Katie Leone with RB Funkestra

This was a new location for us and what a location it was – the glorious lawns at Fulham Palace!

It also marked our first gig with wonderful vocalist Katie Leone who put in a very powerful and at the same time soulful performance. The weather was great and people came out with their picnics to enjoy the music.

In the first set the expectation was that we are going to be a nice jazz funky background addition to the ambience, however, after a few Pimms and Bubbles the crowd got involved and…danced their socks off…Entire families were introduced to the funk and danced away….We had to finish at 10pm but it was tough to go as one encore was not enough for the now party hungry crowd:-)

It was a good turn of events and thank you to my trusty funk brothers Mike Sturgis on drums and Eran Kendler who, as ever, provided the (funk) machine for the flights of Mike Gorman on keys, Sid Gauld on trumpet, Paul Booth on tenor saxophone and of course, vocalist Katie Hector.

A great place to play and we would like to do it very much again next year, if not only for the fun load in with a type of Golf cart. Everyone in the band was fighting to get to drive the gear from the car park to the stage and back:-)

Brendan Reilly and Annabel Williams

Our by now traditional annual summer festival gig at Abbey Mills was an absolute pleasure again this year.

It came together on all accounts – the weather, the people and fans and the band. Just fantastic. I want to thank everyone in the band again – Mike Sturgis on drums, Eran Kendler on guitar, Mike Gorman on keys, Simon Finch on trumpet and Simon Allen on tenor sax as well as Annabel Williams and Brendan Reilly on vocals. The band was truly kicking, tight and hit the pocket deeply and Annabel and Brendan really sung their hearts out.

This gig also marked the unofficial release of the ‘Brendan Reilly & RB Funkestra’ limited edition EP. We did not expect sales at the launch going quite so well – the EP pretty much needs reprinting after this gig! Once we’ve got more they’ll be available in the Funkstore

A big thank you to the lovely audience from Abbey Mills and Peter Walder, the fearless leader and organiser of the Festival, who, although recession is hitting hard everywhere, has managed to put the whole thing on again! We are looking forward to next year already.