Following a performance at the Gate to Southwell Folk Festival back in 2011, Rob and I were very happy to accept an invitation to perform at the Carrington Triangle Folk Club in Nottingham in February 2012.  We had a wonderful time there and have kept in touch with club organiser Martin Smalley ever since.  It was, therefore, nice to receive an invitation earlier this year to return to the club and perform our more recent material for club members.

We set off early afternoon and, despite the best efforts of a busy M1 made worse by roadworks, we made it to Nottingham in time to join with Martin to talk about the forthcoming evening’s performance on BBC Radio Nottingham’s Alan Clifford show.  Alan is an effervescent guy with a great sense of humour, and it was a wonder to behold to see him in the studio, simultaneously keeping the rush hour drivers of Nottingham entertained with news, weather, music and interviews while being so personable with his guests in the studio, both off and on air.  After a quick fire round of questions and answers, we settled in to play our version of ‘The Flower of Magherally’ live – which we enjoyed doing enormously.  I hope our melodious tones salved the nerves of Nottingham’s fine citizens as they struggled their way home from work through the heavy rain.

Having finished and said our goodbyes to Alan, Martin guided us back to his house for an evening meal which perked us all up beautifully for a night of folk music.  After catching up with news of both the folk club and the Southwell Folk Festival, we followed Martin and his partner Marion on to the club to set ourselves up for the evening.

The Carrington club is upstairs in what looks to be a really cosy, urban, pub.  If I am ever in Nottingham and not performing or driving, I’m going to have a few pints there – I think it would be a lovely pub for a winter’s evening. 

The upstairs room began to fill up quickly and then, to our complete surprise, in walked two familiar faces from the Watford Folk Club.  Apparently, they have close friends in the city and had timed their visit specifically in order to coincide with our performing at their friends’ local folk club. Thank you so much Liz and Chris, we feel very honoured by that!

Carrington has some great floorsingers.  Martin and Marion themselves both performed beautifully.  There was an excellent rendition of Scots song ‘Jock Stewart’ and Chris from Watford also performed two great songs.  There was a Robin Hood epic tale sung by a superb ex-punk band member who really drove the story along fantastically well – busted string and all! He was absolutely compelling to watch.

Both of our own sets went down well and, once again, we were blessed with an audience willing to learn new choruses.  We finished the set to a few whoops and invited to play an encore.

There was some urgency to our packing up.  na-mara tend to be ‘home birds’ who drive late into the night to get back to our own beds. However, this time, there was an added necessity as I had to get up really early the next morning for a flight from Luton airport and Rob has an early start too.  At best, I was probably only going to get three and a half hours sleep.

So, with excellent directions from Martin, we hit the road and made it to the M1 quickly as the rain continued to lash down.  Remembering our all too vivid recent experiences on the A1 we contentedly talked of how the M1 wouldn’t be closed – or we did until we found out that the M1 had in fact...erm...been closed – not just in one place but two.  Another journey from hell had begun.

We abandoned the M1 and looked for the best way to hook up with the A5.  We followed ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads, wending our way first west (nearly to Tamworth!) and then south.  Unfortunately, so did all of the juggernauts.  With no space to pass, we were forced to travel at the speed of the slowest lorry.  The little bit of kip I had promised myself before getting up for the airport was getting less by the minute.

Frantically charting our progress on the i-Pad, I could see other nearby roads closed with accidents and road works.  Mercifully, before we went too far into some of the quieter stretches of the A5, we spotted that it too was closed, and we were able to get back onto the M1 south of its second closure.

Eventually we reached home and I managed about two hours sleep before hauling myself out for my plane – and Rob didn’t get much more before setting off for Oxfordshire the next morning. (AS might be expected, I fell asleep on the plane and just hope that I didn’t turn out to be one of those gurgling, lolling, snoozers that no-one wants to sit next to.)

Many thanks again to Martin, Marion and all at the Carrington Folk Club for their welcome and thanks again to Liz and Chris for giving us such a wonderful surprise there. The East Midlands area is region we are very keen to get more involved with and we look forward to returning to the area in the not too distant future.

