Following a performance at the Gate to Southwell Folk Festival back in 2011, Rob and I were very happy to accept an invitation to perform at the Carrington Triangle Folk Club in Nottingham in February 2012. We had a wonderful time there and have kept in touch with club organiser Martin Smalley ever since. It was, therefore, nice to receive an invitation earlier this year to return to the club and perform our more recent material for club members.
We set off early afternoon and, despite the best efforts of a busy M1 made worse by roadworks, we made it to Nottingham in time to join with Martin to talk about the forthcoming evening’s performance on BBC Radio Nottingham’s Alan Clifford show. Alan is an effervescent guy with a great sense of humour, and it was a wonder to behold to see him in the studio, simultaneously keeping the rush hour drivers of Nottingham entertained with news, weather, music and interviews while being so personable with his guests in the studio, both off and on air. After a quick fire round of questions and answers, we settled in to play our version of ‘The Flower of Magherally’ live – which we enjoyed doing enormously. I hope our melodious tones salved the nerves of Nottingham’s fine citizens as they struggled their way home from work through the heavy rain.
Having finished and said our goodbyes to Alan, Martin guided us back to his house for an evening meal which perked us all up beautifully for a night of folk music. After catching up with news of both the folk club and the Southwell Folk Festival, we followed Martin and his partner Marion on to the club to set ourselves up for the evening.
The Carrington club is upstairs in what looks to be a really cosy, urban, pub. If I am ever in Nottingham and not performing or driving, I’m going to have a few pints there – I think it would be a lovely pub for a winter’s evening.
The upstairs room began to fill up quickly and then, to our complete surprise, in walked two familiar faces from the Watford Folk Club. Apparently, they have close friends in the city and had timed their visit specifically in order to coincide with our performing at their friends’ local folk club. Thank you so much Liz and Chris, we feel very honoured by that!
Carrington has some great floorsingers. Martin and Marion themselves both performed beautifully. There was an excellent rendition of Scots song ‘Jock Stewart’ and Chris from Watford also performed two great songs. There was a Robin Hood epic tale sung by a superb ex-punk band member who really drove the story along fantastically well – busted string and all! He was absolutely compelling to watch.
Both of our own sets went down well and, once again, we were blessed with an audience willing to learn new choruses. We finished the set to a few whoops and invited to play an encore.
There was some urgency to our packing up. na-mara tend to be ‘home birds’ who drive late into the night to get back to our own beds. However, this time, there was an added necessity as I had to get up really early the next morning for a flight from Luton airport and Rob has an early start too. At best, I was probably only going to get three and a half hours sleep.
So, with excellent directions from Martin, we hit the road and made it to the M1 quickly as the rain continued to lash down. Remembering our all too vivid recent experiences on the A1 we contentedly talked of how the M1 wouldn’t be closed – or we did until we found out that the M1 had in fact...erm...been closed – not just in one place but two. Another journey from hell had begun.
We abandoned the M1 and looked for the best way to hook up with the A5. We followed ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads, wending our way first west (nearly to Tamworth!) and then south. Unfortunately, so did all of the juggernauts. With no space to pass, we were forced to travel at the speed of the slowest lorry. The little bit of kip I had promised myself before getting up for the airport was getting less by the minute.
Frantically charting our progress on the i-Pad, I could see other nearby roads closed with accidents and road works. Mercifully, before we went too far into some of the quieter stretches of the A5, we spotted that it too was closed, and we were able to get back onto the M1 south of its second closure.
Eventually we reached home and I managed about two hours sleep before hauling myself out for my plane – and Rob didn’t get much more before setting off for Oxfordshire the next morning. (AS might be expected, I fell asleep on the plane and just hope that I didn’t turn out to be one of those gurgling, lolling, snoozers that no-one wants to sit next to.)
Many thanks again to Martin, Marion and all at the Carrington Folk Club for their welcome and thanks again to Liz and Chris for giving us such a wonderful surprise there. The East Midlands area is region we are very keen to get more involved with and we look forward to returning to the area in the not too distant future.