Old Friends from Ocean Village

L-R: Jaime, Me & Steve @ Valery’s bar, Mojacar Playa

About 10 years ago, I was a little disillusioned with life in bands, and bass playing in particular, and embarked on just over two years aboard a ship called Ocean Village.  This ship was aptly named, as it really was like a village, full of friends who sailed the oceans together, entertaining their audiences, and probably more to the point , each other!  I made great friends on there, fortunate to be part of the ‘first wave’ of entertainers’ as the ship was launched, including Tony Stevens, Jaki Graham, Rachel Lane, Zac Bauman, and many, many more. On that ship was a band called Jet Set, who were on there for the duration, resident in the main nightclub, The Marquee.  I worked on the ship as a solo performer, and through these guys, fell in love with fronting a band and playing bass again.  Jet Set was run by Jaime Caswell and featured Steve Edwards on bass, and when they suggested I do a short set with them, Steve switching to second guitar, I jumped at it. If I remember well, we played All Right Now, Hip to be Square, Long train Running and  Another Brick in the Wall, amongst others.

Our home from home: MV Ocean Village

Although its been around 8 years since I’ve seen these guys, the friends I made on Ocean Village are friends for life, so I was over the moon when I got a message from Steve saying he and Jaime were in Mojacar (where I live) and did I want to meet up!?   Damn right!

It was very cool to catch up with the guys again, and it hardly seems possible that so many years have passed. What’s really cool is, we’re doing a show in the UK in September where Jaime’s band are resident, so we’ll get to do it all over again (though probably without the sunshine)

A big shout out to all the entertainers, cast and crew who made 2 years of my professional life some of the happiest!

See more, do more be more, Kev Moore  (The Nice guy of Rock)  🙂

See more, do more, be more, Kev Moore

Sometimes, as a musician or a performer, you can spend all your days racking your brains trying to think up a “handle” or witty epithet with which you can be associated, or be known by. Invariably, it doesn’t work. but I have come to realise that catchphrases are like buses. You can wait all day for one, then two come along at once.

Tony's Gift

A few years back, when I’d tired of the bass and life on the motorways of the world, schlepping from gig to gig, I decided to put a solo vocal show together and market myself a little differently. My goal was, unashamedly, a bloody easy life. it all worked out rather well, when , on the strength of 20 minutes worth of songs, I began a wonderful 2 years sailing the Mediterranean and the Caribbean seas as a guest entertainer aboard Ocean Village – a colourful cruise liner that advertised “cruises for people who don’t do cruises”

I quickly became part of what we laughingly referred to as “the Village People” – and made fast friends in particular with Tony Stevens (Magician and Comedian) Rachel lane (Vocalist) and Zac Bauman ( er…well he’s just Zac really). We would regularly gather in Charlies Cafe bar amidships and bandy ideas around. Somehow or other, one of Ocean village’s catchphrases morphed from See more, do more, be more, into See more, do more, be more, Kev Moore – and before long comperes were introducing me onstage that way!

It wasn’t long before Tony presented me with a T-shirt featuring the newly bastardised slogan!

It didn’t stop there of course, I was also christened “The Nice guy of rock” which I was also from then on introduced as. My intro was in danger of becoming as long as my show! Towards the end of my time onboard, various cast members from the show also took to singing “Kev Moore, Moore, Moore, how do you like him, how do you like him?” to the tune of 70’s disco hitmakers Andrea true connection’s “more more more” whenever they walked past me!! I had become a publicist’s dream.

By the way, I was only kidding about Zac, he actually does a wonderful swing show…oh, and apparently he thinks he’s funny too.

Kev Moore