Bohemia Village Voice

(From the top) Andy, Dave, Adam, Andy, Jayne and Alice

Alice, Andy, Dave, Andy, Jayne and Adam used to gather in each others’ private houses round the fire and play their instruments and sing. Then their friend Kat organized Bohemia Village Fayre 2007 where they played as the opening act.
Dave Francis, whose brother Andy is also a member of the band, told the Voice some of the details behind the scenes.
“We’ve all had previous experience either in bands or playing music as solo performers, and we’ve all done very different sorts of music,” he said. “There’s quite an age range.I’m forty-four, and Alice, the youngest, is nineteen.”
After the Bohemia Village Fayre Dave suddenly had a phone call from an agency. “They phoned on a Friday and said, ‘Could you do a wedding tomorrow?’ so we did!” It was a big celebrity wedding. “We’re sworn to secrecy about the names!” said Dave. “Because of that we decided to play at weddings and parties, and now we rehearse once a week. “It’s a pretty good live act. We all dress up in lively sorts of clothes and hats. At our first gig we noticed people in the audience were all jumping around and all smiling!” The band normally uses only ukuleles and kazoos, though occasionally they will use other instruments. All the members sing in vocal harmony. “Musically we keep it very good, and as we dress up as well we put on a good show, which is humorous and very lively. We do lots of concerts, pre-Christmas work parties, and birthday parties, as well as weddings.”
 The band plays a mixture of traditional ukulele songs and a variety of other music. “Anything you can dance to: swing, up tempo country, modern songs as well.”
The band plays quite regularly at The Rooms in Western Road, about every two to three months, and are next due to appear there on 22nd May with Uni and her ukulele. They will also be appearing at Pissarros on 14th June, and at the St. Leonards festival on 19th July. Their next concert is at the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday 19th May. “We were asked by Coghurst Camelias,” said Dave, “so now we’re busy learning flower and garden-related songs!