Dear all,

Well it’s been a while since my last blog since when I’ve moved house! It’s great to be in anyway and things are beautifully organised…again (more to follow). Coming back from Norway I was straight back into gigging action with an appearance at Maverick Festival which was a whole lot of fun! It was particularly great to meet the great Billy Bragg who was an absolute gentleman and very entertaining with it. My gig was a lot of fun too with a standing crowd so a very energetic set!

Next up was a week of Live Music Now work with Mr Nic Zuppardi on the mandolin. First up was the Manchester area where we played at a youth centre in the morning then a home for former service men and women in the afternoon. Both were really rewarding and one girl who attempted to play eleven percussion instruments at once rather stood out! Then came four days in Continue reading “The passport thing…” →

Dear all,

I have returned to the UK once again from a foreign jaunt and I’ve a few gigs and home time to look forward to in July before heading to France with Urban Folk Quartet. I have returned from the wonderful Norway which is a beautiful country and one I particularly enjoyed this time. Norway is breathtaking in its beautiful views and phenomenal expense but the former far outweighs the latter. Upon arriving last Saturday it was straight to Nystua Bluegrass Festival, about an hour outside Oslo and the setting was absolutely lovely. The Norwegian sun shone down on some terrific music outside during the afternoon before the evening’s entertainment moved inside to a delightful old barn which was packed to the rafters. My set was in the barn and I had a wonderful time and the audience were certainly up for it! A good party was had afterwards too so all in all a delightful gig. There followed the rare luxury of a few days abroad not gigging so after a day in Oslo I headed to Bergen to see chums Continue reading “Beautiful Norway” →

Dear all,

My Canadian trip is nearly at an end, I depart for Heathrow tomorrow evening. It has been an absolute blast as it was last time and the first big thank you I have to say is to the marvellous Meaghan Blanchard who once again has been fantastic and talented company as we’ve driven around the Maritimes and played our shows. First up after the excellent opening show outlined in my previous blog, we headed to Four Corners house concerts in Sackville which was a nice cosy little gig. Next up it was off to Halifax to play an afternoon show at the Carleton and an evening show at GPS house concerts in Dartmouth. Both were an absolute delight and it was particularly great to hear stunning fiddler Wendy McIsaac at the Carleton who performed after Meaghan and I. A couple of days rest followed before heading back to Halifax to play the Company Continue reading “Six foot sandwiches?” →

Dear all,

Well here I am in Canada. I’m in an extremely jolly mood after a really lovely evening last night. I write to you on a lovely day – the sun is shining, birds are singing and the view is beautiful! Last night Meaghan and I began our tour with a house concert run by two of the nicest people you could possibly meet. Michael and Shawn are so hospitable and so welcoming and they gave us a wonderful gig. The audience were similarly delightful and I feel I’ve made some new friends here in New Brunswick. As regular readers of this blog will know, there are things about my job that drive me up the pole and international travel can be hard work and stressful but it’s so wonderful to come to another country, share music and meet such remarkable people. So quite a start to the tour and a lot to live up to!

Anyway, just to update you on happenings too I had a fantastic tour with UFQ. After Fishguard we played two delightful village halls in Wiltshire and stayed with some lovely people Continue reading “Canadian sun” →

Dear all,

It’s just a shade over two weeks til I return to Canada! Exciting stuff. Working with Meaghan Blanchard on two previous tours was an absolute joy and it will be great to collaborate with her once again. We were paired up by English Folk, Dance and Song Society and Music PEI to work together out in Canada in September 2013 then Meaghan came over here in November last year. The giglist is as follows:

11 Jun 2015 08:00 pm	with Meaghan Blanchard	House Concert, Dieppe, NB, Canada
12 Jun 2015 08:00 pm	with Meaghan Blanchard	House Concert, Sackville, NB, Canada
13 Jun 2015 08:00 pm	with Meaghan Blanchard	House Concert, Dartmouth, NS, Canada
16 Jun 2015 08:00 pm	with Meaghan Blanchard	Company House, Halifax, NS, Canada
17 Jun 2015 08:00 pm	with Meaghan Blanchard	Roots and Soul Room, Frederiction, NB, Canada
18 Jun 2015 08:00 pm	with Meaghan Blanchard	Magnolia Cafe, Saint John, NB, Canada
19 Jun 2015 – 21 Jun 2015 07:30 pm	Solo	Small Halls Festival, PEI, Canada

So exciting stuff! Norway, France, Belgium, Germany, USA and Denmark also await before the end of the year. Dashed exhausting really! Exciting times of course though. My I’m using some very short sentences today.

