30th December 2016 Scott Ottaway

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

It’s December 21st and I don’t have another show until the 27th!

Since my last blog it’s been non-stop. A trip to Australia, Solo shows, TV show and a new album.
I guess its now time to relax…. with family.

The 60s Gold tour finished in Manchester on November 1st and on November 3rd at 10.40pm I was sitting on a plane, in business class on the way to Australia to do our final Rock the Boat of 2016. We arrived in Brisbane at 7am on the 5th.

This was the first time we have flown business class to Australia. We normally go economy, but now we have experienced business, I doubt we can go back to cattle class.

The acts on this Rock the Boat 6 are Chubby Checker, Gary Puckett, The Fortunes, P J Proby, The Troggs, The Pacemakers, a few Australian bands and us.

All the bands arrive in dribs and drabs at the Hilton, Brisbane during the day and after a few hours sleep, some food and a little walk round the shopping centre, it’s suddenly early evening. Next door to the hotel is an Irish pub and it would be rude not to visit.

Fair play to the band playing that night. They were not fazed by the fact they had so many 60s acts watching them. They even asked us to get up and jam with them, an offer we turned down due to excess alcohol.

I returned to my hotel room around 3am. Now jet lag is an amazing thing, at 6am I was up wide-awake. No way was I getting any more sleep. I ended up getting showered, dressed and going out for a walk round Brisbane. During this walk I bumped into the bassist from The Pacemakers, who was also struggling to sleep.

We returned to the hotel around 7.30am, just in time for breakfast. Perfect timing!

All the acts then made their way to the Legend of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean. Not the biggest ship in the World, but its home for the net 7 days. It’s Sunday and our show day is Wednesday. We have 2 sea days, 2 island days, then 2 sea days before flying home from Brisbane.

The American musicians for Chubby and Gary are not only amazing musicians, but also they are some of the most funny, friendly partygoers you will ever meet.

Harry (Chubbys drummer) myself and Fabrizio (Australian drummer) have ended up becoming real good friends and there is footage of all 3 of us messing around on the last night at the Finale.

Once we arrived home, its straight back to our solo shows and I also take delivery of my brand new Liberty drums.

Liberty drums are 10 years old this year, which is no mean feat in this industry. I spoke to CEO Andrew Street in October at his factory and we chatted for ages. Just before I left for Oz we had another chat by phone and I am proud to announce, I am endorsed by Liberty drums.
I have 2 kits; a Searchers kit and studio kit and both with my Istanbul Mehmet cymbals look and sound amazing.

In my ‘spare’ time I also helped a couple of other bands with their albums.

On one studio session I turned up early and recorded a quick video showing the equipment I use. This can be found here https://youtu.be/NnjIOIICIGM
There is also footage of me playing with The Searchers, before my GoPro battery died.

And my other band, The Pocket gods have recorded a new album, 100xmas30
That’s right, 100 30 second Christmas songs and we have just found out that for the 2nd time this year, we are again in the Guinness book of records for the most amount of songs on a cd.

The album to date seems to be doing ok.

The Pocket gods are also the ‘house band’ for NUB TV music show, so most Thursdays when I’m not on Searchers duty, I join Mark and Noel in the house band.

The TV show is an hour long and the host Steve Blacknell each week chats to 2 celebrities from the industry and we, the house band, play 1 of their hits as they walk to the couch.
We also write a 30 second song about that days show, which we perform at the end.

We have just finished filming the Christmas day show, which was a right laugh to film. The guests were Lee e John (Imagination) and Mike Berry.

All Searchers shows in December are classed as Christmas shows. We sing loads of Christmas songs at the end of the show and the audience normally wear Christmas jumpers/costumes with lights and glow sticks.

These shows are great fun and the view from the drum throne is spectacular most nights.

Our last show was on the 18th December at Hull. This was the bands 29th consecutive Christmas show in Hull and tickets for next years 30th anniversary show are already on sale and nearly sold out.

Its now time for me to enjoy some family time, I hope you all have a great Christmas and I hope you have an amazing 2017!

Take care, keep drumming and see you all next year

Scott

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About the Author

Scott Ottaway Drummer for the 60s legends, The Searchers, I replaced Eddie Roth on 26th February 2010. I came up through the ranks, after working in house bands on cruise ships, holiday parks and I was a regular dep on the hit west end Queen musical, We Will Rock You, at the Dominion Theatre, London. I am proud to use and be associated with Istanbul Mehmet Cymbals, Carrera drums, Pellwood drumsticks, Porter & Davis tactile monitors and CODE drum skins. *All views expressed by myself, are my views only and not the views of any parties I am associated with*

Istanbul Mehmet Cymbals

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