On another beautiful May evening, we travelled to Reading for our third evening performance in four days. Many years ago, Readifolk were the first folk club to engage us for a headliner spot and, through longstanding club organisers Colin and Una Waters and fellow club stalwarts, has been a consistent source of encouragement and support for us ever since.

Readifolk has now moved to a beautiful new venue, a hall in the grounds of the delightful Watlington House, which is itself a hidden architectural gem in central Reading. Of considerable age, the wood panelled hall where the club takes place has a very modern feel, has excellent acoustics and can accommodate a sizeable number of people.

With the capricious M25 being unusually benign to us, we arrived at the venue early and were able to fit in a little tour of the lovely, tulip-rich, walled garden ahead of Colin and Una arriving to let us in to the hall.  We now know a fair number of the club regulars at Readifolk and were quickly able to catch up on all the club’s news as they arrived over the next hour. It was also lovely to see a group of our closest friends who had come along to see us play.

As a club, Readifolk has an abundance of riches when it comes to singers and performers.  The club must have some very busy, high quality, singaround nights.  Namesakes Danny and Alison McNamara kicked this particular evening off with a couple of excellent songs on mandola and concertina. Jan followed with a well delivered and wry rendition of The Nutting Girl, and Malcolm Smith, with his East Anglian roots, provided two poignant and amusing songs from the region.

We then performed our first 40-minute set and the audience was very engaged and most generous in its chorus singing.  Again, our song ‘We Met Upon the Barricades’ seemed to be received very well.

At the break, a number of people went out into the walled garden to take in the cool evening air before returning for a second round of songs from club regulars.  Testimony to the resources the club has to hand, this second of songs was delivered by a completely different group of performers from the first half set.  Kristin, Robert and Jane provided an excellent array of traditional and contemporary songs and were followed by two rousing traditional songs from Readifolk’s next week’s guests, the fine three-piece RyeWolf.

We then returned to the stage to finish off the evening and couldn’t have been more pleased with the audience reaction to it.  We were again delighted to provide an encore at the end of the evening.

Many thanks to Colin and Una for the invitation to return to Readifolk and many thanks to Danny McNamara for his excellent MC-ing and for his very kind introduction before we took to the stage.  We wish Readifolk all the very best in their new home and we look forward to returning to this truly lovely club again sometime in the not too distant future.

The second leg of our three-gig weekend saw Rob and I on the road to revisit Hadleigh, a few miles to the west of Ipswich.  After supporting the excellent Vicky Swann and Jonny Dyer at the club back in September 2014, the organisers of the Hadleigh Folk and Acoustic Nights, Simon Haines and Val Woollard, very kindly invited us back to do a headline spot.

We set off early on a beautiful May afternoon to allow ourselves the chance to call on some of our closest friends who live in nearby Elmsett.  Despite the A12’s attempts to restrict the amount of time we had to catch up with our friends’ news, we still had plenty of time for a sarnie, cuppa and chinwag.

We said our goodbyes to arrive at the venue in good time to get set up.  Simon and Val were already hard at work laying out the venue for the night’s event and, soon after, Paddy Butcher arrived.  Paddy is a fellow member, with Simon and Val, of the wonderful, locally based, band Bof! who specialise in French and Breton music. Paddy was providing support for the evening and, given our insatiable appetite for all things French and Breton traditional, it was interesting to find out from him what Bof! were up to and what Paddy was listening to currently.

As twilight began to fall, the curtains were drawn, and the lights were dimmed in the Ansell Centre, and the mood was set for an evening of music.  A good-sized audience had arrived, and the evening began with some fine self-penned material and some Americana from two new visitors to the club, James and Angela.  In between their sets, Simon and Val themselves performed some really excellent French and British traditional material and some lovely tunes of their own composition.

In his selection of songs, Paddy showed he also has as compendious a knowledge of English traditional folk as he does of French and Breton traditional music.  We particularly enjoyed his rendition of The Blacksmith. 

