After two excellent nights at the Topic Folk Club in Bradford and Folk at the Grove in Leeds, we set off in good time from our base in Rawden to travel, first, to have something to eat in Saltburn with senior club member at The White Hart Folk Club, Kevin Hall, and then to travel on to the club itself.

This was a nostalgic journey for me and a voyage of discovery for Rob.  As a boy living in Middlesbrough, I used to go camping near the beautiful villages of Castleton and Danby.  So, having pretty much the full day to ourselves, we chose a route that would take us over the North York Moors through Castleton and Danby and on to the folk mecca that is Whitby.  This was Rob’s first time on the moors and the weather for the trip could not have been better to show him the immense beauty of this area.  Whitby was similarly ravishing in the clear autumn air and the 199 steps to the ruined Abbey were a joy to climb and the view from the top every bit as stunning as I remembered it.

We then travelled up the coast road, stopping briefly in the lovely village of Staithes, to meet up with Kevin who provided us with a great meal.  Kevin’s knowledge of folk music generally and Teesside-based music in particular is compendious, and it was wonderful to hear him talk of both the recent celebrations in the Teesside area of the songs and artwork of the sadly departed local folk hero and polymath, Graeme Miles, and his ongoing work to ensure Graeme’s legacy is properly remembered.

Fully nourished, the three of us set off for the White Hart Folk Club in Mickleby. 

Mickleby is a small village but boasts a fantastic pub with the White Hart Inn.  The landlord is demonstrably very supportive of the folk club and it is clear that the club members relish getting together in a cosy side room in the pub for a good singsong on a Saturday night. 

We arrived with plenty of time to say our hellos and to tune up properly.  Kevin had already told us about the excellent chorus singing in the club and that proved obvious from the very first song of the evening (led by him) and lasted for the entirety of the evening.  The floor singers were consistently excellent throughout the evening.  We weren’t the only visitors for the evening. There was a young man now based in Norfolk who came along and performed an excellent version of Richard Thompson’s song Beeswing and, gracing the evening with a beautiful solo, was Hazel Richings from well-known Hull-based folk duo, Hissyfit. 

I am pleased to report that our own two 45-minute sets went down extremely well.  There was something about the warm atmosphere in the room that brought the best out of us. 

Knowing the chorus singing abilities of the club, we decided to put our song (English Penny) about Spanish Civil War medic and hero, Penny Feiwel, second in our set.  As we began to introduce the song, we could see two club members become particularly agitated until one called out “We know her. She stayed with us.”  Giles and Mary then proceeded to tell us how, when they were young and living in London, Penny Feiwel had lived with them.  They also recalled how she came to be called Penny in the first place.  This was a most delightful intervention and, in truth, an emotional one – to meet people who actually knew the great Penny Feiwel.

Not surprisingly, after the show we stayed on for a long time chatting to Giles and mary and to a number of other club members.  The feedback on our music was very supportive, and the atmosphere was so lovely.  However, eventually, we had to say our goodbyes and set off back to Rawden; our third late night in a row.

The history of our being booked at the White Hart Folk Club was that Kevin Hall had attended a Folk 21 showcase event for North Yorkshire and thought that we would be a good fit for the folk club in Mickleby.  So, not only would we like to thank Kevin for his invitation to perform at The White Hart but we would also like to thank Folk 21 for organising the original showcase event that led to this booking.  As I wrote in my blog for October 4^th 2014 the idea of facilitating folk acts to get gigs outside their home regions is beneficial not only for folk acts but for folk audiences and folk music in general.

We would like to thank Kevin for all of his wonderful support in getting us to The White Hart Folk Club and for nourishing us in advance with a fine chilli con carne, and we would like to thank all the club members, including MC for the evening, Alan, for their warm welcome and kind words throughout the evening.  Finally, we would like to thank club members Giles and Mary for telling us more about a hero of ours, Penny Feiwel.  

We sincerely hope to make our return to The White Hart Folk Club at some time in the future.  It is a great club, in a great location. 

What a pleasure it was to perform at the famous Folk at the Grove last Friday evening.  After a morning walking at Almscliffe Crag - a millstone grit outcrop between Leeds and Harrogate - and an excellent pub lunch in the sunshine in Ilkley, it was a fine end to the day to get involved in an evening of good music at The Grove Inn in central Leeds.

Accompanied by my brother, we parked up close to the pub and made our way to a cosy room in The Grove Inn decorated throughout with large black and white etchings of folk heroes from the last sixty years, and a spotlighted stage at the far end of the room. Club organisers Brenda and Norrie Spence welcomed us warmly and club members were quick to say hello.  We never drink when we perform but so convivial was the atmosphere in the room, I can confess to being sorely tempted!

At the appointed hour, the club came to attention and the good music (and excellent banter) flowed. Folk at the Grove is endowed with a lot of talent amongst its members; too much for me to try and list here.  Suffice it to say there was both quality and variety with everything from humorous poems and songs, great rousing choruses and shanties, to delicate classical and traditional pieces played on guitar and concertina.

