The Zoots band in France
Hellllo June! The Zoots band Wiltshire were super super busy in May. We performed at loads of birthday parties, weddings and events up and down the UK. We had a great night performing for the Hash House Harriers with Jamie & The First Class – it was so totally brilliant. Read all about it on Jamie and the First Class blog. We’ve performed at Bowood House a few times in May, for James and Jess’s wedding and Jenny’s 40th Birthday party we love it there, Arno and the team are just brilliant to work with. May also saw a trip to Brighton and the birth of ‘So much to meet you‘. It was the month of May when we stayed at the best ever B & B – Mercer’s Barn and when we had a night to remember performing for Jen Hathaway at her 40th Birthday. We’ll not be forgetting Juliette & Nicholas’ wedding at Pangdean Barn in a hurry either, it was beautiful. And of course! Our trip to the Lake District for James’ and Abbie in one of the most amazing marquees in the simply gorgeous National Trust Fell Foot Park. Gosh. WE DID SO MUCH. And we ended May in style as we joined the Royal Caribbean ship, ‘Liberty of the Seas‘ to perform with our 1960s show. This is what happened.
It began early, as most journeys do. Earlier than some but later than others. We’d been performing in Oxford for those mad Hash House Harriers the night before so we’d managed a few hours kip before our epic journey. It started in Wiltshire at Zoots HQ. The sun was shining. The fields were green. We had our bags packed, our passports at the ready. We were headed to France, Marseille to be precise. We piled into the van like excitable wee children. Only yesterday, whilst practicing our French, Stuart had questioned why? “BECAUSE WE’RE GOING TO FRANCE”, I exclaimed. ‘Oh Yeah’, He replied.
After a few hours in the van, we made it Heathrow. Like a second home, we knew it well. After check in, we grabbed a quick bite to eat. Stuart Morrell had a banana. He loves those. We waited. And we waited some more. Before we realised we had waited too long and ran to our gate. We made it! We boarded, bound for Marseille.
It was late when we touched down in France. THE ZOOTS WERE IN FRANCE. We had a taxi pre-booked. What with all our guitars, suitcases and equipment, we have to ensure we’ve got every step of the journey organised. The taxi driver was a hoot. After the photos and a taxi ride we arrived at our hotel in Marseille. It was way cool.
After checking in and taking some photos we ventured out into the Old Town. It was late so we had one lemonade before making our way back to the hotel and to bed. Stuart was so tired his eyes could not open. Jamie drank some Pschitt!
The next day was Monday and we woke up early to a lovely sunny day in Marseille. We headed down for a yummy French breakfast of croissants, tea, juice, jam and eggs! It was the perfect start to a perfect day. We had a few hours before the taxi was coming to collect us to go to the ship so we had a short stroll down to the Old Town again.
A short while after, the taxi arrived to take us to the Liberty of The Seas which had docked in Marseille for the day. Unfortunately it wasn’t our singing taxi French Man but he was nice all the same. We made it to the Liberty of The Seas, it was so much bigger than we remembered! We checked in and settled into our cabins. It was lovely.
We were performing the next day we were all conscious of getting an early night so we could put on the best show ever. The ship set sail around 6pm. Its such a surreal feeling, you would hardly even know we were moving. We had a quick bite to eat and played a music quiz. Stuart Morrell won a fridge magnet. He loves his fridge magnets. We got an early night, tomorrow was going to be busy!
The next day was show day, and we had docked in Ville Franche. We got up early and had breakfast as we wanted to have a look around the port. It was just lovely. The weather was glorious and we had a lovely morning looking around. We even managed to see Keith Richards (from The Rolling Stones) old house ‘Nellcote’ where they recorded the Exile on Mainstreet album in 1971.
After a few hours of walking, we headed back to the ship to get ready for the evening. Crikey we took a lot of photos!
This was definitely one my favourite…!
The evening was fast approaching, it was show time. We were excited to performing here…
We set up and sound checked with Sacha & the team. They were great. The Platinum Theatre on the Liberty of the Seas is huuuge! It was great to be performing there again, we were really looking forward to our 1960s show that evening. We’d worked hard on the show on the winter, making improvements and choreographing some new moves. We’d also invested a lot of time in our backing vocals and audience participation. As there are guests from a huge variety of countries (72 different ones on this ship) we really work hard to choosing specific songs from the 60s which we know everyone will love.
After soundcheck, we a had a quick break to get ready in to our 1960s outfits ready for the show.
The show was brilliant. We had such an amazing time. The songs all went down really well. We performed some great 60s songs including ‘I’m a Believer’, ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Do You Wanna Dance’. It was such good fun performing to so many people. The whole theatre was up dancing and clapping a long. Such a wonderful atmosphere. Next time we’ll have to hand the camera to a guest to take some shots of us in action! Afterwards we met with some of the guests and had some photos taken. Everyone said such lovely things about the show.
Boy we were tired, another early night for us, we left the Liberty of the Seas and caught our flight back to the UK.
It was a brilliant couple of days…it all went so quickly. We can’t wait to do it all again in a couple of weeks. June is going to be brilliant.
Love Jamie, Harriet The Zoots x
2014 has been fantastic so far having played at Oxford Town Hall, Bowood House, Sweden, Norway, Tylney Hall, Henley wedding,The Zoots band Wiltshire
