The Official Blog of Bobs and Lolo

When our friends discuss work, career goals, job satisfaction and the general mish mash of “shop talk” that comes up in circles of young professionals, we usually just smile, nod and smugly reflect on the fact that we have the best jobs ever! We are also usually quick to throw in comments about the benefits of working for ourselves – bosses we love, jobs we love even more, PJs ‘til noon, meetings at the beach – the list goes on and on!

That said, we are constantly evaluating, assessing and revamping the ever-growing world of B&L. As we continue to muddle our way through the business side of things, we are always developing new strategies to manage an increasing workload while planning for the introduction of new team members. I believe we may have mentioned our dream of an office administrator and roadies one, two or many times in preview posts! We also informally collect feedback from kids, parents and educators on an ongoing basis to help guide the development of our live shows and other projects.

Contrary to appearances, it’s not all fun & games!

So, today’s project in review – the B&L Blog!

Our blog has served a number of purposes:

1. We use it to share information about upcoming shows.
2. We use it as a diary of sorts to recount stories from the road and/or behind-the-scenes adventures.
3. We use it to relay exciting announcements and news flashes.
4. And occasionally, we use it to share fun finds that we’ve stumbled across in the course of our many musical adventures.

Clearly, our blog is multi-dimensional and our posts often ramble along a not so well-defined path. Eerily similar to our careers…!?

So, what do you think? We know we have a few regular readers out there, and we’d love your input. Are there particular blog posts that interest you the most? Are there things you would add? Change? Do you love it as is?

What do you think?

Please feel free to leave your comments below or email us your thoughts at info@bobsandlolo.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Alternately, if you’d prefer to tell us in person, please join us tomorrow, January 30th at ArtStarts on Saturdays in Vancouver, BC. We’ll be delivering two special performances for families at 11am & 1pm. This unique and intimate performance series takes place in the ArtStarts Gallery at 808 Richards Street. Admission is FREE and no registration is required. Space is limited, so please plan to arrive a few minutes early to guarantee a spot!  www.artstarts.ca

Bobs & Lolo

We are excited to be taking our show home for the holidays with a special family concert in our childhood town of Nanaimo, BC. We’ll be hitting the stage at our high-school alma mater, Dover Bay Secondary this Saturday, December 12th at 2pm.

Having performed more than 300 live shows across Canada this past year alone, we’re looking forward to returning home for this event. The festivities are a perfect way to wrap up a crazy year and celebrate all of the wonderful musical adventures we’ve shared to date. With our newest album having received a 2009 Parent’s Choice Gold and a Western Canadian Music Award plus the whole Treehouse TV thing, getting an opportunity to celebrate with fans in our hometown will be amazing! Plus, we’ll be sharing the stage with our full band and both backing musicians are previous ‘islanders’ too. Mario Vaira will be on guitar and Mark Harvey on bass…the kiddie mosh will surely be rockin’!

We first met at a Girl Guide camp in the late 1980’s and following a fun-filled weekend of campfires, sing-a-longs and outdoor fun, a life-long friendship was sealed. We were both thrilled to end up at the same highschool (Dover Bay) a few years later - Bobs & Lolo were actually our highschool nicknames! We soon started performing together through numerous choir concerts and piano recitals, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Retro Bobs & Lolo (~16 yrs old) - not much has changed!

We hope to see some of you at the event this weekend, and regardless, we’ll be sure to post some pics on our Facebook Group next week. Happy holidays!

Bobs & Lolo

Event info:

Bobs & Lolo are performing at Dover Bay Secondary on December 12th at 2pm. Tickets $8 in advance or $10 at the door. Children under one year FREE. Advance purchases recommended. Tickets are available at Kool & Child and Kiyo Salon in Nanaimo. For more info, please call 250-758-9727.

Doors open at 1:30pm. Be sure to arrive a few minutes early to enjoy the complimentary arts and craft stations. Kids will also be able to check out a fire truck with a special visit from the Nanaimo Fire Department (1:30-2pm).

As many of you know, when we first started performing for kids, we did a lot of birthday parties…A LOT! On average we would fit in 4 parties per weekend – a schedule we kept for nearly 3 years!

