Blow me down, two newsletters inside five weeks? Don’t get too used to it though, Pa needs at least a month to recover from the thumbscrews Ma uses to coax him to the keyboard...
Firstly, in-aren’t-we-famous news, we had a fantastic review in Venue’s Bar Of The Week a few issues ago, so many thanks to them for that. And a report has flooded in of a, er, tangential, nay oblique, nay possibly zero reference to Beeses when this photo was used on the BBC Points West programme. Many thanks to David Calvin who took a picture of one of our beautiful lillies.Last time, we previewed the run of gigs that finished last week with the return of Howlin’ Lord. And so the end of a month in which we gave you some classic rock, classic funk and classic hootin’, hollerin’ and foot stompin’, brought some classic gothic country/rock’n’roll that included a guest appearance from Beth Rowley, who not only sang but played some mean wailin’ harp on an Elvis toon. Like so many of you, Beth was blown away by Beeses and was heard to idly wonder if she could play here, which would be something of a coup, so if that comes off you’ll hear it here first. Hear here.
And we follow that lot up with another coup, which is our first gig by an overseas artist. On Friday 20 August we host Swampcandy, a one man acoustic delta country/folk/blues act from Annapolis, Maryland (it’s in Americawl). Playing mostly originals with some old time blues/country cover songs added in for good measure, he has toured extensively throughout the US midwest and Ma and Pa Beese are delighted to welcome him to Beeses on his first trip to the UK.
A mere two weeks later, we’ll be in the midst our our fifth beer festival (not a bad number when you consider Ma and Pa haven’t celebrated the fourth anniversary of their arrival at Beeses yet). You’ll be interested to know that Ma and Pa have selflessly devoted hours and hours of market research to bring you some of the finest ales in the land. Their most recent excursion was to the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court, Britain’s biggest beer festival, and you can be sure to taste the fruits (hops?) of their research at this year’s beerfest.Tickets are on sale now, available at the bar, by telephone with a credit card, or you can post a cheque made payable to ‘Beeses’. If you want the tickets posted to you, include an SAE or add £1.00 to the total:
- £5.00 for Friday or Saturday*
- £4.00 for Sunday
- £12.00 for a weekend ticket
As usual, each ticket includes a free pint, we’ll have our great homemade food, and on the Saturday we’ll also have a hog roast available. There’ll be a tombola too, ‘cos Ma’s a bit traditional like that.
We’ve been incredibly lucky with our beerfest weather so far, with each one being absolutely glorious, but this year we’ve made plans to make the place more weatherproof by covering some/most/parts of the garden if it looks like our run will come to an end. See, it just gets better and better...
As in previous years, half of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the Friends of Eastwood Farm and Friends of Troopers Hill groups. They are volunteers who work hard to maintain the Local Nature Reserves on both sides of the river near to Beeses for wildlife to thrive and people to enjoy.
We’ve got some great music again this year, with Straight Shooter kicking things off in a classic rock stylee on the Friday night, and then Saturday brings you three cracking acts:
- They say: “Magic Tractor was formed in mid-1982 from the debris of “popular” West Country rockers The Magicians, The Squids and The Tractors. However, they couldn’t accommodate the word “squid” convincingly into the name so they sacked the bloke from the The Squids, who went on to pioneer frog language studies in Bogota.” Despite the fact they have such a ridiculous biography, we decided to book them, although Pa Beese had already sent in a report that “they are seriarsely rockin’, like”, so turn up early for a bunch of lesser-known songs from such 60s acts as The Who and The Kinks. You should also hope they grant us a performance of their amazing version of Janis Joplin’s Piece Of My Heart.
- House on Fire will be following that up with some hard rocking r’n’b with covers from the likes of Dr Feelgood and The Fabulous Thunderbirds.
- And we finish Saturday with a flourish: after a rockin’ debut at our 2009 beerfest, we have the return of Elvis Fontenot and the Sugar Bees, winners of the the Best Zydeco Band in the 2006 European Cajun & Zydeco Awards. They tore the place up in 2009 with some footstompin’, jug-blowin’, washboard-scrubbin’ zydeco, and Ma decided she had to get them back!
But if you’re looking for a more sedate beerfest experience, then Sunday could be just the thing. Some of you may recall mention of H Club turning up at our open mic night and subsequently raising the roof with their barbershop-style a cappella mix of Madness covers, through 50s rock’n’roll, to Bach fugues. They’ve returned to our open mic night on a couple of occasions, and now they’ll be appearing on the Sunday of our beerfest too. This won’t be a regular static performance; they’ll be wandering around the gardens and singing in different spots, so just sit tight and they’ll get round to you. And stop fidgeting.
And if you don’t come, Hollie’s kitten will die...
And finally, we're trying the Twitter thing. We’ll probably post things such as the specials as they are put on the menu, the ales we’re serving, and plug other events such as the gig nights, and hope that the inevitable random nonsense doesn’t rear its head too soon. Hey, we can but dream...
Lurve
Ma and Pa Beese
Beeses Bar & Tea Gardens
www.beeses.co.uk
www.myspace.com/beeses
Tel: 0117 977 7412