Rob and I had a great time on our first visit to Overton Folk Club yesterday evening.  We were very warmly received and heard some first rate performances by club regulars in a very convivial setting in the Community Centre in the middle of Overton.  What more could one want for a nice evening out?

Overton Folk Club organisers Tom and Gill had seen Na-Mara perform at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival last year and were kind enough to extend an invitation to play at the club, something we were delighted to do.

Given the risks of tea-time on the M25 we set off for Hampshire late afternoon and actually made to the delightful village of Overton in north-east Hampshire in good time.  Curiously, as we searched out a place to park, we began noticing increasing numbers of human-like figures, in medieval and other garb, hiding in bushes and hanging on walls.  I’m pleased to say the mystery was solved once we clocked the sign advertising the village Scarecrow Fair coming up in about ten days time.

Once we had parked up we made our way to the venue where we met the lovely Tom and Gill who proved to be the most accommodating of hosts for the evening.  Not wanting to interfere with their preparations for the evening ahead, Rob and I slipped away to have a sandwich and a cuppa, returning in good time to set up our instruments at one end of the beautiful Community Centre Hall.  The room was by now set out café style with accommodation for up to 60 people and as we moved towards the start time, the room began to fill up.  It was very lovely to have a series of audience members come up and individually welcome us to the club.

Bang on 8.00pm, Tom got everything underway in what was now a nicely filled room and Gill started the evening with two cracking tunes on her melodeon.  Gill was then was followed over the next 30 minutes or so by a remarkable set of floorspots from talented club regulars.  There were excellent self compositions, traditional songs, music hall songs, some country and western songs; some were sung accompanied and others sung a capella; tremendous fun  - and the banter around the room was great.

It was a very warm evening but it did not deter those present from heartily supporting us in the chorus songs in our first set.  It was also clear that this was an excellent listening club as well.  Just our kind of audience.

At half time we had a nice chat with a number of other club regulars and, after the raffle had been drawn, we were treated to a further 20 minutes of excellent music from an almost entirely different set of club regulars.  Gill and Tom started the second half with an excellent rendition of ‘Bridget Donaghue’.  This club really is blessed with strength in depth.

We delivered an upbeat second half and were pleased to be joined in some of our songs and tunes by club regular Roly on bones, which added a nice extra bit of percussion. Again, the support from club members for the choruses was excellent throughout and, at the end of the evening, we were naturally delighted to be asked to perform an encore.

After we finished, it was very nice indeed that a succession of club regulars took time out to come and thank us for our music and it was most encourage to note that the things Rob and I hold dear like ‘music from the heart’, ‘musicianship’ and ‘variety’ were all mentioned unsolicited by audience members.

As the room emptied we packed up and, with Tom and Gill’s help, loaded up the car for the return journey home.  We certainly left Overton with smiles on our faces. Even the closure of the M25 and the lengthy detour it lead to couldn’t suck the joy from what had been a truly terrific evening.  As Overton Folk Club reaches its 10th anniversary, we wish it well for the next decade.

Many thanks to Gill and Tom for the invitation to perform at Overton Folk Club and we sincerely hope to return to the club again at some stage in the future.

It was a very early wake up call to catch our flight to Frankfurt to play at the Idstein Jazz Festival and, as with every very early flight, there is little comfort in sleep the night before as you work through all the little worries in your head.  Worries along the lines of will the car start, will there be someone to actually meet and greet us at airport parking,  will the flight go on time, what if there was a cancellation, will the security guys freak out at a suitcase full of leads, instrument stands and CDs, will the instruments survive the journey in the hold, will the Fragile stickers on the guitars actually stick, will someone crush the mandolin with a suitcase in the overhead locker, etc., etc., etc on to infinity.

Of course, everything worked out just fine and we were picked up at Frankfurt Airport and transported to our hotel in the small town of Niedernhausen in good time to unpack and retune our unharmed instruments and have a delightful lunch in glorious sunshine watched bya glorious pair of Egyptian Geese and their brood of chicks.  

