Blimey!  This feels like the real deal – once again, up early and on the road to a town never yet visited before.  We were off to Alcester in Warwickshire for their folk festival. For us, it was just like old times going broadly the same route that we had travelled dozens of times to Blue Moon studio to record The Bite.  To shorten the journey, we listened to some old Alan Stivell recordings, if that isn’t a tonic for a Sunday morning, I don’t know what is.

Arrived in good time at the immensely pretty town of Alcester and made our way to the local Greig Centre to meet Marje and get our festival wristbands.  Our impression was that, in the same way one gets clubs that are singing clubs and some that are listening clubs, this seemed to be a singing festival –with lots of local talent on show in a numerous venues.  Lots of dancing going on too.

We had a quick walk round the town and then made our way to the Town Hall, to get ready for our first of two sessions.  Lunchtime on Sunday, meant that revellers (?) from the night before were only just getting going.  As such, the early acts had fewer people watching than they deserved.  It was nice to see the excellent Les Sullivan again – whom I had seen at the Maidenhead Folk Club in April – singing with the equally excellent Christine Connolly, Steve Last and others.

We followed Fairfield from the Bromsgrove Folk Club, who performed a wide range of really interesting material.  Then we were on.  In the need for a quick turnaround, we didn’t get the chance to thank Bob Bignell of Fairfield for his really supportive review of The Bite in Folk Monthly magazine – many thanks Bob!

We had maybe 20-25 in the audience.  The upstairs room at the Town Hall was an historic and atmospheric place to play. It gave us the chance to do justice to Only for Three Months –which was commented on favourably afterwards. 

Such is the nature of this festival that there needs to quick turnovers and quick movements around town.  As soon as we finished we had to move off to do another set elsewhere.  It felt a bit unseemly departing so quickly but I hope the band that followed us realised that was why we were leaving what sounded a lively set so quickly.

Down to the Royal Oak for the second set.  We made it with about 10 minutes to spare; waited for the act before us (who I’m afraid I never caught the name of but he could certainly play!) to finish a song, and then stagger in with the kit.  Ten minutes later, we were on – as mystery guests in a way, since no-one had heard us or of us before. 

We kicked off with Compagnons de la Marjolaine, which set an upbeat tempo and with, Avery and the Merchants of Bristol, Nellie Torrence and Jeannie Waldie  and Billy Don’t You Weep For Me, was very well received.  As is the case with many pubs, this wasn’t an easy venue to play.  We had a sympathetic and good audience but tills ringing, coffee grinders grinding didn’t make it easy.  However, we had a good chat in the back bar afterwards with the MC and it seemed clear he had appreciated the set, which was great.

So, mid afternoon we turned for the two hour journey home.  We went back to see Marje, pick up our on offer CDs (and bought an album of songs by Richard Grainger about Middlesbrough – which I haven’t heard yet but am keen to).  Grabbed some food at a service station on the way home.  Back for 6.00pm absolutely cream crackered. 

Marje was kind enough to mention the possibility of an invite back to the Alcester winter folk festival – which sounded a lively affair, and we would certainly be keen to oblige!

Luxury – a local gig, a local big gig (if the weather behaves itself!

This was the first day of the St. Albans town festival with lots of events at the town park.  So, from our homes, it is a 10 minute drive to Verulamium Park (on the old Roman town area), 5 minutes to park the car on the festival site and a 10 minute walk with the gear up to the folk stage.

Perhaps predictably, living closest of the acts we were not the first to arrive.  The instructions had been to be there for 10am if you wanted a sound check ; 11am if you wanted a line check.  We arrived around 11.30am, which seemed plenty of time given we were not on until nearly 2.30pm.  In the end, it was perfectly OK because, either for the weather or other reasons, the folk stage was still being equipped with a p.a. when we got there.

We sat for a while in the adjacent open pergola and watched the rain laden clouds scud by.  It was sunny then rainy by turns every five minutes. The local organisers and the event managers joined us but given the increasing dampness of the weather and the openness of the pergola, we took advantage of a sunny break to decamp to the guests’ tent elsewhere on site.  As it happens, by then, this was completely taken over by a local choir doing Abba hits. 

Just as Rob and I decided that, given the passage of time, we should be getting back up to the folk stage area, Vicky Swan and Johnny Dyer turned up to pick up their instruments and do the same.  We had supported Vicky and Johnny about 18 months earlier at the Baldock and Letchworth Folk Club and it was nice to meet them and get a chance to talk with them again. Like us, they have a great array of instruments and we must have looked like pack horses making our way back up the hill to the folk stage. 

