We always look forward to playing the Cambridge Folk Club.  The club and its organisers have always been so encouraging and supportive of what we do that it is very much like a meeting of friends when we return there.  As a result of that support, they have invited us to step through from doing a 10 minute floor slot, to a showcase spot and invitations to perform at their Cambridge Folk Festival Club tent, then a support slot, and now a full booking – which it was an honour for us to do. 

Rob and I both had personal friends in the audience who were coming along to the club for the first time and, with the regulars, the club filled up nicely before we went on.

Those who were there early had the chance to see two excellent new talents just launching out on the scene, Matt Tighe and Joe Devine.  Matt is an immensely talented young fiddler and Joe is a great guitarist. They were a great way to kick off the evening and we should all watch out for their names in the future – they will go places.

For ourselves, we were able to introduce some new material to the Cambridge Folk Club members – in particular, The Silver Duro, The English Penny and Navajos and Pirates.  We also performed our newly finished rendition of Jamie Foyers.  All of these went down well and, indeed, some of the club members were very keen to learn both the songs and the stories behind The English Penny and Navajos and Pirates.

As always, Howard and Les created a great sound in the club and we ended the night to genuine and enthusiastic calls for an encore.  It is always a pleasure to visit Cambridge and this was no exception – nice people, nice club.

With her plummy overtones, our Sat Nav has for some time been christened Camilla and, like all computers, she is a quick witted idiot that sometimes does things that don't appear very sensible.  The plotted trip from Maesteg to Southampton for example, via M4 and (presumably then the M27) looked a long and boring option to us - so, we cut across country soon after the bridge crossing back into England.  However, having been taken almost into the centre of Bath to come back out again, pretty much through the centre of Salisbury and generally experiencing really tough driving for most of that Saturday morning, I think we might listen a bit more to Camilla next time.  This was hard travelling.

Anyway, we arrived in Southampton in the sweltering heat to play at the 75th anniversary commemoration of the arrival in Southampton of the Basque children.  A major exhibition and gathering of the Basque children and their families had been planned for the day, utilising facilities at the University of Southampton.  We shall draw a veil over our efforts trying to find the relevant lecture theatre in the maze that is the University campus and simply say that we got there in the end.

The University technician staff were great in helping us set up in a very large lecture theatre.  As you might imagine, the acoustics were excellent. We also meet up with two members of the BBC who have been working with Rob on a documentary (to be aired on June 18th at 11.00am on Radio 4) on the Basque children, their arrival in Britain and their families' experiences of life in Britain.  They were going to record some of our songs and music to include in their planned programme; they had done likewise at the Guernica commemoration in Islington, but wanted some more material that they could choose from.

After a commemorative lunch, around 150 of the attendees at the event came across to the lecture theatre and took their places for what turned out to be a very emotional afternoon.  Ultimately, many of our songs are about their stories and the power that music has to trigger memories and emotions should not be underestimated.  For many, the songs articulated their feelings and we had many supportive and often tearful comments made when we had finished.

The afternoon's concert concluded with some Basque dancing.  I had never seen Basque traditional folk dance before and I found it extraordinary.  A dance troupe had come across from Bilbao to perform these beautiful and balletic dances.  Without doubt, some of these dances must be related to our own Morris dancing traditions.  There was a dance with bells attached to the dancers' calves, there was a form of sword dance, and other similarities in some of the dances.  They even led a dance up the steps and around the back of the lecture theatre - exhilarating (ad every health and Safety officers nightmare).

Not surprisingly, Rob met up with many old friends at the gathering, including a number that he hadn't seen for a very long time.

Around 6.30pm, we packed up the jalopy and, this time, we trusted in Camilla to get us speedily out of Southampton and home in time for beers and a well earned slump in front of the telly.  It had been a great weekend.  We had met a lot of interesting folk, we had touched the hearts of many people and we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The following weekend was going to be even busier - bring it on!

