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	05/04/2009 JEN & FRIENDS - FUTURE MUSIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE FROM JEN - PLEASE CAN YOU RE-POST FOR ME Over the years I have graced the stage with many a SKA or Pop band mixing songs that I have written with other artists or just played on stage as a featured artist but never have I created a band with all of the songs penned by myself and my friends. At the end of last year I took to writing for just that purpose. My aim was to write the most danceable SKA tracks I could and then air them out on forums such as myspace and radio with a view to playing them live this year. I wanted to work with some old and new friends whose work I admire and who’s energy I love to be around. When you get to my age it’s time to just have a laugh and this is what I am currently doing, having a great time creatively with my friends. We hope that what we have as a team comes through in our songs and that when the time does come for airing it live in public that we can share the love with you all. Until that time we promise a weekly supply of new reggae and SKA tracks to suit almost every ear. For this reason I have set up a brand new site called JEN & FRIENDS for you to listen to some real danceable music. We welcome you all and would love for you to join us on www.mypace.com/intelligentska BIG LOVE from JEN & FRIENDS 05/01/2009 HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU FROM JENNIE X -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN IN TOUCH AND MAY YOUR GODS GUIDE YOU WELL...AS WE SAY GOODBYE TO ANOTHER YEAR LET US NOT FORGET THOSE DEAR ONES WHO HAVE DEPARTED AND LET'S ALSO MAKE A POINT OF MAKING AS MANY NEW FRIENDS THIS YEAR...MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALL There will be many more new projects you will be seeing from me this year and a new personal myspace with new music I have been writing over the past few months so I would love it if you could join me when that time comes, I promise you some excellent tracks. WATCH THIS SPACE lovelies. Love from Jen XX 02/11/2008 The future of The Dance Brigade - (taken from their myspace blog) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good afternoon everyone. Firstly thanks for all the support over the past months and your reception at the 100 Club was overwhelming. We have taken a short break to pursue individual commitments, Lee obviously has the Madness Christmas extravaganza and Jen has an interesting project of her own that everyone will hear about soon. (I'm sure!). I have looked at the tracks and along with Chico we will be tidying them up a bit, and various members will come in to re record some bits they are not happy with. We also have another ten or so tracks to finish, which we will be doing and hopefully an album will be out early next year. As far as live work is concerned, we would like to finish the album first and then maybe do some shows. Thanks for your patience and comments, We want the album to be different, interesting and hopefully, amazing! We will try and put a couple of new tracks up soon, but don't forget us, because we're not going away! Thanks again, Keith. 15/09/2008 The Dance Brigade - debut gig on 17/09/2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myspace bulletin from Jennie: Ever since we first set up THE DANCE BRIGADE myspace site, we have been inundated with people enthusiastic to obtain some of our tracks. This has been a touch difficult for us as we are all usually quite busy with our other commitments, however, we have decided that it is only right and fair to satisfy that enthusiasm and have gone about creating a very limited edition of some of our tracks to be sold on the night. These tracks are a dub plate / monitor mix special edition and once they are gone NO MORE will be produced , this is an exclusive for all the people who have turned up to the debut show. There will also be a track on there that will never be found on anything else we do. There will also be an extra limited 100 copies for people who really would have liked to come to the show but were unable to make it for whatever reason…this is only fair THE DANCE BRIGADE are really looking forward to meeting you all and hoping that you will be happy to get your face involved in some pictures and film. For those of you who did not know, this night is aimed at two things…firstly this is a night for all of you who have asked us to put on a show and secondly we are inviting you to be part of our documentary and promo video, parts of this footage will also be used for a prom video also. For those of you too shy to say anything on film, that’s cool also as we are just happy to have you there. Those who feel they may have something they want to add to camera and especially if they feel confident to talk about the