Saturday 11/07/09

Back at The Star again Got to be one of our favourate pub's now always get a good turn out each time we play there.
lots and lots of sound issues to sort out as we had to get a new desk as the old desk decided to lose a few channels and as we just got it we had to set the setings up before the gig.
Any way we get set up in time with a alright sound that we had to go with as time had just ran out and a quick change before the first set kicked off around 9PM.Tonight we took our usual opener Vertigo out and replaced it with a new one Diamond's and Rust/Judas priest then straight into one night love affair/bryan adam's with a slightly differaint ending to practised to screams at me from my fav Bass Player Col E Bell which was actualy louder bless him than any rock n roll ending ever heard in history LOL.
As the set progressed sound problems came back to haunt us,which seemed to take a toll on our singer Brian who had to turn his monitor off due to extreme feedback which took toll on his vocal chord's.
Anyway the problems have never stopped us from performing, and as usual finished our set off to sort them out during the break.
The audience have been excellent again and due to this lovely evening the bar is packed full again lots of regulars at our gigs including FEZ who is a realy good mate of Sean's and The rest of the Band who always brings a smile and good cheer.
As we start the second set the Bar is now packed right out to the door,and lots of cheering as we walk on stage.we start off with Local boy in a photograph/Stereophonics "come on the Welsh" the set progressed and yet another song has popped up Somebody told me/The Killers and quite a good response for a first play.We finished off with the usual Gimme some loving...
A very good applause and call's for more heard us bring I predict a riot/The kaizer chief's to the encore for a change,and the fantastic She sell's sanctuary/The Cult to finish.
Wooooo what a very hot and very fantastic gig this has been,lots of good word's from people coming up to us after chatting and asking where we playing next.
Thanks to The Star again for asking us to play at this great pub that always manages a good turn out.

And one last mention to Duncan from Requiem.....
Maybe one day you might manage to stay to the end of the gig,or at least the first half.

Sat 13th June ...
Back for the second time @ the princess alice/Middlesbrough on this very hot summers evening.The usual set up sound problems in this very small stage area but never the less it is a small but good venue in middlesbrough.
Kicked off around 9PM to good crowd who warmly greeted each song with applause and good praise.As the set progressed more people started to fill up and half way through the first set the pub seemed to be quite full.
Any way we finished the set to now a very full half of the pub to a well deserved break as its Boiling up there tonight.
Lots of people said they liked our set and it sounded realy good"i even thought it sounded one of the best weve had"
The 2nd half got underway to a good applause even seans jokes were well laughed at,but unfortunately gave him more confidence to realy splurt out his usual crack and humour.
But there was one of the audience who got stuck in to him shouting GOB shite COME ON,You Geordie TWAT and other funny stuff and at some parts SEAN was lost for words as this bloke was having a real roll of ANTI GEORDIE comments LOL.....but it was all in geat fun.
Then a group of friends turned up around half way through the 2nd set who had been to a BBQ who were great, realy got stuck in dancing and singing a way so at the end the atmosphere turned out to be realy good.............

Annie Mcarthy's South Shield's Sat 04th April 2009
New venue for the Beer Monkey's took us to South Shild's arrived around 18.30 to set up for this evenings start approx 21.15.
A very good area normaly used for the pool table saw us set up in record time,around about 20.30 a regular hand full of punters drifted in many of them made their way over to us to ask what sort of music do we play.They informed us that the set that we will play will go down well here.
We soundchecked with "Feels like paradise/Dave le roth" quite a few clapped and cheered,and sean desided to take to the mic to say his usual "thanks everyone good night and thanks for coming" GAG.......
Anyway a nice long break before the start at 21.15 which saw a very good response to our first set lot's of singing and dancing and at the end of the first set with lots of well wishes and good feedback.
The 2nd set saw the bar realy full now and everyone in the mood for a good night,we cracked off a few numbers old and new stuff and again loads of singing and dancing throughout the pub.
As we came off stage lots of praise by the public and the bar staff and a good promise of a return booking in the future,all in all a fantastic gig at a fantastic venue.

This is a review from THE DAISY HILL PUB........