We played a couple of songs in the first half ‘round-the-room’ and I am pleased to report they seemed to go down well.  For the second round-the-room, MC Brenda accorded us the honour of closing the evening with two songs.  Just before we took to the stage a group of young people quietly took up residence at the back of the room.  Our two chosen numbers to close the evening were Only For Three Months, about the experiences of the Basque children of 1937 and two Galician muiñeiras.  When we returned to our seats, we were greeted by a few more young people enthusiastic to talk to us about the music.  It turned out they were overseas students visiting Leeds - with some amongst them from Galicia and the Basque country.  They were very emotional to hear songs about and tunes from their homeland.  It was similarly very kind of the regular club members to take time to tell us how much they had enjoyed our music and visit.

Many thanks to Brenda and Norrie for looking after us so well throughout the evening.  Similarly, many thanks to all the club members who sang along so heartily with our choruses and were so generous in their feedback at the end of the evening.  We sincerely hope to visit the Folk at the Grove again at some time in the future and, until then, we wish the club all the very best!

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, we set off for our first port of call on what was to be a four-day musical trip to Yorkshire. 

Blessed by having family in the county, we headed for Rawden near Pudsey where a very welcome meal awaited us on arrival.  Sadly, an accident on the A1 had delayed our arrival there by an hour - so we ate quickly, made our apologies and headed for the famous Topic Folk Club in central Bradford to perform a brief set in an evening headed by US folk singers Dana and Susan Robinson.

The Topic Folk Club takes place in a very pleasant, intimate, performance area on the ground floor in a fine old building (Glyde House) in the city centre. With no further interruptions, we found a nearby spot to park and arrived in good time to find the club already filling up in readiness for Dana and Susan Robinson’s performance.  We were warmly greeted by club organiser Rahel Guzelian and introduced to MC for the evening, Rob, who showed us to an area behind the club room where we could tune up and get ready.

Very kindly, MC Rob allowed us to kick the evening off with three songs.  These seemed to go down very well with club members, and it was nice to chat about them with club members at the break and after the show.  Dana and Susan then came on stage for their first set. Talented multi-instrumentalists, both blessed with excellent voices and the capacity for close harmony, their blend of self-penned material and traditional music was excellent and very much appreciated by a now full room.

We chatted briefly with both club members and with Dana and Susan at the break and were then treated to longstanding club member John Waller’s three-part song, written to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Topic Folk Club.  John had identified three historical events that had occurred within weeks of the first opening of the Topic folk Club in 1956, the Hungarian uprising, Suez Canal and the first expression of struggle over segregated buses in southern USA and melded them together using a common link section.  This cleverly assembled ten-minute song was as epic in construction as it was interesting to listen to. Bravo. 

Dana and Susan then took to the stage again and provided an excellent second set which again showed their immense versatility; humour and heartbreak, contemporary and traditional, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo and a cappella harmony - a tour de force from a very lovely duo.

Many thanks to Rahel Guzelian and to MC Rob for their warm welcome to the Topic Folk Club.  We sincerely hope to visit the club again in the future and we wish the club and all its members a very happy 60^th birthday! 

There is a great deal of humour and a lot of good music to be heard at the Orpington Folk Club and it was a great pleasure to be invited back to the club after our visit in late 2015

Held in a large room to the rear of the lovely Change of Horse pub in Farnborough Village just outside Orpington, club residents provide some of the best accordion music to be found in southern England, supported by some excellent floor singers.  Such is the enthusiasm for the music, as soon as the room is set up, the music starts up, for the pure joy of it - usually well before the official club start time of 8.15pm.

On what was a stiflingly hot evening, just ahead of major thunderstorms and downpours, Rob made his way to the venue from central London and I took the M25 and called in to see an old friend for a cup of tea and a sustaining chocolate brownie before arriving at the club. 

Met by the irrepressible Ted and Anne, Rob and I set up and tuned up, as club members began to arrive. The banter in the club is of the highest order and one overenthusiastic club officer who had tried to charge Rob for entry was teased mightily throughout the evening.

Orpington is a great singing club, and club members were always willing to join in with our choruses. We had some lovely feedback from a number of those attending and it was a pleasure to provide an encore to the club. We chose to play the lovely Irish song, The Maid of Culmore.  However, as we began, the heavens opened, and we were subjected to a Buddy Rich drum solo of rain pelting down on the roof windows that we could just about be heard over.

Thankfully, by the time we had packed up and garnered information about just how difficult it was going to be to get back home through the Dartford Tunnel, the flash storm had subsided, and the journey home was only slightly mad instead of insane.

We wish all the very best to the Orpington Folk Club and its members and we hope to see them all again sometime in the future.    

Bromyard is a lovely town and it hosts a lovely folk festival. This was our second invitation to perform at the festival and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves again, performing four concerts and hosting a workshop over three days. The trip to bromyard also afforded us the chance to stay with close friends in a village close to Bromyard and to catch up with all of their news.

We set off from St Albans on Friday morning to travel to Bromyard and, a mighty pub lunch later, we were on site and getting our wristbands and information at the Artists’ Reception from our friend Jenny Davies from Loughton Folk Club and saying ‘hello’ to festival organiser, Dick Dixon.

We then pressed on, despite the best efforts of our SatNav to confound us, through country lanes to find our friends’ house in nearby Yarpole where we said our hellos and then quickly went to visit the village church (St Leonard’s) where we have been booked to play a concert in May next year - watch this space. Event organiser Rose, gave us a tour of the delightful church and told us about the new series of performances she has organised for the venue. It looks to be an excellent programme of events in a glorious setting with wonderful acoustics– so, we are mightily excited and we wish Rose every success with this venture.

