It is with some degree of sadness that I post this review. Last night was our last Saturday night till we reopen in a months time. It was absolutly amazing. Amanes brought with them a carnival atmosphere, an incredibly energetic performance & as always you guys got the floor moving & had me impressed as you danced in the oppresive heat. It was so amazing for me to feel the energy & excitement in the club & I feel it was such a good note for us to end Saturday on, at least for a little while.
My thanks go out to everyone who came along & put up with the heat & sometimes short tempers behind the bar. You made my last night of work for a while really fun & it was so nice to see everyone having a really good time.

So, the refurmishments begin on Monday, I am really looking forward to this as I, unlike some of you, didn't ever see OSMC as Local Hero's. I can't wait for us to start taking the place apart & putting it back together again. I am very excited about all the stuff we are going to do & I can't wait for the night when we reopen & you all come back to see us again. Over the refurb I will still be putting posts up so you can keep up to date with all that we are doing, I might even try to sneak a couple of pictures in if I can finally work out how to put them up.

Now for my horrendously long like list of thanks...
Big thank you to everyone who has really supported us & put up with us over the last few months, you guys are the ones who kept us going. Thank you to all the wonderful acts who have played & given me some really enjoyable nights at work & to all the artists that have displayed their work. Jen, for setting up my blog so that I can comunicate what's going on. Andrew, for leaving me posts, hope you're having a good time in Scotland. Everyone who wrote wonderful letters & emails of support, it's nice to know that you people love us. Jack, I don't think you read my blog but I miss working with you so much, you are lovely & OSMC wouldn't have done so well if you hadn't been there to pull the ladies in. Vera, who has gone back to Luxembourg. I will really miss you so much & will never forget that first night when you asked me how to make a gin & tonic, I was so worried about what the hell I was going to do with you but you were & still are amazing. Ellie, on so many occasions you've helped me out & I don't think you understand how much that means to me. Alexander, thank you for making my blog international. Frankie, you're lush. Finally, Adam, Stefan & Sam for giving me a really wicked opportunity. I appreciate all the stuff you've let me do & all the things you've taught me, I think where we fail sometimes is by not letting people know how we feel. I am so glad you guys gave me a chance, & I hope that I'll continue working with you for a long time.

The only words that have really been coming out of my mouth lately are that I'm hot. I am not doing too well at thinking at the moment either.

Just some quick orange news. Tonight we have some lovely jazz. The David Holland quartet will be putting on an eclectic fusion of trad-sax jazz with a modern be-bop twist. Should be lush.

Tomorrow night will be great as we have the lovely Amanes. Traditional greek music with pounding western beats. If you look back over the blog entrys you should see a review of them that is more exciting. Am having difficulty thinking. However I do think that if you need to take someone out e.g a relative who is getting married, & you've failed to organise anything this would be a great way to spend the night.

Sorry for not updating the Blog over the last few days. My brain & body seem to be shutting down with the heat.

Just a brief entry as today is my day off. Will post a full review of Mahatma tomorrow.
I just wanted to say hello to the belgium guy who is staying on George's sofa. Hello Belgium guy.

Have to go as am currently being made a gamecube widow. Playing some NBA game whilst wearing my bikini top is the bfs choice of activity while I am putting this post up. Must go & distract him now before he is totally sucked in. Curse eBay. All dreams end when you log on.

Once again another day has passed me by in a lazy fog of sweat & constant fatigue. I have realised that the way to deal with the unbearable heat is to get out of bed at 5pm, get to work for 6pm, finish work, go to pub at about 12am (thank god for the late licence at the Canterbury Tales) leave at 1am, mess about till about 8am, then go to bed. Thus avoiding hot sun & constant sweatiness. Alternatively I could totally embrace the heat. I know that the way to deal with it is to be comfortable about sweating but after so many weeks of it it's really starting to get to me now. My temper is becoming shorter & shorter & I am feeling quite fired up all the time.

Tonight we have Mahatma who are a modern bluesy jazz funk soul summertime fusion of wonderment. The Lovely Brothers did cancel but found us a fantastic replacement.
Will give you a longer review when I've heard them play, I'm looking forward to it though.

