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The Graduates[Covers 50s - present, 3 piece] Based: Curry Rivel
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Classic Rock with a little Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Rock 'n' Roll! featuring Guitar, Bass & Drums.
The Graduates are Founder Member & Bassist Gerry Dawson - a former Rhythm & Blues and Soul Boy who is now mellowing into a Cool Jazz and 'Anything that Grooves' Old Boy. Andy Badman, Lead Guitar & Lead Vocals - a former Blues Rocker who has toured Europe, UK and Ireland both with his own Blues Band and backing the well known US and Canadian Singers, Phil Guy & Jordan Patterson and also appearing on Stage & TV in the West Indies. Andy is now mellowing into a more relaxed Acoustic Guitar Music Man. And Finally The New Drummer Tony. Tony came out of retirement a few years ago, after spending the 70's with countless Local Bands, in the north & in the Reading areas, and in the late 70's and most of the 80's he spent touring, working with Bernie Torme and Twelfth Night amongst others. Now settled in Somerset Tony 'thumps the tubs' for the 'Grads'.
So what do you get when you mix Rhythm & Blues with Soul with Mellow Jazz with Blues with Classic 70's and 80's Rock with ............?
'I dunno'!!! 'Does anyone?'
You Get The Graduates playing Classic Rock with a little Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Rock n Roll.
Why?
Because that's what people wanna hear, we know!! - because we are one of the hardest working groups in the South West.
ROCK ON
also please check out:-
www.the-graduates.co.uk
www.myspace.com/theukgraduates
Forthcoming gigs (4 of 46 total): Sat 17th May: Westgate Inn, Taunton CANCELLED... Fri 30th May: Scally's, Weston-super-Mare... Sat 31st May: Private Function... Sun 1st Jun: Old Tavern, Bristol
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| Sat 17 May |  mobile »
| | The Graduates at Westgate Inn, Taunton CANCELLED - BAND/ARTIST RE-BOOKING |
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| Fri 30 May | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Scally's, Weston-super-Mare |
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| Sat 31 May | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Private Function |
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| Sun 1 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Old Tavern, Bristol 9pm |
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| Sat 7 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at The Half Moon, Stoke Sub Hamdon |
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| Sat 14 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at The Vintage, Wellington |
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| Fri 20 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Pen & Quill, Taunton 9.05pm |
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| Sat 21 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Private Function |
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| Fri 27 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at The Swan, Sherborne |
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| Sat 28 Jun | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Havana, Exeter 9pm - 11pm |
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| Fri 4 Jul | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Black Dog, Weymouth |
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| Sat 5 Jul | mobile »
| | The Graduates at Flying Horse, Taunton 9pm - 11pm |
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| 1. Gerry without the hat 2. Andy Badman 3. Warming up the Amps!! 5. Ready to do Battle 6. Frisky Fenders & Mr Ashdown at the Ready 10. The Lights are on us 12. New Kid In Town = Mr Ricky 13. Graduation Camp 14. Polperro British Legion Summer Storms 15. Gerry's Posse 16. It's only a bass!! 17. Tastes Good 18. Hoffy comes out 2 Play 19. Going for a wander 20. New Kid In Town = Mr Marshall 31. Mr Ashdown's Finest |
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| Previous Gigs / Events | |
The Graduates at Langport Football Club, Langport on Sat 10th May 08  write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at Fleur de Lys, Stoke Sub Hamdon on Fri 9th May 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at Greylake Inn, Greylake on Fri 2nd May 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at Royal British Legion, Polperro on Sat 26th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at The Farriers Arms, Bristol on Sun 20th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at Portishead Working Mens Club, Portishead on Sat 19th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at Havana, Exeter on Fri 18th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at The Weary Traveller, Cullompton on Sat 12th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at The Friendly Spirit, Bridgwater on Fri 11th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
| The Graduates at Flying Horse, Taunton on Sat 5th Apr 08 write a gig review for The Graduates » | |
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| Reviews | |
| Write a review for The Graduates » | |
 Classic Rock... and more The Volunteer Inn, Honiton on Sun 16th Jul 06 | |
 I saw the Graduates for the first time in Honiton. I had never seen the act, or any other act at this venue, until I found them on Lemonrock.
