Report from BIT 4 in Brighton ....

[Vinny]

.... what a fantastic day it was! The venue was great and the big guns were gents.

Ben Daglish - He was amazing! I spoke to him for about half an hour and he pulled in a crowd around us with his animated answers. At one point we were doing a duet rendition of the city level music in Bombo. I was in my element Thanks Ben, you are a true gent and a BIG character to match

Simon Nicol - I had no idea he was going to be their until frank and I went down to the "canteen" and Simon invited us over to his table for a chat. Spent about an hour talking to him. He was really warm with his answers and listened 100%. Another true gent ........... with the cool suit to match

Fred Gray - He was lovely ......... and so was his daughter she was the one going round filming footage for the DVD. Anyway, Fred was very sweet and also pleased that he is still remembered for his music. A very warm guy

Martin Galway - I think I may have spent a little too much time talking to Martin and not letting anyone else get a word in. We got down to the important things in life such as making a GOOD homemade Spaghetti Bolognese, which Martin seem to have sussed (Don't forget to add the pine nuts Martin). I also asked the embaressing question of "is it true that", and Martin finished off the question "... James Galway is my uncle? YES!" ..... heh heh, sorry about that Martin, I had to ask. Martin also went on to mention that he has some audio tapes somewhere of him putting together the Ocean Loader tune! SUPERB! Martin was much more than I expected. He was very open and alot of fun to talk to.

Rob Hubbard - I shot myself in the foot with Rob. It got to 5.15pm and I had to dart off to catch my train. All I could do to get Rob's autograph is to butt in while he was rehersing with Ben and Press Play on Tape. Rob suggested that I stayed for the show and slept on the beach. Needless to say that it is 21:05 and I am back home! Thanks Rob

All in all it was a pleasure to FINALLY meet Kenz, Andy Fisher, Danny Todd, Mayhem (Matt), Alan Bairstow (busy man), Boz, Paul Kubiszyn, and anyone else I have forgotten

Special thanks to Chris and Kenz (and the team) for a superb day.

Vinny (Vince-nzo) Mainolfi

['MayheM']

Had an awesome time.
I was the guy with the '38911 basic bytes free' t shirt on.

The concert was great you guys were all really cool and I hope to see you again at the next gathering.

Well done to chris, who I unfortunatly never got to meet, for all his organising and stuff. Everything seemed to run smoothely and work well.

Thanks again
Mike

['MayheM']

ahh! Now listening to my Galway CD.

came back with about 6ish cds in the end!

ahh wizball..!

[ElliotM]

Frankly, I was slightly disappointed with the overall concert.

My main gripe was with Rob Hubbard's accoustic set where he basically played far too many "unknown" tunes (in his own words) and hardly played any of his "greatest hits".

On the rare occasion that he played something high-profile, the crowd went wild, but the rest of the time they just clapped at the end of each tune and heckled for something good!

Where was Crazy Comets, Lightforce, The Last V8 etc..??
Not a hint of anything that you may expect from the masterful Rob Hubbard.

In fact, his best performance came by accident when his keyboard slipped from its stand and was on the floor and someone heckled for him to play Sam Fox Strip Poker, and he promptly did (on the floor) to the cheering of the crowd....

He played a Spectrum tune, an Atari tune, a Sega tune & a classical tune, but no-one had a clue what these tunes were, and they were a waste of his valuable playing time.

On a more positive note, Press Play On Tape were much better, with some stunning visuals behind them enhancing their performance, and some very energetic playing from these lads...well done.

The grand finale of Monty On The Run was awesome in every way, and left me wondering how good this show could have been if everyone had stuck just to the high profile C64 music that the majority of the crowd would have known and fully appreciated.

[Waz]

Ben Daglish - He was amazing! I spoke to him for about half an hour and he pulled in a crowd around us with his animated answers.

Ben's very much like that. I think being a proper muso (which he is) kind of does that to you. He's a good laugh as well and I can remember talking to him for ages about prog rock and stuff. He even did a little bit of Jethro Tull on his flute at BITL3, you know (but did anyone recognise it apart from me?)

Fred Gray - He was lovely ......... and so was his daughter ;) she was the one going round filming footage for the DVD. Anyway, Fred was very sweet and also pleased that he is still remembered for his music. A very warm guy :)

Having been out for a drink a few times with Fred (and Alex!) I can only vouch for that. Fred has a great sense of humour, and you'd have scored more points if you reminded him to watch Never Mind The Buzzcocks tonight as his hero Alexei Sayle is on it. Must drop him a line about that..

It's nice to see you had chance to talk to the musicians about other stuff than their C64 tunes - I think Chris' words in the editorial had their desired effect, which was good.

