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  • October 21, 2022

    Ruislip

  • November 13, 2022

    Putney

  • December 22, 2022

    Watford

Surrey – Part 2

  • September 15, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
Maltings

So, after July’s trip to Redhill we are now very much looking forward to returning to Surrey again for our second gig at the Maltings in Farnham.

Should be a good gig as the venue has a lovely theatre space and we have some expert sound-techy type guys on hand to hopefully help make it a delight for the ears!

It’ll be great to see some familiar faces at the gig, and hopefully meet some new folks who are checking out Stanley Dee for the first time.

The date for your diary is Saturday 20 September -  please take a look at the venue’s website for ticket details and start times etc.

See you there!

 

 

 

 

 

Summer…

  • July 31, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
untitled

..and Stanley has been on holiday to the exotic destination of Blues Beach. We can thoroughly recommend the Manatee Bar as a good place to chill and enjoy a nice Tropical Cooler. And talking of ridiculously contrived links….

Fri 29 Aug sees Stanley Dee return to Tropic At Ruislip. This is a great venue which hosts dozens of bands throughout the year and is a real supporter of the live music scene. Check the gig list on their website and you can see how booked up they are, even well in to 2015.

We’d love to see lots of you there to support the good work these guys are doing…..oh, and to come see us do our Steely Dan thing too of course. Loads of new songs in the set since our last time there so please come along, sing, drink, dance, and say ‘Hi’.

In other news…

One recent loss to music during the Summer has been that of the jazz pianist Horace Silver. You might not know him, but listen to the opening bars of his ‘Song For My Father’ and I think you’ll soon know he had a big influence on a certain Steely Dan hit.

And for those interested there’s another good collection of facts/musings about Steely Dan on this LINK.

Thanks to those who sent some really nice comments to us after our recent Redhill gig. It’s very much appreciated, and your kind words will join Stanley’s ‘Hall of Fame’ over on the reviews page of this very website.

Ok, that’s about it for now. See you on 29Aug in Ruislip hopefully. If not, then we look forward to seeing the lovely Surrey SD contingent when we go back to the Farnham Maltings on Sat 20 Sep.

Hope you’re having a great Summer…..and enjoy those merciful rays.

Surrey…..

  • July 9, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
harl2

…seems to be the hardest word. That was an inexcusable pun – apologies.

However, we are excited to say that Friday 25th July sees Stanley head off to the Harlequin Theatre in Redhill, Surrey. Yes….a proper theatre, with a big stage, and like, seats and everything! If you’ve only ever seen us in some of the smaller, more spatially-challenged venues, then you really must come along and see the full wide-screen version of the Stanley Dee experience. It’s going to be a lot of fun so we’d really love to have friends old and new join us for this landmark event in the Stan calendar.

Please check out the venue’s website and book your tickets HERE.

So, save that date folks – Fri 25th July. What a beautiful world this will be…….

Stanley Dee United FC

  • June 20, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
Football

In the spirit of World Cup Fever (soon to be dampened quite a bit for many when the ‘Lions’ make their all too customary early exit) it’s probably appropriate to now formally announce the expansion of Stanley Dee to an 11-piece. With the addition of Paul in the horn section, we now officially have sufficient members to put out a decent side for any upcoming jazz-rock band based football tournaments. What do you mean, there aren’t any?!!

The keen-eyed amongst you would have spied Paul doing his saxy stuff at recent gigs, but we’ve only just got around to updating this on the website…apologies Paul!

Paul’s induction into the band initially came from a desire to beef up the harmonies on some of those lush SD horn arrangements, but also because we noticed at some gigs there was at least a 30sq centimetre gap of floor space on the stage that we felt needed to be filled. You may have noticed we tend to favour the ‘cozy’ formation (at some venues more so than others) and Paul admirably fulfils both the musical-harmony and space-management roles with aplomb. Welcome aboard Paul!

We’ll be playing him in central midfield in our next fixture away at Jagz FC in Ascot on Friday 4th July – please come along and cheer on the team!

 

Festival season is almost upon us…

  • April 28, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
dunfest 2014

…and rather than playing the same old predictable ones such as Glasto, V, Latitude etc, Stanley is pleased and proud to be playing the much more compact and bijou ‘’Dunfest 2014’’ in Tring on Sat 17th May!!  We’ll be opening up the proceedings so keep your fingers crossed for some Saturday afternoon sunshine.