After a quick cuppa back at the house, Rob and I then returned to Bromyard for the sound check for our first performance and it was a great comfort to see it was Alistair Russell in charge of the desk as we walked into the marquee. Since we were first on the evening’s bill, we sound checked last. The Club Stage marquee then filled up quickly and we were off. The intimate nature of the venue really helped to build an atmosphere and our 40 minute set went down very well. The audience was ideal for our kind of music, keen to listen, very willing to participate and very supportive of what we performed.

After we came off stage, we were able to stay a little while and listen to JIB, the North-East supergroup comprising Jim Mageean, Ingrid Temple and Barrie Temple; great songs, stage presence and skills, and thanks to them for their kind words to us as we came off stage. Thanks also to Bendigo Davies for his excellent MC-ing.

The next morning we were back on site early to host a workshop on Celtic tunes from France and Spain in the Pete Geoghegan tent, named after the Bromyard Folk Festival stalwart and founder of Bromyard’s first folk club in 1970 who sadly passed away recently. The workshop was modest in numbers but great fun was had with one attendee teaching another the various dance steps to go with a particular piece Rob was teaching. It was also nice that a few people who had enjoyed our set the previous evening had come along simply to sit and listen to the music behind the workshop. Rob soon had them on rhythm and singing duties..

Then, as the rain poured, we stashed the gear away and went to have a coffee under cover. We had a little time before our afternoon performance at The Falcon Mews theatre in Bromyard Town so, after lunch on the festival site, we had a wander down to the town to watch the various festivities. Every pub we passed had a morris team, a mummer’s play or a session in full swing and the town centre was buzzing.

We shared the afternoon session at The Falcon Mews with Jason Hinchley, Winter Wilson and Granny’s Attic, with old friend Dave James MC-ing and were rewarded with a very sizeable audience. The theatre was packed and I’m pleased to say our performance went down very well. Very kindly, after our performance a young woman approached us with an invite to play the Gardeners Green Folk Club on Vancouver Island if ever we are in that part of North America. Let’s hope we get chance to accept that invitation one day!

By the time we left the theatre, the dark clouds had dispersed and the sun was shining and that is how it stayed for the rest of that day and the next. Rob and I drifted back up to the festival site to meet up with my wife and our friends from Yarpole who were coming to our evening performance at The Falcon Mews. After a tour of the festival site, a quick check on CD sales and a cold drink we returned to town for the evening’s event.

Opening the evening session were the very talented singer songwriter Russell Joslin accompanied by Sarah McCaig. Audience numbers grew throughout the evening and by the time we went on there was a decent gathering in the hall. It was nice to see our friends and family in the audience and to see familiar faces from our earlier performances who had returned to hear more from us. Again, the show went well and, after previously giving our apologies to Cardboard Fox who followed us on, we then quietly exited the theatre to go for a curry. Many thanks again to Dave James for his excellent MC work.

Sunday morning in Herefordshire was glorious and, after a wonderful breakfast with our friends, yet more friends arrived to see us, this time from Cheshire. Not having a morning commitment and secure in the knowledge that Alistair Russell had our sonic measurements from our sound check with him on Friday, we were all able to have a Sunday morning stroll together through the highways and byways of Yarpole – and magnificent it was too!

We returned to the house for an early lunch before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the Bromyard Club Stage for our final performance. Knowing that there were ongoing festivities in the town centre, we weren’t sure how many would be in our audience but were very pleasantly surprised to see the marquee fill up, including a number of familiar faces. There were people who there who were coming to watch us for the fourth time that festival, something deeply appreciated by us. There were also friends there from folk clubs around the country. It was especially lovely to see Mary from Cambridge Folk Club, Christine Connelley from Herga Folk Club and Jenny Davies from Loughton Folk Club. Whatever happened in the venue that lunchtime really clicked and, despite the rigours of a pre-set bill of artistes, we were asked by MC Ken Johnson to provide an encore. Having made way from the stage for Russell Joslin and Sarah McCaig, we then had the pleasure of chatting with people interested in our songs and music whilst still being able to hear the wonderful harmonies of Russell and Sarah. Very satisfying.

Eventually, we headed back to the car and the three of us headed home and, for once, the roads were kind and we were back in time for a well earned drink. Many thanks to Dick Dixon for the invitation to play the wonderful Bromyard Folk Festival again. There is a great warmth and intimacy to this very well run festival and we certainly hope to return to perform at the festival again in the years ahead. Thanks also to our friends Adam and Henny for their seemingly boundless hospitality and for Vince and Mandy for travelling down from Cheshire to see us. It was really great to see them all again!!

It was another lovely evening in the company of the Hoy-at-Anchor Folk Club yesterday.

Not wanting to risk travelling the motorways at peak times, I set off early and took the gear over to Westcliff-on-Sea in the late afternoon.  With advice from my wife, whose father was brought up in that part of Southend, I headed for Priory Park to park up for a hour and have a sarnie before moving on to meet Rob, who was travelling by train from central London, at the club.  So, I can now say that I have seen the Prittlewell Priory site and the famous Priory Park bandstand, and I commend them to you.

