The Honeytones – Blog

The Honeytones with the Mayor of South Molton and his wife. This is the first published photo of the entire band - including our new member Tille.

Rob and Ros Spain are local folk with a soft spot for the Honeytones. They have planted a huge woodland on their property near South Molton so when they asked if we would like to perform at the official opening bash we jumped at the chance.

The weather was great, the audience very complimentary, and we got to have our picture taken with the Mayor and his wife which the guys really enjoyed.

The Lisburn residential unit is home to a number of disabled residents in Honiton and the band descended upon them on Friday 20th August 2010.

It was a modest gig by Honeytones standards but it was immensely satisfying because the staff and residents enjoyed the performance so much.

Also, we were very well fed and watered – very important for us hungry mob !

Giving it our best for the shoppers at Sainsbury. As you will notice, not all members were present today but we gave it our all and the shoppers enjoyed the show !

On Thursday 8th July the band struck up outside the new Sainsbury store in South Molton. The staff were brilliant and kept us fed, watered, and they even privided buckets for customers to put their unwanted change in.

At the end of the day £140 was raised for the band to put into our Minibus fund.

Following the gig, a person who wishes to remain anonymous, contacted the band and made a very generous donation.

We are planning a Christmas gig at the store – should be fun !!

Following a recent article placed in local papers, Tillie has joined the band. As you can imagine, Gemma is really happy because she is no longer the only girl in the band. Us lads will have to watch our step though – if these two get together we could be in for a rough time !!

The Honeytones Girlies Tillie and Gemma, seen here enjoying their very first practice session together. It looks like they could be hitting if off eh ?

Heather presents Bob with a cheque for £415.00

Heather celebrated her 60th birthday recently and she asked The Honeytones if they would provide some entertainment for her special night. Naturally, we obliged and we had a fantastic time. Heather and her guests were delighted with the band and we were presented with a cheque for a fantastic £415.00. Heather had told her guests not to give her presents but to donate something to the band for our minibus fund.

And not only did Heather raise that huge pile of dosh for us, she gave everyone in the band – including our roadie Steve, Easter gifts.

Bless your heart Heather – and HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Heather with a very happy Honeytones band

On Wednesday 20th January 2010, The Honeytones performed at the Ex-Servicemen’s Club in Barnstaple. The event was in aid of Lesley & Bill Brown’s project to raise funds for a Community Office for the benefit of Gorwell estate residents in the town.

Bill & Lesley, who run Barnstaple’s Frankmarsh Store kindly sponsored the Honeytones with a wonderful £100 donation for our minibus fund.

Apologies for the poor photo – it was scanned from a local newspaper.

Gemma Carl and Robbie do their bit for the fund raise.

Angela Shambrook of the NFU Ladies, Barnstaple branch invited us to perform at their annual “shindig” at the Park Hotel in Barnstaple on Monday 4th January 2010.
As is usual, the crowd there weren’t sure what to expect when we started up but they soon warmed to the band’s charm.
It was a late gig and in fact I didn’t get home until after 2.00am but we really enjoyed the gig. The ladies and their partners clearly enjoyed their evening’s entertainment because they had a whip round and gave us £385 to go into our minibus fund.
Thanks girls – tell all your friends about us and we’ll be only too glad to gig again !

The gates at Dartmoor are pretty imposing eh ?. Getting our trailer through the gates is a snug affair - there are just inches to spare. I suppose it was all horse and cart when they were built.

This fuzzy pic of Channings Wood, as with all the other prison pix was lifted from the internet. Cameras etc are not allowed inside HMP Prisons for obvious reasons.

On Monday the 15th and Thursday the 18th of December, we gigged at HMP Channings Wood and HMP Dartmoor respectively.

As has been our previous experience at these prisons, the inmates thoroughly enjoyed the gigs. Because of the time of year, we included a number of  seasonal favourites and a few other less well known songs from our repertoire including “I’m the Man That Slits The Turkey’s Throats At Christmas”, and other Honeytones favourites.

HMP Dartmoor was a particularly good experience for all of us because we were invited to have a buffet lunch with the prisoners and it was great being able to mingle with staff and inmates alike and just enjoy each other’s company for a while. BIG thanks are due here to Christine Elliot, Diversity Officer at the prison, and Liz Ropschitz of Age Concern who’s group we performed for.

On hearing of the desperate need for our own minibus, the local branch of Rotary contacted us to say that they have decided to support the band by donating the entire December takings from their charity shop to the Honeytone’s Minibus Fund.

Anyone local might care to pop in there and spend a few quid – its for a GREAT cause !!

We usually distribute feedback forms at gigs that we attend. This is mainly because it is helpful when applying for money from organisations like the Lottery fund. Grant funders always ask for evidence of what you are doing, what effect it is having and outcomes etc.

So we are building up a nice portfolio of such feedback. Here are a couple of examples from the recent Dartmoor gig. Obviously, the identity of the inmates concerned is witheld.

Said one inmate :

“I would just like to say that I thought The Honeytones were brilliant and brought a great sense of fun and enjoyment to us inmates. It also opened my eyes to people with disabilities and how they are an important part of our society and how we can learn so much from them”

That feedback was from a young offender and he so eloquently expresses everything that The Honeytones tries to achieve when we perform.

Another inmate said :

I really did enjoy listening to The Honeytones. You can see that the whole group put a lot of practice and effort to produce the performance. They all looked very happy and if I had the money I would buy them a minibus”

We always let our audiences know that we don’t charge for what we do. We do accept donations though this is not a requirement but heps toward running costs. Above all, we ask for the feedback because we are always on the lookout for ways of getting dosh to buy our own minibus.

The minibus is the most important issue confronting the band. Most of the band members live in a local residential community of adults with learning disabilities. When the place closes – as it is scheduled to then we will have no means of transporting the band to its gigs.