September 2022
Sue and Steve are very sad to report the passing of Hector Gilchrist, suddenly but peacefully whilst visiting a friend. Hector was a lovely friend and musical collaborator for many years and was one of the finest singers around, be it folk, jazz or anything else. He was a warm, kind, funny, caring, talented human being and it is hard to believe that we won't get to see and hear him and his beautiful, mellifluous voice again in person. Hector was a very popular solo performer and leaves a legacy of wonderful albums. He really enjoyed life, whether it was performing, motor biking or just having a chat over a pint or two – wherever we went he seemed to know people as he was a very gregarious person. He was a master of the Burns night and much in demand. The three of us got together in Soiree primarily to enjoy the music and craic and we had so much fun. It was always such a pleasure to hear Hector’s glorious voice and harmonies on so many occasions. There were times during our sometimes-chaotic rehearsals when we just couldn't stop laughing and he was always game for a prank to brighten up life! Above all though it was the music that mattered. Our thoughts are with his wife Shona and his family. Rest in Peace Hector – a life well sung.
October 2013
We will be Soireeing quite a lot over the next few months - please check out the gigs page for details. It's good to get back gigging after our hiatus and it would be really marvellous if you could come along to one or two of our gigs. We will be going as far North as Chesham in the summer, and revisiting a lot of our old favourite haunts, all lovely clubs run by lovely people. They all work very hard to keep their venues going and to keep music live, so please check out the rest of their offerings too.
We have a few more dates in the offing ('our people' talking to 'their people', riders, limos, that sort of stuff), so we'll let you know as and when.
We have also been busy working on a bunch of new songs too, by the likes of Clive Gregson, Ewen Carruthers, Mike Silver, John Prine, a couple of Disney Classics (Sue has a ukelele now), and revisiting a beautiful song from Sue's 'Voiceover' days (her group, not her job). We have also been polishing our signature 'jump'. And if enough of you come we may even attempt some crowd surfing! Backwards.
August 2013
We have set up a Soiree Facebook page! Please 'like' us. This is where we'll post news, photos and videos, and you can comment on them!
May 21st 2011
Our sincere thanks to all of you who came to our Daybreak fundraising gig on Saturday May 21st. Nearly £700 was raised, which is pretty good considering the challenging times we are in. Daybreak Respite Care is such a worthy cause and they would dearly like to open two days a week. Each place costs £30 per day so this will really help.
We really enjoyed ourselves and the acoustics of that lovely church are magnificent. The beer was excellent too! Our sincere thanks go to Jon Bental for a great support spot and for organising the gig along with his team, to Brian Willoughby for playing with us and contributing some absolutely fantastic guitar pyrotechnics, to Tony Renfrey for squeezing such a sweet sound out of the Ram Club's PA, to Pat Dyos for guesting with his 'Big One' and most of all to YOU for coming - we'd have felt pretty sad if you hadn't!
Here is a little snippet of the evening: http://youtu.be/U4PrOQgwsCw
February 26th 2010
Thanks to everyone who came to support us at St. Peter's Church in Staines last Saturday. There was a great atmosphere and we really enjoyed ourselves. The total amount raised for Daybreak and the Church was £1245, which is fantastic. We hope to do a couple more things in this superb venue later on in the year. We are very grateful to Matt Phillips for taking some nice videos (in HD too) and putting them on YouTube. You can have a look at http://www.youtube.com/user/musernameunavailable
August 2009 - New - Videos on YouTube!
Go to the video section of the gallery page to see some videos of us. We can accept no responsibility etc etc...
May 2008 - Hello to you all. Our big news is that our debut CD is at this very moment at the pressing plant, ready to be launched onto an unsuspecting public in the next few weeks. We are doing a couple of gigs to showcase the CD (and hopefully sell a few too). On Friday 13th June we are at the Ram Club at the Foley Arms in Claygate and then on Sunday 22nd June we are at the Twickenham Folk Club at the Cabbage Patch in Twickenham. We would love to see you there!
We recorded the CD at the studio of ex-Battlefield Band front man Alistair Russell during two long weekend sessions, and pronounce ourselves very pleased with the result and with ourselves too! Is that us? We've crammed 18 of our favourite tracks onto it, some of which you can hear on the CD page. By the way, Alistair is very easy to work with and has a small but highly equipped studio and the patience of Job. He doesn't just record big names, but people like us too! So if you've been thinking about doing a CD yourself, he will be happy to quote for a complete package, whether it's a demo, a small run CD for family and friends, or one to sell.
Alas, we couldn't fit all of our favourite songs onto the CD, but hopefully we'll do another - if we sell enough of this one!
Finally, if you would like to be kept informed about what we are up to or where we are playing, please email us. We won't pass your details on. If you'd like to book us, we'd love to hear from you too!