The Hoy-at-Anchor folk club is held in the front bar area of the sizeable British Legion club in Westcliff-on-Sea.  By the time we arrived, Club President Tony Prior was already hard at work with other club members, setting up for the night.  The seats were laid out and the impressive club banner (see picture) was up and ready.  We got the gear in and began tuning up. 

On what was a warm evening, the room filled up steadily and all were treated to an excellent round of floor singers.  Amongst highlights of John Barleycorn, Lillibulero and a bit of Flanders and Swann, Tony Prior did an excellent rendition of Donovan’s Gold Watch Blues and the Hoy Shanty Crew were called upon to do a short set.

Both of our two sets seemed to go down well with audience members keen to engage and ask about the stories behind the songs.  Indeed, it was nice to be reacquainted with a couple that had been with us at the Festival at the Edge a few weeks earlier in Much Wenlock.

I’m pleased to report that the Hoy audience needs no encouragement to join in on choruses and learns them very quickly.  So, we were not short of support in giving our songs some volume.

Many thanks to Steve Ramm, Tony Prior, MC for the night Jane and all the members of Ho-at-Anchor Folk Club for another enjoyable evening and we look forward to returning to Westcliff-on-Sea to perform there at some time in the future.

A glorious day, a great folk festival, the seaside, meeting old friends and making new ones – that is what we had yesterday on our trip to the south coast to play our part in the magnificent Broadstairs Folk Week.

We set off early to be at the Music Zone in The Charles Dickens School campus in good time to prepare for our afternoon workshop on tunes from the Celtic regions of Spain and France at 2.30pm and arrived with enough time to have a sarnie and set the room up.

The 90-minute workshop was very well attended by concertina, accordion, flute, fiddle, mandolin and guitar players and set in the school gym, it might have been appropriate to warm up with a few press-ups.  Fortunately, Rob began with a rhythmic name game instead.  It was a full-on session that whizzed by and the experience of the musicians in the group shone through as we were able to work up tunes and a French song very quickly.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we had some nice chats with participants and excellent feedback after the event.

Two of our good friends, Chrissie and John, from the St Albans folk community were spending the week at the folk festival and kindly came along to sit in on the workshop. So, it was great to then be able to wander out and have a cuppa with them and wind down after the workshop.

 After packing our kit away in the very efficiently run secure facility at the school, we then wandered into the town to clear our heads and get some scran before our evening concert at 8.00pm.  We eventually plumped for fusion cooking – well, OK, chilli and chips. 

After a quick walk along the promenade to settle our stomachs, we then made our way back to the Theatre at The Charles Dickens School to be ready for our sound check.

It was a real pleasure to meet up with members of Commonground and listen to them do their sound check.  Then, after the main act for the evening, Steve Turner, had sound checked we worked with the wonderful PK, Gaz and Katie on our own check which was organised wonderfully well.  The MC for the evening was Sylvia Needham and, in the intervening time between the end of the sound check and the start of the concert, we had chance to chat with her about her recent playing schedule and many other things besides. Being a true professional, Sylvia had certainly done her homework on us and was able to introduce us wonderfully well to start the evening concert.

I’m pleased to say we delivered a good set showcasing a variety of the things we do.  We were then followed by Commonground who hail from Stroud and Reading and who gave a delightful and varied performance full of carefully considered musicality and containing more than a few surprises including a wonderful song from Cirque du Soleil.  Look out for them if they are playing near you.

Sadly, given some early morning commitments for us the following day, we had to turn for home at the interval.  This meant we couldn’t stay on to listen to Steve Turner. So, many apologies to him. I am sure he did a great show. 

Many thanks to Kim Headley for the invitation to perform again at the wonderful Broadstairs Folk Week. Thanks also to all those who attended the workshop and made it such a lovely event.  Finally, many thanks to PK, Gaz and Katie for a great sound on the evening concert and to Sylvia Needham for doing such a good job MC-ing the event.  We very much hope to return to Broadstairs at some time in the future.  It is a truly great event in a truly lovely town. 

26^th July

After weeks of planning, we set off on a sunny Tuesday morning to travel to Stansted for our flight to Nuremburg to begin our involvement in the Wipfel Rauschen (Rustling Treetops) East meets West festival in Thuringia in Germany.  

Any concerns I had about the complexities of getting our array of instruments through security at Stansted in these times of heightened security all turned out to exist solely in my imagination.  Everything went smoothly and no-one freaked out at our carrying a collection of big music cases through the airport and the guys on the security machines were completely matter of fact about it all.  Indeed, they admired the subtle packing of the guitar cases with fresh underwear for the week ahead.

Although it was a bit of a struggle to get the instruments on board and belted up for the journey, the flight itself was uneventful with one exception.  As we approached Nuremberg, a storm was just passing over the airport, so we needed to effect a rather bumpy circle for a while.  However, with a few wobbles and rolls, we made an excellent landing and we were quickly though the baggage lounge and passport control where we met one of the festival organisers, the wonderful Jan Greiner.

After months of correspondence, it was nice to finally meet Jan face-to-face.  Jan had kindly travelled two hours over from Erfurt to pick us up and take us to our hotel in Neuhaus am Rennweg where we would be staying for the next three nights.  