Jazz Knights last night were amazing. Jim did his crazy solos & the guys played a wonderful set that really got the place going. Apologies again for the beer situation, fraid to say it will be pretty similar tonight, but don't let that put you off, we're running a offer, bottles of Becks for two quid. You could always try some of our lush wine as well.

My brain doesn't work very well anymore.

Well well well...

It's really hot. Can't really think very well right now. Not much has really been happening in my orange world. Nights are going really well though. Luke was amazing last night as usual, not sure how I feel about Psychotic Reaction. Nice name, personally I feel they are quite blandly loud, but they seem to go down well.
Tonight our stage is being graced by Jazz Knights, they are a lovely local Jazz act with an amazing drummer, Jim. He plays five minute drum solos that are incredible. It's like tourettes drumming, if you haven't seen him before you mustn't miss out.

Can't think of what to write so I'll fill you in on what I've been up to outside of work. A few weeks ago I had my first eBay adventure. What a horrific mistake, the bf has regretted it ever since. The next night when in a club where they were auctioning off art work. I bid for a piece that a. I couldn't pay for as I had no money & b. I didn't really like. Cursed eBay. Anyway, my first eBay purchase arrived about a week ago. 'Holly, what did you buy?' I hear you shout. I brought a beautiful pair of Roller blades, 'Holly, could you be more stupid' I hear you say. Well, its may seem foolish, the ankle saga continues, but I am actually alright on skates. I went out & did a little drunken skating last night, much to the bfs distress, especially when I put my blood all over the pavement, however considering I haven't been on skates for about four years I think I did pretty good. The bruise on my bottom may disagree with me, but I only fell three times, which considering other factors, e.g ankle still twisted, being drunk & not having done it for a while, I think that's alright.

On another note, have been having crazy dreams in the heat. Would love to fill you in but can't remember the more interesting ones right now.
Will go & do some work now & dream of flying down the high street in a few hours.

p.s Thank you to Alex for the Lounge photos, am having difficulty putting them up but I am trying.
Last episode of Deal or No Deal tomorrow. Make sure you tune in.

Hey there people.
Suppose a couple of reports are due. Monday night was fantastic. Music was lush as were all musicians so thanks alot to those mentioned before hand.

Salsa last night was also pretty cool, the usual dangerous behavior was indulged in by all dancers. They always seem to have a good time though.

Not much has really been happening in my orange world in the last few

have to go as we've just got really busy

This is an appeal to anyone who's staying in tonight. Get down to the club, we've got some quality music. Optimum, Dom, Spygenius & Lovely Lucy Kitt. You'll be missing out if you don't come out.
I've put alot of effort getting these guys together so come down & support me & them.

How lovely it was to have the weekend off. Sadly it all passed very quickly & now I am back to reality.

Firstly congratulations to all involved, organisers & performers. I had a lovely time, my first outing to a real working farm was most enjoyable. LOTF was also my first experience of camping. Having never slept in a tent before I was both nervous & excited, will be avoiding tents from now on though, it was the polar opposites that got to me. Waking up frezing, getting back to sleep, then waking up sweating with the extreme heat. Tents are alright but I think you can have more fun in sleeping bags.

I enjoyed most of what I saw. Not too sure about some stuff, but I'm not feeling in a Simon Cowell kinda mood so I'll save the reviews for another time. What I really want to know is what you guys think, so please leave me comments. Would also love some pictures to put up so email them to me. hollyorange@btconnect.com.

I suppose that since I'm going to be away for a few days I should fill you in about last night.

Camine, a three piece playing celtic music (celtic is pronounced with a k not a c, with a c its a football team, have been corrected all week by my bf & sis). Music was what you'd expect, very nice & calming, beautiful to listen to. Playing at LOTF today I think.
We were fairly busy although not as busy as Thursday night. No real problems with bar stuff. My ankle is doing well, not quite purple yet, I was presented with a walking stick this morning. I didn't realise how prejudiced I was until it was put in my hand. Not looking forward to hobbling about the farm with it. But thanks must be given. I love you baby.

Ok...um...The highlight for me was Lucy Kitt. I know I always bang on about her but I think she's pretty amazing. Make sure you see this girl play in Canterbury before some other place steals her away.

