Acton Zappa Next Gig - 12th July

Our next gig will be part of "Our Big Gig" an event taking place over a week-end and organised by Superact. It's a free outdoor event with many bands. Acton Zappa will be playing in Hampton Square, London, TW12 on Sunday 12th July. We will play a 45min set starting at 4pm or so. If you live in the area we hope to see you there.

Acton Zappa @ The Rocket

We had a very enjoyable gig at The Rocket last Saturday. Thanks to the enthusiastic audience and to Gilly and Graham our guest players.

The rejected mexican pope leaves the stage

Well not quite but sorry to report that, due to too many other commitments, Helen Tate has decided to quit the band. I'm sorry she's gone but respect her decision. This means that for the time being we return to being a trio. I'm not totally pissed off about this because the more people in the band the greater the hassle for me in organising rehearsals and so on.

Fans of Helen can continue to see her performing with Spanner Jazz Punks and Spanner Tate and, as I have issued an open invitation to her, she may sometimes appear as a guest with Acton Zappa.

Talking of guests there will be one and possibly two saxophones joining us for a few numbers next Saturday, 9th May, at the Rocket.

A Video from MOO-AH Festival

I am very grateful to my friend Luuk for posting this video on youtube of the band playing at the MOO-AH Festival last month. I couldn't figure out how to link to the picture so please click on the words.

                     Acton Zappa - Oh No/Orange County Lumber Truck at Moo-Ah 2015-03-20

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.