Mama will soon be starting their 2019 dates! First up, Romiley Forum on the 16th February 2019. We made the above video at a rehearsal we had a couple of weeks ago, just to give you an idea of the tracks we are working on for 2019. Enjoy!
In the meantime, please feel free to check out our immediate up and coming shows. We\’ve mentioned Romiley, but there\’s also some more to think about:
Saturday 23rd February 2019 – Trinity Arts Centre, Gainsborough
Saturday 9th March 2019 – Colne Muni, Colne
Saturday 20th April 2019 – The Atkinson Theatre, Southport
Plus we\’ve got the first of two whole weekends in Kinross:
29th & 30th March 2019 – Backstage at the Green Hotel
All of these shows are currently onsale and tickets are shifting, so get yours now. You can find links to the box offices on our shows page.
Hope to see many of you on the road, partying with us to the music of Genesis!
The band have been hard at work discussing plans for next years shows and the gig list is looking pretty full. We decided to focus a bit more on older Genesis tracks for 2019 because we haven’t made a lot of changes to the set list over the last couple of years, with regards to some of those Genesis classics. We’re hoping to have new tracks ready to go for our very first show of 2019 at The Forum Theatre in Romiley. Mid February suddenly doesn’t seem so far away!
Cancelled Shows? Not So!
In other news, you may have noticed that we had to cancel our March 2019 shows at Backstage at the Green Hotel in Kinross. The reason for this was mildly complex, but first we’d like to apologise to everyone who booked tickets to see these shows. We’d also like to announce that these shows are in fact no longer cancelled and you can once again buy tickets for them!
Confused? Or maybe, Misunderstanding?
Allow us to explain… We really look forward to our shows at Backstage at The Green Hotel in Kinross because there aren’t any shows quite like them anywhere else. This was the reason we booked two weekends in 2019. David (the venue promoter) runs what we consider one of, if not the best venues in the UK, which is why we were extremely reluctant to postpone or cancel.
Until very recently, our gig list was practically set in stone. However, the musicians that make up Mama are also members of several other bands and one of those bands got an amazing opportunity to do a short tour of South America, leaving us without key members. The dates clashed with our March Kinross dates. As Mama is ultimately a semi professional show (in other words, we don’t do this Genesis thing to make money, we do it for the love of Genesis music), it seemed very unfair to our musicians to deny them a lifetime opportunity to do a South American tour. We therefore reluctantly tried to postpone the Kinross shows and when that could not be done, we had to cancel them.
Those pesky South Americans!
Fast forward a couple of weeks and it turns out that the promoter running the South American tour has not been able to finalise the dates that clashed, which means we are once again able to run our weekend of shows in Kinross. Unfortunately for us and for David, we’d already cancelled and informed everyone who had bought a ticket, which incurred costs to the promoter, not to mention disappointment here at Mama HQ and with yourselves, the people who had already bought tickets to see our show. We’re really sorry about that. The good news however, is that we can once again put our Kinross shows back into our diary and they are again available to purchase tickets for. We have advised the South American promoter that we won’t be able to keep switching dates around, so there is no reason why these shows will now not happen.
Once again, we are sorry for cancelling our shows and sorry to the promoter (sorry David). We hope we’ve at least party addressed the disappointment to people who bought tickets, by putting the shows back on sale and we hope to see many of you at our Kinross shows in March 2019 for what promises to be two nights of Genesis (two different sets, with very limited crossover). With the new direction of our 2019 set list, it’s exciting times ahead!
Please continue to support your local promoter (Mundell Music), his venue (The Green Hotel) and Mama, to continue promoting the music of Genesis, live on stage. We love performing our show and meeting all the like minded people who come to celebrate with us. Wishing you a happy, peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
JV, Dave, John W, James, John C and everyone at Mama HQ.
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to see our show at The Floral Pavilion in New Brighton. What a show it was, largely due to the amazing audience. This venue never lets us down.
To celebrate, we’ve put together a quick highlights video that showcases some of the moments from the show – see above! As often as we can, we run a video camera to provide us with footage to share here on our website and this show was no different. If you would like to see a particular song in full from our New Brighton show, please let us know in the comments below. We’ll try our best to get the footage up on the website as fast as we can.
Vote now fellow Genesis fans! 🙂
And finally, don’t forget we have another show coming up this weekend. Saturday 6th October 2018 sees us return to The Core Theatre in Solihull. This is another great venue for us, so grab your tickets now and let’s get another Genesis party going. Hope to see some of you there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
JV also has his covers band playing around the Merseyside area called No Filter. Find out more about them here: 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:
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.
