Week in Review - 26 September 2014

Craig Charles

I usually start my weekly review with the beginning of the week, but in this edition I'm going to start with the weekend.

On Friday my originals band Mayfield did a show with the much celebrated Craig Charles at The Cellar in Southampton, and what an amazing night we had performing in a sold-out venue to a room full of Soul & Funk enthusiasts and sharing the stage with the most amazing DJ I have experienced since living in the UK! Mayfield performed a 1-hour set of our most Soulful, Funky tunes and the audience was with us from start to finish. At one point, I scanned the entire crowd that stretched right to the back of the venue, and each person was bouncing, dancing and grooving to our tunes. That was the most fabulous feeling! Many of our Portsmouth fans joined us in Southampton and we made many new fans who bought CDs and Vinyls after we finished. The hi-light of the evening for me was when Mr. Charles held up our album and the crowd erupted into thunderous applause. That was well cool!

Now, my plan was to stay for about 20 minutes of Craig's set because this is a 3-gig weekend for me and the mounting years means I need my rest ... LOL! Well, before I knew it I was drenched in sweat, dancing like a teenager at a rave, and more than an hour had past. I finally made the very tough decision to get my old bag of bones home and to bed. What a night!

Move On Up

As I write this, it's Saturday night and I just finished a sound check with my covers band, Move On Up, and will be heading back to Southwick Park Golf Club for a private event. Since we finished the sound check at 7:30pm and I live just 15 minutes from the venue, I decided to come home and do a bit of work :). On Sunday, it's up to London with Move On Up to perform songs from my CD, Let Go, at Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho! I am deliciously tired, but looking forward to rockin' it tonight and tomorrow.

The earlier part of the week was all about photo shoots. On Tuesday, I drove to Somerset for a 12-hour power shoot with my latest venture, The Midnight Soul Sisters. Within MSS are several tribute acts, including Diana Ross (me), Tina Turner, The Supremes, The Ronettes, Beyonce, Whitney Houston and The Three Degrees. During the shoot there were many wig and costume changes, and much laughter and fun as we transformed ourselves into these great performers. My favourite wig of the day was the giant Afro I got to sport during The Three Degrees shoot. There is something very powerful about the Afro ... as soon as I got that thing on my hands went to my hips, my head tilted to the side, and I was dripping attitude ... LOL! Yeah, I was feeling that Afro! I'll post some of the pics once they're done.

Me as Tina Turner

On Thursday, I had two photo shoots, one for my new Tina Turner Tribute show in the morning, and then later for the four ladies of the Cathedral Innovation Center who have been nominated for a Venus Award. We're going to be featured in The News Porstmouth this week as we lead up to the Venus Awards Ceremony on the 1st of October. Hopefully, in next week's edition I'll be announcing that I am a Venus Award winner ... fingers crossed!

The rest of my week was basically prepping for photo shoots and gigs, while trying to fit in the daily running of GME. I had a little breather the beginning of September to recover from a very busy summer, but now it seems that I'm back to the grind through the end of the year. To be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way!

That's it for now ... I've got to get back to my gig.