17th July 2007 St Neots Folk Club

As Rob noted on the way home, the na-mara 'spring tour' had come to a close (I don't think the tour T-shirts can take any more venues, and the roadies are getting a bit tired. The Pan Technicon needs to go in for a service anyway.) So, we are taking a well earned rest for a few weeks - which will give us both chance to recharge batteries (and work up some new stuff).

St Neots was a very nice place to end up at. We liked playing at St Neots very much indeed. Patti and Roger who ran the evening were extremely welcoming. The venue has I think been restored from a more dubious glory earlier in the year - I think the pub in which the club operates had been closed down earlier in the year following a drugs bust, but had reopened and been cleaned up and, indeed, is in for further refurbishment later this year.

We had a night of 20 minute slots for around half a dozen acts. This gave everyone time to showcase what they could do and, without any doubt, there is a lot of talent going to that particular club. Ross, from Barton Le Clay, with friends Malcolm and Derek did some excellent sea-shanties and one of Ross' songs really got everyone going. Great to see three of the new friends we are making in Herts and Beds performing together. We have seen them all perform solo before, but this was great to see them as a unit.

Being on the M1 the club gets occasional visitors who are travelling with work and (sorry didn't get his name - but it wasn't Brian - a "traveller in plastics, not rubber") there was a very fine and funny mandolin player doing just that. We kicked off the second half and I think did 20 minutes of good stuff - the audience were very appreciative at least.

The evening was finished off by a very fine musical duo called Pillowfish, (cittern and violin/viola) who had driven down from York to perform that evening. We would like to wish them every fortune in getting gigs.

Rob tells me that we are to be invited back to do a further slot at the club later in the year and, as our most northerly outpost to date, we would be very pleased to do so.

So, Rob and I have a number of slots already pencilled in for the Autumn and when we are back form holidays and the like we will sit down and work out what else we would like to try and do in 2007. We are certainly building up a new repertoire with the French and Spanish material and 2008 might be time to go back into the studio and record some of it.

12th July 2007, Bishops Stortford Folk Club

WE have been contiuing to entertain with Tam Lin at various events around Hertfordshire, but on the 12th we made our first trip to Bishops Stortford Folk Club. Friends of friends we had met at our Welwyn gig earlier in the year had suggested that we get in touch with my namesake, the redoutable Jon McNamara, over at Bishops Stortford, about coming and doing a spot.

After a very entertaining exchange of e-mails, I got to meet the very entertaining Mr McNamara at last. The club is in the vestry of one of the towns churches, and a very nice venue it was -with a very nice bar too. The club offered a mix of music hall songs from Jon, some really excellent penny whistle playing, singers young and old, and some poetry. A very pleasant evening with people who enjoy good music and have a wicke sense of humour.

In flight entertainment there and back was my newly acquired Tejedor album, one directed by Phil Cunningham who plays on the album. Believe me, seek this band out - they are excellent

29th June 2007 - Cambridge Folk Club

A really busy weekend of music. Rob and I have been doing a lot of work with Tam Lin recently, entertaining at barn dnaces and the like. So, Thursday was a rehearsal and Saturday was a ceilidh. But on the Friday, we were given a huge honour, namely, to finish the evening at the Cambridge Folk Club.



I think as I have said elsewhere in this blog, Cambridge is a really excellent club. Extremely welcoming, with great floor acts and all done with a lovely sense of humour. Again, we were assisted right royally by the legendary Doc Houston who organised the p.a. very well for us and, being cheeky and seeing her in the club, I put in a request for Karen Johnson to sing Scribbled in Chalk by Karine Polwart - which she did, plus a Clive Gregson song as well. Karen is a great singer and it was a thril to hear her perform again. However, there were also some wonderful guitarists playing that night as well. So, to be asked to finish the night off was a buzz and a half.

I think we acquitted ourselves very well. It took us a couple of numbers to get into our stride and then we were rocking by the end. We continue to weave new material into the repetoire - including the Danza Prima from Tejedor - but, by and large, we stayed with material that we have been playing a lot recently because we wanted Cambridge to hear us doing what we do well.

We next play Cambridge on the 14th September when we are one of the featured bands there. It will be a great pleasure to return. However, next time, I will take a bottle opener with me. We don't dirnk when we play, but whoever isn't driving does when we're finished. Playing last rather puts the kibosh on that - so, in those circumstances, when I am passenger I usually take a couple of bottles of Innes and Gunn (if you haven't tried it, you must..except leave some for me..) with me. So, there I am, settling back into Rob's car for the return journey, slavvering like one of Pavlov's dogs at the thought of a nice drop - only to find that I'd left the bottle opener at home. Needless to say, necessity was the mother of invention and eventually, after ten minutes wrestling, the top flew off and the prize was mine! Somehow, the second was much easier to open, and (dear reader) the journey home simply flew by.

23rd June 2007: Barton Le Clay

We had our very good friends over from Reading this weekend. The two wives and two daughters took themselves off to Hyde Park to see Crowded House whilst the two husbands and sons joined Rob and went to Barton Le Clay - which is where the real action was!

Ross was raising money for a new village hall in Barton and had asked a lot of his friends along to do a session.

Joe and Alex, our friends from Reading agreed to come along - Joe is rapidly becoming our official photographer and he was taking arty shots throughout the 30 minute slot. The two boys seemed rather bemused by the whole proceedings but, with both of them being budding guitarists were very content to watch closely. We gave The Bite another run out.

It was good to see a lot of familiar faces supporting Ross. John Breeze did his usual excellent sessions - but then it was time for us to get the boys home. As we have remarked in previous blog entries, we don't have a great deal of luck on the motorways after gigs. This was the grandaddy of them all. We left Barton around 8.45pm and were veritably flying along the M1 until we ran into road works which, later turned into them closing the M1. So we had 'to make our own entertainment' for two hours as, with everyone else, we crept towards the remaining exit. We talked about every subject under the sun - in particular the Spanish Civil War, we told jokes and, thankfully(?), the two boys had plenty of playground jokes to contribute. But the biggest laugh was watching Rob turn puce as he began to regret the couple of pints of Guinness he'd had just before leaving. Eventually we made it through the jam and, with a pained expression, Rob dutifully ended up watering a St Albans rugby pitch - I don't think either of us will be doing any more diving over the try line in that vicinity. We got home to find wives and daughters already back from London after being mightily p***ed on by the rain - but, certainly for my wife at least, any hardship is worth it for Crowded House.

Wandering Windward 17th June 2007

Played John Breeze's Wandering Winward club tonight. Great to see it back at the Rose and Crown - even better when the smoking ban comes in!

John kindly gave us a 40 minute set and we took the chance to try out our new song called 'The Bite' for the first time. Rob's partner Jane has helped us think about the arrangement for the song and her expert critical ear has given us some great guidance as to how to build the atmosphere in a song. It creates complexity but it adds a huge amount of impact. Instead of me belting it out from start to finish, we now start with a couple of 'verses' played solo by Rob on classical guitar. As a former classical guitar professional, this gives Rob a great chance to shine and it really sets the atmosphere. I then sing the first two verses unaccompanied, and we come together on the chorus. It really seemed to grab the audience's attention and the song was well received.

As always John did a very lively set and there were a number of very good spots done. Again with it being St Albans, we were given great support by our friends. They turned out in numbers on a Sunday night to support us. I might come from Middlesbrough - I might even support Middlesbrough, but it is clear my home is now in St Albans! Thank you to all our friends for tonight's and your continuing support!

At the event, we were recruited by Ross from the Barton Le Clay club to play for him at a fund raising event the following Saturday. Very pleased to help Ross - one of life's "good guys"!