Vicky and Johnny managed a quick sound check and, by then, it was 1.30pm and the show was on.  It was a pity there weren’t more people to see Vicky and Johnny.  They are excellent musicians and play some really interesting music.  They told us that they are going full time in the very near future and we wish them every success and are sure they will and deserve to do very well.

Then there was the usual quick turnaround and we were on.  As for Vicky and Johnny, the weather held and there was therefore an audience in the open space in front of the stage. We had around 60 listening and saw many friendly faces out there to greet us – thanks to them all for their long-lasting support!  The p.a. was excellent, we were up for it and played well and, all-in-all, the set seemed to go down well.

After us, and another quick turnaround, we had the pleasure of, once again, seeing Marianne Neary perform. Marianne is a terrific singer with great stage presence and a nice mix of her own songs and some traditional songs. Interestingly, she is now playing with two very talented players, which really gives her plenty of options, plus depth, range and dynamics to play with.  She also very kindly and spontaneously gave us a plug for The Bite! Hurrah!  Then she blew it, sang a song about summer sunshine and the heavens open with a torrential downpour that sent the audience scattering for shelter!

By the time Marianne had finished, there were a lot of musicians and organisers huddled under the less than waterproof covering of the pergola, and despite the great Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts coming on later, I confess we turned for home.   We managed to have a few words with Jamie on the way out to wish him and Katriona well for Cropredy.  With Vicky, Johnny,Jamie and Katriona, it is great to know the music will pass on to further generations – all nice people with immense talents.  With that, we lumped the kit back across the park to the car, to the sounds of the very excellent King Alfred’s cakes.  Nice to know that we will see them and Marianne the following weekend for a session in the local town hall!

Ten minutes home, cup of tea and a biscuit – luxury!

We had been invited to be interviewed on The Emerald Hour programme on local radio station Radio Verulam by Lydia El Khouri, following our sending her a copy of The Bite.  In the event we couldn’t make the original St Patrick’s night programme that we had originally been invited to and, in the event, because she is standing in local government elections for a political party, Lydia was not able to host this evening’s show - but was in the studio to help us through it.   As a result of Lydia not being able to host the show, John Devine of renowned local St Albans music scene fame and who does a roots music show on Radio Verulam himself, stood in.  We hadn’t met John before and it was great to get the opportunity to meet him.  Many of na-mara’s  friends  have told us over the years – ‘you must see Devine-Waters’.  So, we still haven’t seen him play, but we have had the great pleasure of meeting him.

Radio Verulam had asked us to present some of the music from The Bite and to talk through some of the influences on our music.    In a very easy conversational session, we were allowed to give some background to Nellie Torrence, and Only For Three Months as well as say a few words about our connections into Asturian and Galician music and weave in a bit of early Fairport Convention and some of Rob’s classical influences.  John had an excellent way of steering us through both the music and the chat and, we hope, it was a lively and interesting session for listeners.   John undertook to listen to The Bite and to play it on his music programme for the station.

Everybody at the station was very friendly and nice – so thanks to Radio Verulam, to John, Lydia and Jackie.  We look forward to working with Radio Verulam again! 

This was our second support slot of April and our second visit to the excellent Ely Folk Club. Last time we were there, we supported Mawkin: Causley (15^th October, 2008).  This time we were supporting the mighty Tannahill Weavers. 

I have known of the Tannahills for many many years but had never seen them play – so I was very much looking forward to the evening.  We were also looking forward to seeing one of the club organisers, Ruth Bramley again. Ruth has always been very friendly towards us and supportive of what we do and it is always good fun to meet up with her.

The turnout for the evening was a bit on the low side, which was a surprise to all concerned – but there was a suggestion that a crucial football game (Tottenham vs Real Madrid?) was on TV and that had taken some people away.  With Spurs 4-0 down from the first leg? – there are miracles and miracles – oh, the faith of the football fan!

Rob and I played well and were warmly received.  The Tannahill Weavers then did two very lively sessions of Scottish music and songs, driven forward by some truly excellent bagpipe playing that, in a confined space, has quite an effect. 

It was very nice to chat with the Tannahill band members.  Here are some of the most experienced travelling musicians on the circuit today and it is to their credit that they all, to a man, remain so warm and friendly to those supporting them.  In chatting, I discovered a few things in common with at least one member of the band, who has a studio over in Tayport, on the south of the Firth of Tay. I was a student in that area many moons ago and we had a nice chat about the virtues of glorious little fishing villages in the area such as Crail, Anstruther and Pittenweem.  The Tannahills are heading north and will be doing a concert in Crail in Fife soon and I would love to be there to see that.

