SEPTEMBER 2009

Hey there, time for a quick update! Well it's been a busy year so far, especially with the arrival of two new SSR fans, bassman Dave and his wife Shell had a little boy Alexander Michael back in May followed very recently by Carl and his wife Liz having a bouncing baby girl Anya Sarah in August, huge congratulations to those guys from everyone in the SSR family.

Obviously due to family commitments this year the band haven't been able to do a long stretch UK tour but has afforded us the time to write and demo a raft of new songs for our forth coming album. Recording will start at the end of the year through to the beginning of next year with a release somewhere around spring/summer 2010. This will be followed by a more extensive UK tour around summer/autumn. All the plans are in place so it's time to knuckle down and get on, it's a very exciting time for us as the new material is really shaping up nicely! For the rest of this year we will be playing more local gigs around the north with a small tour of venues down south at the end of October. A couple of dates are already confirmed and on the gig list with a few more penciled in, on confirmation full details will be posted.

Don't forget to check out our myspace and facebook pages for tracks and videos from the last UK tour. Take it easy and we look forward to seeing you guys out there!!

JANUARY 2009

Hello and a Happy New Year to you all, hope you have a great one! Firstly an apology for the serious lack of diary updates last year, just where the time went I have no idea? Last year went pretty damn well all in all, some superb gigs throughout the year, highlights being opening for our ol’ mate Joe Bonamassa at The Liverpool Academy and of course the tour dates which we finished the year off with opening for Fish. A big thanks to all our new friends we met on the road and everyone that took home one of our albums, we hope you enjoyed and will be back for more this year!

And so on with this year. To start we have some very good news and some not so great news... The good news is SSR are about to aquire two very special new fans! Bass player David and his wife Michelle are expecting a baby in May and hot on their heels is Carl and his wife Liz expecting a baby in August!!! (I think it was something in the beer they were drinking on the last tour?) Due to the timings (this is the bad news) we’ve decided to put off the recording of the new album until October for release the beginning of 2010... although that seems like a long time away i’m sure it’ll arrive sooner than you think. We figured it would all be too much to take on with gigs/tours... babies etc as well as being able to promote it as fully as we would like. We want the follow up to Terra Mama to be the best possible album we can make, we think its worth taking the time to do it right rather than rushing it and trying to fit concentrated studio time inbetween everything. The upshot is we’re now continuously writing new songs so by the time of recording we should have some really amazing material to go at!

Gig wise we’re still going to be out performing as usual with UK tour dates to be announced shortly. Some local dates are already on the gig listings with many more to be added throughout the year. You can now find us on facebook as well as myspace so join up there for even more info on the band, footage of the last tour and all other odds and ends, you can also contact us and message direct for up to the minute info.

All thats left to say for the moment is thanks for your support and lets make this the best year ever, we hope to see you out there!

JANUARY 2009 pt2

It appears that the government wish to consider, (for consider read "implement"), a legal requirement in the new tax year to introduce laws insisting anyone applying or re-applying for an entertainment license must have a noise control device fitted to the venue. This will be RUBBISH as the level at which these devices cut the sound is dreadfully low and simply no fun. In November the proposed level mentioned was 70db. About the same as a hair dryer.

Someone has organised a petition on the Government Petition Site. We urge you to sign it. Not only will this law affect musicians but the whole musical instrument industry, fans, venues.

PLEASE DON'T DISMISS THIS. Spread the word and get everyone you know who loves live music to sign the petition. Bands, family, pets, venues, fans just get everyone you know to sign it. No one is saying it will make a difference, but if you don't try, you don't know.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/NoNoiseControl/

MAY 2008

Well hello out there, it has been a while sorry for the delay, got quite a shock when I looked and saw the last update was December! Quite where the last few months have gone I have no idea... well actually I do, we’ve been locked away in our rehearsal room writing, grafting and hammering out a raft of new songs. Pleased to report things are shaping up very nicely indeed!

We’ve not been heavily gigging so far this year except for a short stint playing the re-rescheduled gigs with Fish which went really well, so much so we’ve scored another tour later on this year around November time! It was great hooking up with Fish, his band and crew, everyone was on top form and having the last blow out at what had been a very long tour. As some of you may know these gigs had been rescheduled after Frank Usher, Fish’s long time guitar player, suffered a heart attack in the December, pleased to say he made a full recovery and by the time we hooked up with them in March he was on top form, an amazing guitar player and all round stand up guy! Can’t wait till Novemeber to get back on the road with the guys and also to hook up with some of our new fans that had bought our albums, the crowds and support was great, many thanks to all the people we got chance to meet and chat with!

Also as a pre cursor to the Fish tour we played at the 20th Annual Burnley International Blues Festival. It was a really good gig if not for the stage being some what on the small side... We found it a little tight being a three piece but had been assured they’d had a twelve piece band with full horn section on the previous year, I can only imagine where the trumbone player managed to fit his instrument... ahem?! As it turned out we managed just fine and played a great gig to a very appreciative crowd, thanks to the organisers for inviting us along, hopefully we’ll be back onboard next year.

