The BeeHive:


Inside The Beehive:

Our residence at The Queen Boadicea has ended.. the venue has been sold, but we are looking for a new place to call home! Somewhere cozy, where we can jam to our hearts content...

April, Tuesday 14th. 

A 'Proper' Jam Session

As part of the Proper Music Distribution Street Team, We have come across some amazing people, all with music in their hearts and mouths and fingers! So we hosted a night for the purpose of getting others involved!

Here's an e-mail I wrote to someone after the event...

Dear (Friend)....

....Oh my goodness, it was so much fun, Baby Sol really shone through to the audience, they hung on her every word and, with simple hand gestures she got us clapping along at the right moments, such a fun live musician, and her new guitarest played his own song too, which was a bonus. She’s running the london marathon and doing incredibly well musically, so we were lucky to have her play for us. Charlot Webster was increadible too! I personally love her music online ....and she didn’t disappoint live! Her voice is so effortlessly strong and emotional, and she has an electric ukulele! …I think, so far, she is the most commented on from all The Beehives’. So many people said “who was that girl with the ukulele, she was amazing”. …..and then, William Wolfe Hogan and his violin, wow! ...No wonder he’s throught o the next stage of Live and Unsigned! …so much energy, he had us singing harmonies and really schmoozed with the room, such a natural performer and musician, and an incredible thing to hear live!...

....Andy and Jon, from the Proper Music Distribution team started off the evening too!! They're usually in a band called TenFootNun, but they improvised for us, Andy, with a stool-turned-drum kit with a cymbal and a cow bell (he was bloomin' good!), and Jon singing (very well) and on acoustic guitar. They bought a big audience in from nowhere and were great fun to watch! …

We had our open mic slots filled by George, who was a lovely treat to hear, The Legendary Felix, part of the SquIP team who’s getting better and better at live performances, and an accapella song from Robert McCraken! ...

 

It was so lovely to have such a busy room, and everyone enjoyed themselves so much, it’s great to see new faces in the audience as well as the familiar ones, and I love how friendly and relaxed the Beehive is because of the appreciation of everyone for a good tune. 

 Can’t wait for the next one!

January 15th in The BeeHive

What a fantastic evening! Thank you for all those who came along, and most of all for your participation! ...

OddBlock! started us off with a very impressive set, especially considering the 10 days notice they had! They even wrote new songs especially! Ian Evans was lovely... a very talented guitarist and very willing to get involved with everything happening, that's what we like! Chris Potter came along, to represent the The Laughing Pines, using half the set for their songs... and the other half for a complete improvisation, including audience members...  a female vocalist, a melodica, a harmonica, a ukulele, an Arabian drum.. and someone even played the ukulele box! ...this lead brilliantly to Olly the Octopus who had everyone listening intently to his lyrics, chuckling and shouting profanities at the top of their voices! 


The night then ended with a Jam Session consisting of everyone left in the room... we can't wait for the next one!...

May, Tuesday 12th

What an amazing evening, such talented musicians, and all such lovely down to earth people. The Beehive played host to Idiot Savant: Such talent from such a down to earth person! We'll be keeping an eye on him, he's unique.. 'Choco Finger Loco' is a personal favourite of ours, and, my goodness, live at The Beehove, it was such a treat! His finger picking skills are close to magic! Jude Cowan: Witty lyrics (I could imagine Roald Dahl style illustrations for them!), tasty, catchy ukulele tunes that she easily provides as her fabulous voice, full of cheeky variations kept us all leaning in and listening with big grins! She has such amazing stage presance! Jamie Burnham: Oh my goodness, a voice that could warm any room. When she started singing, everyone sat up and listened right away. Her voice is so elequant and ranges from very low to very high notes with such ease.. accompanied by gorgeous guitar and a confident but gentle stance, she stole our hearts and minds.. softened them, then gave them back. Alan Lacroix: "Epic". Absolutly incredible. We fell in love with his new song after hearing it on last FM,... it lasts half an hour, perfect for a Beehive Session! Alan played the whole song for us. Settled in, and sat comfortably, we listened as Alan took us on a journey, lyrics giving us images, and his guitar providing the weather, colours, emotions... and even controling our breath as we listened.

All four of these musician are so down to earth, I could not be more grateful to have met them and to have been lucky enough to hear them all play live at The Beehive.

To all who came along to listen, you, as always, are such a wonderful audience and it's as great a pleasure to meet you, like minded people who love live music, as it is meeting the musicians themselves! You don't have to be a musician to appreciate live music. I look forward to seeing you all (and more) again.
*****************

March 10th

Jack Harris, Little Steve Long, The Boy The Girl and All The World and Helen McCookeryBook, was the amazing line up for our third Beehive! ...and wow! Just for a change though, rather than me telling you about it, here's what Helen said:

"The Queen Boadicea is a funky little pub in St John Street, Clerkenwell and this night is run by Jess, who is a really good promoter as she is quite obviously a total music fan. The atmosphere is perfectly relaxed and greatly enhanced by a group of young artists who sit at tables and sketch the acts, just for fun, while listening (I was intrigued because I often do this when I go to experimental music gigs). The audience listens and the other acts are interesting and varied- I particularly liked The Boy, The Girl and All the World who reminded me a little of A Smile and a Ribbon.... People seemed to like my songs... and Jess stood at the side smiling and listening, as she did with everyone, which I found hugely encouraging.
Karen Gymslip came along, and so did Lester Square, who at one point had been toying with the idea of entering the live music fray again, and my Champagne Friend. I swapped a CD for this drawing by Felix. I had to leave before the end, unforchly, because one of the offspring has been poorly, but apparently there is a jam session at the end of every gig too.
It is on the first Tuesday of every month and well worth going to or playing at, depending on whether you are a punter or an act- or an artist for that matter!
By the way, the loos are beautiful. Take note, 12-Bar!" (read more)

Helen missed Jack Harris' set, so we'll tell you it was amazing, he is such a good musician, and so humble!
Thankyou for all who came along, a few less than the usual, but still a lovely crowd! Keep supporting live music!

Febuary 19th

What an amazing evening! Thankyou for everyone who came along, musicians and audience alike!
 
The open mic was wonderful, with three surprisingly talented sets. Unfortunatly, the mailing list disappeared, so if you were one of the open-mic slots, do get in touch! …especially ‘Wandering Goose’, a three piece from Canada.

The Woodlarks kicked off our featured musicians, …amazing! They silenced the, until then, ‘rowdy’ audience and were even asked by them to play one more song at the end of their set! Iain Wilkinson was up next, a very talented singer-songwriter with a passion for his performance and it was a pleasure to have him at The Beehive. Beth, just … wow. She is one half of The Daughters*. Her relaxed music, gorgeous voice and personalitly sent the whole room in to a silent happiness, I’ve never seen so many blissful faces! …and to end the evening wonderfully, Mr Andy Buclaw. Ever baffling people with his finger picking and guitar playing, aswell as his unique style of lyrics. 

 
…of course, we finished the evening with a jam, … which carried on outside until the early hours. It’s a pleasure to have so many musical types all in one place, so thankyou again for all who came, and make sure you come along next time!

 
*(from Shropshire, unfortunatly Peta couldn’t join us… but we’ll try very hard to get them both together at The Beehive in the future)