Da Capo, 2nd December 2006

After playing at the Da Capo school earlier in the year, we were asked back to play for their end of year concert. The children and adults who attend the school, which provides an exciting and innovative approach to music education - look them up - have a concert to show what they are about and what they can achieve.

The invitation allowed us to try out a lot of the music we have been working on recently - a lot of the new French songs we have been developing, plus some reworking some of material from our CD. WE also had a nice quiet room to rehearse in for a couple of hours which was a real luxury (instead of worrying about the neighbours!)

The first half of the concert was a little difficult as a lot of the children were tired and excitable from the day's work and concert, and took a little time to settle. Trying to play without amplification into that environment, meant we were somewhat drowned out. But, it was good practice for us and we enjoyed what we were doing.

When we had a break, some of the teachers from the school, superb musicians each and every one, put on a concert of Russian and Greek music. Klezma is such a wonderfiul music form - from the exhilirating to the heart rending.

As the audience thinned out, we were left with a group of adults and children who were more keen and able to listen and so, for our second set, we were much more able to be heard and, by all accounts, everyone enjoyed what we did. We even sold a few CDs, which is nice.

The organisers looked after us wonderfully well, feeding us up during our break - so thanks to Michell, Jane, Paco and the team for a wonderful welcome and soem excellent food!

We now turning our attentions to the Knig Harry in St. Albans on the 5th December - so, this was an excellent workout for us.

Na Mara at Goring Unplugged, 24th November 2006

Risking life and limb to travel the M25 on an early Friday evening, we set off en route to deepest darkest Oxfordshire to play at Goring Unplugged. We had been told about the club by an old friend who lives in this most beautiful little town. And, like many journeys into unknown parts, there was indeed a treasure at the end of it. This is a really great little club. It meets once a month and, if you live anywhere remotely near it, you should try and find out more about it and go along.

There is lots of pressure for playing spots in this club and the standard of the musicianship is extremely high. We were honoured to be asked to end the evening - either that or the organisers just thought that it might take us until 10.30pm to actually get there.

This is an exciting and modern club. Our material was ptretty much the only traditional material through the evening and was well appreciated by a sizeable audience (even though they usually get twice that number.) The music spanned everything from the superb classical arrqangements of traditional tunes by the very gifted Carla Maria Zapatelli, the Texan Swing music played the learned professor Andy Baum, to some truly blistering blues played by The Smack Boys - if you see their name anywhere, you should go.

The truly great thing about the club is that they are also very accommodating to young acoustic musicians from the twon. A small group of very talented youngsters played a boisterous set and were roundly applauded for doing so.

The organisers were extremely welcoming, the venue - the Village Hall - exrtremely cosy, especially for a cold and wet November evening. We stuck to our recent set of a little French, a little English and a little Irish.

The only downside of the evening was, after all that fun, was setting off back around the M25. Still, Rob likes to do the driving which means that I can have a gottle of geer. (neither of us drink before playing - we must be the only folk musicians for whom playing gigs is a slimming aid.