10th August 2008: Supporting Cara Dillon,
This is it, this was what we had been looking forward to, and boy did we enjoy it!
Tam Lin have played the Broadstairs Folk Week for many years and Alan and Sue Hewson had invited Rob and I down to join them not only to play as Tam Lin but also to do some na-mara gigs as well. Indeed, Rob was also leading a mandolin workshop as well. So, we set off early on the morning of Sunday 10th August (me fresh back from holidays overseas and frantically hardening those finger ends up again) to join Alan, Sue and Georgina at Broadstairs for our first folk festival. As mentioned previously in this blog, the real na-mara highlight for the few days we could be at Broadstairs, was that we were going to be the first of two support acts for ...Cara Dillon in the main marquee on that Sunday night! To suggest excitement was high would be an understatement to end all understatements.
So, after a two hour drive we reported to the conference organisers, were given a key to our accommodation, where we went straightaway. Fiona’s sister Rhona welcomed us into the house and, it still being reasonably early, we took the chance to do an hour’s rehearsal before setting off to join Tam Lin for our first gig of the day, at a nearby pub. I think we all agreed afterwards that that was a swell as the new Tam Lin has played and the modest but enthusiastic sized crowd really lapped it up.
Then it was straight off to the mandolin workshop that Rob was running. Rob had decided to introduce budding (and as it turned out, some pretty experienced) mandolin players to Asturian music. I went along to just play some of the accompaniment. Rob did really well to engage 20 people of markedly different standards of playing, for a 90 minute session. (I’ve only seen one blog of the Broadstairs festival and to Rob’s credit, it mentions his mandolin workshop directly as one of the events the blogger had really enjoyed.)
Then it was time to grab a nice cup of tea and ready ourselves for the big one. So, we headed back towards the marquee area –we wouldn’t want to be late would we? – and found a nice little cafe to wind down a bit. And then we went over to the marquee to find Cara Dillon and her band doing their sound check. Alan and Sue had kindly taken the bulk of our stuff straight there from the Tam Lin gig.
The marquee had seats for c 550-600 as far as I could estimate and there, at the front of the then empty auditorium was Cara herself just watching her partner Sam Lakeman and the others get the sound right. This was great experience and I enjoyed watching the pre-show show. Clearly, we didn’t want to bother anybody but Cara gave us a nice smile and seemed very approachable.
As is usual in these circumstances, the top of the bill does the sound check first, the warm up acts then do theirs in reverse order. So, we were doing our check last after the other band on the bill – the excellent and phenomenally talented (and extremely nice and supportive) Skyhook.
Time passed and time passed and, of course, when it came to na-mara, there was already 500 people outside queuing up to get in. So, I think we might have had three minutes - but our needs are simple and we were done fine and luxuriously. One mixing desk for the front of house and another for the monitors....wow.
And then, fifteen minutes later, the crowd had come in and filled every seat in the house, Chris Sandler had introduced us, and we were on. Interestingly, the increase in numbers – this was by far the biggest gig na-mara had played – did not translate directly to an increase in nerves and I have to say we both felt pretty relaxed. We kicked off with Three Bonny Ships which we knew well and was a cracking starter. We followed that with Anada Pa Julia – to slow the mood down. We then played Solo Por Tres Meses, which we knew would go down really well with the sort of listening audience that would typically come to see the wonderful Cara Dillion. Then we finished off with Willy Taylor. And that was us – off we came. We felt we had done really well and the sale of CDs and the requests to have those autographed, and the insistence of one lady that we had been ‘fastastic’, were all huge fillips for us.
So, with a benign smile on our faces we proceeded then to watch the rest of the show for the ‘green room’ just to the side of the stage, behind the banks of speakers. Skyhook were hugely talented and did a lengthy and powerful set, and then Cara came on. Her band started with She Moves Through the Fair, the first atmospheric minute or two of which she stays off stage. So, Rob and I had the pleasure of her company before she went on - to give a sublime performance both of that song and many more. Interestingly, since we are now singing it in our Tam Lin (and occasionally na-mara) repertoire, she is now doing The Verdant Braes of Screen. I notice she doesn’t do the sixth verse that we do – I’ll have to research that one.
Then, it was time to go home (Fiona and Rhona’s) for the night. Thankfully Skyhook had organised transport to get themselves home and they very generously helped us shift some of our stuff. By the time we got home, the house was quiet and given Rob and I were completely knackered, it was probably a blessing that we just went straight to bed and switched the lights off. Usually I can’t get off to sleep after playing – but that night, I was straight out.
August 11th 2008
Monday morning and a different sort of workday ahead of us. Furnished and filled with a couple of fried eggs on toast, we began Day 2 of our Broadstairs baptism. After a bit of a stroll round, a rummage in a couple of local book shops, it was back to the house, pick up our stuff and then down to the Charles Dickens pub for a one-hour session. As with the Sunrunner in Hitchin, Alan and Sue looked after us p.a. wise again, and as at the Sunrunner and the main marquee the night before, friends from Baldock and Letchworth came along to support. On arrival, Rob and I were a bit worried that the lively and busy environment of the pub might not be the best setting for our quieter oriented music. However, over time, a folk crowd entered the pub - some of them as a result of our gig being announced in the marquee the night before - and by the time we started, there was a really nice atmosphere conducive to mid-day music playing. We got a good reception and we played well, especially given the very tight space we had to operate in. Nearby Morris rhythms weren't exactly in synch. but hey that's festival life for you - as we were coming to learn.
Then Rob and I went off with the rest of Tam Lin to support Alan with his bodhran workshop - which acted as a nice bit of extra rehearsal for the rest of us - and we could sit back and enjoy Alan hard at work.
After that, we had a little time to ourselves before Tam Lin went for a sound check down at the bandstand, where we were doing a 30-minute slot later. Sound check over, we sloped off for a beer and then returned to watch the Morris men and the other acts. Again lots of friends came down. Rob's son Ben and Rob's brother in law Ian came over from Margate to watch and in a nice boost to 'Dad's street cred', Ben witnessed a middle aged couple passing by and pointing Rob out as being 'one of the guys who'd been on the main stage the night before'. It made Rob and Ben's night. It was then a windy and p.a. problematic set but very enjoyable. Fiona and Rhona and family came down to watch which was really nice of them.
Finally, after getting the instruments home, Rob and I wandered the pubs of Broadstairs, had a few pints, watched Ian Cutler and band on at the Tartar Frigate - where Tam Lin was playing the following night, and then stayed to watch the wonderful Morris-men song rounds at one of the town centre pubs. The atmosphere was very different but brilliant in each pub. Then it was a long march home up the hill, and then up the wooden hill to bed.
12th August 2008,
A virtual day at leisure - what a luxury! The chance to soak up the atmosphere, do the bookshops properly, have capuccino in Morelli's and Fish and Chips later on. Our only commitment was the Tartar Frigate for a two hour Tam Lin gig, so we had a restful festival day just doing a bit of rehearsal and messing around with a bit of new stuff at Fiona and Rhona's.
The Tartar Frigate gig went well - not quite as heaving as for Ian Cutler but still a very busy, sweaty night. The big drawback was that after the gig it was a two hour trip back to St. Albans and early into work the next morning. Thankfully, we were buzzing after the gig, Rob's son Ben helped us with the gear and we were on the road by 11.00pm and home just after 1.00am Wednesday.