Dec 30th
So Fortuna’s wheel gets ready to spin again, dear friends, and as Venus lights up beneath the crescent moon high above the soughing ocean’s breath, let’s have one last throw of the dice before we all rush out to debase ourselves to various degrees, get mash up and then enter our own Period Of Reflection where we meditate on the decade’s ever-expanding clustef*ck…let JAZZ NIGHT AT THE BEE’S MOUTH set you up to mark the 20-teens passing with style and grace, symmetry and geometry, or at least a stab at stoicism in the face of the grinning vampire on the New Year's Dishonour list and other manifestations of the endless procession of unredeemable howling idiocy trickling down your newsfeed as your busy little thumbs scroll, scroll, scroll into the future… those paragons of creativity Luke “We Are The Generals” Rattenbury (gtr) and Special Guest Angus “Vybez Cartel” Bishop (drms) will be laying down a broad gleaming highway into tomorrow, paved with hot licks and cool grooves, I’ll be doing whatevs on bass, the Bee’s team will be waiting in their sculptured gothic majesty behind the well-stocked bar, and you really should grab at this last chance of the decade to bring your axe down from off the shelf and come and sit in with us… outside in the streets the population will pass, the hollow men leaning together, the hopeful and the lost, mandems and Mandalorians, the winners and those who only managed to win the argument, the beautiful and the damned, the beloved and the unelectable, while the chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings… if you feel the hot beat of the future’s breath upon you, if you did not think that death had undone so many, if you hanker for the rose of many leaves, the voice you left behind, the memory of the roseate dawn ebbing from your poor mortal mind’s eye, if the invisible worm has found out your bed of crimson joy, or if you just need to get out of the house and escape the normative seasonal hegemony for a precious hour, then come join us, join us… Love is shining Life is thriving in the good life Good life Good life Good life Good life Good life.
Dec 23rd
Just one more push before the Great Seasonal Hiatus when all are encouraged to disengage from the relentless digitally mediated hyperreality of post-industrial late-stage transnational neoliberal consumer capitalism and cosy back up to some old-fashioned values, like carb-heavy carnivorous gluttony, daytime drinking and actively engaging with the loved humans in ur life.. JAZZ NIGHT AT THE BEE’S MOUTH is here for one last pre-festive charge, as the city’s bar staff pause momentarily, before the onslaught of suits on coke and dysfunctional works dos is resumed on NYE, as the welcoming smiles of the woke girls in Lush Cosmetics are stretched to breaking point amidst the throng of seekers for some scented token of whatever they were hoping to convey to their loved one in the last seconds before the darkness closes in, and as Australia burns in the faraway distance as a warning to the unwary…. we’ll have Luke ‘Bedford Falls’ Rattenbury (gtr) and Loz ‘Gremlins 2” Thomas (drms) unpacking a seasonal hamper of hot licks and cool grooves and decking the halls with a multicoloured tapestry of blues-to-bop-to-swing-to-whatever, I’ll be doing something or other on bass, legend of the conga drum Will ‘Nice Guy’ Fry may be along to rattle the holy skins, the Bee’s team will be flaunting their gothic majesty behind the well-stocked bar, all manner of guests may enter through the magic portal to contribute the last of the year’s melodies, symmetry and geometry will be present and all will be well …. come all ye Karens, gammons, boomers and coomers, e bois and VSCO girls, gamers, shamers, incels and outcels, leave the post-election dissection alone for an evening and get along to where it’s at… all are welcome, let’s be excellent to each other…
Dec 16th
So now the dust has settled, the virtuously Insta’d canvassing is over, the re-posting of twitter feeds and links to interesting polls that support your analysis is starting to lose its heady excitement, the unfriending of people you never ‘liked’ anyway is complete …. where to regroup, rediscover your inner equilibrium, get back in touch with your own bad self and get back on the good foot? Why, JAZZ NIGHT AT THE BEE’S MOUTH of course, where we’ll be celebrating the enduring continuity of good things and flicking V signs at bad things thanks to those Successfully Held Key Marginals of music Luke “Red Wall” Rattenbury (gtr) and Loz “Withdrawal Agreement” Thomas (drms) as they get properly stuck in to creating a beautiful whirlwind of hot licks and cool grooves for you to get caught up in and whisked away far far far across the rooftops til you’re not in Kansas any more…. I’ll be there by me on bass, so will the the Bee’s team as they parade their gothic majesty behind the well-stocked bar, plus whatever creatures of the night may drop in to grace us with their ethereal presence…. so what if the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned, the best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity and hedged about with astroturfing bots from another evil dimension?… pull yourself out of the virtual one-dimensional monoverse of antisocial media for an evening and come and refresh yourself with some non-partisan good vibes irl. Trad voters, squeezed middles, disenfranchised youth all welcome - lying liars and their lying lies and attendant bots definitely not.
Dec 2nd
Alas for the carefree days of carbon-enhanced endless summer, when possibilities seemed to lie before us like a land of dreams, when your targeted adfeed offered you more than a choice between wounded nobility, brazen mendacity or a selection of inconsequential wierdos to lead us out of this slough of boring despond… cut that mopey sh*t right out of your life and let JAZZ NIGHT AT THE BEE’S MOUTH put the zing back in your paleo smoothie and iron the kinks out of your poor crumpled mojo cos we’ll be right here irl delivering a 100% fact checked broadcast of hot licks and cool swing thanks to those titans of bop-to-blues-to-groove-to-whatever known throughout the gratefully enfranchised electorate as Luke “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist” Rattenbury (gtr) and Loz “Cash Is King” Thomas (drms)…. I’ll be doing whateves on bass as per, the incorruptible Captain Jack Rowan will be overseeing the dispensation of healing liquors, the nameless creatures of the night will be shuffling past upon their nameless errands and the young, the hopeful and the beautiful will be forging their way along the icy greasy pavements into the future, while we build a shelter against the typhoon of unforgiveable patronising toxic bullsh*t streaming forth from the numb panic stricken lips of our semi-elected leaders … out beyond the sodium glare, where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, beyond the pitiful tents on the lawn, the pebbles’ grating roar and the eternal note of sadness, the silent void between the stars is waiting for us all, so forget for a moment their attempts to co-opt your precious intelligence, never mind the bollocks, grab your narwhal tusk from off the wall and come and join us, what else can we do?