Club organiser Steve Ramm had kindly approached us after our performance at the 2013 Tenterden Folk Festival and offered us the chance to headline at the wonderful Hoy-at-Anchor Folk Club in Westcliffe-on-Sea. 

We had had the pleasure of playing at the club's previous venue in Leigh-on-Sea back in November 2011 as well as the Leigh-on-Sea Folk Festival on a pleasant summer’s day in 2012 and had long been keen to make a return. 

Fired up from an excellent reception the previous night and stopping only for a plate of grub at an eatery on the seemingly mercilessly busy A12, we arrived at the club nice and early.  This meant we had plenty of time to chat with club organisers and to get set up in comfort. 

The new venue for the Hoy-at-Anchor is a nice sized room at the front of the British Legion Club in Westcliffe-on-Sea which, with the club’s folk night decoration and chair settings, provides an intimate setting for an evening of music.

It is nice to report that a number of club members remembered our floorspots from previous visit to the club and, indeed, we remembered some of those who had played with us back then – and it was it was very nice to hear them play once more. We had some excellent melodeon playing and a couple of songs from Mick Denny alongside some other great contributions. 

Our first set went well and, as with Chesham the previous night, we enjoyed a listening audience both keen and quick to pick up on choruses. The banter was also very good between club members and with us. 

We had chance to chat with some of the club members and fellow performers during the break including a young Irish singer and whistle player who was new to the club and was already clearly making some good musical friends there. 

Our second half also went very well and we were again rewarded with calls for an encore when we finished. As we were packing away, it was very nice to be encouraged to return to the club soon - something we would love to do. 

For once the journey home proved uneventful which helped to nicely round off a very pleasant evening. 

After the long journey to North Yorkshire and back on Saturday, the short step to Chesham felt very straightforward.  The Chesham Folk Club has been very supportive of na-mara over the years, and it was a real pleasure to be returning there again.

The club meets in an upstairs room in the White Hill Centre in Chesham, a lively establishment with a whole host of community-based activities going on there throughout the week and what looks to be a very welcoming bar.

We arrived at the club quite early and began our preparations for the evening as the room was being laid out.  A steady stream of club members began arriving and we were pleased to see the room full before the evening's proceedings got underway.

The evening began with a trio of talented performers from the club each doing a couple of songs - all very nicely done – and a very amusing monologue. We then followed with our first 45-minute set. The great thing about longer sets is that you can build an atmosphere and the Chesham audience is an excellent listening and singing audience.  They appreciated our songs and picked up new choruses very quickly.

It was nice to chat with some members of the club during the break and catch up on their news.

The second half of the evening followed a similar format with some of the club's singers returning to the floor to perform.  This included Club organiser Annette and playing partner for the evening doing a very nice rendition of Geordie.  There was also another splendid monologue.

We then delivered our second half with the club still in fine voice and, on finishing the evening with Navajos and Pirates, it was very nice to receive some whoops and a request for an encore.  We duly obliged with Javier Tejedor's Añada pa Julia.

After saying our goodbyes to club members after the show and being by others to load up the van, we turned for home.  Unlike the previous Saturday, we were in our beds before the witching hour and no-one closed any roads on us.  Luxury.

Many thanks to Bob, Annette and all the committee members at the Chesham Folk Club for the invitation to ply for them.  As always, we enjoyed our visit immensely and we wish the club well for its forthcoming programme which looks excellent.

Rob and I have long been observers on the excellent work done by Folk 21 (http://www.folk21.net/).  For those unfamiliar with Folk 21, in its own words it is a volunteer run organisation that brings together folk club organisers, artists, agents and fans to sustain, support and develop a thriving “guest booking” folk club scene in the UK. One of the many things they do is to organise conferences at which the various different parts of the folk music scene can exchange ideas and discuss best practice on issues like the promotion of folk clubs in local areas and how best to encourage younger people into folk clubs. 

Linked to these very worthwhile regionally-based conferences, Folk 21 also organises a showcase concert where artists from outside the region can be introduced to folk club organisers in the region.  This is a great idea for both the artists and the clubs.  When a regional conference and showcase is announced, artists then apply to Folk 21 for inclusion in the showcase.  A selection process then takes place and five or six acts are subsequently chosen for the event. 

