Hair and Halloween

Hi, Judy here

What an amazingly Halloweenish kinda day.  Woke up early to a lovely crispy, frosty and sunny day.  The one that makes me feel slightly Christmassy.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, or I will feel a strong case of PCT (pre christmas tension) coming over me.

I have just come back from Helens Unisex Hair Salon in the centre of the world that is Wootton Bassett.  They are so thrilled with the photos of Gabby on the new website and would like me to point out that her hair was coloured at their place.

So - here is a big up for Lorna, Kirsty, Tracey, and, of course, Amanda!  If I have left any names out, please let me know so that I add you ……

As it is Halloween, I have been thinking that maybe Gabby and her Other Animals should do a spooky cover tonight at Azuza.  Any ideas?  I was thinking of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.  Or maybe not!?  Suggestions are very welcome.

Anyway, we are very much looking forward to seeing the guys back in Gabby home turf tonight at Azuza, Marlborough, starting 7pm.  Dont forget that the new EP will be available for sale, and the evening is Free!
Love -  in a pumpkinish way - Judyx

Mid Tour Bloggling

It snowed! In London! In October!
And we were in Brighton at the time!!!

So we are half way through our week long acoustic tour. It has been great, cold, very cold - but great! Monday morning started with a radio session on BBC Wiltshire and both Lana and myself sang a song each- complete with Monday morning frogs in our throats! Jim and Rosa joined me on Double Bass and Accordion and we did a short version of Whose House for the Wiltshire listeners and had a little chat about the Al Stewart tour and other things. I am getting less nervous about radio interviews and really starting to enjoy them so the more the better!

We then were treated to my favourite lunch- Spag Bol by my mum! The whole team was happy to eat a delicious home cooked meal before bracing the winter outside. All eager to sight-see we jumped into Bertha (that’s the van by the way!) and went to see the Avebury stone circle -which was a short lived experience due to none of us being dressed accordingly or even having waterproof shoes, so we all ended up in the local pub with hot toddies, and in my case, a hot chocolate! (You may or may not know that I am actually allergic to Alcohol… Sadly not as rock n’ roll as you may have thought!)

Next was a gig (I knew there was a reason we were on tour!) @ Porter Cellar Bar in Bath. Twas a great turn out and a wonderful gig. I played the guitar for the first time in ages with Jim on double bass and it went down really well. I always love Bath audiences- you guys rock! Lana ended the night with Tom Mansi on Double Bass and Brett (our manager) on drums- they were awesome!

3 hours later- we were home in bed.

TUESDAY
We picked up some more Other Animals, a drummer and a guitarist and went on our way to Brightonia, well just Brighton actually -I’m just trying to keep this blog interesting!!
ANYWAAAAY… where was I? Oh yes the gig was quiet, but it was freezing that night so I don’t blame people for not wanting to leave their houses, I stayed under the duvet in the van for a long was possible when we got there!
It was fun though- the small but perfectly formed audience were the most in-tune of any of the sing-a-longers and the Other Animals were fantabidozey tonight, they always are!
There was one particular audience member that I was especially pleased to see there- Tim O’ Sullivan, the amazing photographer and a little birdy tells me there might be collaborations to see in the near future, which I am really excited about as I am huge fan of his work.

WEDNESDAY
The tour continued without me yesterday- Lana and Simon did an amazing gig in Balham at the Bedford but I went to see my Idol at a rare London gig instead…. it was none other than ANI DIFRANCO she was AMAZE-ING. Seriously impressive. I’ve seen her before with just double bass and her on all 20 of her guitars. But last night she had a band- drums, double bass and a fantastic guy on Vibes, Glockenspiel, Tabla and other percussion. WOW! She is spot on- lyrics, melodies, voice, guitar skills that blow me away it was soooooo inspirational …

If you don’t know her already- give it a listen, let her in because she’ll stay around and help you out when you need it - she will also shock you, in a nice way.

TODAY = THURSDAY
Well I’m still in my PJs and I am writing a blog, playing Ani’s new CD!
Tonight will be spectacularrrrr - because eARMUSIC nights @ Monkey Chews always are!

be happy and stay warm!
Later alligator
xoxoxo gabble07 xoxoxo

PS. In my last blog longer = younger! I like the typo though so I decided to leave it that way…

Off on tour and other news…

Happy Sunday!
In a few hours I hop into the band waggon (Bertha the van) for the first installment of the ‘Bear With Me’ tour. Along with the Monumental Music Club Team, Lana and Simon Lynge (who arrives from Seattle tomorrow morning).

We are starting with a radio session on BBC Radio Wiltshire at 11am tomorrow morning, where both myself and Lana will do a song each and have a chat with the presenter. I will be joined by a couple of ‘Other Animals’ too so it should be a merry ole time!

Then we’ll have a few hours to have a mosey round Wiltshire and Bath before our show at The Porter Cellar Bar tomorrow night.

I love Bath, in fact I went to school there when I was longer, so I’m looking forward to actually have some time there- it seems that most gigs we do these days we only see the town in the dark and never get ‘exploring time’!

What else…
OH yes… how could I forget… BIG news. HUGE!
We have been invited to play at SXSW next year- wooh!
We are so ridiculously excited by this news and will be telling you more about it soon.

AND…
We have pictures to share- all by the amazingly talented Joseph Lee of us in (and around) Brick Lane and down in Richmond on Thames. (Click on ‘pictures’ to see them!)

AND…
Reviews of the new EP- Bear With Me, out on 17th November here…

That is all for now…
I will write more from tour, I promise!
lots of love and love and love and stuff
xoxoxoox gabbles xoxoxoxox