Some event blurb below…

‘’Dunfest 2014 will take place on Saturday 17 May 2014 on The Field, Dundale School, Tring., starting at 2pm till 9pm As well as chilling out and relaxing to the live music we are planning to have a variety of stalls.

Come and join us for a great family day out – an afternoon with live music, great food and stalls to browse and buy something unusual! Again we will have a licensed bar selling beer and cider from Tring Brewery as well as a selection of wine and lager. ‘’

And you can keep up to date with more event info, and details of the other wonderful bands on the line-up, by checking out the Dunfest Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dunfest-2014/267350966779994

See you there!

A Drinking Dictionary..

  • April 15, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
Black Cow

We’re fast approaching the Easter Hols and if you’re anything like Stanley, a cheeky drink or two may be consumed over the long weekend. So what an opportune moment to share this link from Classic Rock magazine, celebrating Steely Dan’s top 10 songs mentioning beverages of various degrees of ‘exoticness’ (if that is indeed a word…….once you’ve drunk enough, it will make sense I assure you)

 http://ultimateclassicrock.com/steely-dan-drinking-songs/

I’m pretty sure some of those drink names were unfamiliar, eh? I mean when was the last time any of you drank Kirschwasser from a shell?!

Part of the beauty of Don and Walt’s lyrical landscapes is the obscure references they often throw in to confuse us all. However, help is at hand when you feel the need to dig a bit deeper into the meanings of their songs. This great resource will enable you to uncover the explanations to Squonks, Bodhisattvas, Custerdomes and many more!

 http://www.steelydandictionary.com/

Happy reading, and…..Cheers!!

 

 

I Got The News….sort of

  • March 27, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
news

So then…the Half Moon was great last Sunday! Good to meet some new people and we got some more suggestions for songs to add to the list. Show Biz Kids was proposed, although it would be funny to imagine Cavan and Stanley’s ‘angelic’ backing singers belting out the F word in public!!

Talking of backing singers, there’s a lot of interest around the new movie ’20 Feet from Stardom’. Stanley’s BV section (our very own Babylon Sisters!) are rightly admired by all those who come along to our gigs and the following article is worth a read to get some of the low-down behind the movie and the stories of those often un-sung heroes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26068091

And while we’ve got you in a reading mood, check out this article in praise of ‘the Don’….good to know the man’s talent is still being widely recognised:

http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2014-02/12-/donald-fagen-steely-dan-aja

Happy reading folks, and remember…..please feel free to share your thoughts, anecdotes, and general all-round wisdom with the band either by Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Won’t you Sign-in Stranger?………

Spring has finally sprung….

  • March 20, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
Spring

..and Stanley has emerged from the bleak wet winter ready to get back out there again!

We’ve been busy on the new songs front and over recent months have added several more to the list including: Bad Sneakers, Any Major Dude.., Things I Miss the Most, and most recently Black Friday. Always plenty more in the pipeline to get working on, and Aja continues to be a ‘rehearsal-room-dabbler’ with hopefully an appearance in the set later in the year!

Trouble is, we’re now at the stage where we have to leave some quality tunes out of the set to make room for new stuff and to to keep things varied from gig to gig! We all have our personal favourites that we’ve reluctantly had to agree to leave out from time to time. It must be a bit like deciding which one of your kids to leave behind while the rest of the family goes for a fun day out!! Anyway…it’s a good problem to have and hopefully keeps things interesting for those who come and see us regularly.

Sun 23 March sees us back at the wonderful Half Moon in Putney again. Hope to see some familiar faces there as well as some new friends looking for a Steely Dan fix! Check out the venue’s gig list and see some of the great names they have playing there…..thanks to places like that for continuing to do so much for the live music cause.

It’s been noticed that the Steely Dan vibe has been present in a few recent tunes by other artists lately. We’re thinking Pharrell Williams and Mayer Hawthorne in particular. Great to know that Don and Walt’s influence is continuing to infiltrate the charts! If you know of anyone else we should be checking out for SD sounding grooves then please drop us a line!

Anyway, hope to see more of you at future gigs this year. Keep checking the gigs page on this site, and look for our random musings on Facebook and Twitter…..the cryptic photos are getting madder all the time, and we’re not entirely sure which band member is the main culprit!

Keep in touch folks……….and don’t lose that number.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You haven’t got mail…

  • January 13, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel · Uncategorized
no mail

So then, this mailing list thingy we had been asking you to join from when the website was first set up…….it’s been a bit rubbish hasn’t it?!!

