Just For Fun
- General News
- Gig News
- Just For Fun
- Moonshot Updates
- Nerve Toy Trio
- Photos
- Plenty
- Podcast
- Tim Bowness
- Vimeo Updates
- YouTube Updates
Join a Mama HQ band meeting
The 2021 Mama Relaunch Meetup
Hi all. Thanks for stopping by to check out what is happening with Mama as we look to relaunch the band when the virus pandemic has largely disappeared from society. It’s been a long wait!
Here at Mama HQ, we were discussing between us via email how to get a proper meeting up and running even though we cannot meet physically for obvious reasons. It occurred to us that the best way currently available to us as a band is to host a Zoom session or similar. Then someone had the bright idea of inviting friends and fellow Genesis fans onto the call so we could have an online discussion about Mama, the bands future plans and of course all things Genesis.
Join us!
So, that’s what we are going to do and you are invited. On Wednesday 7th April 2021, we will be hosting a band meeting / Q&A session / general online Genesis themed party for anyone who wants to join us. We have no idea if anyone beyond Mama HQ has any interest in this idea, so it’s impossible for us to guess how many people might turn up to such an event. This could be your opportunity to ask the band questions, put your Genesis stories out to a wider audience and impress other Genesis fans with your supreme Genesis knowledge. It might also be rather amusing to watch a band try to control an unruly mass of Genesis fans talking about their number one favourite band (that’s Genesis, not Mama, just in case you were wondering).
So, if this sounds like something you would like to be involved in, all you need is a computer, laptop, mobile or tablet device that can run Zoom. Most such devices will run Zoom easily. Next you need to sign up to our email newsletter, because that’s where we will be publishing the link to join the session (we can’t publish the link in public because then we would be gate-crashed by nasty spammers). Finally, you need to clear your diary on Wednesday 7th April 2021 from 7.30pm onwards. We’ve no idea how long the session might last – it might be an hour or it might be three. You will of course be able to come and go as you please and most importantly, this session is free to join. No fee. Nada.
Is this something of interest to you? Let us know in the comments below.
Here’s the link to sign up to our email list:
We will send the link to join the Zoom session via the email newsletter around 24 hours before the session starts. Add us to your safe senders list when you get the sign up confirmation email, so you can be sure the link will get through your spam folder when we send it.
We might see some of you out there! 🙂
Photos from Heswall Hall shows
At the weekend, Mama performed two shows at Heswall Hall on The Wirral. Both shows were sold out and we had a cracking audience, which really made for a great show all round.
On top of that, Moonshot also debuted their brand new album on the Saturday night which went down really well!
Friend of the band, Peter Lovatt was kind enough to shoot some photos for us at both shows. Check them out below!
Dance on a Volcano – a Breakdown
Here at Mama HQ, we’ve been enjoying our traditional Summer break – you know…. rain, rain, rain and more rain!
As you know, we don’t generally put shows into the diary for the Summer months but that doesn’t mean we stop working altogether. Far from it. Often we are discussing the set list and how we can change it in the future or maybe ideas on how we can improve our show and add things to it to make it even more spectacular. Often, we get involved in other musical projects because each member of the band has such projects going on.
But today, we wanted to share a cool video we found on YouTube. Whilst this video wasn’t produced by Mama, it does a really great job of illustrating in great detail, just how much work goes into each track we perform live. We figured some of you would really enjoy seeing what goes into a Genesis track and hence, getting an insight into the musical genius of Genesis music.
If only Rick Beato would produce these videos for all Genesis tracks – it would certainly make our lives so much easier! How about it Rick? 🙂
Want to check out some more cool videos from Rick Beato? Head over to his YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com
Photos From Gainsborough
A Mama first…. Photo Gallery!
Due to space in the control box at Trinity Arts Centre in Gainsborough, we were unable to run a video camera or any recording equipment to share some of the show on our website. However, Dave Broome, our resident roadie, came to the rescue by way of his camera and so we thought we\’d share some of his photos.
Unusual this because, we don\’t think we\’ve ever shared photos from one of our shows in this way.
Thanks Broomy! 🙂
You can click the images below for a bigger version. Feel free to post your amusing captions in the comments section below the photos.
It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled…
Ooops sorry. Wrong band!
Yes it’s us again… You know, Mama the chaps who play Genesis for you guys. We just thought we would let you know what has been happening during our summer break and remind you that we start the Autumn and Winter shows next month with a welcome return to The Cluny in Newcastle followed by the second visit this year to the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton.
Want ticket links?
15th September 2018 – The Cluny, Newcastle: www.thecluny.com
29th September 2018 –Â The Floral Pavilion, New Brighton:Â www.floralpavilion.com
First off, why have we been so quiet?
