We still can’t believe what a successful year we had last year with a record number of bookings and a ‘best soul band in the SW’ award!  Of course we’re not strictly a soul band but we don’t care about details like that!  We’re happy to accept the award, the ceremony night was great fun and that’s what it’s all about after all.

Last year was topped off by 3 fantastic nights at the University of Exeter’s  Great Hall and this year started with another University booking at Holland Hall for the campus services staff, who were all well up for a party – it was great fun for everybody I think.  If you were at any of those gigs please accept our heartfelt thanks for being such fun!

Once again we’re trying to find some nice public booking for you to come along to.  We have a couple of music weekend / festival bookings lined up.

04/05/2012 (Fri)  Bradninch music weekend
14/07/2012 (Sat) Chudleigh Music Festival

Do come and join us!

As I mentioned there are some unconfirmed things in the pipeline.  We’ll be on at Devon Dubfest again over the weekend of 27/07/2012 to 29/07/2012 but we don’t know which night yet.  Also we are hoping to get to Sidmouth during the folk festival again.  No, I know we’re not a folk band either!

If you’d like to keep up with what we’re doing sign up to our mailing list or come and find us on facebook or twitter.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in 2012, have a fab year!

Last years Cannon Ball was a great success in spite of the snow and temperatures hitting -13°C.  We’re still amazed that so many of you turned up anyway and we all had a fantastic night.  Of course we’re not offended that many ticket holders didn’t come, we certainly don’t blame you!  Maybe you’d like to come this year?  Our two supported charities  ‘Challenge ahead’ and ‘Christow Acorn Community Support’ benefited from our efforts and your support.

Our charity for this year is Hannahs at Seale-Hayne who provide education, therapy, care and respite for children and young people with profound physical disabilities.  100% of the profit from the evening will go to these guys to continue their work bringing the place back to life.  They are doing an awesome job so far and it’s great to have a chance to muck in with them.  We played at their ‘Summer Duck Ball’ this year and the dance floor was full all night so we’re hoping to attract some of you guys back again!

We’ll be in the newly refurbished Yellow Room at Seale-Hayne, complete with nice stage, full bar, comfy chairs and some great music.  So bring your happy face, your dancing shoes and all your friends and family!

Tickets are priced at £12.50 each or £45 for 4.  They are available from our website (we’re sorry there is an online booking fee, it’s not us!),  Seale Hayne reception (01626 325800) or any band member (with no booking fee!).  Food is included in the price!  You’ll get a burger and chips or jacket potato, cheese and beans.

You can also stay over if you’d like?  Basic single rooms are available at a bargain £20.  Please call the venue direct to arrange these on 01626 325800.

Please do come and support us again this year, it’ll be great to see you all there.

Come and get your tickets here http://www.loose-cannons.co.uk/loose_cannons/the_cannon_ball_2011.php, from Seale-Hayne or any of the guys.

It was also a first for the Devon DubFest team as it was the first one they’d put on.

Sadly we missed Saturday night as we had a previous engagement in deepest darkest Devon but were around for the rest of the time.

Friday was great, my first ever experience of silent disco’s and a silent band – very odd – but it actually worked ok.  It’s really weird hearing the interaction of the crowd with the band – take your headphones off and it’s just the crowd singing along with the band you can see but can’t hear!  If I was honest I’d say that I would have preferred a traditionally amplified band, but I know that the restrictions placed on the organisers by the venue and council prevented this.   The silent option was a whole lot better than nothing!

We played on Sunday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Thank you again to the crowd, small but friendly and vocal!  Our hour went by all too fast so we’d be up for a longer set next time!  Thanks to kind facebook/forum comments below.

The whole atmosphere was very relaxed and as usual at this kind of affair the campers were friendly and fun to be around.

So once again a big thumbs up from us.  The same again but at a venue that allows us to be a bit more noisy next year please!

A big shout out to Zoe and the DevonDubFest team for a fantastic job in the face of adversity – onwards and upwards guys!!!

baydreamer from Exeteraircooled said:

Excellent entertainment – Loose Cannons were spectacular and Scooby Doo on the saxophone made two little people’s day! (The children were quite impressed too).

goody gumdrops also from Exeteraircooled said:

… As for the Loose Cannons. ….Full marks for getting the likes of them on board. Brilliant.

So a big thanks to James and Jo for sorting that one out and making us so very welcome, and to Benni Jamin and Jamie for providing their usual high standard of sound & light for us (and the rest of the bands too!) .  But you guys in the crowd were the best!! Thank you especially!!  We love it when people are up for a party.

The standard of music was also really good, some cracking bands and musicians there.  I particularly enjoyed The Man from F.U.N.K.L.E, Groove-a-licious, Hannah Partridge (who also did a song with us on Saturday night), Junk Star Kids and The Fos Brothers.  Thats not to diss the other acts who were on, I didn’t see a duff show all weekend.

AND IT DIDN’T RAIN even though there were storms just up the road in Exeter and a mighty fine time was had by all although there may be some cider commandos who can’t remember too much.

So that’s a big thumbs up from us, long live the Maypole beer and music festival!

We’ll be blathering on here from time to when when the mood takes us.

For those of you that attended our sold out and fantastically fun ‘Cannon Ball 2010′ you might be interested to know that we’ve provisionally booked 19/11/2011 for the ‘Cannon Ball 2011′.  I’ll keep you updated on progress.

We’ve got some great public bookings coming up this year starting on Saturday.  We’ve been trying extra hard to get some as we’re often playing at private parties & our efforts have really paid off.  Come along!!

09/04/2011 The Big 40 Cancer Research Ball, Cullompton

30/04/2011 Maypole beer and music festival Saturday headliner, Taunton

17/07/2011 Devon Dub fest 2011 Crealy Park, Devon

26/08/2011 Dartmouth Regatta, all welcome!

15/10/2011 Macmillan / Help for Heroes fundraiser, Torquay

22/10/2011 Torbay hospital breast care unit fundraiser, Riviera Centre, Torquay

Feel free to comment on our posts, and I hope we’ll be seeing you at one of our gigs in the near future!