Acton Zappa's birthday

It was a year ago yesterday, 28th March 2014, that Acton Zappa met for the very first time. That original jam had Mike Fox on guitar and vocals, Tomáš Indyján Nejedlý on bass and one-time only member, Eldred on guitar and multi effects box. Eldred, by his own admission, knew no Zappa material and Tomas was very relieved when I told him Eldred would not be at future sessions. Tomas on the other hand knew lots of Zappa including bits of the frighteningly-hard-to-play Echida's Arf and thus was started a musical partnership that has endured. With the addition of John Parkinson on drums and recently Helen Tate on violin Acton Zappa have matured into the gigging combo you can see today.

For nostagia's sake here's a recording from that very first jam sessions. I hope it doesn't give you nightmares Tomas.

why-does-it-hurt-when-i-pee on soundcloud

There are no pics from that very first jam session. Here's one taken a month or two later of Mike and Tomas.

MOO-AH was fantastic

Here we are on stage at MOO-AH opening the festival. Sorry we can't see John at the back but nice view of MOO-AH logo on front of bass drum behind Helen.

Here we are (minus Helen who had gone home early) on Saturday, around 1 a.m., after it was all over, trying to persuade Ike Willis to join the band. Only kidding. He had been playing with Zappatika. That's half of Zap Mcinnes' head you can see on the right.

Now we are 4 and it's MOO-AH! tomorrow

Helen Tate of Spanner Jazz Punks tried out with us last Saturday. It went brilliantly and she is now in the band. On Saturday eveing we played a great set with Helen at Hanwell Hop and although there were some technical problems everybody played really well. I feel so lucky finding these great players who are as nuts about Zappa as I am. Possibly the high spot of the night was when I invited Jazz Mondays back to join Acton Zappa on the stage to form a band of around 14 players to perform Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance and Chunga's Revenge. There were violin, guitar, saxophone and keyboard solos all backed up by bass and two drummers.

We are all very exited to be playing at Festival MOO-AH in Corby tomorrow night and sharing the stage with Inventionis Mater and the Zappatistas. We are on first and fully intend to give our best performance to an audience of Zappa aficionados. Then we will just stay on and enjoy the rest of the festival.

Possible New Member and Local Gig on Saturday 14th March

At this coming Saturday rehearsal we're trying out a potential new band member. Then in the evening we're playing a local gig at Hanwell Hop and this new person might join us for a few numbers. What is certain is that at the end of our set we will be joining forces with Jazz Mondays (a band I sometimes play bass with) to play two Zappa tunes with a very large band including 2 drummers, 2 guitarists, keyboards and at least six saxophones.
Jazz Mondays are on at 7pm and Acton Zappa at 8pm. The evening continues with Hats off to Led Zeppelin at 9.30pm.

Acton Zappa Expansion?

Although it's great fun playing as a trio it seems to me that an audience might be better entertained with a few more players so I've advertised for a sax and a keyboard player. No keyboard responses yet but I've arrange to audition a sax player this Thursday. Fingers crossed.
It's almost certainly too late to expand the band before the two coming March gigs but I'm hoping we might be a larger outfit post MOO-AH.

We were on German Radio yesterday

The German internet radio station Rockradio.de had a programme last night that featured all the bands to be playing at the upcoming Festiva MOO-AH in Corby. So a track of Acton Zappa's was played in the very good company of Ike Willis, Denny Walley, Zappatistas, Zappatika, The Muffin Men, Inventionis Mater Evil Dick and the Banned Members and String Thrash
The next chance to here us on the radio will be on Tuesday 17 February on Andrew Greenaway's AAAFNRA show on Thurrock Radio

Today's rehearsal

Today's rehearsal included a play through of a different set to last time.
A possible first set for our upcoming pub gig.
acton-zappa-rehearsal-2015-01-31-set