Over the next couple of hours and a truly splendid meal in a restaurant in Coburg serving local Thuringian dishes along with beer brewed on site, we got to know each other a bit better and clarified some of the finer details of how the festival was going to pan out over the coming days.

About 9:00pm-ish, we arrived at our very nice hotel in Neuhaus (the Schieferhof or ‘Slate Yard’), checked in and said our thanks and goodbyes to Jan.  After quickly unpacking, Rob and I then had a nightcap in the bar and went off to our rooms for some sleep

27^th July

With Jan hard at work on festival organisation and us with a morning at leisure, we took a walk around the small town of Neuhaus.  Like the hotel, pretty much all the buildings in the town were decorated and protected externally by slate coverings done in intricate patterns - very fetching.

After stopping off for a (pretty mighty) sandwich for lunch, we returned to the hotel to await Jan who was taking us on to the first engagement of our trip to Germany, a workshop with students and members of the Goethe school in Lausche.

Lausche was a centre of glass making in the days before the Berlin Wall came down.  It is still a centre for ornamental glassmaking (including, so I am told, the Christmas decorations for the Queen's tree) but much of the industrial side of that business has sadly been lost to the Far East and to factories in western Germany. So, the town has seen happier days but is resolutely tying to find a successful way forward.

So, in an old school building, Rob set about teaching members of a local art collective songs and tunes from the world of Celtic music.  In addition to singers, members of the group brought along an array of instruments including guitars, a bass guitar, a flute and a bandoneon.  I had never seen a bandoneon before.  To me it resembles a cross between a microwave and an accordion.  It must take some muscles to play and the young man playing it certainly had those aplenty.

The idea behind the workshop was that members of the art collective would perform a brief pre-concert with us before our own concert in Goldisthal the next evening.

Everyone worked hard, especially Rob, and we had chance to run through a newly created brief set a couple of times before saying our goodbyes and being taken back to the hotel for a few beers and an evening meal.

Local reporter Doris Hein briefly interviewed us for local newspaper and the next day we saw the nice piece that she had written.

28^th July

After another hearty breakfast, we were taken by one of the festival sponsors and a friend of ours on a tour of the nearby factory that he now manages - GB Neuhaus uses nanotechnology to coat halogen lamps for a wide variety of uses.  Michael Petry not only organised a rehearsal room for us in the factory offices for the morning but also invited us to play to workers on the shop floor and, later, at a birthday party for a staff member.  This was all great fun and a good rehearsal opportunity for our evening concert.

After a quick lunch in the hotel, Jan came to pick us up and take us over to the concert hall in Goldisthal (Kulturhaus).  Here we meet one of the other festival organisers, Jan Donnerberg and his wife and son who were all hard at work to make the day in Goldisthal a success.

Goldisthal is a lovely village surrounded by wooded mountains and recently regenerated economically by the development of a hydroelectric power plant.

As we arrived the other act for the evening Zoltán and Mihail were just finishing their sound check. While they were completing what they had to do, Rob and I took the opportunity for a snack of wild boar sausage and salad before going in to do our sound check.

Sven and Martin, the sound technicians worked hard through the language barrier and fixed us up with a great sound and the magnificent little concert hall also had a wonderful acoustic itself which helped greatly. 

We then did a very quick interview with the local area TV station.

With a little time to spare before the evening got underway, Rob and I took a tour of the village which by now was bathed in sunshine.  Perhaps the festival organisers were going to avoid the storms that had been threatened by the weather forecasters after all.

As planned, on an open air stage in front of the Kulturhaus before the formal concert, we performed the set Rob and I had been teaching the day before with the art collective and students from the Goethe School collective in Lauscha.  The students had obviously been working hard over night and gave a very polished performance of The Verdant Braes of Screen, a Strathspey and an Irish polka, and Asturian tune, Entemediu.

We then retired to the green room to prepare for the concert.  We could hear the concert hall filling up and, by the time we went on after some introductory speeches, there was an audience of around 200 people.

Rob had prepared some introductions to songs and tunes in German.  These were greatly appreciated - and I busked it with some very summarised introductions in English.  

The hour long set went down extremely well. We were given plenty of whoops and had the audience clapping along on a lot of the faster tunes and songs and listening intently to the slow songs and airs.  At the end of the performance, we had something of a standing ovation and were happy to return to the stage to provide an encore.

Throughout our performance the following act, Zoltán Orosz and Mihály Borbély from Hungary had done us the honour of standing in the wings and listening to our music.  (No turning up with two minutes to go.  This duo were highly professional.). Back in the green room, Zoltán and Mihály congratulated us and suggested that, once they had finished their performance, we all finish the night together for the last encore.  We were delighted to oblige and settled on a song tune from both our traditions.  For us it is Auld Lang Syne.  

So, after a quick discussion on how we would perform it, we went in to the concert to meet some of the audience, seek a well earned beer and settle down to watch Zoltán and Mihály.  They gave a bravura performance of accordion and woodwind music covering everything from Hungarian folk tunes to film themes.  The virtuosity of both musicians was breathtaking.  I can vouch that Zoltán really does only have four fingers and a thumb on each hand but it sounds as though he has double that number when he plays.  The audience loved it.

They loved it even more when, to save the sound technicians having to make rapid stage changes, Zoltán and Mihály unplugged and came to the front of the stage and Rob and I joined them for a rendition of Auld Lang Syne which, with its connotations of friendship and meeting again, seemed ideal for a festival called East meets West.  The joint performance was cheered to the rafters.

