Go to the official Website

Well, its been a while since I used this blog - probably due to getting the website up and running at last.

If you havent been there yet, go to:

www.brilleaux.co.nz

Its got all the photos and audio tracks, gig listing etc, and probably the best place to go for info on Brilleaux

Brilleaux, Ian Goodsman & Anton Elkington in Whangarei

Last October, Brilleaux played at the Whangarei Jazz and Blues Festival, and once again received an awesome reception from the many fans we have accumulated in this part of the world.

At the last venue we played at, the lineup was Ian Goodsman - a masterful Slide acoustic blues player was on first, then Anton Tipi Elkington, with the Brilleaux rhythm section, and then Brilleaux.

At the end of Tipis set, he invited Ian Goodsman, Graham Clark (me) onto the stage for a jam.

And what a buzz that was. the fusion of those 3 different styles of blues was electrifying, and we all had big grins on our faces - It was a special moment.

So special, that we promised to do it again.

Sean - the owner of SALUT bar and restaurant was very keen to get us up there again, so we organised a special blues event for Saturday 17th January - a 3-kinds of blues festival. with tickets at $20 each the place was all but sold out.

Ian Goodsman played the first set, Tipi played the second set with the brilleaux rhythm section, and Brilleaux the third and fourth sets.

At the beginning of the 4th set, Brilleaux got Ian and Tipi on stage, and we jammed on 3 songs - Son Of A Bitch, Big Boss man, and Route 66, and the already energised crowd were exstatic - you could see it on their faces - man did they get a show.

What a fantastic show this is proving to be, There is something for everyone, with Ians more traditional slide and fingerpicking acoustic playing, Tipis Texas/Hendrix style blues, and Brilleaux with their British R&B, but when those three styles are combined, the result is more than just outstanding - it really is a very special aural moment.

If we ever manage to get this show to a place near you make sure you don't miss it - it is SPECIAL!

Nelson Jazz and Blues Festival 2008

At 4am on January 1st, 2009, Brilleaux loaded up the van, and left Tauranga for Nelson, where they were set to play six gigs in five days at the Woolaston Jazz and Blues Festival.

We arrived without incident in Nelson in timefor the festival briefing at 7.30pm, where we meet up with Rowena - the organiser,Neville Claughton (Mr Music) who was helping us out with a bit of PA gear, and all the other artists.

On the ferry I was desperate for a bit of sleep, due to the ungodly departure time, but I still managed to hear a fantastic band, who were paying their passage by playing music. The band was Wellington Heads, and they were fantastic. Great original material that is humorous and entertaining, and played with great skill and passion, and if you ever get the chance to see these guys, I recommend that you do. Whats more, they just happen to be friends with Demian, who often plays with them I am told!

Anyway, our first gig in Nelson was at the opening show in the park. It had been threatening to rain all day, but had hel off, and was still fine when we took to the stage directly after another amazing 3-piece outfit called Hot Club Sandwich, who were my highlight of the festival.

We played a punchy 45 minute set to a crowd of about 7000 people, who didn't know what had hit them!

One report said that we "exploded" onto the stage and hit them on the nose.

From the stage, all we could see was a huge sea of people dancing, which was very satisfying.

When our set was up, we were called up for two encores by the compere as the crowd didn't want us to go! This gave us a HUGE buzz, and made us the talk of the festival for the next five days, as well as having people coming to see us based upon that first performance. Very exciting.

All in all we had a fantastic festival, and sold about $1800 worth of albums to a very enthusiastic crowd.

We also made a bunch of new friends, and caught up with some old ones.

We saw the show by Midge Marsden, Liam O Ryan, and Chet O Connell which was held in the beautiful looking, but horrible sounding old School of Music building, and we also went out to the Beautiful looking and beautiful sounding Woollaston Estate Winery to watch Grant Winterburn and Shaken Not Stirred.

Speaking of the Woollaston Winery, which happens to be the major sponsor of the event, I must mention the delicious wines they make - especially the pinot noir and the pinot gris that we all fell in love with.

This festival is without doubt, the best organised, best paying, friendliest festival, in one of the loveliest, sunniest cities in New Zealand that we have attended so far, and if anybody is looking for something to do in the first week of January next year, then I recommend spending a week down in Nelson. The food, Wine, climate shopping and entertainment was all first class.

I must also mention that at this time of year, the locally grown cherries were at markets and stalls around the place, and whilst at this festival, I made a glutton of myself on the best cherries I have ever had.

I love Nelson!

Number Five - Number Five! Number Five - Number Five!

Brilleaux have been in the studio since about June, recording our fifth album (as yet untitled)

We have been recording at Tim Julians "Colourfield" studio in Welcome Bay, Tauranga.

As you may be aware, Tim is the Keyboard player that appeared on our "LIVE" at the colosseum album, and who appears live with us at various festivals on occasion.

At the time of this entry, the album is 80% complete, just waiting on the harmonica, some horn lines, and one vocal track, not to mention the mix-down and the artwork.