After lunch we took a taxi into Idstein.  With the centre of town taken over with the festival and all routes in being blocked, the baffled taxi driver ended up giving us an interesting tour of the Idstein suburbs before finding somewhere where he could drop us off.

Once we had unloaded, we made our way on foot into the town centre to meet the festival organisers at the festival office and drop our gear off there.

Once at the office we met with Festival Organiser, Ariane Oezer.  Ariane had been instrumental in organising for us to attend and perform at the festival and ensuring all our transport and practical needs had been met.  

On our arrival, she was once again wonderfully accommodating, permitting us to leave our instruments in the Festival Office so that we could wander around the town and have a look at what was happening on each of the six stages cleverly dotted about the town centre.

Those who have visited Idstein will know it is a small and extremely pretty town.  Six festival stages are cleverly squeezed into its tangle of medieval streets and squares, all very different in feel and nature.  Most front onto piazzas with lots of benching laid out where such that audience members can eat and drink while they watch the various acts performing.  

As we wandered around the town, we saw everything from jazz, jazzfunk, Dixieland, rock, blues.  We also took the opportunity to view our own stage for the evening where a double bass and guitar combo were performing some classic jazz and pop standards. We then took a walk out into the Idstein to visit a friend of Rob’s to pick up a classical guitar that had been loaned to us by another of Rob’s friends for the evening’s performance.

Later, we returned to the festival, stored the borrowed guitar at the festival office and took another tour of the town, the wonderful castle and its fearsome hexenturm where an horrendous number of women were murdered in the belief they were witches.

Courtesy of the festival organisers, we used up some our food and beer tokens to have some supper.  No beer ...yet though.  Always work first, beer later.  A tasty bit of steak on a bun consumed, we returned to watch another act on our stage for the evening.  There we engaged in conversation with some local women who, given they had connections to Liverpool - the location of our Black Widows song - promised they would come along and see us later in the evening – a promise they kept.

We were to go on stage at 10.00pm and, with two fifteen minute breaks in between, perform three 45 minute sets.  So, we spent the evening moving from stage to stage watching various acts.   Since there was no sound check planned for us earlier in the day, at 9:00pm we returned to the festival office, picked up our instruments and walked over to our stage – the No. 6, Börnchen, stage – to do a sound check when the previous band came off.  We arrived to find a two guitar duo (Dead Horse Gap) playing a variety of pop standards to great acclaim from a sizeable crowd gathered around the festival’s most intimate stage and space.

As we watched and waited, we kept our eye on the updated weather forecast. The Hessen region had been experiencing thunder storms over the previous week and thunder and lightning was clearly a growing threat for this evening.

After Dead Horse Gap finished their encore, we moved to get our gear on the stage. There we met Frank, the sound technician, who turned out to be a real gem.  The sound check was done professionally and quickly, with us even received applause at one point during the course of it.

Sadly, as we got ready to begin our first set, the first rain of the day began to fall. Thankfully, the festival goers of Idstein are hardy folk.  Out came the umbrellas as we quickly began moved our gear back from the edge of the stage.

The rain fell intermittently and sometimes heavily as we played our first sets but I am pleased to report that the audience size grew and grew in size and applause got louder and louder after each song and tune.  We managed to get the audience engaging in choruses which they really enjoyed singing.

Then, just as we were finishing our first set, the thunder and lightning that had been rumbling around the general area, suddenly broke with a vengeance overhead.  Rain began falling in torrents and, understandably, our audience legged it for cover.  Thankfully, some of them legged it onto the stage to buy CDs, and it was nice to spend time talking about our music with them.

Over the course of the planned 15 minute break, the rain continued to fall heavily and I must confess that this was the first time we have ever had to sweep water off the stage.  Naturally, we fought mightily to keep the electrics dry and, at the allotted time, we restarted our concert with our second set.