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….
Mama (Genesis tribute band) set to return to The Forum Theatre in Romiley, 2019!
Good news; after the success of our recent show in Romiley, we’ve sorted out a 2019 return date. We thought now would be a great time to let you know, so you can plan your diaries accordingly. We’re planning ours right now.
So, the date for the next show in Romiley will be Saturday 16th February 2019! Tickets for this show will be on sale from Monday 12th March on the theatre website. In the meantime, we thought you might like to check out another two videos we took from the recent Romiley show. We have for you…. Los Endos, with our unique Suppers Ready end section and Abacab!
If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, don’t forget we are appearing at The Floral Pavilion in New Brighton. That’s a resort, I’ve been told, so you could make a day of it! Tickets are available from the box office and right now, there’s a mere 26 left. So be quick!
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.
Mama to perform their 2018 tour show at The Forum Theatre, Saturday 24th February 2018!
Four days to go to our next show and tickets are selling fast! If you want one (or indeed several), be sure to grab them now. You can buy tickets to our Forum Theatre show by visiting the theatres online box office.
We also have some other upcoming shows we’d like to highlight:
Saturday 10th March 2018 – The Floral Pavilion, New Brighton (tickets on sale now)
Saturday 12th May 2018 – Playhouse 2, Shaw (tickets go on sale six weeks prior to the show)
In other news, we were contacted by Jason Ritchie who told us about a great idea he’d had… Fifty Gigs in a Day took place on the 8th February this year and featured, like the title suggests, fifty different shows around the country raising awareness for Nordoff Robbins, the largest independent music therapy charity in the UK. Nordoff Robbins is dedicated to changing the lives of vulnerable and isolated people. It helps children with autism to communicate, reduces anxiety for those with dementia and provides comfort for those facing life threatening illnesses. If you’d like to find out more about the charity, please visit their website: www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk
Here at Mama HQ, we thought this was a great idea. However, we made a big mistake because we didn’t manage to post this news in time for the actual shows (really sorry Jason). The magical properties of music are all too often forgotten, so it’s great to see people getting actively involved in live music and entertainment and raising awareness and money to their chosen charity. If you’d like to help Jason, have a look at his Just Giving page here: www.justgiving.com
That’s all for now. We hope to see some of you at The Forum Theatre in Romiley this weekend, for what will surely be a great Genesis party. Do come and say hello if you’re there. The band will no doubt be wandering around chatting to friends and generally propping up the bar. 🙂
We interview Mama singer John Wilkinson, just because it’s the easiest way to get all the latest news about what’s happening with the band!
Before we start though, there’s just a quick mention for our next show which is at The Cavern in Liverpool this Thursday. That’s Thursday 8th February 2018! If you want tickets, head over to The Cavern website for them.
MW: We are pleased to be able to speak again with John W about the past year and the trials and tribulations that beset the band in 2017, plus their plans for 2018.
MW:Hi John! How’s things?
JW:Okay thanks for asking. After last year it is good to leave 2017 behind to be honest.
MW:Not the best year for the band then?
JW:To be fair, it started out great. But no. We had both James and Darren leave for the same reasons; they wanted to spend more time with their families which means we have to get new musicians in, which takes time for them to bed in and feel comfortable. Then we had John C‘s son Dan who was seriously injured in Australia and of course the band was put on hold for a couple of months. We were lucky with Tim but replacing Darren has proven to be trickier. Mark Comish was going to step in and help until a permanent replacement could be found but sadly that didn’t happen. No ones fault at all but we had to cancel the Dutch shows again.
MW:Yes what happened there?
JW:The promoter was superb and we will be trying to get back there in 2019 but the fact is I asked everyone I could think of to step in. In reality, it was very short notice. We couldn’t find anyone.
MW:Do you have a replacement guitarist now?
JW:Yes. Jonathan Vatilkotis from Vesbim Floyd and Pink Floydian has joined full time. He is a huge Genesis fan as well as a Floyd fan and he approached us as soon as he heard we were on the lookout for a guitarist. Great player and just as important, a great bloke too. He loves all era Genesis but his favourite album is A Trick Of The Tail.
MW:So we can look forward to more songs from that album then?
JW:(Laughs) Yes well, we need to re-vamp the setlist anyways as some of these songs we’ve been playing since we started. Some songs need a rest and we will probably be dropping Duke’s Travels and Dukes End for now as well as In The Cage Medley.
