{"id":957,"date":"2011-01-13T22:02:28","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T22:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/francis-dunnery-dwayne-margarets-house-alwoodley-leeds-181210\/"},"modified":"2013-08-13T18:45:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T18:45:24","slug":"francis-dunnery-dwayne-margarets-house-alwoodley-leeds-181210","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2011\/01\/13\/francis-dunnery-dwayne-margarets-house-alwoodley-leeds-181210\/","title":{"rendered":"Francis Dunnery &#8211; Dwayne + Margarets House, Alwoodley, Leeds 18\/12\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"<style><!--\n@font-face {   font-family: \"Cambria\"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: \"Times New Roman\"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }\n--><\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"image956\" alt=\"Francis dunnery home gig\" src=\"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/fdcover.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">A few years ago Our Dave and Dwayne (who record as <a title=\"NSDivide\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nsdivide.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">North South Divide<\/a>) took me to see Francis Dunnery. I was initially put off by the fact that he was the lead singer of crap 80&#8217;s band (my words) &#8216;<a title=\"It Bites\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/It_Bites\" target=\"_blank\">It Bites<\/a>&#8216;. <a title=\"Calling\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=snu-2XyKRh8&amp;feature=related\" target=\"_blank\">Calling all the heroes<\/a> was never on my turntable! As it turned out he was nothing like the bleached blonde plastic pop star I&#8217;d imagined &#8211; he was a ferocious character, brilliant guitar player and never short of something to say. He threw a woman out of the gig for smoking at the front&#8230;..you were allowed in those days, but she apparently blew the smoke up at him on purpose which he took offence to&#8230;..he&#8217;s not to be messed with!<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">At that gig he announced that he was taking a break from music go to the states and do a degree in Psychology (or something like that) and that&#8217;s the last I heard of him until Dwayne contacted me to say he was having Francis round to his house to do a gig. For a few years now (6 I think he said) Francis has been all over the world playing in fan&#8217;s houses. Dave and Dwayne had been to one in York some time ago and Dwayne being such a fan had asked for one at his place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"image954\" alt=\"Francis Dunnery\" src=\"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/franciscover.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">You sign up <a title=\"FD Website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.francisdunnery.com\/main.html\" target=\"_blank\">at his website<\/a> and he&#8217;ll let you know. The word goes out and fans in the area can attend at the hosts discretion. There were about 20 of us in Dwayne and Margarets front room, a good mixture from die hard fans (Me: &#8220;I saw him about 3 years ago at the New Roscoe&#8221;\u009d Die hard fan &#8220;The New Roscoe, no, that was January 2003&#8243;\u009d) to those who&#8217;d never heard his stuff before, but had been told it would be a great night which it was!<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I wasn&#8217;t sure what to expect, but the whole experience was quite wonderful. Francis has, you won&#8217;t be surprised to hear, some house rules that you have to adhear to faithfully (no alcohol allowed before or during the show, no photography, no mobile phones). A bit cheeky you might think as it&#8217;s someone elses house but they were respected and nobody had to be ejected!<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The show was based around his <a title=\"Francis Dunnery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UQHK97cZa_I&amp;feature=related\" target=\"_blank\">Tall Blonde Helicopter LP<\/a>. He&#8217;s one of those artists who&#8217;s done it all and his stories were wound around the tracks to tell, not only a collection of great Rock&#8217;n&#8217;Roll excess stories (being reprimanded by the Sex Pistols Steve Jones for his bad behaviour), but incorporated his philosophical (that <a title=\"ET\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j42cTkiGdXY\" target=\"_blank\">Eckhart Tolle<\/a> knows a thing or two) and Astrological beliefs (&#8220;never bullshit a Scorpio&#8221;). He was backed by singer Dorie Jackson, who admitted afterwards to being a bit rusty with this set &#8211; most people ask for the &#8216;It Bites show\u009d&#8217; (!).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Francis has experienced the highs of number one singles and drinkies with Mick Jagger countered by the lows of being dropped by your label and alcoholism (he hasn&#8217;t &#8216;Partied&#8217; for 19 years now, hence the no booze rule). He was very honest about the love of his hair and how shaving it all off in a fit of mild insanity, whilst in a Southern US state, wasn&#8217;t a great idea&#8230;..he was then accused of being in the clan! Whilst at an AA meeting, someone did his star chart &#8220;There&#8217;s your problem &#8211; <a title=\"too much\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=d5zyNkICCOM\" target=\"_blank\">too much Saturn and not enough moon<\/a>!\u009d&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">He was asked if his song &#8216;<a title=\"i believe\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dj1O7K2l__o\" target=\"_blank\">I believe<\/a>&#8216; could be used by Barack Obama and ended up on his tour the week before he was voted in &#8211; &#8220;Who knows what lies ahead!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Dwayne and Margaret were great hosts &#8211; I&#8217;ve never been to a gig so close to home before. Francis made great play out of Margarets not really being into it but putting up with us all for Dwaynes sake: &#8220;I can see her drifting off now &#8211; what are you thinking about Margaret?&#8221; &#8220;I&#8217;m thinking of when to put the sausage rolls on!&#8221;. The whole night was such a great experience that has left me not only with memories of a unique gig, but also left me thinking about the meaning of life. There&#8217;s not many gigs do that to you now are there!<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Bob the Chiropodist<\/p>\n<div class=\"lazysocialbuttons\" data-float=\"left\" data-buttons=\"google,twitter,facebook\" data-twshareurl=\"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2011\/01\/13\/francis-dunnery-dwayne-margarets-house-alwoodley-leeds-181210\/\" data-twtext=\"\" data-shareurl=\"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2011\/01\/13\/francis-dunnery-dwayne-margarets-house-alwoodley-leeds-181210\/\" data-fbhideflyout=\"false\" data-backgroundtype=\"light\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago Our Dave and Dwayne (who record as North South Divide) took me to see Francis Dunnery. I was initially put off by the fact that he was the lead singer of crap 80&#8217;s band (my words) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/2011\/01\/13\/francis-dunnery-dwayne-margarets-house-alwoodley-leeds-181210\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gigs-reviews","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2921,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions\/2921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sleigh-munoz.co.uk\/quims\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}