At my current age of pushing 40, their online description of classic rock, soul and rhythm and blues sounded right up my street and the delivery didn't disappoint. People think you can't get a big sound from only three musicians, but Cream managed it and so do the Graduates.
For this crowd, the rock stuff went down best, but they performed a fairly wide range of material - Queen, T.Rex, Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, mixed in with Wilson Pickett, Black Crowes, Eddie Cochran and more. There were some guitar heroics on display in songs by Hendrix and Santana, but without the pretentious posing you sometimes see from rock guitarists and perhaps that is their strength - the Graduates are not "just" a rock band, but have more strings to their bow and it might be interesting to see them in a different venue where they can open up their range a bit more.
The only disappointment was that there were a few too many gaps between songs to swap guitars, but they were kept reasonably short and didn't disturb the momentum too much. They certainly gave the Volunteer crowd what they wanted .... enough to be asked to do a third set. They will be back there in September, and so will I. | |
| A music fan, Sat 29th Jul 06 | |
 recommended The Phoenix Hotel, Chard on Thu 29th Jun 06 | |
 They are only three guys but what a large sound they make; playing classic after classic kept most of us on the floor for most of the gig. They played with a great deal of skill whilst also keeping the energy of the music - that bloke on guitar isn't bad either. I wish that more people had shown up but even without a full house the band kept the atmosphere and everyone that I know had a really great time. I can thoroughly recommend The Graduates and Chard to the world! | |
| A music fan, Fri 21st Jul 06 | |
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| Available Dates | |
Mon 12 May 08, Tue 13 May 08, Wed 14 May 08, Thu 15 May 08, Sat 17 May 08, Sun 18 May 08, Mon 19 May 08, Tue 20 May 08, Wed 21 May 08, Sun 25 May 08 (showing 10 of 167 available dates)
 View complete diary 2008 » diary 2009 » | |
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| Blog | |
[Sun 30th Dec 07] HI There pep's.
Well what a ... HI There pep's.
Well what a year, goodbye 2007!! We lost our long standing drummer John. We've had the drummers' seat admirably covered by Steve, Ryan and Tony since August which has meant that we have still managed to do every gig that we had booked! Thanks Guys you've all been brilliant. We've sold lots of copies of our 1st CD and we've done a mini tour of Cornwall. Gerry bought another Bass and Andy bought another Carpet!!! So what have we done about a new drummer? Tony's old band finishes at the end of 2007 and he has expressed a wish to join The Graduates - mad mad fool!!!! Tony 1st helped out The Grad's in 2005, just before John joined the band, when a previous drummer was not available. So it's sort of gone around in a circle.
Tony has recently issued the following press release and CV:-
Tony Thistlethwaite has been around the music scene since he was knee high to a Bass Drum, always banging and tapping on various things around the family home including nicking his mothers knitting needles to use as drumsticks! Finally relenting, at 11 years old, his parents bought him an old kit to learn on, thinking it's 'only a phase he's going through'.
7 years later TT bought his first 'proper kit from a catalogue; an Olympic by Premier kit. He was so impressed he bought another soon after, merging the two to make a double kit like some of his hero's Keith Moon, Cozy Powell, Ian Paice, Mick Tucker, John Bonham and Neil Peart.
Aged 21 Tony moved from his home town of Ulverston, Cumbria to Morecambe Lancs where he played with rock band 'Haven' although this only lasted a year before moving to Reading Berks taking with him his new Premier Concert Kit that had replaced the two Olympics.
During this period TT was gigging with various local bands and found work with a local PA company (Skan Hire) and was partnered with the touring sound engineer - the legendary Grizzly! (Those of you reading, if you know him, know why he has that nickname!)
While working for Skan as driver/monmix man he met up with Prog Rock band 12th Night, he stayed with the band as stage right drum/guitar tech for 8 years before committing the mortal sin - he sold up, stopped playing and touring and moved to Taunton, settled down, got married and raised a family.
However the Demon Drummer still had the itch, and in early 2003 after a conversation with Gerry (so it's MY fault!!) the mother of all Drum kits was purchased and rehabilitation i.e. months of practise, was put in place.
Early 2004 Tony had formed Roadhouse Revisited with Rick Whitmore and Jon Garbelletto with Gerry helping out on Bass.
Gerry went on to form The Graduates (to save my bloody ears!!!!) and Roadhouse carried on with a changing bass player line up, gigging constantly 'til the end of 07.
