D’Ska Assassins gigged at the Holbrook Manor, Wincanton, on Friday, 29 Nov 19. This was for HQ Neal’s Yard Remedies’ annual Christmas Party and was our second “corporate” bash of the year. Richard Butler (Big Brass Ska, Kharma Alarm), Graham Hewison (BBS) and Damien Oakes (Nancy D) kindly depped on guitar, bass and drums, respectively. The support DJ generously left his disco lights up and running during the band’s performance to augment our own. In thanking him for this, I was about to compliment him on his de facto Ska outfit but was informed by Lloyd just in time that this was less out of solidarity with the band than because he was an Undertaker who had come straight to the gig from his previous appointment! We started with our ice breaker instrumental ‘Green Onions’ and this developed into a rather interesting free-form jam as people started entering the dance floor and we didn’t want to put them off doing so by stopping. Between sets, band members were treated as fully fledged guests and there were wonderful food and drinks to be had, as well as other incidental activities laid on for the event, such as roulette and poker games. A member of the audience thanked us for playing and registered his surprise and appreciation at seeing we had a ‘girl’ on drums: I could only agree. All told, a lot of fun! Our thanks to an anonymous member of the audience for her excellent pics of the band.
