Advent Calendar: 11th December
Day 11 of LMS's Advent Calendar
Gary Stewart takes today's entry - so, firstly, a free download of an unreleased version of "Maggie Oh" (recorded at Cottage Road Studios in May 2009)!
Right click and save as...
And for seconds, straight over to Gary to report on this year's Hope and Social Christmas event, which took place on December 4th.
Hope and Social Snowball
Hello and ho ho ho! So, I've been asked to contribute a little bit of something Christmassy to the LMS virtual advent calendar and I thought it'd be fitting to share with you a bit of a hare-brained scheme that Hope and Social (ex-Four Day Hombre and the band I bang the drums for) came up with for Christmas. So, in 10:
1) Commission Leeds Brewery to make a custom Ale for your band (with a Christmas theme remember - we call it 'Ho Ho Hope and Social' ; )
2) Get your trumpet player to score half a dozen of your songs for Big Band, alongside a couple of Classic Christmas Medleys ; )
3) Sell 160 tickets to a bunch of lovely, mad, dedicated fans - keeping the whole 'Snowball' a secret; split them up into 4 groups of 40 and tell them to meet 'at a pub in Leeds at 1pm'
4) Band members meet separate groups, toast the 'Ho Ho Hope and Social Ale' and practise Christmas Carols to sing later...
5) Meet other 40 people in 2nd pub (now there's 80 of you!) - have another pint and sing-through of Carols
6) 160 people in Blue and White Santa Hats meet on the Leeds Town Hall steps and sing aforementioned Carols to bewildered onlookers - oh, and while there is a Hell's Angels Wedding going on in the Town Hall (we didn't bargain on that one!!)
7) Bus the fans to a venue in Leeds
8) Feed fans Christmas Curry and more Ale : )
9) Hand out personalised mini-Christmas Stockings and do a Secret Santa
10) Play the gig to an inebriated crowd-then get duly inebriated afterwards...Merry Christmas!!
Watch some videos of the event here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyTN6-jDuh8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azldSB75pzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf3V_B1D8Ho
And if you're feeling sad that you missed this festive extravaganza, then you'll be reassured to know that Dead Young Records' are putting on a Gaslight Club Christmas Special at Holy Trinity on the 13th. Featuring Blue Roses, Paul Thomas Saunders, Ellen Smith, These Men and Gary Stewart. More information here.
See the previous day in the LMS Advent Calendar here.
See the next day in the LMS Advent Calendar here.
