also on our Facebook page under the tab SiBongo.
Thanks to Si for the original idea, to Ollie and Felix for joining in and to Helen for listening to it 10,000 times while it was being recorded.
Paul Indesit is leaving us to spend more time on Mad Hatter 2.0 and John and I feel that after seven years, it's time for a break.
We played to a packed Vintage in Wellington with lots of familiar faces in audience, some who'd travelled from Exeter and Taunton which very cool. We've made lots of friends whilst in the band, and we are very grateful to everyone who's supported us this far.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a unanimous decision to have a break and Rob DeLonghi will also be leaving us to start his own band. He loves gigging every weekend whilst John and I have started to crave more weekends off. He needs to be so much busier than we want to be these days and we'd like to wish him all the very best of luck in any new ventures. I'm sure you'll be seeing him gigging again very soon.
Paul Magimix plans to spend a bit more time with his family for now and, well, hopefully he'll still be about when the time is right to come back.
Yesterday was an interesting day, starting with Madge thinking he wouldn't be able to get to the gig because of snow. Panicking was done, deps were sought but it all blowed over and the situation got much better in South Devon. Meanwhile, over in North Devon, Rob set off for the gig as normal and 12 miles later got stuck in nasty blizzardy snow and treacherous icy roads. Argh! By this point, we'd made it as far as Starcross and pulled over to make more phonecalls.
Bully was sat in a pub in Exeter, not really expecting to do anything but have a quiet pint. Until we rang. He hotfooted it back home, got his bass gear together. We drove back from Starcross, picked him up, drove to his lockup to get his amp at which point he thought that he'd left the keys at home and I was getting a bit stressed. Found keys, got amp, drove to Teignmouth (on the way compiling a list of songs that Bully could remember without having a chance to go through anything) and got there 20 mins before showtime. Erm... we might be a bit late starting!
The PA was thrown together and we started the gig at 10pm! Phew!
It was fairly bouncing by the second half so thanks to everyone who braved the weather. Thanks to Radar who came up from Paignton - he was at our first paying gig and booked us several times for the BMAD festival. We go back a long way! Thanks also to Ian, Maria and Kim who have supported us for years and are very sad about us going on hiatus. Thanks to Rob for trying to get to Teignmouth and, as a result, freezing his arse off in a stationary car for 2 hours and obviously, huge thanks to Bully for stepping in at the last minute.
Wellington tonight.... can we have it without such drama please? thanks
p.s. The New Quay Inn are selling a calendar of local people hiding their bits in a strategic manner. It's all for charity with 100% of the money going to Bowel Cancer. Kim from the New Quay is Miss September with just two pints of Guinness to spare her blushes! Buy it!
This week, The REOFFENDERS will play at the New Quay Inn in Teignmouth (tonight) and the Vintage in Wellington (tomorrow) as our last gigs for a while.
Paul Indesit is leaving us to concentrate on writing his own music in Mad Hatter 2.0, but we've thoroughly enjoyed the seven years that he's spent with us. This is a man was so proud of what we were doing in The REOFFENDERS that when he replaced his washing machine, he paid an extra £50 to buy an Indesit. True story ;-)
So lets have a very loud, punktastic, moshy weekend!
It is tradition in The REOFFENDERS that all departing members have their last gig at The Vintage in Wellington. So we have moved our November 27th gig to December 18th. The Cadence will play the Kings Arms instead of us.
Big big thanks to Random Shuffle who bent over backwards to move their gig and let us do our swan song in Wellington. Cheers guys
It is with sadness that we tell you that Paul Indesit is leaving The REOFFENDERS. As you may know, he plays in another band, Mad Hatter 2.0 which is going from strength to strength. They’re playing all over the country and with tours on the horizon in Europe and the US, he needs to find some time to sleep!
Since he joined us in 2003, we’ve had quite a ride. We’ve played hundreds of gigs in small pubs of 50 people to 1500 people at Butlins, hotel balconies, air hangars and barns. We’ve had the best of times together! Since 2003, The REOFFENDERS have had 5 bassists and 6 drummers… but only one guitarist. He’s irreplacable in our hearts and bloody difficult to replace musically – those meaty chugs and sweet harmonics are signature sounds that we love.
For that reason, The REOFFENDERS will have a break from January 2011. We want to find the right person and right sound for the band. We also think it’d be a bit unfair for someone to jump into his shoes right now because frankly, they just feel too big to fill at the moment. We'll be talking to all the venues that we currently have gigs booked with as quickly as we can get round them.
So for the moment, the five remaining gigs in 2010 are all that we can commit to. We hope to see some lots of familiar faces at those gigs to help us see Paul off in style.
