Another Month another Mother

At Sunday's rehearsal we were joined by Jen Parkinson on keys. Jen is John the drummer's wife and mother of their children. As a music teacher, who for her degree dissertation put together a band to play Zappa music, she had no problem fitting into Acton Zappa and it was a real pleasure rehearsing with her and noticing all the extra little bits she added to our arrangements. I'm pleased to say that she will be playing with us at our two March gigs.

Playing at Zappadan Zappajam

As promised I've uploaded a shorter version of the highlights recording to youtube. It comes in at under 4 mins. Playing at Zappadan Zappajam

What's new for Acton Zappa

I've put together a sampler recording of Acton Zappa at Zappadan Zappajam you can hear it on Soundcloud. I had planned to put it on Youtube with pictures but at around 10 minutes I think it is too long and I don't have enough pictures so I now plan to make a shorter version, a sort of highlights of the highlights, and upload that to Youtube.

After the great success of Zappadan Zappajam the hall has been re-booked for Saturday 3rd December 2016 for Zappadan Zappajam 2. Not too early to put the date in your diaries.

Our Facebook page has just passed 200 likes. Thank you people.

Our next gigs will be supporting Ike Willis and Zappatika
Saturday March 19th Corn Exchange, Stamford
Wednesday March 23 Talking Heads, Southampton
We restart rehearsals this Sunday.

And there was cake

Zappadan Zappajam went really well last Friday. Each band did a short set on their own then there was general mixing and matching including a dozen guest players with an audience of around 50. It all ended with a mass rendition of Muffin Man with almost everyone playing, singing and dancing. Overall a fantastic night. It almost felt like the Acton Zappa Collective had come into being.

Busy preparing for Zappadan Zappajam this Friday

by Jo Jo Gabor

Rehearsed with Acton Zappa on Saturday. Tonight I'm going to Jazz Mondays rehearsal and tomorrow Tuesday Blue. Then rehearsing some guests on Wednesday. Thursday I'm going to the launch of All City Queens, a book featuring the work of female graff writers and then it's all go for the party on Friday! Guest performers now total a dozen including Jo Jo Gabor, the Burns brothers from Gumbo Variations and Andrew the Idiot Bastard himself threatening to murder a bass guitar. My wonderful wife Lynne is slaving away on decor for the party. This is going to be a wonderful Zappa event - don't miss it.

Zappadan Zappajam preparations going well

In addition to the three bands there are 6 surprise guest players going to join the fun. Some travelling considerable distances.

See us at Zappadan Zappajam on Friday 11th December

Rehearsals continuing to go well and as promised, back in August, here's some details and a flyer for our gig next month. We are hosting a party to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Frank Zappa's birth. There will be 3 bands: As well as Acton Zappa playing Zappa exclusively, there will be Tuesday Blue mixing Zappa with blues and soul and Jazz Mondays bringing their big-band sound to some Zappa tunes. There will also be some surprise guests bringing their own take on Zappa. The party starts early and goes on till late. Hope to see you there.