We then took to the stage to conclude the evening with a sixty-minute set which went down very well, and we were delighted to be asked to return for an encore.  Our new song, We Met Upon the Barricades, which tells of the scandal of the relationships undercover policemen had with unsuspecting political activists in the early 1980s, is now establishing itself in the set. It was hugely gratifying after the concert to be told by someone with an unquestionably authoritative vantage point on the topic, that he supported both the sentiments expressed in the song and the need for the story to be told.

After a brief while chatting with audience members and saying a final goodbye to our friends who had also kindly come along to support us, we set off home.  As anyone who has driven it will know, the A12 had a few more tricks up its sleeve to keep us on our toes on the way home, but we got there in the end.

Many thanks to Simon and Val for their invitation and for looking after us so well at the Hadleigh Folk and Acoustic Nights.  With its great local musicians and venue, we wish the club every success in the future and look forward to returning there at some time in the future.

It was both a great pleasure and an honour to be the guests of Bowes Park Folk Club on the occasion of its third birthday and it is abundantly clear that this particular toddler is in very rude health. 

The club meets in a pleasant Greek restaurant called Mum’s Bistro near Bowes Park tube station.  The shape of the restaurant itself opens out from the performance area to create a natural auditorium.  Club members begin arriving from around 7.00pm onwards and can order good drink and excellent food throughout the evening.  Seated around tables rather than rows, the club possesses a pleasant, cafe-style, atmosphere.

Expertly led by Mary Blake, ably supported by sound technicians Nick and Ian, the club is very well organised and welcoming.  It is also a talented and a listening club.  The floor spots were, without exception, very good and we had everything from tunes played on the harp to some music hall classics, with some superb traditional sets from Mary, Nick and Annie.

It was extremely gratifying to see the restaurant packed for the performance.  In addition to excellent support on the evening from club regulars, it was wonderful to see friends from the Basque Children of ’37 Association there in strength and to know that some in the audience had heard us recently on the radio and decided to come and see us play live.

Feedback we received from audience members at the break and the end of the evening was universally encouraging, with different songs played and stories told touching and affecting audience members in different ways. 

There is a theory that the word ‘bistro’ comes from the Russian word for ‘quickly’ (heard from impatient Russian officers in Parisian restaurants during their occupation of the city in 1814).  I don’t know whether this is true but certainly our enjoyment when playing at Mum’s Bistro led our evening to pass in the wink of an eye.  That feels the measure of a good night out.

We would like to thank Mary and her team, first, for having the vision and energy to establish a new folk club in such a vibrant setting and, second, for inviting us along to perform there (and blow out the birthday cake candles).  We wish her and all at the Bowes Park Folk Club every success and hope one day to return and play there again.

What a pleasure it was last night to get involved with a burgeoning new folk club, The White Horse Folk Club in Hertford.  With the help of a very sympathetic and supportive publican, club organiser and well-known local folk musician Pat Crilly has done a wonderful job in getting this lovely club up and running. 

The club is held in an upstairs room in the truly delightful White Horse Pub on Castle Street.  (Rob and I don’t drink when we perform but both of us very much fancy returning to the White Horse for a few beers one night!). The club room provides a really intimate environment in which to perform, with audience members in close proximity helping to build what is an intimate atmosphere. 

In addition to Pat’s own considerable talents, he has managed already to bring together some accomplished local performers to play at the club regularly.  Pat dipped into his own encyclopaedic repertoire to entertain with songs both poignant and funny, and other club members treated the audience to an excellent mix of self-penned and traditional material.  The banter around the room was excellent as was the willingness of audience members to join in on choruses. 

For ourselves, we played two thirty-minute sets, both of which seemed to be very well appreciated, and it was nice to talk about the songs and tunes with audience members at the break and at the close of the evening.  We delivered good renditions of the two latest additions to the set list, a self-penned song and a Qubecois translation, and they are really bedding well into our set now.

Finally, it was really nice to see that various friends of na-mara had travelled from across the county to come and join us in Hertford.  It is both touching and a real fillip to look up and see familiar faces in the audience. 