We might have said somewhere else in this blog that 2012 will see na-mara play its most northerly, southerly, easterly and westerly gigs.  This was to be our most westerly gig - a trip to Wales, to a town neither of us had had the pleasure of visiting before, Maesteg.

Derek Smith, of Welsh folk rock band Mabon, now fronted by his son Jamie, and his friend Peter had invited us to play some of our Spanish Civil War songs at a Welsh - Asturian weekend.  The event was multi-dimensional in that it would cover music, dance and food.  One nice idea was to have Asturian chefs cooking their regional food, but with Welsh ingredients.  The linkages between the two areas are strong for at least three reasons – first, they are both coal mining areas, second, they are both Celtic areas, and third, the Welsh miners gave support to the Asturian miners in the Spanish Civil War.

We got up early on the Friday and set off in glorious weather.  The intention was to arrive in Maesteg in time to see the unveiling of a plaque to three Welsh International Brigaders from the Maesteg area, by the local MP.  This we managed to do in good time, the M4 being kind to us.  We drove the brief climb up the valley to Maesteg itself, nestled in amongst the surrounding hills.  Maesteg has clearly had a significant industrial past and is suffering severe depression currently.  However, on a sunny day like this, one can appreciate that, if economic prosperity could be helped to return to the most deserving of areas, this would be a very fine place to be situated.

Various local people and dignitaries arrived at the Town Hall to peruse a truly excellent exhibition put together by the local library service, on the background to the Spanish Civil War and the role played in it by local heroes,.  Local schoolchildren and parents arrived to sing three beautiful songs in Welsh.  Rob and I played Only for Three Months and The Bite which were very well received.  Then four young men from Asturias then played some Asturian folk tunes - more of which in a moment!

We stayed and chatted with the various attendees at the event and were then taken to our accommodation.  We got ourselves settled and wandered off around the town to get a snack for, in the evening, we were going to perform at a music concert, with the Asturian lads.

We were given an excellent soundcheck at the Town Hall later that afternoon and then the Asturian band arrived.  However, unlike the lunchtime session, they now arrived armed with their main instruments.  We watched in complete admiration as they went through their sound check.  Both Rob and I adore Asturian music and, of course, it turns out at least two of these guys were in one of the best Asturian bands around - the Gatos del Fornu!  Wow, can those guys play - this was going to be an exceptional night.

The concert when it began, was supplemented with both Asturian cider and some excellent Asturian food.  We played well and received some excellent feedback from the audience.  (We even sold a CD to the local MP.) The Asturian band played really really well with squeezebox, gaita, flute, guitar and drums.

When the concert was over, we all repaired to a nearby club for a last drink.  In the pounding rhythms of the bar, Derek was kind enough to give us some very welcome pointers about how to get ourselves better known both generally and locally in south Wales.  Although under a lot of pressure through the day, Derek and Peter had maintained phenomenal good humour and had had us in fits for most of our stay.  We very much hope we are invited back to south Wales.  It would certainly be nice to meet up with Derek and Peter again at one of the numerous festivals they organise - though we guess probably not their Father Ted festival in Ireland.

We swapped CDs with the Gatos del Fornu and Derek kindly made us a present of a Mabon CD and DVD and – abracadabra - we had the 'in flight entertainment' sorted for our trip to Southampton the following day (and very good it was too).   If you haven't heard both of these bands, you are really missing something - check them out.

This was a special event to be invited to play at.  Through the International Brigade Memorial Trust publicity for the Guernica commemoration in Islington, Garry Davis of the Croydon Folk and Blues club had invited us to join the club for a special Friday night event at Ruskin House in Croydon, sponsored by the folk and blues club and the Croydon TUC.

The night was given a very Spanish flavour with Bernard Sullivan playing Spanish classical guitar and other pieces and local band Los Amigos providing some very up tempo South American music.

Our own performance was part lecture and part music.   In preparation for an event we had long been booked to do in Kent, we had prepared a two part programme.  The first part was a high-level explanation of the background and history of the Spanish Civil War, the second part, a recounting of the story of the Basque children. Both halves were interspersed with our songs of the Spanish Civil War plus various instrumentals. 

