Friday, January 14, 2011

First Turkby gig of the year - in the Square!

The easily-bribed people at Access Manawatu have decided to let the Bing Turkby Ensemble play as part of the Summer Concert series again - sweeeeeet!
The concerts will once again be held in Palmy's Square, open to everybody, no charge.
We're pencilled in for Friday, February 18th at 12 noon.
The thumb-dancing prize will be pretty stupendous, believe me.
More details as we make them up. I mean, as they come to hand.

Jim K has just texted me from Novograd where he is sheep-skiing. That's a new extreme sport, where you tie sheep to your feet and then scare them. He is apparently the reigning champion at this sport.
Stay tuned for footage of his escapades.

Rock-a-lula.
Bing

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The year ahead, Turkby-style

Howdy all, and Happy New Year!
Pretty soon the Bing Turkby Ensemble band members will have returned from their various holiday spots, like Mykonos, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. That means we can finish up the recording of 'Summon Forth The Mangonel' and get it shipped, shopped and straight to the top of the charts.
To use a pretty stupid metaphor, we have completed the base of the cheesecake, and most of the filling, so it's really just the zesty berry-flavoured topping to finish now. We have the design skills of the House of Ash working on a cover, and Jim Keltnenhausen has written 25 pages of liner notes, and that's just his introduction. He likes the sound of his own word-processed voice, that guy.
Once it's ready we'll probably have a stupendous launch party for it. I'm thinking of petitioning the government for a Turkby Day parade, where everyone gets the day off (paid), and we can have floats, merry-go-rounds, public stupidity, etc.

In other related-to-the-band news, the Heavy Blarney album should be on the shelves of the Palmy branch of JB Hifi really soon. Massive ups to Olly for organising that for us!

Plus you might see various Ensemble members slumming it with covers bands throughout the year. There'll be a gig calendar for the Passengers soon over at passengersnz.blogspot.com so you can keep up with what Bing, MacDeth and ex-BTE guy The Hungarian Thunder are up to.

Thanks for making 2010 an awesome year for the BTE, we'll make sure we have some great stuff for you to take part in during 2011!
Tote that bale,
Bing