January to May one of the bass players who joined us for the 2016 Hootenanny was Andrea Penna who joins us full time on bass in the New Year. Where Lea bought a lot of energy to the band Andrea brings a lot of funk! The new band can be seen in a variety of venues most notable the Salisbury Live Fundraiser, OLMC and the Wig and Quill.
In March 2018 Salisbury was famously the target of a Nerve Agent attack. We lose The Mill for the entire year while it is subject to a forensic cleaning. Our sympathies to all those affected by this. From this point on, we dedicate David Bowie’s Heroes to the Police, NHS staff, Army, scientists, cleaners and everyone else involved in keeping Salisbury safe. When the second event occurred, the response was immediate. Thank you all for doing what you do so we can all keep doing what we do.
June we get to play a magnificent set at the Salisbury Live gig in the market square. Another huge stage with a terrific PA and an appreciative Salisbury Audience. Also on the bill is a duo called Common Confusion. More on them in a moment.
After a year with us Jem decides that the rigors of being in a gigging covers band don’t quite align with her own projects and personal life and decides to call it a day with us to focus on those things. We advertise for someone to take Jem’s place and immediately Amber who is half of Common Confusion (see above) applies.
We scare Amber silly at an audition in our normal practice room. For someone who has never been in a band before Amber finds this “exciting”. Then straight into it and the same month we play the Testwood Club and Music for Mills (the John Mills tribute gig) with Amber firmly in place as our new lead singer.
July and August and for one of the hottest summers on record we get a lot of outdoor gigs luckily. This includes: The New Inn Summerfest and the absolutely incredible Figglefest on one of the most perfect summer days in the history of time…
…Firsfest (which we close and is absolutely outstanding); and the only rainy event T1 Fest in Hudson’s Field, Salisbury.
September is a busy month. We get to play at the inaugural Salisbury Car Fest in the Market Square and that’s back up there as one of the best gigs ever. Although a long day (we play from 11 until 4) the crowd are awesome; the weather perfect; the cars shiny and everything is very summery.
At the gig at Qudos Andrea leaves us to pursue non musical projects (he was after all responsible for some very good photos) and we conscript Dave Hitchins back to record album #5 (Unscathed) the next day.
October and November Dave stays with us as dep bass player to allow us to play at two more beer festivals (9 open air gigs in total in 2018 – glorious!) and a couple of great club gigs.
December we are joined by new permanent bass player Rich Watts. We instantly know we have something special in this line up with Rich on bass and backing vocals and Amber out front as our first gig is in the Market Square and that old Break Cover magic comes flooding back…
….The gig is so good we get asked to do another when, friends of the band, The Zucchinis, have to pull out due to illness. This ends up being a double gig with the Christmas Market immediately followed by a gig (our 200th) in Qudos. We even get to show off this new sound at Sarum Live for Christmas.
This cements the new line-up in place, and we round out with Boxing Day at Alderbury Club and New Year’s Eve in our old favourite Qudos.
