We had been invited to be interviewed on The Emerald Hour programme on local radio station Radio Verulam by Lydia El Khouri, following our sending her a copy of The Bite. In the event we couldn’t make the original St Patrick’s night programme that we had originally been invited to and, in the event, because she is standing in local government elections for a political party, Lydia was not able to host this evening’s show - but was in the studio to help us through it. As a result of Lydia not being able to host the show, John Devine of renowned local St Albans music scene fame and who does a roots music show on Radio Verulam himself, stood in. We hadn’t met John before and it was great to get the opportunity to meet him. Many of na-mara’s friends have told us over the years – ‘you must see Devine-Waters’. So, we still haven’t seen him play, but we have had the great pleasure of meeting him.
Radio Verulam had asked us to present some of the music from The Bite and to talk through some of the influences on our music. In a very easy conversational session, we were allowed to give some background to Nellie Torrence, and Only For Three Months as well as say a few words about our connections into Asturian and Galician music and weave in a bit of early Fairport Convention and some of Rob’s classical influences. John had an excellent way of steering us through both the music and the chat and, we hope, it was a lively and interesting session for listeners. John undertook to listen to The Bite and to play it on his music programme for the station.
Everybody at the station was very friendly and nice – so thanks to Radio Verulam, to John, Lydia and Jackie. We look forward to working with Radio Verulam again!