Hello everyone!
That hello is said with a Great Big Hopeful Smile because I do think we’re looking at a more hopeful situation with all the Covidious viruses being, if not bounced into oblivion, made manageable at last.
PER ARDUA AD ASTRAZENECA!!!
So here is a News Update and there is LOTS of news!!!
- Bad news – the May-June tour is obviously not possible due to continued restrictions. Boo hoo.
- Fantastic news – the tour has been rescheduled for the autumn and I have a spooky feeling this time that it will go ahead. My spooky feelings are pretty reliable – I was the one saying mid-February last year that I thought it highly likely we wouldn’t be able to finish the tour. And thus it came to pass. Keep an eye on our facebook page for tour updates. I might also add that if you haven’t heard from the actual theatres that are holding tickets yet, we won’t be able to answer about specific dates. Laughing Dave – our booker, who should probably be renamed Doleful Dave as he has had to cancel and reschedule three tours and 13 dates of the end of the Spring Tour 2020 – is currently jostling with hundreds of other bookers who want to find dates for the acts they represent… as you can imagine, there’s quite a scrum trying to get dates that work and also make some geographical sense. In other words, not Truro to Durham to Aberystwyth to Eastbourne in 4 nights… If Dave’s still laughing by the time we’re allowed to meet again, it’ll be a miracle. Well, either that or he’ll have to be hospitalised.
- Great News – Adele and I have both had Covid and lived, and by the time of touring we will have both been vaccinated. Actually, I was Pfizered only recently. Liza has also been vaccinated although she is only 22. Cornwall clearly has few people and many Pfizers. Michael Roulston is even younger, so I can’t speak for him.
- Excellent news –
Our new show was recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in January 2020 and for Covidious reasons, it was very slow getting it mixed, mastered and released. But it has been released at last and is available for download on Apple, and imaginatively titled FASCINATING AIDA LIVE AT THE QEH 2020. Here’s the link. This is what the cover looks like. - Vaguely encouraging news – I have occasionally stirred from my Covidious torpor to write a song and launch it on an unsuspecting world. Here’s my latest – a lockdown blues entitled NOTHIN’ TO DO BLUES, accompanied by the mighty Michael Roulston who will of course be joining us on the tour.
- Mixed news – My hairdressing bills have plummeted as I have given up being a natural blonde and now have long white hair. I thought I might look quietly and beautifully graceful like Emmy-Lou Harris, but actually I look like Diana Dors’ great grandmother.
A picture of me with my Resting Blues Face and my long white hair. Many apologies to Rodrigo, my long suffering hairdresser who I haven’t seen since February 2020.
That’s enough waffling from me. Please keep safe, keep wearing your masks and TAKE THE VACCINE if it’s offered. It really is the key to freedom. And hang on to your tickets – we will tour again.
Love from me.
x
Dillie
On the revised list of tour dates I can’t see the rescheduled Southampton Mayflower date? I’ve had tickets for that occasion for over a year!
Dillie here. It’s so frustrating, isn’t it? Trouble is, all the bookers for all the touring shows are crowding in and trying to get the dates booked for all the other acts who have had to re-schedule. Laughing Dave, our trusty booker, might have it pencilled in for the autumn or the new year – I think we will probably tour till we drop now – and it just isn’t showing. I don’t deal with that part of the business, so I can’t really say, but I do understand people must be getting frustrated. I’ve had tickets for shows myself and keep getting new dates for them… Thanks for getting in touch. Stay safe.
Dillie are you coming to Swansea, or anywhere close? Cardiff? London if we have to, my mum is a serious FA fan and I want and need her to see her last live concert, I think she is in the first phase of dementia I need her to see you once more, she introduced me to you at the age of birth lol by playing your tapes in the car and we have traveled multiple times to London to see you,
I just need her to see you once more
We have tickets to see FA in Glasgow on 22nd July and see other dates being rescheduled. Are the Scottish dates likely to be moved.
Thanks and stay safe.
I think it’s likely that they’ll be moved, so sorry for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, I feel fairly safe now that I’ve had Covid AND I’ve been Pfizered. According to my GP, I should be super immune! So please you stay safe too!
The Eastbourne Congress theatre is still advertising your June date, you might want to let them know you’re rescheduling, hopefully you’ll get the Bexhill date confirmed soon
Any news of a replacement gig for Watford (thats permanently off), something in North London (away from centre) or South Herts?
Dillie here… so sorry, I haven’t got an answer. I’m just “the turn” and I go where I’m pointed. But keep a look out – I imagine Watford will be on the menu some time and who knows, the Queen Elizabeth Hall might find a slot for us if you were minded to cross the river…!! Stay well.