The evening ended, we all said our fond farewells and then we made the long journey home to St. Albans which was fine – we put the new compilation album of Pete Bellamy songs on the ‘in flight entertainment’ system and listened to Oak Ash and Thorn.  Getting up at 6.00am the next morning for work was a bit of a struggle, however.

This gig saw Rob and I extending our ‘patch’ north, with a trip to support the wonderful Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts at the Rugby Roots Club.  Following a mail-out of The Bite just before Christmas 2010, the organiser of Rugby Roots, Richard Barnes, invited us to play, and this was an invitation we were more than willing to accept. 

Never trusting the British motorway system, especially at the weekend when we actually might want to use it, we set off nice and early on a bright spring evening and made it to the venue, the Lawrence Sherriff School in Rugby in very good time.

As we parked up in one of school’s quadrangles and started to get our kit out of the ‘tour bus’, we could hear some wonderful sounds emanating from an open door to the school hall – first, some very sweet mandolin music (which turned out to be Katriona warming up - on her second instrument! we heard the wonderful violin playing later) and then we heard what sounded like guitar and percussion, which was interesting because we thought they were a duo.  And, of course, they are!  What we were hearing was Jamie Roberts’ amazing technique of laying his guitar across his lap, dulcimer or steel guitar style, tuned to a D-chord (I think), and playing single notes or chords whilst hitting the sound box and the side of the guitar to give a percussive sound.  Wow! 

We went into the hall, introduced ourselves and had a brief chat with Katriona and Jamie who were both very friendly.  We gave them a little bit of help getting the p.a. balance right on their sound check and then, very kindly, Jamie helped set up our sound check using their system. 

We all then disappeared off to a classroom cum green room where the organisers had laid on sarnies and a cuppa, and we continued to have a very instructive and interesting chat with Jamie and Katriona.  They had a tremendous amount to talk about having just finished a tour supporting Fairport Convention and were just embarking a quite gruelling tour of their own before kicking off into the summer festival season, which was all fascinating to listen to.  We also met a very lovely member of the organisation team from the Cropredy Festival, who was very informative and knowledgeable about the local folk scene in the Midlands area and beyond.

Over and above a decent level of pre-event ticket sales, around 30 more people arrived and paid at the door giving an audience of c90-100, which created a nice atmosphere within the high vaulted school hall; not too crowded nor too sparse.

Rob and I did a good set that was well received, with Jamie again standing in as sound technician for us. We got some excellent feedback later, at both the break and the end of the evening – and we hope it might lead to some more bookings in the local area.

Katriona and Jamie gave an excellent performance, with some stimulating songs and great music .  As undoubtedly two stars of the future, they were very well received and deservedly so for the entertainment they provided. 

So, overall, we had a nice evening at a very fine music club, meeting two very pleasant and immensely talented young musicians and a nice club organisation team, we heard some great music and generally had a wonderful night out.  We wish Katriona and Jamie very well indeed and look forward to meeting them again soon – we are on the same bill as they are at the St. Albans Folk Festival on the 18^th June 2011.

This was another exciting night for us, for two reasons.  The first was that we had played at the Milkmaid Folk Club back in March 2009 and, as our blog records show elsewhere, we had a really good time and reception there that night.  We had supported Chris Sherburn and Denny Bartley that time and had fond memories of a friendly, welcoming, well organised and well attended club. 

This time, we were supporting the great Vin Garbutt – and for me, as a Boro lad who remembered Vin from days gone by, it was a thrill to see him again after many years.

Despite inexplicable shenanigans on the good old A14 – one of those interminable hold ups that freak you out when you are trying to get to a gig in good time but when you get to the incident there is no obvious explanation to the delay – we did get to the club with time to spare, only to find that Vin was stuck in what we had just come through.

However, after a friendly hug from organiser Terry and a very professional sound check with the club technicians, we were ready and raring to go.  The door opened, Vin arrived, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.  Then we waited as the club, filled and filled and filled.  Vin had drawn people in from across the region, and there was great excitement in the room.

We did a 30-minute set which flew by for us and led to a few CD sales – many thanks!, and then the Teesside troubadour himself, the Young Tin Whistle Pest of legend, took the stage with his unique mix of soulful and insightful songs, unique delivery, blindingly good penny whistle playing and engaging and comic interludes.  It was great to catch up on his new material and to hear him play some of the old songs – all with a local and historical resonance for me from my formative years in the Boro. 

