After the Skipton Folk Unplugged gig, Rob and I sat up late with Chris and had beers and snacks, winding down, not getting to bed until 1.30am. So, it was a lazy morning over a wonderful breakfast watching the UK constitution evolving in real time as the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the Prime Minister’s attempt at prorogation of Parliament, 11-0.

However, by early afternoon, we needed to say our goodbyes and set off for our gig in Crewe.  The main reportable feature of the journey was the almost apocalyptic rain that lashed us as we travelled back over the Pennines on a very busy M62. Eventually, we broke through the weather front and late afternoon turned to light cloud.

We made a quick pit stop for a sarnie at Knutsford Services on the M6 before making our way over to Crewe, where we arrived in good time.

Event organiser for the evening, Joy Bratherton, was there to greet us, along with local performer Barry Lawton who was providing the support for the evening.  Joy had prepared a lovely buffet for half time and, as the start time of 7.00pm approached, the room for the performance began to fill up.  The venue was now a community centre but in times past had been a primary school.  So, there was plenty of space. The acoustics were fine and, again there was a main room and a spillover space at the back of the performance area.

Bang on 7.00pm Barry started and did a great job in warming the audience up with a mix of his own songs and some covers.  His nice guitar work and powerful voice certainly got the evening off to a great start.  We wish him well with his music making and hope to see him again on the club circuit soon.

We reprised the set that we’d performed a few nights earlier in Glossop and, again, it seemed to go down very well.  It was certainly very interesting chatting to audience members during the break about the story of the Basque children.

Joy had very kindly arranged the slightly earlier start to the event to make things as easy as possible for us driving back home to St Albans that night.  So, we finished a little after 10.00pm with audience members kindly assisting us with getting our gear out to the car so that we could get away in good time.

Many thanks to Joy and all her fellow members of the Crewe and Nantwich Labour Party for welcoming us so warmly on our first visit to Crewe and to the wonderful Joy, in particular, for the original invitation and for arranging the evening to accommodate our needs.

So, we set off, content that we’d had four excellent evenings away playing music that people had enjoyed, safe in the knowledge we’d both got our name out to a fair few people who hadn’t heard it before and made a decent number of new friends.  However, the British motorway system late at night is adept at sucking the joy from any such happy circumstance.  M6 (Toll) closed at one point, M6 closed at one point, M1 closed at one point.  So, like a national game of Mornington Crescent, it was M42, M40, M25, Home, feeling weary but contented once again.

After another excellent breakfast near the Market Hall in Altincham, we set off around 11.30am to make our way east to our next gig in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

Up ‘til now, Irritata, the goddess of motorway problems had been quiet.  I don’t know what we’d done to upset her but her opening gambit on the Monday of our trip was a 45 minute (at least) delay on the moors part of the M62.  So, we decided to set off onto the country route through Todmorden and Hebden Bridge.  Sadly, Frustratum, the god of minor roadworks, was also pretty pee-ed off about something or other.  So, it ended up a long old trip – but a very pretty one.

Our first stop was in Rawdon, where we were staying that evening with family, and it was a great relief to get there and have a soothing cuppa put in our hands.  As always, the perfect hosts, Chris and Gaynor, looked after us wonderfully well and Gaynor set us up for our evening performance with a great Moroccan stew late afternoon – perfect timing and just what the doctor ordered as the sunshine of the previous days disappeared, the thermometer dropped a little and the rain moved in.

Hoping we might get chance to explore Skipton while it was still dry, we set off early, guided expertly by Chris.  Sadly, we didn’t quite make it before the rain and, as such, our tour of the town was done in cagoules in the dark.  However, what we did see of Skipton itself looked very nice indeed and I hope to return there in daylight in the not too distant future.

In our wanderings, we passed the venue for the evening.  So, we moved the car to a nearby car park, had a cup of tea in the pub and were ready for when club organiser, Sheila, arrived.

The club takes place in a lovely upstairs room at the Narrow Boat Pub, in Victoria Street, very close, as the name suggests to major canal infrastructure.  Adorned with barge porthole ornaments, the venue is both intimate and warm.