skinhead movement then fill yer boots guys and gals coz it’s our night and we can all be and feel special for the night. We would absolutely invite anyone to go on camera and talk about SKA and clothing and if you felt like it what you think of THE DANCE BRIGADE sound . There will also be a lot of filming right at the end of the whole audience as we are intending to show this globally. I believe you can truly GIVE IT SOME on the night not letting the English side down. This is your night guy’s and we are there to entertain YOU so we right want you to enjoy yourselves. We are currently rehearsing for this occasion and good or bad like you all we want is to have a laugh with our mates. THE DANCE BRIGADE would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has been so supportive to us. The artwork created has added some creative fun to our blogging. The logo’s and ideas have been uplifting to say the least, the bloggers who have re-posted our blogs and have found ways in which to be creative with them adding their own input have been invaluable and we want to just THANK YOU all for those efforts, none have gone unnoticed and all are appreciated. PRE DRINK UP at THE SHIP in Wardour Street is after the sound check and the place is run by some cool people Jen knows. PLEASE note that there will be a camera crew making it’s way also as Jen is being filmed for her part of the documentary…if you fancy meeting up with Jen in the SHIP at roughly 6.00pm then feel free Re tickets: If you have bought online then you will be required to have proof of ID with you WELCOME TO THE DANCE BRIGADE and we hope to see you all on Wednesday. 20/07/2008 The Dance Brigade - new track ‘Cocka Deafen’ with Lee Thompson on vocals -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myspace bulletin from Jennie: HELLO JENNIES MATES PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME TO RE-BLOG THIS FOR THE DANCE BRIGADE AS I AM OFF TO THE STUDIO AND DON'T WANT TO MISS OUT PEOPLE BEING ABLE TO LISTEN TO LEE'S DANCE BRIGADE TRACK. THIS TRACK IF PEOPLE LIKE IT, CAN ALSO BE ADDED TO YOUR PAGE....PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE DANCE BRIGADE SITE WHICH IS www. myspace. com/thedancebrigade NEW DANCE BRIGADE TRACK FEAT LEE THOMPSON ON VOCALS Well hello everyone, as promised the long awaited new track from THE DANCE BRIGADE featuring Lee Thompson on vocals. The track is called COCKA DEAFEN and also features Debra Barker and Jennie Matthias on backing vocals, Keith Finch on Strings and full digital production, Dan Burdett on guitar, Chalky White on Trumpet and Chico Chagas on keyboards…The barking dogs within the track belong to Keith, Lee & Debs - DANCE BRIGADE are strong animal lovers and this track is dedicated to the dogs…We do hope you like the track and as usual would love to hear your comments on any of the tracks please…this makes 6 tracks up now and we have many more where these came from but of course we will be presenting them first at the 100Club for those who do attend…THANK YOU all for being so wonderful so far with you amazing comments on our work and also your support with the blog re-posting and spreading the word…you know who you are and so do we. Jen say‘s “Lee has a knack for writing short quirky stories and Razor Blade Alley it has to be said is still my favourite Maddies track (Penned by Lee) COCKA DEAFEN has that same quirky quality but with a stronger theatrical approach” …Jen. X 07/07/2008 The Dance Brigade - video -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Myspace bulletin from Jennie: SKINS, MODS, PUNKS, PERRY BOYS, SUEDE-HEADS, RUDE BOYS, ETC I ALREADY HAVE SOME EXCELLENT PICS OF MANY OF YOU THAT I HAVE COLLECTED ALONG THE WAY BUT I AM LOOKING FOR SOME MORE REALLY COOL IMAGES OF YOURSELF FOR THE NEXT YOU TUBE VIDEO, I WANTED TO USE SOME COOL IMAGERY TO FRONT OUR MUSIC...D'YA FANCY BEING IN THE VID AND IF SO CAN YOU PLEASE SEND US YOUR FAVOURITE PICTURE SO WE CAN ADD IT IN - PLEASE SEND TO thedancebrigade@yahoo.co.uk I AM LOOKING FOR PICTURES WITH STYLE, SKINHEADS, MODS, PUNKS, SUEDEHEADS, PERRYBOYS, OI BOYS AND GALS, LOVERS ROCKERS, ETC ETC, SCOOTERISTS EITHER MOVING OR STILL IMAGES, EVEN PICTURES OF BULLDOGS WOULD BE COOL ALSO, THE MORE THE BETTER THESE NEED TO BE IN BY THE 20TH jULY THE LATEST...THANKS TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY DONE SO, YOUR PICS WILL BE ADDED...PLEASE CAN YOU MAKE SURE THAT THE PICS YOU SEND ARE CLEAR... THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE LOVE JEN. X 15/05/2008 The Dance Brigade - Debut gig 17 Sep 2008 - 100 Club, London -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Statement from Jennie: WE WANT ALL YOU SKINHEADS, SUEDEHEADS AND MODS, TO GET ON THE DANCE FLOOR AND SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS, YOU KNOW THE DRILL BOY'S 3-2-1 GET ON THAT DANCE