Thanks and see you soon
Heather, John, Rob and Paul (Madge)
Saturday 27th November - The Vintage, Wellington 9.30pm
Friday 3rd December - The Famous Old Barrel, Exmouth 9.00pm
Saturday 4th December - The Crawford, Exeter 9.30pm
Friday 17th December - New Quay Inn, Teignmouth 9.00pm
Saturday 18th December - The Kings, Exeter 9.30pm
On our Facebook page, we get what they call 'insights' into who people are who like us. I'm quite impressed that we cover so many different countries - according to facebook our friends can be found in United Kingdom (obviously), Guernsey (yep, that figures), Jersey (yep), Germany (friends of Katie?), United States (really?), Bermuda (ooh er), Spain, The Gambia, Australia, Hungary, France, Cyprus, Israel, Norway and the Philippines. Rather a lot of places that I'd quite like to visit - you know, if you can swing us a gig there ;-)
We played The Criterion in Leicester in March and had such a great time we were asked back again on Friday 5th November. All I needed to do was bolt on another gig and then it would be worth the trip!
Months go by and, well, y'know, I just kind of forgot to do anything about it. That is until the last couple of weeks when I went mad on the internet and phone, trying to find a venue that would book us for the Saturday night.
First up came Gary, from The Diamond in Sutton-in-Ashfield (nr Mansfield, Notts) who didn't have that Saturday free, but he did have the Thursday night. Well I'm not one for saying "No", so I say "Yes" to Gary. The Diamond looks a great venue. IT's got its own 7KW PA and lighting rig and stage and everything. And there's accommodation at the venue too. Sorted!
And then I spoke to Ian, at Ye Olde Black Cross in Bromsgrove, who had just got one Saturday come free. Yep. Saturday 6th November! Result. The Black Cross is a bit smaller than The Diamond, but it still boasts its own staging and looks a peachy little place. Not only that, but we can head for home from Bromsgrove when we finish as its maybe 2.5hrs drive in the van.
I'm really looking forward to making new friends in Mansfield and Bromsgrove and catching up with some old friends in Leicester. Oh, and sampling another skinful of Russell's marvellous beers at The Criterion!
Here's some web addresses if you are in the Midlands that weekend:
Thursday 4th November - The Diamond, 47 Stoney Street, Sutton -in- Ashfield, Mansfield, Notts NG17 4GH
I just looked at our giglist and thought, wow! The next 6-7 gigs are really really cool!!!
First up, we've got Bethy Bosch's wedding! It's our first wedding gig ever and is also the wedding of Beth, our first bassist. I'm really looking forward to it, if not a little bit nervous actually.
Then the following week, we're off on our annual jaunt to Cornwall starting at Calstock for a bike festival. A number of people have asked us about playing other venues in Cornwall. The problem is, they're all on Fridays and Saturdays and we only ever go there for one weekend so we tend to stick to our usual haunts. But hey, one day we might sort it ;-)
We end August with a beer festival gig (hurrah!) and The Crawford in Exeter which will be the first Exeter gig in aaaagggggeeeeessss! Not a bad little summer lineup!
Here's the newspaper article about our gig at Cobo in Guernsey recently. It mainly talks about the fact that the balcony gigs have been threatened in recent months. If you want to add your support, go to the Please Don't Stop the Music facebook page.
I just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who came to see us in Guernsey, especially the ones that came to all three gigs! Hardcore!
We'd driven the van over on the ferry so that we could take our own amps and Todge remained composed when he arrived at the Doghouse to find all the house amps moved out of the way. But then, I find it hard to believe that Todge has a waking state of anything other than calm! He's a honey ;-)
All three gigs were great fun, each one better than the day before, culminating with the Cobo Bay balcony gig which is a great event (well done to Kirsty for rallying the Facebook troops to keep it going!)
As always, thanks to Julie and David Nussbaumer for inviting us over, and to Inga and Steve at the Doghouse for looking after us so wonderfully.
And I'll leave you with one little anecdote... after our Saturday gig at the Doghouse, Madge was relaxing on his bed, shirtless. One of the staff who live in a room opposite saw him through the window and shouted, "Look, they've shaved a monkey!". We're still laughing! :-D
We got a nice little mention in this month's scootering magazine, after our jaunt to North Wales. Yay! NB. I've only snipped out the bit about us but if you can see the whole page if you want to see more about the whole event.
Rob asked me on Saturday about the chances of Bully standing in for him this weekend. Rob's having the worst nightmare with his car and as he lives in the arse end of North Devon, the logistics of finishing work and getting to Exmouth are proving challenging.
Bully said yes! Hurrah
It should be rather good fun so we'll be seeing you all down the Old Barrel then! 9pm start! Bring it :-)
I got a call from Madge at about 4pm on Saturday to say that his wife had been taken to hospital and therefore he wouldn't be able to do the gig that night. Obviously some things take priority and I promptly phoned the Black Horse and texted the rest of the band to say that it was cancelled.
Then Rob texted me to say, "Could Tracy do it?"
Tracy Toshiba just happened to be visiting from Brighton this weekend, to see her boyfriend - a certain Mr Indesit. I gave her a quick call and we ran through a list of songs to see whether we could put a set together. The answer was yes. Only problem was, she didn't pack her drumkit! Silly girl!
