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Frisco Crabbe presents

Oh my god! There’s our Neil touring with Brian May.... 2011

Wow! Congratulations to Neil Fairclough, one of BroadBand and Frisco’s longest serving bass guitarists. Here’s the story...

Neil was asked by West End star Kerry Ellis (We Will Rock You, Wicked,

Neil!

Brian

Proms in the Park, Hyde Park, Sep 2010

Neil enjoying rehearsals with Brian May!

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Ok, strictly speaking not BroadBand but it was SO cool, we thought we’d put the pics here!

The Co-op Good With Food Awards held at Manchester Central (G-Mex as was). John Frisco got the call to put together a GWFA house band for the Awards ceremony. The call came from none other than Jason Ferguson, whose splendid Aztec Events organisation was responsible for the entire event.

Frisco, Bryan, Lois, Johnny & Neil create unique house band for Co-op awards, G-Mex, Manchester Nov 2010

The idea was to have a Letterman/Leno style in-house band to play musical ‘stings’ to mark the entrance of the hosts (actor Jimmy Nesbit and Sky Sports’ Georgie Thompson), members of the Co-op board of directors (who were announcing the finalists and winners) and finally play on the winners!

The cool thing from our point of view was that each musical sting was a Co-op in-joke, so we were bouncing from ‘A Spoonful Of Sugar’ (sung by Lois doing her best Julie Andrews) to AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’!

The entertainment following the awards ceremony was Heather Small who performed a great solo set for the appreciative crowd. A nice little backstage reunion too; Bryan is Heathers touring drummer!

STOP PRESS!

The house band was such a success, we’re doing it again! Sep 2011 for another Co-op Award Ceremony but this time at THE POINT, the new conference and events venue at Lancashire Cricket Club. Can’t wait!

John Frisco - musical director/voice/bass guitar, Johnny Heyes-Guitar, Bryan Hargreaves - Drum Kit ,Neil Edwards - Keys, Lois Alexander - Voice.

The House Band onstage at G-Mex

Jimmy Nesbit

Heather Small

The view from our stage!

BroadBand are delighted to have been booked for the DLA Piper Christmas event, held in the magnificent ballroom of Leeds Town Hall. DLA are one of the UK’s largest corporate legal practices and we are very much looking forward to packing that dance floor again!

BroadBand booked for DLA Piper Christmas Ball for 3rd year running 2011

DLA Christmas party last time out!

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BroadBand drummer Bryan Hargreaves on tour with soul legend Ben E. King 2011

The fabulous Bryan Hargreaves is one of BroadBands regular drummers, as well as being one of the busiest session and tour musicians in Manchester. Bryan tours and records with Heather Small, the voice of ‘M’ People who’s hits include ‘Moving On Up’ and ‘Search For The Hero’.

Bryan has just completed a nationwide tour with soul legend Ben E. King, the voice behind ‘Stand By Me’ and countless hits by the Drifters. He was back in time to join BroadBand at Harewood House for PricewaterhouseCoopers Summer Ball, June 2011

Bryan onstage with BroadBand at Harewood House

Ben E. King

BroadBand help Cargill celebrate their centenary at The Point, Lancashire Cricket Club, June 2011

BroadBand at Robert Half International post awards celebration at The Savoy, London Feb 2011

BroadBand were delighted to be asked to play for the Cargill Centenary event, held at The Point, Lancashire Cricket Club’s new event and conference facility.

Cargill are a global food and grain company with interests too diverse to go into here, but what a party! Cargill took advantage of BroadBands production facilities for this event, including the provision of the staging, surround sound for the enormous main suite, starcloth, stage and dance floor lighting and finally uplighters for the walls. Very cool...

Bon Jovi played LCCC the night before our show for Cargill; they were taking their staging off the pitch as ours was going in at The Point! Theirs was bigger...

The Point @LCCC

Bon Jovi’s stage coming down!

Main Suite with uplighters

BroadBand stage

BroadBand were contacted by Robert Half International to play for the post dinner party at their annual staff excellence awards ceremony.

The 6 piece line-up were to be a surprise in the Manhattan Suite, an amazing room with art deco wood panelling but not huge...! Ever up for a challenge, our equipment and lighting was sneaked down and set up in near silence, just in case we were rumbled! For those who believe that a band can’t fit into a small space, we took a pic as evidence m’lud...

Our set up in the Manhattan Suite!

Oliver!) and Queen uber-legend and guitarist extraordinaire Brian May to undertake bass duties for their show at Proms In The Park 2010, held in Hyde Park in front of 40,000 people.

He was then asked to reprise this role in 2011 on a 25 date tour around the UK with Brian & Kerry to support Kerry’s ‘Anthems’ album which had been produced by Brian. The highlights of the tour were two open air shows, one at Hampton Court in June and RAF Cranwell in July, as well as the Goodwood Festival of Speed!

The beauty of this story is that although Neil has played with many big names, his love of Queen is legendary so this is a dream come true. Well done man!

Glasgow, May 2011

Neil!

Kerry!

BroadBand play for PricewaterhouseCooper Summer Ball, Harewood House Leeds, June 2011

We are very fortunate to play for lovely people 99.99% of the time. We are also very fortunate to play in such lovely places! This is Harewood House’s new permanent marquee that overlooks the stunning Harewood House estate.

We were there to play for PricewaterhouseCoopers summer ball, a fabulous time was had by all, well done dance floor! We’d love to show you some pictures of the packed dance floor, but John forgot to take the camera on stage...doh!

Harewood House from the marquee

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