Owing to prior personal commitments, na-mara hadn’t been able to apply for either of the Folk 21 regional showcases earlier in 2014.  So, when the chance arose for us to apply for the North Yorkshire regional Folk 21 event, we were extremely keen to be involved.   This was not only because we remain very focused on trying to promote our music into new areas of the UK but also because, if we proved successful, it would mean that we could take na-mara’s music to my home area.  Through the commitment and hard work of members of the Saltburn Folk Club, the venue for the Folk 21 North Yorkshire Regional Day was located in the village of Brotton, just outside Saltburn and very close to my home town, Middlesbrough. 

Given this background, you can imagine how excited we were to find out we’d been selected for the showcase.

For a variety of reasons, we decided that we would travel up to Brotton and back in the same day – a four hour each way trip.  We set off into the rain mid morning and, apart from an immediate but short lived jam on the A1(M), we had a very pleasant run north.  The clouds cleared as we passed the M62 and, by Wetherby, the sun was shining.  The sunlight showed the North Yorkshire Moors off to best advantage as we turned for Middlesbrough.

Having engineered a bit of spare time, I indulged myself by plotting a course to Saltburn and Brotton, through Middlesbrough. This took us past the end of the street I was brought up in and then on through the town centre – all of which was new to Rob. Then, just as we turned for the coast, Rob was treated to a great view of two of the icons of modern day Middlesbrough, the Transporter Bridge and the Riverside Stadium.

After a run through miles of heavy industry out to Redcar, we then slipped up the coast road for a cuppa in a nice cafe in Saltburn, before joining the event in Brotton.

The showcase event itself was wonderfully organised by members of the Saltburn Folk Club.  When we arrived, Guy Cuthbert and his team were very hard at work getting the sound and lighting systems set up.  The showcase event was taking place in a large room in a very pleasant, modern, educational establishment.  The layout of the room had elements of a theatre and, with tables laid out cabaret-style, there was a nice feel to the room. 

Shortly after we arrived the other showcase acts began to arrive.  They were Justus KitchyRetro who had travelled down from Sunderland, David Swann from Pickering, Bright Season from Sheffield and Steve Dagleish who, like me, is a native Teessider but is now living and performing in London. Just ahead of the concert, each act was taken off into a side room for a video interview against the backdrop of a green screen.  Very helpfully, the organisers intentions were to make a video of the evening, including both interviews and performances, for sending out to all the local folk organisers and placement on the Folk 21 website.

Bit by bit the auditorium filled up and the concert kicked off with a reasonably full house at 7.30pm. It proved to be a splendid evening of music.  Each act was very different from the other.  Justus KitchyRetro kicked the evening off with some of their own songs and some Americana.  David Swann engaged the audience wonderfully with an array of cleverly and sensitively penned songs.  We then showcased the various sides of what we do.  This included our translations of French songs, some Asturian dance tunes and some of our own compositions.  Steve Dagleish played a trio of his sensitive and intelligent self-penned songs and a couple of songs by the sadly departed Teesside folk music hero, Graeme Miles.  Bright Season then finished the evening with some songs and tunes from their new album of the same name.  One audience member told me after the show how much he had enjoyed the quality and range of music  on display through the evening - in his view it had better than some folk festivals. Throughout the night Guy’s team of technicians worked hard and did a great job on the sound and lighting.

People had chance to chat for a little while after the end of the concert at around 10.30pm with everyone on the kind of high that comes with a great evening of music.  Sadly, we then had to say our goodbyes and turn for home. Metaphorically, we ‘fired up the Quatro’ - OK, the Touran – and set off through the myriad twinkling lights and steam emissions of the Wilton chemical plant, to the A19 and home.

We knew the journey would be a long one.  More’s the pity then that Frustrata, the goddess of roadworks, conspired again to close the A1 half way home and send us hurtling through nether Leicestershire to seek out the true path of the M1.  But we eventually made it home and, irrespective of how tired we were the following Sunday morning, it had been a really interesting and worthwhile adventure into musical pastures new for us.  We had heard some excellent music from artists we had not heard before and we had met a wide range of folk enthusiasts from a region where the folk music scene is impressively vibrant.  Rob and I very much hope that we will be returning to the region again soon to perform at some of its many folk clubs.