Still not on the farm but I think we're leaving soon, just need to get painkillers & wine, perhaps some bananas as well.

p.s Dan, it was really nice to meet you last night, hope that now you've signed up for our emails we will see more of you.
Alexander, was lovely to speak to you last night even if you just called up by accident. Please come to Canterbury soon, we'd all like to meet you!

No...

Thank you to everyone who has been into the club over the last week, your spending has earnt me my free ticket to Lounge, which I must say I'm very excited about.

On Wednesday we had a quality night of music, admittedly it was a slow starter, but we got there in the end & I think we just about pulled it off. The organiser of the night decided to not turn up & not tell us that he wasn't going to, but fortunatly a band who were going to be performing with him did. I was wandering around, becoming more & more anxious as the crowd grew, waiting expectantly for something amazing to happen. I called up a dj, hoping that he would come & save the night, then just as I started to explain my predicament a vision appeared before me. Dom, lovely guy, complete with guitar & amazing female singer(don't know her name). So, I asked them to start immediatly & they obliged, however the sound was a bit dodge, so their first set was a bit crap due to my total inability to work out how to use the sound desk, a reflection on me rather than them. Even with the rubbish sound it was good.
They don't have a name as they have only just formed, but I'd say that its a pretty unique style, very simply guitar & amazing singing by primarly lovely girl, accompained by Dom. Quite jazzy with lots of doby, dums etc. These guys make a really nice sound, its very relaxing & pleasing to the ear.

Luke presented King David & Creeski last night. King David's really good, but I can't work out what the American accents about, as he doesn't have that Texan twang when he asks for a pint of fosters. I found Creeski a little disapointing, I was expecting a different type of sound, as when he played here before it was mostly solo with the hobbit song, so I expect my disapointment was due to expectation rather than quality. Was nice campfire music, so hopefully they'll be bringing their instruments to LOTF.
Luke was amazing as usual, he almost brought a tear to my eye with 'no one else will do' at the end & totally lifted my mood with 'away for a day' not holding out much hope for one of the Holly songs at LOTF but will be there like a dedicated fan ready to throw my knickers at him. Watch out Luke, some frilly panties are coming your way on Saturday night...
By the way, I had no idea that Adrian was such an amazing artist. Check out 2000AD.
Luke. I love the comic strips on the back of your flyers.

Frankie is with us tonight doing the sound. Sam has gone away to the worlds biggest air show in Glocestershire. Adam is making his way down to LOTF tonight & Stefan is off to a wedding. Frankie has made my day by informing me that the lovely Lucy Kitt will be playing a set tonight.

The ankle saga continues, it is turning marvelous colours currently a greeny yellow shade with purple speckles, should be going a darker shade any day now. Will keep you posted Canterbury, if it goes through a really impressive rainbow I will photograph it & put the pics up so you can follow its progress.

I can't believe I haven't put any posts up yet reguarding Deal or No Deal. I am totally hooked & have been for a while now. Today I saw Sallys game that I had been eagarly antisipating as she is lovely & always gives good advice to people in the chair of wealth. Sadly she left with only a penny. Must go now as have work to do.

Will hopefully see you at the farm for some lounging. Hugs kisses.

Sorry people, have been totally rubbish at leaving posts week just gone. I'll fill you in...

Monkeying about was never really a good idea, but I have so much fun jumping about on things that I don't normally think too much about the consequences. On Friday night after a couple in the Canterbury Tales I bounced down the high street to my lovely mans house. Upon entering I bounced about a bit more, played bumpsedaisy down the stairs (sliding down stairs on my bottom, if you don't play this game you should, you can reach quite good speeds) then entered the living room to bounce about on the sofas. This was my downfall. I jumped between sofas then landed in a way that has put me out of action for a couple of days. My leg went one way, my foot went the other & a nasty crunch I heard. Sprained ancle, sore, swollen no weight on it at all. Thus my rubbish few days begun.

