Early on the morning immediately after the Knights of Harmony concert I had to set off to Washington DC on ‘day job’ duties. I did not return across the pond until the morning of the 19th October and so it was that evening that I went straight into another gig; this time at Jon McNamara’s (no relation) Stortfolk folk club at Bishop’s Stortford. Thankfully, I hadn’t had to go back into work that morning. So, I had managed to grab a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon after not sleeping too well on the ‘red-eye’, before Rob picked me up. So, I was feeling OK by the time we got to the gig.
Stortfolk is in a new venue now and very nice it is too; a cosy room at the Royal British Legion club in the town. For those that don’t know it, Stortfolk is a club with some excellent instrumentalists - certainly on accordion and whistles of every hue. Jon himself does a nice line in music hall numbers, and the whole club is always and universally very friendly.
Numbers were small that night but everybody enthusiastically joined in on our choruses and Rob and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Jon has always been very supportive of our work and it was great to see him again. He was most kind to us, both privately and in his introductions to the audience. We also sold a few CDs which was very encouraging too.
Now wide awake, I wasn’t quite sure how the night’s sleep was going to go. However, with Rob driving and him having recently bought me a birthday present of a bottle sized cool bag, I had my ‘night medicine’ with me, nice and cool – a bottle of Hook Norton Gold, to drink in the car on the way home. We tend never to drink before we perform but a glug on the way home is very nice. Poor Rob had to keep his eyes on the road as I slurped my pint. That night I can report, I slept like a baby!