Stanley Dee: Now there are 11 at The Oddfellows, Apsley.

Sunday, sat looking at the wreckage of our weekend.....we somehow managed to get my mum out of Hospital, got her home and gave her lunch.....we were free!

What did we do? We'd driven miles to get to Hemel Hempstead (don't even ask where that is) and got lost looking for The Oddfellows Arms.

I'm wearing a red tie, it's a special thing for me and we were searching for Stanley Dee, the only tribute band anyone could ever want to see;

 

 

 Crammed into a tiny Pub, now there really are 11 of them; the lights failed, the sound failed. It was great - there was dancing. It was fun!

 



Members:

Katie Ayres (vocals), Cavan Daly (lead vocal), Paul Davey (tenor sax), Don Ellis (drums), Jen Good (vocals), Keith Jones (keyboard), Steve Joy (trumpet), Mark McCormack (bass), Amelia Rendell (vocals), Darren Spicer (guitar), Derek Walker (alto sax)

I know, I know, there are only ten in this photo but I have gone to some lengths to cover them all. This was taken in the middle of the beautiful instrumental part of Aja - it's the music of Steely Dan; the most enigmatic of groups and the hardest of all to copy.

Hiding in the back are the drums and keyboards - that's an improvement on last time when they were in a different room!

 

 

There were some magical moments - this is music that the real live Steely Dan couldn't really cope with playing too well live and always with a host of ever changing session musicians.

 

It's also always great fun - who else knows that the audience will sing along with;

 

" Is there gas in the car? Yes there's gas in the car - I think the people down the hall know who we are!"

 

Probably the best line ever written.

 

The red tie? I was once approached at a Stanley Dee concert and someone winked at me and pointed to my red tie; "The Crimson Tie....heh?" I nodded back in a conspiratorial fashion. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the line from Deacon Blues refers to "The Crimson Tide".

 

And now I imagine a growing number of Steely Dan fans wearing red ties by mistake.

 

Hee Hee!.

 

We hope to catch Stanley again at the end of November at The Horns in Watford - always a good night and a great sound system.

 

Neil Harris

 

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

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