So I spent the next hour and a half trying to find a drumkit that we could borrow. Our good friend Dave came up with one! Dave works with Ben from Go Green Monkey and Ben was happy to lend us his kit. Hurray for Ben!
So after a frantic couple of hours, we turned up at the Black Horse to set up and play the gig. There were a couple of moments where we realised that we'd changed the arrangement of a song since Tracy left us 3 years ago but it was amazing how well she played 30 songs that she hasn't performed since then!
Ben got up on stage to play Basketcase with us which was cool, and nice that he actually got to play his own kit! Rob was on form as he and Hoover kept a comedy show running throughout the gig. It seemed like a who's who of Exeter bands in the audience and as a result had the feeling that we were amongst friends.
The next day we played at the Otter Inn at Collaton Raleigh. We had a marquee big enough to cover the band equipment and the weather fortunately stayed good. They had a great setup at the pub with a nice beer garden, BBQ and about 10 different real ales - which obviously we had to try.
The landlord had been nice enough to offer his garden as a camping area, complete with shower/toilet for us to use, so that we could enjoy the evening in style.
Great pub, great audience, and loads of kids doing air guitar! LOL
Thanks to everyone who came to see us this weekend, that was a lot of fun!
p.s. we're glad to hear that Mrs Madge is back at home. Hope you're back on the Blossom Hill soon me dear :-)
Best wishes from all of us
Last weekend was pretty exhausting but I think we've recovered now.
Thursday
It all started in Newton Abbot on the Thursday before the Bank Holiday where we played the Jolly Farmer. Last time we were there, it was quite a punky vibe so I'd written our setlist accordingly, but this time round it was a much younger audience who wanted the more modern stuff, so we tweaked things a bit for the second half.
There were also two guys there who'd been to their nan's funeral that day and were drinking to her and giving us lots of song requests. As well as doing the requests, John dedicated 'Going Underground' to her. Oh the shame!
Saturday
Friday was a gigless day but we all had work so started the weekend feeling pretty knackered before leaving Exeter at 9am to head to North Wales. We were booked to play the Welsh National Scooter Rally in Llandudno which was great, but a bloody long way!
We weren't playing till 10.30pm but had to be there for 4ish to soundcheck so it was a pretty long day. After soundcheck, we went for a wander and got some pizza before heading back to the venue to tuck into our rider of 24 tins of Fosters :-)
The gig was over in a flash and after a quick packdown, we headed to our nearby travelodge to get some kip.
Sunday
We woke with lots of spare time so went for breakfast at the Little Chef next door. What a rip off. Terrible service, barely passable food and expensive to boot. We won't be doing that again!
We'd thought ahead and booked somewhere for Sunday lunch so that we could eat properly and so that the two Pauls could watch the footy. Sadly, they'd taken out Sky since the reviews that we'd read and were offering pretty poor veggie options for John and I. The best laid plans and all that.... Still, it's better than a Ginsters pasty from a service station! And the toffee crunch pudding was good ;-)
Next stop was Somerset. Robert, from Best Kept Secret, had very kindly stashed our PA at his house over night so that we didn't have to drive all the way back to Exeter. He's a very very nice man with a great band - check them out if you haven't seen them!
So we went to unlock the van and couldn't. The back door was firmly locked. Oh dear. We wrestled with it for over half an hour, with help from Robin (also of BKS) and telephone support from Matt (Trigger Happy and ace VW mechanic). Finally Robin managed to open it... and discovered Rob's bag hanging on the door lock! WTF? He'd chucked it in the back and it had rolled about and landed beautifully on the lock.
With that job done, we loaded up and headed for Wellington for gig 3 of 4. We were playing outside despite the bitter cold and the rain having a go at washing us out. Thankfully, we were in Wellington where they're all bonkers and they stood outside regardless :-)
Because there'd be another band on already, we were late being able to setup our gear so rather than keep people waiting, we decided not to get changed. Plus we needed our jackets! and jumpers!
We finished at about 12.15am and packed away quickly so we could get home and sleep. We were very very knackered by this point and Madge was in danger of having the lurgy.
Monday
After a long sleep, I felt soooooo much better and ready to face the world again. We were playing at the Royal Oak in Ilminster, our first time there. They were having a charity "Dave's Day" where they tried to get as many Dave's in the pub as possible! LOL!
Before we could setup, they had to move the fruit and veg stand (I'm not kidding! really!) that the landlord's son runs. They've got Wii projected onto one wall, Sports on another screen as well as a freezer full of gorgeous icecream. A very nice pub with the landlord and landlady really making an effort to make a community pub work.
It was nice to see some familiar faces and some of our tshirts in the audience as people had travelled from surrounding villages to see us. What a welcome.
We finished at 12pm and had a drink with the owners, and an icecream, before heading home. A pleasure to play there and we will be back again later in the year.
So all in all, an exhausting weekend but bloody good fun.
