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Monday, December 31st
9:00 pm - 1:00 am
$35
a person
Formal Dress :
Coat & Tie
for Men,
Dress or Dress
Suit for Ladies
Music :
Ballroom and Swing Music played by
Bayou
City Swing,
an 8-piece Orchestra
Room
Four: Western
&Whip
Room Five: Salsa
Price includes Appetizers as well as complimentary
soft drinks, wine and beer.
And
of
course
Champagne,
Noise Makers, and Silly
Hats
at Midnight.
The SSQQ New Year's Party
has traditionally attracted 200 people.
There
is
drinking, but never to excess.
The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed.
SSQQ
is
safe,
comfortable
and smoke-free.
What better way to
Welcome in the
New Year
than
to
join
your
friends
&
Dance to
the
live
music
of Bayou City Swing!
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BAYOU CITY
SWING
Bayou City Swing is an
eight piece band featuring
Cathy Comeaux
on vocals.
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ABOUT
THE BAND
Bayou City Swing
is one of the finest small
"big bands" in the
Houston-Galveston area. The
band has performed for many years at a wide
variety of engagements including corporate
functions, dance clubs, private parties, society
events and wedding receptions. The band is
composed of eight talented musicians: 2
saxophones, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass,
drums and female vocalist. By using top quality
"melodic" arrangements, the band is able to
achieve a full, brassy, big band sound.
The Band's music
repertoire includes big band
swing, Latin/Ballroom,
as well as rock/pop/Motown and ballads.
HISTORY OF
THE BAND
Although
Bayou City Swing
is a relatively new band, the four horn
players of
Bayou City Swing
have been together over 25 years.
This small 8-piece band was formed out
of an original true "big band" of 17
musicians who played swing music of the
30's and 40's.
The smaller
group was formed to play events where a
large big band might not be practical or
desirable, and this group is able to
play a wider variety of music than a big
band can offer. A couple of the horn
players write some of the arrangements
for the group.
Rick Archer's Note:
Bayou City Swing
performed here at SSQQ back in September 2007.
I had never heard them play before, but they
came highly recommended. I was
immediately impressed.
Their music selection was great. The
Band played
everything from Swing to Foxtrot, Waltz to
Tango, Cha Cha to Rumba, their music had a
strong dance beat, and Cathy Comeaux, their singer,
had a marvelous voice.
Bayou City Swing was so
good I asked them at the end of the September
party if they could play for our
New Year's Eve Party. They immediately
accepted for a simple reason - they
enjoyed watching us dance as they played
their music! In other words,
the Band liked us just as much as we
liked them.
And now it is time for an Encore!
I expect
Bayou City Swing will be a huge addition to our
2008 Party!
There is nothing
like dressing up, looking sharp and dancing to excellent live
music at a New Year's Eve Party!
This is how dancers are supposed to
welcome the New Year.
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ABOUT THIS YEAR'S 2008 SSQQ NEW YEAR PARTY
December
2007
Rick Archer's Note:
For past SSQQ New Year's Eve Parties, we have traditionally charged $20.
This year we have raised the price to $35.
I realize this is a stiff increase, but I hope all of you understand
that every dollar of the increase goes directly to the
Band for their services. Do not expect untold extra dollars to
line the pockets of an avaricious dance studio owner.
In addition to the service of this
marvelous band, please remember drinks, champagne at Midnight, complimentary hordeurves,
party hats, noise makers, etc, are all included. If SSQQ makes any profit at all,
that will be nice, but despite a $35 cover charge, I really expect to
break even.
And may I
point out that New Years at the Hyatt is $79 a person. That
includes 50,000 balloons, so if it makes you happy we can all blow up a
couple balloons and drop them at Midnight.
Think about it - Dancers are
supposed to dance to live bands on New Year's Eve!!
Marla and I both
thought it was more important to give our patrons the chance to dance
to wonderful live music on this most special night of the year than it
was to make lots of money.
Our experiences on the SSQQ Cruises have taught us that once in
a while it is a treat to dress up, look wonderful, and get out
on the floor to do it right. (Read
Story)
If you agree, then come out and support the Band. You will
have the time of your life. I predict after a night of
dancing to the wonderful music of Bayou City
Swing, you will agree it was well worth it to have these talented musicians
perform for us.
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ABOUT PREVIOUS SSQQ NEW YEARS PARTIES
-----Original Message-----*
From: Gary Thomas Richardson
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 9:33 AM
To: Mickey
Subject: Happy New Year!
