New Members

Our 2010 show kicked off with a new band line up at Gosports' White Hart.













Welcome to the band.

On Keys Dave Oakley. Dave is a familiar face on the soul scene having played in the ‘The Hideaways’ ‘The Beatmakers’ and more recently ‘Bang Bang Lulu’. With his enthusiasm and love of, Northern Soul, Hammond Organ & Modernism. Dave and BbS were destined to get together at some point.




A sudden personnel change in February meant Alan and Dave had to learn the two and a half hour show in a matter of weeks!





Welcome to the band.

Bass Guitarist Alan Woods comes in to help hold down the BbS groove. Alan’s previous work included ‘The Jeff Hooper Band’ and ‘Different Trains’ Alan is a recent convert to the Sounds Of Motown & Stax, and is a born again ‘Soulie’











New numbers to the set.
"Dancing in the Street" - Martha & the Vandellas
"Nowhere to Run" - Martha & the Vandellas
"Shotgun" - Jr Walker & the All Stars
"Tic Tac Toe" (Instrumental) Booker T & the MG's.




The drum shot.



The Line-up;
Alan, Dave, Lawrence, Nev, Del, Phil, Jolene, Guest Appearance Steph, Me...

December

Big brother Soul
Sixties Soul Revivalists

'Tis the season to be jolly'. We’ve just completed five Christmas shows and about to end 2009 with a New Years Eve party.

Pictured, Ray Drury on keyboards during a sound-check, me with antlers at the Boarhunt Blues Club.

Halloween Spooktacular

Our Halloween show at the White Hart was an amazing success with easily more than half the 350 capacity audience in costume.

Pictured, our own Jolene on the left (in her normal day wear), and White Hart landlady Karla as Batman femme fatale Poison Ivy.

Festival Fever

Big brother Soul
Sixties Soul Revivalists

August 30th and I’m packing the drums into the car and heading off to Walpole Park for the Gosport festival. In the past BbS headlined this event many times, becoming the opening day favourites. Long standing members in the band have some amazing memories from those days, so to be back again is a good omen and another of the many highlights of 2009.

No sound check today it’s a rolling show with only 20 minutes between acts. We all get changed, and when called on we quickly position our gear on stage. I double check my three most important things, set list, bottle water, towel.
We pose for a group photo and then we’re on stage. I count in the first number and we’re off! Two numbers later I happen to look out into the crowd, wow! I hadn’t noticed that lot when setting up the gear, it’s good to see so many people enjoying what we do and how we do it. Towards the end of the show I notice a group off male and female Police officers dancing!!! The last number ends and we’ve done it! Another great performance from the entire band.

It was very good of the organizers to invite us back, I have my fingers crossed that we’ll be asked again in the not to distant future.

Line-up: Phil, Jolene, Feleena, Lawrence, Sean, Graeme, Nev, Del, John and Me.

Flyers

Flyers for some upcoming shows.

“BbS! Performing at an indie rock night? Are you mad?”

Big brother Soul
Sixties Soul Revivalists

We were a bit surprised, but very happy to be asked by the organizers of the Stokes Bay Festival to open for The Zutons. Now we are very aware that the groove of soul music can appeal to many different crowds, but even we thought this might be pushing it…

The event took place in a huge big top, always an impressive sight and very handy seeing as it was pouring down on and off all day.
Our sound-check went without a hitch, always a good sign. A few hours later our playing time came around, we were introduced, and I counted in the first number, we were away! The audience cheered and clapped in all the right places, we were going down well. 40 minutes later we finished our support slot. A lot of good comments filtered back to the band on the night and the organizers were pleased. This was only our 8th performance since we reformed, and it was good to see us back on a big stage. Our show thrives in this environment and the singers always rise to the challenge, I was proud of us all.

I stuck around long enough to hear ‘Valerie’ then drove home.

Thanks to all the organizers, PA and stage crew.
Big thanks to the nice lady that organized our food and drink.

The First Day Of Summer

Big brother Soul
Sixties Soul Revivalists

Sunday May 31st arrived with blazing sun. To be honest, Phil and I had been looking to the rain filled sky the week before this show praying for a nice day. At that point we both would have been happy with a dry day…

Well someone heard our prayers because we had the best day anyone playing the Bandstand in Southsea could ask for. We opened for The Who tribute act Who’s Who. We gave the huge crowd (3,000 +) an hour and a half of what we do best, Sweet Soul Music. My good friend Russell was on hand with his camera.

Line-up: Phil, Jolene, Feleena, Lawrence, Sean, Graeme, Nev, Steve, Wayne, Del, John, and Me

Thanks to
Gary and the guys from Who’s Who.
Heather Todd at Portsmouth City Council.
Adam and Crew - Technical Services PA.

First Show of 2009

Big brother Soul
Sixties Soul Revivalists

The White Hart in Gosport has given the band seven dates in 2009, this has given us the chance to tell our loyal following, we’re back!
After four rehearsals, our first gig in almost four and a half years came round quick, and the first sold out White Hart show (April 11th) ended with a fantastic and overwhelming response. The line-up was: Lawrence, Sean, Graeme, Nev, John, Del, Steve, Mike, Phil, Feleena, Jolene and Me.

I can’t wait until the next show.

A Call To Arms

Big brother Soul, early '90s








Big brother Soul
Sixties Soul Revivalists

The band was gigging long before blogging so I’ll bring you up to speed real quick. Big brother Soul formed in 1991, lots and lots of shows later in 2004 we took a little four and a half year break. A simple invite to support The Who tribute band, ‘Who’s Who’ in 2009 plus a text message was all it took to get us back together…

It’s going to be a lot of hard work and fun getting back to where we once stood; and then climbing on up the entertainment ladder.