With the rain easing, we began to perform to a hardy number of diehard enthusiasts that had sought shelter wherever they could - under trees, under the mixing desk tent, under nearby house scaffolding, wherever there was cover.  However, even with the rain continuing, audience numbers began to grow again through the set.  People were very happy singing along to choruses and the atmosphere around the stage was defiantly enthusiastic; the weather would not deter them.

However, with thunder rumbling and lightning flashing all around, at around 11.30pm, Ariane, came to the stage to tell us that a decision had been made that everything in the festival would now finish at midnight.  With this news, we decided to abandon what would have been our second fifteen minute break and play right through until the deadline.  I couldn’t be happier to note that our audience stayed with us right until the very end and, after we’d finished, formed an orderly queue in the rain to come and buy CDs.

Their feedback was terrific.  Some of them hadn’t really experienced our kind of contemporary, issues-based ,folk music in  traditional style and they had clearly loved what we had performed.

After those buying CDs had drifted away, we hurriedly put our gear together, thanked Frank and were escorted back to the festival office by one of the festival organisers.  With the rain continuing, she led us on a shortcut back to the festival office.  Amusingly, this was a tiny, unlit, alleyway with steps in it.  She lit the passageway as best she could with her mobile phone but with Rob and I carrying something sizeable in each hand, it was a 30 metre continuous stumble.  The passageway became thinner and thinner until, at one point, he and I were doing a kind of Wilson, Keppel and Betty dance with our gear as we squeezed through.  Clearly, we made it without obvious injury to pride or person and were able to proceed to the festival office to complete the financial element of the day.

When we asked about where we might find a taxi to take us back to the hotel, the lovely woman who had guided us through the shortcut back to the festival office chirped up and said that she was returning to Niedernhausen and would give us a lift.  What a Godsend she was. It would probably have been a long wait for a taxi on such a rainy night.  So, we again  left our instruments in the festival office and accompanied our newfound saviour to her waiting car and, from there, after 20 minutes, we were back at the hotel where beer was certainly consumed and quickly before we went off to our rooms for a well-earned sleep.

Given that my summer shoes had become completely sodden during the evening’s performance, the hotel hairdryer was put to good use, both then and on the following morning, to dry them out.  I also got all the cables and instrument stands out to dry off.

After such a long day and late night, it wasn’t surprising that we organised to meet up for a late breakfast.  A friend of Rob’s kindly agreed to come and collect us from the hotel late on Sunday morning and take us back into Idstein.  En route, Thomas told us that the festival he had been playing in, in nearby Weisbarden, had also been halted by the weather at 10.00pm the previous evening – just after his big band had  finished their soundcheck.  He told us that in 30 years of playing these festivals, he had never seen weather like the night before.

On arrival back in Idstein, we made our way back to the festival office with our overnight bags.  Again, the festival staff were very accommodating and let us create an even bigger mess around their office.  Liberated, Rob and I then went out to see some more bands performing and to grab some food and a beer.  Again, the variety of music on offer at the festival was excellent and we watched four different bands on different stages before having something further to eat and turning for home.

Of course, as you do this, all of those travel worries resurface – will the Autobahn still be as clogged as it had been the day before, will the predicted thunder storms at Frankfurt Airport lead to delays or cancellation to flights, will the instruments arrive safely again at the end of their journey through two airports, will Frankfurt Airport security again want to have a very close look at the batteries in Rob’s mandolin, will they also freak out at my suitcase full of cables and metalwork, will the car be waiting for us when we arrive back at Meet and Greet etc. etc.

Well, thunderstorms elsewhere in Europe did lead to our plane arriving late in Frankfurt and our flight home was delayed - but not by much.  Rob’s mandolin did pass through security without a problem but, yes, they did rather freak out at my suitcase and the whole thing had to be gone through and examined.  Oh, and of course, the M25 was in its usual ugly Sunday evening mood when we did get back but, with all of this, we didn’t care.  We’d had a great trip and we were still home in time for an evening meal and a beer.  

