The Orchid-Star is born

Pete's first live project since the last Glow gigs in 2000 debuted at Planet Angel on Feb.11th, '05 with Myo on vocals, Onyx Ashanti from SoulIISoul on wind-synth, Pierre Luigi on guitar and bass, Bagz & Jon Tubmen on percussion, Pete on keyboards and Diane Everitt (from Glow, like Pete, Myo and Bagz) dancing.

The gig dispelled any of the doubts being expressed in some quarters about the sense of putting on a live act by a 'chill-out' DJ in a dance room, as the room filled and the Orchid-Star kept them dancing for a solid no-gap 85 minute set

The second gig saw two new guests - Verdi Stewart (who's played with everyone from Hendrix to Sinatra over the years!) on trumpet, and with Rinalda Flaherty, who played with us till the end of the summer on bodhran and some keyboards.

In May the band were joined by Kait Farbon on electric fiddle and Becky Dell on electric and acoustic percussion, giving us a new task of getting a full size orchestral marimba on stage.

The first year included gigs for Synergy, Edensounds, more for Planet Angel, The Darbucka -
main stage at Kingston Green Fair and the London Green Lifestyles Show, Streatham Festival -
one of the main slots at the Big Green Gathering and the main headline slot on the largest of Glastonbury's Fringe stages - Croissant Neuf plus.
Glastonbury also saw a gig on the Green Roadshow Bandstand and guest appearances on Pete's DJ set in ID Spiral from Samanta, Myo and Kait. Although a planned gig for Radio Avalon did not happen as someone forgot we might need a PA, Pete's tunes recieved about 3 hours of airplay from Radio Avalon over the course of the Festival

 

Click here to see some photos from Kingston Green Fair '05

Glastonbury Festival '05

Streatham Festival '05

Big Green Gathering '05

Miscellaneous

Although we're still ploughing through tons of photos from last year we're always up for seeing anyyou have that you think we might like to pout on the site.

You can email us for that or any other reason at orchidstar@peteardron.com