There is something very human about Vin Garbutt.  He is generous with his time, accessible, friendly, intelligent and always there to meet and talk with his audience.  We certainly enjoyed our chat with him – during which I thanked him for mentioning my Middlesbrough local in his song Punjabi Girl and which brought back the fondest of memories.  He was also kind enough to request a copy of The Bite and so we traded albums.

With the show going over time and then us having a brief chat with Vin afterwards when the audience had drifted away, it was after midnight before we set off home – so, it was a late one, but really really worth it!  Thanks also to my wife for putting off her birthday celebrations that evening! 

Well, the night we had been looking forward to for so long had arrived – we were off to the Compass Theatre in Ickenham near Uxbridge to support the great Emily Smith.  It is rare that I go straight out and buy someone’s records immediately I hear them, but I did just that with Emily Smith after hearing her on a BBC Scotland Hogmanay Night show a few years ago and have been a fan since.

Just to be sure that we didn’t end up stranded on that car park known as the M25 at rush-hour, we met up early for the off.  However, London’s big roundabout is ever capricious, bewilderingly  hosting almost no traffic at all that evening, the omens were good and with an hour and a half to spare we had arrived at the theatre and were shaking hands with Uxbridge Folk Club’s visionary organiser, Archie Macauley, and with the great lady herself (tucking into a plate of pre-concert pasta in the Green Room as I recall – we didn’t overstay our friendly welcome, it’s not fair).

This was indeed the high life – Archie even organised for us to have our own back room for tuning up and a pre-concert pee.  The stage and auditorium were a very nice size; it couldn’t be better.  We unpacked the instruments, tuned up and had a quick rehearsal.  Following a wee bit of confusion, Archie stepped in and put the theatre’s sound guys in touch with Emily’s sound guy, and we were able to do a sound check and the audience was allowed in.

The audience was very much our type of listening audience and we performed a varied set of material from The Bite which was well received.  Sadly, despite the excellent best efforts of the various sound teams, the p.a. system created a few problems for us throughout – but, in truth, the scale of the theatre was such that it didn’t make a huge difference.   At one point I asked those in the audience if they heard our last song all right and some wonderful soul answered back form the darkness, ‘it was lovely’ – great encouragement.

We were very keen to publicly show our support for what Archie Macauley has done to revive the Uxbridge Folk Club up and running again.  He has a powerful vision for the club and, having met him and dealt with him over our support for Emily, I have absolutely no doubt that he and his excellent club committee will realise that vision. 

In no time at all our time was up, and it was on to the audience break .  Rob and I put the instruments away and went to meet whoever wanted to talk to us.  We met some old friends from Harrow for whom Rob and I had played ceilidh music for, and who were pleased and surprised to see us pop up in a different guise.  We also met some regular members of the Uxbridge Folk Club who thankfully were very complimentary about the performance. We sold a few CDs.

Emily Smith was excellent, as one might expect – playing with her two colleagues an almost exclusively Scottish set, mixing her songs and traditional songs and, for an encore, the wonderful Richard Thompson classic ‘Waltzing’s for Dreamers’.  If you don’t know Emily Smith’s work, look it out!

Overall, I think everyone had a good night.  We made some new friends; we had a great experience; we met, heard and were thanked by one of today’s great folk acts; and, a few days later, Archie contacted us to book us in for the Uxbridge Folk Club on the 15^th September! The ideal end to a great night!

However, ..............the M25 never let’s anyone  off lightly. A closed slip road meant we ended up going the wrong way round the M25 and eventually had to turn around near Heathrow(!) before we could start making it home in the right direction.

Finally, we would like to record our thanks to our great friend Jacqui Sharpe who showed us fantastic support in bringing six of her friends over to Ickenham from St Albans to see us perform.  Many of those who came with her knew very little about who we are and what we do, and were relatively new to folk music.  Speaking very briefly with Jacqui afterwards, I think a great night was had by all.. 

2011 is really beginning to get underway for na-mara now.  It was a great honour to be invited to give a full performance at the Tudor Folk Club in Chesham.  We have had the pleasure a number of times to visit the club over the past couple of years, to do floor spots and some small showcase performances.  We have always seemed to go down well and have benefitted from the warmest of welcomes there.  One or two members have even done us the further honour of taking our music and playing it themselves – surely the greatest accolade for folk musicians. So, it was with great pleasure that we accepted the invitation for a full performance where we could cover a decent range of our growing repertoire.

