Aye to be sure tis been many a long year since The Happy Cats set sail on The River Tyne! But now Tyne Idols have enlisted the band to join them on a River Boat Cruise, Saturday 2nd June
Boarding at 7.00pm the river boat will be leaving Newcastle Quayside Pontoon next to the Pitcher and Piano at 7.30pm prompt!

From Newcastle to North Shields Fish Quay you will be guided by Ray Laidlaw and Chris Phipps along the banks of The Tyne where you will find out about the colourful music and movie heritage associated with the river.
Once everyone has tucked into their square meal of Pie, Peas and Mash, (If you would prefer a veggie pie be sure to let us know) we turn around in the mouth of The Tyne and head for home with The Happy Cats on stage.
We have also arranged some very decent bar prices, a bottle of wine at only £7, beers and lagers for £2.50 and spirits at £1.50 a shot, "Break out the rum"!
For more information and to “BOOK ON LINE” click on:- http://tyneidols.com/news.html
Cheers Ship Mates!

Marty

Toon to Tuam Tour3 dates announced for July, all gigs to be confirmed.

Details on the gigs page of the website,

See you in McDonagh's

Sláinte Mhaith

Marty

Happy New Year to all of The Happy Cats fans.

It’s been a funny old year for the band, we celebrated 10 years of The Happy Cats with great celebrations at The Centurion Bar 15^th May. During the Ten Years that the band has been on the road we have clocked up 1,300 gigs, wonder how many pints of Guinness and bottles of whiskey that clocks up?

In July we set off on the Toon to Tuam Tour 2, fantastic! Once again the folks of Tuam made us feel so welcome, great gigs with the highlight being joined on stage by Leo Moran “You Got me on the Run” then singing Clare Island with us, marvellous!! The gig at Monroe’s in Galway City was a blast and I guess we’ll never know who stole the wood?! We hope the merry band of travelling Toon fans grows for the Toon to Tuam Tour 3 in July 2012.

In September we recorded the Ten Years On album, thank you to all who helped us in the making; it was good to read your Top Ten votes, many thanks to Charlton’s for the use of their function room/recording studio and a great album launch.

November saw the departure of Brian Duffy. Brian’s decision to leave the band came as a bit of a blow, it was very sad after working together for ten years, but there’s only one thing certain in this life and that’s change!We wish Brian good luck for 2012.

At the beginning of December we were proud to introduce Leonard (Lenny) Brown into The Happy Cats, Lenny is a great musician, his accordion and piano playing has fitted smoothly into the band and we are looking forward to discovering more of Lenny’s hidden talents in 2012.

The Happy Cats fan base has turned into one big family; it’s wonderful to watch everyone arrive at the gigs, turning an empty room into one big family reunion, then the look of amazement on the faces of The Happy Cats virgins; Folks who have never seen the band before or heard the force of The Happy Cats Mass Choir! It’s wonderful to watch the smiles grow as they fall into the atmosphere that the band and fans generate, long may it continue.

Many thanks to our Team, Trevor Watson for the Website and Technical advise, Road Crew – lovely Pam, Alan1 & Alan2.

And God Bless our long suffering families who allow us to gig every weekend of the year!

We look forward to seeing you all in 2012.

Sláinte Mhaith

The Happy Cats.

Marty, Les & Lenny

Congratulations to Leonard (Lenny) Brown on his new job with The Happy Cats.

Judith, Norman, Liz and I called in to his first gig with the band at The Tudor Rose in Gateshead - that big accordion certainly makes a great sound!