The evening went very well indeed.  Both halves of the evening were kicked off with sets by local trio, One-a-chord, with a lovely mix of accordion, whistles and harp/guitar, plus some great vocals from accordion player, Frank.  In each half, One-a chord were followed by a song from club regular, Jean.  

We played well and the chorus singing was done with great enthusiasm.  Everyone had a terrific evening and I’m pleased to report that the feedback from club members and organisers was very positive.

Skipton Folk Unplugged is a lovely folk club and we look forward to returning there again one day.  Many thanks to Sheila for her invitation, warm welcome and kind words on the evening.

We have had the pleasure of meeting Genevieve Tudor a few times now and, after kindly playing a couple of tracks from our new album ‘Sisters & Brothers’ on her Sunday Folk programme for BBC Radio Shropshire earlier in the year, and knowing we were in the region, she had generously invited us to join her for an interview and to play a couple of tracks live.

Chatting on the previous day’s drive up to Altrincham and knowing that we would be seeing Genevieve in the relatively early evening, Rob and I had mused on whether we might, therefore, be able to fit in a trip to the famous Raven Folk Club in Chester on our way back to Altrincham that evening.  Working out the travel times, this indeed looked feasible and Rob contacted club organiser, Nick Mitchell, to ask if we might call in and Nick said the club would be delighted to have us come along to their singaround evening.

Free until 5.00pm, Rob and I decided to take the opportunity to work on a couple of the tunes that we were intending to perform at a music festival in Chongqing in China in late October.  So, after breakfasting near the (magnificent) Altrincham Sunday food and craft market, we returned to the hotel to quietly tinkle and trill away in a Premier Inn bedroom for an hour or so, working out suitable tune arrangements.

Around midday, we set off towards Shrewsbury with a plan to find somewhere for a good Sunday lunch.  And we found one too - at the Mainwaring Arms near Whitmore, just off the M6. So, ‘volunteering for that Captain Mainwaring’, we spent a relaxing 90 minutes over an excellent Sunday lunch that would set us up for the rest of the day.  

Then, it was back in the car, a fuel stop in Market Drayton and on to Shrewsbury, where we arrived at the BBC Radio Shropshire studios in plenty of time for our 5.00pm appointment.

A few minutes before the allotted time, we rang the doorbell and were greeted by Genevieve herself.  We then had a quick cuppa before going into the studio and recording live versions of The Sirens’ Call and The Black Widows.  This was followed by a brief interview with Genevieve before bidding her goodbye.  Many thanks to Genevieve for her enduring support for our music.  This is greatly appreciated by us.

Being back on the road for 6.15pm meant that we were going to be able to drive the hour to Chester and be there in plenty of time for the 8.30pm opening of the Raven Folk Club.  It was a pleasant cross-country drive, skirting Wrexham and finishing with finding a parking spot just inside the Roman walls of Chester and immediately outside The Bear and Billet pub which hosts the Raven Folk Club.  Amazing.

Given the club’s start time, our early arrival afforded us the chance to have a wander around the glorious city centre of Chester, and glorious it is too.  It seems there had been a major Pride event on there earlier in the day and, it’s fair to say, wandering around, there was evidence that perhaps drink had been taken.  It must have been one hell of a party.

After an hour’s strolling, we made it back to the car and took the instruments we needed and made it up through the two flights of stairs to the top floor of the Bear and Billet, which is a wonderful pub throughout.

The club room was already busy with a buzz of expectation.  The welcome for us was very warm from both the organisers Nick and Chris and from other musicians there to perform.  By 8.30pm, the room was jam packed and I can report that the quality of the performances was extremely high throughout the evening.  The Raven Folk Club is blessed with a great deal of talent.

Rob and I did a couple of numbers in the first half of the evening (The Sirens’ Call and The Black Widows) and, incredibly kindly, Nick then asked if we would do a further two numbers to finish the evening off, which we were delighted to do (performing the An Dro tune set and ending the evening with Sisters & Brothers). To be asked to finish the evening was a great honour and thanks to Nick, Chris, Dave and all at the Raven Folk Club for looking after us so well.  We sincerely hope to make a return there one day.

