Rockaoke Blog

Hello ROCKAOKE fans!

Its been a while since our last blog, with so much happening all the time, its hard to keep up, but here we are to fill you in on how stuff has been going in the ROCKAOKE camp.

We have done some really amazing gigs in the last few months such as Download!! which was nothing less than amazing! We played to over 2000 people, which was also immense. And the best thing about it was, the singers were brilliant, which really does help the Rockstar experience, although anyone can join in the fun, and feel like a Rockstar! You can find some of the videos for this on our youtube channel: http://www.rockaoke.co.uk/rockaoke_video.php

Its also Gaymers festival season, where we have been enjoying yet another season working for the lovely people @ Gaymers. So far we have played Lattitude and Big Chill, which are two of our favourite festivals to date, and in amongst rocking out in The Gaymers Lost Orchid, we found time to go watch the amazing Massive Attack. A totally mind blowing experience to say the least!

The festivals are always fantastic, but we have been doing some awsome weddings too, with the most fun, memorable and coolest wedding of all time, being Louise and Diego’s wedding in Dorset, which got featured in Brides Magazine. We had a great time and met some really cool people, and drank some beautiful Spanish wine, a personal highlight. Negative point being most of it ended up all over my Primarny special white shirt. Should have had my very classy head torch switched on at this point A special thanks goes out to Alice @ Brides Mag for being so kind and featuring us in her blog.

So, great festivals, top notch weddings, features in Brides Magazine. Have I forgotten anything? ermmm, oh yes, Alan Shearer’s 40th birthday party

It was an absolute honour to be asked to play @ Alan Shearer’s 40th birthday, where the great man himself, opened the second set with a very credible rendition of “Sex on Fire”. This has to be the top ROCKAOKE moment of all time. The guy is a feckin legend, even if he did play for Newcastle! Top goal scorer in the premiership, 30 goals in 63 caps for England, unreal. As if thats not living the dream enough, he has also fronted his own rock band.

His party was a who’s who of premiership footballers and managers alike, and also local boys Ant and Dec were present. If rumour is to be believed, both Ant and Dec and Shearer, did a version of “Lets Get Ready to Rumble” in the early hours of the morning. Priceless!!

We were featured in the Bizarre section of The Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3098956/Shearer-40th-is-rocking.html, got a mention on Radio 1 by our old friend, Chris Moyles, and we also had the pleasure of playing with the awsome, Matt Fincham, from The Chris Moyles Show

All in all, everything is good in the Rockaoke camp, with Leeds and V Festivals coming up, and our usual, great fun nights, at both Punk and Karaoke box.

More blogs soon people. Hope to see you all at a night near you, really soon.

For now, keep on ROCKAOKEING

ROCKAOKE Sundays @ PROUD, Camden - launch night 23 may 2010

ROCKAOKE NIGHTS return to the home of karaoke’s much cooler older bro’ - PROUD, Camden.

ROCKAOKE are the UKs original karaoke rock band, inviting their audience to live the dream by jumping on stage, grabbing the mic, fronting their own live rock band and getting a crowd going crazy.

The band and the concept made headlines back in 2006 when Ricky Wilson jumped on stage with ROCKAOKE @ IBIZA ROCKS to sing “I Predict a Riot”.

One of the last bands to play the old PROUD GALLERIES back in august 2007, ROCKAOKE became a firm favourite at PROUD over the next few years.

ROCKAOKE have performed with over 25,000 different lead singers – all wannabe rockstars and some actual superstars like Justin Lee Collins, Alexandra Burke, Peter Andre, James Corden, Jeremy Clarkson etc…

Shows with CHRIS MOYLES in 2009 introduced ROCKAOKE to 8,000,000 Radio 1 listeners. In september 2009, the band toured with Chris to celebrate his show becoming the longest running Radio 1 breakfast show ever!

And now on 23/05/2010, ROCKAOKE are launching monthly Sunday ROCKAOKE NIGHTS @ PROUD.

So, if you want something cooler than karaoke but more interactive and hands-on than a live rock band, come down to ROCKAOKE NIGHTS @ PROUD and get your lips dirty!

up-and-coming ROCKAOKE NIGHTS @ PROUD (8 til 11.30 – free admission)

Sunday 23rd may 2010 – Sunday 27th june 2010 – Sunday 25th july 2010

“Most fun ever? We reckon so” – TIME OUT, LONDON

“So wrong – it’s right” – IBIZA ROCKS

“Karaoke’s much cooler older brother” – SUNDAY TIMES

“It’s such a good idea! Get a band – and then you do karaoke” – CHRIS MOYLES

SIGN UP TO SING ONLINE @ www.rockaokenights.com/proud

See www.rockaoke.co.uk for more information on ROCKAOKE.