Molly’s birthday party! (Jun 2006)

Birthday bookings proved a great way for us to practice new content and learn what worked well with the kids. Plus, the experience gave us the confidence we needed to move onto larger audiences and transition from living rooms or backyards to real stages. Due to an increasingly busy schedule, we stopped offering our birthday party packages a couple years ago, but we have been thrilled to continue hearing from families that still include our music during their family celebrations.

We were excited by a recent Facebook message from the Wang Family, and we wanted to share the story of their daughter, Hayden’s, 1st birthday celebrations!

From Hayden’s Dad…

It was my daughter’s 1st birthday, and since she loves B&L, we had a B&L themed party.  We had B&L playing on the stereo (all 3 CDs I might add), and we had the On Your Feet DVD playing on the TV.  Everything my wife did in terms of décor was fashioned like the cartoon-y images on the DVD (bugs, trees, butterflies, flowers etc).  The room was filled with them. I even made little B&L name cards for the kids. There were also cut out music notes and flower confetti on the tables and “grass” centerpieces.  We even tried to get the cake like the DVD images with trees, lady bugs, flowers and more!

As the icing on the cake (pun intended!), here’s a copy of the text that the Wang’s included with their guest invitations – those of you familiar with our songs will surely recognize some of the words! We were super impressed with this…

Something special is in the air,
Flex your muscles and let down your hair,
Just like that I’m turning one,
Let’s go marching together and have some fun,
Musical adventures are what I adore,
Get on your feet and let’s hit the floor!
It’s sure to be an action packed day,
Just be ready to shake it up, okay?
If you haven’t guessed Bobs & Lolo are the best!
Get on the right track and I’ll take care of the rest,
One year already, how I go, go, grow,
So skip, hop, and jump and I’ll see you at the…..PARTY!!

It’s nice to be polite so please RSVP!

Our thanks to Hayden and her family for sharing stories of the birthday adventures with us! We were so flattered and touched to see how much they enjoy our music!

While on the subject, we wanted to flag a couple of great birthday ideas/resources. Be sure to head to Green Planet Parties for lots of tips and ideas for eco-friendly party planning and products. And, if you’re in the BC Lower Mainland area, check out the new nature-themed birthday party packages in Stanley Park! The Stanley Park Ecology Society will host a tailor-made party for your active, nature-loving kids. Bug hunts, forest walks, nature art and more! Program booking also includes use of a great party space (w/ access to kitchen) for snacks and gifts in the historic Stanley Park Dining Pavilion. For more info, visit www.stanleyparkecology.ca or call 604-718-6522.

Hope to see you soon!

Bobs & Lolo

Raindrop Pop season has definitely arrived in Western Canada, although we might have to create a “raindrop slop” version with all of the flooding, leaf sludge and mud puddles in our neighbourhood! On a bright note, given that the recent weather has provided a great excuse to stay bundled up indoors, we’ve taken some time to tackle a number of behind-the-scenes projects.

Lately, our non-show world has revolved around admin duties (boring!) and program development (fun!). One of the projects we’ve been working on recently is educational resource guides featuring curriculum-based activities to complement our music. Separate activity packages for each album are now available on request for teachers, educators and parents. We also hope to have the PDF versions available on our website soon!

We are also excited to announce that with the delivery of our most recent Musical Adventures order, all of our CDs and DVDs now boast eco-friendly packaging! The packaging for all three albums (Action Packed, Sea Notes and Musical Adventures) as well as our On Your Feet DVD is printed on FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified board-stock using vegetable-based inks and waterless printing technology. To top it off, the entire packaging, including the plastic tray, is 100% recyclable…and we manufactured everything locally at Precision Disc in Surrey, BC! 
 

 
We still have a handful of our original Musical Adventures stock left in the traditional jewel-casing. These will be marked as sale items at our live shows – perfect stocking stuffers! The original discs will be selling for $10 each (including tax) while supplies last. Sale price is only applicable at our live shows – all the more reason to join us at an upcoming event!
 