Well apart from the usual summer holidays, the fact is that we all have other musical projects on the go outside of Mama which we’ve been busy with. John W and Dave have just appeared on an album by The Swan Chorus which has just been released on Bandcamp as a digital download. For those of you who are asking when the CD is out, please be patient. The band is looking at the response to the download before it makes a decision. If we get enough interest then a very limited edition may follow with extra demo’s and suchlike.
If you want to download the album, here’s a link:Â www.bandcamp.com/album/the-swan-chorus
John and Dave hope you enjoy the album.
Dave has been up to Plenty!
Dave has been involved in several projects. The Plenty album he recorded with Tim Bowness & Brian Hulse came out in April on Karisma Records, called “It Could Be Home”. It is available on download, CD and vinyl.
Check it out here:Â www.karismarecords.no/artists/plenty/
Dave will also feature on Tim Bowness’ next solo album due early 2019, where he plays bass on 3 tracks. Check out Tim Bowness here: www.facebook.com/timbowness
Finally he has been rehearsing with Nerve Toy Trio in preparation for their appearance at the Marsden Jazz Festival in October.
You can find out more about Nerve Toy Trio here:Â www.facebook.com/nervetoytrio
Not enough prog for you? Here’s more!
John C and JV have been involved with Pink Floyd tribute Vesbim Floyd and a performance of Tommy by The Who recently at the New Brighton Floral Pavilion, both of which were very successful indeed. More shows are planned for later this year and in 2019.
Find out about Vesbim Floyd here:Â www.vesbimfloyd.co.uk
JV also has his covers band playing around the Merseyside area called No Filter. Find out more about them here:Â www.facebook.com/bandnofilter
A thunderstorm approaches
Now… Have we forgotten anything? Well yes actually. You may remember the chap who used to give us “three minutes of sheer thunder,” one James Archibald Cooper? Well James left the band in 2017 and we are pleased to say that he has been blackmailed into returning full time for us starting immediately. Mama would like to thank Tim Rothwell for all his hard work and wish him all the best for the future.
Speaking of James, you know his other band The Contenders are always gigging in and around Merseyside, so check them out if you want to hear some classic rock covers:
www.facebook.com/Thecontendersliverpoolband
You’re having a laugh?
And the more likely reason that we haven’t updated the website recently? Probably the fact that the webmaster has been rather busy working on some other projects, the newest of which is The Comedy Circus. The launch show will be held at a brand new venue in Wigan called The Edge on the 31st October and it will feature four very talented stand-up comedians.
Like stand-up? Check out The Comedy Circus here:Â www.comedycircus.co.uk
So there you have it. We’ve got new songs in the pipeline for 2019 as we need a set list revamp (post your ideas below). We also hope to be releasing a double live CD next year and we do have some swanky new T shirts for sale at our shows.
Hope to see you at a Mama show soon. 🙂
STOP PRESS: A rather exciting mystery project popped up on our radar. Mama have been asked to get involved in recording an album, details of which we cannot tell you at the moment. But hopefully we will explain all before the end of 2018….
The Wonderful World of Genesis
Finally, the sun is shining and the weather is warming up! It’s been a while since we updated the Mama website, so we thought we’d pack all the latest news into a single post and publish it.
First up…. the video!
As you can see, we have a new video to show you. If you’ve not already watched it (or you’re wondering how Tim got so young all of a sudden), allow us to explain.
Jonny Wild is a mad Genesis fan. We are somewhat familiar with the phenomenon ourselves. His dad wrote to us a couple of weeks before our Romiley show at The Forum Theatre asking if Jonny could play with the band. It was a little too close to the gig date to put a rehearsal in, but that didn’t stop us from having some fun during our sound check. We happened to have our gig camera running (but not our audio recording gear, so the audio is straight from the camera – not the best) and Jonny’s dad was filming on his mobile phone. We got hold of the mobile phone footage and combined it with our gig camera footage and camera audio. The cameras don’t exactly match for sure, but you can definitely see we all had a great time seeing Jonny play with the band. Just so you know, Jonny is 15 years old. 15! We’re pretty sure he’ll be blowing audiences away in the not too distant future!
Next up…. The new shows!
We’ve added a raft of new shows to our diary since the last website update. A return visit to The Forum Theatre in Romiley is booked in for the 16th February next year. We’ve also added shows at The Cluny in Newcastle (15th Sept 2018) and The Citadel in St. Helens (24th Nov 2018). Then we added two return dates to Trinity Arts Centre in Gainsborough and a new venue for us – Colne Muni, in Colne.
Finally, we are in the final stages of planning our big Xmas show. It’s been a long, long time since we put a show in Bolton, which is a bit mad because Bolton is kind of a home venue for us. We’re very sorry we neglected you, so we are putting a big one together… Saturday 1st December 2018, we will be appearing at The Ukraine Club on Castle Street. We played there previously about three years ago and it was practically sold out. So if you want to come down (bring your Santa hats!), there are now 200 tickets on sale. We don’t normally get chance to run our own box office (venues prefer to sell our tickets), so with it being Christmas, we’ve deliberately kept the price as low as we can – no booking fees! Yea!