Elated by a great day of music making, we then turned for our temporary base in Altrincham, which we reached shortly after midnight.

In recent years, we have been keen to set aside some time each year to take our music to pastures new.  In this respect, Glossop Labour Club represented the first gig of a four night, 2019, ‘mini-tour’ to new venues in northern England.

We set off to travel north just after lunchtime with the aim of first calling in at our base for the next couple of nights, a Premier Inn in Altrincham.  Everything went to plan and we were able to drop off our personal gear at the hotel before getting back in the car to travel the 40 or so minutes to Glossop.

Glossop Labour Club has a wide range of social as well as political events and is very well linked into the folk circuit, hosting a range of folk events.  Martin Carthy, Roy Bailey and Mike Harding feature on their record of famous persons passing through the club.

Set in the High Peak area of Derbyshire, Glossop is a pretty town with a lively atmosphere on a Saturday evening.  We arrived in plenty of time and, though early, made sure we knew where the venue was, and parked up close by.

A perennial issue I’ve found about travelling and performing is when and what to eat.    You need something sustaining (because you can’t perform well if you're hungry and a bit shaky) but not too filling (because you can’t perform well if you're stuffed).  So, having parked up, we went looking for something appropriate to eat.  We passed a lot of what looked like good and busy eateries but eventually plumped for a quiet little Italian restaurant and had a small plate of lasagne (cannelloni for Rob).

Once we’d settled the bill, it was only a short walk back to the venue, where we met up with the very welcoming host for the evening, Jeremy Dale.  The club venue consisted of a slightly raised dias at one end of a nicely proportioned and intimate performance space, with overspill areas at the back and a bar tucked away to the side.  So, we carried the gear in from the nearby car and, managed to have a brief chat with Jeremy, set before setting up on stage.

Our plan for the evening was to perform a first half focused on the story of the Spanish Civil War and the evacuation of the Basque Children from Bilbao in May 1937, and then move on to do a second half more focused on contemporary issues.  This was akin to the structure that we'd adopted at the Bolton Socialist Club the previous year and intended for the Crewe and Nantwich Labour Party later in our trip.

The room and overspill area filled steadily until the start time of 8.00pm and it was lovely to see that Simon and Barbara from the Basque Children’s Association of ‘37 had travelled over from Sheffield to provide information and talk about the story of the niños to those attending.

The evening went really well and, as always on such evenings, audience members were fascinated to hear the stories of the Basque children.  We were also able to give another run out of the updated version of our new song, The Peril is Near, with me on my tenor guitar, Rob on Mandolin, and it seemed to go down well.

Many thanks to Jeremy for his very kind words at the end of the evening.

Sadly, it was past opening hours by the time we got back to Altrincham.  Anyway, both of us were dog tired and, after carrying our armfuls of instruments back up to our rooms as quietly as we could manage, we made our arrangements to meet the next morning for breakfast and went off to bed.  Lincoln in the Bardo with a cuppa was my nightcap.  After all the driving and performing, I didn’t need much rocking to sleep.

It was a great pleasure to return for a third time to the Orpington Folk Club.  The welcome there is always warm, the banter excellent and the music of a very high standard.

Rob and I arrived early, just as club organisers were setting the club room up for the evening. This gave us chance to catch up with them on all the club news.

The folk club itself has an excellent space provided by a large room to the rear of the lively Change of Horses pub in Farnborough Village just outside Orpington.  Such is the enthusiasm to play music in the club that, well before the official 8:00pm club opening time, the excellent house band of Ted, Steve and Ann usually strike up as soon as they get there and club members are treated to a wide range of great tunes and songs on accordion, guitar and flute as they arrive.

Rob and I went on at about 8.30pm-ish with our new season’s set list and were pleased to see we had a nicely busy room to perform to. Naturally, given our plans to officially launch our new album, Sisters & Brothers, the following week, the set list was heavily oriented to showcasing material from that album.

I’ can report that the new material went very down well, especially the title track and a new song called The Sirens’ Call,  and the whole evening proved an excellent start to our 2019 season of gigs.

Sadly, the transition into 2019 appears to have done little to improve the state of late night motorway driving. The journey home was ‘interesting’ but we made it through.

