OK, the line up is complete and there are no more auditions to be held. We made our choice and we are sticking to our guns. And, a good choice it has turned out to be. This evening I wanted to call Simon, the guy who came last week, but I can not for the life in me find his telephone number, and looking back it seems that all the communication we had prior to the audition was through a site for musicians looking to find bands etc. So, as much as I would have preferred to have spoken to Simon personally because i feel it is good manners, I have had to send him a message thanking him for coming but explaining that we had chosen some one else. I told him that not being selected was not a reflection on his playing and on another week we may well have asked him to join. So, there we are.

During the week we bought an old Peavy 600watt pa amp, it only cost £100 so we thought why not take a punt on it? It turns out it is rather loud! But, it will give us a lot of headroom to work with for the vocals, the quieter singers will be giving enough volume to get their voices heard. The down side is that I need to buy a couple of new mic cables and possibly a new mic. I also treated myself to a really well made used mic stand in the week, which payed dividends at rehearsal today.

Today was our first rehearsal and the objective was to get at least four numbers down and play them at a level we could gig them. We worked on the following songs: Down at the Doctors and Back in The Night(Doctor Feelgood) Whiskey in The Jar (Thin Lizzy) I Hear You Knocking (Dave Edmunds). We really did work those numbers and got them how we wanted them, I am pleased to say that if we had to play an audition and choose four numbers, we could play those to a gigging standard. We have chosen four more for next week. We're aiming for thirty numbers to give us a full set. Just right now in the region where we would look to get gigs from, there are loads of blues bands, all sorts of youngsters playing what ever it is they do, but we all think that there is a big gap for what we want to do, which is Rock with a blues feel with two lead guitar players. Hopefully we will plug that gap.

We rehearse at the church Shaun and I used to attend before we moved to different towns, as it is easy to get to and free to us as Shaun and I are still active within our faith. I only mention this because it is relevent to the fact that our new guitar player Dave, is not at all religeous and he is having a hard time remembering not to swear! It's quite funny really, we have told him that we will get a swear box and fine him every time he comes out with something he shouldn't. But he is trying, and today he didn't go off the grounds for a smoke, I think he'd had one on the way to rehearsal.

Our first gig has already been cancelled, the party organisers think that every one would just prefer to sit and talk, and they have a bit of a disco - what a bad choice, there is no substitute for a live band, but try telling that to the masses who don't appreciate what real music is - LIVE!

As promised last week, here are a couple of pictures. I am the guy with the Sunburst single cut. Dave is the guy with the white single cut, and my life long friend and true brother Shaun is holding his P bass which he bought in 1977 when we went to London to buy it. Terry is our Drummer,a really powerful player.

Well, I can't post any pictures, so here's a link instead.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152070238653212&set=pcb.10152070239728212&type=1&theater

Thanks for reading,

Mark.