The Oxford gig on the 15th of March has been moved to the O2 Academy nearby. Any tickets bought for the Regal show will still be valid for the Academy.
Convention changes
Unfortunately plans for November’s convention faced a major setback early this week. The venue that was originally booked, the Bloomsbury Ballroom, has been sold and all of its forthcoming events have been cancelled, including the convention. The band’s management faced an urgent search for a suitable replacement venue and have today confirmed and contracted a new venue, the Camden Centre, near King’s Cross, London.
Sadly, due to lack of availability on the original planned dates, the convention has had to be rescheduled to the weekend of 19th/20th November. This change of dates was out of the band and management’s control due to the loss of the original venue and the availability of a suitable replacement on the planned dates. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause, especially if people have already made arrangements for the 12th/13th.
The new venue is ideally suited to our needs and is located near to both a wide range of accomodation and main line/Tube stations (King’s Cross/St. Pancras). The venue website is here
All other arrangements for the convention are nearly finalised and tickets are expected to go on sale very soon. Please watch this space…
Susannah York (1939-2011)
Following the recent passing of Susannah York at the weekend, JJ has asked us to post this message:
I was greatly saddened to hear of the recent death of Susannah York. I had the pleasure of working with her on the Norfolk Coast short. Not being a pro actor I was slightly nervous about the whole thing but she put me completely at ease.
During one scene when I was supposed to be talking to her I kept on fluffing my lines and just couldn’t manage to remember them, such as they were, so she said to me ” Do what Marlon did .(she had worked with Brando on Superman) He just pinned the words on my front and read them off.” Well that saved me a bit of bother.
After that I invited her to come to one of our gigs at Shepherds Bush Empire which she said she thoroughly enjoyed .
A lovely lady. Total respect. JJ
HISTORY
Jet Black: the early years
In an exclusive interview with Ava Rave, Jet charts his early life and his first steps in the musical world. The article covers Jet’s education, his first musical forays, jazz and his business ventures which lead him to Guildford. It’s a mammoth interview (c.14,000 words) so may take a fair time to read.
Black and Blue update
The Black and Blue UK tour is approaching rapidly and the first date is now under two months away. The addition of R&B legend Wilko Johnson and songwriter Mike Marlin to the bill offers a great value three band line up. Following a spate of recent regional press interviews, the band are now about to reconvene and start rehearsals again.
Rumours emanating from the West Country suggest that they are planning a radical shake up of the setlist to include a career-spanning selection of songs – a mixture of hits, some brand new material and some older tracks which haven’t been aired live for many years, if at all…
It promises to be a great tour-see you there…
A busy year ahead…
Happy New Year to everyone out there.
2011 is set to be another busy year for the band. They already have a packed Spring gig itinerary including the Black and Blue UK tour and some European dates. They are also hard at work on new material for the follow up to Suite XVI. In addition, November sees the first band weekend convention since 2001. It looks set to be an exciting year…