Speaking of which, we want to send out a big thank you to all of the superfans who joined us at the Roundhouse Community Centre for a SOLD OUT show last weekend! We loved performing with our full band (thanks Mario & Chuckles!), and we were thrilled see the kiddie mosh rockin’ in front of the stage!

Visiting with 2-year-old Alexa after our Roundhouse show! Thanks to Mom (Michelle) for emailing us this great pic!
 
For those of you that weren’t able to join us a the Roundhouse, or if you just need to break the cabin fever after all of these rainy days,  we have lots of musical family fun scheduled in for next weekend.

Kerrisdale Community Centre – November 28th, 2pm
Our first holiday event of the season! Be sure to bring your dancing shoes and caroling voices as we’ll be wrapping the show with a few of our holiday favs! Rudolph time folks! 
 
Inglewood Preschool Fundraiser – November 29th, 3pm
A perfect afternoon outing for North Shore families, this annual fundraiser is guaranteed fun for all ages! Face-painting, games, concession and tons of great door prize opportunities too!

For a full listing of shows, please check-out our events calendar. We hope to see you soon!

Bobs & Lolo

Typically a slow month in the bookings world, we really seemed to be on the right track with the number of performances we squeezed into October this year. Starting off with an unofficial Lower Mainland tour (Langley, Burnaby, Coquitlam and North Van) and ending with some out-of-province fun in Ontario and a brief trip on the Sea-to-Sky highway for some festivities in Pemberton, October delivered lots of memorable musical adventures!

The kids at the Toronto Zoo are on “the right track”!

Our thanks to the families and parent groups who helped promote our shows last month. All of the emails, Facebook and Twitter posts were greatly appreciated! We also want to send out a special thank you to the Yummy Mummy Club for their support. The YMC team enthusiastically jumped onboard to help with some last minute promotions for our performances in the Greater Toronto Area. Be sure to visit their site for a great selection of resources and event info for busy, yummy mummies across the country!

The stage hasn’t been the only action packed venue for us as of late. We’ve also been super busy behind-the-scenes with new projects (stay tuned for more info!), CD and DVD mania (yaaa for xmas orders!) and 2010 planning! We would also be remiss to not recognize the hard work and dedication of a couple of key peeps on our team.

Mario Vaira, affectionately referred to as the “ampersand” in B&L, has been working tirelessly on a number of projects including the design of our new B&L-mobile! Mario does the majority of our design work – print, web and audio. You’ll also occasionally catch him onstage with us when we perform with our full band. Check out some of his other projects at www.fivefathomstudios.com. 

Our new ride!

Another important member of our team is Eran Norton - the face behind the B&L bookings world! We first met Eran when she hired us for the 2008 Port Moody Festival of the Arts. We were instantly impressed with her energy, organization and communication skills. We feel so lucky to have her onboard our admin team! Please get in touch with Eran on Twitter (@EranNorton) or via email (booking@bobsandlolo.com) if you are interested in seeing us perform in your community.

The lovely and talented booking rep extraordinaire!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for regular updates on our adventures.  And, if you manage to join us for a performance, please check out our Facebook Group to share your own comments and pics! Thanks to everyone who posted photos from our Ontario gigs. We love them!

Next stops include Alberni Valley Elementary (Port Alberni – Nov 7th), Baby & Toddler Fair (Vancouver – Nov 8th) and a full band show at the Roundhouse Performance Centre (Vancouver – Nov 14th). Full event details and show listings can be found on our Events Calendar.

Hope to see you soon!

Bobs & Lolo

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope everyone had a fabulous few days with your loved ones. We had a wonderful weekend with a wee little reprieve from performing and lots of family, fun and feasts to fill the hours!

We started our weekend with a trip to the University of BC (our alma mater) for some musical adventures with the Wiggles!

Getting ready to watch the show!

The Wiggles’ show was super high-energy with lots of acrobatics, dancing and laughs. They played in UBC’s new Thunderbird Arena (future Olympic venue) to a screaming crowd of 4000 tots and parents. They also had another sold out show right after the performance we attended…these guys are HUGE!

