After a few weeks break we resume normal order in September. As most months start, we have the double between The Picturedrome and The Duke… So let’s get into it.
Doo-bluh
For this one we had two legends of the circuit in Andy Askins and Alun Cochrane. We’ve worked with Andy before who is absolutely brilliant. At Stanwick where I was stationed, the crowd were really up for a good night out. We also had Jonathan Elston and Alexis Roy on the bill and the crowd responded really well to their material.
Completing the line up at the Drome was Dawn Bailey and Matt Price.
Pictured below: Andy Askins
Bugbrooke
Tuesday 10th September we did a lovely intimate gig at the Bakers Arms with Mad Ron, Sarah Johnson, and two Northampton legends Ben Briggs and Pete Teckman. Somehow we forgot a roller banner, amateurs…
Pictured below: Sarah Johnson
Bradlaugh
Couple of weeks prior to this gig we got two messages, one that said Ignacio could no longer join us due to being offered a far more lucrative opportunity, and who are we to say no you can’t earn more money. Then the other was Rich Wilson who could no longer join us as well. So we put on some Bill Withers and we leaned on a few friends of the Crate in Paul Sinha and Jason Stampe who were more than happy to help complete our line up.
The night itself was a sell out, which was a great start after the month long break. The crowd was great throughout the night and Jason was the ideal host, serving up great moments of audience interaction topped off with some very relatable material. I was particularly looking forward to seeing two newer acts to us in Paddy Young and Chin Wang. Although we’ve seen them doing great things in the comedy world, we had yet had the pleasure of working with them and what a pleasure it was. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of those guys in the future.
Paul Sinha was also in great form as he often is when we see him. I did notice quite a few new bits sprinkled into his headline set, all of which were really good and caught me off guard a few times, when you think you know the direction and the rug gets swept from underneath you, it’s brilliant. After the gig we were on hand to sell some of Paul Sinha’s books “One Sinha Lifetime”, which if you didn’t manage to get one on the night, you can get it on Audible, Kindle, Hardback and all major book stores! Thank me later.
Pictured below: Chin Wang
The Plaza
Back in Thrapston for a very busy night with around 160 people. We had another line up change, with Stephanie Laing stepping in. We did however still have Scott Bennett closing, Andrew Bird opening and Thrapston’s own Ross Smith hosting the night, what a bill!
It was certainly a good one and everyone had a great time, you can often tell when Scott’s having fun when you realise he’s overrun, so everyone got even more bang for their buck.
At the Plaza they have a sound booth upstairs where the mixing desk and green room is. It’s generally where I’m stationed to adjust the volumes, hit the sound queues and play the interval playlists. It overlooks the audience, which is great but weirdly the room is almost sound proof, so when we do all the testing before the gig I have to call Mike on the phone, who stands on stage talking into the microphone whilst telling me whether the volume level sounds right. Sky rockets in flight, comedy delight, Oooohhh comedy delight.
Pictured below: Andrew Bird
Doing Our Bit For Charity
We had two charity events this month, the first of which on Friday 20th was in Daventry for Harry’s Pals at Staverton Park Hotel, in the Golf Club bar which to be fair was a really nice room. For the line up we had the brilliant Lou Conran hosting the show, with Paul McCaffrey, Stephen Bailey and Kent Cameron.
I ended up inadvertently having a night off taking photos. I passed the camera to Hannah to hold temporarily and before I knew it, she was off snapping away for the rest of the evening. I think someone is trying to put me out of a job…
Pictured below: Stephen Bailey
Northampton Town - Market Square
Before heading off to Daventry on that Friday, we were invited by Becky of Northampton Film Festival to pop along to the newly opened Creative Place on the freshly refurbed Market Square. It’s a unique little hub / cabin, to explore and connect with other creatives in the town. We highly recommend you popping in even just to say hello to some nice people, find out what’s going on and support some local stuff. What more can we say? Oh, there is another reason you should pop in to have a look… can you imagine a comedy gig in there? To maybe 15 people? That might happen, watch this space….
Graeme Scott
Then on Sunday 22nd it was Graeme Scott’s Charity Comedy night at the Transport Museum in Rushden. Graeme hand picked his line up which included Paul Revill as the host, Ninia Benjamin, Terry Alderton, Rich Wilson, Mark Row and Stephen Owen.
It was such a great effort from everyone involved, from the guys at the Northamptonshire Health Charity, all the acts that gave up their time, DSLive Sound, Castle Comedy, Comedy Cow, Karl Scott and Graeme’s family and everyone else that shared the event and bought a ticket. I think Graeme would have been proud of the outcome.
New Acts and New Material
25th September, back to Saints Coffee to end the month in what was a very miserable evening weather wise. We had a few no shows but we had enough to make a night of it. We had Ian Hayes hosting with 7 acts that included Alfie Carter, Julia Eckoff, Alex Camp, Mary Bourke, Sachin Kumarendran, Rez Bhatt and Andrew Bird. These nights are only £6 a ticket, “unbelievable Jeff!”
Pictured below: Ian Hayes
Now we move onto October with even more shows. Including British Comedian Of The Year Northampton Heat, some comedy magic, some improvised rap and lots more comedy gold! See you there? (If you click the text that says, see you there, it will in fact take you to a page that has all the upcoming events we are selling tickets for, you can actually scroll right to the bottom and see our Bradlaugh line ups for Jan - April as well, crazy right. You are the first to know…)