Review Centre: Vintage Bands

"Amy has a beautiful voice and was absolutely our pleasure to have her sing at our party. "

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"Rachel, we both cant thank you enough for the beautiful songs that you kindly performed in front of all my family and special guests on my wedding day. Everybody loved you. "

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"REVIEW OF OUR LATEST CD ALBUM IN JAZZ JOURNAL Kit Packham’s One Jump Ahead: Everybody Loves A Boogie The entertaining British jump-jive revival band ploughs the familiar furrow, offering cheeky covers and originals with occasional solos By Hugh Rainey -13 October 2023437 Formed in 1984, this UK group plays jump-jive in a bright and breezy, entertaining style, blended with R&B and vintage rock and roll, and seasoned with light-hearted humour. Leader Kit Packham sings confidently in appropriate style on every track bar one, and contributes alto and tenor to the backing throughout. Packham also composed and wrote the lyrics for eight of the tracks and alternative lyrics for some cheeky adaptations of standards – My Swingin’ Valentine (an upbeat treatment of My Funny Valentine, which surprisingly works quite well) and the very funny Basingstoke (to the melody of Baby Face) and Buy A CD (with appropriate uninhibited bathos to My Way). On the whole, the originals work well for the genre. Love Me, Love My Saxophone and I Dig Potatoes have amusing lyrics somewhat reminiscent of Louis Jordan and Slim Gaillard in style. Enjoyable versions of Don’t Get Around Much Any More, Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby and My Swingin’ Valentine, come closest to straightforward jazz treatment with some worthwhile brief solos and touches of arrangement. The tracks come from sessions in 2009, 2017 and 2023, mainly as six or seven piece lineups it seems, but with changing personnels. Though studio recorded, the CD comes across as cheery live entertainment – for dancers, rather than perhaps for close, serious listening. But it’s certainly good fun, with some inventive fresh material, and a sense of humour to give a welcome lift to your spirits in these troubled times. Discography Everybody Loves A Boogie; Don’t Clap On The First Beat Of The Bar; Old Rock “n” Roll Songs Never Die; Don’t Get Around Much Any More; Love Me, Love My Saxophone; Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby; Route 66; Alley Club Blues; As Time Goes By; Alright, OK, You Win; Lockdown Chase; My Swingin’ Valentine; I Dig Potatoes; Basingstoke; Buy A CD; We Had A Real Good Time/We’ll Meet Again (53.52) Collectively: Kit Packham (v, ts, as, bar, cl); Nick Tomalin, Perry White (p); John O’Reilly (g); Steve Knight (g, ts, bj); Alex Keen, Ollie Blanchflower (b); Derek Gayle, Kenrick Rowe (d); Simon Da Silva (t); Tracey Mendham (ts, cl). UK, 2009, 2017, 2023 (No further details.) Pelican records PEL CD 523 "

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"Had the wonderful Elouise Gatsby sing at Joy’s birthday and our anniversary. What an amazing singer. I personally love old school classics and she blew me and all our guests away. Amazing highly recommended. "

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"Swing gitan were amazing and would definitely recommend them! Very talented and nice chaps to boot. We got lots of compliments from our guests about how good they were. Thanks guys!!!!"

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"Just want to thankyou ! You was absolutely fantastic and will definitely be recommending you !! Thanks again"

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"These guys played a fab set at my parents recent 50th wedding celebrations. Everyone dancing and singing along. Would definitely recommend "

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"Thanks again for last night. Everyone loved it! You were all fab!"

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"Thank you so much to the Kings of Hot Swing. They were absolutely brilliant and really set the mood for the evening. I've had so much lovely feedback, particularly on the first dance, which was fantastic. Thanks again! "

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"Unwritten Duo performed at our wedding last weekend, which we struck lucky with as we originally had booked another band but got let down with two weeks to go. We came across Joanne at a wedding fair and when she started singing we knew straight away that Unwritten Duo would be perfect for our wedding. We booked them straight away. The choice of music was perfect for us as well, we gave them a few artists that we liked and everything in between was just us. We had a lot of our guests comment on the band and Joanne's voice. We will definitely be going to see them at their future gigs to keep memories alive. Highly recommend booking them!"

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"Brilliant evening on Monday watching Hetty and her band. Everyone, of all ages seemed to be having fun. Wilton's is an intimate venue perfectly suited to the bands music. I would definitely go to see them again."

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"They are a great band! Very nice people and great performers"

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"Thank you girls for making my birthday so special, everyone thought you were amazing."

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"Thank you so much you were fabulous!! got loads of compliments!"

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"Hi Jess Thanks so much for yesterday everyone thought you were brilliant and it was perfect for Dad's birthday. "

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