FLOOR AND GIVE IT SOME For all of you that have been asking us when we will be playing we now have a date and venue and we are letting people know way in advance in order that we get to all of those that said they were interested in attending our first show. Due to some of the members other comitments THE DANCE BRIGADE will be performing this one off show for friends, families and fans, please let us know if you will be able to attend ahead of time as we already have a list and the capacity of the venue is only 300 Tickets will be on sale for a tenner from http://www.wegottickets.co.uk/ from the end of the month although you can enquire immediately if you wish...we would all really like to see you there coz we are unsure of when the next one will be...SO IF YOU LIKE YOUR SKA UPBEAT AND PURE DANCE THEN PLEASE JOIN US ON THE NIGHT - dress code is the bleedin obvious... 29/04/2008 The Dance Brigade - interview with Jennie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview taken with permission from the Madness Information Service bulletin: Their line up is also going to include other legends of the Ska world as special guests on their tracks. Some of these will also be gigging with them in the future. Keith is "renowned for working with some of the greatest" and has quite a network of the best of those in Jamaican Ska. During a period of just three months, The Dance Brigade have already composed an album's worth of material. When we asked her how The Dance Brigade began, Jennie said that she and Lee had been friends for close to 30 years. They had been in successful bands and were even on the same record label at one point. "Throughout the years, Lee has called on me to jump on stage once and a while, and late last year, he asked me what I was up to and if I would like to add my vocals to a friend's music that he had also collaborated on". She eventually met up with Keith, and some pretty special music was created in a relatively short period of time. Jennie explained how the songs were written and described how the project has progressed. "Keith is the music master and main producer, putting the whole thing together. Lee and I both write lyrics, melodies and assist with arrangements. Lee, of course, also does his Saxophone stuff." We were happy to learn that Lee has also got a few tracks that he sings on. During those numbers, Jennie says that she and DEBRA BARKER perform background vocals. There is no front person, or single visionary. Everyone is sharing the spot light. It seems to be a real collaborative effort. Right now, they are so new that they aren't signed to a label yet. Jennie said that they are waiting to see what develops once they have finished off the rest of the tracks in the studio. In the meantime, they do have a MySpace page which everyone should check out. They already have three excellent tracks up now. "Musical Lesson" is taking Mozart's "Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K 525" [or as its commonly known, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"] and turning it into a very danceable Ska form [much like Madness did so brilliantly with Tchaikovsky' s "Swan Lake," and Lee's other band, Crunch!, did with Beethoven's "Fur Elise"]. The results are quite magical. The second track 'Give It Some' contains fun lyrics [such as "You know the drill boys 3-2-1/Get on that dance floor and give it some..."] and has an equally catchy melody, sweet vocals, and it will surely shuffle you off your feet. To us, it sounds like 'old school' classic combined with a modern twist. The latest addition the to their play list is "Who's That Girl," which features a quite incredible sax solo from Lee. The vocals, the piano, the melody sound smooth and really easygoing on the ears. The combination of delta blues, jazz, latin, pop and ska all make for a really good track. Jennie's voice is in control, and Lee's sax is the same as it always is - superbly pronounced and skillfully done. Of the tracks we have heard on the My Space player so far, Jennie told us that she was the lyricist. "I tend to write about experience or other peoples' experiences but I have been known to get a touch political also". The Dance Brigade are going to be putting more tracks up on their page soon as well, including one, probably within the next 10 days, so be looking (and listening) for them too. Visit The Dance Brigade on the web at My Space. By Trish Morgan with Lee Buckley It's highly unlikely, but if by any chance you don't happen to be a member of the MIS and therefore don't receive the weekly bulletins then you are so missing out. Join up and subscribe to the Madness Information Service. 25/12/2007 The Clapping Song - Techno version -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jennie's working on a techno version of The Clapping Song with Australian band Hot 2 Go.