Dear all,

Well tonight I return to Newcastle for a night to play with Will at the Cumberland Arms. Cannot wait, it’s always been a favourite venue and it comes after a wonderful gig last night at the Black Swan Folk Club in York. We had a wonderful night and thanks to everyone who came especially the chap whose bladder was discussed in some detail during the gig… Continue reading “God bless Newcastle” →

Dear all,

Well I am once again back home and a resident of Stafford. It feels good, I’ve bumped into countless people I know, had my regular pub to go to of course and oh it’s just great! I write happily, so what’s been going on since my last entry? Well Walsh and Pound’s hectic April began on the 31st March…which isn’t in April…at Newhampton Folk Club in Wolverhampton. It’s fair to say it wasn’t a classic but still a good night with a wonderful support act in Sunjay Brayne who showed some dazzling blues guitar. A great future awaits for him I’m sure. The next night we were in the capital for Walthamstow Folk Club which was a classic! A great gig at a great club with a great audience. Simples as that irritating advert about markets and meerkats would say. Thanks to all who came, it was quite extraordinary how at 7.45 we were thinking it wasn’t going to be much of a turnout then suddenly in they all came! I guess the tube not really working properly on a Sunday might have had something to do with it… Continue reading “Back home” →

Dear all,

Apologies for the delay in bloggage, my laptop helpfully decided to cease performing that most basic of functions last Sunday, that of booting up and no amount of encouragement, gentle or otherwise compelled the machine to alter its stance. I then managed to persuade my old laptop which I thought had ceased to turn on at all long ago to turn on again albeit whilst making rather worrying whirring noises and with the monitor still half detached from when I dropped it down the stairs some time ago, and the internet worked which I thought was good…except facebook chat didn’t which when it is your only means of instant communication with a girlfriend on a trip in Asia is not overly helpful, neither is the fact that this blog for some reason didn’t work on it either. Continue reading “I have left Newcastle, good lord” →

I have to say here rest in peace the mighty Earl Scruggs, the most influential banjo player of the 20th century who passed away. Gigging virtually to the end, the man invented the most used banjo playing style in the world and pretty much co-invented bluegrass. Continue reading “Earl Scruggs = Legend” →

Dear all,

Well the Durham special school stuff was fun. It was social, emotional and behavioural difficulties which is quite hard work, especially when a ‘workshop’ with year 9’s actually involves watching them attempt to kill each other, storm out at various intervals and call the teacher a f**king slut among other things…it was hard to watch and I felt desperately sorry for them but there were some kids in that school that really got something out of us being there so it was still very rewarding in a less obvious way! Continue reading “Drink spilling” →

Dear all,

Well since my last blog, Will and I finished our Live Music Now work in Lincolnshire playing concerts in special schools through the week. It was a real joy and a couple of times a real eye opener. I must pay special mention to a school that was for children who had been exluded from mainstream schools on the grounds of violence, so you can imagine what we might have been expecting. The children were amazingly well behaved and very friendly and welcoming and it became so clear how much the school turned the lives of these children around and how much the staff cared about it all. It was a wonderfully rewarding gig as well as some of the others where the children were simply beside themselves with joy and fun at our music (a strange reaction I know!). We’re also doing Live Music Now this week working in special schools in Durham and it is a challenge, a real challenge but with great rewards. Continue reading “A scientific approach to computer repair” →

Dear all,

Well since my last blog I had a mini-break from gigging for a week before returning with two covers gigs with old chum Simma in Newcastle at the Slug and Lettuce and Nancy’s Bordello which were both a lot of fun, especially the latter. Many thanks to all those who made it so. Then yesterday I watched Liverpool win the Carling Cup (see http://danwalshfootball.blogspot.com for a full blog on the subject) which was a real joy and thanks to all the people who I ended up chatting with in the pub it was a real reminder of how great watching football in a pub can be when d**kheads don’t intervene… Continue reading “Apostrophe?!” →

Dear all,

Well my five nights of gigs last week was as enjoyable as I expected and then some. First up was a return to Baldock Folk Club and it was as much of a joy as last time with plenty of banter and fun and I really enjoyed playing a solo gig again. So many thanks to them and also all at Uxbridge Folk Club who gave me a lovely evening as well albeit a slightly quieter one. Then it was back to Walsh and Pound action with a gig at the Kalamazoo Club in London which was good if slightly off form on my part I thought. However, the next night was truly amazing as Walsh and Pound played to a sold out Rodewald Suite at the Liverpool Philarmonic Hall and it was in my opinion the greatest Walsh and Pound gig ever. Thanks to the legendary Scouse wit there was plenty of banter flying around all night which was highly entertaining and everything just seemed to go well. Marvellous! Finally to round off the gigging was a return to the beloved Angel, Wooler with Simma for a fun covers fest which as ever was cracking fun. Continue reading “Simply food…and tights?!” →