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3rd February, 2010 - The rough with the smooth

The new decade has started with some sad news. There have been a slew of deaths of people near to us, our friends and families. Only a few days after we played our New Year's Eve gig at the Beer Engine, we heard of the sad and sudden death of the landlord, Ian McAllister.

Ian was an increasingly rare breed - a landlord who genuinely cared about live music and the Beer Engine reflected this, with live music throughout the week. He was also only one of two landlords we can think of who made sure that the band got a drink at the end of the night.

Ian made a gig at the Beer Engine something we always looked forward to. It was our 'home' and we always had a packed pub there, thanks in no small part to Ian's promotion of the gigs.

We were delighted to be asked to play New Year's Eve there. Everyone had a great evening and when we saw Ian a few days later, he was extrememly pleased with how it had gone and made sure we knew it. We are sad that Ian won't be around any more. Coventry has lost one of its best promoters of live music and it will not be the same without him. We can only hope that whoever his successor may be doesn't let all his efforts go to waste.

RIP, Ian.

And now for a bit of good news... John and family are no longer planning to move up to Shetland, so it's back to business as usual, and business as usual means that the band is constantly working on new material to add to the set. It's getting pretty tough to decide which of the songs we can drop from the set to make room for the new ones, but unfortunately we can't always play a 37 song set like we did at the Beer Engine on New Year's Eve!

30th December, 2009 - New Year's Eve with the Beaver

Just a quick note to let you know that we are playing our 'spiritual home', the Beer Engine, Far Gosford Street, Coventry on New Year's Eve.

As far as we know, entry is free. It looks like it'll be a good night. We are playing quite a long set and hopefully there's plenty of drink behind the bar, so they don't sell out again!

Beaver regulars can look forward to hearing a few new tunes too, so come along and welcome in 2010 with the Beaver!

See the Gigs page for a link to directions.

17th August, 2009 - New Beaver Videos

Head over to the media page of the site or directly to http://www.youtube.com/ministryofbeaver for some new movies (quite a few, actually), taken from a gig last month at one of the Beaver's regular haunts, the King Billy in Northampton.

The whole gig was filmed on two fixed cameras, one in front of the band and one behind the band looking out towards the audience.

In addition, the whole mix was recorded onto a hard-drive recording desk, kindly brought along by John's former bandmate in BAiT, Nick Nugent, who supervised the recording process.

A few weeks and several hours later, the finished product is finally ready to be viewed.

The performance is classic Beaver in full flow, and is an honest document of the band's current live set. The audio mix isn't perfect in places, due to the sound being taken from the mixing desk post rather than pre faders (techy people will know what that means), but it's pretty close; and yes... there's the odd human error too, but we aren't machines you know!

We hope you enjoy the videos whilst we're on our summer break. Back to work next month and there are new songs in the bag... but a suitable drummer is proving to be elusive. John is just going to have to enjoy playing a few more gigs. Shame. ;-)

23rd May, 2009 - The Beaver plays its first gig with Ian

Ian entered the Beaver in style last night, as the band played its first gig with him on lead vox. The punters, although initially suffering a little from British restraint, were literally jumping from chairs by the second half.

Ian did a great job and the new tracks in the set went well. Paddy, as usual, kept the audience amused (or bemused!) with his antics, featuring an impromptu walk into the crowd towards the end of the second set.

The gig served as a good warm-up for the upcoming gigs and was a good indication of things to come.

18th May, 2009 - John to move on - drummer required

Hi there Beaver people! John here. I thought I would write this in person, as it is me who is causing the trouble here!

My family has taken the decision that we will be moving out of the area (quite a distance away) in the next few months, assuming that all goes to plan. This does, unfortunately, have a big impact on the thing outside my family and friends that I really care about - i.e. this band.

I have been a member of the band for nearly 18 months now and I can honestly say that they have been some of the happiest months of my life in a band. This is a band which has no personality issues. The guys are all great people, as well as being damn good musicians. They enjoy every aspect of being in the band, from learning new material to live performance. If things were different, I could see myself staying with the band for the very long term.

However, as the other guys have conceded, family comes first.

Anyway, to cut to the chase...

I'm taking the rather unusual step of trying to help the guys out in finding a replacement for me, so here's what you should know about the job.

I hope to be behind the drum kit for a few more gigs, but may not be, if we find the right person for the job sooner rather than later.

If you're interested in taking up the role, drop us a line.

Good luck!
John

21st March, 2009 - Mark's final Beaver gig

The Beaver said farewell to long-standing vocalist Mark tonight on home turf at the Beer Engine, Coventry. Despite some technical horrors at the start of the first set, where Andi's PA head and then his spare packed up, the gig went well. Once normal service had been resumed, thanks to a quick trip back to Andi's to fetch his 30W practice amp, things started to go a little more smoothly.

We had two surprises lined up for the evening. The first was in the form of former bass player, Rod, who turned up and played three songs as part of Mark's farewell gig.