I am so excited to (hopefully) see you all in Oxford in October. We saw you in Dorking on 10th March 2020 (after they’d sorted the fire alarm!), it was the last ‘normal’ thing we did before it all went pear shaped.
Hopefully seeing you in October will be one of the first normal things we will do again. I’m especially looking forward to dropping the kids off with their grandparents for the night!!
Haha, that fire alarm, that was crazy! Listen, I’m excited about Oxford! See you there…
Hi, I was due to see you in Eastbourne in june. Has this been rescheduled yet?
Dillie here without a useful answer… doh… I don’t know. I presume Laughing Dave (our booker, who probably hasn’t laughed much in the last 12 months as he has had to re-book three tours now) is on the case. Sorry not to be more helpful… Maybe check the website? Stay well!
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 so glad Covid spared you both its worst.
Thanks Chaz!
Can you tell e if you have rescheduled Theatre Severn next month as I haven’t heard anything yet
Oh, I wish I knew! Apart from anything else, Theatre Severn is a great favourite of mine, a modern masterpiece. I’m sure you will here when there is anything to tell you – and many apologies for this utterly uninformative answer… x Dillie
And we will be shouting and cheering you all on when touring is allowed x x x until then stay safe x x
Ahh, Jerry, how nice. xxxxxxxxxxxx
Very glad you and Adele survived Covid, and looking forward to seeing you whenever you manage to get back to Nottingham.
Thanks Claire, Cross everything!
Cannot wait to see you Ladies again in Yeovil
Your all amazing and never fail to make me smile! Keep safe all of you and we will be on the front row when your back on tour!
Thanks Liam! Can’t wait to yodel in Yeovil again!
Can’t wait to see you all performing again in the future.
Your live albums have kept us going and laughing over the last 12 months so thank you!
Hopefully we get to see you in Tunbridge Wells or London this year.
Sending our love to you all! Stay safe.
Thanks David. Tunbridge Wells ahoy… and you stay safe too. xx
Any news on Liverpool Philharmonic re schedule, Dillie?
Not yet, so sorry…
Have tickets for your show in Glasgow on 22nd July, any idea if it’s going to be rescheduled or go ahead as planned (for now).
I don’t think there’s much chance we will do any gigs in July. It’s all been so vague, it’s really difficult for our producer to make a judgement call on whether theatres will be fully open then and we can’t afford to do a socially distanced tour…
Glad to know you have pulled through and are revving up to get on out there. Hoping to here when the Doncaster show is rescheduled for, particularly as we have 4 front row seats booked and paid for – stay safe and keep the wheels turning xx
Thanks Grant! Here’s to a cracking night in Donny!
Seen at Basingstoke a new date is on website but not seen one announced by yourselves is this actually the new date? I’m so excited to see you live. Been waiting years. X
Is the new date this autumn? If so, it’s likely to be the correct one. Thanks for asking – and waiting!
Got tickets for the Eastbourne date but it seems to of disappeared can I transfer them to the Bexhill date ?
Now that’s something I really don’t know but I doubt… the trouble is, we don’t hold the money when people buy tickets. We only get paid when we’ve turned up and sung! All the venues are separate from one another – even if they’re owned by the same conglomerate, and we don’t have any control over the money they’re holding on to. So Eastbourne will be holding the money for your ticket, and I very much doubt they will be able to transfer the money over to Bexhill. You can ask, of course, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to book Bexhill and get your money back from Eastbourne.
So glad you’re all A-OK, and “jabbed”! As long as you receive our Scottish pounds we don’t mind when you manage to reschedule to. I’m even holding off rescheduling a flight until I know. Because you’re most definitely worth it!!!
Aww, that’s so nice! Thanks!
Glad to see you have some places booked now, but sadly I couldn’t see a single one for Scotland, the nearest you get to Scotland is Carlisle which is nearly 160 miles south of me! Please speak to the lovely Dave and see if he can get some dates in Scotland for 2022!
Take care and stay safe!
OH Hazel, I am so sorry. I’m not sure why they haven’t booked any Scottish dates but usually the problem is that the further we have to travel, the more it costs us in travel and hotels. There’s 7 of us on the road in two vehicles. So Laughing Dave has to make sure we have more than one date in La Belle Ecosse, otherwise it ends up costing us more than we can earn. There is now huge pressure on dates from all the acts that have been prevented from touring since March last year, and I know it has been difficult for Dave to book a coherent tour. And our producer is very careful with us, not wanting us to work quite as hard as we have done in the past. Adele has had her ups and downs health wise, and neither of us is a spring chicken any more… Perhaps in the spring we will see some Scottish dates.