Dear all,

I am typing this blog on a long and fairly tedious flight from Mumbai back to London. (I then helpfully forgot to actually post it online til today…). The word ‘tedious’ certainly can’t be applied to the country I have just been in. India is an extraordinary place and is eternally fascinating. Many of the countries I have toured are perhaps quite similar in culture to the UK – Germany, Norway, Canada, New Zealand, USA etc. They are all very different to each other of course but India certainly stands alone in terms of being a completely different kind of place! My fascination with the music is well known to people who follow me and the influence has found its way into some of my work and collaborations. This trip was slightly different. I’m lucky enough to be an endorsed artist by the wonderful Deering Banjos and they invited me to join them in India in a trip primarily intended to research if there was a market for banjos out there and taking in Continue reading “Wonderful India” →

Dear all,

Well I must apologise it has been an awfully long time since my last blog. August was a quite ridiculous month and September pretty much likewise but I must get back into doing this weekly ish because I do rather enjoy talking to you all this way! After Switzerland, it was back into the studio to record my new album and it is pretty much done in terms of my parts – exciting stuff! I’m looking forward to you all hearing it. Then it was a festival crazy time! First up it was the wonderful Green Man festival with UFQ. It has become a royal UFQ favourite this one and we had a wonderful time there once again. I often get asked whether I prefer the seated listening type gigs or the jump up and down dancing gigs and my answer is always that I love them both…but when it comes to the latter group Green Man is quite possibly the best of the lot! One of my favourite folk festivals followed – I was at Folkeast where I had a cracking time as always and then it was off to Moira Furnace Folk Festival with UFQ to round off a hectic but wonderful weekend.

Then it was three of the finest folk festivals – Whitby, Shrewsbury and Towersey. The former was solo and with Alistair Anderson and then the latter two were with UFQ. All three were such fun and I saw some great music. Whitby is one of the more trad ones I suppose and it was great to hear so many of those legendary figures from the folk scene still going so strong! Shrewsbury was a real thrill and you can even see the sets here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfY79X3rP0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGc9PX_sSgQ

And then began my banjo duo tour with John Dowling. It’s been really wonderful and it’s still going! It kicked off, fittingly, in my hometown of Stafford where we had a cracking gig. I then had a solo gig at Didmarton Bluegrass Festival for the first time which was a real thrill and then UFQ played in Wales at Llanwyddyn festival, the festival with no vowels. Then the John gigs continued in Bath at the Ring O Bells which was another nice wee gig Continue reading “Stewards” →

Dear all,

I write to you from a very beautiful Switzerland. This is the view from the hotel…

Not bad eh? This is the hotel ahead of our appearance at 1am (!) for an hour and a half (!!) straight after Status Quo (!!!) tonight (tomorrow?) at Lakeland festival. We’re here for a few days before heading home. It’s been rather a crazy time since my last bloggage and it has been a while since a blog in my usual style so I ought to bring you up to speed. July and August has basically been festival-tastic mixed in with recording two new albums! Here’s the festival lowdown first:

Maverick, Suffolk – second time at this one and a cracker it is too with lots of Americana goodness

Folk In A Field, Norfolk – UFQ played this one and we had a good old party! See photo…

Folk At The Hall, Wales – lovely little festival this one. Rura were great!

New Forest Festival, Hampshire – another nice festival and some familar faces!

Fi Fest, Staffordshire – a festival at someone’s house! It was an absolute cracker and lovely to see Edwina Hayes too

Music On The Marr, Cumbria – great to see my parents as always and wonderful to play this delightful little festival. Absolutely lovely.

Middle Of Nowhere Festival, Penkridge – it’s a novelty/pain-in-the-arse to have a festival gig fifteen minutes drive from your house but have to drive to it from Cumbria! Ah well, it was worth it. Great to bring UFQ to this, one of my favourite festivals and one that has been very good to me over the years

Guiting Festival, Guiting Power – lovely part of the world and the festival was lovely too. Sabela, daughter of my UFQ colleagues Joe and Paloma came and stole the hearts of all as always…I also played in the sand a lot more than in recent years

Ringsted Festival, Denmark – great gig for us out here though a rather tiring round trip all in a day and a half!