Rockaoke @ The Gaymers Camden Crawl 2010 Aftershow

Sunday 2nd May, officially the start of the Rockaoke summer, and it’s not because of the weather as it was freezing and pissing it down. It’s because it was the start of our 2010 festival season. Camden Crawl was a weekend we were all really looking forward to, and it did not disappoint. From the second the free bar opened it was pure rock n roll carnage on the Rockaoke stage @ Dingwalls.

Each and every one of the performers embraced their few mins of Rock n roll glory to sing with a live Karaoke Rock band, even if they were in bands themselves such as Baby Bird (Danny, bass player of Baby Bird sang Kiss as the opening song). As the Gaymers Cider flowed, so did our set of anthems with all manner of people gracing the stage from MTV people to Kerrang, we even spotted the drummer from Snow Patrol trying to sneak on to stage, although were pretty sure he was trying to get his mate on. But none the less we shared the stage with a member of Snow Patrol. Another name to add to the Rockaoke hall of fame

Despite the crazy amounts of booze consumed (sensibly of course), Camden Crawl produced a really high standard of singers/performers helping make this one of the most memoral Rockaoke nights so far this year. It’s certainly the latest as we got off stage at 3am – but boy did we enjoy it! and would we do it again?

hmmmmm FUCK YEA!!!!!

It is rare that you get asked to be involved in something that has never been done before. On saturday may 15th, ROCKAOKE are going to be doing just that. Breaking new ground where angels and maybe even Robbie Williams soundalikes fear to tread.

TRIBUTE 2010 = see www.tributeni.com

TRIBUTE is a completely unique, alternative credit crunch festival celebrating the greatest rock and pop anthems of the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s alongside a headline performance by live karaoke rock band, Rockaoke – and YOU!

For the first time in history, you, the audience will headline your very own music festival.

TRIBUTE will be an all-inclusive, sing-a-long extravaganza, playing out as a history through Rock. There are 3 of the UKs premier tribute bands on the bill. HOT FUSS, ZU2 (easy to work out what they are all about) and MAURICE JAY’S PLEASURE DOME (a tribute to the 80s). But they are only the warm-up for the star attraction. Which is you – with ROCKAOKE as your backing band.

We have worked in Belfast 3 times before – twice at The Empire Music Hall, 2 nights amongst the best gigs of our lives. And most recently in december doing “Caroloke” with the CHRIS MOYLES SHOW at the Mandela Hall, Queens Uni. Belfast is just such a terrific place to visit and to work in. And we can’t wait to get back there in may.

So much so, infact, that we are heading back there next week – 1 month ahead of schedule. We are flying into Belfast and then heading for Derry on the 8th april and Dublin on the 9th to do 2 launch night / warm-up / audition events – at Sandinos and The Village respectively. Here are some links to these events on Facebook:

ROCKAOKE North-West debut – Sandinos, Derry

ROCKAOKE Dublin debut – The Village, Wexford St, Dublin

We’ll be blogging more about these events next week and about TRIBUTE 2010 in the next month. And if anyone wants to come on tour to Belfast with us in may, please contact us using the usual methods.

OM crazy venues G! This is gonna be a right little winner!, as Danny would say.

After a slightly delayed start last night, due to Mat poncing around at a singing lesson, we managed to get on stage at about 8, full of pizza and topped up with Mojitos. What looked like being an intimate affair turned out to be a raucous free for all as the songs came in thick and fast.

Particular highlights included the one and only Roger Inocenti smashing the front and back doors out of Bon Jovi ( the bar tenders had to smother the glasses when he went awol on the top note near the end ). There was also a high voltage rendition of Don’t Stop Believing that nearly made me stop hearing ,and a very excited American contingent who stumbled upon us from their booth and got stuck into a bit of Blink 182.

Good news is that we think this night will be mega if the first one was owt to go by. It’s tough to find a good venue with cool staff and a ready flow of right minded peop’s to get on stage and have a smash, and Karaoke Box at Smithfields is definitely a goer. We just need to keep on telling the city folk that it’s there every other Wednesday and hopefully they’ll come down and help make it a cracker. There are even rumours of a Rockaoke themed Pizza being created especially! What dreams are made of…..I wonder if Kings of Leon have got their own pizza?

Until the next one…rock on!

ROCKAOKE NIGHTS @ Karaoke Box, Smithfield - launch night 31/3/2010

LAUNCH NIGHT 31/3/2010 and every 2nd & last wednesday.

