The album was the brainchild of Rick Bryant, who, after being nominated Musical Director of the Jesters Care 4 Kids Charity Drive, both at the fair (this year at Diana Driving range on North Road Sunday 16th September) and the Pub night (this year at Shenanigans next to the Royal Garden Plaza 2nd Road on Saturday 22nd September), came up with the idea of recording a C.D. live to promote this year’s events, and hopefully raise a bit of cash for the Jesters Charity Drive as well.

Pattaya’s finest musicians were assembled, a mobile recording studio engaged, the pub stage booked, and the vision turned into a reality.

Friday 3rd May is the official launch party for the C.D. (or today, if you’ve bought this newspaper, the day it officially comes out). The same musicians have bonded back together again to give us the same show at Shenanigans - with a few extra surprises thrown in.

The C.D. will be available for purchase at the concert. What you get for your buck is three C.D.’s of wonderful music all clocking in at ‘over the hour’ mark taking. You back to the glorious days of Pub Rock in the mid-seventies, when the talents of bands like “Dr. Feelgood”, “Chilli Willy and the Red Hot Peppers”, and “Ducks Deluxe” trod the boards of London Pubs.

The first C.D. features the multi talents of Irish singer/guitarist Declan. He plays a superb collection of acoustic songs including his version of “Walking Stick”, which Declan has turned into his own, showing off not only his strong voice, but his unique guitar style.

C.D. two, perhaps the meat of the concert, is where “Pops Pattaya All Stars” are joined on stage by Musical Director and driving force Rick Bryant. His guitar style has been viciously ripped off by Keith Richards and Harpic (so called as she drives husband Rick round the bend) on vocals. These songs wonderfully show off Harpic’s vocal range, with the amazing Jill Thomas on keyboards and vocals. The song “So Young”, originally by “The Corrs”, shows off all facets of the band with its acoustic intro, swirling keyboards, the intertwined lead vocals of Jill and Harpic, Pop’s explosive guitar, and the rhythm section creating layer upon layer building the song to a frantic peak, only to be taken a step further when Mott the Dog joins in on backing vocals to push the band to even higher peaks to drown out the dogs howls. The double bass drum play of Kae would be the envy of any powerhouse drummer.

The third C.D. is left to the talents of Pops Pattaya All Stars, who bring the show to an exciting conclusion with a selection of Rock & Roll standards, where you can actually hear band and audience having the time of their lives. When the whole band launch into “Wild Thing”, it is as exciting as Rock ‘n’ Roll gets.

But to give you the complete story I shall reprint Rick’s page from the marvelous 8 page colour booklet you get with the box set:

“A live album to raise money for the Jesters ‘Care for Kids’ Charity” I said. Just another idea like so many, which is dreamt up late at night over yet another bottle of beer. However, on this occasion, rather than falling on deaf ears, a certain Mr. Kim Fletcher was amongst us at our table. This man with enough enthusiasm for all of us put together threw in a few ideas and suddenly it all seemed possible.

And so the idea was hatched. All we needed was a few musicians, a good PA system, a Sound Engineer, something to record it on, and a venue to do it.

Musicians would not be a problem, as I knew I could ask Pop and his band to come and help. (I.e. take them away from their job for the evening, which feeds their families and ask them to work for nothing.) Once again the very generous Kim came to our aid and not only offered the use of ‘Shenanigans’ for the venue but also to cover the cost of the evening.

Rather than having just the one band I was determined to make the evening a mixed and varied affair. So I approached Declan, a very popular local performer, who I knew would entertain the crowd. That was it really. The date was set and the rest is history as they say. The performances were recorded and if you are reading this, they must have made it on to C.D. However, don’t expect a multi-million pound production here. This is just as it was on the night with no overdubbing and a raw live sound, which captures the atmosphere of the occasion.

Finally it’s down to thanking so many people for their support on the actual night. Top of the list has to be Kim Fletcher and all his tireless staff at Shenanigans, the musicians Pop, Kae, A, Baem, Jill and Declan; the sound crew Piek and Baem; Blowfly and Jon Wilson for the great photographs taken during the evening; Roger Brown for his tremendous efforts to compile the graphics and for the video; Francois, Rian, Liesl, Pierre and Phil Mollens representing South Africa; Pablo, Gustavo, Franco, Gonzales, Vanessa and Maria representing Argentina; Stefan, Dorothia, Evelyn and Vincent representing Belgium; Ib, Kanika, Walter, Oiy and friends from the Captains Corner; Gethan and Marade; Pinty; Roger; Aom and Om; Jeremy Coles; Dr. Iain and Peter from the Pattaya Mail; Mark; Phil; Lisa; Karen; Graham; Ung and Au, who always make it but had to miss this one; Lewis "Woody" Underwood and Graham McDonald from the Jesters Care4Kids Charity Drive 2002 committee, and last but not least everybody too numerous to mention, who helped to make the night so special.

That just leaves Harpic, who I would like to thank for trusting me when I told her 8 years ago that she could sing, and hopefully she now believes me.

Thanks for buying the C.D. and giving your support to the ‘Care for Kids’ Charity.

A 3 C.D. set for 350 Baht

Mott The Dog
E-mail: mottthedog@shenanigans-pattaya.com