19th March 2008, Baldock and Letchworth Folk Club

Thanks to the continuing support of Alan and Sue Hewson, we made a very pleasant and welcome return to the Mad Nanny! Folk Club at the Orange Tree in Baldock for a full spot. We had a modest but very supportive turnout including a number of our friends from St Albans and nearby. So, it was a nice cosy atmosphere - which the excellent Orange Tree bar helps to generate.

It was nice to again get the chance to play two forty minute slots - we find it really helps in getting us 'into the groove'. So we had chance to introduce some more material into the full set - including Solo Por Tres Meses, the Flower of Magherally and a revamped version of Sr martin D'Auray - which I am pleased to say some of the club's regulars had actually visited in Brittany.

It was also a good chance for us to try and be a bit more expansive in describing the songs. Rob and I concluded some time ago that the music is developing well and it is being well received by the audience but, somehow, we weren't connecting with the audience on a personal basis as much as we could. Now, neither of us would ever be stand up comics and patter-merchants but both of us make presentations and work extensively with people in our day jobs, so we should be able to make the spaces between the songs and tunes as engaging as the music itself. So, we said a good deal more about the songs and tunes this time and felt it made for a much more rounded performance - and the feedback seemed to concur. Alan and Sue were very complimentary afterwards and that means a lot to us.

We were supported by an excellent duo from the St Neots club, Paul Cherrington & Pamela Ward who write some very touching songs and deliver them very elegantly - good singing and lovely guitar support. We hope to see them again at St Neots and they said they would make contact for us with Mike Blair at the Bedford Folk Club - a venue we would like to play.

The excellent Malcolm Hobbs also did a brief set. we both love Malcolm's choice of material and his voice. He is also so supportive and friendly towards us - much appreciated.

As we turn to the Easter break, we will focus on bringing on some more material. We have been asked by Baldock and Letchworth to do a support on June 11th, which should be a good catalyst for bringing some new material that is currently 'simmering under' into the repetoire. We have another 3 or 4 French songs close to bringing forward.

Other than that we are joining Alan and Sue, as a Tam Lin line up at the memorial festival for the late Paul Gunningham - so we will be rehearsing further for that in the coming week. I am pleased to report that tickets for the festival are going well.

2nd March 2008, Readifolk

A very nice return to the excellent Readifolk Club in The Gardener's Arms in Reading. Rob and I had very much enjoyed our two visits to Readifolk and were happy to return and do a support slot. This allowed us to again play our new composition, 'Solo Por Tres Meses' and we also introduced The Flower of Magherally into the repetoire for the first time. Some excellent floor singers and a couple of good songs from MC Malcolm provided the rest of the support for the evening with Ceri Rhys Matthews and Christine Cooper providing the main act for the evening. Two really friendly people playing excellent Welsh tunes on both flute, bagpipes and fiddle, with some nice songs as well. It was both a pleasure and an education to be in the audience for the evening.

The trip to Reading allowed us to see our great friends Joe and Mandy again - Joe is only a whisker away from being our official photographer, alongside Rob's partner. Sadly, neither of them can put me any more hair on this balding pate of mine. Ho hum.

Next stop for us is Baldock and Letchworth later this month where we are doing a full spot later this month. The repetoire is continuing to build and strengthen and, with a welcoming club like Alan and Sue Hewson run, it couldn't be better to try some new material out. We will also be taking a contingent of friends from St Albans. So, it should be a good night.