We are looking forward to our first ROCKAOKE NIGHT at Karaoke Box, Smithfield. It is live band karaoke’s first venture into hardcore karaoke territory in London and it will be interesting to see how we get on. Our nights at OK Karaoke in Leeds were successful – marred only by the tiny stage and the amount of Sambuca that seemed to find its way into our guitarist. Karaoke Box is small too – but the stage is OK and I think we are going to have a great night!

The signs are good. Already 10 songs requested at www.rockaokenights.com/karaokebox – get your song request in quick if you want to sing tomorrow. Admission is free and we will be on stage between 8-11pm.

The really good news is that there are drinks sponsors. Asahi beer – though I can’t help thinking that Singha beer would be a better fit at Karaoke Box. And Bacardi! That’s a dream come true for us. The Mojito is the official drink of Rockaoke as hotel night porter’s throughout the land will grudgingly vouch for. And now we have the name “Bacardi” on our flyers. Happy days.

Hope to see you down at Karaoke Box tonight

Shitbiscuits! I’m driving

Well so far this year ROCKAOKE at Punk in Soho has been shit-hot. We have been doing the second and last Fridays of the month at Punk, and ROCKAOKE has seen a packed house every time, with the usual array of weird and wonderful singers/performances. Some more memorable than others –  i.e a very strange performance of “Poker Face” which the travelling fans from Sunderland (clearly a new thing to the North East massive) found quite off the wall!! Just a normal night a Punk then!

We have also seen the addition of two new ROCKAOKE boys – Steve (drums), and Al (Bass), to give the legends that are Basil and Jon a wee bit of respite from all the travelling. Jon and Basil must be the hardest working guys in showbiz!

With popularity of the live band karaoke concept growing week by week, Punk really is the coolest place in London to sing with ROCKAOKE.

We played in Brixton for the first time on saturday (27th march – Phil’s birthday). Was a great night @ Dex Club. Only threatening behaviour we encountered was the obligatory jobsworth parking attendant on Danny’s mission to acquire parking tickets in every London borough by the end of 2010. He missed out this time as drummer Steve assumed the mantle temporarily.

I was uncharacteristically on my toes. I sussed out the parking restrictions and parked some way off.  Walking back to Dex Club I came across a chap trying to move a piano on his own. A thankless task – I offered my services naturally. And ended up pushing a piano from Brixton Village to the Dog Star.

Company magazine - oct 2009

London’s Cuckoo Club is not typical of the venues we have played. For a start, it costs about £25 to get in. Incredibly exclusive. So not exactly the class of punter that we started to out playing to in Sheffield and – errrr – Glasgow!

We did about 6 great shows at Cuckoo Club in 2009. There was usually a lot of hanging about. Then, turned midnight when everyone was ready, 45 minutes of rock mayhem! Rockaoke, casually straddles all boundaries of class, race, gender etc… And of course everyone loved it! They wanted to see more of us. But we were dead busy doing other gigs that happened to be paying better fees at the time. So I believe they even got another band in at one stage.

We almost landed a dream gig in Brindisi. One night we met this guy who wanted to fly us out to his villa and for us to spend the week there hanging out, rocking out etc… Sounded great to us. Less so to my wife. It didn’t come off though. I think I was just a bit too northern to take the guy seriously. It sounded a bit too good to be true. Maybe the other band went.

Anyway, we got a great article in COMPANY magazine’s october 2009 issue. “A Night Less Ordinary” was a very good description of our nights at Cuckoo Club. See the full article at http://www.rockaoke.co.uk/company_oct_2009.pdf.

Last month we landed a gig at the prestigious Brits 2010 Aftershow. And the guy who booked us saw us at Cuckoo Club. So, no surprise we are keen to play at Cuckoo Club again in 2010. Because things happen down there…

Not got the greatest ring about it has it. Rockaoke’s first gig on a caravan site and my first ever vist to Porthcawl. 4 hours from Sheffield. Even longer coming back thanks to the M42 being shut between j10-11. We detoured via M6 (initially in the wrong direction), M5, A38 and the 24-hour Asda at Minworth where we tried and failed to find iced coffee or any Hershey products. Surely the biggest / least well stocked supermarket in the UK.

Was cold too. Frosty winds well and truly made moan!

It was a buyers/suppliers corporate event for Parkdean (the site owner) and we were there courtesy of Gaymers Cider. Unfortunately the Gaymers cider wasn’t there which seemed a bit of an oversight. I had a pint of water in a Gaymers glass at one point. At least Gaymers cannot be accused of promoting irresponsible drinking.

We had words last night actually. But what goes on in the van stays in the van. Even though the words we had were in the car park. Rules is rules. Suffice to say, we are all still very much in love. And we rocked Porthcawl like it’s never known!