Looking Forward to Seeing You all in 2009

Hello All Parroteers out there. Hope your Christmas went well and that you are looking forward to The Downturns, Recessions and Financial Collapses the coming year undoubtedly has to offer us all.

Despite all four of us being on holiday, the CD's are still attracting attention, which is remarkable, as we haven't really done any promotion or Press Releases on it yet. So, um...if you did want one...best be proactive if you want it to be from the first pressing.

We have confirmed two bookings for 2009 plus a private party. We will be playing at The Blue Pig, Wolvey, Warwickshire, on the 6th February. And if we haven't sold them all, or given them away, we'll have some CD's for sale that night.This is a lovely pub, with currently, FIVE draught real Ales on tap. We've done loads of gigs there so we'll be looking to vary the format a bit on this night by having a few "guests" warming up any audience daft enough to turn up before we go on. Admission, as always will be free-this is our way of saying "thank you" to all our loyal friends and supporters.

NEW MATERIAL FOR 2009 GIGS?

Our last rehearsal of the year last night gave us the opportunity to work on some new material. And to re-arrange a couple of favourites. We had a "staff do" first with a mug of tea and a mince pie, then jammed a bit before going over to the Blue Pig for some IPA and Rockin' Rudolph. Well it is nearly Christmas.

From the current set list, our version of "Bonny Black Hare/ Dirty Gertie" which we worked on last night now has an extended instrumental bridge featuring a new arrangement of a jig which fiddle player Eddie has been itching to introduce for ages. This is a long number,(actually it's two numbers-one "segues effortlessly" into another. Because BBH/DG runs to about nine minutes, we didn't put it on the album and we didn't get a chance to do it at any of our three appearances at the Bedworth Folk Festival.

BBH is a jolly good song-Fairport's version being our favourite-and Dirty Gertie is an acoustic version of a song we did when we were a rock band. Lyrics by Graham Caldicot, an ex-Parrot who also wrote part of "Vacuum Cleaner." We hope to keep it in our fuller sets for a long time-we all enjoy playing it, and where we have performed it, audiences have been very responsive.

We are also working at a slightly lengthened version of "D.I.Y." We would like to finish our set(s) with this number, and use it to thank the audience and highlight individual musicians before closing the set.

New stuff. Our revenge mission on awful Lancashire Sentimentality sees " I'm only a Poor Little Rhino" played back to back with " Albert Balls"-a song in the "Bryan and Michael " tradition, celebrating an artist whose tag can be seen on subway walls everywhere.

Newer still-what other folk band but us would attempt a Beyonce cover? Coming soon- "If I were a Goat." And a new ditty swiping waspishly at those Bankers (Cockney Rhyming Slang) who " Slit the throat of Woollies ."

" AIN'T IT GRAND! "

Here is the cover of our new album " Ain't It Grand!" Issued on Spindrift Records.
Producer and Engineer, the excellent Norman Wheatley.


"Ain't It Grand " was recorded at locations in Wolvey, Ryton on Dunsmore and Redditch. It features 15 tracks which we hope reflects our approach to Rock Blues and Folk Music over the last 30 years. That is, we know who we like and we acknowledge lots of influences, but most of all we like a good laugh and a good time.
There are serious covers of Dave Goulder and Scrapper Blackwell, along with a straight traditional version of "Black Velvet Band." But the album also features songs about the perils of Flatpack Furniture, the difficulties a Pirate might confront if faced with a Health and Safety Inspection, and the Folk Club from Hell.

WANT TO BOOK US FOR YOUR VENUE? DARE YOU? SEE CONTACT DETAILS ON OUR WEBSITE.

THE CD IS WINNING A NEW AUDIENCE OVER!

“ Ain’t it Grand! offers a mixture of dry zany humour with plenty of local references and foot tapping arrangements of popular traditional tunes.”

-Folk journalist Pete Willow, writing in The Coventry Telegraph



“Intelligent and Funny with a Difference of approach to comedy in each song,”

-( Presenter John Butler speaking on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Local Radio, having chuckled through ten tracks during his Monday show!)


