The second leg of our three-gig weekend saw Rob and I on the road to revisit Hadleigh, a few miles to the west of Ipswich. After supporting the excellent Vicky Swann and Jonny Dyer at the club back in September 2014, the organisers of the Hadleigh Folk and Acoustic Nights, Simon Haines and Val Woollard, very kindly invited us back to do a headline spot.
We set off early on a beautiful May afternoon to allow ourselves the chance to call on some of our closest friends who live in nearby Elmsett. Despite the A12’s attempts to restrict the amount of time we had to catch up with our friends’ news, we still had plenty of time for a sarnie, cuppa and chinwag.
We said our goodbyes to arrive at the venue in good time to get set up. Simon and Val were already hard at work laying out the venue for the night’s event and, soon after, Paddy Butcher arrived. Paddy is a fellow member, with Simon and Val, of the wonderful, locally based, band Bof! who specialise in French and Breton music. Paddy was providing support for the evening and, given our insatiable appetite for all things French and Breton traditional, it was interesting to find out from him what Bof! were up to and what Paddy was listening to currently.
As twilight began to fall, the curtains were drawn, and the lights were dimmed in the Ansell Centre, and the mood was set for an evening of music. A good-sized audience had arrived, and the evening began with some fine self-penned material and some Americana from two new visitors to the club, James and Angela. In between their sets, Simon and Val themselves performed some really excellent French and British traditional material and some lovely tunes of their own composition.
In his selection of songs, Paddy showed he also has as compendious a knowledge of English traditional folk as he does of French and Breton traditional music. We particularly enjoyed his rendition of The Blacksmith.
We then took to the stage to conclude the evening with a sixty-minute set which went down very well, and we were delighted to be asked to return for an encore. Our new song, We Met Upon the Barricades, which tells of the scandal of the relationships undercover policemen had with unsuspecting political activists in the early 1980s, is now establishing itself in the set. It was hugely gratifying after the concert to be told by someone with an unquestionably authoritative vantage point on the topic, that he supported both the sentiments expressed in the song and the need for the story to be told.
After a brief while chatting with audience members and saying a final goodbye to our friends who had also kindly come along to support us, we set off home. As anyone who has driven it will know, the A12 had a few more tricks up its sleeve to keep us on our toes on the way home, but we got there in the end.
Many thanks to Simon and Val for their invitation and for looking after us so well at the Hadleigh Folk and Acoustic Nights. With its great local musicians and venue, we wish the club every success in the future and look forward to returning there at some time in the future.