After an excellent summer break, it was great to be back out playing again. We were particularly excited by our invitation to perform at the Hadleigh Folk Club. Not only was this a new club for us but it also meant that we could meet up again with friends both on the concert bill for the evening and in the local area.
We have some great friends who live near to Hadleigh and they very kindly invited us to join them for some food ahead of the gig. We arrived early at their house and after a lifesaving cuppa took the chance for a little rehearsal before joining the family for an excellent tea.
We then made our way in good time into Hadleigh town to meet club organiser Simon Haines and our old friends Vicki Swann and Jonny Dyer whom we were supporting that evening. Ever approachable and friendly, it was great to catch up with Vicki and Jonny’s news.
The Hadleigh Folk Club meets at the Ansell Centre in Hadleigh on the first Friday in the month. The auditorium is spacious with an excellent acoustic. As the concert start time approached the audience pretty much filled the available space and the atmosphere proved very intimate.
The club has some excellent singers. On the evening we were there, these included Simon and two others as members of The Hosepipeband – what a great name! - a well know local singer who paid to homage to Pete Bellamy by singing a trio of his songs and, finally, an excellent singer from Brittany who, with an accompanying guitarist, played a lovely set of French and other songs. It was nice to chat with him at the break about his and our French musical influences.
Our own support set seemed to go down very well, and we took the opportunity to showcase our translated French material, a couple of our own songs and an Asturian dance tune set. It was also very nice to look up and see our locally based friends in the audience who had come along to support us.
Vicki and Jonny finished the night with a great set that mixed material from their wonderful Red House album and some new material. It was so nice to see them perform again.
We certainly hope to be visiting Hadleigh Folk Club again in the not too distant future. Many thanks to Simon and his team at Hadleigh for the warm welcome and support through the evening!