200 Up!

Who would have thought when we started this "thing" that ended up being called THE Magnificent AK47 that we would end up having a website, let along a blog that has now been going for over two years, and that we would still be going strong that the blog thing would be going even stronger at 200 postings!  Not us for one. . . 

So, for fact fans everywhere, here are some Magnificent facts:

200 postings in 800 days(ish) the blog has been going = 1 posting every 4 days or so - pretty good for a bunch of pot-bellied blokes from North, North Wiltshire - who would have thought there was that much to say . . . in truth we have such a backlog of material it is quite shameful, but we'll get over it, and get round to it, eventually.

More facts - we have had :

T-Shirts across the globe

Our very own spoof action figure

Two calendars

One Wold Tour

2 sets of T-Shirts

2 BlokeFests (Woo Hoo!)

2 proper movies

2 Spooky Gigs

So many of our own gigs we ran out of fingers and toes counting

And we are still going.  

Here's to many, many more hours of fun.

BGKs

xxx

Why don't men join choirs . . .

If you were ever to casually google the phrase "the magnificent ak47 guardian" then from yesterday you might well come across this piece in The Guardian involving our very own beloved Choir Meister blabbering to the national press about the joys of song among grown ups, and in particular those of a blokey kind.

This must pass as our first mention in national press so could be considered up there in the "quite exciting" category of all the great things we have done in the past few years.

Of course this comes as no secret to us and our loyal readership, we know only full well the huge number of benefits from joining in and singing, there is the prevention of m..., um, what was I going to mention??  

Anyway, you can't put a price on the sheer back of your neck hair raising experience that is singing to a room full of people whilst wearing a wig or a series of hats so that even your own mother would be hard pressed to pick you out from the crowd, even though she would be gushing with pride at the part her offspring was playing in making such a sonically spectacular sound.

Yes, we know a thing or two about men singing, and will continue to do it, despite the stigma and the hurdles we have to overcome.  All power to your elbow Chris!  Sing on!!

BlokeFest Starts today

So, the wait is finally over, we have packed our kit bags, checked that we still have a tent that needed repairing last time we used it, but it should survive, won't it??  The second annual event of the largest 
gathering in the BlokeSong calendar in the UK is about to take place.

Unusually for an English Summer the weather is not looking too good so the organizers are recommending that everyone bring brollies and wellies.

Cheering up though, there is the prospect of meeting up with chums from around the country, learning old songs and new songs, meeting new blokes,  all with a dash of ale and general bonhommie.

Hopefully the rain won't dampen the spirits of the Father's Day Late Lunch and all will be well.

For much more information you should visit their  informative and amusing BlokeFest.net website.

Upon arrival the blokes will be able to snap up the rather marvelous BlokeFest souvenir T-Shirts and Pint Glasses and we are sure there will be many more reports to be had in the forthcoming days and weeks.

Now, where did I put my Duct Tape to repair the tent?  

Headlining at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol

Hot on the heels of a well earned "weekend off" to reacquaint ourselves with family and friends after quite a bit of activity on the Magnificent front, we are back in action on Sunday night.

Evenings out on school nights can be a little tricky for those of us who have to get up on Mondays and need our beauty sleep but we'll manage somehow.

Recently the blokes have been in fine singing voice and equally good hat wearing form and who knows what might be adoring their head come Sunday.

Easily the best way to find out will be to actually be at the gig in this prestigious venue in Bristol.

We might manage some posing by the S.S. Great Britain earlier in the afternoon so watch out if you are about for blokes in black T-Shirts sporting Stove pipe Top hats, but probably not smoking cigars, they have to look after their larynx!

Everyone who attends and contributes will help raise funds for a great cause to get people singing at the fabulous Bristol Festival of Song, who have been great supporters of us, so we are delighted to be helping them.

Go to the Tobacco Factory Website by clicking here to book your tickets now!

Optional hat wearing for the audience members.

The merry month of May

No one could have quite predicted how brilliant this last month has been for our merry troupe of troubadours, but it has turned out to be pretty much everything we had hoped for when all the planning began many months ago on those dark winter night when "pub talk" becomes at its most fanciful, especially a couple of pints into an evening.

Unless you are completely new to this vessel of BlokeDom you will have no doubt been following our ever increasingly ambitious adventures with every increasing incredulity that a bunch of blokes from North, North Wiltshire could dare to attempt such follies.

