This was a special event to be invited to play at. Through the International Brigade Memorial Trust publicity for the Guernica commemoration in Islington, Garry Davis of the Croydon Folk and Blues club had invited us to join the club for a special Friday night event at Ruskin House in Croydon, sponsored by the folk and blues club and the Croydon TUC.
The night was given a very Spanish flavour with Bernard Sullivan playing Spanish classical guitar and other pieces and local band Los Amigos providing some very up tempo South American music.
Our own performance was part lecture and part music. In preparation for an event we had long been booked to do in Kent, we had prepared a two part programme. The first part was a high-level explanation of the background and history of the Spanish Civil War, the second part, a recounting of the story of the Basque children. Both halves were interspersed with our songs of the Spanish Civil War plus various instrumentals.
On arrival at Ruskin House we were greeted by both the Basque Flag and the tricolour flag of the Spanish Republic. The organisers had put huge effort into decorating the concert room with information, photos and accounts of the Spanish Civil War.
The event was very well attended and, despite our nervousness about how a part-lecture, part-performance would go down, everything went off very well indeed.