Anyway a couple of gigs to tell you about. First up UFQ Continue reading “The adventures of Fishguard!” →

Dear all,

The UFQ tour is in full swing and we’re having a ball. After such a relentless solo tour, it’s great to be back with the band for a while. People often ask me which I enjoy more and it genuinely is impossible to answer, I’m not just being a politician. There’s a magic about being up there just on my own with total control over what happens both musically and in terms of the gig. Then there’s that brilliant feeling when 4 musicians are playing really well together and bouncing off each other. Both are priceless and both are currently going rather well!

So then to report on the latest…after my rather bizarre non-brush with the law, I had the rare experience of actually going to a gig on the night of my last blog and it was none other than my old chum Lucy Ward who played at the Gatehouse in Stafford. As ever, she gave a very entertaining show and showed her fine voice to typically compelling effect and even managed to Continue reading “Carefully planned touring…” →

Dear all,

Apologies for a bit of a delay since the last bloggage, it has been a manic old time. Lots of gigs to tell you about so without further ado I shall bring things up to date after the end of my mammoth spring solo tour.

07/04 – Green Note, London

One of my favourite venues and once again it was lovely. Marvellous.

10/04 – Swan, Staunton

A return to pub gigging and I rather enjoyed it! Knocked out a few Saw Doctors song I hadn’t played in a long long time owing to some big Saw Doctors fans being amongst those present.

11/04 – Kingswood Wine Vaults, Bristol

Well this was quite a night. Thanks one and all, I had an absolute ball and a good old drink and rant with a few folks afterwards too which always helps I find. A mammoth set is testament to how much I was enjoying myself!

12/04 – Nailsea Continue reading “POLICE!” →

Dear all,

London today for to launch Incidents and Accidents at the Green Note in Camden, one of my very favourite venues. It’s been one hell of a time with a lot of travelling and playing but I’ve been having a lot of fun on the road. To bring you up to date on the gigs:

25/03 – Faversham Folk Club

A cracking little gig with plenty of my extended family present which was nice! A bit weird playing in front of a mirror but this was corrected midway through the gig by a willing member of the audience…

27/03 – Hales Club, Market Drayton

A lovely little place this and somewhere I have always had such a lovely time. A bloody brilliant night.

28/03 – Bromyard Sessions Continue reading “Rocking out to AC/DC…at 80.” →

I am thought of by some as a ranter. It is indeed true that many things do cheese me off but really I just like discussion and find it interesting and worthwhile to analyse and question rather than simply accept things how they are. There’s one area I’ve largely kept quiet about but I thought maybe it might be time for a confession and it’s a while since I wrote an ‘article’ on this blog rather than my regular gig updates and silly stories. I get unbelievably bored, irritated and drained by the endless apparent need to justify the instrument. There, I said it. I’m bloody sick of banjo jokes, I’m bloody sick of most radio interviews turning into a ‘justify why you play a weird instrument that was in that film’ session, I’m bloody sick of hearing that it takes a lot of persuading people to come to a gig where it’s just one guy, a voice and a banjo (with a bit of guitar) for 2 hours rather than a more ‘normal’ instrument. Yes, it drives me mad.

Some may be saying, well yes of course it would. Some may be saying chill out man it’s all a joke. Some may say get over yourself. I’m not saying any of them are wrong either and the whole reason I’ve never had this rant, other than with people I know well of course, is because I do understand. Whether people like my music or not I think most would admit that my show is not a usual banjoist’s concert. But I completely get that that is hard to explain to people. Whether I like it or not, Continue reading “It’s good to be proved wrong” →

Dear all,

It’s been a rather breathless time of it all and there’s no let up any time soon! The tour has been fantastic and I’m loving life on the road and it’s been great to play at, for the most part, full houses and sell loads of CDs. It’s pretty full on though and my mileage has been nothing short of outrageous and my sleep deprivation is quite considerable! Thank god things calm down after this…oh wait.

Anyway, a bit of a report on my gigs:

05/03 – Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon – Oh my god! What a venue! What a venue! A beautiful and extremely old theatre with stunning acoustics. Added to which the crowd were lovely, CD sales were phenomenal and the host Geoff was just about the nicest guy you could ever meet. A wonderful night.

06-07/03 – Moonbeams March Weekend, Driffield – What a cracking little festival! Really enjoyed my sets and nice to catch up with some old faces. Discovery of the year in Plumhall too whose song ‘Never Forget My Name’ is a truly stunning song.

08/03 – Folk On The Moor, Plymouth – Continue reading “Tales of the twat with a laptop” →