True though that be, this is no ordinary bunch of blokes, it is now a cracking singing team (or is that "creaking" in some cases?) that can leap off a 52 seater bus coach and melt the hearts of ladies within earshot at a drop of their many hats.

Tis also true that they sing to horses, both the Shire and White varieties, and do a damn fine job of it in the process.  There are quite a few videos and photos that have yet to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public that will emerge over coming weeks showing great displays of bravado, especially when singing "And I Love Her" to a huge Wadworth's Shire horse

Everywhere we have been this past month we have spread our love for BlokeSong and the way we do it down in the depths of our manly tones.  We have sung on many hill tops overlooking White Horses and wonderful views, we have sung in pubs and melted ladies into puddles of bass-soaked emotions, we have dressed up as Pirates and sung Sea Shanties with some of the best on land or sea.

Reading between these lines you might think that we have had quite a time of it this last month, and you'd be right!

So, here's to the next month's worth of adventures, Headline gig in Bristol, our very own festival BlokeFest, gig at the Roundhouse in London, Latvian Ladies gracing us - another great month ahead, but what a very merry month of May we have had this year.

Chippenham Folk Festival - not once, but twice!

Well, this is the "Big One" for this half of the year, one of THE biggest local Festivals and we are very honoured to have been invited back for a second time.  Not only that, but we have been invited to perform twice on the same night.

We begin the evening by taking part in Round The Horn & Back Again 18:30 – 20:30 Arena Stage 1  An Extravaganza of Shanty Singing, which the official program describes as a "veritable host of saucy sailors. Jim Mageean tries to control the Exmouth Shanty Men. Graham Knights, Dave Webber & Anni Fentiman, The Magnificent AK47, Tony & Pearl O’Neill, JigJaw, Barrie & Ingrid Temple and more! Good luck Jim."  The program encourages you to come appropriately dressed as a sailor and join in the fun.

Not long after that we need to high tail it to Concerts at the Consti 20:30 – 23:00 Constitutional Hall to perform with Barrie & Ingrid Temple, The Magnificent AK47s, Craig Morgan Robson and Jez Lowe & m/c is Rosie Upton.  We are due to be on around 21:30.

We are genuinely very excited about the event especially as almost as exciting are two other sessions. . . 

Sing Like a Pirate 10:30 – 11:15 Great Hall
Sea songs for the younger sailors with the Exmouth Shanty Men.

Shanty Workshop 14:30 – 15:30 Yelde Hall
Come along and learn a shanty or two and get a chance of being on the Big Top Stage later! With the Exmouth Shanty Men, Jim Mageean and Graham Knights.

And who knows, we might sneak in some more singing in a pub or two.

Full program listing can be found on their website where you can view the Festival Programme online now (PDF).

Should be a grand day out!

Alfred Williams - Local Hero

It's a long(ish) story, but a few of The Magnificent AK47 have a bit of a thing about a chap called Alfred Williams, who is known as "The Hammerman Poet". Basically he is quite an inspiring example to us all who think we are a little bit "busy" and have a "tough life".  He not only managed to walk several miles to work and back each day, do a physically grueling job working in the GWR workshops, but somehow he taught himself several languages in his spare time and cycled all around the Upper Thames saving old folk songs.

Shamelessly quoting from the website of the Society dedicated to his memory alfredwilliams.org.uk "this summer sees the centenary of Alfred Williams's book about everyday rural life a century ago, called Villages of the White Horse.

The book is the story of a journey that the Wiltshire author took from Basset Down, near Wroughton, just south of Swindon, to Uffington White Horse, and he gives a detailed account of what he encountered on the way.  Alfred looks closely at the character of each town or village on the route, its folklore and peculiarities, reporting in his easy-to-read, natural writing style.

To mark the centenary, the Alfred Williams Heritage Society is putting on an event at the Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall, Uffington, on Sunday, May 19, from 2pm to 5pm.

It will include readings from the book about each of the locations featured in Alfred's books, often by people with special associations with the town or village concerned."

If you fancy a bit of true local culture about a top bloke then get yourself along and some of us might see you there.

And you might like to explore local musician John Cullimore's album about the life of Alfred and The Bailey Sisters.