All in all, the Idstein Jazz festival was great fun; top quality music in a delightful setting with lovely people enjoying themselves with good music, good food and good beer and wine.  We would like to thank festival organiser Ariane and her committee for the original invitation to perform at the festival and similarly to Ariane and her colleagues for looking after us so well throughout our time in Idstein.  Thanks go also to Frank for his great work on the sound on the Börnchen stage.  He is one of the best sound technicians we have ever worked with. Finally, we would like to thank Sebastian for his hospitality, Güvenc for picking us up and depositing us so expertly at the Airport and Thomas and our lovely late evening saviour for making the journeys between the hotel and the festival easy. 

Albeit holidays and illness meant numbers were a little below their usual average, Rob and I had a lovely evening at the Maidenhead Folk Club yesterday evening.  Those who had managed to make it along were very welcoming and fully engaged with what we were playing, joining in robustly with choruses from the very start of the evening

The club meets in a comfortable side room in the well appointed New Inn in Taplow.  Excellent floor spots were provided during the evening by Mark Ashworth, Arthur and Margaret and we had everything from some of Mark’s poignant self-penned compositions to fine renditions of Sovay Sovay and Johnny has gone for a Soldier.

I’m pleased to report that logistics all worked out well  - apart from me having the wrong post code for the venue.  It took me a little time to work this out on my arrival in the town but on the positive side I now have a decent working knowledge of Maidenhead Town Centre.

Very many thanks to Mary and to the committee at Maidenhead Folk Club for the invitation to perform at the club once again.  It was a real pleasure.  We wish the club every success and look forward to hearing how their biannual song competition goes next year.

It was very nice indeed to return to the excellent NAF Club last night.

We arrived nice and early at the Star and Garter pub in Silsoe near Bedford which hosts the club. This was partly because the M1 behaved itself but mostly because, for some reason, I had a start time in my head for the club that was 30 minutes earlier than was the case.

Anyway, the bar staff let us into the club room, and we had plenty of time to tune up and to chat with friends who had kindly travelled over from the Baldock and Letchworth Folk and Blues Club to come and support us.

It was nice to then catch up with club organiser, Ned Lawton, and hear about how NAF Club was faring and what he has been up to musically since his previous band, the three-piece Ragged Staff, made their decision not to continue.  I’ll leave it to Ned to tell the world what he is up to but, watch out, it certainly sounds an exciting project.

The NAF Club is held in a room upstairs at the Star and Garter and provides for an intimate atmosphere, especially with the array of night lights that are illuminated as evening falls. 

The club room filled up quickly as the allotted start time of 8.15pm approached and floor singers provided a nice balance of country and western, Americana, a bit of 19702 pop-folk. At the start of the second half, Mike Nacey, also formerly of Ragged Staff, provided a delightful short instrumental set on his new electric tenor guitar.

It was satisfying to hear audience members joining in with the choruses and enjoying the quieter pieces in both of our two sets and the feedback from audience members at the end of the show was pleasantly supportive.

Many thanks to Ned Lawton for the invitation to perform again at the NAF Club and we wish him, his new musical venture and, of course, the NAF Club itself every success in the future.  

What a tremendous night it was at the Waveney Folk Club in Lowestoft yesterday. The welcome we received from club organisers and audience members alike and the support for what we do were as pleasing as they were outstanding.

With it being the last Friday of a half-term holiday, we set off good and early to make sure we were in Lowestoft in plenty of time for the club starting at 8.00pm.  We arrived in the town around 6.00pm-ish and, after a bite to eat in a lovely pub overlooking the Oulton Broad (The Wherry), we drove the short distance to the Gunton Village Community Hall where the club is held every alternate Friday.

Club organiser, Peter, was already busy at 7.15pm transforming the hall into a convivial folk club setting.  In this he was building on the work of caretaker Ann who had been in that morning and set the tables and chairs out.  Peter’s warm greeting made us feel at home immediately and Ann couldn’t have been more helpful in organising things so that we could effect an easy transfer of gear into the venue.

