After a busy family weekend, Rob, Dave and I assembled on what was a beautiful summer’s evening to make the brief journey from St Albans over to Reading to play our last ever gig at the wonderful Readifolk club.
Readifolk has been a massive supporter of Na-Mara’s music over the years. In the car going to the gig, Rob wondered when we had last played at Readifolk. The answer to that question was two years previously. However, in searching for the answer, we found a YouTube video of Na-Mara playing at the club in 2006 - one of our first ever gigs. That's how long Readifolk have supported our music.
Without any shenanigans journey-wise, we arrived in good time at the club where organisers, Colin and Una, had already laid the room out for the evening. It was lovely being able to quietly catch up with all their club news as club regulars began to arrive for the show. The club meets in the Community Hall of Watlington House in Reading. The House is set in beautiful gardens and parts of it date back to the 16th century.
After setting up and tuning, the three of us disappeared outside briefly to ‘snaffle’ our pre-gig sandwiches and (crucial) bananas - energy for the evening.
Readifolk is endowed with a great number of talented club singers, and the evening was kicked off by our MC for the evening. He was followed by self-penned songs by Readifolk Radio organiser, Ian, and then a regular club singer performed his song about troubled love between two Australian aborigines. Great music making all round.
The club singer performances were similarly excellent before our second set of the evening. We had some great blues playing, some excellent banjo playing on a song called The Hills of Mexico which I'd never heard before. We also had some Crowded House performed and then, my namesakes, Danny and Ali McNamara played a great version of Ewan MacColl's The Joys of Living (which I have subsequently researched the lyrics for. Gorgeous).
Our two sets were very well received and the Readifolk audience lived up to its reputation as a great singing club with a now goodly sized audience for a warm summer’s night giving vocal support for many of our songs.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end and the fact that the car park gates at Watlington House close automatically at 11:00pm certainly focuses the mind on finishing promptly. Still we had enough time to finish where we had started with Readifolk all those years ago. The 2006 YouTube video we had found on the way to the gig was of Rob and I performing the Irish traditional song, The Maid of Culmore and, so, that's what we played for our last ever song at Readifolk.
The goodbyes with Colin and Una and with our other friends from the club were really quite emotional and it was humbling to be informed by one of the club singers that Na-Mara was his wife's favourite duo. What a great accolade. Thank you.
Thanks to Colin, Una and everyone at Readifolk for their unstinting support and belief in Na-Mara’s music over so many years. We wish the club all the very best for the future. It is a great club and has ever been a huge favourite of ours.