Boogaloo Boogie Bournemouth

So Bournemouth Boogaloo jump jive and Boogie weekender. A brilliant event this is arranged by Monica Madgwick where all the jump jive fans head to a hotel on the south coast t learn to dance and to then dance their socks off. This time, having played 3 times previously for these weekenders, we were at the lovely Carrington House Hotel in Bournemouth.

The started at early o clock to get across to Mansfield to pic up a 17 seater minibus and drive to our rehearsal HQ - Kirk Hallam Social club near Ilkeston where all the gang will be amassing at 11.45 ready to load up and head on out.

with everything crammed in and 9 musicians on board, we started to steady journey out onto the M1 -I say steady because this thing is limited to just 65 miles per hour, however, slow and steady means everyone gets a comfortable journey

We arrived around 3.30pm and stopped at our hotel to drop off our bags etc and then headed on to the venue which was about 15 mins away.

Sound check first at 4.30 and a lovely HK audio rig all set up in place to make a huge powerful sound. This always gets the guys buzzing since you know the sound will be well sorted and no need from any hassle within the band setting up equipment etc.

Then off for dinner and a chill before our set which is 90 mins and will play straight through.

8.30 saw the cadillac kings kicking off the evening with some great rock n roll and Zydeco style music which is great foot stomping stuff. Then a quick turnaround as we took to the stage and opened with a little medley starting with Sing Sing Sing going into That Man sung by the lovely Mamma Jules and then onto Dancin' Fool sung by yours truly.

What's good about these events is that they folks are there for one reason only - and that is to dance their socks off and boy o boy did they do that, they were on that dance floor and looking knackered and soaked already from the earlier set, but they didn't stop once and powered on through the evening.

Problem with these events is that when playing a straight through 90 mins set means that it seems to be over before it's even started and as soon as we seemed to have played just a few numbers, we were playing our last number followed by a nice encore from Pat da Kat to bring us back for another stormer of sing sing sing.

Our Bass player Ben was a busy boy, he had attended his girlfriends mothers birthday party, then set off from Derby at 5pm, drove all the way down to meet with us and play and then turned around and set back off up north with Rob our sax player in tow.

Once again, a fantastic night of music and dance and a privilege for us to play for the Jump jive and boogie weekender.