Apart from the odd bit of tumbleweed blowing past every now and then, I can guarantee that your inboxes have been untroubled by anything band-related from the very moment you signed-up. What can I say….admin is apparently not one of the strongest attributes in Stanley’s skill-set. He has been taken to task about this, and for the time being he has been relieved of his duties where that little project is concerned.

But….FEAR YE NOT Stan-fans!!!

If you take the plunge and do whatever it is you need to do to connect with us via Facebook and Twitter, you’re never more than a mouse-click, or finger-swipe away from seeing what latest randomness we are posting at any given moment. Whether it’s reminders about future dates, ‘‘post-match analysis’’ from gigs gone by, or just sharing whatever bizarre thoughts happen to be in the heads of this weird and wonderful bunch of people that make up Stanley Dee…..you’re all invited to view and contribute to it.

So please do join us in the social media world…..and in turn we’ll leave you with extra space in your inboxes for those important messages from whatever other ‘personal interest’ websites you may subscribe to!!

Click to find Stanley on Facebook

Click to find Stanley on Twitter

Cheers!

A great start to 2014…

  • January 13, 2014
  • Stanley Dee
  • · Band Blog · News Carousel
stanley dee B2 web

Are we still saying ‘Happy New Year’?! Maybe the moment has passed now, but nonetheless we had a great start to 2014 at the wonderful Horns Watford and thought we would share this review which was written by one of the many people who made it such a packed and fun place to be on a January Sunday afternoon….

Before there was punk or ska or any much else in my life there was Steely Dan (Walter Becker, Donald Fagen and an ever changing line up of musicians). The music was rocky but heavy on style and stolen modern jazz riffs. Unfortunately, the Jazzers didn’t like the loud guitars and the hippies didn’t like the jazz.

In fact that old fashioned harmony and melody was just a thin cover for a bleak underworld of sinister characters in dangerous situations. The heroes were drug dealers, serial killers, gangsters and the marginal.

They played smooth music that sounded just right for respectable people but then they had to go and spoil it with their own particular brand of subversion. I loved it.

When it was popular it wasn’t very popular, and since they had their one and only hit in 1976, it’s been downhill ever since. They didn’t tour much back then – it was too hard to reproduce the sound they got from session musicians in the studio. ‘Cult following’ does not do them justice. Did I say I loved them?

So I’ve driven over 20 miles to get to Watford, a town so far on the edge of London it fell off. I was at ‘The Horns’, a very old pub enclosed by modern hi-rise buildings. Good sound system and some great acts – why did I never go there before? I would rate it the best venue this side of the small London ones. I was right, it was well worth it. I got there early, and that was just as well too. I got a seat at the side of the stage, and was using the free wi-fi while the band set up. With the pub filling up very quickly, it was soon packed out. I think there were more Steely Dan fans there than I ever imagined I would see in one place.

This was Stanley Dee. They were playing on their home ground in front of a mixture of locals and Steely Dan Fans. Believe me they knew the words and there was dancing too!

Despite the purpose built stage, there still wasn’t enough room for this ten piece band of four vocalists, a very fine brass section, synth, drums, bass and an excellent lead guitar. I tried to get a good place to take a photo, but after plunging into the heavy crowd it was no better. I only just got back to my seat. If I’d wanted to get all the band in I’d have needed to go out onto the pavement.

They did the more basic early stuff as well as the complicated newer stuff. Donald Fagen’s solo album ‘The Nightfly’ even got a moment. It was a performance for real fans, and I’m afraid I think that includes me.

This must be the only occasion when the lead vocalist did a Q and A with the audience on these unique lyrics;

Q) “Is there gas in the car?”

 A) “Yes there’s gas in the car,

 I think the neighbours down the hall know who we are”.

Steely Dan never compromised and neither do Stanley Dee; not on the sound nor on the choice of tracks.

Side one had a good range of the less well known including one of my favourites, ‘Dr Wu’. Bad Sneakers was a joy too.

Side two started with all the famous hits. Great sounds (FM-No static at all, Do it again, Reelin’ in the Years) but again no compromises – they also did The Caves of Altamira and Kid Charlemagne. ‘My old school’ was a stomper;

Also, luckily, there were no Becker wigs, no looky-likies. This was just great music played and sung by musicians with smiles on their faces.

Just too much fun and so good. That was in spite of having to drive back through pouring rain. Of course what attracted me in the first place was the whole crazy idea of a ten piece Steely Dan tribute band, too big for any stage and never any chance of being economic. Their secret? Its for fun.

Note: This is an edited version taken from the Neil Harris blog. Thanks Neil!

 

 

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