The Wag in Concert

Photo by John Posada

2015 London Tour – by Brian

11401472_10152999519554010_7179282031671624612_n

I have always dreamed of having a band and going on tour. I’ve tried to put things together in the past, but it never really worked out. Sometime last year, we made a fan in England who really liked our music. It is amazing what the internet can do for you! Anyway, she really liked what she heard and told us that she was going to save up money to come see us in America one day. It made me start thinking about the whole “tour dream” that I have always had. Since the retirement of our original guitarist and the sudden passing of our original drummer, our band lineup has changed. I started to run the idea of doing a tour by my new fellow bandmates and they were very interested in doing it. This was it! This is the first opportunity that I have ever had to tour with our band. So after making a short list of places to tour, we came up with London as our destination. Little did our new fan from England know – we were bringing the band to her! The optimism and enthusiasm of my bandmates truly warmed my heart. This was destined to be the trip of a lifetime! And it was.

11401289_10152999519079010_1589852629510205215_n

On day one of our trip, we all found ourselves at Don’s house as he was in the process of last-minute packing. He had everything all over the place – I should have taken a picture. After we got that sorted, our good buddy Jake Lee accompanied us to the airport. He would then be the guy to pick us up from the airport when our tour was finished. Thanks, Jake! The Virgin Atlantic plane was the coolest thing ever. The interior looked like a fancy music club! The purple lights and large headroom was something that I’ve never seen before on a plane. Even though it was pretty late, it was difficult to fall asleep because of the excitement of our trip and of course, it is always hard to sleep on planes. We landed in Heathrow and began our big trip in London by being picked up by a car service that would bring us to our hotel. I was the last one to get into the car, so the band saved the front seat for me because of my height. Of course, I went to get in the driver’s seat (according to the US cars) and the driver asked me if I would be driving today. Face palm.

Our hotel wasn’t the best but we all got to stay together in one room. It was just like how I imagined touring would be for a band on a budget! The best part was that we all got along so well. Once we figured out who took longest to get ready, we came up with a schedule that worked out great. We even had a phone/camera charging schedule.

I tried to document our trip each time we were in a place that had wifi. It was fun making the little posts on Facebook and getting responses from back home and seeing posts from people that were cheering us on.

22801_10152997859849010_5523260530882657602_n
Our first day was awesome! We got to eat at a cool little place called VX and played our first gig in London at Dirty Dicks (the oldest operating pub in London). Our friends from England came to see us, along with a bunch of new friends including Dawn (who became our fan online and helped to spark this entire tour). We were even joined on stage by Norda Mullen! (She is the flautist for The Moody Blues). Another new friend, Ashleigh, drove us back to the hotel after the gig.

11401528_10152999519084010_2643965005476371502_n ladies
After a successful and exciting first gig, we spent the next day at Stonehenge! This site is a personal favorite of mine. It was another fantastic day. Don and Arielle kept singing the Spinal Tap song. It was quite funny!

1425609_10204586185594495_3352496620953781845_n 11401277_10152999520004010_6586678901200698532_n
Our 3rd day consisted of watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, eating at Mildred’s (the top vegan place in London) courtesy of our dear friend Pastor Matt and then performing at Karamel Restaurant in the evening. The staff at Karamel were so nice to us and they had awesome vegan food for us too! The place had such a great vibe. Yet another fun gig to play!

11110568_10152999520229010_4223579924958218620_n
We spent the next day at one of King Henry VIII’s many castles: Hampton Court Palace! A perfect day for sightseeing and then dinner with our friends at 222 (the second best vegan restaurant in London).

11377188_10204561843465957_8691125391567542808_n abbeyroad
Day 5 started out with a visit to Abbey Road! Yes, we took the Beatle picture and crossed at the crosswalk. Later on, we went on a ride in The London Eye! We topped off the night with our 3rd gig of the tour at a place called Rise 46. It was another cool venue with a great vibe. We were very fortunate to meet up with fans and friends at all of our shows and Rise 46 was no exception. At this club, a friend of ours from New Zealand (Marian) came to see us!