We would like to thank Kelly Alcock and all her supporters for their work on behalf of Folk 21 across the UK – it is a great project that deserves every support and success.  We would also like to thank Guy Cuthbert and all of his team at the Freebrough Academy Enterprise Centre in Brotton and from Saltburn Folk Club, for all their hard work in organising such a wonderful night. Finally, we would like to wish all our fellow artists every success in getting their music out there to a wider audience and we very much hope that our paths will cross again in the not too distant future.

After an excellent summer break, it was great to be back out playing again.  We were particularly excited by our invitation to perform at the Hadleigh Folk Club.  Not only was this a new club for us but it also meant that we could meet up again with friends both on the concert bill for the evening and in the local area.

We have some great friends who live near to Hadleigh and they very kindly invited us to join them for some food ahead of the gig.  We arrived early at their house and after a lifesaving cuppa took the chance for a little rehearsal before joining the family for an excellent tea.

We then made our way in good time into Hadleigh town to meet club organiser Simon Haines and our old friends Vicki Swann and Jonny Dyer whom we were supporting that evening.  Ever approachable and friendly, it was great to catch up with Vicki and Jonny’s news.

The Hadleigh Folk Club meets at the Ansell Centre in Hadleigh on the first Friday in the month. The auditorium is spacious with an excellent acoustic.  As the concert start time approached the audience pretty much filled the available space and the atmosphere proved very intimate.

The club has some excellent singers.  On the evening we were there, these included Simon and two others as members of The Hosepipeband – what a great name! - a well know local singer who paid to homage to Pete Bellamy by singing a trio of his songs and, finally, an excellent singer from Brittany who, with an accompanying guitarist, played a lovely set of French and other songs.  It was nice to chat with him at the break about his and our French musical influences.

Our own support set seemed to go down very well, and we took the opportunity to showcase our translated French material, a couple of our own songs and an Asturian dance tune set.  It was also very nice to look up and see our locally based friends in the audience who had come along to support us.

Vicki and Jonny finished the night with a great set that mixed material from their wonderful Red House album and some new material.  It was so nice to see them perform again.

We certainly hope to be visiting Hadleigh Folk Club again in the not too distant future.  Many thanks to Simon and his team at Hadleigh for the warm welcome and support through the evening!

It was a pleasant morning when we set off for the Warwick Folk Festival. We’d had a great time there two years earlier and were very keen to return. The drive was uneventful and from the moment we entered the festival site we were looked after extremely well by the festival volunteers. 

The artist's reception team was on good form and after some excellent banter we were able to drop the gear off and go and explore the festival site. It was good to catch up The Goat Ropers Rodeo Band and hear how well they were doing. It was also good to see volunteer Jack who had proved a life saver for us when we were at Warwick last time, giving us an urgently needed lift down to a gig in the town. 

Our first performance of the day was in the Living Tradition stage where we were billed between the excellent 4square and exciting Sunjay Brayne. 

Then, after grabbing a slice of pizza and a cuppa, we made our way to a small classroom where Rob led a very good workshop on Asturian and Galician tunes which those attending clearly appreciated. 

With a substantial gap before our second performance, there was time to tour some of the other stages on the site and find some food. In this regard, I have now sent a strongly worded memo to myself to avoid festival Thai vegetable curry. It certainly resembled a biohazard going in and I’ll draw a veil over it on the way out – pizzas and pies next time. 

Our last performance of the day was in a small lecture theatre, and it was lovely to a number of our friends eschewing other festival attractions to come specifically to see us. Very many thanks to them for paying us such a major compliment. 

Having had the pleasure of seeing many old friends, once finished we turned for home and for once the goddess of motorway repairs was kind and we arrived home undiverted.

Many thanks to Dick Dixon for the invitation and to his hardy group of volunteers who looked after us so well on the day.

It was another glorious summer day when we set off to play the Henley Festival.  Given the prestige and scale of this event, it was an honour to receive the invitation several months earlier and we were both excited that the day had finally arrived. Percussionist Dan Garcia has been working with us on our new album, and it was great news that he was available to join us for this performance.

