2013 has been quite an exceptional year for Moselele, we’ve met loads of new people, we’ve learnt many new songs and we’ve played gigs in places that none of us really expected.
The year got off to a great start with the release of Book 4, cunningly named after the number of years we’ve been going. It was the first year that we concentrated on songs that were fairly easy to play and became much more accessible for it. It’s also the first year where a wide range of people contributed their own songs. I know there were a number of songs that I thought didn’t stand a chance of working, in every case I was well and truly wrong. Hopefully we’ll do that again this year.
This year we managed to get away with twenty one gigs, creating a truly hectic Summer of weekly practising and playing. Highlights for me were the Summer and Christmas sing-a-longs at the The Prince of Wales, which once again proved there is very little that we can’t make the people of Moseley sing. Getting to play at things like the Bearwood Shuffle and Valefest were great but also the odder gigs like playing on a canal boat to a ridiculously enthusiastic crowd of three, playing on the balcony above a shoe shop and our Moseley School gig where we played to a hedge and a very uncomfortable looking Mayor.
We’d all like to thank many of the friends we’ve made this year that have given us gigs, like Kaye from Companis who let us play at their Rude Food Fiesta, Maz for getting to us to play in a shoe shop and dress up for Halloween, Kerry for inviting us to Hall Green on TWO occasions and, of course Ruby for trusting us not to ruin her wedding.
The gigs we get to play are only really a tiny part of our year. Moselele is really about the nights where we get to shout songs in the pub and release our inner Boston. Throughout this year we’ve had many new people come along to meet us, quite a few of whom have become absolutely vital to how Moselele works. I think, for most of us, that’s the thing that really works about this, we get to meet many new people and each of them make the whole group a little bit different.
Also this year is the year that we diversified into making our own ukuleles. What started as a stupid idea has taken on a bit of a life of its own with Moselele Bambookuleles now being played all over the country. Again a lot of the success of this has been down to the support of the people within Moselele, but also Baz from Gotaukulele who helped bring both the ukuleles and our group to a much wider audience.
I reckon a yearly summary can’t really conclude without at least some recognition of individual contributions. So in no particular order:-
John R – For being the only person that managed to make every single gig this year.
Dave T – For putting his hand in his pocket and bringing us the gift of bass
Ian E – For making a banner even though I wasn’t convinced
Alison D – For letting us all come round her house to rehearse (and Tim for putting up with this)
Paul PD – Obviously for being our biggest fan. There are very few people in bands that can drown out an audience with their own applause
I reckon 2014 is going to be even better and I know there will be people that come across this who’ve yet to come down and join us, yet this time next year they will be an integral part of everything we do. For those people, hello.
We’re only weeks away from having Book 5 ready. That also reminds me that this year will be half a decade we’ve been doing this, which is ridiculous, we should get a cake.