The album features 12 songs - a couple of which appeared on the "LIVE" album before they made it to the studio album! - Howling Wolf, PHd in Stupidity, and Son Of A Bitch.

Other tracks include:
Angry Young Man, She's a Tees (the spelling is correct! - it was my mothers maiden name!) I Love Girls, I Just Want To Make Love To You, Live With Me, Seven Shades Of Surprised, It Wasn't Me, I Wonder Why I Can't Get No Sleep and This Aint Rock-n Roll.

The guest list has been kept to a minimum, and features a small impromptu Gospel Choir, Sonja Bullot (Kokomo) on Trumpet, Demian Forlong on Trombone, Chris - the Sax player from Shaken Not Stirred, and Tim Julian on Keyboards.

It is a no-holds-barred studio album along the lines of Eight-Track Style with all the bells and whistles, not to mention foot-stomping, hand clapping and bovver-boy "Oi" chorus! except the songs are much more "Rootsy" or Rock and Roll than the previous, more contemporary studio album.

With a bit of luck we would like to get this album out before Easter, so here's hoping.

BluesFeast

BluesFeast in Rotorua

Press Release


BluesFeast
Playing the Blues for Refuge

The Bay of Plenty Blues Club,
Rotary Club of Rotorua Sunrise, Rotorua Arts Village Experience (RAVE) and the
Millennium Hotel have joined forces to present a

Food, wine, beer and blues festival
at RAVE Rotorua Arts Village Experience
on Auckland Anniversary Weekend
Monday 28th January
Opening at 1 pm
There will be a fine selection of culinary delights and refreshments to choose from.

The festival will feature a top line-up of entertainment, headlined by a special performance by the
“Legendary Mudsharks”
the Raglan band that played for years with master bluesman Midge Marsden.
The band line up on the day includes original members Noel Lamberton (drums), Liam Ryan (keyboards and vocals), Dave Maybee (guitar and vocals), and Sid Limbert (bass).
They will be joined by Sid’s son, Freddy Limbert, sharing drumming duties and Peter Skandera on harmonica.

The performance programme will also include the
BOP Blues Revue featuring local BOP Blues Club musicians,
and a specially assembled band from the
Hamilton Blues Society featuring Johnny Stash and Nate Taiapa.
The fabulous Tauranga Rhythm and blues band ‘Brilleaux’ will also feature on the programme, so this will be a true ‘feast’ of fine music, food, wine and beer.

BluesFeast will build on the RAVE/Millennium/Tamaki festival held last Anniversary weekend, and the previous year’s Last Of The Summer Wine festival held in the City Focus - an event which was the brainchild of the late Scotty Watson (Retail Rotorua). The Rotary Club of Rotorua Sunrise supports BluesFeast and have arranged for profit from the event to be donated to the Waiariki Women’s Refuge .

Tickets for BluesFeast are $12 (which includes a complimentary souvenir glass) and can be purchased from The Belgian Bar (in Arawa St), RAVE and the Millennium Hotel (Cnr Hinemoa & Hinemaru Sts).

For more information see www.blues.co.nz/bop-blues
or phone Sally Garner 027 2738881.

Hoegaarden Mission Bay Jazz and Blues Streetfest.

We LOVE playing at festivals, and there are some AWESOME festivals in this country.

A few years ago now, we played our very first festival at MISSION BAY in Auckland.

It BLEW US AWAY!

The response we had from all the music lovers attending was nothing short of phenomenal.

A very humbling experience.

We were totally unprepared for this experience, and sold out of EVERYTHING that we had for sale!

Back then Brilleaux only had the 1 album out, but that did n ot seem to matter, and they were all snapped up.

Several years later, and 4 more albums to our arsenal, we have been invited to play at what is now called the "Hoegaarden Mission Bay Jazz and Blues Streetfest.," and once again, we are very excited about it.

The Hoegaarden Mission Bay Jazz and Blues Streetfest is to be held along the waterfront at where else but Mission Bay in Auckland, on 16 February, 2008. (if raining, postponed to 17th)

SO, All you NORTHERNERS who are hanging out to see your favourite Rhythm and Blues band - book it in your calender NOW - come and say hello - we would love to see you.

BRILLEAUX would like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers, committee members, and music lovers who put festivals around the country like this together, and provide musicians the STAGE. - THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Get along to Mission Bay in February

PS: Many thanks (and congratulations) to "Hoegaarden" — new major sponsor of the Mission Bay Jazz and Blues Streetfest.

Check out the link below:
http://www.jazzandbluesstreetfest.com/

Demo of New Album

Brilleaux have been in the studio recently and recorded a DEMO version of our new album.

The idea was to allow us all to live with the new songs for a little while and see how we like them. See if there is anything that needs fixing or changing, or anything we would like to add.

Also to help Bruce as a tool to play along to at home, adding and planning extra and additional guitar parts etc.

This has proved itself to be a great help, and for the extra money it took is well worth the exercise.

We are hoping to record the album at Tim Julians studio - COLOURFIELD, located out in the country at Welcome Bay, in Tauranga.