As the room was beginning to fill up, MC for the evening, Mel, arrived with Wendy who was looking after the drinks and snacks for the evening.  Again, they gave us the most wonderful of welcomes.

Mel started the evening promptly at 8.00pm performing an excellent introductory song.  This presaged nearly an hour of top club talent providing the floorspots.  We had everything from Black is the Colour through to Lord Randall.  We had a seriously good short set from two-thirds of local folk trio Tin River and, joy of joys, club member Graham performed with his hurdy gurdy.  I love the hurdy gurdy, so this was a real treat for me.

We then went on to perform our first set and found the now reasonably full room, laid out in café style with (LED) candles on tables, very content to support us in our choruses.  The banter through the evening was great and we quickly developed a lovely rapport with the audience.

Following a ten minute break in proceedings, club member Andy did a ‘hot spot’ feature.  This is a nice idea where a club regular gets the opportunity to perform a slightly longer set.  We all appreciate it can take a couple of numbers to get into one’s stride when performing and just doing one or two songs or tunes can make it hard for club floorsingers to really show what they can do.  This longer time slot allowed Andy to show a good range of his material which stretched from Matty Groves to Billie Holiday’s Electric Chair.  A really nice set.

We then assumed the floor for our second set which was, again, enhanced by the acoustics in the room.  Albeit a modern building without any noticeable acoustic enhancements, somehow the room provides the most wonderful natural reverb, great for encouraging performers and great for people around the room all of whom, front or back, can hear the acoustic instruments really well.

The second set went as well as the first and we were delighted to respond positively to audience calls for an encore.  After the show, we had the most lovely feedback and, if CD sales are a measure of such, it was clear that the audience enjoyed what we had done.

Finally, after chatting with a number of club members, it was time to pack up for the long journey home.  Caretaker Ann was there right to the last minute, still smiling and joking, making sure we got away OK.  After a gig like that, the two and half hours back to St Albans passed very quickly.

Thanks to Peter Hood for his invitation to perform at the Waveney Folk Club and to Ann, Mel, Wendy, Jim, Graham, Andy, Tin River and all the other performers for making it such a memorable evening.  We very much hope to make our return to the club at some time in the future.

Rob and I greatly enjoyed our trip to visit Trevor Kreuger’s Epping Music Club for the first time last night.  We were providing support for the rightly revered singer-songwriter Reg Meuross and we also had the pleasure of sharing the stage with an opening set from the very talented Linda Em.

The Epping Music Club has recently moved to the Barn at the Black Lion pub on Epping High Street from its former venue at the nearby St. John Church.  The venue is a compact space but with enough room to pack in a good sized crowd.  Naturally, Reg’s pulling power meant that the room was pretty much full to capacity by the time Linda Em took to the stage.  Accompanied by Ian Montague, Linda sang a number of her own powerful and heartfelt songs.  She is a wonderful talent and had the audience enthralled from the very beginning.

We then took to the stage for a 35 minute slot.  This time, we started with Sisters and Brothers, our call to folk singers to remember their geography as well as their history. We have increasingly been using this song as a final number for our sets but using it as an opener certainly took on the audience momentum that Linda had earlier built up.

In a set that comprised mostly our own penned material, we found room for one of our trademark translations (in If I Had but One True Love) and a set of dance tunes.  From the raucous calls for an encore and subsequent CD sales, I’m pleased to report that the audience clearly enjoyed what we’d done.  A special mention at this point for Ian Montague who, in addition to providing excellent guitar accompaniment for Linda Em, did an excellent job for us on the sound desk.

Our part played, we then sat down to enjoy Reg Meuross.  In the unlikely event that you have not been along to see Reg perform, he writes the most insightful and thoughtful songs about the widest range of subjects, personal and political, serious and funny.  He sings beautifully and, last night at least, accompanied himself on a wonderful vintage, all mahogany, Martin guitar.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

We certainly wish Trevor, Ian, Jane and the whole team at Epping Music Club the very best for the future.  They have a great new venue and an excellent forthcoming programme and we hope the good people of the area continue to support the club and, of course, that we get a chance to make a return to the club at some stage in the future.

