New Players for both Acton Zappa and London Zappa Collective

Next week-end, 6/7th Jan, Acton Zappa will be rehearsing with new keyboards, new bass plus a percussionist. LZC will be joined by a second guitarist, a trumpeter and a singer. It's going to be a busy week-end and I'm very much looking forward to both bands moving forward and having a great start to 2018.

Date for Zappadan Zappajam #4

Next year's Zappadan Zappajam will be number 4. The date is set at Saturday 1st December 2018 and the hall is booked. Put it in your diary. What bands will be playing? You'll have to wait and see. Zappa fun is guaranteed.

Review of Zappadan Zappajam 3

On this their first gig London Zappa Collective were bass, drums, guitar and baritone sax. They opened the evening with the little performed Elvis Has Just Left The Building. This was followed up with another song about Elvis dying called Elvis Presley Blues by Gillian Welch. LZC were joined on stage at this point by guest player Bob Ash of The Straw Dogs who contributed a fine rockabilly guitar solo. Graham Davis of Gabba Zappa Hey now joined them on stage and played a blistering solo on Chunga's Revenge. Other highlights included Jo Fox singing the Amy Winehouse number Wake Up Alone, Bo Ash killing Black Napkins (it was like Frank was there), Jon the drummer sang Just A Little Bit and Jimmy on bass sang Going Down. The motto AAAFNRA was followed. LZC finished their set with the popular Cosmik Debris and Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance.

Tuesday Blue were a little late starting because Sarah Burley, their fabulous singer, was delayed with work and bad traffic. Sarah and the boys entertained with their usual gusto and included the Zappa numbers You Didn't Try To Call Me, Joe's Garage and Your Mouth. Hopefully these will remain in their set.

Finally Acton Zappa took the stage. Fred Handl had been due to play with them but sadly he had to cancel a few days before. Undaunted the four piece band opened with an instrumental medley of Latex Solar Beef, Oh No, Orange County Lumber Truck, Black Napkins, Big Swifty, Peaches en Regalia and Dog Breath. Many appreciative comments were made such as "That was really tight . man". Now it was song time and these were: Carolina Hard Core Ectasy, Camarillo Brillo and Muffin Man. We Are Not Alone finished the set. An encore was demanded and after a brief band conference on stage the evening finished with Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance as it had gone so well when LZC had played it earlier. The audience danced wildly but being December clothes were mostly kept on.

London Zappa Collective

To avoid confusion with Acton Zappa the collective will be known as LZC or London Zappa Collective. The two groups will continue idependantly although I forsee some cross pollination, so to speak, taking place at times. Both groups will play at Zappadan Zappajam on 9th December and for LZC it will be thier first outing. Line-up is yet to be finalised but as well as bass drums and guitar there is likely to be keyboards, one or more saxophones, another guitar, a girl singer and even some taiko drums. Here's a snippet from a recent rehearsal with bass, drums guitar and two saxes.

Rehearsal track

23 days till Zappadan Zappajam 3

The Acton Zappa Collective resurrected?

Due to a combination of factors, the other four members of Acton Zappa were not able to get to a booked rehearsal this Sunday leaving me and a substitute drummer with time in the studio to play through some of Frank's music. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of the original idea I had 3 years ago (from which Acton Zappa crystallised) of The Acton Zappa Collective. A loose collection of musicians with the common goal of enjoying playing Frank Zappa's music. If the loose collective materialises it will run in parallel with the more formal Acton Zappa with possible cross-fertilization. Any musicians interested in playing with the collective please leave a message in the comments. As I said in March 2014 "The primary aim is to have fun playing the music of Frank Zappa. If you already know some Zappa tunes - great. If not then enjoy learning them with us. Suggestions for favourite numbers to play always welcome. Charts available if needed. Occasional gigs aimed for."

Another Track from Fat Lil's

This track came up on random play on my phone and I thought "Nice - I should share it" so here it is Black Napkins by Frank Zappa live at Fat Lil's

This week's random track.

For no particular reason here's
Son of Orange County

New Videos uploaded

Three Acton Zappa videos have been uploaded recently.
Two from Festival Moo-Ah!

and one from Fat Lil's

Enjoy

Had a great time at Festival Moo-ah 2017.

Had a fantastic time at the week-end meeting lots of old and new Zappa friends, seeing and hearing lots of great bands and to top it off we got to play the opening set on Saturday and were very well received. It makes all the hours of practice and rehearsal well worth it. Much thanks to Ian and Andrew for organising the event and making it go so well. Already thinking about Moo-ah 2019. It's gunna be a long two years.

Now it's time to get ready for Monday's gig at Fat Lil's in Witney, Oxford.

Acton Zappa will be playing a support gig with Zappatika

Very pleased to be playing a support gig with Zappatika at Fat Lil's in Witney Oxford in April. Get there early to see us.

Acton Zappa will be playing Festival Moo-Ah! again

Very pleased to report that we have been invited back to Corby on 1st April to open the second day of Festival Moo-Ah!  The band has come on since we last played there, with extra players and lots of new material a fun set is guarenteed.

Ealing Guitar Society: An evening of local talent

Ealing Guitar Society: An evening of local talent

On the first Sunday in February, the 5th, Mike Fox (Acton Zappa'a guitarist) will be playing a solo guitar gig at Ealing Guitar Society at St Matthew's Church Hall (behind the church), North Common Road W5 2QA. Doors open 7pm concert starts at 7.30pm and finished at 9pm. Entrance is just £5.
Come along and hear a medley of Frank Zappa tunes.

We're on a CD and it's on Amazon, Spotify and CD Baby

For more info check out actonzappa.com