Sixties classics in an acoustic setting

Welcome and thank you for visiting our website! (Liever in het Nederlands? Klik Hier)

We’re THE TICKETS, a multi-instrumental and multi-tasking acoustic duo consisting of Dave Hardy on vocals, guitar and some rather unique foot percussion, and Nigel Hubée combining his vocals with bass, mandolin, dobro, ukulele, guitar and harmonicas. We love arranging and performing Sixties (and occasionally Fifties) classics on acoustic instruments and there are so many memorable tunes from this wonderful era of creativity that even our 100+ repertoire still has room for expansion. 

Since the start of the pandemic, consecutive lockdowns have largely banned performances to our local live audiences, and 2021 has been no exception to this. During a temporary easing, we managed to squeeze in a highly successful private event in the summer (see Dutch review), and a live performance in our residency restaurant the night before new restrictions would have stopped us. Read all about these uplifting events and the audience responses on our live performances page and on our Facebook posts. We finished off another challenging year for all live performers with our Christmas daytime gig – thank you to all those who came to listen! 

To enable us to continue playing and sharing our music with local audiences and beyond, we decided to convert the attic of our practice location into a fully equipped recording studio in the autumn of 2020. Since going live with this setup, 28 videos have been published and enjoyed on our rapidly growing YouTube channel. Our reviews page shows a selection of the lovely comments we’re getting from across the globe.

Let’s start with our most watched and liked YouTube videos for each of our instruments, followed by our most recent upload that’s ready to benefit from your views, likes and comments. The complete annotated list of our videos is also conveniently presented on our recordings page, so you can enjoy our music without leaving our website. Happy listening!

OUR MOST POPULAR YOUTUBE RECORDINGS SO FAR

Our version of this 1966 Rolling Stones hit has Nigel playing the original Brian Jones marimba part on the bass, adding some harmonica and vocal harmony parts, while Dave gives it his lead vocal treatment and foot percussion groove – this video just keeps growing and it may well be the reason you’ve come to our website to find out more
From the Stones to The Beatles, where we’ve arranged this 1969 George Harrison tune for the mandolin, as we think its unique double stringed sound fits the vibe of the instrumentation in the original recording on the Abbey Road album
This 1962 Bruce Channel hit is our most performed number and usually our gig or set finisher, with the multi-tasking maxed out with five instruments being played simultaneously by just the two of us throughout most of the song
Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac recorded this dual guitar instrumental in 1968, which has been arranged by us for the dobro, using a combination of slide and fretted notes to create the impression that there’s more than one guitar playing the lead
A little step back into the fifties, where we’ve arranged Buddy Holly’s first global hit for the ukulele – watch it alternate between rock ‘n roll licks and solos to fingerpicking style in the verses
Guitar instrumentals are an integral and popular part of our repertoire, and this one is known for being the theme tune for the BBC radio Sound of the 60s programme for 34 years
Recorded by The Beatles and The Shirelles, we love the early Sixties feel of this number, with Nigel taking the bass solo as well as adding a few extra Tickets riffs

LIVE STAGE AUDIO

We also still have a large collection of live performance audio alongside this page (or below if you’re on a vertical screen), recorded on a simple stereo digital recorder positioned between us on stage, as seen on the photo below from our first public performance as an acoustic duo in 2017 (our joint musical history started much earlier than that when we first performed as The Tickets rock ‘n roll band at a house party nearly 39 years ago, with photos of the event on our soon to be expanded history page).

These recordings were normally only used as a personal quality control tool, but in their simplicity of “take of the day”, together with the ambience of audience and venue sounds from pre-corona days, we thought they’d still be fun to listen to. Using headphones or earpods will give you the full sense of being in the audience when The Tickets are playing live on stage.