Tim as some of you may know, is the piano and keyboard player that we call upon on occasion, and seeing as we were going to get him to play on the album anyway, we decided we may as well record it at his place.

Tim has just about completed a HUGE makeover on his studio, and we are quite excited about getting in there and making some noise.

Posted off two albums to Switzerland today, to a chap who saw us at a live show in RAGLAN earlier in the year. He purchased Eight-Track Style, and says that he NEEDS MORE!!!

Awesome.

Also mailed off 2 albums to a Dr Feelgood fan in England, and 2 email enquiries from New Zealand, so after selling 40 Plus albums in the Bay of Islands, we are starting to get the cash together to pay for the NEW album (see previous post) which is quite exciting I can tell you.

Brilleaux have been invited to play at the WHANGAREI festival in October this year, and after a great festival last year, we cant wait.

ALSO I have just secured a gig in New Plymouth at the SURFRIDERS. They invited us to play for them a year or so ago, and have just organised to have us back again. This was a GREAT GIG, so if you live in New Plymouth, it will pay to get your tickets EARLY, as they have limited tickets available, and they sold out last year.

We have met lots of fantastic people from down there, and look forward to seeing some of them at the gig.

This year we will have a support band play before us, so it will be GREAT value, and a great nights entertainment.

Insight into our new album in progress

After playing to venues full of music lovers at the Bay of Island festival, your favourite New Zealand Rhythm and Blues band are straight back into rehearsals, putting together our new studio album.
3 songs already in our live playlist, and ready to record are Howlin Wolf, Son of a Bitch, and PHD In Stupidity.
Another new song which we tried out at the festival for the first time is "It Wasn't Me." We are now quite happy with this track also.
Another 3 songs are also well underway and almost made it to the playlist at the festival, but as we have never played at the Bay of Islands before, we wanted to hit the audiences with our best, tried and true numbers, and give them a taste of the Brilleaux show, so we decided not to treat them as guineapigs and left them out.
These tracks are: I wonder Why (I Cant Get No Sleep) - a track I co-wrote with Derek of Kokomo, and which appears on their last album, although Brilleaux intend to give it quite a different treatment to the Kokomo boys and girls.
Seven Shades of Surprised, and Angry Young Man. A track entitled "I Love Girls" is also undergoing treatment, and is going to be lots of fun to record I can tell now, as it is very progressive, and features a couple of interesting musical concepts that we havent used before.

We intend the new album to feature a lot of Piano and keyboards courtesy of our friend Tim Julian, who appears on our LIVE at the Colosseum album.

Bay of Islands Jazz and Blues Festival.

On the weekend of 10-12 August, 2007 Brilleaux appeared for the first time at the Bay of Island jazz and Blues Festival.

We left Tauranga at about 11am on the Friday, and arrived in the Bay at about 6, armed with a good stock of all our albums and a van full of guitars and guys hanging out to play some kick-ass rhythm and blues.

Beano was moonlighting for Kokomo, so we had the evening off to immerse ourselves in the sights and sound of the festival.

Kokomo played to a rapturous full house at the Lighthouse venue. They certainly are treated like superstars up there, and I must say it is totally deserved. Their performances, not to mention the quality of their songs are several steps up the ladder from many of the acts you get to see on the circuit, and with the full band (Mike Kirk on Electric guitar) Our Beano, and Sonia (Sonya) Bullot on trumpet all on stage, they blew the expectant crowd away, delivering MORE than the crowd were hoping to witness.

Brilleauxs first gig wasnt until 4.45 the following day, at the Duke Hotel on Russell, which is a ferry-ride away from the main township.

By the time we got to play the adrenaline was really kicking in, after watching so many good bands, we were ready to do our thing.

The venue - although packed to the gunnels - was mostly seated.
I proceeded to explain to the crowd HOW British Rhythm and Blues came to be, and HOW we could be associated with a blues festival like this one, before hitting them with our full noise version of Riding on the L&N. The rest of the gig was great, and we even threw in our very first performance of the song "It Wasn't Me" - a new original destined to appear on our new album.

Our second gig was at 9pm at Haruru Falls. A great venue, and this place was more packed than the first place.
We played Beer Goggles (with the theremin), AND POD at this gig.

Our final gig for the day was at The paihia pacific, and the auditorium was packed.
This was our best gig of the weekend, and the entire crowd was on its feet dancing.

At 4.45 we played our final show of the weekend at the same venue. appearing straight after Kokomo. The venue was packed inside and out.

I explained to the mixed-age crowd that I could appreciate how Bob Dylan must have felt when he turned up at the Newport jazz festival with his electric band. However, the crowd at this final gig of ours was there by choice - our reputation for delivering a full-on energetic show of driving rhythm and blues had preceeded us, and they loved every minute of it.

We sold a huge number of CDs over the weekend, which all goes to spread the good word.

We cant wait to go again next year.
Thanks to all you fans and supporters, and all those who purchased CDs - it all helps to bring our next album a little closer to completion.

We were treated like celebrities up there with people wanting to get photos taken with us and get our autographs - a very humbling experience.
Thank you to all the organisers, venues, and sound people involved - a great festival.