Accidental Love by Sterry Cartoons
Valentines day is not my favourite day of the year, but it is a nice marker on the way to pancake day and Easter (cue unexplained tonnes of chocolate).
Available on Cards and all sorts of things here.
This cartoon is available on t-shirts, mugs, cushions and other gifts from the Sterry Cartoons Shop.
Silly Methods of Musical Transport:
Paddling to a gig in a fibreglass double bass. Apparently someone used to make fibreglass double basses in Salcombe, and they were perfectly fine if you used the body of the bass as a boat.
Walking back from a gig with a very, very heavy keyboard because me and H had missed the last bus home and the taxi companies weren’t answering!
I have played a few jazz gigs on a ferry. We had to connect the keyboard up to a car battery for power and it was strange playing at any tempo that didn’t match the whirring of the engine, but it worked.
I’ve not been on here for a while, but while I’ve been away, some of my favourite bands have been very busy! I’ll be telling you about a few of these bands over the next few weeks, but the first band I’d like to give a big shoutout to is Dubclass!
WHY I LOVE DUBCLASS
Dubclass are an energetic Space Reggae band from the deep dark South West!
Transporting you to a world of relaxed sci-fi reggae madness, the band were united by their mutual love of Dub and have a stomping 6-piece line up that includes guitars, flutes, keys, drums, bass, and vocals.
I’ve seen them at festivals, parties and local pub gigs an each time the Dubclass have created an amazing, immersive atmosphere that’s just as suitable for wild dancing as it is for chilling with friends in a field on a beautiful sunny day.
NEXT GIG: FREEDOM FIELDS FESTIVAL, PLYMOUTH
Dubclass will be headlining Freedom Fields Festival, Plymouth on Sunday 29th May.
The festival is FREE, so I highly recommend you get down there and get a taste of one of the hottest bands in Plymouth!
For a full list of gigs go to http://www.dubclass.co.uk/
WHERE CAN I GET THEIR ALBUM?
Reap What You Sow is available for download on Amazon and iTunes.
CDs are available at their gigs and (I believe) at The Nowhere Inn, Plymouth.
The Dartmouth Chronicle printed news about our performance at Dartmouth Football Club at 8:45pm tonight (Saturday 19th October)!
The article reads:
Rock on South Hams Newspapers.
The eight strong combo Ansa Back which boasts one South Hams newspaper reporter, a photographer and a production wizard, will be in concert at Dartmouth football club tomorrow.
The band, which has a repertoire spanning more than 20 years of rock classics, included reporter Amy McSweeny on vocals, photographer Greg Taylor on lead guitar and production expert Bryan Roberts on rhythm guitar.
With them will be the rest of the line up – father and daughter team Joe Sterry on sax and Hannah Sterry on flute and backing vocals and Paul Adams, also on sax, Clare Hannaford on drums and Wayne Neil on bass guitar.
The music kicks off at 8.45pm.
Lead singer, Amy McSweeny said: ‘It is our first gig in Dartmouth and we’re really excited to be performing there. Our music covers pretty much everything and hopefully we shall get people up and dancing and having a good time.’
My latest artwork hasn’t had anything to do with Sterry Cartoons. Most recently I’ve been designing this logo for Hamer & Isaacs gypsy swing band. The band have had a number of successes in the South West and London, with performances at Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow and upcoming performance at The Royal Albert Hall on March 8th (see their shows page for more information).
Don’t let me carry on though – see for yourselves! Here’s a video from one of their performances at Plymouth Jazz Club!
Hamer & Isaacs play volcanic, swinging gypsy jazz. Whilst portraying the influence of Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France, the unique addition of Rosie Corlett’s soaring, flaming vocals is guaranteed to turn the thermostat up a notch.
Let me know what you think, and if you like the music, feel free to head over to the Hamer & Isaacs website for more!
**EDIT**
As of 2015, Hamer & Isaacs has morphed in to two separate groups:
Both groups can still be found playing in venues around the South West.