We arrived at the festival site in good time to pick up our artist passes and, I’m pleased to report that from that moment onwards we were looked after extremely well by the festival team.  This was the second day of a five-day festival of arts and music and everywhere the site was a hive of activity in preparation for that evening’s visitors.

Once we entered the festival site, we were escorted to our performance area and could not fail to be impressed by it.  Inside a very large Bedouin tent, replete with raffia matting, low sofas and tables, was a nice stage area with technicians already hard at work putting the sound system together.  Open on both sides, a cool breeze from the river blew through the tent and gave it an airy and relaxed atmosphere. We unloaded our gear, chatted with the sound technicians for a while and then went through an expertly executed sound check. The sound created was terrific and it was nice to see the bar staff smiling and tapping their feet along with us as they went through their own preparations.

With the hour and a half still to go before going on stage, we took the opportunity to have a look around the site and to watch the main act for the evening, soul singer Joss Stone, going through a sound check with her band.  What a voice, what a band; hers was certainly going to be some show later that evening!

We had a look at some of the artwork on show and for sale and then went for a light meal provided by the organisers – and very nice it was too.

By the time we had finished our evening meal, festival goers were beginning to arrive in numbers and the festival site was coming alive.  As we passed back through the site entrance, there was all manner of street-performance going on.  There were Britannias on stilts, mirror-clad figures, and a gaily painted couple dressed in what seemed Van Gogh-like painted costumes to meet those arriving. As we slowly drifted back towards our ‘green-room’, we stopped to watch a six-piece mariachi band, in full costume, playing The Beatles’ ‘All my Loving’.  This was music that wouldput a smile on anyone’s face.

As we passed back by our performance area, we could see that people were arriving there and settling down with drinks for the performance.  We briefly rechecked our kit and tuning and withdrew to the green room and prepared to perform. 

This was an unusual type of event for us and we suspected we might an unusual type of band for this event. So, it wasn’t clear – until the first few verses of our first song – how the performance would go.  However, it was clear throughout that those in the tent with us were both interested in and positive about what they were hearing. We had an hour set and managed to fit enough into it to give a good representation of our music and it was nice to have a few people come up and buy CDs after we had finished.  It was especially nice to meet someone from the mighty Nettlebed Folk Club who strongly encouraged us to get a booking there – something we would be extremely keen to do.

After the performance, we stayed around to have a beer and chat with festival visitors before returning home before the crowds began to leave. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing the Henley Festival and would like to thank the organisers for both their kind invitation and for looking after us all so well.   

It was an honour for us to be invited back by the International Brigade Memorial Trust to perform as part of its annual commemoration of those brave men and women who left these shores in the 1930s and travelled to Spain to fight fascism.

As always, this very well attended event was both dignified and charged with emotion.  There was fine poetry, speeches and music.  Alongside seeing many old friends, it was very nice to hear and make the acquaintance of the highly talented young singer Maddy Carty and to know that, through people like her, the sacrifices made by those who went to Spain will not be forgotten by the generations to come. 

It was another hot night when we travelled to perform at the famous Goose is Out folk club at The Ivy House pub in Nunhead. 

A quick glance at the The Goose's website reveals both the quality of the artists that play across its three venues and the energy that organisers Sue and Nygel put into it. We have long been keen to play there and were delighted to receive an invitation to support the wonderful Philip Henry and Hannah Martin. We had been on the same bill as Philip and Hannah almost a year earlier at the Dacorum Folk Festival and, given how much we had enjoyed their company and their music then, we were looking forward to meeting them again. In addition, we had some friends and family coming along to see the performance and we were excited to see them again.

In the spirit of yin and yang and general balance in the universe, Camilla, goddess of the SatNav, dictated that the undoubted pleasures of the evening ahead would first need to be paid for by the hell of navigating the Blackwall Tunnel late on a Friday afternoon. And lo, it came to pass. Mercifully, we managed to arrive at the Ivy House pub in good time for our sound check and it was a pleasure to meet Sue and Nygel who were already there, hard at it, getting the club set up for the evening. 

