Such are the fond memories of our visits to the Cambridge Folk Club that I was surprised when Rob told me that, other than to perform briefly at a charity evening organised by club members Les Ray and Deirdre Murphy, it had been a full 18 months since we had played there.
We arrived in good time for a full sound check, in the very capable hands of Les Scrine. We also had chance to chat with our friends at the club before the evening truly got underway. Downstairs in the bar, it was also good to see some old friends turn up unexpectedly and catch up with their news.
The new arrangement of tables at the Cambridge Folk Club gives it a really nice cafe atmosphere and, with the benefit of a good p.a. set up, it is a club that just makes you want to sing. So, before taking the stage, we spent a comfortable and pleasant half-hour watching The Brian Jeffels Band who we hadn’t seen since the Club tent at the Cambridge Folk Festival a couple of years earlier. Although one person short through illness, they still managed to put on a very nice show of self-penned and traditional songs and tunes.
Compere for the evening Nicky gave us a wonderful introduction and it was a pleasure to take the stage. It is probably true to say that if ever anyone was to choose ‘the songs of na-mara’ as their specialist topic on Mastermind, the likelihood is they would be a member of Cambridge Folk Club. We are aware that a number of club members at Cambridge already perform a variety of our songs - something we treat as a huge honour. They also make song requests which we are happy to oblige (providing we have rehearsed them reasonably recently) and some members know our material well enough to sing along without being talked through the chorus. All of this is very uplifting and encouraging and makes you want to write, sing and play more.
Of the new material, The Garden of England and L’Amant de Nantes both went down very well, as did our new DADGAD arrangement of When I Took My Horse to Water. Rob tried out some excellent new harmonies on some of the songs, and the instrumentals were cracking. All in all, the evening went really beautifully and ended in a nice call for an encore at the end – which allowed us to perform the fourth request we had received ahead of the show.
As normal, having only had water to drink through the evening, I enjoyed my bottle of beer going home in the car. Poor old Rob had to drive.