TV Presenters, Somali Pirates and The Love Junkies

Rox meets Andy Day from CBeebies. Hero worship ensues...

Last night's gig at Fanhams Hall in Ware was the wedding of Laura and Warren. The gig came through our singing buddy Doug Quinn. Doug is also in Speakeasy and joined us in the second set for a few tunes - we like when Doug sings with us. He has a set of lungs, but I shouldn't really swell his head too much so I'll leave it at that.

We were pleased to see that one of the bridesmaids was Beth from Channel Five's Milkshake. Dave spotted her first, having kids who are at the age where Milkshake is the coolest kid's programme around (mind you any channel that screens Peppa Pig is alright with us). That set us thinking about other weddings where we'd played to celebrities. Just a few we could remember were Derek Underwood, David Coulthard, Mark Durden-Smith, Pam St Clements and some girl from QVC. Other gigs we could remember where we've been the backing band to Shaun Williamson and Peter Hepplethwaite.

However, by far and away the most impressive (well in Rox's books anyway) was a wedding where Andy Day, the CBeebies presenter was in the crowd. She just had to get her photo taken (above).

The weirdest thing on the night though came when we found out a friend's wife's Aunty and Uncle had just been kidnapped by Somali pirates. During the gig we found out that the ransom demand had been set at a cool $7 million. Celebrity or not, you can't make that stuff up.

Nice little touches

It's the little touches that make all the difference. Last Friday's gig saw us back at Tewin Bury farm for the wedding of Elizabeth and Paul.

Generally when we come across something we like at a wedding, something that's a bit out of the ordinary we like to carp on about it. This wedding had two unusual side shows.

The first - and this was something I liked particularly - was provided by the Powder Puff girls. On hand to service the needs of the female contingent of the wedding (well, mainly), freshening faces and touching up make-up to help guests back to feeling 100%. A really nice touch and something none of us had seen before. The boys liked the girls too, I shall say no more ;-)

The second gimmick that caught our eye that night was the Booth Box. What that, who he, how so? Imagine if you will a photo booth, transported out of its usual seedy location and plonked into the middle of a function roon. Imagine this booth being completely free with the instruction to be used at the guests discretion.

Ah, nothing beats the old school fun of making silly faces with mates in a photo booth. And all without having to find £3 in loose change. Absolute genius.

Waxing lyrical

Ah, Madame Tussauds. It's been absolutely ages since I've been there and was wondering if the old place had changed at all? The answer to that as I found out was well, yes and no. The celebrities are still in force, only they're not the same as in 1979. Well, apart from the historical figures but maybe cleaned up a little bit.

On Tuesday 27th Sept, The Love Junkies had the interesting fortune to play Tussauds. A gig through agents, Prelude. The event was a typical corporate function but in a much stranger setting. Surrounded by dignitaries from the G8, not to mention Churchill and Freddie Mercury the band set up on the main stage.

Dave was flanked by Amy Winehouse and behind by Marc Bolan, pulling a typical guitar hero pose on both knees. Rox on the other hand was getting close to Beyonce. All this in a room filled with pop icons, Michael Jackson, Kylie Minogue and a recycled Tom Cruisealike in the form of Gary Barlow - curious.

The weirdest thing was packing up. I remember helping to get the gear out and just having the strangest realisation that the room was entirely silent, yet eerily still populated. I for one, couldn't wait to get out of there at that point. Nice though the gig was and the staff were! Cheers to Gemma and Marcus who were on call.

Shame old JK had been demoted to our changing room. Still nice to see the old fella again. We owe a lot to him.