We were very excited to be travelling to Margate for the sixth gig of our seven venue tour. Rosslyn Court is a truly remarkable venue run by Morag Butler and her team. The main business of Rosslyn Court is as a Bed and Breakfast in Margate. However, with Morag's love for music of all kinds and her commitment to the Margate community, a room at the side of the house, on the corner of two streets, has been converted into a super little music venue.
Because Morag livestreams the gigs, the Rosslyn Court team consists of a sound technician for the PA, a cameraman, and a producer to manage the production of the broadcast. It is all great fun and highly professional.
With Rob having relatives in Margate, the three of us set off early from St Albans in order to have a cup of tea and some cake with them in their back garden. The journey down to Margate was swift and unproblematic - although some of those Margate back streets can be a bit tight.
We spent a very pleasant hour with our friends and were treated to some heavenly cakes bought from a local patisserie. It was lovely to catch up with all their news. Then, at 6:00pm, we said our goodbyes and drove the five minutes to Rosslyn Court, where we parked up near the venue and carried our gear in.
A veritable pocket dynamo always full of energy, Morag greeted us warmly and introduced us to her team, John on sound, Chris on camera and Andy on production, with Una on the bar for the evening.
With the event kicking off at 7:30pm, we unpacked and carried out our sound check immediately. John created a great sound for us quickly and efficiently and by 7:00pm we were able to sit and have our (now regulation) sandwiches chatting with Morag and Una in the Rosslyn Court garden.
The venue had filled nicely by start time and Morag kicked the evening off with a gorgeous rendition of Steve O'Donoghue's song, Accident of Birth. (We have written before in this blog about Steve O'Donoghue. He is a writer and performer of the highest calibre and how he isn't feted the length and breadth of the UK folk world remains a mystery to us.)
After Morag finished, we were straight on to do our hour-long livestream which can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa22WJuBwrE&t=1069s .
Cleverly, anyone who comments on or donates through the livestream or who attends in person is automatically entered into the Rosslyn Court free raffle to win wither a CD from the guest or a ‘Who Gives a Crap’ loo roll. So, around 8:00pm, Morag comes on stage to call on those watching through the ether to consider making a donation, and at 8:25pm she draws the raffle before one last livestream song from the guests. At 8:30pm-ish, the livestream ends and there is a short intermission.
In our case, the livestream part of the evening seemed to go well and we received some nice feedback throughout the break. It was also lovely to meet up again with our old friend and local journalist, Jodie, in the break and hear all about what she's been doing in recent times.
Ever the innovator, Morag has also introduced a novel way to begin the second set at Rosslyn Court, with a Q&A session for the guests and, so, we were asked questions about how many guitars we each have, which instrument we would save in the event of fire, whether we play other instruments than those on show and whether we’ve ever played abroad. The questions trigger plenty of banter.
Following the Q&A, we performed a brief second set aided at one point by smoke machine and glitter ball (! – our first) finishing at 9:30pm and following with an encore. Infused with Morag’s energy, the whole evening was highly participatory and fun, and everyone there seemed to have a great time.
Morag had offered us all accommodation for the night with the promise of fish and chips before bedtime but, where possible, Na-Mara are home birds and with commitments the next day and having spent so little time at home in the previous week, we thanked Morag for her generosity and set off for home.
With such an early finish, we had a notion we might be home before midnight. However, as the proverb goes, ‘When men plan, God laughs’. Indeed, it seemed as though the entire British road construction industry was hell bent on cutting Kent off from the rest of England that night. Immense sets of road works slowed us down, required us to zig from the M2 to the M20, before zagging back to the M2 again. The disruption was such that we even had to stop off at a garage to make sure we had enough fuel to get us home. We finally reached home close to 1:00 o'clock, tired but still smiling after another lovely evening at Rosslyn Court.
We wish Morag and her team all the very best for the future. Rosslyn Court is a credit to Margate and deserves every success.