Billingham Synthonia.

Evening Strumpets,

Well it`s been quite a crazy week. The Charmers were lucky enough to be asked to play the inaugral "Branded" show for BCT events in Billingham. BCT is a community company who look to support all things recreational.Profits going directly back into Billingham and the Surrounding Area. I have to admit i didn`t have a clue what to expect, so i was incredibly impressed when I turned up and found a proper elevated professional stage.

We were greeted by Michael and Paul, who are a couple of fellas who i`ve worked with on a couple of other occasions. These chaps are two of the nicest and hardest working people you could ever wish to meet. They really do love their music and their community. Bob the sound guy just told us to get on the stage and play what we were going to be doing, and he`d do the rest. Which he did with a professionalism I`ve not yet encountered. This was by a mile the best sound The Charmers have ever had. The monitors were absolutely perfect which meant that we could hear what we were doing. Fantastic.

We started of as usual with Andy`s "Apple Scrumpy" which always gets the night off to a good start. We were doing a couple of new songs, well new for our set anyway. Big River by Johnny Cash, and John Henry by just about everybody else. They both had Andy singing lead. He`d admitted being nervous prior to doing it, as it was the first time he`d sang solo in front of a crowd. He absolutely nailed it. Just brilliant.

We finished the set and witnessed a Charmers first. An encore!!!!!!! Unfortunately, we didn`t have an encore ready, so we did Cripple Creek again. There was much hilarity and mickeytaking of yours truly, prior to the gig as we`d been billed as "The Alice Charmers...Featuring Mark Davies". Nothing to do with me, but try telling them that. If it was up to me we`d be called "Mark Davies`s Alice Charmers"! Honestly though, that night was the best we have played, and we enjoyed it so much it reminds you of why you want to get up in the first place and basically be ripe for being shot down. We`re a good group of mates, who have been given this chance to experience playing, mostly, our songs for lovely people. It doesn`t get much better than that. Till the next one, learn something new, Mark.