The second surprise was the first appearance of new Beaver vocalist, Ian, for a further three songs.

Both Rod and Ian enjoyed themselves and it really felt like Mark was 'handing over the reins' to Ian.

So, a gig of mixed emotions to quite a good crowd. Thanks to everyone who came along for your patience whilst we ironed out the technical problems, and our next gig will be back at the beer Engine in June, which should give us plenty of time to get everything up and running with Ian.

Thanks to Chris Johnson for coming along and getting some new photos of us, which can be seen on the Media page.

Finally, we'd like to wish Mark (or Yatesy, as he prefers to be called by his mates) all the best for his future. He'll be missed up there on stage, but we hope to see him from time to time on the other side of the stage - hopefully as abusive!

16th March, 2009 - Mark's last gig this Saturday

Mark will be fronting the band for the last time this Saturday night at the Beer Engine, Coventry. It promises to be a special evening with a couple of surprises along the way for Beaver fans, so get down if you can.

Hope to see you there!

27th February, 2009 - Houston, we have a singer

Following Mark's decision to withdraw slowly from the Beaver, he kindly pointed us in the direction of a former band mate of his, Ian Deering, who was lead singer of a band for whom Mark played drums (in the days when he did such things). Ian has been looking for an established band to front for some time, but has failed to find one that he thought was up to the job.

Following an impressive couple of audition sessions with Ian, we've offered him the job, and he's very kindly accepted.

This is what we can tell you about the Beaver's incumbent front-man...

Ian is a former touring rock vocalist and has supported the likes of The Mission, The Quireboys, and the platinum-selling Iron Butterfly. Ian's vocals put the classic back into classic rock. If Dire Straits were the Sultans of Swing then Ian is definitely the Sultan of Screams. Having operated under more stage names than he cares to mention (apparently it was the fashion to be called Mr Vocal Range and Jon E Major), we think that he'll now just stick to Ian.

We'll be working hard to integrate Ian over the next few weeks. In the meantime, we'll be playing our last few gigs with Mark on lead vox, with the Beer Engine gig in Coventry on Saturday, 21 March 2009 set to be his farewell gig. You can be sure that he won't be going out with a whimper!

11th February, 2009 - All change!

Mark has anounced that he will be leaving the band after the next few gigs for personal reasons. He hasn't taken the decision likely, and has said that he wouldn't entertain the idea in other circumstances, but feels it is only fair to make a clean break and let us move on with a new singer in place.

So, we are on the lookout for a new vocalist. The successful candidate will need to have a good set of pipes and be a competent front man. Yes, as sexist as it sounds, we feel that we need to be fronted by a bloke. In a different band, it'd be different of course, but it's not... so it won't.

The new vocalist will be expected to attend regular weekly rehearsals in Coventry and be happy to get stuck in with setting up at gigs.

If you feel you've got it in you and are happy to have a go at our material, drop us a line using the contact form.

Good luck!

25th January, 2009 - Patrick's first gig with the Beaver

The Beaver played its first gig with new bass player, Patrick, last night at The Three Nuns, Loughborough. Some of the regular Beaver fans came along to lend their support and by the end of the night everyone was really fired up.

Patrick played a blinder, considering how little time he's had to get up and running with the set and it's pretty obvious that he's going to have to have a microphone stand in front of him for future gigs, based on his banter with the audience.

13th December, 2008 - Introducing Patrick - our new bass player

After a few auditions, ranging from the not so good to the excellent, the Beaver has found its new bass player in the form of Patrick Dorgan. Patrick is an excellent player and has played a wide range of music in various bands, from jazz to rock; in the UK, continental Europe, and the USA.

We have had a couple of rehearsals and things are coming together pretty well.

Patrick will be making his debut with the band in the New Year. In the meantime, get along to our upcoming gigs and see Rod while you still can!

19th October, 2008 - On the lookout for a new bass player

Rod has taken the decision that he will be hanging up his bass guitar in the coming months. He has offered to play all existing and any upcoming bookings until we find a replacement. With this in mind, we are on the lookout for a new bass player.

If you are interested, you will need to play to a high standard and be willing to learn new material on an ongoing basis. You will need to commit to regular rehearsals (currently Wednesday evenings) in Coventry and have a professional attitude to all aspects of involvement in the band. You will also own good quality equipment.

Our current repertoire can be seen on the repertoire page.

If you are interested in auditioning, please drop us a line using the contact form.

Good luck!

10th August, 2008 - The Beaver records a new demo

The Beaver has just finished recording its new demo at Pride Rock Studios at Deppers Bridge, Warwickshire. The demo features 4 tracks and can be heard on the media page.

Songs recorded were:

Given the very little time taken to record the demo, we're all really happy with the results.

We'd like to thank Dutch for the studio time and Matt Waddell for his excellent work engineering the tracks.