QUEL REGAL, OXFORD !!

Hello there !
How are you ?
I live life in "Blue Beat" now. My wife and I went to Oxford to see three bands with Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra headlining.
And a lot of emotion we receive !


At the beginning, of course the pub : arrived at 4pm at the "City Arms" just opposite the Regal, the venue. Sir Jonathan Young the First waited for us,he was in the venue ; he let us in and then we saw a classy old place, reminding us a bit of "Art Deco" style....

 And then on stage, Lee was doing the soundcheck, cool, isn't it ? First surprise of the day, and what a surprise !  Thanks Jon !
Lee left , so we did. Back to the opposite, the pub. At first sight, it seems it was a good reunion of the 30 th anniversary Tribute LP members !! Nice : one of the Inflatables (One Better day), Dan Fossard from M.O.T (Sign of the Times) who speaks French very well, Owen, Looby, Jon (the Intro MCs) and us, half-Indeed ! 

To me, it was a second nice emotion during the afternoon ! A gig is never he same without friends ! 
Later came in the pub Steve turner from the Violin Monkeys, Louis Vause (piano from The Nutty Boys) and then Lee with his sax around his neck. 
We asked him for autographs (he did them very nicely) and we had a joke about "Blue Tit" , the nickname of Emilie (which doesn't exactly mean the same for boys and for girls, eh eh eh)

Then we saw Louis Vause who was drawing nicely, seated on a table and we spoke French with him.He remembered the time in Lille with the Nutty Boys in the nineties. He revealed us that last week, he played accordeon on a "download" version of Baggy Trousers, a slower one, a bit of waltz, he sang us a bit ! Classy man : here is his site : LOUIS VAUSE A video will be shot at the beginning of May.

After all these emotions, we needed to eat while Jonathan Young, always moving,kept losing his glass, finding a fake moustache......and giving flyers in the street too ! We talked  other fans, like Patrick, Sarah, Shannon and Mick Jenner and later with Karen.
Quickly, we met Jenny Mathias and some of her band , One Stop Experience. Full of energy and very friendly, she showed us all her talent on stage later.
Evening came and so did the gigs. At the first rank, to see everything fully,we had a very delightful moment with the first band, the Skanx. Very interesting, cool on stage, this London band played and sang very well. Ska and Funk ! Hope to see them and dance on their songs in France one day ! They have a 5 track EP out now : HERE





















Later came the One Stop Experience fronted by Jennie Matthias (ex Belle Stars)

Very energetic of course, the band gave themselves a lot on stage. The trumpet player was very impressive to me. And in fact, it was an all-star band too as there were two members of the ex Pama International, the keyboards player, the great writer of "Walking in the Sunshine" was in the Bad Manners, . Very powerful songs,with highlights like "This is ska". After appearing at the FACEBOOK event, Orange Street Allstars, Taja & Ruth were asked by Jennie to do backing vocals on 5 songs. And with them too, on stage, Hollie Cook, the daughter of Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols (who'll release a LP soon, click HERE)doing the backing vocals.(thanks Dermot for this)

And sudddenly if you turned your head a bit, you simply saw at the second rank Dave Wakeling from the Beat ,dancing !!!!! Were we in a dream ? 
He went on stage at the end for a cover of "the Skinhead Symphony", dancing and singing ! Classy !! 

Now is the turn of Lee Thompson and his all-star ska Orchestra ! Members went on stage as roadies to prepare and to install their instruments, especially Seamus Beaghen and Louis Vause who talked about their position on stage. 


On stage : 

Steve Roo Rooney : Drums

Mark Bedders  : Bass

Kevin  Burdett : Guitar


Louis Vause :Piano

Seamus Beaghen : Hammond Organ

Jack Mitchell : Trombone

Steve Turner : Bar. Sax

Steve White : Trumpet

Terry Edwards  : Alto Sax

Lee Thompson : Sax/Vocals

Darren Fordham :Backing vocals

An orchestra : 11 people, a football team! 
It was a very nice gig with the heavy heavy sound of brass and wood . And it was very old fashioned orchestra style, each member taking the solo during a song. 

And Lee never stopped doing funny things, it's so pleasant to see such talented people not taking themselves seriously! The intro was particulary classy : as the DJ put old ska music on the speakers, the drummer started playing alone and then the DJ stopped, the drummer continued and Lee was at the front. Hat, classy glasses, coat and very long gloves he threw in the public. Flour was spread on  his hat and his suit and during the gig, he put his hat shaking flour around him, giving the impression he was covered in dust.

The gig started with "Heatwave" from Tommy Mac Cook and finished with a Fats Domino track "Let the 4 Winds blow" and was a mix of instrumental and vocal  tracks. To me, the best track was "GraveDigger", with a good bassline at the beginning and the brass section playing totally alone at the end , very impressive performance! Bangarang was the easiest to remember. Eastern Standard was so powerfull ! Terrible for your haircut when you'e in front of trombone, trumpet and saxes !!
I particulary appreciated "Josephine" and the massive "Impossible Mission"

As Lee is  a Prince Buster specialist, he did "Sit and Wonder" and as on the other vocal tracks,he was very expressive when he sang. I love it !

Kevin and Bedders were very quiet, close to the drummer, Seamus was concentrated,  the brass and wood section did the show, three saxes,a trombone and a trumpet, it seemed Terry Edwards led the section.

Lee did some jokes with Louis about drinks and top of the top, just in front of us, close to the photographers, Dave Wakeling brought a pint of beer to Lee . Good atmosphere, isn't it ? I never thought I could live this. Just like an ambiance between very young bands.
No Madness track was allowed and when the sax did the "Boat" intro of Night Boat as a provocation , he was expelled by Lee and the others with a whistle...

There was one encore and it was dedicated for us, Emily and I, "the frog " he had met at the pub. Thanks Lee !!!!!!!!!! Cause we were the loudest to clap for the encore "Let the 4 Winds Blow",  stronger than the enthusiastic one on my right who put beer on my tee-shirt, the son, Daley Thompson !!! 


"Impossible Mission" and "Let the 4 Winds Blow" 
(Listen and watch : 4.02 min, thanks Looby for it !)

At the end,we simply asked for the setlist, another trophy for the French M.I.S. We left around 2.00 am after a great evening!...


The next morning, we met our friends again at The City Arms for lunch, our table looked a bit like "Zombie land" but it was at beautiful day and we were in such good company!

Three days later, we're entering the tourist office of Brighton and saw a poster of the gig of the 14th in the town of Chris and two flyers ! Nice trip !

Stay tuned : on Friday, Lee will be on radio, BBC 6 online !

All the best

Judge Fredd