Hi guys, and thank you for being so patient in these trying times!

We have had many people asking which gigs are on and which are off. Obviously our lovely little tour of The Netherlands went by the wayside as did The 100 Club gig. The 100 Club is tentatively scheduled for September 3rd - but we are possibly being a bit hopeful there.

Sadly our dates at The Cavern and Black Dyke Mills are being postponed. We will be looking for dates as early as we safely can, but no point in making predictions on that as yet.

James and Al have also had to postpone the James Warren and his Mighty Miniature Orchestra gig, as even if The Rondo were to miraculously reopen by July 3rd, we would not be able to physically rehearse this rather complex show. When it happens it will be spectacular though!

We reckon our gigs have been getting better and better, so it has been very frustrating to be cut off in our prime - if you can talk about people of our age being in our prime!

Something we are crucially aware of, is how precarious the future for all venues is, when we eventually come through this pandemic. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a venue cannot survive on half full houses if there were to be enforced social distancing. We are rather hoping that it will be left at the discretion of each person to judge how safe they feel and not legislated, as that will be the death knell for many venues. Maybe a good way to look at it is, when there is more chance of being run over by a bus, than of catching Corona Virus, then perhaps that is the time to go out again - and those stats will be with us probably sooner than the press would suggest.

In the meantime we have been going through a bit of a creative spurt with two new songs released - albeit with a few more Korgis to add to the final versions! There are also a good few new songs peeking over the horizon. John Baker and James Warren got together last week for the first writing session, and James & Al have begun regular writing/recording slots. Other members of the band will be brought in when it becomes more feasible to do so. In case you missed it here is the 2nd release - the 1st one being covered in a previous blog. As there are such a lot of conspiracy theorists raising their heads at the mo, we thought the video could reflect that. Rarely has there been such paranoia coming from all directions!
This Is A New Low

Our resident creative art genius Leah Darknell - she animated the video of Colours - has been coming up with a series of cartoons called Keeping Up With The Korgis. This is a somewhat fictitious account of what we have all been up to during lockdown. Here are the first two... and if you want a to see them unfold then head over to Keeping Up With The Korgis. She says there are also Easter Eggs, but it is way past Easter so no idea about that one!!!
We will post them there slightly earlier than on Facebook and Twitter.

We really hope to be able to catch up with you all in person before too long, and before we all go STIR CRAZY!
Meanwhile stay safe - only you can know what safe feels like for you. We will continue to listen to your thoughts and try to base our return to gigging on when the time is right for the majority. A great gig is not really a great gig without an audience!
Thanks for being patient with us during this time.
James, John, Al, Paul, Nigel, Emmy, Jay, Ava and Dave.

Shortly after The Korgis album 'This World's For Everyone' Andy Davis formed a band to perform some of his solo works. He called it The Andy Davis Band! This was the only album released with this lineup, and the CD has become about as rare as rocking horse manure!

FEAR NO MORE!... as Andy has repackaged and re-released this classic album. It looks and sounds great! Here is an email link to grab a copy - only £11 including postage.
GET A COPY FROM MIKE WEBB

There is also a link (via Facebook) to a live video of one of the stand-out tracks 'Baby Good For You'
Baby Good For You

Grab yourself a copy - We have played ours 3 times already and it only arrived today!

 

When the lock-down for Corona Virus suddenly came into play in March 2020, James Warren and Al Steele were right in the middle of a bout of songwriting sessions, and creating musical arrangements for the forthcoming James Warren and his Mighty Miniature Orchestra gig. 

When we realised that we could not physically get together our collective brains started ticking as to what we could do remotely. Equally cut short were String Sessions for Liverpool band Exhibit-1, and main man Chris Hopkins and Al were talking on Messenger when the slightly outlandish idea was put forward that one of us would start a song and then pass it onto the other. James was invited to participate, and the ideas started rolling. 

The first one came in from Chris, called ‘This Is A New Low’. Carrying on in the political vein, Al put forward the verse called ‘Magic Money Tree’. Almost simultaneously, James wrote a fantastically tuneful chorus and Chris sent through a very dark middle section. On the same day Al also completed a very Floydian 2nd section for ‘This Is A New Low’. 

