Croydon Folk Club has a longstanding reputation for excellence and it was an honour to be invited back to perform at the club once more.
With the capricious nature of that southern section of the M25 at most times of the day, we set off reasonably early to try and avoid the likely rush-hour mayhem. WE didn’t quite succeed. WE got most of the way there trouble-free but then, presumably on some knowledge that we didn’t have at the time both car and phone SATNAVs directed us along the A3 and into Croydon via Wimbledon, Mitcham and the like. So, I was able to indulge my (least) favourite pastime for an hour, namely, driving through London in rush-hour.
Past experience told us of where one might find a decent parking spot near the club (Heathfield Road, south of Coombe Road if you happen to be travelling that way) and we were still in decent time to park up and see club organisers, Brian and Jenny, who already had the room set up for the evening in a building in the garden of Ruskin House. It was great to hear that the club is in good health currently.
Rob and I set ourselves up as audience members and club performers began to arrive. Some friends had travelled across London to come and see us perform and, greatly appreciated, two new friends from the Dulwich Folk Club also came along to see us again.
As the room filled, we had time to chat with MC for the evening, Phil. He was wonderfully welcoming and very well disposed to our music. Indeed, he told us that he hoped our song The Siren's Call was on the set list (which it was) because he and his wife had been performing it themselves since hearing a couple of years earlier. It is such an honour to know that someone likes your music enough to play their own versions.
Then, in an unplanned coincidence, when Phil and his wife mounted the podium to get the evening started, they sang their version of ‘When I was a Fair Maid which was also on our set list for the evening. With Phil's melody virtually the same as our own, some re-jigging of our set list was needed.
Croydon Folk Club has some great singers amongst its membership and club organiser, Jenny, then took the stage to perform a couple of numbers. She was followed by a third club singer who performed a very interesting update of folk classic My Son John.
Baulking at what seemed to us a perilously high podium, Rob and I then went on and, from the floor, soon had an enthusiastic audience getting involved in singing choruses. The feedback at half time was excellent and CD sales were brisk. Indeed, one young man, was so taken with our music that (with us having no card reader) he took himself off into the Croydon night to find himself a cash point so that he could return and buy a clutch of CDs from us. Another great honour bestowed.
Following the break, we enjoyed another round of floor spots. Very kindly, club organiser of Dulwich Folk Club, Peter, had come along for the evening and, in our honour sand a song about the Spanish Civil War, which I confess I had not heard before. It was unaccompanied version of Ron Kavana's, Maria de La Rosa. Another lovely touch in an evening full of them.
We again gave our new material another run out in the second half set and it seemed to be received along with the rest of the set and our encore, Maid of Culmore.
Many thanks to Brian and Jenny for the invitation to perform once more at the Croydon Folk Club, and to Phil and his wife for the warmth of their welcome, their kind words and their support throughout the evening. Finally, many thanks to all of those in the audience who joined in so enthusiastically with the choruses and were kind enough to come and ask questions and to tell us how much they’d enjoyed the concert.