Hey, the SSQQ Party really was
beautiful and festive. Maybe not enough whip for some people, but there
was plenty for me. Rick really did play a lot of whip mixed with
western. For me, I don't want to do all whip anyway...though some Friday
nights I do. But, what really made it fun for me was the fact the
dancing was in the main ballroom and off to the side in the "whip room".
There is just something about being able to whip in "Room 1". They had
just completed refinishing the floors and the room was gorgeous.
The food (though I wasn't hungry, darn it!), was fabulous, too. Rick had
out everything from cakes, cookies to sandwiches and fixings for
sandwiches, dips, etc. The newly refinished floors could have used a light
dusting of dance wax, but they were gorgeous. Maybe next year all of you
can make it SSQQ.
Oh, by the way, how was Melody
Club...maybe you all had a fabulous time, too? What was it like?
-------Original
Message-------
From: Mickey
Date: Friday, January 02, 2004 09:03:30
To: Gary Thomas Richardson
Subject: Re: Happy New Year!
Gary, Sounds like SSQQ
was THE place to be. We got a glass of champagne at midnight.
From: Julie Newton Holeman
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 3:18 PM
To: dance@ssqq.com
Subject: New Year's Eve Dance
“Hi! I am writing from Oxford, MS. My
husband and I are going to be in Houston, TX for New Year's Eve and we are
looking for a place to go ballroom dancing. I found your website on the
Internet. Can anyone come to your dance or do you have to be members? Any
info you can give me will be helpful. Thanks so much! Julie Holeman”
RICK’S REPLY:
“What a nice letter, Julie.
You are more than welcome to join us. The
party is very relaxed. Party favors, champagne at midnight, food, and
wine/beer are gratis. The cover charge is $20 a person. As you might
gather from the price, we are not attempting to “gouge”. The studio
features dancing on two different floors simultaneously. The room you
would enjoy will be playing Sinatra foxtrot, big band swing, a few tangos,
a few salsas, and Irish Waltz music.
The main dance floor is over 1000 square
feet. Medium age range will be people in their 40s and 50s with all ages
represented. Dress is semi-formal; 95% of our guests respect our wishes.
Expect attendance to be around 100-150 or
so people.
The studio is smoke free and the drinking
has never been a problem. Despite access to unlimited free wine and beer,
no one ever drinks to excess at our parties – they are all here to dance!
However we all enjoy our glasses of champagne at Midnight as we toot our
horns and count down the seconds with “Auld Lang Syne” playing in the
background.
In all a very pleasant party that anyone
who loves to ballroom dance would enjoy thoroughly.
Rick Archer”
As stated in the reply above, the Annual SSQQ New Year’s Eve Party is all
about dancing. The party is safe, friendly, relaxed and fun. You have a
smoke-free environment, plenty of room to dance, and although there is
drinking, it is much less than at other venues. We have never had a
problem to date.
The attitude for the evening is
‘Upscale’. We expect you to dress up! Coat and Ties for men, dresses for
ladies (or anything else formal you can think of). No jeans, please. You
can dress as sharp as you want, but please don’t come casual. Think of it
as a special kind of Halloween Party where you fool people by coming
dressed in disguise as a wealthy person.
This is a perfect evening to visit
with friends. Many people come together and many people come without
dates. Although I won’t name names, I remember in particular one excellent
three-year romance between two people who came alone to our New Year’s
Party.
The music in our main room will
consist of a great deal of Big Band Swing music. There will be plenty of
Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, and the other 30s and 40s Classic to Swing
to. In addition we will play all of Frank Sinatra’s best Foxtrot songs
such as ‘Witchcraft’ and ‘New York New York’. Another special feature are
the popular Irish Waltzes with their haunting sweetness. In addition
there will be a healthy dose of Ballroom music in Room 1 including Cha
Cha, Tango, and Salsa music.
Western Dancing is big too at this
party. We open up Room 5 and combine it with Room 4 to make a very large
dance floor. In addition to the Western music, there will be a healthy
dose of Whip/West Coast Swing music as well. Let us add the floors will
be very nice since we will be refinishing them over the Holidays.
Special Note: At last
year’s party we had more Western and Whip dancers than Swing and Ballroom
dancers, so we “flipped” the rooms and put the Swing Dancing in the Room
4. Get to the Party early and cast your ballot!
Room 6 will be reserved for Salsa
Dancing. This means there will be three kinds of music playing in three
rooms simultaneously.
Rick Archer will be on duty as your
DJ. He will take requests for all three rooms.
At 11:40 we put our
on crazy hats, grab our noisemakers, pour out the champagne and begin the
celebration. After the countdown to Midnight we kiss, we hug, we shake
hands, and appreciate the joy of being surrounded by so many people that
we care about!
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