The Phantoms historic Xmas ho-ho-homecoming gig! With the previous weeks blizzard reduced to a distant memory, the Phans flocked to witness the first ever live band to play at the General Roy Pub, or was it just that the gig was free that drew the big crowd! Anyway, after failing to materialise at the previous gig, the bands guest sax player was feeling much better & also raring to join in the fun. So, after last minute sizzling BBQ burger stacks all round (only £3.79, bargain!), the band took to the stage and ripped into their opening number following our singers introduction of “We are the Phantoms, and we are from Feltham!” Nice. That should hopefully stop the lovely Feltham locals bottling us off! The first set, packed full of 70’s punk classics went down a storm & warmed up the crowd a treat. Highlights were undoubtedly when Tim ‘six fingers’ Howard joined the band to add the horn to Suffragette City, Lets Stick Together & Get Your Rocks Off. Then, with the first set under our belt, it was time to stick Kylie on the iPod, have a beer & discover that Nick the landlord had chucked half the crowd out (including the drummers nephew!) for being under age! Apparently it was ‘over 21’s only’ after 9PM. You tell us that now! Incidentally, those present will have noticed that the bands lead guitarist fell for the joke & was the only Phantom on stage in full fancy dress (looking like a tubby Elf!). Brilliant! So, with the hooded youths evicted, the band kicked off set two & had the crowd dancing and singing along from the off! As each song came & went the atmosphere ramped up, reaching the max (proven by our drummers t-shirt!) with the final song, the crowd pleasing Chelsea Dagger. And so onto the encore. The Phantoms all donned their impressive flashing Santa hats (a mere £1 each from Feltham’s Poundland, where else!), covered the lead singer in silly string and then proceeded to wind the festive crowd up to fever pitch with a couple of cheesy Xmas classics by Gary Glitter & Shaky. Up to this point the well rehearsed Phantoms had been faultless, until our lead singer decided to then forget all the words to Rock & Roll Christmas, despite the fact that they were typed out & stuck to his microphone stand! As the sleigh bells receded the crowd were unbelievably still baying for more, which was a slight problem as we had not rehearsed anything else! But luckily enough it turned out that we could all remember how to play Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’ & so ended this historic night on an unplanned anthemic sing along that had everyone in the house joining in. Lighters would probably have been waved but all the smokers were huddled together outside! Happy birthday to Nick the landlord, thanks for asking us to play & I hope we passed the audition! All the Phans then slid home apparently well content with their early Xmas present from the Phantoms! PS. If you enjoyed the evening, tell the landlord you want more live music and hopefully this won’t be the first & last time you see your favourite covers band at Feltham’s finest watering hole! Thanks for all your support over the last year and see you in the next decade!