On arrival at Ruskin House we were greeted by both the Basque Flag and the tricolour flag of the Spanish Republic.  The organisers had put huge effort into decorating the concert room with information, photos and accounts of the Spanish Civil War. 

The event was very well attended and, despite our nervousness about how a part-lecture, part-performance would go down, everything went off very well indeed.

Having worked with the Philosophy Football team before, we were very pleased to receive another invitation to ply for them.  This time it was at an event to commemorate the criminal bombing of Guernica by fascist forces on the 26^th April 1937.  This evening event had been organised in association with the International Brigade Memorial Trust and the Basque Children of '37 and, as such, we knew many of those who were there on the night.  It was held in a pub in Islington which, on a steamy hot evening, was heaving by the time the show started. 

Very much in line with the Philosophy Football’s approach, this was a wonderful mixed cocktail of poetry, reminiscence, film, lecture, panel debate and music.  Francesca Beard provided some moving and thought provoking poetry, Peter Kennard spoke about Picasso’s painting Guernica, leading historians and journalists spoke on the panel, there was black and white film of the Basque children in the UK, and we and the great David Rovics provided the music.

This was a roiling, boiling kind of a night – great fun! 

Our good friends Al and Sue Hewson, who run the Baldock and Letchwork Folk Club, very kindly invited us up to support James Hickman and Dan Cassidy. 

With a number of future gigs relating to the Spanish Civil War coming up, this gave us the chance, in two sets, to perform and fine tune some new material - in particular, our rendition of Ewan McColl’s Jamie Foyers, and our songs, The Silver Duro and The English Penny.

We both enjoyed listening to James and Dan.  They take great care over how they sound and this serves them very well.  Great singing and guitar playing by James Hickman and wonderful fiddle playing from Dan Cassidy, all accompanied by wry humour and mutual teasing between these longstanding friends.  These are two gentlemen musicians and we had a very nice conversation with them about instruments and clubs.  It is nice to meet some headliners who show genuine interest in the clubs they visit and the acts they see there.  We wish them all the very best.

Oh - and with apologies to all the Baldock and Letchwork Folk Club, I won the raffle ........again!  Last time we’d been there, I had won the raffle and judiciously chose the box of chocolates over the wine.  Showing immense self control, my wife and I had contained ourselves to a couple of treats a night until they were finally gone – so, what do I do but go and replenish the stocks of chocs!  Will I ever be thin again?

After far too long, this was a chance to return to the wonderful Dartford Folk Club. This is a big, vibrant and welcoming club that has top acts on the bill on every week. Following a short exchange of e-mails, the club organisers were very obliging and found us a floor spot on the night that an act I have long wanted to see was playing, Megson. As an exile from my home town of Middlesbrough, I have long admired Megson's heartfelt tales of the town's plights and people.  This was an excellent chance to see them live.

The M25 was kind to us and we were able to get to Dartford early.  Pam gave us a lovely welcome on the door and Ian, the MC for the evening, was very generous and did his utmost when opening the night to ensure that we were able to play three numbers.  We took the opportunity to show the fullest range of what we do - so, we did our translated French sea-shanty Three Bonny Ships, our self-penned Spanish Civil War song, The Bite, and the traditional Irish song, Flower of Magherally.

It was good to be able to meet club regular Joe Whittaker who, as one of the organisers of the Friends of Old Ash Church, is hosting a special performance of our Spanish Civil War music on 20^th May.  As often occurs also at our gigs, we had conversations with someone whose father had been an International Brigader and was very keen to understand more about the conflict in 1930s Spain.  Following conversations with a number of people it seems possible that a number of those who watched us at Dartford could make the journey to Ash to see us perform. 