Both songs seemed somewhat reminiscent of a couple of the tunes from Stackridges ‘A Victory For Common Sense’... a thought that did not go un-noted, as Al had previously brought Exhibit-1 to the attention of James, for the band’s similarity to Stackridge. 

Al began to mix the various files for ‘Magic Money Tree’ as they were sent through - splitting Chris’ long section.  into two halves and key changing the 2nd half into an outro. All 3 parties then added various layers of harmonies. 

James and Al had been experimenting with the meeting app Zoom, and talking about the possibilities of ‘green screen’ video via it’s Backgrounds and Recording facilities. Al filmed his sections in this way, with an old shower curtain on the wall. Fortunately the fish on the curtain didn’t show up(!) and a backdrop of money was shown in its place. Al’s shirt was quite close to the colour of the fish curtain, so it disappeared completely, letting the money backdrop show through. The random  appearance/disappearance really adds to this rather manic Farage-type character. 

Exhibit-1 are exclusively a studio band - something they have in common with the later Beatles period! - so there was a tiny bit of resistance to going public on film. After explaining how a towel could be a green screen, they sent through some footage with the accompanying text... ‘If you think this is bad, then you should have seen the other 12 takes!’... adding ‘We make the original Batman series look like a convincing, well-acted drama’! 

Have You Seen The Colours

Leah Darknell - the artist who created James Warren’s ‘Have You Seen The Colours’ video - animated a ‘Magic Money Tree’ in which she hand drew every note of money, and made them shake in a random way. As this was to coincide with James’ chorus we would need the man himself to tackle the old green screen challenge! After several Zoom sessions where there did not appear to be a clear wall nearby, and he couldn’t find anything tall enough to hang a beach towel on, we settled on filming against a cream wall... not ideal but would have to do. As it happens it created a rather interesting effect of making his silhouette disappear, and he blended into the blue sky seamlessly! 

We all felt that this would make a rather splendid Korgis song, and the plan is when lock-down is finally over, the rest of the band will dub in their bits. 
Here is the Youtube link - and hey!... please subscribe. 
Magic Money Tree

As we were nearing the completion of the video and the final master, James sent across another FIVE pieces of music that could be taken much further. Chris has already begun work on one of them. 
So here is to the future, where we can actually write together in the same room!... but thank you to this isolation, we know that we can still bring things together even when we are apart! 
Let’s hope the whole world can do the same... 

THE KORGIS

2020 was shaping up to be our busiest year yet!... but as they say 'The best laid plans of mice and men...'
Of course in these troubling times, our first priority is for safety, both of the band and our lovely concert goers. It will therefore be of little surprise that our gig at The 100 Club on May 16th, while not yet cancelled, certainly has a huge cloud of doubt hanging over it. Even the most optimistic of people are not seeing the end of our lock-down in sight by May. Likewise our 3 dates in Holland are just as doubtful.

We will of course hope that by July people are able to travel a little more freely, which means we can possibly make our gig at Black Dyke Mills on July 18th, our Korgis Brunch get together in Bradford or Halifax and the Cavern gig on the 19th. We will keep you updated here and of course Facebook and Twitter.

In the meantime James and Al have been busy arranging the music for their self-indulgent side project James Warren and his Mighty Miniature Orchestra. More of that in a separate blog, but suffice to say that more than half the songs have not been performed by The Korgis live, and there is a VERY healthy percentage of un-played Stackridge songs in the set list. This is scheduled for July 3rd at The Rondo Theatre in Bath, but of course The Rondo is currently closed... until they are not! Watch this space!

The first thing we may do is a Facebook Live event where we play a load of back to back videos - some live - some old - some new - some classics. You get a chance to comment live as they play and most of the band will be there to answer questions etc.

If we are still in lock-down come the middle of May - providing it is safe to do so - we are thinking of streaming a live concert - internet only. Of course this will be free - but if you wish to support it, then we have some very fine merch available from our various websites. I seem to have the monopoly on that at the mo!!! Hot sales are the 40 Years of The Korgis T-Shirt. Al Steele Website  Anyone who signs up thekorgis.com is eligible for a discount code on anything on the Al Steele site including all Korgis merch. Use the Contact Us form and we'll bung it across to you.

