Laxfield Festival of Tolerance, 22nd September 2007

Not long after the exhilaration of playing at Cambridge, we had an early morning, up and at 'em trip back eastwards to Suffolk - the furthest east we've played - to the small and very beautiful village of Laxfield.

Some 450 years ago, a Protestant preacher was martyred in Laxfield and, as the name suggests, this event is there to promote religious and philosophical tolerance - which seems the right thing for us to be supporting. Naturally, it also has a Tudor flavour.

Na-mara had been recommended to the organisers to play the festival by an old friend of ours, Bob Kidby of the excellent London-based jazz combo Clarence and the Regents. We had done some charity work with them in London in recent years and we know the band well. So, we set off to have lunch with Bob and the rest of the band, after meeting up with our great friend Tony Garrity, Suffolk's shyest bodhran player. We were to play a couple of 40 minute slots in the afternoon in the acoustic tent, as the crowds were milling through and around, to be followed by a thirty minute slot on the main stage in the big tent before Clarence and the Regents began.

The event, skilfully put together by Simon Gallo - an events organiser based in Laxfield and doing probably a thankless task, gratis -was an excellent day out. The weather was great. Our afternoon sessions were, in a way, live rehearsal. People passed by, listened for a few numbers, took the kids for an ice-cream, wandered on; that sort of thing. Very nice; no pressure - adn it showed, we did a nice couple of sets. We interspersed with a professional band of Tudor musicians, the delightful Passo mezzo - playing weird and wonderful Tudor instruments, in Tudor costume, to very great effect! My coat might have looked as though it had been around from Tudor times, but I can confirm it was modern really.

We then left Laxfield after the afternoon session for a bit of a rest before the evening performance - we are getting on a bit now you know.

When we returned to set up for the main stage, we found that the organisers had put an itinerary together of local young adults rock bands - to get the evening really going. So, picture two folkies of a certain age, watching with some alarm at the prospect of following some excellent young rock bands pounding away to a mosh pit full of their friends yelling and shouting. "Hmm, I bet this lot like a sea shanty or two" was not a thought that came to mind. Thankfully, when it came our turn to go on, there was a ten minute break while the roadies set up the equipment for Clarence and the Regents. In that time, the youngsters drifted off to the darker corners of the village to do what youngsters have done at village fairs for centuries (if folk songs are to be believed!), and a new audience filtered into the main tent. However, Rob and I decided that this was still not the place for slow and tearful ballads; rather, we should rip it up a bit with some fast Asturian tunes and some of our faster songs...and it worked well. We even had bits of the audience out dancing and jigging around. It all went down very well. Simon and Bob were really happy with the set and we got some excellent feedback from Tony - who, in the end, we couldn't persuade to come and join us.

So, we went and had a complementary burger - we live the high life you know - and watched the superb Sally from Clarence and Regents get the crowd going and then we turned for the long journey home. What a great day - we made a lot of new friends, saw some old friends and had a wonderful day out - I can't think of a better reason to do this stuff, can you?