Dolmen Grove Yule Ball 2012

Some cool Photos taken by John Steane at Spriggan Mist's last gig of 2012
the Dolmen Grove Yule Ball at  The John Gregory Weymouth

 Max belting out the last "Indigo child" looks like I'm about to topple back into Colin's drums!

I can be serious ..honest

               


Max with a sax...and that amazing stage outfit!

Love this Photo ...speaks volumes of where we are on stage these days..no moody faces just having a ball!

Erm what was I saying about moody faces lol!!

Simon hid round the corner most the night

The girls in full pelt ...anyone spot the drummer in any of the pics?
Great night!!!

Mother Dearest is at it again

Mother Dearest (MD) lives in sheltered accommodation. Twas quite a sedate lovely kind of place. Grannies sitting knitting (shreddies no doubt) conversing about Granny type things like ..how young Police officers are these days and how they used to leave their doors wide open when they were young….


Now Christmas lunches at this establishment have always been conservative affairs. Sitting around with the after lunch port and lemon or maybe a nice sherry whilst Bing or Nat crooned their Christmas songs before they were wheeled back into their sweet little Granny homes……

Then the MD moved in …….this year we thought it odd when we got this message on face book

"Slightly piddled at Xmas funkI'll.go and lip on the sofa hee hee"

Wifey was dispatched with Brianna to go check what was going on….and when they arrived there they found all the inmates having a right rave !!! Bottles of wine open empty bottles all along the floor in amongst some passed out Grannies ….after dodging the line of Grannies asking the way to Amarillo..They found MD "Fissed as a part"…Brianna lectured her Nanna not to get to drunk and Wifey made a quick retreat before she was strapped into the infamous dentist chair…yep it was that kind of Party…

Her Facebook updates continued throught out the night  (and these are copied and pasted to keep authenticity)

"Absoletely trasgehed now"

"Still going folks nevefhad sucha .binge dtrinjk"

"Here Hee I'm sure you fo Steopj"

"jjjuuuuuusssssst

Ggggoooooooooooooooooooottttttttttt"

"7bottled later ans sdull going"

"jus got back home had a reaaaaaally brilliant day can't believe I drunk sssssso much wine and didn't get mullllered"

"good nighttt I am going to sleep now seeytoui all at the moot at the Boot xx"

"Bringing s newcnemberv"

Now I'll leave you dearest reader to be judge and jury….she claims she was not drunk..but when I called her at about 2200 hours she said she was one of the last three standing except she couldn't stand as she was too drunk…she did make it home into her cell eventually... with all the other inmates…probably still asking the way to Amarillo no doubt….

A Creamier Brandy Sauce

So it's silly season again. "Yes I am a Pagan"  I seem to answer all the time."Yes I celebrate Yule" …and "Yes I like Christmas!" Is that not having your cake and eating it? (what a stupid saying that is by the way…what are you supposed to do with cake?...look at it? ) Well yes it is….and?

I have no spiritual association with Christmas anymore, apart from Rum that is! My spiritual time is the Winter Solstice…Yule….but then I did grow up with happy memories of waking up on Christmas morning getting pressies and eating Christmas dinner until being so stuffed you can't move and then boxing day when your house smells of Brussel sprout induced farts and you are in full swing of new toy bliss !!!!!

You know Jesus was probably a really top bloke too. I mean he loved a camp and he definitely loved wine ..he turned loads of water into it after all, so reckon he would have been quite a "Down with the boys"  kind of geezer rather pagan like in fact... ….so although this time of year has absolutely no association of his birth really, if Christians around the world want to celebrate the birth of their Christ around our Yule time and create such positive energy and emotion around the world ..so mote it be …

This time of year brings the best out of humanity….thinking of the Christmas truce in WWI….and good will to all men…and loads of washing up for Mums but it also brings out the worst too …Cliff Richard…need I say more! ….Oh and work Christmas parties!!!!!

Last year I didn't go to our office meal.. as the restaurant it was held at?..  I well,….kind of had an encounter with the chef and unfortunately administered a little Mr Slappy a few weeks prior and thought upon seeing me, everyone's  brandy sauce might just get a little creamier..and although contemplation of revenge on some of my work colleagues by proxy was sweet….I decided not to show my face . This year however with said chef was  long gone so  I decided I'd go but always feel it sensible not to drink at such occasions.ThisChristmas meal  was pretty standard procedure this year and certain chains of events happen, sort of like a protocol at these things ..like top boss paid for loads of drinks…can't fault that very generous, that cued the thoughts in our heads (well at least mine)…oh actually he is a good bloke and didn't really mean to be a pain in the backside the rest of the year …then there is the obligatory depressive drunk..life is boring they are old and boring nothing going for them apparently….the over the top Christmas cheery person that reminds you of Graham Norton …no I really do not want to wear a paper flippin crown on my head!! The organisor spreadsheet in hand …"No! you ordered the prawn cocktail not the onion soup" ……management as much as they try to integrate  there is always a riff raff side and the management side of the dinner table and never ceases to amaze me that by the main course you would be mistaken from thinking the management side was the riff raff side such is the juvenile behaviour and or topic of conversation!!!