Many thanks to Steve, ted and all in the Orpington Folk Club committee for the invitation to return to the club.  It was a lovely evening spent with friendly folk enthusiasts.

Knowing we had another full and varied day ahead of us, we again rose reasonably late before having a hearty breakfast at the hotel, packing our bags and setting off for north Lincolnshire.

We arrived in the Grimsby area around 2.00pm.  Being relatively ignorant of the local area, and knowing we would have the afternoon at leisure, we took time during our journey back across the Pennines to research sites of interest that we might visit.  Evenutally, we lighted upon the stunningly impressive Thorton Abbey and Gatehouse – check it out if you’re ever in the area.  It certainly strikes an interesting contrast with the huge chemical plant at nearby Immingham.

After a couple of hours combing over the ruins of the abbey and exploring Thornton Abbey’s monumental gatehouse, we got back in the car and headed to the sea-side - to Cleethorpes to be precise.  The Grimsby Folk Club is on the Cleethorpes side of the town and neither of us had ever had the pleasure of Cleethorpes before.

We parked up on the Promenade before going off in search of something to eat. We found a splendid little hotel providing excellent Sunday roasts at a very reasonable price.  How nice of them to also throw in some entertainment for us - a couple on a nearby table having a spectacular and noisy ‘domestic’ with a full 20 minutes of solid ding and dong.

After settling up, we completed our little circuit of the sea front, with its spectacular beach and views and taking in the impressive pier before making our way to the club.

On arrival we were met by sound engineers, Mark and Linda, who proceeded to look after us splendidly through both the sound check and the subsequent performance.  The Grimsby Folk Club is held in a substantial back room of The Spider’s Web PH in the Old Clee part of Grimsby. The room, decorated with naval memorabilia, has a decent sized performance stage and seating for a substantial number of people.

Soon after we completed our sound check, we met club organiser, Mary, who, along with club members generally, made us feel very welcome.  Shortly after meeting Mary, we met George, our MC for the evening, and I enjoyed sharing stories with him about Middlesbrough  - a place where both he and I had spent considerable time in our lives.  

The evening was kicked off at 8.00pm by a wonderful set of four songs from local duo Paul and Lynn – great guitar playing and cleverly crafted harmonies.  It was a treat to listen to them.   We then followed on with our first set which seemed to go down well.

We chatted with Lynn, Paul and other audience members through the break and after the raffle – which I again failed to win (am I losing my touch…) – we were treated to two beautiful ballads, delivered a capella by club regular Arthur who had a fine, mellow, baritone voice.

After that, we again took to the stage to deliver our second set following which we were more than pleased to accede to the MC’s request that we do an encore.

At the end of the night, we spent a little time chatting with club members and organisers but, with a long journey ahead of us it was eventually time to turn for home.  We said our goodbyes to Mark, Linda, Mary and others and set off to cross Lincolnshire back to the A1.  Midnight on a Sunday night in late September meant the roads were mercifully clear and we were only discomforted by a police van careered out of nowhere to join us as we sped down the dual carriageway.  Still, even with the roads behaving themselves and (for once) no closures on the A1, it took us over three hours to get home and we arrived back in St Albans around 2.00pm-ish.

Very many thanks to Mary for the invitation to perform at the Grimsby Folk Club and, similarly, many thanks to Mark, Linda and George for looking after us so well throughout our time at the club.  We very much hope to make a return to the club at some time in the future.

After a late breakfast at our hotel, Rob and I got together for a brief rehearsal ahead of our trip that evening to the Bolton Socialist Club.  Once we were finished rehearsing, we then made our way to the extremely attractive town of Knutsford to meet up with some close friends for lunch and a tour of the town.  I can tell you the Italian food was very good indeed and we greatly enjoyed our tour of the town’s Heritage Centre ( - in particular, the Knutsford Tapestry, a work of monumental effort and, in my view, eventual historic importance).

After saying goodbye to our pals in the late afternoon, we made our way back to the hotel, got changed, picked our gigging gear up and set off for Bolton.