"15 tracks we know and love. It's the one I reckon you must buy for Christmas. If you like Comic songs this is the one to get. A great listen."

"Wedge's Warwickshire" presenter Keith Wedgebury of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio, commenting on the five tracks he played during his Sunday show.

"Many thanks for your excellent CD, when will you be producing a follow up?
Oustanding vocals, perfect lyrics with a good sense of humour."

-T Baldwin, Coventry. Our first Internet buyer, Tony was surprised (and it seems delighted) to find "Ain't It Grand!" delivered to his door in person by one of the band!

An Introduction

Well. This is a new departure. A Blog purely devoted to that whacky zany and really rather irritating Folk outfit from Coventry and Warwickshire, Black Parrot Seaside. Our hope is that this will serve several important functions:

It will compliment our website at www.blackparrotseaside.co.uk and give our followers, groupies and fans (both of them) a deeper and more personal insight into the troubled world of edgy Comedy Folk in 2008-2009:

It will introduce anyone who is new to the band (either through performance or hearing us on the wireless) to our thoughts, our material, our philosophy and our taste in sandwiches:

It will furnish fellow OCD sufferers with an infinite catalogue of pretty trivial information. Interesting minutiae like how many Long Tailed Tits were hanging on Geoff’s birdfeeder this morning are the meat and drink of those who have had enough of reading about Oasis and Amy Whitehouse:

It will provide future Biographers with a wealth of detail for inclusion in their next book.

A ( FURTHER) CHANCE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE?

Folk purists, and those few folkies who have had a sense of humour transplant hoped that a Summer of comparative silence from Warwickshire Folk Band Black Parrot Seaside might have signalled the fact that they’d finally gone away. But this particular Parrot is not yet pushing up the daisies, nor has it been pining for the Fjords. Having spent much of the Summer and early Autumn recording, the band were back on the road this Autumn. They are performing on what is virtually home turf at the Blue Pig Wolvey, Warwickshire on Saturday 27th September. They have also lined up appearances at Banbury Folk Club, The Tuns, Coventry, The Maudslay Hotel (Coventry) and three appearances at November's Bedworth Folk Festival.
They have been busy recording their second album, "Ain't It Grand! Produced and engineered by Norman Wheatley, 15 tracks showcase some of their own unique material and also include a few folk cover versions.
Reproducing their “lively” visual act in a recording has been a challenge. They have compensated by adding sound effects as diverse as steam trains, parrots sneezing, vacuum cleaners, sailing galleons riding at anchor, whistlers being shot and a hilarious telephone conversation with a Safety Inspector from “Health and Safety, ( Folk Club Branch). “
Three new arrangements of previous songs recorded on vinyl make the new cut. Amongst them is a new unplugged version of " I am a Vacuum Cleaner " -which John Peel gave BBC Radio One airplay to. Newer material from their 2008 Set List includes their homage to every seriously Bad Folk Club on Earth, the sensitively titled “At The Septic Monkey.” Chas and Dave get a name check in “Cockney Power,” whilst Keresley Colliery and Professor Carl Chinn are unlikely bedmates in “ Salt of The Earth,” -a belated riposte to The Strawbs’ song “Part of The Union.”
Local interest is served by “proper cinemas” being fondly recalled in “The Odeon” -a catchy number which reveals a warmer and fluffier Parrot. And “Beduff Bank “ is an old crowd pleaser, describing landmarks from Bedworth Coventry and Nuneaton.
To restore some sanity and to keep Listeners’ feet tapping, trademark jigs and reels are added after three songs. Restfully reverent covers of “Wee Midnight Hour Blues”, the very traditional “Black Velvet Band” and a Dave Goulder song about steam locomotives have also been recorded.

“There’s something for everyone except Metallica Fans ,” explains a spokesperson.
“ And on our next album we will revive the “Poor Little Rhino Song”, investigate who killed Nuneaton Borough Football Club, do some Country and Western and have a gentle pop at Nizlopi, Brian and Michael and Beyonce.”

*More info at:

www.blackparrotseaside.co.uk