Once the excitement had died down and we had packed away our instruments, we then made our way back into the auditorium to chat with audience members and friends.  All the feedback from the audience was positive and we were overwhelmed by the support shown for our music.  

Eventually, the ever willing and astonishingly hard working Jan was on hand to return us to our hotel in Neuhaus, just as the rain began to fall.  We certainly slept well after such a great day.....oh! And that final beer from the mini bar!

East meets West, Wipfel Rauschen Festival, Part 2:  Forsthaus Willrode, 29th to 31^st  July 2016

29^th July

Up early the next day for a transfer to Forsthaus Willrode.  As he was throughout our stay, Jan was there to transport us two hours to a beautiful and newly restored hunting lodge on the outskirts of the town of Erfurt.  The house is walled and circled by a moat meaning that the inside area forms a very natural open air auditorium.

We were taken directly to what was to be our accommodation for the remainder of our time in Germany, a lovely house on the edge of Erfurt in Egstedt near Forsthaus Willrode.  We were met by the owner of the house, Uta, and shown to our room.

After unpacking, we were then taken over late morning to Forsthaus Willrode for a sound check.  The stage had been set up the day before and we didn't have to wait long for sound technician, Jurg, to arrive.

Jurg is an excellent sound technician and the sound check went like a dream.  Before long we were done.  As we left the other act for the evening, Bubliczki were just arriving on site following a 500 km drive from Szczecin in Poland.  This youthful seven piece band plus sound technician tumbled out of a transit van and was clearly full of beans.  

Excellent musicians all, with instruments ranging from accordion to trumpets to violin to percussion and bass, these lads were certainly geared up for a very energentic evening. They had plenty of volume as well. Their sound check was an avant grade masterpiece in its own right.

Rob and I returned to Uta's house to pick up the last of what we needed for the evening and returned to the venue for the performance.

With Forsthaus Willrode being in the countryside, there was no nearby town to stroll around.  So, instead, we sat and chatted with the staff who were busily putting the venue together.  Sadly, the weather took a real turn for the worse around 6:00pm - a dangerous time, just when decisions are being made about whether to go to an event.  We had had showers on all of the days so far since we arrived in Germany, and the uncertain weather looked like continuing through the evening.

In a lull in the rain, we were approached for an interview by the regional Thuringian television station who asked about our music and involvement in the festival.  Given that Bubliczki had left the site to check into their hotel and didn’t return until quite late, we ended up with all the musical coverage on the final broadcast news item. 

Our performance that evening was again well appreciated.  For whatever reason, a large space had been left in front of the stage but, at our encouragement, families came close to the stage to watch and children danced....at least until the skies opened and torrential rain began to pour down.  Naturally the audience took what shelter they could.  Thankfully, we were protected and dry under the stage but it was a little odd playing to a now even more distant audience, swathed in raincoats or under umbrellas.  Still, we could tell people were enjoying the set by the umbrellas bouncing up and down rhythmically with the foot tapping of their owners.  Rob again did really well with his German introductions.  Even I had a go...to less effect methinks.

Finally, towards the very end of the set, the rain eased.  We were asked for an encore and duly obliged.  Then it was time for beer, sausages and Bubliczki. 

Now performing at about half the volume of their original sound check, this energetic seven piece provided a powerful 90 minute set. Imagine Bellowhead in full flow playing Klezmer style music and you begin to get the picture.  Whether led by the brass section or the fiddle and accordion or singing a cappella, these energetic young men can really play and sing. Perhaps their sheer exuberance simply blew away the rain clouds.  The rain stopped and, as the evening wore on, more and more of the audience came into the space in front of the stage and it was a great show.

30^th July

After three pretty hectic days, Rob and I now had a day off.  Fortunately, both of us have friends and former work colleagues living in the Erfurt area.  In the morning, Rob and I were given a tour of the truly lovely city of Erfurt by my friends Thomas and Ingrid.  Then, after leaving Rob to meet his friend Michael at the railway station just as a horde of exuberant and vocal football fans were arriving there for the first match of the season, Thomas and Ingrid took me on to the cultural pearl that is Weimar (with links to Goethe, Schiller, Liszt, Bach, Kranach and the Bauhaus movement to name but a few).  We had lunch at the Schloss Belvedere overlooking the town before starting on a walking tour of Weimar.  I regret to say I do not know Germany very well.  However, seeing Erfurt and Weimar in the sunshine that day has seriously whetted my appetite to see more.

After the tour, Thomas and Ingrid dropped me back at Forsthaus Willrode just as preparations were underway for the evening concert. Not being involved, I could relax with more beer and sausages, talk with new friends and watch the show.   Rob had had a full day with his friend in Erfurt and, arriving later back into Egstedt, had opted for a quiet night in.

The evening began with Prinz Chaos II. Having spoken with him in the early evening, Prinz Chaos is a radical activist singer songwriter who writes predominantly about contemporary German issues.  His act is punctuated with political satire.  Sadly, my German is virtually non-existent and, as such, I couldn’t understand the dialogue.  However, it was clear that he was making many in the audience laugh a lot and I certainly enjoyed the songs he sang.