Broadstairs Folk Week – difficult to say how much I love this festival. Two days of solo gigs in a nice seaside town and at the best folk festival of the lot. Marvellous.

So that’s the gigging. Recording…well I’ve been recording my new solo album. I’ll be telling you much more about it in the months to come of course but I’m very excited! I also recorded with John Dowling so we’ll have our album for you when we tour in September:

02 September – STAFFORD County Staff Club

Tickets on the door – for details please contact Garry Copeland at copelandgarry@gmail.com

09 September – BATH Ring O Bells

Tickets on the door – for details please contact Matt Hemson at matthew@therapeuticmediacompany.com

13 September – BIRMINGHAM Kitchen Garden Cafe

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/367990

16-17 September – NEWQUAY Cornish Bluegrass Festival

http://www.cornishbluegrass.co.uk/

18 September – NORWICH Maddermarket Theatre

http://maddermarket.co.uk/production/view/352

23 September – SUSSEX Music At The Buildings

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/368531

25 September – LONDON Walthamstow Folk Club

http://www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk/

30 September – 3 October – GERMANY Munich Bluegrass Camp

http://www.bluegrasscamp.de/

So yes, a busy old time has been had and is still happening. Can’t deny I wish I’d learned my lesson from 2013 when I went to the Outer Hebrides for a week that it is important to have a genuine holiday once a year! I’ll try and bear that in mind next year but it’s all exciting stuff at least. I’ll leave you with this anyway, I ask did this really need translating that many times…

02 September – STAFFORD County Staff Club

Tickets on the door – for details please contact Garry Copeland at copelandgarry@gmail.com

09 September – BATH Ring O Bells

Tickets on the door – for details please contact Matt Hemson at matthew@therapeuticmediacompany.com

13 September – BIRMINGHAM Kitchen Garden Cafe

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/367990

16-17 September – NEWQUAY Cornish Bluegrass Festival

http://www.cornishbluegrass.co.uk/

18 September – NORWICH Maddermarket Theatre

http://maddermarket.co.uk/production/view/352

23 September – SUSSEX Music At The Buildings

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/368531

25 September – LONDON Walthamstow Folk Club

http://www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk/

30 September – 3 October – GERMANY Munich Bluegrass Camp

http://www.bluegrasscamp.de/

I have been spending a few days thinking about the EU situation and following the complete madness and backstab fest that is British politics. I’ve never known anything quite like this but you have to say it’s been coming. Just think of how well UKIP did at European elections and how many votes they polled in general elections, albeit with almost no gain in Westminster representation because of our voting system. Every episode of Question Time seems to have had a question on immigration and the EU for as long as I remember. I am always a little bit cautious writing about these topics because being honest, it is important that I don’t irritate the public who come to watch me play and essentially support my career! These are difficult topics and people get very sensitive about it so let me start by saying this – don’t take opinions as a personal slight. I think one of the reasons we are where we are and why we have a deep divide in our country that is becoming ever more simplistic in some ways, is that people simply do not talk or debate anything any more. The number of times I’ve seen on facebook ‘if you voted unfriend me now’. The number of times I’ve heard ‘let’s not talk about this because we’ll fall out’. Why? Why does having differing opinions and sharing them and explaining them have to involve ‘falling out’?! I lived with two devout Christians, which I am not, and we discussed it quite often and we never fell out. Half my family vote Conservative, which I don’t, and we’ve never fallen out. Many people I know and love have totally different views to me – if I was arrogant enough to unfriend (in whatever sense of the word) them all, I would miss out on some of the most moral and remarkable people I know. What seems to happen now is everyone places themselves in a camp. For instance in my sphere, many people are politically quite left wing and it’s almost as if everybody has to think the same thing about every single issue and worse still, disregard anyone who thinks anything different about anything. The fingers go in the ears (no folk pun intended) and the attitude is essentially ‘we think this, we must be morally right, everyone else is horrible’. Likewise, the right are exactly the same. I know people who swear blind that immigration is the root of all our troubles or benefits rob us of all our hard earned taxes etc and anyone who questions it as dismissed as a wishy washy lefty. Failure to discuss anything or respect anyone else is why we are practically split in two as a country now.