My ambition, above anything else is to make a living from things that make people smile. It’s why I love music, cartoons, comedy – other people being happy and sharing just a single little moment brings me more happiness than anything else and if I can’t create and share experiences and laughter with other people then I don’t really know what my life is for.
I expect lots of people feel like this but just don’t know how to get to the point where they’re spending the majority of the time doing the thing they love and… that’s ok! I have no idea what I’m doing, but while I’m still in education I’m going to spend my time learning as much as I can about the subjects I love, taking action in testing new ideas, creating new products, promoting myself and aiming high. I hope that if you have similar dreams you can do the same. 🙂
Here are a few of my favourite t-shirt designs so far – you might have seen them before, but I hope they give you a giggle!
 Cute Baby Sheep Tee by Sterry Cartoons |
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Follow Sterry Cartoons on: Facebook / Google+ / Twitter / Tumblr
All designs ©Sterry Cartoons 2012. All rights reserved.
If you’d like to license any of the above images, contact me via hannah@hannahsterry.com to discuss details.
LIVE JAZZ tonight at the Mill Club, Kingsbridge from ‘The John Sterry Trio’ (aka. The Sterrys).
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Tonight I’m playing with The Sterrys Jazz Trio to raise money for The Poppy Appeal! I’ve played there once before and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I’m hoping that this time will be the same.
This is the best week I’ve had in such a long time! Mainly because lots of interesting things are happening:
Monday – Lovely walk around Mount Edgcumbe and Kingsand with great company (the image above was taken from the Amphitheatre woods at Mount Edgcumbe).
Tuesday – Meeting people, helping out and my first experience of attempting to play harmonium.
Wednesday (today) – Caught up with Laura and Charlotte from the The Carrivick Sisters (a brilliant folk/bluegrass duo), great flute lesson this afternoon (I have an exam next week!) and this evening I’ll be going to Ben Carr’s Blues Night at The Royal Oak in Malborough (I’ll be bringing my flute, but have no idea who I’ll be playing music with – it’s great fun)!
Thursday – Going to see Enter Shikari in Plymouth (and might see some other nice people along the way)!
Friday – Work and hopefully catching up with a wonderful friend!
Saturday – Going to see Hamer & Issacs gypsy swing band play at The Hermitage Inn in Kingsbridge with some lovely people!
Basically, it’s an amazing week (I’ll try to get some decent photos of all of these things)! If you’re free to come to the Royal Oak this evening, or The Hermitage on Saturday (or both), it’ll be great to see you there!
On Wednesday 25th Jan, there was a brilliant session at the Royal Oak.
About a week before, my dad (Joe) and I had been asked we’d like to come and join in with some blues with Ben Carr and a few guest musicians. Neither of us knew exactly how it would work and we’d had no idea what we were going to play – just that it started at 8pm and that it’d probably be a lot of fun.
Ben Carr played his blues set first, with brother Tom Carr on double bass. Ben is an excellent guitarist and manages to organise things like this so quickly – I’m not sure that anyone else would be able to do it!
Next, Tez Locke played a set of completely original works and Ben asked if Doug “Big Toe” Smith and I would join in . Tez was the only one who’d played the songs before, but I joined in with improvised flute fills and harmonies and generally had a good time. People seemed to think we’d been playing together for ages, so it must have sounded fairly good, and we all really enjoyed it.
The last set was made up of three the musicians from Hamer and Isaacs gypsy swing band (Howard, Julian and Rosie) and my dad (Joe) joined them on saxophone with fills, harmonies and improvisations. They were amazing – Rosie has a stunning voice which suited the blues/swing style perfectly and meshed really well with the guitar and bass.
The evening ended with everyone joining in for the last blues and lots of chatting! The atmosphere was just so relaxed and appreciative that I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t want to play there again.
I’ll let you know when there’s another one!
H xxx
Hannah Sterry 