When plans were being crafted for the 2011 London Christmas party a few of the Xoomworks team got together, under the stewardship of our own Office Manager Charlene (a.k.a Husky below), and hatched plans to form the house band for the evening.
First of all came the all important ‘band-name’. A poll was created on our Yammer site and after some early votes for ‘Xoomingtons’ and ‘Turkey bones and the Wild Dogs’ the ‘out and out’ winner was ‘Husky and the Boom Boys’. As we say at Xoomworks, the fact that two of the band David and Neil (being shown the ‘licks’ by Steve below) hadn’t played a live gig before, was ‘mere detail’. The band would often bring their kit into the Xoomworks office and few interesting sounds could be heard in the server room!!!
And so for eight weeks Charlene (lead vocals), David (drums), Neil (guitar) joined Steve (lead guitar), Vai (Backing Vocals) and Wes (Bass) for weekly band practice to perfect the art of classics such as ‘Song 2’, ‘Sweet Dreams’, ‘ET’, ‘Garbage Truck’ and ‘Rollin in the Deep’.
David plays drums for Xoomworks
It’s fair to say that Charlene is a perfectionist as you can see from her notes from one of the first rehearsals:
I don’t wanna say too much, but I will say:
David Norris needs to play more Rock Band3….not on easy.
Neil needs to work on his rock kicks.
Steve needs more practice playing the guitar with his mouth.
Vai really needs to work on her tambourine playing.
and I need to work on my moon walk.
So we should be ready for the Xmas party.smile So on to the Xmas Party night and what turned out to be a stellar performance from the guys:
Here’s the thoughts of Steve (himself a god-like guitarist with Polaroyd) on what it was like to mentor the new blood and be part of the Xoomworks band.
“When I joined Xoomworks 6 months ago, I didn’t honestly picture myself on a stage, playing guitar to an Adele song (this was never once mentioned in the interview Nic/Anthony !!) – whilst the office manager belted out such classics as Sweet Dreams, ET and Garbage Truck !! I can honestly say that Xoomworks is the best and most vibrant place I have ever worked – There is such an incredible and tangible energy, creativity and enthusiasm amongst everyone here – I feel privileged to be part of it. This has never been more evident to me than the work the guys put in over the past few weeks to get this band together, learn the songs and have the testicular fortitude to get on stage and play them in front of our friends and colleagues !! A truly great performance from Wes, Charlene – but especially to the 3 guys who have not been playing long, never played in a band before and had a truly massive learning curve to tackle – Vai, David and Neil were awesome and for that I salute you !!”
Neil: “Amazing experience playing with such seasoned musicions as Steve, Wes and Charl. Learning curve was massive and what patient, encouraging amazing people they were. It was an absolute pleasure to jam with those guys and to see Norris grow with every rehearsal was awesome. An experience Norris, Vai and I will never forget. I for one will carry on gigging.” Hopefully Husky & the Boom Boys won’t be one gig wonders as there is already talk of a Cluj gig in 2012!!!!! Quotes from people who ‘were there’ at this classic first gig: “Husky & The Boom Boys were phenomenal last night!” Simon “Hey Charlene, I am still suffering- yes, WHAT A PARTY. I would like to add my thanks for your part in it all – The band and the venue were awesome.” Martin “What an absolutely epic performance by Husky> and her Boom Boys” The Xmas parties at both Cluj and London were both a riotous success this year.
When plans were being crafted for the 2011 London Christmas party a few of the Xoomworks team got together, under the stewardship of our own Office Manager Charlene (a.k.a Husky below), and hatched plans to form the house band for the evening.
First of all came the all important ‘band-name’. A poll was created on our Yammer site and after some early votes for ‘Xoomingtons’ and ‘Turkey bones and the Wild Dogs’ the ‘out and out’ winner was ‘Husky and the Boom Boys’. As we say at Xoomworks, the fact that two of the band David and Neil (being shown the ‘licks’ by Steve below) hadn’t played a live gig before, was ‘mere detail’. The band would often bring their kit into the Xoomworks office and few interesting sounds could be heard in the server room!!!
And so for eight weeks Charlene (lead vocals), David (drums), Neil (guitar) joined Steve (lead guitar), Vai (Backing Vocals) and Wes (Bass) for weekly band practice to perfect the art of classics such as ‘Song 2’, ‘Sweet Dreams’, ‘ET’, ‘Garbage Truck’ and ‘Rollin in the Deep’.
It’s fair to say that Charlene is a perfectionist as you can see from her notes from one of the first rehearsals:
So we should be ready for the Xmas party.smile So on to the Xmas Party night and what turned out to be a stellar performance from the guys:
Here’s the thoughts of Steve (himself a god-like guitarist with Polaroyd) on what it was like to mentor the new blood and be part of the Xoomworks band.
“When I joined Xoomworks 6 months ago, I didn’t honestly picture myself on a stage, playing guitar to an Adele song (this was never once mentioned in the interview Nic/Anthony !!) – whilst the office manager belted out such classics as Sweet Dreams, ET and Garbage Truck !! I can honestly say that Xoomworks is the best and most vibrant place I have ever worked – There is such an incredible and tangible energy, creativity and enthusiasm amongst everyone here – I feel privileged to be part of it. This has never been more evident to me than the work the guys put in over the past few weeks to get this band together, learn the songs and have the testicular fortitude to get on stage and play them in front of our friends and colleagues !! A truly great performance from Wes, Charlene – but especially to the 3 guys who have not been playing long, never played in a band before and had a truly massive learning curve to tackle – Vai, David and Neil were awesome and for that I salute you !!”
Neil: “Amazing experience playing with such seasoned musicions as Steve, Wes and Charl. Learning curve was massive and what patient, encouraging amazing people they were. It was an absolute pleasure to jam with those guys and to see Norris grow with every rehearsal was awesome. An experience Norris, Vai and I will never forget. I for one will carry on gigging.” Hopefully Husky & the Boom Boys won’t be one gig wonders as there is already talk of a Cluj gig in 2012!!!!! Quotes from people who ‘were there’ at this classic first gig: “Husky & The Boom Boys were phenomenal last night!” Simon “Hey Charlene, I am still suffering- yes, WHAT A PARTY. I would like to add my thanks for your part in it all – The band and the venue were awesome.” Martin “What an absolutely epic performance by Husky> and her Boom Boys” The Xmas parties at both Cluj and London were both a riotous success this year.