[Subzero]

As usual, the tombstoners stole the exhibition away from the C=64, to all the peeps that had a go at our competition, we hope you had a good laugh and for the millions who asked you can get an x-arcade from http://www.xgaming.co.uk!!!!!

Concert was fantastic, hubbo is god (or a spod to one sir-LANS-a-lot!!!), PPOT were on top form and mr daglish - please buy some socks!!!!!

[dbfm]

Yeah I pretty much agree with ElliotM's review on the concert.

Though slightly disappointed with Rob's Hubbards choice of tunes, it was still a good night. Some great moments. Great bit was in Press Play on Tape's set, when they started dancing like crazy around the dance floor. hehe, that was good.

I was amazed just how popular Rob Hubbard is! The crowd just went crazy. It was pretty cool being in the same room as him.

Plus got a free CD 'Back in Time II', which I'm currently listening to while writing this.

Well done to Chris Abbott and co for a well organized event.

[Chris Abbott]

> no-one had a clue what these tunes were, and they were a waste
> of his valuable playing time.
He was only meant to play a twenty minute set, and he played more than twice that, so consider those bonus tracks.

You've got Rob Hubbard playing piano for you and
you're grumbling about the track choices?? We were bloody
amazed to get him at all, let alone do so many songs!
I'm glad he doesn't read this forum, that's all I can say.

*grumpy now*

[gazl]

The evening was fantastic and I got to meet some excellent people who were all exceptionally friendly.

I'm a little bit stunned anyone could regard watching Rob's live performance as anything but an amazing privelige to witness.

A big thanks to Chris, you did an absolutely marvellous job. Yet another triumph, god knows how you're going to top this one

Don't waste your time being grumpy, you've made a lot of people very happy

[Pete Abbott]

Hi guyz!

Well, after NOT finding my tent and getting the clamp removed from my car in the loading bay I finally arrived home in Bournemouth around 6:00 AM having had no sleep since Friday...

I know I speak for Chris as well when I say:

THANK YOU GUYZ AND OH WHAT A NIGHT!!

Without decent and honest drunkards like yourselves ( ) it WAS a night to remember. ROb's piano collapsing, dancing with Kenz like mad things, meeting all those m8s again, you truly made it what it was!

Take care of yourselves and GLAD you had a good time.......

Cheers.

Pete Abbott, pp. Chris, Frank, Ferne and BIll Abbott and not forgetting Aliens, Orbs and ghosties!!

A truly remarkable thing.

['MayheM']

He played a Spectrum tune, an Atari tune, a Sega tune & a classical tune, but no-one had a clue what these tunes were, and they were a waste of his valuable playing time.

er, surely everyone knows the beethoven one?

[Chris Abbott]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned "Stuck in Da 80s" yet: they ROCKED big time. Of course, everyone expected PPOT to rock, they always do, but this group really delivered the goods after only having played together
for the first time the day before!!!

And that trippy Dead-guys meets PPOT meets LSD version of Paperboy
was so trippy. I even stopped running around to hear that one (though
I didn't hear the encore version).

Just for the record: my brother Pete bought the signed C64 that was given to Peter Sandén and Mahoney for their quite amazing breakdancing!
(I'm given to understand that they were practicing at the airport
and Peter even had the moves written down... now that's dedication!!!)

Chris

[Pete Abbott]

Well, I know someone LOVED Claire De Lune!

(A little too much , what a guy...)









------------------------------------------------------------
Ensign Walnut approached Dr. Crusher with Caution
------------------------------------------------------------

[Mayhem]

Absolutely fucking amazing was the concert

As poor Chris lets me into a small part of his fretting world... sadly some people just aren't satisfied enough!

Rob playing acoustic was only going work with tunes that fitted that format quite honestly which is why many items in his catalog aren't suited to piano. And frankly to limit yourself to just listening to his C64 work is silly

In other words, I recognised much of the "other stuff" he played...

The uber group of Donne, Ouwehand, Knight, Wallstrom and Daglish pulled things off marvelously, and PPoT were always gonna rock. Highlights of the evening include...

- Mark Knight adding some Irishness to Arcade Classics and doing a jig about the floor

- Rob playing Sam Fox Strip Poker impromptu after being "heckled"

- Just the Arcade Classics melody mix that the uber band did. Someone mix the track in this style NOW!

- Talking to Fred Gray and seeing his reaction (stunned reaction and all) as PPoT rock down the place with a cover of Mission AD.

- Rob playing on like the professional he is despite the keyboard stand collapsing twice... it couldn't take it captain!

- The two Monty tracks under the auspices of the original composers and having the limited dance floor get moshed

I've had a bit more sleep than Chris, but not much. Best get those photos developed and scanned...

['MayheM']

This may be a simple one (I dont know as Im newish to the side of music etc) but have 'Stuck in the 80's' got anything recorded, or was that a one night only type thing?