That evening’s event in Bolton was connected to the re-dedication of a plaque remembering those from the town who had travelled to Spain to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.  The plaque, which sits on the club’s external wall by the front door, mentions in particular James Alwyn, who died defending Madrid in February 1937 at the Battle of Jarama.

Our journey to Bolton went smoothly and we arrived in good time to set ourselves up for the performance before joining the re-dedication ceremony, which included a fine speech about the Bolton volunteers and James Alwyn and a beautiful programme of songs in front of the plaque from the Clarion Choir, brightly bedecked in their red fleeces and tee-shirts.

We were met and greeted warmly by senior club organiser, Julia Simpkins, and other members of the club and taken to the performance venue, an intimate space for up to 65 people which had been wonderfully decorated with flags and relevant posters from the 1930s.

As the audience arrived for the evening, I was delighted to see one of my oldest friends, now living and working to the north of Liverpool, had come along to say ‘hello’.  Having not seen each other for around 20 years, it was wonderful to catch up on personal and family news in that easy kind of way that lifelong friends seem to do.

With agreement from Julia, we split our performance into two distinct halves.  The first half was specifically focused on songs relating to the Spanish Civil War and the story of the Basque children.  The second half of the evening focused more on our songs about current issues - plus a fair bit of chorus singing and the occasional love song.

I am pleased to report that the evening was a resounding success.  It was well attended, there was a great atmosphere, people seemed very happy to participate with choruses and there were some very very good speeches.  Throughout the evening, audience members were keen to engage with us on a range of issues raised by our music and it was excellent to have Simon Martinez and colleagues there from the Basque Children of ’37 Association UK to also talk with interested audience members.

Eventually, as people drifted away at the end of the evening, we too needed to say our goodbyes and set off back to our hotel.  Very many thanks to Julia and all of her colleagues at the Bolton Socialist Club for giving us such a wonderfully warm welcome (and for their gifts of club-related memorabilia which I know have in pride of place back at home).  We sincerely wish the club well for the future and hope to make a return there one day.

After a splendid evening at the Topic Folk Club in Bradford  the night before, and eating and drinking late into the night, we had a lazy morning with a leisurely breakfast and a look through some old photographs, before setting off for Cheshire. Since we were playing a Spanish Civil War-related event at the Bolton Socialist Club on the following evening (Saturday), Rob and I had made the previous decision that we would make our way to the Manchester area and look to visit one of the local folk clubs in the area.

Having carefully researched the options, we contacted the organisers at Bollington Folk Club, located around four miles north-east of Macclesfield, to ask if we could call in on them whilst in the area, and they were very content for us to join one of their Friday singers’ evenings.

The trip from Bradford to our hotel in Knutsford was blissfully uneventful and we arrived in plenty of time to unpack ready for a couple of nights stay in the town.

We had a small meal in our hotel before we set off to Bollington - an attractive little, stone-built, town.  The Bollington Folk Club takes place in the upstairs room of the very lively and inviting Dog and Partridge PH in the town and we arrived just as another visiting performer to the club arrived and it was interesting to chat with him about the continuing and encouraging vitality of the folk scene in the wider Cheshire and Staffordshire region.

Soon afterwards, MC Mike Rotheram arrived and began organising performance schedules for the evening.  As we were to find out, in line with the club’s wider membership, Mike was a wonderfully welcoming and engaging person.

The Bollington Folk Club is extremely well organised and stuffed full of talented folk singers and instrumentalists.  Through the course of the evening, Rob and I were treated to everything from traditional ballads right through to the Kinks and the Beatles, a capella and accompanied.  The banter throughout the evening was also of the very highest order and the room was full of laughter.

With respect to what we performed, we did a first set of three songs which I’m pleased to report were very warmly received and after the raffle – which for once I didn’t win – Mike very kindly asked us to finish the evening with another couple of songs.  So warm was the support for our contribution to the evening that the good members of Bollington Folk Club proceeded to call for an encore, which we were naturally delighted to provide. ( The club actually provides sound clips from the various singaround nights.  These can be found on the folk club website at https://sites.google.com/site/bollingtonfolkclub/sound-clips .)

After chatting for some time with various club members at the end of the evening, we eventually returned to the car and made our way back to our nearby hotel.  What a lovely evening, what a lovely folk club and what a friendly pub!

