After the great time of the weekend before, and a hectic week catching up at our regular places of work, it was good to have a new focus for the weekend. We were off to play the Leigh Folk Festival, masterminded in large part by Tony Prior from the Hoy-at-Anchor Folk Club who had asked us to come along after our brief performance at the club earlier in the year.
The festival, which is free, split into two sites in parkland in the middle of Leigh-on-Sea. We were on at the club tent, which sat in a natural amphitheatre, in the lower part of the park. Despite variable weather, there was a good crowd passing through, sitting attentively and listening to the wide range of acts who were each doing 20 minutes of so. Tony and a colleague were on the sound desk and had done a magnificent job pitching a stage that worked, given that there wasn’t an even space in that entire part of the park.
Despite being tired from our recent exertions, we played well and more than a few of the audience later congratulated us on our set and, yet again, we met someone with family links to the Spanish Civil War – this time through the Canadian Brigade, the ‘Mac-Paps’ as they were known.
We caught up again with Joe Whittaker from Ash Old Church and Dartford Folk Club who continues to be very supportive and helpful to us in all sorts of ways. He was there with his singing colleagues in band ‘Swinging the Lead’ and they did some well know shanties which got the crowd singing and clapping along. It was nice to get the chance to see Joe and his friends perform.
We saw our friends The Raven and heard about their new CD coming out – all the best to them with that, and we caught Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts’ set in the late afternoon. It was great to see them again – they certainly warmed up what was now a cold afternoon for Rob and I. However, we were tired and turned for home soon after. It was time for me to have a beer, eat some of that French cheese and meats at home and have some family time - with my daughter, being scared witless watching The Woman in Black.