Many thanks to Pat for the invitation and to all the members of The White Horse Folk Club in Hertford. We wish the club every success going forward.

 On our two previous visits to Twickfolk we have supported Vin Garbutt and then Jez Lowe.  So, it was with delight that we accepted an invitation to step up and perform as headliners at this prestigious folk venue.

We managed to park up and get to the club just as Twickfolk’s highly dedicated band of volunteers were arriving to lay out the club room for the evening.  Like a well-oiled machine the p.a., lighting, seating, decorations and box office were quickly set up and we were ready for our sound check good and early.  This is an impressive and highly professional club and the smooth progress through the sound check was testimony to this.

Audience members began to arrive around 8.00pm and it was nice to see amongst them some friends of ours who had travelled across London to come and see us perform.

The evening kicked off in style with club volunteer and MC for the evening, Paul, providing an excellent rendition of Crowded House’s Four Seasons in One Day.  Given that the heavens had just opened outside on what had otherwise been a pleasant day, this seemed more than appropriate.  Paul was followed by two other, excellent, local acts providing a mix of self-penned Jake Thackery- style reflections on life and some Dylan and Donovan classics. 

Our own two sets seemed to fly by.  From the stage, it felt as though our tale of murder and insurance fraud in Victorian Liverpool, ‘The Black Widows’, had gone down particularly well, and it was great for us to give another airing to new songs ‘We Met Upon the Barricades’ and ‘The Recompense’.  

It was a delight to be asked to provide an encore at the end of the evening and to sign copies of recent CDs. 

Then, as quickly as the evening started, we were saying goodbye to club members and our friends and watching the club’s volunteers once again hard at work, restoring the room to its previous state.  Soon afterwards, we were on our way home through hitherto unvisited parts of London, directed by the mysteries of....the new sat nav. 

Many thanks to all at Twickfolk for the invitation to perform at the club.  Many thanks to John, John and Paul for all their excellent work on the p.a., lighting and MCing, to Sue and Sarah for all their hard work on the door and to Cillian for his hard work behind the camera.  We wish Twickfolk all the very best for the future.   

It was great to be back out ‘gigging’ again and it was a real treat to start our 2016 commitments at the lovely Loughton Folk Club.  We have visited the club on a number of occasions before and have always had the finest of welcomes. This evening was no exception.

Now run by Gary James, Steve O’Donoghue and a team of committed volunteers, the club takes place in a very pleasant, nicely sized, room with good acoustics above the Loughton Club.  The club has an intimate and involved air about it.

To ensure we were there in good time, we set off from St Albans nice and early.  In the event, the M25 behaved itself for once and we were in Loughton and parked up all in good time to go and find a cuppa in a local cafe.

We returned to the car and began to take our gear up to the club and, despite still being early, we found club organisers already hard at work preparing the room for the evening. This meant we had a good chance to catch up with MC for the evening Jenny, and Gary and Steve.

The floor support was excellent through the evening with songs traditional and new from Gary and a reminder from John’s excellent rendition of ‘Sammy’s Bar’, that I should listen again to my Cyril Tawney albums.  We also had some poetry both poignant and funny and we had Steve doing a characteristically rumbustious performance of his song about the state pension age receding ever further into the future – hilarious and true.  We should make a special mention for Jenny who did a great job MC-ing and kept the evening moving along very nicely.  We were very touched by the introduction she gave when we took to the floor.

For ourselves, our hard work at rehearsals paid off.  Established parts of the repertoire went down very well and, most pleasingly, our new songs ‘We Met Upon the Barricades’ and ‘The Recompense’ both seemed to have been appreciated.    Loughton always was a great chorus singing club and we were very pleased to hear the audience joining in with us throughout. 

It was also very pleasing to see some of our friends from the International Brigade Memorial Trust make a special trip across north London to come and see us perform. Support like that is very special and means a lot to us.

We wish everyone at the Loughton Folk Club all the best for the future, and we hope to make a return to the club in future years.   