Most importantly keep yourselves safe, especially for those most at risk. Keep a healthy supply of Korgis/Stackridge/DLM/James Warren/Mutter Slater Band music nearby - always good in an emergency! - and we will see you out the other side.

Best and warmest wishes, Al Steele

So, finally after 40 years The Korgis got to play Bath ( Where it all started). In all fairness, James did play The Theatre Royal one Sunday night in 1982 ( with Backing Tapes) but for a 8 piece korgis Band taking the stage at this great Little Venue ( Chapel Arts Centre) it really was a special moment. 

Great organisation by the staff at the venue. Our Sound engineer Ed had already set up Mics and Lines in exactly the right parts of the stage and the Soundcheck went really smoothly. 

Mr Al Steele and of course the Wonderful Ceri Darknell had done an amazing job with the Set. New 40 Years banners and Vintage surrounds for The Korgis TV’s. 

All set to go then. Of course we knew it was a sell out but hadn’t expected Old Friends who hadn’t managed to get a ticket to be stood waiting outside on the off chance that there would be some returns. Luckily most ended up happy and tickets were found.

Atmosphere was building when our support for the night Mr Matt Owens took to the stage around 7.55 to warm up the crowd. He did a great set, and had the foresight to get an audience shot on his phone. When the time came for our entrance around 8.35 the wonderful crowd were purring in anticipation.

Right from the off there were incredibly happy faces both in the crowd and on stage. I feel that we rose to the occasion and took the eager audience through Old Stackridge, Korgis and even Beatles Tunes throughout a total of 1 and half hours on stage. All interspersed with banter, anecdotes and general mischief and merriment. 

At 10.30 and after a rousing rendition of “EGTLS” we took our Bows only to be greeted with huge cheers for “More”. 2 Encores followed including a very well received rendition of Freheit’s “ Keeping the Dream alive” and then it was time to say goodbye.

Everyone in the band enjoyed mingling with the crowd afterwards, catching up with Family, Friends and old acquaintances that in some cases hadn’t been seen for 25 years or more. 

Personally, I slept really poorly, full of adrenalin and excitement at what had just happened and also memories of the 40 or so years I have been singing and making music with Mr Warren and the incredible memories we share. None better than this great night!   

Bring on Norwich, London and Holland next!
See ya! John

2019 has been a great year.

Looking back to 2018 when we really only played a couple of gigs - enjoyable and encouraging though they were - this year has been a roller-coaster!
Starting off in Yorkshire and then to a sell-out at London's 100 Club (which was a real blast) we felt like the band had really locked together and we had cemented our onstage persona. Followed by the beautiful venue Ropetackle on the south coast, and then to Bath at The Folk House. We also had the pleasure of Barry Walsh opening for us in superb style.  What a great night that was! Finishing off our Spring/Summer tour with The Globe in Cardiff - home turf for the Welshies - of which I consider myself one! - was fab. Thanks to the friends who made it along, and also to my long-term mate Lee Cottey who was a wizard on the sound. Then on to the lovely Selby Town Hall. Got to say the crew at Selby were second-to-none. They coaxed life into their giant video screen, so the films we had prepared looked fantastic.
For our last two dates of the year - imaginatively titled our 'Winter Tour', we started at Acapela in Cardiff. This was the unveiling of a new show, and brought in some OLD classics such as Stackridge's 'Freindliness', and the 'Fine Vintage Korgis/Stackridge Medley'. It was also the first show utilising multiple TV's - not without it's teething troubles!! The opening sequence can be seen here - excuse the wobbly top TV image. I superimposed it to simulate what it looked like on the night.

Opening Sequence 2019

Finishing off the year in style at The Wharf in Tavistock, in front of a lovely appreciative audience, brought us to a lovely end in 2019

Where do you we go from here?

Next year is the 40th Anniversary Tour.
'Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime' was the worldwide breakthrough The Korgis had been waiting for, and to celebrate James Warren has a brand new stripped down version of that classic song. Details of where to get a hold of that to follow soon.
We are also looking at a new stage set to incorporate some of the images of that original single cover.
Come along and see what we did with it!!
Dates for the diary

Jan 18, Chapel Arts, Bath
Mar 13 Epic Studios, Norwich
May26 100 Club, London
May 22  Luxor Live, Arnhem, Netherlands
May 23  Boerderij Cultuurpodium Zoetermeer, Netherlands
July 18  Black Dyke Mills, Bradford 
July 19th The Cavern, Liverpool

The reinstated Backstage at the Green, Kinross and one more Scottish date in the Autumn - plus much more as the year goes on!