The Ivy House is an award winning, community-owned, pub bought by locals to avoid it being redeveloped for housing. It has a magnificent feel to it and, importantly for the evening ahead, a wonderful performance area with a small but impressive curtained stage, wood panelling and a large seating area.

The other support act for the night, Jimmy Lee, a fine singer from Sussex, arrived shortly after we did and it was very nice to both meet him and, later on, hear some of his poignant self-penned ballads.

We had learned in advance that it was going to be a busy evening for Philip and Hannah. At fairly late notice they had been asked to do a live broadcast on BBC 3 radio at 11:00pm that evening – an opportunity too good for anyone to miss. Given that it was a half an hour journey at least from Ivy House to Broadcasting House, it was clear that the original plan for them to play through to 11:00pm at the Goose was not going to work. So, it was agreed that Philip and Hannah would perform earlier, do their full set in one go, and then make a move on to the BBC at 10:00pm. To accommodate this, we were, therefore, requested to shift our timings and to go on after Philip and Hannah to finish the night off – something we were very happy to do.

Jimmy Lee started the evening and did a nice thirty minute set that got the audience fully engaged. Philip and Hannah then did a thrilling 90 minutes with songs from their last album and some new songs and tunes as well. It was great to again hear personal favourites ‘Silbury Hill’ and ‘The Farmer who Wouldn't Hoe Corn’. Then, after they were deservedly roundly applauded, we were on.

It is pleasing to report that our slight worry that people might wander off home after the main act had finished, didn't come to pass. Philip and Hannah had kindly recommended that people stay and listen to us, and about 50-60 people stayed on after the necessary break taken to get Philip and Hannah’s gear packed up and for them to get going.

Courtesy of a great sound system and an enthusiastic audience, we gave a lively performance that showcased the various strands of our music. It was certainly pleasing as the ‘support’ act to be given both the invitation and the space to play an encore, and quite a few members of the audience came and chatted with us afterwards about different songs we had played.

Many thanks to Sue and Nygel for the invitation to perform at The Goose is Out – it is a great club - and thanks to Philip and Hannah for all their kind words on the evening and subsequently on Twitter. We sincerely hope to get the chance to return to this excellent club in the not too distant future and look forward to meeting Philip and Hannah again somewhere on the circuit.

It was a very hot summer night when we travelled the short distance from home to perform for the Hertfordshire Spanish Circle.  Some members of the Circle had seen us perform at a fund raiser earlier in the year to raise money for a statue to International Brigader, Tom Watters and had then encouraged the organisers of the Circle to invite us to play at one of their regular educational evenings; something we were more than happy to do.

Along the lines of some performances we gave around the anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the evening  was a mixture of music and historical presentation with a first half devoted to talking at high level about the background and progress of the war and the role played in it by the British contingent of the International Brigade.  The second half concentrated on the war in the Basque region and the evacuation of the Basque children to Britain in May 1937.  Both halves were punctuated with relevant songs and music taken from our current and historic repertoire.  

The venue was a large room in a public house, and the event attracted around 50 people.  Most of those attending were longstanding members the Circle.  However, it was nice to see a sprinkling of friends and family dotted around the room.  Most notably there was a woman who had seen us play at Bishop’s Stortford a few weeks earlier and had travelled across the county by bus to be with us – something we appreciated enormously.

Given the Circle’s interest in all things Spanish, there were some in the room who were very knowledgeable about the Civil War.  However, for others it was all new knowledge.  As we find wherever we go, very few people were aware of the history of the Basque children - something that the personal connection Rob has to that story vividly brings alive. 

Naturally, we had some very interesting conversations with Circle members throughout the evening. The feedback we got form them was excellent and we made a lot of new friends. 

At the beginning of the performance we explained that, although the evening was exclusively about aspects of the Spanish Civil War, our music was not defined by it.  As such, for an encore, we showcased a range of our other material including, Navajos and Pirates and The Garden of England, which both went down very well and individually attracted interest from specific members of the audience.

Many thanks to the Rosamond Bertauche and the Hertfordshire Spanish Circle in general for the invitation to perform and we are very glad to know that the evening was a success.