It's always a treat to return to such a picturesque location to play a concert, and the view over to the castle from St Edward's Church, combined with a very friendly reception in a fine acoustic, make our visits here a real pleasure, and it was indeed great to be back. As before, the organising team had assembled a splendid audience for us, and it was gratifying to spot so much toe-tapping and rhythmic swaying within the rows of normally dignified pews! Given such a supportive and enthusiastic audience, we thought we'd risk some items from the more obscure depths of our repertoire, numbers rarely played by other bands, such as classics from Morton's Red Hot Peppers, like Smokehouse Blues an

We've enjoyed playing here more than a few times as part of Ivor's marvellous charity-supporting 'Wivey Has Jazz' series, but this time his mighty publicity machine excelled itself and packed every available space with bodies - lively ones, at that, who gave us a fabulous reception and were in no way inhibited by the extremely 'cosy' nature of this packed venue on a very warm evening! The band just about managed to fit into their allotted space - not without difficulty! - and the front line narrowly avoided having to sit on the laps of the eager occupants of the front row. It all added to the atmosphere, however, and we couldn't have asked for a better reception. Faced with such a knowledgea

​​Many a bandleader over the years has manifested varying degrees of eccentricity, and the loyal staff of the Sunset Cafe Stompers have for some time time been observing increasing evidence in our Esteemed Leader of the demeanour of the classic 'absent-minded professor', perhaps due to the pressure of keeping the band going for three decades ... For example, during his learned introductions to numbers in our recent programmes, he has begun to attach 'The' to the titles of songs not hitherto known to possess a Definite Article - like The Mabel's Dream, The Big Butter And Egg Man, and The Stockyard Strut; furthermore, he also seems to have mislaid his sense of propriety at times, and a recent

The formidable publicity machine at Ilminster Arts Centre being what it is, we should not have been surprised to find ourselves facing a packed house! It it is, of course, always gratifying to face such a nice, big audience, and the Arts Centre duly did us proud - and provided us with a splendid pre-concert supper for good measure, which was a greatly appreciated bonus! It was good to welcome Keith Hall officially on board to take over the banjo/guitar chair, though he has of course helped us out on several gigs during the late Eddie Edwards' prolonged illness ... big shoes to follow, indeed, but Keith has done a great job thus far, and we're sure Eddie would have given his successor a resou