It is always a delight to perform at the St Neots Folk Club.  The welcome is warm, the choruses are loud, the banter is funny and the music is consistently good.

So, on a splendid sunny evening, we loaded up the car and set off.  The A1 behaved itself on our way up to St Neots and we allowed us to arrive in plenty of time to catch up on all the club news with Roger, Patti and other club volunteers and to hear a bit more about the forthcoming St Neots Folk Festival – which sounds like a great line up.

As the clock neared the start time of 8.00pm, the clubroom in the Priory Centre filled up and by the time Roger Pitt kicked the evening off, the room was nearly full.  After Roger had sung a couple of May-related songs, Rob and I were pressed into service early providing a 12-bar blues backing for a talented harmonica player visiting the club for the first time.

We then played our first set, introducing a few of our new songs and tunes which, I am pleased to report, seemed to go down very well.  The St Neots audience love a good chorus and they were clearly in fine voice picking up the new choruses very quickly.

After the break, fellow ‘Boro lad’ Stuart began the second half with a quartet of tunes and songs, supporting himself with ukulele.  His focus on a couple of hearty London tales dovetailed nicely into our opening the second half with our version of Billy Don’t You Weep for Me, which we have recently reintroduced into our set.

Again, our second half seemed to go well and were able to again introduce yet further new material to the St Neots audience.

After the show, we spent some time chatting with members of the audience before turning for home.  It being the first true late night gig of our Summer season, it seemed only fitting to have our first full closure of the A1 and the resultant first magic mystery tour of nether Hertfordshire before reaching our beds.  But, after such a pleasant gig, we didn’t care a jot.

Many thanks to the Committee at St Neots Folk Club for the invitation to perform once more at their lovely club and for looking after us so well when we were there.  We would like to wish them every success with the forthcoming St Neots Folk Festival.

It is always a pleasure to play the Cambridge Folk Club.  The club has been supportive of our music from the very start and many of the club’s organisers have become good friends over time.

So, after a blisteringly hot day, it was great to get in the car and travel over to The Golden Hind PH in Cambridge where the club meets.  The journey was remarkably easy for a Friday night on the A1 and we arrived in plenty of time to the sight of a pleasingly crowded pub, with scores of early evening revellers outside enjoying the unusually warm April evening.

Upstairs, inside the pub, the club room was a hive of activity.  We were sharing the evening with Americana band, Paul McClure and the Local Heroes and, as we arrived we were treated to a first listen to our support slot for the evening, John Parker and Cliff Ward, as they were doing their sound check.

John and Cliff will be very familiar to many folk aficionados as individual members of The Willows and Nizlopi respectively.  They are very fine musicians indeed and they kicked the evening off in style with a powerful set of their own compositions.  We wish them all the very best for the future and feel sure that their new venture together will prove highly popular and successful.

After a 15 minute break for a stage swap over, Paul McClure and the Local Heroes then came on.  Paul told uthe audience that, depending on where and when he is playing, he can call on a sizeable number of fellow musicians to act as his Local Heroes. This night he was performing in a trio alongside a pianist and a backing singer. Paul is a very fine songwriter and provided those present with a number of finely written songs, punctuated with his very own brand of dry humour.

No-one knows our repertoire better than the Cambridge Folk Club and it was nice to be able to perform a number of our new set additions for their members.  From the lovely feedback we had at the end of the show, they seemed to go down well.  All very encouraging.

Many thanks to Marion, Robin, Andy, Jim and all our pals at Cambridge Folk Club for their invitation to perform once again at the club and also for their continuing support for our music.