Our favourite parts of the program - their cover of “Baby Beluga” (by Canadian legend - Raffi) and the big red car, of course!

Bobs was pretty excited! We think Anthony even waved at her…:)

We now have a few more days to recover from the last few days of relaxation (yippee!) before we dive back into our own musical adventures. While our shows may not reach the magnitude of the Wiggles phenomenon, we do promise that the kiddie mosh will always be rockin’! Next stops include North Vancouver and then we’re off to Toronto for a week! More details on TO soon, but see below for some info on next weekend’s gigs:

Saturday, October 17th – Jack & Lola’s 1st Anniversary
Show times: 9:30am & 11am
Limited capacity – tickets must be picked up in store. Available 9am, Tuesday Oct 13th. First come, first serve!

Sunday, October 18th – St. Catherine’s Preschool Family Concert (fundraiser)
Show time: 2pm
Tickets are $10 per person (under one yr are free). For ticket info, please call 604-980-1326.

Full details and all other event listings can be found on our events calendar. We hope to see you at a live show soon!

Bobs & Lolo

It is hard to believe that we’re in the final weeks of summer already!? With all the fun adventures of the last few months, we will definitely have a hard time saying goodbye to summer ‘09. Speaking of fun, we’d like to send out a quick note of thanks to all of the families who joined us at the Harmony Arts Festival and the 50th Anniversary Celebrations for the Vancouver Maritime Museum as well as Kidtopia’s Grand Opening in Surrey and most recently, the fabulous Kids’ Day at Filberg Park in beautiful Comox, BC.

We hope some of you will be able to join us for one of our upcoming performances to help us wrap-up the summer season on a high note! There are still a few tickets available for tomorrow’s show at the Tsawwassen Arts Centre. This little performance theatre is the perfect venue for your tiny dancers! We’re thrilled that the Delta Arts Council has invited us to share in their special Family Series this year. Be sure to buy your tickets in advance - tickets are only $8 or 3 for $20 when pre-purchased ($12 at the door). Please call 604-943-9787 for more info!

We are also super excited to jump into our show dates at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) next week! We’ll be performing 6 dates on the Global BC Amphitheatre as part of the family-focused KC’s Concert Series. We feel honoured to be sharing the stage with the likes of the Doodlebops, Playhouse Disney’s Choo-Choo Soul and Johnny & The Sprites. Find us onstage at 3:30pm on August 26 & 27 and September 1, 5, 6 & 7. For more information, please click here.

In addition to a fun-filled performance schedule, we’ve also had a few other exciting projects in the works these last couple weeks. Those of you following our updates on Twitter or Facebook will already be in the loop on the next bit of news, but we’re very happy to announce that we finally have a new tour vehicle! We’ve been dreaming for years about upgrading our 1997 Geo Tracker and with the development of our new stage show this past spring, a new vehicle actually became a true necessity when we could no longer fit all of our props and gear into the little Tracker. Although, we’ll miss our first B&L-mobile (for purely sentimental reasons!), we are thrilled to be the new owners of…wait for it…yes - a minivan!

We’re hoping to get some graphics on the van in the next few weeks, so be sure to give us a little wave or a honk if you see us in your neighbourhood!

Bobs & Lolo

The last month has been filled with pancakes and bubbles, cowboys and jellyfish, heat waves and hailstorms, singing, dancing and more! Our musical adventures have been a little like a rollercoaster ride over prairies, mountains and sea by boat, plane, car and foot! Since our last report from the road, we made it through 10-days straight at the Calgary Stampede, a flurry of shows closer to home in the Lower Mainland of BC and a visit to the remote beauty of the Queen Charlotte Islands. With lots of ups and a few downs (missed our flight home from Calgary!), the brightest parts have been the constant reminder of just how amazing our travels truly are with new friends, places and experiences around every turn!

North Beach on Graham Island!

Two short weeks ago we arrived home following a run of 35 shows at the Calgary Stampede…yes - 35! Highlights of our Alberta adventures included our wonderful host family (the Tait’s!), a nerve-wracking yet exhilarating performance on the Grandstand Stage for nearly 15,000 people, bike rides, chuckwagons, ice cream treats and many new friends at Buckaroos!
 

