Trio goes from boys to men

	Vale Rockers The Jones Boys are due a telegram from the Queen after racking up more than a century of Gigs. The hard working trio made their 100th appearance at Alexandria pub The Laughing Fox recently, and staff and fans surprised the band with a commemorative CD and celebratory stickers to mark the occasion. Sid and Mick Jones (vocals & guitar) and bandmate Peter Shannon (Bass) have been together for around 35 years, and many of the punters who turned up for their debut Gigs still show up to see them run through country & western, classic rock tracks by big names like Dr Hook and even songs by new acts like McFly. The band got together in Bonhill, and though they now stay in Renton they see the whole of the Vale as their home stretch.		Mick said: ”We’ve played all sorts of places.  We started off as a five piece called New Pence and we were playing weddings & dances, but a couple of the boys dropped out and we just carried on. Then we started playing lounges.Because of the size of the places we didn’t need a drummer anyway, so we stayed together and it just went from there. The “Boys” love of music comes from an early age. Peter and Mick have been strumming away since they taught themselves guitar at age 14. When brother Sid’s love of Elvis and vocal talent were discovered, their fate was sealed. Mick agrees:” We just enjoy playing and we get good crowds. I can’t see us giving up any time soon.” But even elder statesmen have adoring mothers, and mrs Jones made it along to their 100th Gig to cheer them on alongside friends, family and fans. The next 100? As long as we are still enjoying playing, and there’s still an audience, who knows? (left to right: Mick, Sid, Peter)       change the look of your headlines and other text. The following is a list of some common styles and their uses. Body Text - Use this style for the regular text of an article. Byline - Use this style for the name of the author of an article. Byline Company - Use this style to type the author’s company. Sidebar Head - Use this style to type a second-level heading in a sidebar article. Sidebar Subhead - Use this style to type a third-level heading in a sidebar article. Sidebar Text - Use this style to type the text in a sidebar article. Sidebar Title - Use this style to type first-level headings in a sidebar article. Footer - Use this style to type the repeating text at the very bottom of each page. Heading1 - Use this style to create headlines for each article. Heading2 - Use this style to create section headings in an article. Jump To and Jump From - Use these styles to indicate that an article continues on another page. Mailing Address - Use this style in a mailing label to type the destination address. Postage - Use this style in a mailing label to type postage information. Return Address - Use this style in a mailing label to type your address. Picture Caption - Use this style to type a description of a picture or illustration. Subtitle - Use this style to type sub-headings in an article. Use PullQuote to excerpt text from the main text of a story to draw a reader’s attention to the page. See page 4 for an example.

 

The Centenary Gig

It’s not often we get surprised,

but…………….

	Sid and I had set the gear up for the night ahead, so we got a pint and sat down at one of the tables for a blether. (Over the years that’s become a sort of ritual for us wherever we play) So……We’re sitting at the table just nattering, and as the regulars were arriving it was “ Hello guys, howzit gaun”….”Och Aye, fine.     Howzyirsel?”  It’s funny that we didn’t notice that the background music was “different”. I said to Sid “Hey Sid, that’s one of the songs we play”.  “So it is” says Sid.  The same thing with the next song……and the next……and the next…..and the next. So you get the idea? We looked around us, but no-one else seemed to notice, and the background music went on playing our songs. Eventually we realized that something was happening. Sid jumped up and shouted …………….. “Right…whit’s going on here?” The place erupted with laughter. Aye…….. They were all in it!   That started a good bit of banter. ”We thought you guys could have a night off, so we just taped your songs”  that kept going until we started playing.   We did our first set, then took a break.		We were just getting ready to start the second set when one of the regulars asked if she could make a special announcement before we started. I can’t even remember what was actually said, but apparently tonight was our 100th gig in The Laughing Fox. It’s not often we get surprised, but this one really caught us out. Anyway, we had to troop up individually to be presented with a commemorative CD each and celebratory stickers. OK, it was a surprise…but a nice one.   You know what they say about “in retrospect”. We sat and thought about how we managed to get “caught out”. The song list was easy. The bar staff simply copied the songs we had been singing. As for the photos…..Someone is always taking photos, so nothing unusual there. However, a couple of weeks ago this couple asked if they could have a photo of us to send to relations abroad. Another guy said he was trying out a new digital camera and took our photo. As I said before, in retrospect the clues were all there, but we never expected a Centenery Gig. OK  it was a surprise, but a nice surprise. So thanks to the Staff & Customers of                The Laughing Fox.