THE DEALERS

The Wrotham Arms...

2010-04-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well, it had felt like ages since our last gig and for some reason unknown to us, it seemed to be one of those days where everything just goes wrong! Our monitor blew a fuse and typically it was a totally different size to the norm! After blowing a couple more we'd bought from the local shop, a kind soul at the Wrotham offered to rush back home and fix the original fuse for us! Thank you Brian, you saved the day! It was just the bit of luck we were so desperately needing! (Also, we'd like to acknowledge ex-Dealer, Lee Charles and his wife Amanda. Amongst the pre-gig panic, they found us a spare monitor, just in case! Thanks!)

Despite all the pre-show palaver, the night ended up being one of our most favourite gigs to date! This was largely due to the amazing crowd (and Master Brew)! Broadstairs and parts of Alicante, (wink wink!) truly are filled with some very wonderful people! Thank you to all that came to support us.

4 Day Tour

2010-03-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Our 4 day mini weekend tour started at the Jester (above) in Odsey, Cambridge. An intimate family affair! That's Stephane in the hat, the landlord, singing lead on Wondering! Finally got to kip after a pretty fierce drinking session at 4.30am! Thanks bruv, we owe you one! The next night was at Mr Ed's very wonderful Mini Matcham SE4. There are no photos because this place has to be seen to be believed... just ask Simon & Rita! The party was still going until the sun came up! (That'll be two nights in a row!) Thank you Mr Ed and Polly for everything including breakfast at The Toad!

Ali, Brian, John and Gemma (above) after many pints of Greyhound and after The Good Intent gig in Rochester. Thank you to the landlord and landlady, Dal and Karen for looking after us so well! Looking forward to the next one! Beautiful sounding pub! The Barnaby Rudge (below) was possibly the most well attended of the 4 nights thanks to the students of Kent School of English! Thanks for staying! We had a great time and can't wait until we're next back there!

"Did we win?"

2010-03-26T02:17:00.000-07:00

WINNERS OF THE FOLK AGAINST FASCISM - FOLK IDOL COMPETITION 2010

Thank you to those that came to support us at The Folk Against Fascism Folk Idol in Maidstone, incredibly, and with fierce competition to boot, we won! 7 bands from Kent took part in the contest and the atmosphere was electric! What did we win? Well, we are over the moon to inform you all that on 12th May 2010, we will be supporting BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner - Rory Mcloed at Flaming Henrys Banquet Hall in Maidstone. It's going to be a night to remember! We'd really love to see you all there if you can make it!

Best Of Britain & Ireland

2010-03-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

This is the second time The Dealers have performed at the B.O.B.I show and this time, we were given our very own stall! (see below!) For those of you who aren't exactly sure what it's all about, basically, the whole idea of the event is to make us more aware of some of the fantastic holiday and weekend destinations right here on our very own doorsteps! The hall was divided up into different segments, each representing the best walks, coasts, theatres, hotels, restaurants, local food, drink produce, travel etc. Not only was it a chance to feel proud of what this country has to offer, we especially enjoyed the various tasting sessions... The BLACK SHEEP ALE stall was where we spent most of our time! (Of all their Ales, Malcolm whole heartedly recommends the Golden, whereas Pierre, The Rigwelter, Gemma favours the Holy Ale where as Ali swears by Square Sheep!) We also all enjoyed the "Whiskey tour of Scotland" and considering the amount of times we went back... we now know the whole distilling process inside out! Hic! We'd like to thank everyone for joining our mailing list, Best Western hotels for offering us places to stay on our travels and just meeting so many wonderful people! Hopefully we'll see you all again next year! Hic!

Pic 1, The Dealers stall in all it's glory!

Pic 2, Note the individually sellotaped Dealer logos... all 600 of them! Someone was rather bored!

Pic 3, Malcolm showing us all how the Trejon should be played!

Recording at Ranscombe

2010-03-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Ranscombe Studios in Rochester. Thanks to you and your donations so far, the new EP has now been recorded onto beautiful reel to reel analogue tape! After spending the Saturday morning setting up all the various microphones, including 'the' Neumann U87, we spent the rest of the two days recording totally live and as a band... the way it should be! If you should ever see Jim Riley, our sound engineer and Ranscombes owner in the pub, please buy him a pint! He and Brenden were both great at keeping moral high and keeping our voices lubricated with none stop tea!

So is that it? Well no. It doesn't end there... Malcolm has copied each individual track on to his Mac and next week we're then going to mix it all, make everything balanced and add effects, perhaps add a few bits/take bits out and drink more tea. Then, when that's all done we can then send it to Universal in New York to be mastered.

So.. all that leaves is the packaging and CDs themselves until you can hear what all this fuss has been about! We are still about £500 away from our target... so if you can spare a little cash then we'd be forever in your debt! Remember, if you donate £15, we'll send you a brand spankin', shiny new CD delivered straight to your door! How does that sound?

George Cross for Dover

2010-03-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

A big thank you goes to Terry Cleaver organizer of The George Cross for Dover Campaign and author of Dover Soul for sending in these snaps of Pierre performing at the very beautiful and grand Dover Town Hall way back in August '09!

200 people came to support the campaign and a fun night was had by all! Pierre was given the courtroom, still with gavel and dock as his own personal dressing room!