Na-Mara’s penultimate gig, our last “away match” outside St. Albans as one wag put it, was another great evening. We were invited to perform a shared evening with talented music trio Baum, Maggs and Taylor in Steatley, just outside Reading.
We set off in plenty of time to get there and the M25, M40 and the cross-country drive across Oxfordshire and Berkshire went very smoothly. The only slight issue was finding the venue itself. The Morrell Room, historically linked to the brewery of that name, is found along a tiny lane in Streatley. On our first attempt, we missed the lane altogether and, on our second attempt missed it again and ended up in a huge pub, hotel, gym complex next door. When we did actually find the correct little lane, there was a Sainsbury's van delivering to a house next door to The Morrell Room which caused our driver for the evening, Dave on this occasion, some interesting issues to negotiate whilst trying to park up.
Van gone, we made our way into The Morrell Room. It is a splendid wood panelled hall with a great acoustic. The room was fully laid out with 70 or so chairs for the evening and the stage was already set out for opening act Baum, Maggs and Taylor, albeit they’d disappeared off somewhere, presumably for food. We took the opportunity of the venue being quiet and empty to nosh our sarnies and essential pre-gig banana. Not long after, that the room began to fill.
Over time, the room filled to such a point that, by the time for performances to begin, it was standing room only with extra chairs were having to be carried in. By start time, The Morrell Room was full with an excited audience. Amongst the crowd were a range of personal friends and former work colleagues of many years standing, alongside some pals from the folk world, most notably notably for us, the long-standing organisers of Reading folk club, Readifolk, Colin and Una Waters. Indeed, we had people travelling to Streatley from as far afield as London, Portsmouth, Sevenoaks and Oxford to see us perform. What an honour!
Andy Baum from the Baum, Maggs and Taylor trio is an old friend and work colleague of mine and a very fine mandolin player. With Dave Maggs on guitar and Irish bouzouki and Andy Taylor on fiddle, the trio play a wide range of music types; everything from Americana to Swing to Sea Shanties to Spirituals to Jazz. Together, they provided a wonderful hour of music, delivered with fine musicianship and great stage presence.
After a 15-minute break to reset the (acoustic) stage, and for audience members to get themselves another drink, Rob and I were briefly introduced before taking to the stage. This was a lovely listening audience and, albeit not a folk audience, we still had many audience members joining in on the choruses.
I'm pleased to report that we performed well, and the overall set was greatly appreciated. Feedback after the show was excellent.
Since the evening had started at 7:00pm and was effectively finished, including encore, by 9:45pm, we had a little time to stand and talk to audience members, including leading folk musicians Simon mayor and Hilary James, who had kindly come along for the evening. It was a great honour to meet with them.
Another interesting exchange was with Chris Hawes. Chris has organised a regular music evening in Streatley’s neighbouring village of Goring for over 20 years called Goring Unplugged. He was busy at tonight’s gig advertising the next Goring Unplugged event later in the month and had with him a laminated poster for the evening. Now, as part of preparations for Na-Mara’s upcoming final gig, I have been rootling around in our equivalent of Tutankhamun's tomb - our memorabilia box - and had found something in there that I showed to Chris. It was another laminated poster for Goring Unplugged but for Friday 24th November 2006 when Na-Mara were on the bill. Chris was as amazed as he was amused.
Baum, Maggs and Taylor are all from the Streatley/Goring area and they were stopping on after the gig for a bite to eat. The spread they laid out once the audience departed from The Morrell Room looked lovely. However, Rob, Dave and I had a long drive home ahead of us. So, we felt it necessary to decline the kind offer for us to join them. We hope they had a good after gig party.
The return journey, cross-country to the M40, went fine and perhaps the gods were looking favourably on our last late night motorway journey home since they threw up no obstacles for us and we arrived home at a decent time.
Thanks to Andy Baum for organising such a lovely evening. It was great to see him again personally but also to hear him and his colleagues sing and play. Thanks also to all of those who came along to the evening concert, especially those who had travelled such long distances to come and hear Na-Mara play.