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Updated:
01-Oct-2007
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Having
just about got over the jet lag from Australia
and the wish that we were still there, we did a support
spot to James Keelaghan
at Shevington Folk Club.
Thanks again to Dave for booking us; a great night
was had by all.
At the beginning of June
we headed north of the border to do two clubs in Scotland.
This was a new experience for us, as we have only
done Irvine festival up to then.
We did Strathaven Folk
Club first, which is actually in a
pub in Chapelton.
Being English and north of the border, we wondered
how well we would go down. It was a really good night,
everyone sang with us on the choruses and made us
feel very welcome. One of the regulars said: ‘I
normally go home at the interval, but you are too
good for that!’
We
had a night off on the Wednesday, so we finally took
up the invitation to stay with Ian
McCalman. It was great to stay with
Ian and Ellen and they treated us like royalty.
The
following night we did Falkirk
Folk Club. What a great club. We had
a really good turnout for two ‘unknowns’. The organisation,
floor singers and lovely people we met provided a
magic night to finish on. I can safely say we have
never done a club before where they have had a tin
of rice pudding as a raffle prize. Thanks to Nick
Keir for turning out to give us his support.
Then back to Ian and Ellen’s for a couple of malts
and put the world to rights.
The next gig we did was Swinton
Folk Club, a club we have done for
years. Ged and the team make running the club look
effortless and achieve a really friendly, relaxed
atmosphere. We had a great audience and thoroughly
enjoyed ourselves.
The
end of June saw us booked at the Four
Fools Festival, near Preston. Thanks
to Angie for booking us and running a proper ‘old
fashioned’ festival. Things were generally great apart
from Saturday afternoon. We were to do a meet Ken
and Pat, Tom McConville
and Jo Freya;
nobody came so we just talked to each other for an
hour. It was lovely to share the stage with Martyn
Wyndham Read again.
July saw us having a well earned rest; well we think
it’s earned.
August came and we were booked at Saltburn
Festival. I love Saltburn, though
it did rain a lot. Just before we went, Pat started
with a dreaded summer cold. We did our two spots on
the Friday night and woke on the Saturday to find
Pat had no voice ( I thought
I had gone deaf). Luckily for us, our
first spot was a meet Pat and Ken with Gary
and Vera Aspey. Thankfully (?) Gary
was in good form and talked for most of the hour;
we only sang two songs. We managed to get through
our last spot thanks to Pat taking some brown Scottish
medicine. I sang more songs than I normally would;
(sorry audience). Thanks to John
Taylor for booking us.
September means Fylde
Festival for us and we performed up
and down and in and out of the venues of Fleetwood.
Saturday was monsoon season. As usual a fantastic
festival, well run and a joy to perform at. We finished
on Sunday with the Pat Ryan and Ken Howard show (enough
said!)
Finally
we did Birkenhead Park
Folk Club, a new club run by Dave
Jones. Good luck Dave, it deserves
to do well.
Finally (again),
over the summer we became the home for distressed
folk singers and had Eric
Bogle and John Munro staying with
us on a number of occasions. It was a total pleasure
to have them. The house feels empty and we miss them
a lot.
Finally (I really mean it
this time), thanks a lot to our good mate
Pete Titchener,
in Oz, who looks after our website for us and is a
thoroughly good egg!
Pat
& Ken