Very many thanks to Pete Wood for making the initial arrangements for us to go along to the Bollington Folk Club and to the wonderful Mike Rotheram and all the other club members present for making feel immediately at home and for supporting our music so fully.  We sincerely hope to return to the club at some time in the not too distant future.

It was a fresh, sunny, lunchtime when we set off from St Albans to perform at the first of our ‘2018 northern tour’ venues - the prestigious Topic Folk Club in Bradford. We had had the pleasure of performing a floor spot and joining a singaround session at the club over the previous couple of years but tonight we were going to be headlining at the oldest folk club in the world. 

Established in 1956, the Topic Folk Club is situated at the heart of Bradford city centre, in Glyde House on Glydegate and takes place in a nicely sized room in which tables are set out café style for up to 50 to 60 people.  The space is welcoming and intimate - you can even have a glitterball if you are so inclined.

The journey north was straightforward enough apart from a Sat-Nav excursion right through the centre of Leeds to get to a close relative’s house where we were staying that evening.  However, we weren’t delayed too long by ‘Camilla’s’ decision-making and arrived in plenty of time to have some excellent soup and a quick catch up on family and other news before making our way to the club.

We arrived at the Topic not long after 7.00pm for an 8.00pm start and so had plenty of time to chat with club officers Rahel Guzelian and Tony Charnock (who together form folk duo Otra) and with Ron, our excellent MC for the evening.

As 8.00pm approached, the room began to fill and, by start time, in addition to a good crowd of regular club goers, we had relatives, friends from St Albans who happened to be in the area and friends from university days who now work in the area, turning up. 

Numbers that evening were potentially boosted because on the previous evening, the local newspaper, the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, had featured the story of what happened to the Basque children of 1937 and how some of the niños had been catered for in ‘colonias’ in Bradford and nearby Keighley.  As the son of one of the Basque child refugees from the Spanish Civil War, we had arranged for Rob to be interviewed about the subject by a local journalist and the resultant article also made mention of our gig at the Topic and the fact that we would be singing songs about the experiences of the niños. 

The evening began with three excellent floorspots from Mike, Stuart and a female singer whose name I didn’t catch (sorry).  Together, they certainly entertained the growing audience and got them in the mood for singing.

We then went on for our first set and were very well received.  The audience was certainly in good voice.

At the break, the organisers held the raffle and, almost inevitably these days, when it came to making the draw, I ended up picking my own ticket out of the bucket.   I, of course, requested the organisers draw the raffle again and the red wine went elsewhere.

After some more excellent singing from the floor, we returned for our second set and, again, I’m pleased to report we were well received, finishing the night with a rendition of The Maid of Culmore as our encore.  After that, audience members seemed keen to engage with us with questions about a number of our songs and, I’m pleased to say, to purchase CDs.

As people began to disappear, it was nice to chat again with Rahel and Tony and with our dispersing group friends and family before turning for our accommodation for the evening. By now we were quite hungry and on reaching home for the evening, we were treated to a fabulous cottage pie followed by cheeses, all washed down with cold beers and wine.  We eventually retired to bed at around 1.30am and, speaking personally, I did not take much rocking to get me off to the land of Nod. Many thanks to Chris and Gaynor for their continuing and bounteous hospitality whenever we are in the Leeds-Bradford area.

Many thanks also to Rahel and Tony for the invitation to perform a full set at the wonderful Topic Folk Club, and to MC Ron and all the floorsingers for helping make our first headliner at the club a really memorable evening.

It was a very nice evening at the Gala Fundraiser at Watford Folk Club last night.

We very much enjoyed performing a 40-minute set with lots of material from our forthcoming album and we saw some excellent performances from MC Julian Mount and friends, Steve McClennon and friends, Nigel Wesson and the lovely Moses and the Ref.

I am also pleased to report that the evening was well attended and a fair old sum of money was raised to support the club to continue to do their excellent work.

Well done to Pete and Ellie Nutkin and Kim Olyett on another successful evening for the club. Here’s to the next 20 years at the Watford Folk Club and well done to all those who turned out on a muggy Friday evening to support the event.