After the long journey to North Yorkshire and back on Saturday, the short step to Chesham felt very straightforward. The Chesham Folk Club has been very supportive of na-mara over the years, and it was a real pleasure to be returning there again.
The club meets in an upstairs room in the White Hill Centre in Chesham, a lively establishment with a whole host of community-based activities going on there throughout the week and what looks to be a very welcoming bar.
We arrived at the club quite early and began our preparations for the evening as the room was being laid out. A steady stream of club members began arriving and we were pleased to see the room full before the evening's proceedings got underway.
The evening began with a trio of talented performers from the club each doing a couple of songs - all very nicely done – and a very amusing monologue. We then followed with our first 45-minute set. The great thing about longer sets is that you can build an atmosphere and the Chesham audience is an excellent listening and singing audience. They appreciated our songs and picked up new choruses very quickly.
It was nice to chat with some members of the club during the break and catch up on their news.
The second half of the evening followed a similar format with some of the club's singers returning to the floor to perform. This included Club organiser Annette and playing partner for the evening doing a very nice rendition of Geordie. There was also another splendid monologue.
We then delivered our second half with the club still in fine voice and, on finishing the evening with Navajos and Pirates, it was very nice to receive some whoops and a request for an encore. We duly obliged with Javier Tejedor's Añada pa Julia.
After saying our goodbyes to club members after the show and being by others to load up the van, we turned for home. Unlike the previous Saturday, we were in our beds before the witching hour and no-one closed any roads on us. Luxury.
Many thanks to Bob, Annette and all the committee members at the Chesham Folk Club for the invitation to ply for them. As always, we enjoyed our visit immensely and we wish the club well for its forthcoming programme which looks excellent.
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