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Our Regular Entertainers

At the Pleasure Boat we specialise in booking local talent for your entertainment! Our regulars include those listed below, but we from time to time we add to the mix booking musicians from as far afield as Great Yarmouth.

The Muddy Broad Blues Band

Through spring and autumn in 2012 the long suffering Sunday regulars at the Pleasure Boat were forced to listen to the birth of a new band. At first we couldn't honestly say that the band was up to public

The Muddy Broad Blues Band
L to R: Greg, Peter, Dan, Dave, Glenn

performance, then the band lost key members and has gone through a number of line-up changes. During these changes the audience began to offer gentle applause after most numbers and the band has found a regular slot at the Pleasure Boat.

The current line-up has Glenn taking most of the lead vocals and switching from bass to guitar, allowing one of the two new members, Peter, to take over on bass. Greg keeps his role on slide guitar and harmonica but can now also be found playing conventional guitar on some numbers. Dave stays on drums, while another new man, Dan, plays a mean rhythm guitar.

The repertoire continues to evolve and isn't exclusively blues. Inspirations include the inevitable Elmore James, Muddy Waters and B.B. King, along with English players such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Chris Rea. But you'll also find numbers from some less well known English bands in an MBBB set. These include the Mean Red Spiders and Nine Below Zero.

The Proper Jobbies

The Proper Jobbies are a motley collection of locals who play an assortment of instruments including the home made and obscure.

The Proper Jobbies

If the audience doesn't seem to know the words Glenn will distribute song sheets. The Proper Jobbies repertoire is derived from anything from Music Hall to traditional rounds and folk songs and even modern pop songs.

Usually, the evening is led by Adrian on his accordion. The band is often billed as "The Ultimate Good Time Band" and once claimed to be seeking the ideal replacement for the traditional tea chest bass.

Exceptions to this general format for the night will be solos from Archie, on mandolin, or Bodhran. He's a real wizard with the second of these instruments, the traditional Irish hand drum.

Most nights will end in full crowd pleaser mode. For the Proper Jobbies that means Glenn insisting on no "Nah, nahs" until the right moment in "Hey Jude" or Adrian leading "The Music Man" in which the entire audience is required to act out the playing of musical instruments in an ever-extending chorus. The idea is to get as many in as instruments possible before someone sings out "I can play the Archers", when everyone sings "La-di-dah" to the radio soap opera tune or, better still, "I can play the Dam Busters" when apart from singing the famous march tune you expect to see outstretched arms, fingers wrapped round round the eyes to look like pilot's goggles and much machine gun noise.