Tony, Rick & Jon felt Roadhouse had gone as far as possible, and during yet another chat with Gerry (My fault again!!), TT expressed a wish to be considered for the vacant Drum Seat in The Graduates.
And Tony finishes his CV with the sentence "Here I am, Ready to Graduate and Rock yer socks off."
Andy and I enjoyed playing with Tony a few years ago, but I was a little concerned over the size of his massive drum kit and at how loud he played it!! But Tony took this on board and went out and bought a second hand 4 piece 70's Ludwig kit and played his 1st gig this year as a dep with the 'Grads' a changed man! - well quieter, anyway.
So Happy New Year Everyone thanks for all the support Past, Present & Future.
Gerry The Hat |  [Mon 5th Mar 07] Over a year since I last poste... Over a year since I last posted anything! - and what a busy year. About 80 gigs, recorded our 1st CD, which is due to be released in the next two weeks, and this time last year I was the only married man in the band and by the end of the month we will all be married men. As I said a busy year. What else has happened? Well not a lot really we've lost our hats, we all got fed up with silly little girls stealing them! We got a page on my space, have a look and become a friend, if you want, it's @ myspace.com/theukgraduates. We've had some fantastic gigs this last year and we feel the band is going from strength to strength. DON'T FORGET THE CD WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE FOR THE BARGAIN PRICE OF £7.99. It's title is HAVIN' A CHRISTMAS BALL, and it is a live recording made of the band last Christmas. 13 tracks of our versions of some cracking good tunes. It's a 'Warts and all' recording, with no overdubs, re-recording or tarting up. IT IS US AS WE ARE, AS WE SING, PLAY AND MOVE ABOUT!!! Buy It and hear for yourself what we are about. |  [Tue 31st Jan 06] Hi De Hi Campers, Welcome to t... Hi De Hi Campers, Welcome to the World of the Graduates - 2006 I think is going to be our year, 2005 saw the evolution and transformation of The Graduates take place with the band downsizing to a 3 piece in September. In August we started to test the market with our brand of Classic Rock, Soul, Rhythm & Blues under the name of 3rd Time Lucky. We found that it worked better for us than the '60's & 70's pop we were doing as a 5 piece, so then there were three and The Graduates were reborn. (Postgraduates maybe!) Everywhere we played we were met with top reaction, and we started to get return bookings everytime we played. So the diary filled very quickly and we rocked. 2006 started with a bit of a panic, 3 days before Friday 13th Jan (it had to be), as we looked forward to our first gig of the year at the Fleur de Lys Stoke Sub Hambdon. Andy (Lead Guitar/Lead Vocals) got rushed into hospital with Hamster cheeks, it was touch and go whether he would be allowed back on the wheel in time for the gig. John & I discussed snatching him back in a midnight raid, but no need he got better (almost) really quick sand we done the gig (see photo) and the next night as well just to make sure he really was recovered. With so many gigs already in the diary and more coming in all the time 'The Grad's' could well become one the hardest working bands in the area this year. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us in the past and please if you came to us when we were 5 we would love to see you come back and see us now. I'd especially like to thank the rest of the band, staff and customers of The Old Market for making last Sunday's gig, one of my most enjoyable ever, it was awesome - Thanks folks. | |
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| CDs | |
 | | Havin' A Christmas Ball - Live, Raw & Slightly Undercooked
1. Route 66 (B Troup)
2. Sweet Home Alabama (Rossington/ Van Zant/ King)
3. I'm A Hog For You (Lieber/Stoller)
4. California Man (R Wood)
5. Get It On (M Bolan)
6. 20th Century Boy (M Bolan)
7. Jumpin' Jack Flash (Jagger/Richards)
8. Stone Free (J Hendrix)
9. Purple Haze (J Hendrix)
10. Move It On Over (H Williams)
11. Wooly Bully (D Samudio)
12. C'mon Ev'rybody (E Cocharan/J Caphart)
13. Rockin' In The Free World (N Young) |
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| Links | |
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| This band/artist page is jointly maintained by Lemonrock and Gerard. If this is not you, but this page represents you or your band/artist, join Lemonrock and we'll swap ownership of this page over to you to update! |
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| Page last updated 30 April 08, gig/event details last updated 10 May 08. |
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| Page first created on Lemonrock 27 July 05. |  |
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