Then there is me…usually as loud and brash as you like in the office ..sitting wondering what I am doing there! Most of the people  around me are good decent people some I'd be happy to associate out of work ..some not but I couldn't help looking down at my glass of diet coke and wish it were a tankard of cider and …that my boring clothes would change to "Steam punk" garb…and that I wasn't surrounded by "muggles"!  A fish out of water and no desire to be anywhere but in that water. Just over 24 hours later there I was, in my Ol' Horny hat…tails etc. with Wifey in her bestest basque surrounded by the coolest people ..Pagan people…it was like coming home..bliss

….and no brandy sauce in sight!!!!!!

Live at Pinewood Cafe- Gig for Alex

Photos from our fundraiser for Alex Elkington last month.
Notice the back projections ..Artwork courtesy of Darkmagi as always
Projections and lighting  by Aaron cilia
Photography John Steane

                                   Grant and Aurellie  from The Fire Antz..how loud were they?

                      Bex with Sebastian

Max on the Sax........

                                                            Spriggs'..in the red




Baz

New Spriggan Mist Gigs

09/02/13  Spriggan Mist Presents The Dolmen

                     featuring Anthea Neads and Andy Prince   

                   

                     Pinewood Bar and Cafe,unit 8 Pinewood Leisure Centre

                     Wokingham Berkshire RG40 3AQ

                      http://www.facebook.com/events/294155654018657

Tickets

 http://www.eventility.co.uk/events/spriggan-mist-presents-the-dolmen-plus-guests/pinewood-bar-and-cafe/wokingham/rg403aq/156673

21/04/13       Pagan future’s Belostra 2013  

                       The Bedford (Pub/Theatre)

                       77 Bedford Hill  Balham

                       London SW12 9HD

                     http://www.paganfuturefests.org.uk/id1.html

               

04/05/13       Rochester’s 1^st Enchanted Fairy Ball  

                      The Royal Function Rooms,

                        12 Star Hill, Rochester, Kent, ME1 1XB

                       http://enchantedgementerprises.weebly.com/event-tickets.html

11/05/13        Magical Faerie festival

                        Findon, West Sussex

                        http://www.magicalfestivals.co.uk/#/tickets/4537808752   

26/05/13       Dolmen Grove Essex Beltane Picnic 2013

                      Hadleigh Round house Hadleigh Country Park Hadleigh Essex

01/06/13       RouteMonster Fest,  (Date TBC)

                         Hill Farm  Jouldlings Lane, Farley Hill, Arborfield, Berks,  RG7 1UR

  

22/06/13       The 3 Wishes Faery Fest

                      Mount Edgecumbe House and Country Park,

                       Cremyll, Torpoint, Cornwall PL10 1HZ

                         https://www.facebook.com/3WishesFaeryFest

    

20/10/13       Pagan Future’s Samhain Celebration 2013

                       The Bedford (Pub/Theatre)

                        77 Bedford Hill  Balham

                        London SW12 9HD

                     http://www.paganfuturefests.org.uk/id1.html

New Spriggan Mist photo by Glyn Dewis

                                                   The New Spriggan Mist Photo by Glyn Dewis

Only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!

The Birthday club is a unique  and exclusive set of friends that meet on our friend Mia's birthday every 8th December. It's been meeting for about 10 years and has taken part in various different venues and undergone various guises and a few different personel,but in the main the same 10 or 11 faces meet up on the 8th or the Saturday nearest. All friends of Mia's but we very rarely meet outside of the Birthday club….

This year it was decided we will not venture out  but instead pile round to Mia's and take part in a murder mystery night  So dear readers I was that evening Terence Shrimp  and Eastend boy made good in the photography world through dirty dealings  running for a gangland boss  Champagne Charlie…but this is where it all went wrong  my character had to be a cross between Michael Caine and Frankie Howard…now Mia had omitted to tell me the Frankie Howard  bit so I had prepared myself all week to be a bit of an Eastend hard boy…maybe a bit Phil Mitchell but upon reading my brief on the night I retired to the bathroom to run  through several lines of  "Don't you throw that bloody spear at me "  I decided I sounded more like Alan Carr " and saying  "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" in a camp voice is never a good thing to do especially in the confines of a WC….but much to the amusement of the table I persisted and by the end I had  more camp than Butlins going on.