We have always enjoyed our trips to perform at The Maltings Theatre in St. Albans.  It is a well-equipped and intimate venue where one can create a real atmosphere and, being our hometown, it also guarantees that we will see lots of our local supporters in the audience.  As such, it was with delight that we accepted a recent invitation from Folk at The Maltings organisers, Alison MacFarlane and Bill Redway to perform the April folk concert at the theatre.   Our support for the evening was to be provided by 2017 New Roots finalist, Megan Wisdom, who had travelled over from Suffolk, and local singer Sue Farthing, wonderfully supported by Clive Carey on guitar and Mike on banjo.

With the venue being so close to home we were able to travel there easily, arriving good and early and in plenty of time to chat with the organisers and catch up with the other musicians while setting ourselves up for the concert.

Megan started the evening off with a set of beautiful songs accompanied by table accordion which had the audience entranced.  Megan has an excellent folk future ahead of her.  If you get the chance, go and see her perform.

Rob and I then went on to perform our first half hour set to take the evening up to the break.  Given our familiarity with the venue and in the presence of an audience peppered with friendly faces, we immediately fell into a groove and played a good first set.

After the break, Sue, Clive and Mike provided a varied and accomplished set, delivered with skill and considerable wit and they soon got the audience joining in heartily. We returned to the stage for a final 45-minute set, and the choruses were supported heartily once more. 

We have been working up some new material over the winter period and this was a good opportunity to give it a first run out.  We included a couple of new tune sets in the second half.  The first was a French-Canadian tune followed by one of Rob’s compositions, The Locksmith Reel.  The second was a set comprising an An Dro, a Bouree and finishing with a Muineira (de Boal). 

Songwise,  we introduced our new song, The Sirens’ Call, about the tragic consequences of gambling addiction into the set for a first time.  We have also now finalised a preferred arrangement for our rarely performed song about the plight of refugees across time and space called, simply, The Poor Refugee. I’m pleased to report that all of this new material was delivered well, and it was very pleasing to receive positive feedback from audience members about it after the concert had finished – indeed, one or two were a little disappointed they couldn’t yet buy an album with the new tracks on. 

Many thanks to Alison and Bill for the invitation to again perform at Folk at the Maltings and for looking after us so well throughout the evening.  Similarly, thanks to all those who came along to see us.  We would like to give our best wishes to Megan Wisdom and the Sue Farthing Trio and very much hope we will bump into them on the club and festival circuit over the coming season.

Back in July 2017, Rob and I were pleased to receive an invitation to perform in the prestigious Brunel University, Lunchtime Concert series.  This is a series of classical, jazz, folk and other types of music, organised by members of the Music Department at Brunel University and open to students, staff and members of the local community.  Past invitees to this community-oriented concert series have included, amongst others, the wonderful Bob Fox and, more recently, the highly respected guitarist, Laura Snowden.

The concerts take place between 1.10 and 1.40pm in a pleasant and airy room set up theatre style for the performance.  We were given the option to arrive early to set up and rehearse - something we were keen to do.  On arrival on campus, we were met by Sam Cave, a lecturer in guitar at the University's School of Arts and himself a past performer in the series.  Sam settled us in nicely before going off to do some teaching, leaving Rob and me some time to get ourselves used to the performance space.

When we emerged from the ‘Green Room’, we were delighted to see we had an audience of c 40-50 people.  We had put together a set list that showcased the full range of what we do and the provision of a audience programme with explanatory notes for each song and tune set helped us do this efficiently in the time available.

At the end of the set, an enthusiastic audience very kindly called on us for an encore which we were, naturally, happy to provide and, following that, a good number of audience members approached us personally to tell us how much they had enjoyed the set and ask questions about our songs and instruments.

Many thanks to Sam, Sarah and Michael at Brunel University for the original invitation to perform and for looking after us so well during our time at the university.  Our nice early finish meant we were both back home before the afternoon rush hour and in time for an afternoon cuppa.  We hope that one day, we might return to Brunel University.  Until then, we wish them well with their 2018/19 concert series which will start in the autumn.