January to March the band start the year back at the Talking Heads for the last time before it moves from its famous location, once again for the Annual Bikers Bash in aid of Dreamflight.
A handful of gigs help consolidate the Boys Club version of the band before another appearance at the Barrington Theatre: this time supporting Bruce Foxton’s From The Jam. A very different affair than the Quo gig but still a great venue with a terrific audience. Took a while to get our hearing back after watching From The Jam though! Our regular dep Neil joins us as he is a huge Jam fan and it gives him the same thrill to support them that the others got at Quo.
We also record album #4 “Undaunted” at the same studio and with the same format as last time. We are joined by JC on harmonica as the band has taken a decidedly blues twist since Claire left.
April Steve leaves the band to play in other bands and return to his first love of keyboards. Dave Hitchins steps in for a while but this is short lived as he has struggled with health issues during his fleeting time with us. However, he comes away from this a great friend of the band and occasionally will step into dep when we have a bass emergency.
May and June we are joined on bass by Lea Truckle, which is a surprise as he has just won Best Guitarist at the previous year’s Salisbury Music Awards. With this line up we do a few gigs including Amesbury Carnival and a friend’s wedding.
July sees us play a couple of outside gigs in the sunshine which at the time are tremendous but turn out to be very sad.
This is the last Durrington Rec gig organised by John Mills as he passes shortly after. John was a huge loss to us as he was a member of the band which came before Break Cover as well as joining us at the Hootenanny gigs and just being one of the nicest human beings you could ever meet. RIP John you are remembered fondly and hugely missed.
August also sees us play at Music in the Park in Elizabeth Gardens on one of the hottest days of the year and is a hugely enjoyable affair. But sadly, it’s the last time we are joined by the spouse of a former member who passes in early August. This comes completely out of the blue and is a huge shock to all of us. We do what we do to bring some happiness into the world but it cannot touch those affected by mental health issues and we should all do more to help those in trouble.
August and it’s time to go back to the tried and tested formula of having both a male and female singer in the band so it is to great fanfare that we announce Jem joining the band to the world at the New Inn Summer Music Festival in Amesbury.
September to December with the line-up complete now with Lea and Jem we play a collection of gigs including the Odiham Live Music Club, our friend’s wake, another wedding, Quods (obviously)…
…the Salisbury Live Roadshow and the New Inn in fancy dress, Cosy Club with Dave on bass and Lea covering on guitar as, yes, you guessed it, Terry was away again…
…the Salisbury Christmas Market in the freezing cold and a surprisingly brilliant gig in the pouring rain at the Market Square the Sunday before Christmas.
We even managed to squeeze one last Hootenanny in which was the last time many of us get to see John Mills before he passed. It was good to hear John play in the band with, what turned out to be, quite a collection of bass players. Also, Lea decides that the Salisbury Market Square is to be his last gig with us as he has other musical projects he wants to work with. He was briefly back on guitar playing in Solarbird although he occasionally pops back with his instrument in hand to dep for someone who may be away.
