March April 2005

Mamayo played our 1st gig in London which was at The Jazz Cafe back in March. We got some great feedback about some of the new songs written for the next album and we'll be adding more to each gig as they're ready. The other gig we had booked was cancelled due to 2/3rds of the band going down with some kind of nasty flu which was knocking around. We were very disappointed not to play the gig, but we have 3 more gigs lined up, details of which will be updated.
We have bad news and great news about the band. Scott has been booked to play for Morecheeba again who are getting ready to promote their new album, so he won’t be available for the next few gigs, but the great news is that Pascal Danae is joining the band! He is perfect for the band in every way. We’ll still be a power funk trio, but when Scott is available we’ll be doing the gigs with 2 very loud and wickedly funky guitars.

At last we can announce the release of The Liegeman tracks and a Shaun Escoffery track "LONG WAY HOME". You can audition them at the shop or relevant band page. We're also offering an opportunity for interested parties to order a Dime a Dozen showreel for free! Just send an email to showreel@groove4dayz.com listing relevant company details and contact information.

Mamayo has had some more great reviews in the last 2 months check out the reviews page for quotes and our groove4dayz fans are now coming from all over the world. Thanks to you all for the emails, comments and purchases.
We have set up a Mamayo site www.mamayo.co.uk where we have a weblog and we will put up MamaYo news in greater detail as time goes on. Check it out and leave your words.

Miles and I saw a fantastic gig at Ronnie Scott’s in April. The Laurence Cottle big band with Claire Martin was a fantastic gig. Laurence wrote some very impressive arrangements of original compositions and familiar tunes, played bass like the monster he is and threw in a few Tower of Power tracks for the hell of it. With a 16 piece horn section, Graham Harvey on keys, Ian Thomas on Drums and Claire upfront it was an amazing night of skilfully played and exciting music. Why these boys aren’t known on the level of the American big names is a mystery, same old British music industry disinterest…. If you see them listed, you must go!!

Sessions have kept coming, but one I did was pretty amazing. BB King has been recording his 2nd Duets album which Ian Thomas and I got booked for. Recording at Olympic studios, we got to play with Van Morrison, Roger Daltry and Eric Clapton.

Well here we are Spring at last! Election fever was on our screens and for those who chose to vote and actually found a politician worth supporting, here’s a quote I read recently. “The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to law and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist” ...Winston Churchill

We’ve all been awaiting some sunshine I think and so here comes the season of out- door gigs and festivals. See you there…