Prinz Chaos was followed by the mighty Zoltán Orosz and Mihály Borbély who had also made the trip to Forsthaus Willrode.  I had enjoyed their performance in Goldisthal and I enjoyed it just as much this time.  Zoltán had been given his first accordion at the age of 4 and watching him easily convinces you that he has played it every day since. That, plus the mellow tones of Mihály on saxophone and clarinet, made for a lush sound that the audience listened to intently and clearly respected enormously.  The sight of two young people locked in a lengthy Argentine tango to the side of the stage was testament to just how much the music was being enjoyed.

After the show, there was further drinking and the only remaining challenge of the day was for me to get past Uta’s fierce sounding dog, Jabba, and get to bed.  I am still intact so I must have succeeded. 

31^st July

Our last day in Germany was a very full one. After packing and getting everything ready for a hassle free return on the plane, the day began with breakfast in the green room at Forsthaus Willrode.   On stage through the morning, as we breakfasted and filled in our forms for GEMA the German performing rights organisation, we were treated to the highly talented playing of Hallali, a three piece ensemble of horn players playing classical melodies and German folk tunes. 

I am pleased to report that the sun was shining when we took the stage and for this performance the organisers had placed some benches closer in to the stage.  Again, seeing couples swaying and lots of foot tapping going on, we sensed our set was going well and the repeated demands for (three) encores were a great honour to fulfil.  Eventually, we left the stage and chatted with various audience members who had clearly enjoyed the set.

Then after a quick lunch with some of the festival organisation team, many of whom were from the same small town in the old East Germany, Sonneberg, we said our goodbyes.  As we left, Uta was kind enough to give us both a bag of goodies from the forestry shop and they will doubtless make for excellent lunches for many weeks ahead.

Then, with the ever willing Jan, we set off towards the airport.  However, there was one more treat in store.  Jan was keen that before we left we should see the immensely pretty town of Bamberg and what a treat it was.  We parked up, walked up the hill to the Cathedral where we saw the Bamberg horseman and then strolled back down through the busy streets to the river and eventually into the famous Schenkerla Inn for a last meal in Germany and to sample a little of the Rauchbier brewed on site.  This was a great way to put a full stop on our trip to Germany.

After the meal we hightailed it to the airport and, thanks to great driving by Jan, got there in good time.  We dropped off our one suitcase and eventually took our fond farewell from Jan who was there to help us all the way to the Security barriers. 

The flight was full and manoeuvring instrument cases through the throng on board was difficult to say the least.  However, the flight left and arrived on time. Stansted was unnecessarily stressful for midnight on a Sunday.  Suffice it to say, we eventually made it to our car and, choosing a cross country route, made it home in the early hours of Monday morning.

So, we have had a great experience in Germany and for that we must thank a lot of people but, in particular, Michael Petry, Jan Donnerberg, Uta Krispin and Jan Greiner – the best roadie-cabbie-fixer ever! Many thanks also to Thomas and Ingrid for their excellent tour of Erfurt and Weimar.  We sincerely hope to return to Germany in the not too distant future to renew our friendships with the team behind Wipfel Rauschen East meets West festival and we hope that having established a base, the festival will grow further in stature in the coming years.

There is great comfort in visiting old friends and, after our enjoyable adventures to new locations, there was a different kind of delight in seeing many familiar faces amongst the audience at another excellent night with the Chesham Folk Club.

We have now played Chesham Folk Club a number of times and the club’s wonderful community feel is evident to all.  They have club members who have been coming together to sing and perform for many years. The club is very welcoming to its guests and the exchanges between members are often hilarious.

With a slight change of venue to a downstairs room in the White Hill Centre to escape the build-up of heat in the club’s usual top floor room, the club was at full capacity for the evening’s performances. 

Bob and Annette started the evening off with a couple of songs, including a delightful version of Sandy Denny’s ‘Who Knows where the Time Goes?’  This was followed by a couple of excellent self-penned songs from Dave Artus, sporting his ‘real granddads play guitar’ tee shirt.

With the daylight slowly fading, we then did our first set and, as always at Chesham, the audience joined in willingly and to great effect on choruses.

After a short break, Bob returned to perform solo.   He was followed first by a new visitor to the club who sang a couple of songs a capella (including a robust version of Star of the County Down) and then by club member, Clive Carey, who played two excellent contemporary songs from north of the border. 

We then returned to finish off the evening with our second set.  Audience participation remained everything we could hope for and we were delighted to be called upon for an encore at the end - which we duly obliged with a rendition of the beautiful Scots song Time Wears Awa’.

Many thanks to Bob, Annette and all the club committee and members at Chesham Folk Club for their continuing support for our music.  It was lovely to be introduced as friends of the club, and this is a friendship readily reciprocated on our part.  We wish the Chesham Folk Club all the very best for their forthcoming season of featured singers’ nights and for a successful autumn of great music. 

Fortified by an excellent sleep and a monumental breakfast with family, we hit the road from Pudsey around lunchtime to get across to Much Wenlock to take part in the Festival at the Edge.  The journey was agreeably uneventful and we turned off the M54 for Much Wenlock and the festival site around three in the afternoon.

From the moment we arrived on site, it was clear this was a well organised festival.  Navigating the narrow country lane to get to the festival site requires walkie-talkie communication at each end and a smooth operation was in train to cope with a busy period of two way traffic.