1907738_10204566109612608_8105796868596091832_n jonjean
On day six of our tour, we visited the Tower of London. We made a new band rule that day. Band rule number 1: Don’t lose Donnie. That became an important rule because we lost him in the Tower for about half an hour. After finding Don and eating lunch, we made our way to our fourth and final show of our tour to a place called The Cool Cats Cafe. This place was a wonderful venue that had tasty food and a most generous staff. Somehow, I lit my menu on fire while I was deciding what to order. I guess that was the rock and roll mayhem portion of our tour. Although we almost didn’t make it back to the hotel because we missed the last train, our good fortune followed us and one more unexpected train came to take us to our hotel.

11401791_10152999519639010_4585000179677620867_o 11390013_10152999521289010_4216604168641070077_n
The next day, we headed home from our London adventure! Our trip consisted of great gigs, great sights to see, great food and great friends. Who could ask for anything more?

ariellepic4
Next stop: San Diego!



Official Wag Announcement

Before our drummer, Brian Mowery, passed away, we began to record a new album.  To honor him and the work that he started with us, we have decided to finish this record.  We were very fortunate to have recorded Brian’s drum tracks on a few of the new songs.  We have assembled a collection of songs for this album that meant something to Brian.  He either played on them, wrote the drum parts, co-wrote the songs or wrote the song entirely.  This is a very important album to us as well as an emotional one to make.  Each time we go into our home studio and see Brian’s drums or add to the tracks that he recorded, we can’t help but to get emotional.  But it also gives us the strength that we need to continue because it reminds us that Brian put himself into our music and into these recordings.  Our new CD will be completed by and released on Brian’s birthday, this September 28th. It feels like this would be the perfect birthday gift for Brian.  We have decided to have our CD release party at the venue that has been our musical home over the years – Espresso Joe’s.  We hope that you will join us and help us celebrate the life of our friend, brother & drummer, and the music that he helped create for 14 years.

product-continuum


The Wag’s TV gig will be broadcast on Cablevision’s Channel 21 on 5/8/13 at 7:30 pm!

the-wag

Check out the Wag’s appearance on “Horses Sing None of It” on May 8th!  All you have to do is tune in to Channel 21 on Cablevision (Morristown, NJ area) at 7:30 pm!  If you don’t have Cablevision, do not fret.  We will be posting clips of the show on YouTube and on our website!



The Wag’s TV Recording!

Just got home from recording an episode of “Horses Sing None of It”, a musical variety/interview show on Channel 21 on Cablevision.  It will also be broadcast on the internet.  We’ll let you know the details as soon as we get them.  It’s very exciting to be back on TV again!  The last time we were on TV was during an episode of “Jersey Couture” where they were filming the Cinderella’s Ball at the PNC Arts Center.  They were donating the dresses, and we were donating the music.  I made a brief appearance in the back of one of the scenes while the girls were fixing their dresses.  It was my shining moment!

Tonight was much different – we were joined by our two wonderful friends, Don Lee & Arielle Strauss!  They are so talented and did such a great job.  Arielle even came all the way from Bronxville to help us out tonight!

arielle

We performed “Often”, “Setting Sun”, Paper Cup”, “Your Eyes”, “I Still Love You” and part of “Ain’t Nobody”.  We had such a good time!  Can’t wait for you to see it!


The Wag is nominated for Top Band & Brian Mowery is nominated for Top Instrumentalist!

The Wag is extremely honored to be nominated for Top Band by the Jersey Acoustic Music Awards!  We are also extremely proud that our drummer, Brian Mowery, is nominated for Top Instrumentalist! Brian was a very talented musician and was able to play many instruments.  He was truly one of a kind and we miss him dearly.  We can’t even begin to tell you how much this nomination means to us.  Please support local music and visit the link below to learn more about the musicians in our area and to cast your vote.  Each act/musician has a link to their individual pages.  Thank you for your support!

jama

http://www.jamawards.org



Graeme Edge rocks!!

It was an absolute thrill to speak with Graeme Edge of The Moody Blues – he graciously agreed to be a special guest on our podcast, & it was so much fun I can’t even stand it!! 😀 If you haven’t listened to it yet, do yourself a favour & start listening. You’ll be crying with laughter, just like I am every time I listen! LOL

The Moody Blues are my favourite band, so you can imagine how over the moon I am about being able to chat with Graeme.  What a treat!!