As for all of our performances, we rehearsed hard in the days before the event – in order to be prepared for all eventualities.  However, what one doesn’t expect is to be surprised on the stairs up to the club by meeting one’s closest friends from one’s home town who you haven’t seen for nearly 10 years.  My great friends Peter and Anne, from Middlesbrough had been over in the UK from their new residence in France for a relative’s wedding and had been staying nearby with Peter’s brother and sister and law, Andrew and Maureen, over the weekend.  They had checked out the na-mara website once they knew they were going to be in the local area, found this gig and, instead of coming to say hello decided it would be good fun to surprise me at Chesham!  As Rob and I struggled through the fire doors with our customary battery of stringed instruments, I caught a glance of someone (Peter’s brother)  who seemed very familiar, and then, on turning to go up the stairs, the surprise was sprung!  Much jumping about and hugging followed!  Thankfully, there was enough time to get my composure back before the time to start the set.

It was lovely to see the venue full with standing room only. Friends old and new were there to support us.  One of the members of the excellent band Zoox also came along to listen and say hello. There were both excellent and amusing floorspots throughout the evening.  We did pretty much the whole of The Bite plus some new and older material, and were given a wonderful reception.  I’m glad to say that, as was the case in Cambridge, CD sales on the night went very well indeed – which is a nice measure of how things are going on the night. The club organisers’ very kindly called for us to do an encore before people went out into the cold night.

Thankfully, there was time to say a proper goodbye to Peter and Anne and family who were travelling home early the next morning. It was truly wonderful to see them again and they can pay that sort of surprise on me any time they like!  I have been keen to get Peter, a former head of modern languages with French as his speciality, involved in the na-mara project.  His is a prodigious talent for the French language.  When he and Anne were buying a house in France, Peter stepped out of the estate agent’s office momentarily one time.  Whilst he was a way, the estate agent said to Anne, “Madame, your husband’s English is very good.” To which a puzzled Anne replied “But, he is English!” to which the estate agent replied “In which case Madame, his French is magnificent!”  Clearly, a man with such talent must be recruited to the cause!  He and Anne can expect a visit in the not too distant future from me – with a stack of song translations and a burning desire to visit every CD outlet in the nearby towns.

Thank you to Tudor Folk Club for this honour and pleasure and we very much hope that you will invite us back in the not too distant future. We hope you enjoyed the evening as much as we did!

To add to the excellent reviews we have had in Rock ‘n’ Reel, Unicorn magazine and FATEA, we have now had further reviews in Folk Monthly which covers the Midlands area, and in Folk London.  I am pleased to say that both have been extremely supportive and positive. Similar themes continue to take shape, namely, that reviewers are very engaged by the stories we are telling, and, secondly, that different listeners and reviewers have different favourites from the CD.

Not surprisingly, these new reviews are encouraging us to once more contact London and Midlands clubs and see if we can get the opportunity to play for them. 

We had a recent sortie into London on Friday 28^th January, to once more play at JJ’s Barnet Folk Club at the Arts Depot in Barnet.  We had an audience of around 40 and were given a very warm reception.  We saw some excellent floor spots and then took the podium ourselves.  One occupational hazard of the podium was that, when I play, I can’t help but tap my foot – not only does then become an intermittent percussion section but it also means the mike stand starts rocking – in this case, tapping me on the end of the nose for most of the evening!

So, having played at both the Cambridge Folk Club and the Barnet Folk Club on the past two Fridays, we are looking forward to a busy time for gigs in February. We are guests of the Tudor Folk Club in Chesham on Monday 7th February (visit: www.tudorfolkclub.org.uk ) and on 14th February we are very excited to have been asked to support Emily Smith at the Compass Theatre, Ickenham, Middlesex (visit www.compasstheatre.com , for details).  Emily was recognised as Scots Singer of the Year 2008/9 and is a leading light in the Scottish folk scene. She has just launched her new album at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow and Ickenham is the third stop on her national tour. This should be a great event. We are grateful to Archie Macauley from the newly re-formed Uxbridge Folk Club who are the organisers for this event and were kind enough to invite us to support Emily.

As always, the welcome at Cambridge was fantastic.  As with Baldock, we have made some lovely and supportive friends at Cambridge.  We did the first half and were followed by the multi-instrumental and multi-talented Strangeworld.  The two sounds complemented each other nicely.  Dan Garcia joined us on bodhran for a few numbers and our hour-long set was very well received, and, for its first club outing, the sales of The Bite CDs was excellent – and hugely encouraging!  Les Ray did a great job on the sound and the audience gave us lots of vocal support, singing along to some of our songs – which definitely increases the pressure to remember the words!  This was an excellent start to 2011 and we have our sights firmly fixed on Barnet next week and the support for Emily Smith in Ickenham on St Valentine’s night!