The day began like most others, with the morning. We were up early as we had a long drive ahead of us. It was a cloudy and sunny, the view at Zoots HQ was pretty amazing.
We all subconsciously decided to wear polo shirts, we took this as a sign that today was going to be brilliant.
We were excited today as we were off to perform at Eastbourne Bandstand, we’d been looking forward to this all year! The journey was fairly straightforward and we really enjoyed swapping stories and learning some things we didn’t already know about each other in the van. We arrived in good time, drove down the promenade and began to load out our equipment.
The current bandstand was built in 1935, with its unique semi-circular design and blue domed roof; there is no other like it in the United Kingdom. (http://www.eastbournebandstand.co.uk/about/)
We’d been told that around 600 tickets had been sold, wow-weeeeee, we were excited. We set up and sound-checked. We’d brought our full HK Audio PA rig with us so we could cover every aspect of the circular stage.
You may recognise the bandstand as it has featured in numerous television programmes and films such as Foyle’s War, Little Britain, Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging, BBC Antiques Roadshow, BBC Songs of Praise and was shown in the opening sequence of BBC South East News. (http://www.eastbournebandstand.co.uk/about/)
Lead guitarist Ben and I enjoyed having a quick look around. I just loved being by the seaside! We enjoyed spotting the posters advertising the show around the Promenade.
Jamie and I were especially looking forward to this evening as Jamie’s niece and Jamie’s Mum and Dad had come to watch us. Here’s Jamie with our beautiful niece Tallulah before the show.
We had some time to get changed and get ready to go on.
We performed for 90 minutes, and it was brilliant! People got up to dance instantly! We crammed so many brilliant songs from the sixties into our set. Drummer Simon debuted his lead vocal song, ‘Little Help From My Friends’, everyone clapped and cheered and sang along. He totally smashed it. The atmosphere was brilliant. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to take the photos below and send them to us.
I love this photo I took of Tommy, Jamie & Ben during the show.
Before we knew it, it was over. Here are Ben, Simon and Tommy once we’d finished.
We really enjoyed meeting you all after the show and hearing your wonderful comments about the show!
We’d had a great time, but we were pooped by the end of the night!
We got changed and packed away our equipment, all very tired!
Thank you so much to all the brilliant staff and volunteers working at Eastbourne Bandstand. Here is Jamie with Paul who brought us on stage.
Huge thanks to Elaine, Ben & Phil and the team, who work hard at Eastbourne Bandstand, organising and putting on events all year round, making it the busiest bandstand in the UK. Many thanks to Jo & Stephen Bain for recommending us to the bandstand.
We’re really looking forward to coming back next year,
The Zoots, Jamie, Harriet, Simon, Ben & Tommy x
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