We both saw an enjoyable end to the month of June last night with our gig at the new home of the former Hove Folk Club. Now called Railway Roots, the club is held in a spacious room at the back of the famous Railway Inn at Portslade, near Hove (picture attached). Located almost adjacent to Portslade station, the pub’s beer garden contains an old railway carriage and much of garden furniture is made from railway sleepers. If we hadn’t been performing, it looked a good place for a pint or two on a summer’s night.
Despite the M25’s best efforts to stop us, the (three hour) trip to Hove allowed us to meet up with friends and family in nearby Shoreham for a cuppa and a catch up before heading off to the gig.
We knew in advance that well known club organiser Robb Johnson was going to be away gigging himself that evening, but we were very fortunate on arrival to be looked after by MC for the night, Roger Stevens and his partner Gill. Together we all decided to go acoustic rather than use the club’s p.a. system.
Roger started the evening off very agreeably with a few of his own songs, accompanied by his friend Mike on cajon. Roger is both a poet and an author and it is no surprise that his music is well written and infused with insight and humour.
Later in the evening, alongside a second set from Roger and Mike, local singer-songwriter and excellent guitarist, John London, performed a very interesting set touching on a range of contemporary issues. Look out for John in the future.
For our part, we took the opportunity to try a few new things out in the set. In particular, we played in public for the first time the new arrangement of our song about the plight of refugees, called simply The Poor Refugee. We also played our new version of The English Penny, which recounts the experiences of nurse Penny Feiwel in the Spanish Civil War.
In contrast to our appalling journey to get to Hove, our return journey was plain sailing. The journey flashed by as, like a medieval monk, I read out the latest BBC news live feeds about the political machinations taking place in Westminster to Rob as he drove. That story of political intrigue is going to take more than six verses of four lines to write, and heaven only knows what the chorus might be!
Thanks to Robb Johnson for the invitation, to Roger Stevens and Gill for looking after us so well and to Tom Cutler for only taking one raffle prize - even though, from memory, he won five out the eight. We hope to see you all again, soon.