Westcoast cowgirl – Bobs!

Morning ride around the Glenmore Reservoir!

Some of the Buckaroos team in the children’s area!

Trekking from the Grandstand Stage back to Buckaroos!

Our visit to the Calgary Stampede flew by in a blur of crazy shows, sightseeing and sleep deprivation! On our return to BC we had a couple of days to rest up before jumping into some shows near home. Special thanks to the families that came out to support Canuck Place at the Agoo Kids’ Day in Kits and all of the kidlets who joined in on the singing and dancing at the Shadbolt Centre’s Discovery Days Festival. We had a fabulous time at both events. If you have pics from the shows, please feel free to share them on our Facebook Group - we’d love to see them!

Most recently, we returned from a performance at the Tlell Fair on the beautiful Queen Charlotte Islands. The best word to describe this trip is magical! We spent three days exploring pieces of the most stunning land on the planet and felt honoured with the opportunity to meet some of the most kind and generous people you can find. Our thanks to Doug Mark Louis and the rest of the Tlell Fall Fair committee for inviting us to share in this year’s festivities and special appreciation to the Richardson Family for allowing us to make the Richardson Ranch “home” for a few days. We feel privileged to have spent some time exploring the farm and the surrounding community - a true west coast paradise!

Enjoying the beauty of nature at Tow Hill!

Enjoyed our history lesson with Grandpa Doug!

Curious pair of the award-winning Herefords on the Ranch!

We were also thrilled to have Mario Vaira join us on this recent trip. Mario came along to lend us his musical talents (guitar and backing vocals), but we also have to give him a shout out for bringing so much more to our musical adventures! We often refer to Mario as the “ampersand” in B&L as he is an integral part of our team from performing to production to design. Mario actually produced all three of our albums, including Action Packed which was recently nominated for a 2009 Western Canadian Music Award for Best Children’s Album of the Year! Yaaaa! Check out some of Mario’s other projects at www.fivefathomstudios.com.

Sound check at the Tlell Fall Fair!

After all this, it is crazy to think that summer is only halfway through! We have a number of shows coming up, including three fabulous events this weekend. Please join us for lots of free family fun!

Friday, August 7 - Harmony Arts Festival
Location: West Vancouver
Show Time: 10am

Saturday, August 8 - Vancouver Maritime Museum
Location: Vancouver
Show time: 11:30am

Sunday, August 9 – Kidtopia
Location: Surrey
Show time: 2:45pm

Thanks for tuning in for some of our stories from the road! We hope to be in your neighbourhood soon!

Bobs & Lolo

We wanted to post a brief note to wish all of you a happy belated Canada Day and share some stories from our festive July 1st adventures before we dive into our run of shows at the Calgary Stampede. 

We’re writing this from a cozy basement in the home of our fabulous Calgary host family – the Tait’s! It is crazy to reflect back on how much happened yesterday and to think that less than 24 hours ago, we were just stepping onto a stage in Coquitlam, BC.

Our Canada Day festivities began in partnership with the City of Coquitlam during the first annual family celebration at Lafarge Lake. This fantastic event was capped by sunny skies, a fabulous team of staff and volunteers and hundreds of kids, adults and entire families sporting their patriotic reds and whites! Special thanks to all the kids and the super-talented Currie “Chuckles” Creelman (piano) and Mario “Marstar” Vaira (guitar) for helping us rock the show! Sadly, we didn’t get any photos from the performance, but if anyone out there is willing to share, please send pics to fanmail@bobsandlolo.com or post them on our Facebook Group.

Immediately following our performance in Coquitlam, we motored over to Kitsilano in Vancouver to set-up for a performance on the Showboat Stage. Set against the beautiful backdrop of Vancouver’s English Bay and the North Shore mountains, this was definitely one of the most picturesque venues we have performed in…and one of the windiest! The Kits Showboat Stage is managed completely by volunteers, and presents live entertainment weekly throughout the summer months. Our thanks to the families that joined us to kick-off the Canada Day entertainment and extra hugs to the kids for retrieving all of our wayward props that blew away in the refreshing ocean “breeze”.

