Through local folk activist Alison Macfarlane na-mara had been honoured with an invitation to finish off a fund-raising evening at The Maltings Arts Theatre in St Albans. The event was aimed at raising monies for the casting of a bronze statue in honour of local resident, Tom Watters, who had served bravely as an ambulance driver in the Spanish Civil War. Born in Glasgow, Tom had left his job as a corporation bus driver in the city to go to Spain in 1936 as a member of the Scottish ambulance unit. When the war finished he came to live in St Albans.
Given the focus of the evening we did our very best to choose a set that reflected our longstanding links with Spain and the Spanish Civil War. This meant that, for the first time in a long time, we played all four of the tracks from our 'Songs of the Spanish Civil War’ EP. Reprising our recent trip to Spain with Ewan McLennan, we also added a rendition of Ewan MacColl's beautiful Jamie Foyers. To this we added The Garden of England and, to reflect what was going on in the Ruhr valley towns around the time of the war in Spain, we finished the evening with Navahos and Pirates.
The evening kicked off with a gentle set by one of the stalwarts of the Redbourn Folk Club, Linda Fryd. She was followed by local band GBH - the initials of the three players in the trio - who gave a great performance, including a superb version of Richard Thompson's Beating the Retreat.
Backstage, it was a real pleasure to meet and talk with Linda and GBH. We know Linda from the Redbourn Folk Club but, for some reason, we have never met or performed with GBH before but sincerely hope that we do so again soon - nice guys playing excellent music.
Through the evening there was a moving speech by sculptor Frank Casey who also read some words from a transcript of a conversation with Tom Watters shortly before he died last year. Throughout his talk, Frank emphasised the humanity and wisdom of Tom.
Our own set seemed to go well and the audience of around 45 people listened intently throughout and said many kind things to us both when the evening had finished. We had planned to get everyone back on stage at the end for a rendition of The Valley of Jarama but, sadly, we were right up against the closing time for the theatre.
Many thanks to Alison and the other organisers involved in the evening. Thanks also to Nick and his team on the p.a. system who did a great job. Thanks to Linda and GBH for their encouragement and camaraderie throughout the evening but, most of all, thanks to all those who came out on a cold night to support a very worthwhile cause. There is still a long way to go to get the money needed but we very much look forward to seeing a fitting memorial to a brave and principled man gracing the streets of St Albans in the not too distant future.