The Beer Monkeys

(13/03/09) Another debut band at 'The Daisy' & they didn't
disappoint. This band cover 'rock' stuff from a broad spectrum, they
certainly make an effort, were good crack, had time for a music chat
beforehand, I like to check out the 'gear' of which they had mountains,
a decent sound, ++ lighting effects, play on music, good crack during
the gig, especially Sean the guitarist. He is the band 'funny man'
& had the audience's attention with his witty repetoire, his guitar
picking 'ain't bad either! Check out his manic-look photo in the gig
gallery. At one point I thought that Feed the Bear had wandered in,
with the singer running around in the audience!! (look out punters next
week, never take your eyes off him...!). The band brought a few punters
with them also, which is always good.There
were songs to suite most tastes & I particularly enjoyed the Uriah
Heep & Stereophonics numbers (my band has been rehearsing Dakota in
recent weeks).  Other songs included Whisky in the Jar by Thin Lizzy, a
favourite of mine, plus songs by Bad Finger, The Calling, Spencer
Davis, U2, Tom Jones....come on the welsh! Mercy by Duffy was a
surprise choice, Rock'n'roll Star by Oasis, I Predict a Diet by Kaiser
Chiefs. The lights were good & certainly added to the show - the
band didn't forget to intro/thank their lighting guy either, which is
positive. Smaller
than usual crowd that we may put down to Comic Relief, Coronation St.
wedding, but more likely just 'the recession'! This didn't deter the
band though & they engaged well with the crowd.Anyway,
3 encores saw the band oblige with more songs until a finish at 11:30.
A good night, thanks 'Monkeys' we'll have you back....now what was that
about your fee being paid in 'beer'?
Pete

The Daisy Hill @ Durham Friday March 13th
New Venue fror The Monkeys again so not sure what to music to play and after much "umin and arring" we keep to our most recent set to see how it goes.
The room was pretty much empty til around about 8.30 when the doors are opened  for the audience to come in.There is self door fee collection box which everyone when entering chucks a donation in ,i think about £1.00 as a cover charge for the bands and yes everyone did chuck money in pretty good aye.
Anyway we kicked the first set off with the usual opener Vertigo/U2 and a few new ones Bad Finger & The Calling and ended the set with Dakotta/Stereophonics COME ON THE WELSH......

Quite a good crowd but it would of been fuller if The Coronation Street wedding and Comic relief wasn't on....

2nd set kicked off with another new one Oasis/Rock n roll Star and Mercy by Duffy finishing off with I predict a Diet/Kaiser Chiefs into Gimme some Loving.Then after a good roar from the audience 3 Encores with yet another new number Delilah/Tom Jones COME ON AGAIN THE WELSH....
Finaly we get to come off stage around 11.30
Thanks The Daisy Hill for a realy good night at this new venue for us .......

Check out the other Daisy Hill Blog as that was the Review from the Pub.....

Dr Browns @ Midlesbrough February 7th 2009
Arrived at this very popular pub @ Middlesbrough to play our first gig here we have played @ The princess alice Middlesbrough run by the same management before,that went very well for us but this one had a good reputation as a fine Rock Venue in the area.
Didnt get set up til 9PM as our driver the Famous COL E BELL cant always grasp the concept 6.15 pm pick up,dosent mean 7PM then drives like Nigel Mansell to the gig,so after many moans and groans and crossed wordsit is now 9PM.
Any how we sound checked with "Just Like Paradise" dave le Roth had a quick break to kick off around about 9.30.
As we start off the night with Vertigo the place is absaloutely packed out with Loads of people including a lot of my friends from work and friends of the band,Where we had a very warm and raptuous welcolme to Dr Browns.
In the two sets we played a few new numbers Rock n roll star/oasis and no matter what/Bad finger.
The 2nd Set was still full of people but a lot had gone elsewhere and upstairs as another band were playing,but at the end of the night loads were still left and gave us good reviews and comments.
We have been invited back later in the year and 2 other gigs at The Princess Alice...We are staying as a four piece band from now on

The Jolly Miller @ Gateshead Saturday Nov 29th

Ooooooo what a night..........And that was before the Gig Started.

Me Sean Brian & Colin got to the pub around 6.50 PM to Set up as Our 5th Member Mr Ritchie Davidson was running late eventualy around 7.30 decided to turn up,but things wernt looking too good.

And as his other internet name goes he had a face like "Thunder" wasn't a happy Monkey he was up for a Dummy Fight @ the Jolly Miller saloon tonight.Anyway after many dummys thrown around the saloon he saddled his horse took his weapons and galloped off into the Sunset.Well Freezing snowy night, and has never been seen since.

The gig went well not many in but the ones that were in realy enjoyed it.

4 Monkeys left now to carry on the gospel of The Beer Monkeys until a new monkey arrives sometime over the next few weeks....... I will keep you informed as to when our new Monkey joins us.........

