With the CHRIS MOYLES SHOW in st-Stoke-on-Trent

Our next gig is in Stoke-on-Trent with The Chris Moyles Show. How exciting is that! About as exciting as it gets for us. Cos we've done it before and it was so good last time that we know it is going to be an absolute blast!


We're lucky to have done lots of exciting stuff. But sometimes events don't live up to the hype or our expectation. Whereas the Chris Moyles Show event we did in Milton Keynes back in april was great. Everything went really well - the show was good, everyone enjoyed it, we got to perform with Jo Whiley and Greg James as well as the Chris Moyles Show team, and technically (at the risk of putting the kybosh on tomorrow) everything went very smoothly. Basil and I needed a piss mid-set which wasn't part of the plan but Chris and Kirsty did a drum n' bass number to fill in.

And at the end, we all went back to the hotel for beers, pizza's and a chinwag.

More of the same tomorrow please.

Sheffield Wednesday

So we have played swanky London Night clubs, Rocked out in Barcelona, The French Alps, played the uk festival circuit, done the Kerrang Awards after show party, but still not conquered the North, which is strange considering 90% of the band are from the North. That was until tonight!

This evenings gig was a very special night for Rockaoke, and particularly for our bass supremo Jon Short, as we played at his Beloved Sheffield Wednesday football club, and you know what? we smashed it up, and no ABBA. If you get through a gig and not have to play any ABBA, you've had a great night.(no offence to all you ABBA fans).

Kirsty was fantastic as ever, Jon knocked out some crazy bass licks, Basil with his powerhouse drumming (shame about his football skills), the singers were in fine voice, and the audience. Well, what can I say about them. Quite simply amazing as they danced, drank and embraced the whole Rockaoke experience. All in all a great night in Sheffield, and we salute you.

It all kicked off @ the Tram & Social

Tooting Tram & Social on saturday 6 june was probably one of our best gigs ever. We had some truly great singers. The guys who sang "Last Nite" and "Are You Gonna Go My Way" were fantastic. And the girl (Biz???) who sang "Simply The Best" was so nervous but pulled a mega performance out of the bag which sent the crowd berserk! She was shaking like a leaf but that merely contributed a unique vibrato to her idiosyncratic vocal style. She was awesome!

Band weren't bad too. After a few holidays and enforced absences, it was good to have Basil, Danny and Jonny all back together again. And Mattyboy was on top form - as usual!

The show was so good we are using it to launch the ROCKAOKE Podcast. We'll be recording our first podcast this week which should be available for download very soon. :)

Things are hotting up in London. More venues wanting Rockaoke, demand that we can't meet and therefore more bands emerging who do what we do. Oh well! We've known for years what a cracking concept this is and it makes sense that other bands should pick up on it.

This week, Cuckoo Club in London and a rare hometown appearance at Sheffield Wednesday FC. Up the Owls!!!

Athenian Rhapsody

Just occasionally we get to fly to places that are much warmer than we are used to and where I don't have to drive home after the gig. So I get to have a few beers with the lads. And we tend to make the most of these happy days. Because I like a beer. And the lads like me to have a beer because it amuses them so.

So, on november 1st we celebrated Dan's enrollment as an official band member with a trip to Athens at the invitation of Macquarie Bank, or more specifically by their Corporate Finance London office who were organising the Macquarie 2007 annual northern hemisphere conference. We were going to be performing to 900 investment bankers - and performing onstage with about 80 of them. "MACSTAR" was a Pop Idol type show with 7 groups competing for the coveted golden microphone. And boy were they competitive!

4 of us travelled as the MIGHTY ROCKAOKE! Dan, Basil and me and the awesome Mattaoke who was to steal the show as MC extraordinary in his traditional greek outfit (looking much like this except for bigger feet and a more swollen bottom lip).

The event was a real success - we think! Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Lots of shaking of hands and mopping of brows afterwards. The organisers were really under massive pressure to deliver. Of course we remained sublimely oblivious to all this. But hopefully we didn't let anyone down.

Of course, then it was party time. As some of us hadn't got to bed until 7.30 that morning, I wondered how well we'd last. But we did ok. It was a free bar until 1am which was good apart from the predictable problems getting served. The one draft beer tap was playing up and the bartenders seemed more keen on dancing than serving drinks. But soon, the bar tab dried up and in one visit to the bar Matt managed to spend the 100 euro note I'd nicked out of my eldest son's piggy bank.

What else. Water fights. Basil stripped to the waist and armwrestling with big Jim from the Bronx ("If you come to New York, bring a spare liver") and winning. And there we were in the spiritual home of the kebab but all we could find were dodgy paninis. That was a big fat greek letdown!!!

But otherwise we had a fantastic time! And what's more we won - sorry, Corporate Finance London won with their ace rendition of BO RHAP! Forgive the bias please. These guys were paying us...

Finally, please also forgive the photoshop job on the photo at the top of this post. We were in a rooftop bar overlooking the Acropolis and this is what the photo would actually have looked like if we'd been able to explain the merits of backlighting to Michael the random dutch banker we'd grabbed to take the photo!

we will we will blog you - blog you!

We are ROCKAOKE! 3 lovely lads from the north of england who play in a band together and who decided that a singer was a luxury item that could be dispensed with - there being only 3 seats in the van. So, we travel around, playing gigs - and we invite members of our audiences to get up on stage and sing. And you know there is no shortage of volunteers. Which is just as well, cos we are crap when it comes to singing.

From time to time, it is our noble intention to post stuff on here - our blog - for all to see and read and maybe even comment on. Let's see how we go...