On Saturday night we played our first gig of 2012 at Wenlock Pottery's Burns Supper. Much haggis, fun and laughter was had as we tried to convince a sceptical audience that every Whalebone tune we played was Scottish.... It was also notable as the first time that we've been heckled in the form of an enquiry about a Wombles hit.  (If you're reading this Rosemary, Minuetto Allegretto was co-written by Mike Batt and 'Wolf Mozart' and got to No. 16 in 1974.)

It was a great to get back to playing to an audience after a 6 week break, and a nice warm up for the Origins Tour which kicks off at Cheslyn Hay Village Hall on the 4th of February - this coming Saturday. We've decided on the 'Origins' name as it's the title of a new tune we've written during the break. The shows will include this and other brand new numbers, some of which feature Steve's very beautiful (and never gigged before) 8-string Baritone Taylor guitar which sounds amazing!

The first workshop at Wenlock Pottery went brilliantly, I recorded some footage of the group playing together on my phone, but for some reason when I tried to upload it to this blog the sound vanishes... so you'll have to make do with some photos which I also took.

It was a great day, with mandolins, acoustic guitarists, an electric guitarist (James with his Epiphone SG above), fiddle players, flautists and clarinets all playing together and amazing us with the outcome. Very satisfying and all with Shelagh's amazing food and a lovely log fire. We've decided to run another one on February 5th - this coming Sunday, so if anyone would like to book themselves in just get in touch, as there are a few places left... check out the concentration on the faces below...

We are counting down to the first workshop of 2012 this coming Sunday which is now fully booked - but we have decided to run a second one on Sunday 5th February - hooray! The venue is the dining room at Wenlock Pottery in Sheinton Street, Much Wenlock, where we can play in comfort around their log-burning stove. Arrival time is 10am, and we'll run through until 5pm.

The workshops are aimed at players of all levels - previously we've had beginners through to quite accomplished players - and we aim to get everyone playing together throughout the day. We'll be covering tunes in a variety of styles, touching on folk, blues and the lighter end of rock, and discussing melody, accompaniment techniques and improvisation. You don't have to read music - most of the guitarists who come along don't!

The aim is to have a fun but informative day working with each player's capabilities, supporting the beginners and stretching the more able. The cost is £60 per person, which includes all course materials and refreshments (tea and croissants on arrival, a hot meal at lunchtime and tea and cake in the afternoon.) At the end of the day Mike from the Pottery will open the bar and anyone who wishes can stay for a chat/drink/jam session/question and answer around the fire. If you're interested in booking a place for Sunday 5th February - get in touch :)

Now we're coming to the end of what has been a fantastic year for us, we'd just like to say a huge, huge 'Thank You' to everyone who has supported us, been to see us at gigs, taken the trouble to get in touch with us and generally been so nice to us throughout 2011. We really appreciate it and have really enjoyed playing and meeting up with old friends and new acquaintances. Here is a festive tune (click on the BIG picture below) to say 'Merry Christmas from Whalebone' - here's wishing you all a lovely yuletide and we hope we'll meet again in the New Year!

We've also put this track as a free download on the website - just go to www.whalebone-music.com and click on the 'Music (Listen)' Tab, and you can click on the download option :)

We are counting down to the opening night (tomorrow) of 'Winter Ghosts' - our collaboration with the wonderful Kaleidoscope Theatre Company. Here is a pic of taken at rehearsals over the past few weekends:

Also, there is a great radio interview with Steve and I, Carolyne the artistic director of Kaleidoscope Theatre and Eve one of the main actors in the production and who manages to say the best thing out the lot of us! It was aired on BBC Radio Shropshire yesterday morning, so if you missed it you can have a giggle and listen again by clicking this link - Winter Ghosts BBC Radio Shropshire Interview - Many thanks to Rich from Radio Shropshire who drove over on Sunday to do the interview.

Well, we had a lovely weekend joining forces with the wonderful Beck Sian to stage a couple of Halloween concerts. The first at Chorley Village Hall (full of banter and lasagne!) and Wrockwardine Village Hall with the entire front row consisting of some of our favourite heckling people. 

Both evenings were full of spooky tales, good humour - see pic of Dave and Lynne above - and a new addition to our merch table... 'Thid' the skull (see photo below). His name was originally 'Sid', but following a misunderstanding between Sarah and I where she thought I said he had 'a bit of a lisp', what I actually said was Sid was quite 'minimalist', he is now called 'Thid the Skull'. Although he doesn't really match our band image, I think he will be a permanent feature of the merch table and are currently looking at ways to fit him into one of our flight cases!

It was a shame we only had 2 concerts so we are planning to spread the spookiness over two weekends next year and have even more spooky fun. Talking of which, we start the rehearsals for 'Winter Ghosts' - our collaboration with Kaleidoscope Theatre this coming Saturday.... very exciting! If you would like to have a peek at what to expect you can view the promo video for the concerts on our You Tube Channel at www.youtube.com/whalebonemusicvideos. Details of dates and how to get tickets are on our website under 'Gigs and Tickets'.