We were kindly invited by Jan Strapp, the organiser at Redbourn, to join them for an evening of music to raise funds for Folk against Fascism, a movement aimed at ensuring that British folk music is not appropriated by the far right for its own purposes. The club was pleasingly full to overflowing with those who wanted to participate, there were lots of new faces, many from the jazz world, that had come along also, and the music was stirring throughout the evening. So great was the pressure on the programme, there was only room for us to do The Bite and Only Three Months, each in turn referring to the fight and the consequences of the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Well done to Jan and the others (who, I apologise, I don’t know by name) who put such an important and fun evening together.
This was our second evening at Folk in the Foyer, held on Friday evenings at the artsdepot in Barnet. Like last time we were there, there was a good crowd and some excellent floor spots – including an excellent bit of shanty singing – not just singing but a whole one-man act about setting sail -, a beautiful French folk song, and some great guitar work.
Organiser JJ started the evening with three excellent numbers and, in our honour he played a version of Christy Moore’s La Quinta Brigada. Salud JJ – many thanks (oh! and we are very sorry about not being there for the sound check but there seemed to have been a breakdown in communication somewhere down the line. We will know for sure next time.)
We were given a 45 minute set and, despite this being a big space to fill, with an excellent p.a. system expertly set, we seemed to fill it. Certainly the feedback after we came off was really warm and satisfying – thanks to everyone there! We sold a lot of CDs and, indeed, were able to bring in some complete bystanders who were on their way home from a comedy show held elsewhere in the building, who were fulsome in their praise for the bit of our set they had seen. We were fortunate to have some friendly faces in the audience and, again, Dan Garcia joined us and really helped fill out the sound.
In the recent round of gigs, it really does feel as though we are getting through to audiences. It really couldn’t be more pleasing. Additionally, again with many thanks to organiser Jan Strapp, we noticed that our 17th June gig at the Redbourn Folk Club is listed prominently in the flyer for the St Albans Folk Festival! Thanks Jan, what a lovely thing to see ‘na-mara in Concert’. I’ll raise a glass to that!