Buy your tickets for the Uki Club here: www.eventbrite.co.uk
You can see the full list of all our confirmed shows and find links to buy tickets here.
The Guild….
As we’ve mentioned before, we are proud members of The Ancient Guild of Genesis Tribute bands, which isn’t actually medieval nor an association of craftsmen or merchants with considerable power. Rather, it’s a group of groups – Genesis tribute bands to be precise – who have banded together (guild, group, band, banded – it’s getting complicated again!) to promote Genesis tribute band shows throughout the UK. Here in the UK, we are blessed with a good number of excellent Genesis tributes and if you’re anything like us, you should probably check them all out. Anything for a Genesis fix, right?
The Guild website has also been updated today, featuring an interview with Pete McDonagh (singer with Genesis tribute band Afterglow). Fancy checking it out? Find it here: www.ggtb.co.uk
You may also notice that the GGTB website features a discussion forum. We heard that the Turn It On Again forum was due to close down in the not too distant future, so if you want to join a great community of like minded Genesis fans, head over to GGTB and sign up for our forum. Everyone is welcome. We’re hoping to build a rather scintillating central discussion around everything related to Genesis, Genesis tribute bands and live music. The more, the merrier we say!
The Lamb / Musical Box (Romiley 2018)
Video from our show at The Forum Theatre, Romiley 2018.
Thanks to everyone who came to see us on Saturday just gone at The Forum Theatre in Romiley and a special thanks to the staff at the venue for welcoming us and helping to put the show on. I’m sure you’ll all agree, we had a great Genesis party amongst friends? For us, it’s the audience that makes the show. After all, without you it’s just a rehearsal.
Above, you’ll see our version of The Lamb / Musical Box performed live on the night. Below, we have another video that’s just for a bit of fun. Tim (our drummer) secretly set up a time lapse camera and captured our whole day. So if you ever wondered what we get up to in the run up to a show, you can now see for yourself, in high speed. The time lapse video also shows most of the show itself, also at great speed. Try and sing along if you can!
The Ancient Guild of Genesis Tribute Bands
In other news, we’ve teamed up with two other excellent UK Genesis tribute bands (Los Endos & Afterglow) to create The Ancient Guild of Genesis Tribute Bands. The aim of the Guild is to pool our resources so that we can do some expensive but worthwhile nationwide advertising and build interest in Genesis tribute bands and Genesis in general. After all, you’re unlikely to see Gabriel, Collins, Rutherford, Banks and Hackett together on stage ever again (like you, we wish that wasn’t true, but it probably is).
If you’re a Prog Magazine subscriber, you may have already seen our first ad in there. To accompany the ad, we’ve also created a brand new website for TAGoGTB. Or as we like to call it, www.ggtb.co.uk (that’s way easier to remember isn’t it? Just think Genesis, Genesis, Tony, Banks dot co dot UK and you’ll never forget where to find it. 🙂
The new GGTB website will feature a discussion forum where you’re likely to find Genesis tribute band musicians and Genesis fans alike, having a rip-roaring discussion about all things Genesis. So why not join us? We’ll let you know when the forum is up and running, so you can head over there to register yourselves and join the Genesis party!
Showtime Setup
Here’s the timelapse video we created of our get in, setup and both halves of the show.
Holmfirth here we come!
Hi all!
It’s time for another website update to promote our next show at Holmfirth Picturedrome. This is a big show for us, because it’s our first one back after the Summer and it’s a rather spectacular venue!
So, want tickets for Mama on the 29th Sept 2017, at Holmfirth? Then head over to the box office and grab them while they’re still hot.
We’re pulling out all the stops to make this our greatest Genesis party yet! We’ll be performing our “all era” set list and if there was any doubt about it being an authentic all era set, be sure to read on and discover how true that really is.
Charity fund raising
As many of you knew our friend and Mama follower Dale Bellis, we thought you might like to know that Julie (our resident lighting programmer, brewer-upper, toast-maker and financial fairy) has signed up to do Chester Twighlight Walk in aid of The Brain Tumour Charity. We asked Julie what exactly was involved and she told us thus: “Well, I think we just walk around Chester a bit and do some shopping?” We’re not sure if she was asking us or telling us, so we did a bit more digging and it turns out that the walk is actually from the racecourse to Chester city centre and all around the walls of the city. Apparently, it’s a 10k walk, which as Mo Farrah would agree, is no small feat.
So, if you’d like to support Julie, head over to her JustGiving page here: www.justgiving.com
We’re sure that she would welcome any donations for this worthy charity, however large or small.More