In the festival office in the Green Room, we were similarly pleasantly and efficiently processed and were soon out exploring the festival site.

Readers should be aware that Festival at the Edge is primarily a storytelling festival.  This was its 25^th year.  It currently has five stages for storytelling plus one for music.  For those unaware of the storytelling scene, they would be making a huge mistake to think that storytelling is somehow limited to entertaining and educating children.  Whilst there is a festival stage set aside for storytelling for children, many of the leading figures of the UK and overseas storytelling community were at the festival addressing the most serious social and political issues through the compelling medium of storytelling.

Our first specific engagement after arriving at the festival was a sound check in the music venue or Silver Tent.  Top of the bill that night, Lady Maisery, had already completed their sound check and, as such, we were able to go straight into our own sound with the fantastic Graham Bradley and his colleague Laurence.  We have worked with Graham and Laurence a few times before and they always create a great sound for us, both front of house and in the monitors.  On our way to the sound check, we also bumped into our MC for the evening and longstanding friend, Ruth Bramley who we know from the Ely Folk Club.

Sound check done, we repaired back to the Green Room area where festival organisers were providing an evening meal for artists.  A team of catering volunteers, led by the lovely and highly efficient Pippa, was in charge of keeping the artists fed and watered.  Not only were there excellent sandwiches when we first arrived and tasty pasta dishes for evening meal, I can report that this was truly ‘cake heaven’ with a selection of at least half a dozen tempting delights. 

Over food we met the mighty Phil Hare.  Many readers will know that Phil is a top class guitarist and singer-songwriter.  I first came across Phil when teaching myself the alternative DADGAD tuning for guitar. Phil’s instruction videos regularly come at the top of DADGAD related internet searches.  So, it was nice to spend time with Phil throughout the weekend and it was great to see him perform.

 For the evening concert, we were positioned in between Phil Hare and Lady Maisery.    Phil gave a bravura performance which showed off his jaw-dropping finger skills to great effect.  I’m happy to report that our own 45 minute performance was very well received and we managed to showcase the full range of our music.  It meant a lot that Phil made a particular point of coming up and congratulating us a we left the stage.

We then retreated to the CAMRA beer tent for a well earned pint with our appointed assistant on site, the lovely Ian Cameron.  How nice to be in the Shropshire countryside, drinking good beer with the artful sounds and harmonies of Lady Maisery for background. 

The festival organisers had also organised a’ Stromash’ to finish off the evening in the music marquee. Stromash is a Scottish word for a tumult or ‘mash up’ and musicians from the excellent Midswégan joined with Phil Hare, a few members of the wonderful Biscuithead & the Biscuit Badgers and our own Rob Garcia, to entertain the remaining revellers up until midnight. For a scratch outfit, they collectively made a great sound!    Led vocally by Midswégan’s fiddle player and presumably part of Midswégan’s regular set , the version of Shady Grove they played was probably the best version I have ever heard.

With the official programme for music over, people drifted over to the bonfire area for a sit, a slurp and a sing.  I must be getting old because, at 1.30am I was done for and repaired to the dorm where the male artists were billeted.  Rob, mandolin in hand, was able to keep going a bit longer.

On Sunday, our first performance was something of a crossover between the story telling and musical aspects of the festival.  As the 80^th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War approached, we had been asked to make a presentation telling the story of The Basque Children of 1937.  This is the story of Rob’s family and a story that has inspired a number of our songs. Setting the evacuation of 4,000 Basque children from Bilbao in May 1937 in context with the Spanish Civil War, we recounted this sad chapter in history through both word and song.  An audience of around fifty people packed into a modest sized venue to hear us.  Somehow the intimacy of the venue heightened the intrinsic emotion of the story and the songs and the experience of the performance was moving for audience members and performers alike.    The round of applause at the end of the performance went on longer than any either of us could remember having received before and many audience members came to talk to us after we finished.

Then, after a quick sandwich lunch, we ported our gear back round to the Silver tent for our last concert performance.  On a bright sunny afternoon, we provided a set of narrative tales.  It was lovely that Genevieve Tudor from BBC Radio Shropshire was able to come and see us perform and that we had chance to chat with her afterwards. 

Just before performing we were treated to an excellent set by Aberystwyth-based trio, Three Legg’d Mare. Look out for them, they are excellent. Great musicality, lovely harmonies, beautiful material and, in singer Kate Saunders, they have one of the finest female vocalists I have heard in a very very long time.  Sadly, with the need to turn for home after completing our afternoon performance, we were not able to hear their second set.  We hope it went well. 

I won’t say more about our journey home than ‘M6 Sunday teatime’...you get the drift....Anyway, a cold beer was waiting in the fridge on return.

Many thanks to Genevieve Tudor of BBC Shropshire and Sue and Peter Chand for the invitation to perform at Festival at the Edge and, with their team, looking after us so well from the moment we arrived on site to the moment we left.  Thanks to Graham and Laurence for again weaving their magic with the sound system.  Finally, many thanks must also go to Ian Cameron who took on the responsibility of ensuring all of our needs on site were met.  His assistance through the weekend was greatly appreciated and we very much enjoyed having a couple of pints with him on Saturday evening and listening to his own CD.