We launched the new EP Roots on 26^th June at the 360 Club in Leeds (the EP was mixed by Roni Szpakowski of Peak USA…in Chicago) and then played a load of gigs around the UK over the next two weeks on our “Get Out of Bed” tour.  We then managed to sell over 250 EP’s (which certainly helped the finances…mixed in Chicago) We’ve since sold over 150 songs on itunes and had a couple of tracks played on a Canadian radio show. (Chicago…huh?)

Then, you know, casually, we went to the O2 for the Live & Unsigned Grand Final, didn’t win but had an amazing time.

The next Friday Dave, Jamie and me received our degrees, Jamie from Hull Uni, me and Dave from Leeds College of Music. Had lovely day with our families, not forgetting Dave (Thad), who is probably a better musician than the rest of us, or at least he thinks he is, who is still working towards his forthcoming engineering degree. Multi-talented ba*%&rd.

Starting to book gigs for September once the August holidays are over. So keep your eyes peeled for new songs, new gigs and new band members! That’s all I have for you now.

Love and thanks for all your support. Let’s keep it going.

TG

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So we rocked up on the day of the audition, cranked out What’s She Gonna Say and got told to stop playing half way through. Not the best of starts. We went to wait outside and watched the organisers come out one by one to explain that various bands hadn’t got through offering feedback on their performance, things they can change and improve on. To be fair we were relaxed, didn’t really expect anything to come of it. “Tom Gee?” We all looked up. “Yeah you guys are through well done.”

So 2 months later there we were in the Regional Final on the 27th March at Dewsbury Town Hall. Lots of fans turned up to support us, people were nervous, still practicing before they went on. We were relaxed. Again. It’s not that we didn’t care I guess we just didn’t expect anything to come of it. So you can imagine our surprise when our name was called out saying we were through. I think that’s when it hit me that we were one step from the O2. That was a good feeling.

Sunday 8th May arrives, The Willows in Manchester. Again a huge crowd there to support us. Cracked out a Beyonce cover before the opening track of the new EP Roots called Little Late. Video here! (http://youtu.be/LZ_2s-nlbY4) And the final act going through to the Grand Final of the Live & Unsigned competition 2011 at the O2 Arena is….Tom Gee. Get out. No it’s not. No it really is. Wow.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us along our journey and thanks to those who are coming down on Saturday to see us. For those of you that can’t make it you can still show your support by texting unsigned62 to 84222 or watching the youtube video! http://youtu.be/LZ_2s-nlbY4

It’s Wednesday for God’s sake, the gig is on Saturday and it really hasn’t hit me yet. One thing for certain though; I can not wait.

See you Saturday.

TG

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Live and Unsigned Votes Needed

Can you believe it’s just over a week to the Live and Unsigned Grand Final. Obviously the performance on the day is paramount but there are other factors taken into consideration; there are also competitions within the competition.
There are two ‘Video Views’ competitions (MUZU.tv and Youtube) and a text vote competition.

Text Voting is now live for the National Grand Final of Live and Unsigned 2011. As well as performing for the judges on the day, the public have the opportunity to vote for the act who they believe should win Live and Unsigned 2011.

Each act has been allocated a specific code (ours is unsigned62) and the public can now vote via a text, for the act they want to win.

In order to win Live and Unsigned 2011 we must be within the top 3 Judges scores. Those acts not in the highest judges’ scores cannot win! Those acts in the top 3 get their scores ranked and added to the audience text voting. The acts with the combined highest ranking will be the winners.

We have consistently been in the top ten leader-boards for each competition – So help us in the final push. Anything you can do would be great. View the videos a few times and if you’re feeling flush text our code – unsigned62 to 84222 (we’ll remember when we’re famous!!)

We have a competition running to win two free tickets to the Live and Unsigned final. It’s free to enter just click [HERE]

And the winner of Live and Unsigned 2011 is……….?   Go on you know you want to!

See you at the O2 – Thanks for everything

TOM

Tom Gee – Manchester 8th May 2011 on MUZU.

Live and Unsigned website

Live and Unsigned Leaderboard

The o2 Live and Unsigned page

Live and Unsigned facebook page

Live and Unsigned on Twitter

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With so much happening we thought it was time to completely renew the website. Time to introduce a new, clear, crisp, fan-friendly website. When considering the new site we had a wish list:

A good blogging platform making easy to keep fans up-to-date

A good music player

Fully integrated social media

Youtube integration

A Gallery 

A method of featuring the very latest breaking news

A great looking Gig-Guide.

A Newsletter sign-up.

A Free mp3 download facility.

Yeah that should do it we said. And just a few weeks later – Hey Presto! It’s here. Communicating to our fan-base (existing and new) has never been so easy. The site’s ability to seamlessly integrate all social media streams was a key requirement. It provides Facebook, Twitter and Flickr integration matching the site style and not some strange looking embedded bolt-on that make so many websites jar visually. Added to this is youtube channel feed to the video page.