If two shows in two cities in one 4 hour period wasn’t already enough craziness for Canada Day, scheduling a flight to Calgary right after the second performance definitely put the icing on the cake! It was a bit of a mad scramble to re-organize our stuff to prepare for the flight. Vancouver-ites may have even spotted us on the side of the road after our Kits show, although you may have easily mistaken our organizational strategy as a set-up for a sidewalk “garage” sale!

Thanks to a wonderful chauffeur (yaaaa Mario!) and a sweet airport limo (1974 volkswagon van!), we made it on time, with all of our luggage, to YVR.

Our next hurdle was checking in all of our gear – $350 in extra baggage fees this time around (ouch!) – and getting it through security. We had a fifteen minute hang-up when the metal-hinged tree stand Lolo decided to carry on flagged a security check. It caused quite a flurry of excitement for the security officials who put the bag through the x-ray three times over, unpacked everything and then stared in confusion at the brightly coloured green, collapsible stand.  Only in the B&L world…

We’re now settling in nicely in Calgary, and we are just about to head over to Stampede Park for sound check and final preparations for tonight’s first show. We’ll be around town until July 13th with 35 shows scheduled for the next 10 days! If you’re in the neighbourhood, please join us for some cow-town inspired musical adventures! For a full list of our Stampede performance times and dates, please click here.

Yeehaw!

Bobs & Lolo

Although we had quite a few shows during the month of April, we still managed to squeeze in some sun, sand and surf during our downtime. A huge highlight included a surf lesson on beautiful Cox Bay just outside of Tofino, BC. Playing in the waves was a great way to wrap up our shows on the west coast and celebrate Bobs’ birthday! Special thanks to our hosts at EcoEverything, Weigh West Marina, Wickaninnish Community School and the 1431 Beach Resort for helping make our trip extra special.

A big thank you to Surf Sister for a wonderful day in the water!

We’re now in the process of gearing up for an action packed spring and summer. We hope you can join us for some musical adventures! Below is a list of some of our stops over the upcoming month:

Kerrisdale Community Centre: May 18

Last minute long weekend fun for everyone! Join us on Monday at 1pm for a fun-filled dance fest at the Kerrisdale Community Centre. Check out our new set!  Jump into the kiddie mosh pit! Join in on the crafty stations with sea star popsicle stick puppets and paper plate sea turtles! Super fun-times for the whole family this Victoria Day!
 

Okanagan International Children’s Festival: May 21 – 23

We’re excited about our debut shows in the beautiful lakeside town of Penticton! Next week we will be heading to the interior of BC for the Okanagan International Children’s Festival.  We are honoured to be sharing the same stage as legendary Canadian children’s entertainer Fred Penner as well as a host of other mega-talented performance groups!

Surrey International Children’s Festival: May 28 – 30

We can’t wait to “hop” onto the Leap Frog Stage at the 2009 Surrey International Children’s Festival! Our full band is performing with us, and we guarantee that the amazing musicians lending us their talents for the three-day festivities will have the place rockin’ before the two of us even hit the stage! Be sure to check out the Saturday Family Special – two shows for the price of one!
 

Saskatchewan International Children’s Festival: June 3 – 6

We’re delighted to be a part of the 2009 Saskatchewan International Children’s Festival. We have heard fantastic reviews about this event from both families and other children’s performers, including local superstar Marnie Grey. This will be our first time performing in Saskatoon – we can’t wait! If you’re in the area, please join us for some musical adventures at the Kinder Garden and Knox United Church.

Bowen Island Children’s Festival – June 7

Located in one of our favourite spots, the Bowen Island Children’s Festival is sure to be a highlight of our 2009 event schedule! Just a skip, jump and a hop from the shores of West Vancouver, the island is a perfect day trip destination for families. Join us and our band for all the festival fun…more info coming soon!

We’d love to see you at one of our upcoming shows! Please check out our online event calendar for further details.

Bobs & Lolo