For the second half of our musical weekend, we had a double treat in store.  Not only were we going to meet up again with our old friends at the Cambridge Folk Club, but we were also going to get the chance to renew our acquaintance and play with Sussex-based five piece, Kiss the Mistress.

We first met Kiss the Mistress at the Cambridge Folk Festival and, ahead of this planned double-header at Cambridge Folk Club, we had been sending each other bits of our respective repertoires in order that we could finish this special evening of music together.  We had sent Kiss the Mistress the music for a danza (Danza Quiemada) and a muiñiera (Muiñiera de Lugo) from our set list and they had sent us over the music for a Yiddish tune (Battare Prosciutto) and an Irish reel ( McBrides).

Given the potential for a ‘grande finale’, we all thought it would be useful to meet up early at the venue and have a quick rehearsal.  Hence, by 4.00pm on Saturday afternoon we were all in the upstairs room of The Golden Hind on Milton Road, the home of the Cambridge Folk Club, reintroducing ourselves to each other and beginning to create arrangements for the various tunes.

Rehearsals went well and as Howard and Les, the resident sound technicians for the Cambridge Folk Club, arrived to set up for the evening, we were able to take a little time out to have an early pub meal together.  It was great to hear what Kiss the Mistress had been up to and their plans for the future alongside some swapping of stories about best-ever and worst-ever accommodation at festivals and other experiences.  As soon as Les gave us the nod that all was in place, we then repaired upstairs to go through our respective sound checks before the audience arrived.

This meant that we could have an early private performance preview from Kiss the Mistress who perform a delightful mix of self-penned songs and tunes as well as tunes drawn across a wide array of musical cultures.  All talented musicians, they were actually performing on the night as a four-piece with melodeon, electric cello, guitar and percussion, with their fifth member, a flautist, sadly unable to make it.  Together they make a full and interesting sound with good harmonies when singing.

By the time we finished our sound check, the doors were ready to be opened, and the night begun.

The structure for the night was arranged such that we went on first for 30 minutes.  Kiss the Mistress then went on for thirty minutes up to the break.  Kiss the Mistress then returned for another thirty minutes after the break with us returning to the stage for the final thirty minutes ahead of both bands joining together on stage for the finale.  We hope this proved an interesting mix for the audience.  It must have been a bit of a nightmare for Les Ray on the mixing desk but he manifestly coped because the sound throughout the night was excellent. The evening was also compered superbly throughout by the irrepressible Nicky Vere-Compton.

Both bands played well and audience members seemed very engaged throughout the evening. The 15-minute finale certainly sounded good from the stage, and it was nice for someone to suggest immediately afterwards that maybe the bands should record something together.

We would like to thank all of the committee members at Cambridge Folk Club for organising this special night of music.  We know how much voluntary work goes into running a regular folk club evening.  So, to then introduce an extra Saturday into the regular Friday night schedule must have been a stretch.  Again, many thanks to all concerned.

Finally, we would also like to wish Kiss the Mistress every success.  We shall look out for them at clubs and festivals and, similarly, look forward to hearing their forthcoming CD, Waifs and Strays, which should be coming out soon.

For the first part of our musical weekend, Rob and I were treated to a first-class welcome at The Goose is Out folk club in Nunhead in south-east London last night. 

Knowing how bad the traffic can be across London on a Friday evening, Rob and I set off for Nunhead in the early afternoon after a morning of rehearsal and working on new material.  Rather than risk going through London, we followed a more circular approach to the venue which proved problem free allowing us to arrive in the area in excellent time to call in on a good friend.

Rob’s friend and previous playing partner, Luke, from revered classical guitar duo Dunlea-Garcia, lives not far from the club’s venue and had kindly offered us a cuppa and sandwiches before the gig.  It was a great pleasure to catch up with Luke, hear his news and, for all too brief a time, to hear him play.  (He makes a great cuppa as well.)

