Kats in London

Blimey, what a fantastic gig for Kal's Kats at The Royston Ballroom, London.

I met up with Pat Da Kat last year and after a chat we agreed that Kal's Kats would come down and run his christmas dance for him for his Hollywood Boogie event. Of course it is a bit of a trek to say the least heading down from Derbyshire to Croydon. We got to the ballroom around 5pm and started to set up our band gear and after our sound check, went up stairs to our green room for a jolly good cup o tea and a relax.

we were due to start playing at 8.15pm and at 7.30 we were panic stricken with literally no one there at all and so we thought - well, we've blown this, clearly everyone has so much more to do that come and see this band called Kal's Kats - oh well, we'd do our stuff anyway since we were there and all set up.

The venue itself Penge and District social club aka Hollywood Boogie is a tired looking building which i think the council are keen to obtain with a view to knocking it down and putting houses or a block of flats in its place, which is such a shame really since these buildings are literally gorgeous inside with so much character and of course once they're flattened, they're flattened and never the likes to be seen again (similar events about to happen in Derby with the gorgeous old Hippodrome which is again, a wonderful building and almost certainly due to be pulled down which i think is such a crime - but of course it is inevitable since it is easier to put up a cheap block than spend the money to put a building back to its former glory - hey ho)

so we decided to delay the start until 8.30 just in case. But lo and behold and in line with what Pat Da Kat and his sidekick Fire said, they all started to roll in around 8pm. and by 8.30 it was like a scene from Brigadoon where the place was rammed and buzzing.

We kicked off with our medley that starts with Sing Sing Sing and then Laura Brookes kicks in with That Man following my rendition of Barry Manilow's Dancing' Fool.

Well that dance floor stayed full and swinging the whole night long. The atmosphere was just outstanding and such a fantastic level of dancing - truly superb!!

As we rounded up towards the end of the evening, we got Fire to come and join us on stage and my oh my the whole place just went mental. What a great laugh - he was chanting and whooping up the audience.

Then of course, all good things must come to an end and after playing two x encores, it was time for us to wrap our equipment away in preparation for the hoof back oop north and eventually hitting our nappers around 4am - but my word it was worth it and i'm sure we'd all do this again in a heart beat. a truly superb gig to be closing up the year with with.

The comments from the folks, of course a great many of them who had never seen us before were literally outstanding asking Pat da Kat to 'please please book Kal's Kats again'

These kind of comments and the adulation shown on the night are priceless and make it so worthwhile. of course a long 3.5 hour journey back could have everyone asleep at the wheel, but what with the buzz of this gig along with that kind of feedback meant that we were all pin sharp behind the wheel.

And so just two gigs left to play for 2017 with our annual anniversary gig at Kirk Hallam Social club which is sold out and then our New years eve Great Gatsby Ball at The Cosy Club in Leicester which will be fantastic. What a great year it has been with some truly remarkable steps in our journey thus far - long may it continue !!