Andy & The Odd Socks Launch Show - London October 2017

If you have children of a certain age you'll no doubt be familiar with Andy Day from CBeebies. You've probably seen him having dinosaur adventures, or presenting from the CBeebies House. But did you know he can sing?!

Andy and his band, the Odd Socks are due to release their debut album next month and this week they played a series of gigs in London and Nottingham to kick off their album launch. The tickets were like gold dust but we managed to snap some up the minute they went on sale...phew!

The album "Who Invited This Lot?" is actually a rerelease, we picked up a copy back in 2015 and it has been in our car on repeat ever since. However, Andy has since been joined by his amazingly talented Odd Socks band and the track listing has had a bit of a tweak. There's Moxy on drums, Rio on guitar, Blu on bass and the especially bonkers Random Keith on keys. This time round they mean business!

Showtime

We left Dorset nice and early, picking up my Mum along the way and after a couple of wee breaks, several snacks, a magazine bribery and of course, some singing to the Odd Socks we arrived in Richmond and couldn't wait for the show. Elliot had been asking me "Is it time to see Andy yet?" from around 630am so you could say he was getting excited!

We actually spotted Andy whilst we were having our lunch and Elliot yelled "HELLO ANDY!!!!!!" across the car park...such a quiet child ;)

Soon it was time to take our seats, and the advantage of arriving nice and early meant we had the best seats in the house. Slap bang in the middle of the front row, we almost felt like we were part of the show!

#1 Fan!

Before the show started, the band came out and were interacting with the crowd - Random Keith was checking for odd socks and fortunately Elliot wasn't wearing a matching pair! The band are all very talented but they are also really great with the children, taking time to chat and answer questions.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed and it was time.....Andy bounced onto stage with his infectious grin and the band launched into Aliens, one of the catchiest songs you will ever hear! (I guarantee once you have heard it you will be singing "Look out! Look out! There's aliens about!" forever more!)

Running through songs such as Unique, Battle Robot Rapper, Groovy Hoover, Ninja Pig and Elliot's fave, the Dinosaur Football Legend Mega Match , every song was a hit with the audience. Just like at Camp Bestival, the Dinosaur song came with big footballs that were bouncing around the crowd but this time round, there was even a dinosaur! I'm not sure it was intentional but Random Keith who was in the costume, fell over and popped his head up from the dinosaur's middle...it looked a bit like the dino was giving birth to Keith, very funny!

We were even treated to a rendition of Ghostbusters, one of the new songs to be on the album and just in time for Halloween. The band came out in the their Ghostbuster costumes and the kids loved it, I certainly loved having a singalong!

Before we knew it, the show was over but not before a quick encore of Aliens..complete with little green men!

After the show, we queued up to meet Andy and the band and Elliot said he wanted to get a selfie. I wasn't sure how successful that was going to be so I loitered behind with my camera!!

Elliot was pleased when Andy said "This is Elliot, he's been to all our shows!" and it made his day when the band said they'd seen him on YouTube. They were all so sweet to him and he has been talking about ever since! Elliot did indeed attempt a selfie but his arms weren't quite long enough so Random Keith had to step in and help and we got a brilliant photo. Erin even got in it too although my mum handed her to Andy and he wondered whose baby she was!!

Sorry Blu, Erin has blocked your face! 

Andy and The Odd Socks say they are the greatest children's band ever (according to their mums!) and we would definitely agree. We had a brilliant time at the show and can't wait for the next one!

You can pre-order the album here or find out more at http://andyandtheoddsocks.co.uk/

Andy & The Odd Socks Album Review and Q&A's

You probably read the title of this review and thought, who are Andy and the Odd Socks?! Well if you have children of a pre-school then you will definitely know Andy - Andy Day of CBeebies fame!

Regular readers of this blog will know that we love Andy, he is Elliot's favourite person on CBeebies and I couldn't possibly begin to tell you how many dinosaur adventures we have sat through! When I saw that he had made an album I knew the likelyhood of us getting it was quite high...!

Andy's album is called "Who Invited This Lot" and was released last month however we were able to pick up a copy when we met Andy at the Festival of Nature, Bristol back in June.

The tracklisting is as follows:

- Aliens
- Unique
- Groovy Hoover
- Battle Robot Rapper
- Odd Sock
- Dinosaur Football Legend Megamatch
- Cheeky Friends
- Wizard of Sound
- No One's Feeling Sorry for Me
- Ninja Pig
- Pirates

As you can see from the song names, there's no nursery rhymes here and every song is an original! For me this was a massive massive plus - I get sick and tired of hearing Incy Wincy Spider or The Wheels on the Bus, there are loads of children's CD's like that and it's good to have something a bit different!

All the songs are cleverly written and funny. Take Cheeky Friends for example - it's about bums! And you know what little boys are like with toilet humour - for Elliot, this was an instant hit because Andy sings about the "cheeky bum" song!

I asked Elliot what his favourite song on the album was and he said he liked the Dinosaur Football Legend Mega Match because it was about dinosaurs. And football. Two of his favourite things! Actually, this is one of my favourites too - the chorus is so catchy, you'll be humming it all day :)

I think it's rare to get an album that both pre-schoolers and adults would enjoy and I think Andy's done really well here to appeal to all ages. It's become one of our most listened to CD's and gets a big thumbs up from me and Elliot!

Q&A's

We were able to send a few questions over to Andy so here's what he had to say....

What inspired you to make an album?

I've wanted to make a children's album for a long time – one that can be listened to and enjoyed by all ages. I remember loving the Simpson’s album when I was younger – I still know the words to the songs! I then met music producers, Bunkersonix, aka Rob David and Dan Delor, and loved their music and their writing, we became good friends and decided to make the album.. it took 2 years to put together as we are all so busy! We wanted to create an album that was a bit like a mini Mighty Boosh mixed with a mini Flight of the Conchords … I hope we have achieved that!

 Who are your musical heroes?

i love soul music/rock and dance, basically anything to get you up and dancing.... so James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Freddie Mercury, Muse…..

 If you could duet with anybody, who would it be?

Jason Mraz... i love his music, or it would have been Freddie Mercury in another life

 Will you be doing any live shows to tie in with the album?

We are working on some fun musical shows based on the song characters and hope to take it live next year (Woohoo, we look forward to this!)

You can find out more here: http://andyandtheoddsocks.co.uk/