We then made our way to The Old Nun’s Head for 7.00pm, in good time to get set up ahead of the gig. The club organisers of The Goose is Out, Sue Whitehead and Nygel Packett, work amazingly hard to make the folk evenings run smoothly at both of the venues they manage.  By the time we had arrived, the upstairs room of this very appealing pub was already warmed up against the November cold and fully laid out with club programmes on every seat, posters of forthcoming gigs on the walls, lights, balloons and all the necessary to give the place a great music atmosphere.  The room also has a wonderful acoustic quality – all of which just makes you want to perform.

We quickly tuned up and stored our instrument cases away which left us with ample time to chat with Sue and Nygel and hear about recent and future events at The Goose is Out. 

Doors opened at 7.30 and club regulars started to arrive.  The banter was excellent and the general good humour in the club was plain to see.

The evening began with an impressive round of singers from the floor.  Amongst other things, we had own compositions with Shruti, close harmony singing of Cyril Tawney’s classic The Grey Funnel Line (a personal favourite) and an Irish nonsense song which was sung beautifully.

We were then invited on for what was quite a punchy first set which saw us reprise The Bite and give another run out for new song, The Black Widows.

Over the break period, we had chance to chat with club regulars and newcomers.  Then, after taking on the onerous responsibility of drawing the raffle, we had a second round of songs from singers from the floor. Again, it was a great, eclectic mix, with some excellent singing.

Our second set was a more reflective set.  The audience was very much a listening audience and were attentive to the stories we were telling, joining in and supporting us with choruses.  We finished the performance off with Navajos and Pirates and, to our delight, were roundly encouraged to provide an encore.  This we were pleased to do, playing our new DADGAD version of The Maid of Culmore.

Some of the feedback after the gig was a little overwhelming.  It can be hard sometimes, peering through the spotlights on a stage, to be able to fully read audience reaction – but we could not have been more delighted with the comments we received which was not only about the music itself but the presentation of the material.

As things died down, we packed up, said our goodbyes and got into the car to return home.  It was then we heard for the first time about the tragic events that had been unfolding in Paris throughout the evening.  Understandably, it was a sombre and reflective drive home through the centre of London.

Many thanks to Sue and Nygel not only for their invitation to play at The Goose is Out but also for their professionalism throughout all our dealings with them relating to this gig and for the warmness of their welcome.  We wish them and all at The Goose is Out well and sincerely hope to make a return to the club in the not too distant future.

After a brief hiatus for holiday and other commitments, it was great to be back out performing again and where better to visit than with our old friends at Barnet Folk Club.  We had originally been booked to play at the club back in May as a London launch for our Navajos & Pirates album.  However, owing to a close bereavement at that time we had been forced to cancel.  Very kindly, club organiser JJ Dunne had re-jigged his arrangements for the latter part of the year to accommodate us – for which many thanks! 

Folk in the Foyer, the moniker of the Barnet Folk Club, does ‘what it says on the tin’.  The foyer of the arts depot building at Tally Ho corner in North Finchley is regularly transformed on a Friday into a folk club in cafe style, with a stage at the front and a well stocked bar at the back.  JJ organises a good p.a. set up which turns an otherwise potentially intimidating space into a convivial club atmosphere for the evening, offering entertainment to folk enthusiasts and newcomers in the local area.

We arrived in good time for a sound check with the club’s excellent sound engineer, Ben.  Then, as JJ and fellow musician Rick Hayter went through their sound checks, the audience space filled up and, indeed, by 8.30pm the club was pleasingly full.

JJ started the evening off with a couple of great songs from Christy Moore, including our favourite, Viva La Quinta Brigada.  He followed this with a song of his own and finished his set off with a very lively rendition of Fairy Tale of New York which certainly got the audience singing along.

JJ then called Rick Hayter to the stage.  For those unfamiliar with his work, Rick is a prolific and talented singer songwriter from north London.  In his six song set he covered a wide range of topics in a range of musical styles. Check both JJ and Rick out on You Tube!

Then we took the stage for a single 45-minute set in which we showcased many of the songs from the new album and added in some newer material with, for example, a rendition of The Black Widows. 

