We hit the free stage of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival over the May Bank Holiday weekend, and it was great fun. It was brilliant to see so many people there watching, so thank you if you were one of them!

There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the whole Festival, and it’s really good to know there’s still such an appetite for jazz and live music as a whole.

Hope to see you soon at one of our next gigs:

Saturday 12th May

The Bayshill, Cheltenham, 8.30pm

Monday 14th May

The Daffodil, Cheltenham, 8pm

As always, all our public performances are listed on our gig list.

We had a great gig at Bistrot Coco on Monday night, as part of the Jazz Festival Fringe – we had a brilliant time, and we were treated to some fantastic food too!

If you’d like to check out the Bistrot with our music as your accompaniment, we’re back at the restaurant on 25th June and 10th September.

Also, don’t miss us this Sunday night on the free stage of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, in Montpellier Gardens:

Sunday 6th May

Jazz Festival Free Stage, Montpellier Gardens – 9.05pm

Andy & Andy preparing for fringe gigs.

The Cheltenham Jazz Festival is just around the corner, running from 2-7 May. The Festival Fringe is already underway, with lots of free gigs all over Cheltenham – don’t miss ours!

Monday 30th April

Bistrot Coco for the Jazz Festival Fringe – 7.30pm

On Monday night we’ll be in the cosy surroundings of Bistrot Coco. Our Parisian swing music should be a perfect accompaniment to the superb French food available there – hope you can come on down.

Sunday 6th May

Jazz Festival Free Stage, Montpellier Gardens -9.05pm

For the first time ever we’ll be gracing the free stage of the Jazz Festival, closing the Sunday of the Festival. We’ve got our fingers crossed for nice weather – and with the following day being Bank Holiday Monday, it’s the perfect opportunity to grab a drink from the Festival Bar, and have a lovely relaxing evening in Montpellier Gardens – entry to the site is free!

Michael Butler's painting of the band!

Last Saturday we played in Wotton-under-Edge, and had a wonderful surprise from an audience member. Michael Butler, a regular at SFP gigs, gave us this wonderful painting of the band. Thankfully, he painted it after the line-up change! We all think it’s great and most importantly the guitars look authentic. Michael drew a sketch of us at the Star Anise back in January and I think it is based on that sketch. I’m still trying to work out the best placed to display it at home, music room seems like a natural choice. Judging by our faces, I think we must be playing something that isn’t too taxing – none of us have eyes glued to a fingerboard.

The gig itself was in the Chipping Hall. This was the second time that we’ve played there and it is a very intimate arts venue. If you’re local it is well worth checking out as they have quite a variety of acts on, from music to visual arts. To have a look at what’s on click here. Debuting new material is becoming more of a regular occurrence for us and on Saturday we played ‘Donna Lee’ and ‘Quasimodo’ for the first time. We don’t like to make things easy for ourselves with the tunes we keep picking! Now that we’ve added a bit of bop to the set we are going to look at a few swing numbers and ballads. Thanks to those that made it out to the gig, hope to see you again soon. I would write more about the gig, but I’ve just split tea all over my keyboard ;(

Check it out!

Thanks to all those that made it out to the Royal Oak in Woodchester on Friday night, great fun playing for you all. All the new tunes seemed to go down well which is good. We’re getting together for a practice on Tuesday to work on more new material, can’t wait!

Our next gig is at the Chipping Hall in Wotton Under Edge. This will be our second time at this venue and it is a chance for you to see us in a formal concert setting. Tickets are £7 in advance or £8 on the door and can be booked by calling: 07791 323 869

Next gig:

Wotton Under Edge – Sat 14th April

The Chipping Hall (GL12 7AD), 8.00pm

Next gig:

Woodchester – Friday 23 March

The Royal Oak Pub (GL5 5PO), 8.30pm

We love the Royal Oak in Woodchester – it's Andy B’s local and we always enjoy ourselves there. This gig will be in the restaurant, to book a table please phone 01453 872 735. The food has recently received excellent reviews in both the Western Daily Press and Stroud Life.

Next gig:

Tewkesbury – Wednesday 14 March

Theoc House (GL20 5PY), 8.30pm

The Theoc House is a fantastic Tewkesbury pub – great beer, great food, and on the 14th March some great Parisian Swing…

Cirencester – Friday 2 March

The Golden Cross Inn (GL7 2AA), 9pm

A welcome return for us to this atmospheric Cirencester pub – last time we ended up jamming acoustically after the gig, just because we were enjoying ourselves so much!

Cheltenham – Saturday 10 March

The Exmouth Arms (GL53 7LX), 9pm

This will be our first proper gig at the Exmouth in Cheltenham – it's a very popular venue, we played here for the Jazz Festival Fringe last year and it was great fun.

Tewkesbury – Wednesday 14 March

Theoc House (GL20 5PY), 8.30pm

The Theoc House is a fantastic Tewkesbury pub – great beer, great food, and on the 14th March some great Parisian Swing…

Woodchester – Friday 23 March

The Royal Oak Pub (GL5 5PO), 8.30pm

We love the Royal Oak in Woodchester – it's Andy's local and we always enjoy ourselves there. This gig will be in the restaurant, to book a table please phone 01453 872 735. The food has recently recieved excellent reviews in both the Western Daily Press and Stroud Life.

Special concert

Wotton Under Edge Arts, Saturday 14 April.
Buy tickets

8pm, tickets £8/£7

Hope to see you soon!
Fenner, Andy, Steve, & Andy

The hit list of new tunes is currently being drawn up. So far it looks like we will be looking at ‘I’ve Found a New Baby’, ‘Americano’, ‘Donna Lee’, ‘Place de Brouckere’ and Monk’s ‘round Midnight’. At some point we are going to have to make difficult decisions of what songs to drop from the set-list!

Dates for the diary…..

February is a month of entirely private engagements (weddings and private parties) for us, but you can catch us in March on the following dates:
2nd March: The Golden Cross Inn, Cirencester
10th March: The Exmouth Arms, Cheltenham
14th March: Theoc House, Tewkesbury
23rd March: The Royal Oak, Woodchester

Thanks to all of those that made it out to see us at any gigs in January. If you’ve not heard us before then to keep in touch you can join our mailing list. We tend to send out an email once a month to let people know when and where we’re playing.

If you’re a Facebook user then pop onto our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/swingfromparis