With the world beginning to get back into harness after the Christmas and New Year festivities, it very much felt right for us to be back out and playing, early in 2012. As such, it was great to be headlining a bill at one of our hometown’s theatres in the first of three ‘First Fridays’ performances organised by Alison at St Albans Folk Music. The idea of the series is to showcase ‘top’ (thank you kindly!) local performers, with support from exciting young folk talent from the local area. King Alfred’s Cakes top the bill in February, with Simon Stephenson supporting and then Malcolm Hobbs is headlining in March, with Marianne Neary and friends supporting. We were fortunate to have the wonderful young melodeon player Owen Woods supporting us – an accomplished young musician, playing great tunes and with talent to spare. This is a young man who will do very well in the folk world and it was a pleasure to meet him and gain proof positive that the future of folk music is in safe hands! We were also pleased to have the excellent young percussionist, Dan Garcia, joining us for the evening. You will recall that Dan played bodhran for us on The Bite and, so, it was great that we could have him with us for this concert.
Being keen to increase the quantity of live video material on our web-site, this invitation to play in a theatre setting surrounded by friends, seemed too good an opportunity to miss. So, we were very pleased when our good friend Andy agreed to work with sound technicians at the theatre to record our performance on good quality software and equipment. From the little we have seen already, we know that Andy has done a great job and we hope to share the fruits of this labour with everyone as soon as we have reviewed it properly.
The evening went extremely well. We had a good sized audience with a lot of our friends being kind enough to come out to support us. However, there were also plenty of new faces, attracted by the idea behind the event.
Having picked up a bad cold over the holiday period and, only three days earlier, had been barking like a dog, my pre-performance concerns were all about getting through the night without a descent into paroxysms of coughing. So, I was zapping my body with every medicament known to man, right up until going on. I’m pleased to say that the voice held up very well and there were no ‘Barry White sings folk music’ deep voice moments.
It is always a pleasure to play in a theatre setting. The luxury of a ‘green room’ backstage to get changed in, have a stretch, warm up the larynx etc., can’t be underestimated – especially when, perforce, in most folk clubs it is ‘get the guitar out of the box, hope it is vaguely in tune, squeeze through the chairs, get on, and perform!’
We sat and had a good listen to Owen’s excellent set, and then we did two forty minute sets of our own – which seemed very well appreciated by all there. The upgraded facilities at the theatre were also very well appreciated by those in the audience – good tea through to good beer at half time and afterwards, in a cafe setting. We sold a fair few CDs after the show and got some lovely feedback from audience members and theatre staff alike.
The other luxury about a ‘home gig’ is that you can help dismantle all the p.a. and recording stuff, have a drink with friends, and still be home well before midnight.
Many thanks to Alison and all at St Albans Folk Music and The Malting Arts Theatre for inviting us to play and for treating us so well on the evening. We wish the series and the theatre every success! Thanks also to Andy for his kindness and incredible hard work on our behalf. We are understandably very eager to hear what he has managed to capture.