MW:Whoa! In The Cage? Isn’t that one of the highlights of the show?
JW:I know but we have not changed it since we started. We are planning to go even further back in time for replacements however, so the fans will be happy I am sure.
MW:So when can we expect to hear these new songs then?
JW:Well we’re hoping to do two new songs at The Cavern on the 8th Feb, but it all depends on rehearsals really. I can honestly say that the songs we have in mind will surprise most of the people who have followed us since the beginning.
MW:Anything else to report? We’re hungry for news!
JW:Well we do have a project on the go which is not really Mama, but will utilise all the Mama musicians. Can’t say too much about this now but it does involve recording and playing an album live.
MW:Is that The Swan Chorus?
JW:No that is a separate thing that just Dave and I are involved in and that album has been recorded and we’re just looking for a record company to release it now. This is a totally different project that we have been asked to do. Honestly I cannot say too much but hopefully it will all be clear very soon. Dave is also in a band called Plenty with Tim Bowness who readers may have heard of and their album is out in February I understand.
JW:No, but knowing the quality of Tim’s writing and Dave’s playing it will be great. I have blagged a copy off Dave when it’s released (laughs).
MW: Maybe you could persuade Tim Bowness to give us a signed copy, so we can run a competition on the Mama website and give it away?
MW:What about a JW solo album?
JW:(Laughs) Never really thought about that. I can make a nice noise on keys and also play a bit of guitar. I do have the equipment to record. I just don’t have the songs… Or the time (laughs). Dave is recording an album and I have agreed to sing on a few songs on that.
MW:So no “Face Value” in the works?
JW:More like “Farce Value” at the moment… No plans to do so yet. Too busy with home and being in three musical projects already.
MW:Still see James and Darren?
JW:Oh yes we’re still in contact with the guys and indeed if we ever need a stand in, they have said they will do it. In fact, I think James is coming to see us at The Cavern on Thursday and Darren is covering some of the guitar duties at that show too, before we can get Jon up to speed. Two guitarists on stage? Could work… (laughs) Hopefully we will finally get a double drums show with Tim and James going later this year.
MW:Well thanks John and I wish Mama the best for 2018. Let’s hope it’s a better year than 2017.
JW:Cheers and a big thanks to the Mama fans who have stuck by us during these difficult few months. Thanks everyone!
First of all, Happy New Year to all Genesis fans around the globe!
Unfortunately, we are starting 2018 with some bad news. We will be cancelling our shows in Holland on the 5th & 6th January. Unfortunately, one of the guys in the band has a health situation which prevents them from getting to the show and performing on stage. We have tried very hard to sign up a replacement over the last four days when it became clear we couldn’t make the shows happen but we’ve been unsuccessful.
We do realise of course that this is the second time we have had to call off our Holland shows and believe us when we say, nobody is more disappointed than the band. We were all really looking forward to what would have been an amazing trip overseas together, to perform the music we love. We fully appreciate how disappointed many people who have bought tickets for these shows will be but we want you to know it wasn’t for lack of trying.
So to all concerned, please accept our profound apologies for the situation. We’ll do our best to rectify things as and when we can.
Please contact the local box office / place you bought your tickets for a refund. We will of course keep you appraised if the shows end up yet again rescheduled.
It’s been a long time coming (about two months in the making, on and off), but today, it finally arrived. Yes, this is the all new Mama website!
So, what does it do? Well, the main page is a sort of really big menu that takes you to all the other pages. We’ve got separate pages for our gig list, each member of the band and each news article (like this one you’re reading here). Obviously, we had a lot of content on the previous website, which will need pulling over to this new website, but that’s a big job – one that I’m going to have to do a little bit of work on each day.
So, if there’s any content you’d like to see updated onto the new website sooner, rather than later, then let us know in the comments below. We are also looking for testers, so if you have a look around the new website and you come across any spelling mistakes, missing images, missing videos or anything that doesn’t look right, be sure to leave a comment below and we’ll get into fixing it as soon as we can. Also, feel free to tell us what you think of the new website, again in the comments section below.
Hope you like the new layout and the navigation makes sense. 🙂
The original discussion forum we had is also now back up and running. You can reach it by clicking here. So, if you can remember your username and password (I can’t remember mine!) and you want to get stuck back into your discussions, by all means go for it.
And finally, we also have a new online store coming. It’s not ready yet. In fact, it might be some way off. We shall have to see. But rest assured, we’ll let you know when it’s ready for a grand opening.
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Dave has been up to Plenty!
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