Thank you for being with us on our journey so far, and hope to bring you LOT'S more in 2020!

Merry Christmas and a fab 2020
Al Steele

Friday at Tavistock was a fantastic gig... the band starting to really gel now.

We even had a dep Keyboard player in called Julian Tucker. What a musician, played sax and flute as well.

Looking forward to celebrating 40 Years of the Korgis next year – 2020 and where better than Bath – Jan 18th - where it all started and the hits were recorded.

I am really pleased with my latest purchase, this fantastic sounding Fishman amp. Sounded great at The Wharf, Tavistock. Great little Acoustic amp blasting our 60 watts but very light and portable.

If anyone is interested , my previous Korgis Acoustic Amp the Much favoured Marshall As50R is for Sale. Reverb not working but other than that sounds lovely - £50 and it's yours!! Message me here, using the Contact Us link.

Very pleased to confirm that The Korgis live band is getting better all the time!

I think starting with our gig at the absolutely delightful Acapela venue in Cardiff recently and continuing on to The Wharf in Tavistock, we've definitely turned a corner performance-wise.
Everyone in the band is now very comfortable with what they're doing and exuding a new-found confidence; it feels great.
Even playing without our regular keyboard player Nigel Hart at The Wharf, (he was already booked elsewhere), didn't seem to phase any of us.
Undoubtedly the brilliance of stand-in Julian Tucker helped in no small measure, but it's obvious to me the band is absolutely up-for-it and raring to go.

We are also lucky to have such a wealth of diverse material to choose from - very skilfully set-listed by Al.

Al of course is a formidable guitarist, arranger and techno-wizard as well as repertoire organiser - where would we be without him?

Not only that, but how about the amazing energy contributed by Ava, Emmy and Jay ("Born To Win")?  I always wanted to be in a band with proper backing vocals and now as I near my 70th year it's finally happened!

Talking of vocals, it's also working fabulously well having my mate of 40 years Johnny Baker singing some tracks and generally beefing up my vocal efforts. (Although speaking as a committed vegetarian I wish Mr Baker would lay off the beef and hit the tofu instead)

And I'm loving playing bass to Paul Smith's utterly dependable drumming and being inspired by our recently-enlisted keyboardist Nigel Hart's incredible virtuosity.
It's all fallen into place; I reckon 2020 is gonna be the best year yet!

Thanks to all who made it to our Spring/Summer dates! Here is s pic from our final rehearsal - what a miserable bunch!!

We are just a week and a half away from our Winter Tour! We have some great tunes in the new set.

Nov 1st We kick off in Cardiff at the fab Acapela Studios. This beautiful converted church is one of the most intimate venues you can play.
Nov 2nd To London - Subterania has had EVERYONE play there - The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Foo Fighters - even MADONNA!!!
Nov 14th First Korgis gig EVER in Scotland. Of course it is a favourite Stackridge haunt, so we feel we are among friends!
Nov 15th hightailing it down to Blackdyke Mills near Bradford. The history of this venue and location is inspiring us already!
Nov 22nd Down to the South-West and Stackridge heartland! The Wharf in Tavistock is a proper rock venue, and we will be getting our rocks off!!
Dec 16th Ending our little run with style, The Palace (suitable for Royalty we feel!) is a lovely theatre in Southend on Sea.

We would love you to come and join us at a gig, and later at the bar! Thank you for all who came and all who are coming. Looking forward to the next chapter!

With great joy we announce our winter tour!
 We hope you love our new set as much as we love our new set!

With some great Stackridge tunes that haven't been performed since Humpty Dumpy fell off the wall, and some classic Korgis favourites - not necessarily the ones you would think... how about 'Dirty Postcards' or 'That Was My Big Mistake'.
Come and marvel at how daring we can be- and how daring YOU can be.
See you there, and make sure you come and say hi!!