I went into work on Saturday, much to the annoyance of my lovely man. But he made sure I was confined to the house with my foot on a pillow all of the day. He tried to stop me on Sunday but I insisted on walking about. Monday, spent most of day with foot elevated, Monday night it all started to go wrong. If you were in on Monday night you would of seen me stack behind the bar, to you it just looked like I was falling over (as you cannot see my legs), however my ancle gave way & trying to pull a pint & answer the phone was probably not the best idea, in my defence I only spilt a tiny bit of beer. Cursed foot fucked up again on my walk up the high street after work. So I have been chained to the sofa all of yesterday & today. It is so nice to be out of the house. I get very frustrated when I can't do things, this hobbling malarky is really annoying. I'm not appreciating the hop-along jokes either. I must thank my lovely man for looking after me, I'm sorry I've been such a pain in the arse sweetness.

Monday night. Another good Fretnoise, nice line up, Ben Cooper, Butter my Cheerleader & Swampduck.

Ben Cooper, nice guy. Good on guitar, beautiful voice, not really my prefered genre, I think he normally plays with a band & if he had on Monday night I probably would have enjoyed it more. Definatly worth checking out at the Lounge on Sunday, playing at 6pm on Sunday, should be lush, nice wind down style.

Butter My Cheerleader. These guys get instant points just for having a really cool name. I thought these guys were pretty awesome. Unfortunatly they didn't have their bass player with them, so I'm sure with him they'd be amazing. Was a little dissapointed that I didn't get to watch their set properly 'cos loadas people came in when they started playing, however will be checking them out at the Lounge as well, think they're playing at 11am on the Sunday. Check the listings on the Lounge website to be sure.

Swampduck, these guys went down really well, they've played here a few times before, this time they sung, which they've never done here before. I liked in, maybe a few more lessons though guys...

What else has been going on. On Monday I got stung by perhaps the oldest trick in the book. Customer said she'd given me £20 & that I'd given here the wrong change. Was sure that I hadn't & was right, argued with her at the bar for a while, she didn't budge, neither did I. Asked her to wait till the end so I could cash up & if i'd made a mistake I would of course give her the money back. But she stayed by the bar & continued to argue with me as more & more people arrived at the bar. I gave in, pulled £10 out of the till & gave it to her. Low & behold I cashed up & the till was £10 down. Thoroughly pissed off with myself for bowing to pressure & not standing my ground. Knew I was right all along, so sweetheart if your reading this, (you probably not) thanks alot. Hope you enjoyed those couple of extra drinks you & your mates undoubtably had that night. Won't be falling for that one again. I also hope you feel guilty for stealing from a small independent business that is trying to be nice & lovely to everyone. I learnt a long time ago that the customer is not always right. You should feel really guilty about taking advantage of me when I was busy & on my own behind the bar. If you would like to meet me at some time I have a list of expletatives I would like to say to you. I will get in trouble if I put my diatribe on my blog.

Andrew, we have Cointreau, especially for you.

I really need you people to come in tonight & tomorrow, I will be getting two free Lounge tickets if I reach a target behind the bar. I'm not doing too well at the moment, there is nobody in the club apart from me right now, the act haven't even turned up yet. So, 'cos I'm skint & can't afford a ticket please come in, I don't really get a chance to go out & watch music & there are loadas acts I want to see on Saturday & Sunday. Here is who I'll be going to see if I reach my target.


Saturday JTL acoustic tent.

11am Rob Gamble. He is yet to play a real gig here, he's done a Luke Smith night & played on the Empathy night. Rob has been playing in alot of pubs of late, he's pretty good & I'd love to see him, he has a lush voice & amazing stage presence.
5pm Lucy Kitt. I love Lucy, she's a real gem, I have alot of respect for her, she's very down to earth, a big fish in a small pond but this hasn't got to her, if anything I'd say she needs a bigger ego. She is a quality musician.
7pm Art Ferguson. I assume this is with the mans big blues band. This man puts on a great show, who would of thought that the line 'I got wasted down St Dunstans last night' could be fitted into so many songs. On another note did you know that Art is actually a sir, he has been knighted for services to music. Very entertaing, a real performer.
10pm Luke Smith. I cannot wait to see Luke. I am so excited about this, I would like you all to get him to play one of my songs since he won't put them on an album. Use the link on the blog to go to his site & lets get a Holly song played at the Lounge.
11pm Amber Room. I love these guys so much, congratulations are of course in order. Beautiful melodies. Lush, nice way to finish the evening.

Mainstage.

