Uh-oh spaghetti-oh the Wooks are on the telly box!! Somehow we’ve managed to get ourselves on a BBC4 documentary, and we’re terrified to have to witness Adele’s cold sore in HD.
The lovely people at Wall to Wall Productions invited us at the end of last year to take part in a competition style music documentary. With Rhod Gilbert as host and musical legends Midge Ure, Jazzie B and Peter Hook judging local talent on their rock god status.
We were in The Loft on North street playing our song Devil Is A Woman when Rhod Gilbert and Midge Ure appeared from below. The nerves bubbled to the surface seeing them with a camera crew in tow, but this went away when we saw their smiling faces and tapping feet. Then, putting us at ease, Rhod made a blunder when referring to Clair’s great ukulele playing.. All of us staring at our feet when thankfully Midge scolded in telling him it was a mandolin! Thanks Midge.
Then if that wasn’t enough to make us shake in our boots we were playing the Limelight, this time in front of other bands on the show as well as Rhod and Midge -who shall now be referred to hereafter as ‘Rhodge’ – when Belfast crashed in on us with support. Absolutely overwhelmed doesn’t begin to touch the feeling of the stage that night. The atmosphere in the entire venue was electrified. We genuinely felt like music royalty ourselves, and are so incredibly grateful for everyones support and encouragement.
What was that? One TV show isn’t enough? Well alrighty then! BBC NI decided to make a spin off show involving the northern Irish contestants. One miserable Wednesday night (after an entire day of cleaning and an interior revamp) a camera crew and interviewer showed up at my door to film our rehearsal. They then proceeded to follow us around with cameras behind the scenes of our performances. Who are we?? The Only Way Is Wooka…
Watch out for that program early June!
Throughout the UK 1,200 bands applied to be on the show, this was whittled down to 24-15-5 across the 3 regions. In our region, Wookalily and the bassist of Bombskare (Edinburgh based ska band) were the only mammaries in sight. Although the production team assured us they tried to appeal to everyone, i think this is indicative of a wider problem of females in music. A recent article in The Guardian newspaper by John Dugdale referenced this quite well “Gigging is perhaps inevitably a blokeish business – only an all-women bluegrass group in Belfast interrupts the line up of all male bands performing for the male presenter and selector.”
It wouldn’t be right if i left without blowing the aul feminist horn. BEEEEEEEEEP.
Rhodge are now the latest Wookalily converts. Wooksess!
Wookalily 