Other things on the horizon see us opening for Joe Bonamassa at a one off gig he’s playing at the Liverpool Academy in July. The band went along to see him in Manchester a few weeks back and have a catch up with everyone from the previous tour we’d supported on, so while we were there we arranged with Joe to open for him again. He’s over in the UK for a one off festival date and added Liverpool to make it a little more worth while. Should be one of the highlight gigs of the year!

We open The 5 Daze in May festival at our favourite local venue The Moon and Sixpence on May 14th. It should be a great festival going by last years event, featuring some of the best bands from in and around Manchester as well as further afield. Details of the festival and line up can be found on our myspace site with links through to The Moon and Sixpences website. It really will be a very dazed 5 days!

All gig details can be found on the gig guide, if you need more info about anything to do with band just drop us an email and we’ll get back to you. As it stands now more touring gigs will be added throughout the year and we’ll be pulling all the new material together and start recording in a few months for a new album later this year. As always thanks for your continued support and we’ll see you out there!

DECEMBER 2007

Big changes here at the SSR camp, we have have a new bass player!!! Dave Cadddick has just been brought in to replace Matt Henson. We decided that after the tour it wasn’t really working with Matt, after discussions we decided to go our seperate ways. We parted on good terms and wish Matt all the best for the future!

As some of you may know Dave played a number of session gigs with us last year, his wife Michelle sang on Terra Mama so as we already new each other and he was familier with the material he made the perfect candidate to take over bass duties full time. Dave has been rehearsing with us for the last few weeks and its going really well. We’ve already started on a raft of new songs that will be aired in the new year as we work towards recording a new album for the summer.

The remaining rescheduled gigs opening for Fish at the end of December will be performed by the new line-up... we liked the idea of throwing Dave in at the deep end haha! You can see us opening in Nottingham on the 20th, Holmfirth on the 21st and finishing in Crewe on the 22nd of December. More info can be found on our gig list and links through to Fish’s official website www.the-company.com.

So all thats left to say is have a great Christmas and New Year as always thanks for your support and we'll see you out there with a new line-up and a set of new material in 2008!

OCTOBER 2007

Hey, well that’s that then... well nearly. The Tour opening for Fish is over, and it has to be said what a blast!! 15 gigs in 14 cities (we played Manchester twice?!). Very successful for all parties involved, we made a bunch of new friends and fans, sold a lot of albums and really spread the word about SSR. I’ll be writing a full tour diary ASAP giving you the full story... gotta try and remember half of it... felt like we were out for months not weeks!

As many off you probably know a few of the gigs early on in the tour had to be rescheduled due to Fish coming down with viral laryngitis in Manchester. We’d already played our set at the Academy when informed Fish couldn’t continue, the gig was rescheduled to the 1st of October, hence why we played it twice... quite good in the sense of it being our home town.

Other gigs have been rescheduled for the end of December, Nottingham 20th, Holmfirth 21st and a bonus end of tour blow out at The M Club in Crewe on the 22nd! Fish is currently doing the European leg of the tour hence the dates being rescheduled for December which will work out as a great way to finish the year off! Other gigs will see us playing Holmfirth Picturedome on the 24th Oct opening for Wishbone Ash. We then have a quiet run up to the remaining Fish gigs due to ensconcing ourselves in the studio to start writing new material which will hopefully develop into a new album for release next year!

Anyhow that’s it for now folks, keep an eye on the gig list for any more show updates as well as checking back for the full tour diary! Cheers guys, and as always thanks for the support!

JULY 2007

Well here we go, another tour has been lined up for September!!! 15 dates across the UK opening for Fish! We start in Aberdeen at The Lemon Tree on the 11th September and play right across the country finishing in Wolverhampton at the Robin 2 on the 30th. We play a number of the venues we played on the last tour opening for Joe Bonamassa, including Londons Shepherds Bush Empire, that’ll be the second time we’ve performed there this year... not bad eh! All the details of the venues and tour dates can be found on the gig list and links through to Fish’s website.

Another piece of news, as some of you may be aware, we have our new bass man, Mr Matt Henson! As mentioned previously our old cohort Lee has hung up his bass for a while to concentrate on fatherhood, as always our best wishes go to him and his family! Stepping into the breach Matt’s been very busy learning up the sets and we’ll soon be working on a raft of new material. His first gig with the band was at The Rescue Rooms last month when we opened for Wishbone Ash as well as a great night at Glossops own Moon and Sixpence the following week. The gigs were an excellent start with the new line-up and Matt fitting in seamlessly, so here’s to moving onwards and upwards over the upcoming months!

APRIL 2007

Now that the adrenaline of Thursdays gig at The Shepherds Bush Empire has subsided thought it was time to give you guys an update! The fun actually started the previous Saturday when we opened for Walter Trout at the Liverpool academy. It was lined up as a kinda warm up to open for Joe the following week, but has to be said was a great night. The Liverpool crowd were great, very supportive, very noisy! We briefly chatted with Walter and the band and they were a great bunch of guys, very complimentative which is always nice to hear. Thanks to all the in-house guys, engineers etc at the academy for doing a great job, very helpful and accommodating, and of course the great audience! Also to Steve Goudie at Stone Images for taking shots of the set, some great pictures that will be uploaded soon!

