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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For some of the guys this was the first time they had been in Ireland – They all now want to come back. The gig was great and the crowd fantastic and a big shout out to Lisa McLaughlin for looking after us so well.
We finished, rushed for a bite to eat and then due to the complete lack of parking near The Mercantile we legged it across to ‘The Sunday Roast’ gig (instruments in hand.)

And the night just got better the crowd were up for the craic, they sang, clapped shouted for more – we absolutely loved it. Thanks John (Brereton) for everything.

We didn’t finish until after midnight – running back across Dublin to the van then a 30 mile journey to Nass, Co. Kildare where we still had to set up tent!

We arrived at the campsite about 1:40am; was the overnight security guard grumpy? – “Aghh no boys yer grand!” He’d reserved a pitch next to a street light to help us with putting the tent up and directly under the CCTV camera because he figured we’d have a lot of equipment in the van. God don’t you just love Ireland? (Jobsworths don’t seem to be allowed in the country)
2:30am big zeds all around! What a day!

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So fresh from the EP Launch we ventured over the border, well Manchester. The Night & Day to be exact, a cracking music venue. This was one date Dan couldn’t make so after bumping into Mr Dawkins at the 360 gig we asked him to step in – “Yeah man, I’ll vibe it,” he said – so that was a yes then!

It was good crowd, happy to make plenty of noise which is always good. It’s nice to know your audience is actually listening.
We must mention Jonny on the door (top man) and a particular thanks to Joe for working wonders on the sound desk – cheers guys.

I really like the feel of ‘The Night and Day’ we really must go there when we’re not gigging – it’s that sort of place. The feel to the whole place just works somehow.

We altered the set a little and tried a few things out and they worked. Then it was back in the van and back to Yorkshire.
You can check out the video blog so far [here]

Next stop Liverpool!

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Okay there were no rocket-propelled grenades but we did launch the EP, sell CD’s and get recorded by the BBC! Yeah really – the performance was recorded for BBC Introducing and will feature on Alan Raw’s show, which goes out on BBC Radio Leeds. Alan is a well known supporter of new music. He had us on the show previously for the launch of the ‘Speak Easy’  E.P. and we’ll be back for an interview next Thursday – don’t miss it!

It was a top night with three other great acts: Neve, Nigel Passey and Love of the Brave [There was something familiar about the guy on the semi-acoustic but I can’t put my finger on it!]. The 360 club is just a proper music venue which attracts a real appreciative and discerning audience who thankfully seemed to love it.

We played all four tacks from our new E.P. ‘Roots’ and they went down a storm and exclusive, hot-off-the-press, CD’s sold really well (thanks Karen and Chris). A massive thanks and well done to Dan, who really was the man, stepping in for Jamie and keeping the Get Out of Bed Tour alive!

Thanks to Richard for promoting the evening, we appreciate it, and to Pete on the sound desk for making us sound so good!  It was great to see Chris Dawkins and Kenny Higgins in the room. A really big thanks also to everyone who came to support us on an epic night – The E.P. Launch, the official start of the Tour, and our last home-county gig for months!  Yep, now we’re off! First stop Manchester. Tonight we’re at the Night ‘n’ Day, Manchester if you’re about pop in and see us. Sunday we head for Liverpool (Django’s Riff a brilliant venue) then it’s off Darn Sarf!

We’ll keep you posted here and in the picture Gallery.

Following last night ‘Roots’ is now available on iTunes. So check it out on the music player below then mozy on over to iTunes and get your very own copy, why don’t you?

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However – On Sunday we shot and edited a promotional video for our E.P. Launch. On Monday after getting the EP mixes back from Roni I took them down to Warwick Pilmer & Tony Bonner at Clipstore in Kirkstall to do the mastering. Took all afternoon but really pleased with the finished product. 

Left the boys at Clipstore to do the copying and printing of the CD and went home to upload the tracks to iTunes ahead of the launch on Friday.  Finalised the design for the inlay and passed to printer so everything in place for Friday.

In between all this we were setting up the rehearsals which are pretty intense all this week, getting up really early (9ish) and playing all day at Bluewood Studios.  Sounds great, everyone moaning, laughing and eating pizza! 

Tickets for the EP launch at the 360 Club going well so should be a good crowd.  First gig on our “Get Out of Bed” tour when we are promoting our Live-and-Unsigned Grand Final performance at the O2.  So with me somehow doing all this at the same time I just can’t be a “Real Man!”

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When the bard penned the immortal words ‘All the world’s a stage’ I wonder if he had the White Horse in mind. You see there isn’t one! But that’s fine – we like it like that. One week on a pitch in front of 14,000 people the next at the end of a room with 100 or so in your face.

It was a great atmosphere you really know whether your audience likes you or not when they’re so close you can tell what aftershave they’re wearing. Feedback is fairly instantaneous when people are two feet away.

So it’s somehow all the better when an intimate crowd like you, especially when they’re a Yorkshire crowd. A county renowned for forthright views and demand for value for money echoed in the Yorkshire Mantra you can hear across the county – “How Much??”

The reaction to the new tracks from the ‘Roots’ E.P. was particularly satisfying. When it came to an encore the crowd asked us to play ‘Broken Bridges’ again – so they definitely liked it then.

All-in-all another great local gig at the start of the tour before we venture out of the Shire!

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Then the phone rings, it’s 2:15am, it’s Jamie, he loves the mixes. That’s a pleasant surprise thought I was the only one awake. It’s pretty grim I’ve got to be up in 5 hours. Then I get a text from Smokes, he loves it as well. Everyone except Dave then… My phone vibrates, 1 new email. It’s Dave, he’s happy, except he’s convinced his kick drum could be phatter. (Yes, phatter.)

When we did the Live and Unsigned area final at Dewsbury we met James Grover, he contacted me afterwards, said he rated the band and told us about his studio in Bradford. And so began the strong working relationship with Peak Studios; top man Roni spreads his time between the Chicago and Bradford studios and when we agreed he would do the mixing it worked out that he would be in the States whilst working on our new EP Roots. Had a few e-mails during the week with his ideas and with the feedback form the band he’s done a fantastic job. We received the final final mixes in the early hours of this morning and we’re all very pleased.

EP is nearly ready for launch next Friday at the 360 club in Leeds, just finalising the mastering and artwork. The launch is going to be awesome. There’s a facebook event and everything [Visit Facebook Event] . You can still get tickets just click [Get Tickets Now].

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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.

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