We are delighted to announce that TheSixtySix will be appearing at Bradninch Music Festival on Saturday 10th June! The band will play a 40 min set at the legendary Castle Hotel from 2pm. We’ll be back up to full strength with Stevie on keys and cramming in as many of our favourite tunes as possible! The Festival runs from the 9th through to 11th June and you can check out the full listings at bradninchmusicfestival.co.uk. There will be a host of great musicians and bands performing over the weekend and we look forward to seeing you there!
Live recordings @ First & Last Inn
We had a great gig at the First & Last Inn last Sunday – thanks to everyone who came down and made it such a fantastic night! Although we missed Stevie on keys, it was really good to be out playing and showcasing a load of new tunes. It was also the first public performance of Rosie on saxophone – something you’ll definitely be hearing a lot more of in future. The audience was really attentive and the whole place was up and dancing by the end of our second set! 🙂 We captured some nice videos (see below) and audio (available on our Listen page) from the gig for you to check out.
March rehearsals
TheSixtySix have been putting in the hours rehearsing in the build-up to this weekend’s gig at the First & Last Inn in Exmouth. Here’s some video footage of Doug, Rosie and Matt running through the Freddie King classic “I’m Tore Down” earlier this week..
Next gig: Sunday 2nd April in Exmouth
We’re very pleased to announce that TheSixtySix will be appearing at the First & Last Inn in Exmouth on Sunday 2nd April. This is the first full-band gig of 2017 and will feature a whole bunch of new songs that we’re very excited to share with you (watch out for Rosie on saxophone too!). It’s FREE ENTRY with the band playing from 6:30pm – 8:30pm. We look forward to seeing you there!
Surprise gig at The Bicton Inn
Rosie, Niall and Matt made a surprise appearance as 3 / 5ths of TheSixtySix last Saturday at The Bicton Inn in Exmouth. The trio joined the multi-talented (and good friend of the band) Pete Falloon who is currently gigging throughout the South West in support of his excellent debut album Reed In The River. It was a great night of music with a wonderfully attentive and enthusiastic audience – we’re looking forward to arranging another gig for TheSixtySix there soon. Here’s the semi-acoustic version they played of “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones, which remains a firm band favourite!
Pete Falloon album launch
In November our good friend Pete Falloon released his debut album Reed In The River. It’s a fantastic collection of heartfelt songs that has earned plaudits from all quarters, including BBC Introducing and BBC 6 Music, with several plays on the Chris Hawkins show! Matt from TheSixtySix is a long-time collaborator of Pete’s and the pair have been busy with a whole raft of gigs, recording sessions and live radio broadcasts in support of the album release and local charitable causes.
Particular highlights were: the live session for BBC Introducing recorded at their Plymouth studios; playing on the main stage at Exeter Phoenix; and the recent studio recording for the Greenlight Unplugged CD in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
A broken Dougie.. :(
Things were a bit quiet for the TheSixtySix in the latter part of 2016 – here’s one of the reasons why!
In mid-September Dougie was knocked off his bike cycling past a parked car – who “doored” him as he passed! Amazingly, his bike was almost unharmed, but unfortunately Dougie ended up with a severe fracture to his collar bone. It was a serious injury and generated the pretty spectacular X-ray photographs you can see above. After a few painful and frustrating months (with little or no guitar playing) we are pleased to say that Dougie is now almost as-good-as-new. Be careful out there kids!!
Rotating cameras
TheSixtySix were in the rehearsal studio on 3rd August recording some videos. We made use of a cheap turntable (as sometimes used in shop window displays) to mount a camera and capture close-up action of each band member throughout the performances.
This was all a bit of an experiment, and we had a few technical hiccups – like the camera “going to sleep” on us! – but we’re pretty pleased with the results overall. We managed to capture some nice takes of two of the newer songs in the set: “Trouble” by Taylor Swift and “Foolish Woman Blues” by Janis Joplin (see videos below).
Video capture from Canon G1X. Audio capture with Zoom R16. Microphones: drums – sE Electronics 2200a II; vocals – Shure SM58; Guitar – SM57; Bass – SM57; Keys – direct input. We used iMovie and GarageBand for the video and audio editing.
Charity gig success!
TheSixtySix played a rockin’ set at the Tris Tri Challenge charity gig, following great performances from the Rosie Eade Band and Palmer&Falloon. Thanks to everyone who came down to show their support for Tristan (and his friends!), who completed the triathlon challenge earlier in the day. The sunshine was out and the venue was packed – a great time had by all, and over £2,500 raised in total for Honeylands Children’s Charity!! Thanks to Clive and all at the Turf Locks for hosting us.
Photo credits: Craig Maclachlan, Pete Falloon and Stephen Matthews.