Moving onto Thursday, we set off for London Just after 10am, reaching the venue 3:30ish. We walked into the venue to hear Joe already sound checking and there everybody was loitering around the stage, all the crew from the tour. Dave and Aaron the techs, Donny on sound, Andreas their intrepid driver, Roy, Joe’s manager, Bogie and Mark, the band, and of course Mr Joe Bonamassa! We all said our hello’s after 5 minutes it was as if the tour hadn’t finished and we were back in the swing of things, great to see all the guys again, lotta fun. One thing has to be said about the Empire is it’s like a maze of corridors, doors and stair cases, very difficult to get your bearings, however the crates of beer supplied to us in the dressing managed to act like a homing device and we found our way around pretty quickly.

We got a good sound check in and everything was ready for the off. Before the doors opened we took a look outside to see people queuing around the block, the night was a sell out, 2000 people! We headed on stage 8:15 to a wall of people, the floor was a sea of faces and as you looked up three balconies faced you, rammed to the rafters quite literally. We laid down a solid set, massive adrenaline and I have to say I was very happy with our performance, I think we all were, we made the most out of a very special gig.

After the set we retired to the dressing room to reflect on what had just happened, everybody was buzzing and we all dispersed to catch Joe’s set from the side off the stage. As we mooched around we got alot of very positive feedback, people had really enjoyed the set and were also blown away by Joe, and Joe was really cooking that night, laid down a great set. After the show all our crew were invited to an after show party at No1 Piccadilly where Joe was doing an impromptu set with the house band. It was quite a posh exclusive club so all these long haired, half cut musicians pilling in turned a few heads, we just sidled into the reserved area and had a crack with Joe’s band and crew. Come 2:30am Joe and the band called it a night as they had a gig in Paris the following night, however Dave and Aaron were more than up for a few more beers and we drank till 4am, great end to the evening, cheers guys!

Photo’s taken on the night by ourselves and Neil Pilkington will be uploaded for you guys to take a look behind the scenes as well as on stage!

So next on the agenda is a gig back at one of our favourite venues The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham opening for Wishbone Ash on the 19th April. Following that we play a hometown gig at the Moon and Sixpence in Glossop on May 12th followed by a gig at The Manchester Academy opening for The Fabulous Thunderbirds on 17th July. All other dates are on the gig list. We also head into the studio mid April to start laying tracks down for a new recording that should be released early next year so keep an eye on the website for all the latest updates. Anyhow cheers, we’ll see you out there!

FEBRUARY 2007

Well here we go the first update of the year! Already it's looking to be a good one with some really great gigs lined up. Firstly we'll be opening for blues rock guitarist Walter Trout at the Liverpool Academy on Sat 24th March. This will be our first major gig in Liverpool and first time supporting Walter so we're really looking forward to it!

It will also serve as a good warm up before our next major gig, in fact probably the biggest gig we've done to date. We open for Joe Bonamassa at his only UK date on Thursday 29th March at Londons Shepherds Bush Empire. Tickets are selling very quickly and it's looking to be sold out with a capacity crowd of over 2000 people. After opening for Joe on his recent sold out UK tour we're really looking forward to hooking up with everybody again, and also performing for the crowds that saw us in London on the tour.

After London we move back up to Nottingham's Rescue Rooms on Thursday 19th April to support Wishbone Ash. We've opened for these guys on numerous occasions and it's always a good crowd, it will also be great to be back at the Rescue Rooms, one of our favourite venues. We played there with Joe on the tour as well as supporting Robin Trower at the venue in March last year.

At the moment we're compiling an album from all our previous EP's, I, II, III and Tangents. The newly remastered tracks will be on sale from us at gigs from March as well as from the website. It will be a retrospective of our earlier recordings leading up to our recent album 'Terra Mama.' We've also started writing and laying down tracks for a new album that will be put together over the course of the next 6 months or so, to be released later in the year.

On a different note we've found ourselves in the position of needing a new bass player! Our long standing bassist Lee Buckle has decided to hang up his bass to spend more time with his family, wife Vic and new baby Joe. Lee will be playing existing commitments until a replacement can be found so all the gigs will be going ahead as planned. We of course wish our good friend Lee and his family all the best for the future! So as it stands if you're an experienced bass player in the Manchester area or know someone who might be up for the job then get in contact.

We've been receiving loads of emails from people asking when we'll be back in their area playing again. After the tour and covering 16 cities across the Uk we made friends all over. As it stands we're in talks with the company behind Joe's last tour to line up another support slot on a UK tour later in the year. As soon as we have something confirmed we'll let you guys know and hopefully we'll be playing back in your town, if thats the case then come down to the show and say Hi!

Well all thats left is to say thanks for your continued support!