With many thanks to the organisers of the Ely Folk Club, we were once again invited to play the Club Tent at the Cambridge Folk Festival this year. Ruth Bramley and her colleagues on the committee at Ely had invited us to do a 30 minute set – an opportunity we were very happy to take.
As always, we were keen to get to the site, set settled and see some great acts. This year, we were on relatively early, around 1.00pm. As a luxury, the Ely team had arranged for us to park in the artists car park, with a shuttle to the site. So, after a highly amusing journey from the car park to the site with the very entertaining brass section from Home Service, and a warm welcome from members of the Ely team, we were ready to go by 11.30am. It was nice to spot a number of the Fisherman’s Friends in the backstage area as they had just come off the stage following a shanty workshop session.
Out timely arrival allowed us the opportunity to have a wander round the site, where it was great to meet friends from both Cambridge Folk Club and from St Albans, as well as have a couple of words with the ever friendly Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts. We were also able to catch 15 minutes of Abigail Washburn before returning to the Club Tent for a final tune up and going on.
It was the usual quick turnaround of acts on the Club Tent stage and, with much shuffling of gear, we were on. We had around 70 in the audience, who were very responsive and receptive. The quality of the sound and other technicians was every bit as good as might be expected from a top-class event. We felt we played well, made a good sound, and a few in the audience came to see us after we came off to give compliments and buy a CD. Every time we do these events, it feels that little bit easier and free-er.
After coming off and packing up the gear, we stayed to watch Ruth and her friend perform close part harmony English songs – and very nice it was too! Then it was off for a bit of festival grub (I won’t go into the details...no, honestly, I won’t) whilst listening to the Fisherman’s Friends on the main stage.
Given various needs to be back home in St Albans reasonably pronto, we were only able to stay on long enough to see the wonderful Home Service. As a longstanding fan, it was such a pleasure to see John Tams singing and our earlier bus companions in fantastic form playing some of the classic Home Service tracks! Then we turned for home. Although the next bus to the artists car park wasn‘t for an hour, a volunteer in the artists office volunteered to take us straight away. Indeed, he took us to the tailgate of our trusty Touran ‘tourbus’. Absolute luxury – many thanks to the organisers!
We now have a bit of time to work up and polish our growing new repertoire. Our next major gig is in mid September, before a blisteringly busy October. We want to have that material ready for then. We have new self-penned songs, including a new song about resistance to fascism – this time in Germany – called Navahos and Pirates. We are also working up a song about family reunion after the Spanish Civil war, called The Silver Duro. We are also pleased to see that gigs for 2012 are now coming in at quite a pace – but we remain determined to visit many new clubs in London over the coming months – it is by far the best way to get known.