1pm Syd Arther, don't really understand why these guys are playing in the evening, think personally they are much more of an evening dancing band.

Sunday JTL acoustic tent.

10pm Amanes. Love these guys, if there is anyone you must see its Amanes.
11pm Butter My Cheerleader. Played Fretnoise just gone, will have bass player on Sunday, should be good.

Mainstage.
11:15 Jimmy Jones band, love to dance to some crazy jazz.
11:45 Richard Pollott. Lovely man, Lovely songs.

Right lovely people, better get on & do some stuff. Hopefully see you tonight, bit of spoken word & comedy should be nice to finish off this balmy day.

love love

I can't think of anything to write...

Hello People, I hope you've been playing in the rain as you've all been moaning about how hot it is!

Wow, we had something pretty special happening in our corner of Canterbury last night. Luke (as always) presented us with another gem, Mayfly Dance. They played a few tunes that were pretty amazing. Beautiful harmonies, lovely bongos & some other crazy instrument, amazing lyrically & musically. It is always marvelous when something like that happens, it distracts from the beer fobbing & us running out of ice etc. Everyone stops for a minute, enjoys the music & I always feel like I am part of something that is really quite beautiful, you know when an act is really good when no one is talking or at the bar, the guys last night created a sort of mass serenity. It was very beautiful, but now I'm going on like a crazy hippy who believes in love & peace & all that jazz.

Tonight is also very lovely, the music is a little heavy going at times however I do prefer it to last Friday night which did not fill me with the joys of spring... Tonight the music is really for a Niche audience & it is nice to see people who are fans enjoying themselves, I have just had a word with some of them & they have told me that its good to see the music played in a 'relaxed bar experience' as nowhere else really does anything like this & the closest thing they get to Electronica is Breaks. So hopefully Electronica fans, we will be hosting a night like this again so that there is somewhere for you to go & enjoy the music you love. I have certainly enjoyed it, it's really exciting to be providing something specialist that people can't usually find anywhere else, hopefully this night will get a large following from further a field (maybe some people from the big smoke might even come down, now that really would be exciting...).

I would also like to publicly announce that I am very proud of Ellie, as she has done really well tonight, even though her hips are sore. Ellie I am proud of you baby.

Love love people, have kisses & cuddles on me.

Wow, I'm so glad that Portugal lost to France last night. Luke is in for his usual Thursday night slot. He will be making an announcement tonight...

Jen has found a really easy way to put photos up on the Blog, so more will be going up soon.

Will fill you in in a bit about Lukes set however now I have to go & do some work

Ellie eating cake behind the bar 

a picture 

Psycho Comedy found a new home for last night, thank you Chris at the Canterbury Tales for hosting it for us.

Sorry to those of you who turned up on Saturday night & found us to be closed, it passed 9 o'clock & there was nobody here apart from Andrew (the loyal blogger), going to the pub seemed a better idea, we were exhausted & very hot, sometimes we need nights off as well.

The summer really is here, I went to Broadstairs on Sunday, it is a lush beach, we went in the later afternoon as well so it wasn't too hot, I do wish I'd taken something that I could have swam in, my denim shorts weren't really appropriate.
We are going for an OSMC outing to the beach today, we are doing the boring Tuesday stuff & then heading down to Whitstable to chill out & cool down.

Tomorrow night we are showing the football, so pop in if you can bear to watch any more after the England disaster on Saturday.

Hello to those of you who are reading my Blog in France, its nice to know I've gone international, hope its keeping you entertained.

Love & squeazy hugs, kiss kiss

p.s you'd be a fool to miss out on what's going on on Friday, its gonna be madness.

Wow, the K-city talent bowl was an incredible success, lots of Talent there...

Football, sorry to reopen the wounds but that was a unfair defeat. It seemed like we were really there only to have the dream snatched away, I feel we must congratulate the team for getting so far though. Remember through your tears that you get to go home & lick your wounds but I have to clean up a club full of bottles & cigarette butts.

Apologies to all that came for the lack of beer on draught, it fobs in the heat & we waste so much that its not worth trying. You guys did get a great deal on bottled beer though.

Tonight we are showing the next match if you can bear to come & watch Brazil crush France.

Hugs & kisses