I’m pleased to report our performance seemed to go down well. 

We then concluded the evening by accompanying JJ with a version of Whiskey in the Jar - the traditional way in which proceedings are brought to a close at Barnet Folk Club.   It is nice to send people away singing.

The audience at Barnet Folk Club are very friendly, welcoming and supportive.  They are also very interested in the subject matter behind our songs.  So, it was nice after the show to help direct one audience member to where he might find out more about the Black Widows (so-called since, in Victorian times, they would multiply insure their husbands and then poison them) and to update another audience member on where the story behind our song The Garden of England (which looks at slavery in modern agriculture in England) had got to since we last played the song at the club.

Many thanks to JJ for another memorable night at Barnet Folk Club!  We wish the club every success and we look forward to returning to the club in the future.

It is always exciting to visit a new folk club.  Orpington Folk Club was certainly a new club for us but, the club itself has a very long-established pedigree celebrating its 50^th birthday this year!

Fearing the vagaries of the M25 and the Dartford Bridge, we set off early for Orpington and, with a fair wind, our sainted Sat Nav, Camilla, delivered us in Farnborough Village near Orpington just at that time in the day when cafes are shut and traditional pubs aren’t serving grub yet.  So, having plenty of time and in definite need of a sarnie to stock up energy levels for the evening ahead, we retraced our steps back into Orpington and had a sandwich in The Buff - which I am pleased to report is a pub rather than a state of undress; not a naturist in sight.

Fed and watered (literally - we don’t drink before gigs), we made our way to The Change of Horses pub in Farnborough, home of the Orpington Folk Club.  When we arrived, Ted Handley, our host for the evening, was already hard at work getting the room sorted out.  He was soon joined by Anne Halford.  By the time we’d got all the gear in from the car, the room was set for an evening’s music. Still nice and early, we had chance to chat with Ted and Anne before club regulars started to arrive.  We were also treated to some great accordion music and singing by Ted, Anne and Ivan North, before the room began to fill up for the evening.

Ted, Anne and Ivan’s set effectively began the evening’s proceedings.  Then, after two excellent floor spots by other club regulars, we went on for our first half.  Orpington Folk Club is a very friendly club with great banter.  It is also an excellent listening and singing club, and our choruses were picked up quickly.  The songs and tuned seemed to go down well and there was great interaction with audience members.

The break allowed us to chat with a wider range of club regulars, and we very much appreciated the friendliness and welcome shown us.

Ted, Anne and Ivan then returned to kick off the second half with some great tunes and a rollicking Cyril Tawney song.  We then took up the reins after the raffle to finish off the evening.  We again mixed our own compositions with some Breton and Galician tune sets and some traditional French, Quebecois and Scots songs, ending the night with Navajos & Pirates. It was very pleasing and we were  honoured to be asked to perform an encore to finish off the night.

The energy had been high throughout the evening in what is a very pleasant space to perform and listen to music, and it stayed high as we had further chance to talk with club organisers and regulars before packing up for home.

As we travel around the UK motorway system, we seem to be developing some truths from which proverbs might be fashioned.  One that seems to have great potential is ‘when the Spaniard drives, the way is blocked’. It certainly seems the case that when poor old Rob is behind the wheel, like water lilies in the evening, motorway lanes begin to fold and close before our eyes – and, so it was, on this (my birthday) evening. The run-up to the Dartford Tunnel was closed off resulting in a seemingly endless line of bemused drivers being forced to do a motorised hokey cokey through the byways of nether Dartford before being allowed to cross the river.

Anyway, we made it home for 1.00am and spent some of the remaining time in the car listening to some recordings of new na-mara material – listen out for some new songs coming through.

Many thanks to Ted, Anne and Ivan for looking after us so well on the night!  Thanks also to fellow club organiser, Steve Jennings, who booked us for the gig but wasn’t able to be there on the evening.  We very much hope that we can return to Orpington Folk Club in the not too distant future and get to meet Steve in person and catch up on all the club’s news again then.