November’s Shakedown Round Up
Things are moving so fast here at Melwood that we’ve had little time to update on how well the Shakedown went on 1st November.
Well we are pleased to report that it was a resounding success for all involved!
We had five beers on our bar with Shakedown ‘favourites’ Citradelic & Deadhead being the stars of the show. Both beers sold out to the dismay of regular Shakedown supporters Neil & Rob. But we had standbys of ‘Lovelight, ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ and ‘Festival Ale’ if needed! Regular favourites were also there – Knowsley Blonde, Father Ted, Derby Stout – which was a tad lively! Pump problems but worth the wait!
The bar was steady from the word go and at times both of our offspring, John Jnr & Charlotte were pulling pints behind the bar with Mrsmelwood!
The Baltic Social was buzzing and their bar was HEAVING! And their fabulous food was amazing as always!!
It turned out to be a musical extravaganza that’s got Mr Melwood’s head all in a spin because he wants to do it all again!!! Talk about Harvey Goldsmith!!
The music began with the fabulous duo ‘Leoncita’ and weren’t they amazing singers! They are a female folky acoustic duo who were playing their own interpretations of some well known songs. Accomplished musicians, we really enjoyed their set and we know the very supportive crowd did too. Harmonies were spot on girls; hope you can join us again for the next Shakedown?!
After that Mr Gary Grainger, guitarist and singer extraordinaire took to the stage. Gary travelled down from the North East to be with us especially after ‘Shakedown Street’ met him at the Sol Party in July where they headlined. A mutual appreciation of similar music also saw Gary take to the stage with ‘Shakedown Street’ later on in the evening! Wow it blew us all away!
Next up on stage was Mr Melwood himself with a bit of a reunion band performance of ‘Traveller’ the band John formed with friends Jason Parr, Steve Cox & Ritchie Long back in the 90s. Ritchie has not played the drums in 20 years so it was amazing to see that he hadn’t forgotten how to at all! Brings back memories seeing them up there we can tell you!
Shakedown Street member Bill Stoddard’s other band ‘Cactus’ were on stage next playing their all original material. Quite mesmerising sounds of Prog. Rock which fitted in with the ‘feel’ of the day perfectly!
A bit later on the main attraction – Shakedown Street – played two magnificent sets with the addition of Gary Grainger before he drove back off up North. They excelled themselves this Shakedown and were buzzing afterwards. Sorry that there’s not more pics but Mrsmelwood couldn’t get away from the bar to take many!
Suffice it to say were very tired at the end and we wended our way home at 3am, sober but happy.
Thank you to all who came; it was great to finally meet some special twitter followers at last and to see our faithful friends and family – too many of you to mention but always in our hearts.
See you at the next Shakedown in March 2015?