Come with us to London – for our Showcase gig!

On the 22nd of January 2015 we played our Half Moon Showcase concert. With our video as well as some behind the scenes photos we want you to be able to experience what it was like to be there – for us and for the audience.

And if you’ve been there personally – maybe you want to post some anecdotes or photos in the comment section below this post!

First of all it must be said, the Half Moon in Putney, London, is a beautiful venue run by lovely people who clearley understand their business. It is one of London’s longest running and most respected live music venues. Since the early 1960s, some of the biggest names in popular music have performed there, including The Rolling Stones, The Who and U2. The venue has hosted live music every night since 1963. They are a regular pub too, with excellent cuisine.

We got there at 11am for set up and sound check. Together with the local sound engineer our Dad did the live mixing, for the first time with a mixer remotely controlled by an iPad. He could walk around the venue and optimise the sound from every angle (Gotta love technology ;-)) !

Meanwhile, outside in the pub, early visitors Steve Grant (The Sweet, The Animals) and his wife Deena Payne (Emmerdale‘s finest actress) and also John and Barbara Cameron arrived. John is well known for his contributions to pop recordings by Donovan, Cilla Black and the group Hot Chocolate as well as for musical productions around the globe. (photo: Camerons left, Grants right)

At around 5pm a coach pulled up outside the venue to release 50 fans and friends from Northern England. They have come all the way to support us and to hear our “When We’re Together” debut album originals live for the first time. Thanks guys!

Fans arrived from as far as Ireland, Belgium, Scotland, Austria and the USA. Some of our biggest and longest supporters from Florida and Arizona flew in to London just to be there with us for this special night. Many of them we knew were coming but some took us by surprise entirely. Not going to lie, we might have shed a tear or two. We were beyond moved :’)

It was such a joy meeting these people we’ve been in virtual contact with for years, since our very beginnings when we started out with our music at the age of 13. What an enormous back-up to have – we felt greatly motivated to give our absolute best, even though Lisa was fighting a fever and sore throat (the ever haunting performer’s curse!).

Over the afternoon excitement was building up. Back in the dressing room we were going over the harmonies for our songs “Dreams” and “Nothing Is In Vain” “One more Time” (pun intended), two songs that weren’t composed for just a 4 piece band. We had to re-arrange the songs quite a bit, and if you want to present your original work to an audience used to perfect recordings on YouTube and critical industry people, you better give your best.

The lights dimmed and the DJ’s music faded out. Time for us to enter the stage and play our first song ‘This Boy is Mine‘ to a jam-packed room with people happily smiling and singing along. Those who didn’t know our songs yet listened attentively and soon got carried away by the groove, too. We relaxed, had fun and gave our all. We continued with a mix of original songs and covers and finished off with “Johnny B Goode” and “My Generation” before playing an encore.

Very happy people on stage and in the audience likewise. Meet & greets followed as we were taking pictures with people, signing our albums and talking about future projects.

All too soon it was midnight and the fan bus swallowed all the warriors from the North again to bring them back to Liverpool. They had a 4 hours’ drive ahead fo them, some of them even additional train rides to as far as Scotland. Many took the Friday off, just to be with us for that night. Others we would meet again at the Liverpool Cavern Club for our Saturday residency before they took their planes back home. All absolute legends!

We all share great memories of a night full of joy, music, laughter and love. And for us the cherry on top was the feedback we received after the show:

Daniel Wiles, producer from ‘The South Bank Show‘ documentary series: “Stupendous. Absolutely stupendous. They are rocket ships!”

Mike Quinn, one of Britain’s top DJs for the BBC in the Sixties, still an influence in today’s business, has been making positive comments about our music on his Facebook page. He has worked with The Beach Boys, Scott Walker, Gene Pitney, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and the Bee Gees to name but a few. He and his daughter clearly enjoyed our show, and we had a lovely chat and photos afterwards.

The BBC film crew who had been filming for ‘BBC Breakfast’ commented with “Cracking gig!”

Mark Aiken, Hollywood star of Kiefer Sutherland’s ’24’ and ‘Charmed’ said: “Good God! That was earthshaking. I loved it.”

Yours very flattered,Mona & Lisa