This year I was duty driver so the guy next to me  David who as forementioned I've known for 10 years I only meet once a year at the Birthday club … we sat and watched this table of would be thespians including Wifey degenerate into a cacophony of laughter and  mayhem whilst we remained stone sober. Champagne Charlie the gangland boss was played by none other than Paul…now Paul nice bloke is as far removed from an Eastend Gangster as Bambi... proceeded to crash his way through his role and several bottles of wine in the process! As the food was served the game  unfolded and due to the alcoholic sub plot …David and I wondered if it was the plot that had been murdered and between Wifey and Paul they looked like prime suspects…but it was I (trying to look sweet and innocent) that was accused of placing a sausage role in the light shade in the front room …as if! 

So by the end of the night  with mystery solved …Plot murdered ..13 bottles of wine drunk…much merryment  and laughter we said our goodbyes for another year , but I wonder what next years birthday club has instore. Over the years we have done Bowling followed by  various types of food  Chinese, Thai, American Burger  Noodle bar  posh black tie do in a hotel…..murder mystery night ..so what's next? Who knows? 

Something had to give!!

Can you believe i haven't blogged in a almost a year!!!! I've missed it I really have ..

What a year we've had at Spriggan Mist..new album...over 20 gigs... new guitarist....and yet I haven't written one sentence about it all..shame on me

 That is due to a number of things mainly time. So the podcast which really took up a lot of my time away from the band has to go.... My time has been taken up with band stuff..rehearsals gigs and you know I still have to hold down a full time job and a family and keep some level of fitness as I am now in my forties ...so something has to give and time to do these shows or windows of opportunity to do them are getting smaller....its all time that needs to be given to other musical projects and working out ..so i'm going to stop doing the podcasts ...

 Thank you for the support from listeners and artists alike I have enjoyed the journey So the revival of my blog is here...Simon our guitarist remarked that he'd been reading some of the old blogs and he seemed surprised that they were actually funny! but then this is a man who had to admit at a last gig I was a genius....he he he nuff said!

 So what can you expect from now on ..on this blog?

 Music reviews?
Interviews with cool musicians?
 Inside information on everything Spriggan Mist?
 Mad ramblings of a pagan bass player as he negotiates through life?
 The secret of how Mark Vine (the Dolmen lyricist,author ,poet..etc..) manages to keep his liver intact?
And the truth as to why Taloch keep a spare pair of underpants handy when gigging?
and if Paul Mitchell is ever going to giver me back my favourite black weird fish jumper!!?
and that Cliff the Bard of Avebury isn't actually a Scouser but off mic speaks BBC English!!!

 yep all here in this blog back in a few days
 keep reading keep replying....

Sprigs' Loud and Proud !!!!

Had a funny week so far…a midweek gig (on a school night too) well not a gig as such but an Open mic/jam night jobby at a local pub. As we were a band they put us on last which transpired would be after all the solo acoustic acts and very melodic and intricate classical guitar pieces and after most people smelt their horlicks before bedtime being poured. So we decided to start softly with the romping stomping Shaking a Deadmans Hand followed by Indigo child..then our most rocky of versions of Faery Queen ,Electric Life and Spriggan Dance!!! We played very well too I thought ..ok my voice cracked up like Joe Cocker on woodbines ….we were without the band resident Diva Bex who happened to be working so we didn't have the more folky quaint sounding Sprigs out…oh no ...we had full on…..ROCKKKKK!!!!!!!

Not sure it was our best choice of set in the circumstances but nonethe less we enjoyed ours selves and we did hear some muffled requests for more from the back …the resident band seemed quite happy to take back over the mics and played a very slow version of free falling …should have been called free floating really. It was a first for Sprigs performing in jeans and t-shirts…..a good job too..as these were Muggles , Ol' Horny, black kilt and highway man's Jacket would have been a bit too much for them me thinks although two geezers in the corner wanted more at least they shouted for more...….but it wasn't just the gig …..other strange things happened to me too

I was walking through Uxbridge Town Centre the other day and this weathered old Irish woman came up to me holding sprigs of plants held together by foil and said to me with her clutching hand outstretched
"Lucky Heather?"
I replied back "Oh pleased to meet you I'm a rather unlucky Baz!"
She started mumbling something about some curse and smart arses ..funny woman.

So the big Berkshire gig with Mad Magdalen and The Dolmen is upon us on February 18th !

Our first Spriggan Mist presents without the Lamberts ….so we thought we'd add more pressure and create an all day enchanted market at the venue….and then we thought we'd add an "Acoustic Stage" to run through out the day and then amplify it a bit …now we have one of the biggest projects I've been involved in going on . You all need to come down to Bracknell FC Larges Lane Bracknell Berks for this event should be a storming night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But for now I'm left to ponder ..will we be welcomed back to the open Mic again