 

Friday 21st November

Flat Topp,s @ Boldon........

New Venue for the Monkey's saw The Beer Monkey's put on a fabulous show drawing a fair sized crowd.We even had a visit from our new stand in Bass Player Mick Youen's who soundchecked our levels.We had a very good response and have been asked back in the New Year to play some more Dates...

Saturday 22nd November

Mason's Arm's @ Eassington

Back again @ The Newley decorated Mason's Arm's on this cold and snowy night a mad rush to get all the gear in a shut the door to set up as it is B*****d freezing.Any way we managed to get set up and soundchecked with very little sound problem's.

Now we have always found playing here that its a good response for the first half then evryone goes to some of the local pub's around the area which ends up with a few people left to play to at the end of the night.

The first set kicked off to a very full pub and one of our best audiences yet the bar was now packed and every song got a better response as the set progresed.All the way through the set i kept hoping that they would stay and enjoy it as i feel we gave a good performance.We ended up having a very strong reception to the first set.......

In the break lots of good comments and song requests which actualy were already in the up coming 2nd set.

2nd set and my thoughts were answered, it is absaloutely packed out now and by the looks of things they will all stay to the end LOL....every song was cheered to and we even had 2 fabulous Dancers Gilly and Emma encouraging the crowd to dance.Set went well with 2 encores to finish off a very good enjoyable night all round.We came off absaloutley knackered but had huge smiles all around.

 

Saturday 1st November........

A new Club for us after being approached from our website back earlier in the year.

Got to the club around 6 Pm unfortunately no one there, so after some time waiting and freezing in theVan,we got to get in around 6.30 a nice stage just big enough for us to get on but a nice sized club.Then its the mad rush to get up and sound checked before the dreaded "Bingo" soundcheck was o.k but as we finished the Sound check we got terrible problems with vocal Mic Distortion that delayed the start of the Bingo until 8.30 "Maybe it was an Omen" just joking realy about the Bingo it's o.k Lol.

1st Set kicked off @ 9pm to a very good response more supprisingly than we thought as Club audience is sometimes harder to get over,but they realy took well to our opening number and all the way through to the interval the Audience applause got stronger as the set went on.The club wasn't full as there was still a lot of seats un filled but never the less it was pretty packed.

In the interval the Manager "Elsie" came over and was chatting to me and said that we went down very well and the club is trying to get away from a lot over priced Club acts and start getting a lot More pub rock bands in at reasonable prices due to the credit crunch and other reason's .So after a long discussion The Beer Monkeys have been booked for a few Gigs Next year.And also explained that the Audience does like the More rock songs the Better.

2nd set saw our Singer "Smudger"do a vanashing trick causing lot's of stress for us you know Smudger the other 4 in the band,but eventualy turned up to a big cheer from the Manager "Sorry again Elsie".So we then got stuck into a fantastic Set of Classics such as Rock n Roll fantasy/Bad Company and  Whiskey in the Jar/Thin Lizzy  and Gimme Some Loving/Thunder/Beer Monkey's Version...... and after leaving the stage Encored with She Sells Sanctuary/The Cult and Summer of 69/Brian Adam/s then a 2nd Encore saw a new song Hell aint a bad place/ac-dc

Lots of good comments from the Audience at the end of the gig........

Thanks for the excellent evening Elsie & everyone else at the Blackhall w.m.c see you again in the New Year........from THE BEER MONKEY'S

Friday 31st October @ The Weatsheaf Long Benton .... Halloween

Back @ The Weatsheaf for the 2nd time and this time gave us an Opportunity to dress up again in some strange Creepy costumes well it gives us an Opportunity to wear make up anyway LOL.Any way a small turn out on this creepy night saw us kick off our set with the usual Vertigo/U2 after our new Halloween intro music "Weve been expecting you ooo ha ha ha hooo".This set saw a new track from The Kings of Leon/Sex on Fire which for a first play was "Alright" but hope to improve it as we play it more regular.We finished off the 1st set with a good response but a few more turning up towards the end.

2nd Set saw the Beer Monkey's Dressed up even if none of the Audience did except for some of our friends and family that turned out to support us  "Pictures on the slide show"The pub has now started to fill up quite nicely and the rest of the show whent very well for us with lots of cries for more and some exotic dancing from fellow Beer Monkey's Sean's friend Emma.

But in general a fairly good gig for us that could of been better if more Audience had shown up on the Night.