Happy 91st birthday, to Your Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
Band leader Bill Phelan, seen here playing trumpet with Johnny McCallum on banjo and Alan Cresswell on clarinet with ‘Bill Phelan’s Muscrat Ramblers’ at Farnborough Jazz Club (Kent) last 27th May 2016. Photo by Mike Witt.
‘BILL PHELAN’S MUSKRAT RAMBLERS’ will be with us at FARNBOROUGH JAZZ CLUB tonight, Friday, 21st April 2017. Band leader, BILL (trumpet & flugabone) will have with him ALAN CRESSWELL (clarinet), JOHN FINCH (trombone), ANDY LAWRENCE (double bass), JOHNNY McCALLUM (banjo & guitar) and PAUL NORMAN (drums). Oh, I will be back hopefully later to tell you more, but Keith has just popped his head round the door to say car is not working and I have a school run today – before ‘running’ the club tonight, so need a car desperately today!!!!!!!!!!! Back again and will leave the last sentence on, because the reason for a ‘dead car’ was I had left lights on last night!!! My saviour was purchasing a great ‘Power Pack’ from Halfords a while back and am extremely grateful today that I did. So go and treat yourselves, buy one – you never know when you are going to need one. Now about our Muskrat’s, well if you read my newsletter about the last time they played for us, you will get the gist of how much fun they have, ensuring audiences have fun too. I just re-read it and thought I had better fill you all in (especially his wife) about Andy and my (innocent) ‘private country joke’, it conjures pretty naughty thoughts. I was going to dear ol’ Dipper’s funeral and was unable to find the crematorium (in Leatherhead, Surrey). I had been going round and round in circles, so stopped a chap, walking his dog, to ask the way. After he gave directions, we both suddenly realized we knew one-another, but when you meet someone out of context, well – yes, you’ve guessed, it was Andy – in his dog walking country gear ha ha – he thought he looked smart too. Seriously, he did look lovely in his smart country-gent gear. See you all tonight.
Hosts, Diane and Keith