The result is to give people who want to find out more about Tom Gee everything they need in one place. No need to surf Google back and forth, hopping around youtube, twitter, myspace etc. It’s all here and we hope you like it.

We aim to keep you right up-to-date and it’s never been so easy for us to do so.

So with news of the ‘Get Out of Bed’ tour, the E.P. launch and of course the build up to the Live and Unsigned Grand Final – You may want to add us to your favourites right now.

We’d love to here your thoughts and any feedback would be much appreciated.

The post TG: A website befitting a Live and Unsigned Grand Finalist! appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

The Keighley blues club is an intimate venue with the 100 plus crowd up close and personal. On the same bill was award-winning blues artist Cherry Lee Mewis – so no pressure there then!

The Keighley crowd are appreciative and know their blues no wonder we were a little apprehensive and as ‘Smokes’ put it before we went on “But we’re not even a blues band!”

I thought we just have to aspire to be like Stevie Ray Vaughan of whom B.B. King said, “I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. He missed on both counts, but I never noticed.”

The Clapton-eqsue version of ‘I shot the sheriff’ broke them in gently but as the set grew more and more bluesy the audience reaction was great. John Mayer covers and the Classic 1954 “I Just Want to Make Love to You” (written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters) went down well.

As a blues inspired, funk-soul outfit we just about got away with it. Then sat back and listened to the fabulous Cherry Lee Mewis and her band – I particularly loved acoustic guitarist Max Milligan – but then I guess I would.

All the venues with their own unique atmospheres just help us craft our performance and we’re constantly learning. However a tight, 100 plus crowd of blues enthusiasts is a stark contrast to the next gig of 14,000 Bulls enthusiasts!

Playing a stadium is great opportunity and ideal preparation for the Live and Unsigned grand Final at the O2 arena on July 23^rd.

Why not come and see us at Live and Unsigned we’d love to see you there.

The post TG: From Blues to Bulls! appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

And the final act…going through…to the Live and Unsigned….Grand Fi – Oh for *%~$’s sake get on with it, Man Utd are playing Chelsea in 20 minutes, just say it!

It was us by the way. In case you were wondering. Or you haven’t been on twitter, facebook or generally been in the north of England. Because I don’t know about the other guys in the band but I’ve been telling everyone I see that we’re going to be in the Live & Unsigned Grand Final at the O2 Arena in London on 23rd July! Indeed the excitement was so much for me I managed to tweet out that we’re in the Grabs Final, but I can assure all of those worried, that it definitely is the Grand Final.

Can’t really believe it to be honest. Something like 10,000 bands, artists and musicians entered this competition and we’re in the final. And for us, we’ve seen a Regional and Area final and now we just want to enjoy ourselves on the stage down in London. Yeah, yeah, it’d be great if we won, that can’t be stressed enough, but for us it’s the experiences we’ve had. It’s a tough ask to perform for a small amount of time and make an impression. I think if we’re brutally honest we still feel that we could have been better but the O2 is where we wanted to be and now we’re gonna be there we’ll just go out and enjoy ourselves. We’ve met some brilliant bands along the way, Dan Audio and Dukes of Bevington (sorry if it’s spelt wrong lads) are two fantastic bands who didn’t make it through, both bands a great set of people and musicians. Seeing brilliant acts not make it through has underlined to us just how lucky we are to be given this opportunity.

It’s not X-Factor. Yeah I know, no, no it’s definitely NOT X-Factor, he says as he calls 3 acts on to the stage to be put to the audience vote. No, it’s not X-Factor, I’d like to think this competition is about real musicians and performers, showing that people need to have good marketing skills, be able to stick to a set task, show good showmanship (is there enough shows in that?) and, most importantly, have the rub of the green if you want to be a successful performer in the music business.

I’d just like to say how fantastic David Sudall on Drums, Jamie Moore on Bass and Dave Levi on Keyboards are in general. There’s generally an awkward silence when people ask the name of the band and we reply Tom Gee. Some people don’t know how to take it. It might be my name we work under but these guys are just as big a part of this band as I am and they deserve all the credit I’m sure they’ll get. I asked Dave Levi what his favourite part of yesterday was. He paused and considered for a moment, “Well we got through, that’s good, plus the guy on the sound desk kept playing Rosanna by Toto in between sound checks and when we were waiting around. Love that song.” Really gives scope to the emotion and magnitude of the occasion doesn’t it?

So there we have it. Thank you to everyone that voted us through, thank you to all our fans who travelled to see us and thanks to the judges who were mental enough to put us through.

Summer’s going to be a bit boring isn’t it? The Get Out of Bed Tour around the UK & Ireland with Nigel Passey, get back, recuperate, rehearse, go to London, play to 2000 people as part of Live Fest.

Can not wait.

www.tomgeemusic.com

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