I also took the opportunity to talk with Megson.  Not only are they highly talented musicians and singers, but they are also extremely pleasant and engaging to talk with.  We swapped stories about Middlesbrough and the ups and downs of our beloved local football team.  Conversations revealed that my own parents’ house was barely more than a stone’s throw from the family home of one half of Megson.  Small world.

As with the first time we visited it, we liked Dartford Folk Club enormously and sincerely hope that we both see some more Dartford regulars in mid-May, and that we can return to the club in due course.

Having a very understanding partner who didn’t mind me rearranging her birthday celebrations, Rob and I were able to make the trip over to the excellent Twickenham Folk Club to once again support the wonderful Vin Garbutt.

We quickly assured Vin when we walked in that we weren’t really stalking him – after all, this was the third time in reasonably quick succession we had supported him!  The atmosphere in what turned out to be a full house was great and the club organisers provided an excellent p.a. system and time for a good sound check.  With the unseasonably warm weather, it felt like a summer’s night had arrived early and everyone was on good form.

From the comments we received later, it certainly felt as though our set was well received by an audience who were largely new to our music. Vin himself was on cracking form – great songs, excellent jokes, amazing penny whistle playing.  He manages to combine all of this with being both friendly and very approachable.  Many thanks to Twickfolk for the invitation. 

Rob and I had enjoyed our time at the Alcester Folk Festival last summer and the organisers had been kind enough to invite us back for a slot in their concert agenda for the second day of their Winter Festival.

On a glorious Sunday morning, it was a pleasure to get in the car and set off for the very lovely town of Alcester.  We arrived in plenty of time and, after checking in with the organisers, had a quick walking tour of the village and grabbed a bite to eat.  We returned to a packed Swan Hotel, the venue for the festival, in plenty of time to catch the afternoon’s concert.  This is a singers’ festival and there was a lot of talent on show; favourites would definitely include Hilary Ward , shantymen Sharp as Razors and the excellent Les Sullivan, particularly his final song with friends and wonderful performers Christine Connolley and Steve Last from Herga Folk Club joining him.

We had an enjoyable half hour slot and covered the range of our material – self-penned material, translated French material and some of our songs of the Spanish Civil War.  We received a good reception and had lots of excellent feedback afterwards from audience members and the wonderful MC for the day, Tony Barrett.

Despite receiving an invite to do so, we will not be able to attend the Alcester summer festival this year as we will be playing at a festival in France – which we will say more about once the details are finalised! 

Thanks to Marge and all the organisers at Alcester for being so welcoming!

The Ram Club in Thames Ditton in Surrey is a professionally run club from top to toe.  It is professional in the way it organises its evenings, it is professional in how it sets out its excellent venue, it is professional in how it runs its evenings, it has a professional and informative web-site and it is professional in the way that communicates with artist who play there - including floorsingers whom they have not yet met.  The result is that the club is able to run a powerful programme of top quality artists and fill the room with c100 people on a very regular basis.

It was an absolute joy to play at The Ram Club.  As part of our push to get better known across the London area, we contacted organisers Bob and Maggie for a floor spot and eventually agreed on 17^th February.  What a bonus to then come to understand that the headliners that night were the Jackie Oates Band!

We were only there to do a couple of numbers to start the evening off, but the local technical crew could not have done more for us to get us set us as well as possible.  We arrived nice and early and were well looked after by the home team.   Held in the function room of the Old Cranleighan sports teams, there was an excellent performance area and a large bar where people can assemble before the show and at half time for drinks. 

We played Three Bonny Ships and The Bite.  Both went well and at half time and at the end, audience members and members of the local organising team were very complimentary about our contribution. 

As with every other aspect of the club, the other floorsingers were very good indeed and, in the Jackie Oates Band, one has four wonderful musicians playing the sweetest music. So, other than the M25 playing tricks on the way home and forcing us to go one junction in the wrong direction in order to come back, because of a closed slip road on, the night was perfect. However, after Wednesday’s exertions northwards, we were both dog tired by the time we returned to St. Albans.

Many thanks to all at The Ram Club for a great evening and a warm welcome!