A Measure of Success?

Poor neglected blog!  A year has passed and you might be forgiven for thinking that Desperate Measures had disappeared.  But actually the band has been quietly getting on with regular rehearsals and during 2017 and performed publicly on nine occasions.

The band poses last November in the Bedford Hotel's beautiful restaurant

Snow Joke

Folk in the South West on England are used to mild winters.  The price for that is an all pervading wetness and greyness.  This year, the week before we were due to play at the Bedford Hotel, a storm from the continent collided with Siberian cold air and result was a dramatic whiteness.

Band members were snowed in – and not just those hardy souls who live on the moor.  These were the scenes in Plymouth and Totnes.

Fortunately, by the Saturday, the band members had been sufficiently thawed out to play the next day.

That was our second jazz lunch at the Bedford Hotel this year and we thank our regular lunch attendees and the hotel staff for having us to play.

Desperates Play Calstock

The old chapel at Calstock is a venue that many great jazz artists have appeared - and now the Desperates have played there too........admittedly, that was because it was a private celebration of our bass player's significant birthday...

The striking interior of the old chapel

View of the Tamar river and railway viaduct from the chapel balcony

We were also joined for the musical shindig by musicians from the Shack Band, so named because their rehearsal venue was originally a chicken shack.  Here's a few pictures of a great afternoon.

Sunlit Desperates

The Shack Band and Desperates play together

Room with a view

Looks like Tessa's joke didn't go down well