The EU referendum was really not our finest hour as a country. It started off reasonably well as a reasoned debate about the different issues before descending into an absolutely crass immigration vs non immigration debate. I heard the ‘we want our country back’ partly in reference to immigration and partly in reference to the ‘Brussels makes all our laws, we want to govern ourselves’ line. I don’t really want to campaign post referendum and this article is not meant to be a pro-EU one but I’ll briefly set out what my view was – I was never massively concerned about laws being made in Brussels to be honest. For starters, not nearly so many were made there as was made out anyway but my own feeling was the idea of 28 countries (of which we were quite a powerful one of course) deciding on rules and regulations was actually quite healthy and for me giving more power to Westminster was hardly a good thing. I was impressed with many of the human rights laws created by the EU and if the UK was your concern, it was worth noting how many poor areas in the UK were funded massively by the EU (admittedly we put some of the money in first, but I very much doubt our lot would have funded the same things…). Immigration never has seemed a big issue to me – pretty much every study has come to the conclusion that immigration is a net benefit economically quite apart from the exciting cultural mix. There are problems with assimilation of course, but much of that is down to sheer fear on both sides and I feel could be overcome. Anyway, the point I’m making is no one listens to anyone so you simply end up with a kind of cold civil war which only breeds the contempt. The left is guilty of arrogant moral superiority and the right is guilty of ignorance. Much of this, again, is based on fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of one’s own inadequacies where stating strong views and not listening to the alternative is actually a personal defence mechanism, hence why people get so uptight and defensive the minute someone questions them. For what it’s worth my own feeling as well was that there didn’t seem to be all that much sign of any other countries exiting the union which made our action seem rather puzzling – why leave a union so you’re essentially alone, having alienated the entire bloc and then having to try and negotiate access to the bits you want without the bits you don’t which, as we are seeing, was always going to be all but impossible. But I don’t really want to get into a specific piece on whether the EU is a good thing or not, I want to get at the wider culture. For the record, I suspect we’ll leave and end up with a Norway type arrangement but we will have annoyed everyone more than they have…

That was a very long winded way of me saying, please don’t take anything I write as a personal slight. Please don’t feel that I’m trying to say ‘I belong to the moral high group and look with contempt on any of you’. That’s not how I feel. But I will say what has depressed me thoroughly about the present state of affairs. Plenty of people voted to leave because of well thought out reasons that I just don’t happen to agree with. This is not a ‘everyone who voted to leave is a racist’ article. But let’s be honest about this – a LOT of people voted for Brexit because they have a problem with immigration and immgrants. I’ve seen it on facebook, I’ve heard it in pubs, I’ve heard it in conversations after gigs, I’ve seen it on TV, I’ve heard it on the radio – it is everywhere. I can’t deny I do find this attitude rather sad and rather distasteful. Maybe one of the problems is I have never really understood patriotism to any great extent. I’ve been to many countries now and each and every one has aspects I love and aspects I don’t. The UK is no different and I’ve never really understood why not declaring how much you love your country or how much better your country is than everywhere else is such a crime. I am only really interested in whether people, wherever they are from, are good people or not. I’ve never understood why foreign cultures coming into Britain is any kind of threat if I’m honest. I’ve been attacked on facebook a couple of times by people saying I’m a poncy middle class tosser who doesn’t understand the problems people face. Not exactly constructive but let me respond – Stafford is not exactly immigrant free! And for six years I lived in Newcastle and three of those were spent in a heavily Asian-populated area of the city. The apparent ghettos where whites dare not go were not what I saw and hell if anyone was going to fall victim to some kind of attack it might have been me – white, usually carrying an instrument, long hair, obviously a dreamy student. My memory was of going to the oriental food store on Brighton Grove and getting curry recipes from the owner – surely an example of multiculturalism at its finest? I’m not saying assimilation isn’t a problem, in many places it is, but it is not insurmountable. And of course this is all ignoring the fact that immigrants contribute a great deal socially, economically and the jobs that they do. Intolerance and suspicion of the other is not the country I want to live in and not the country I know.

So undoubtedly the thing that depresses me most is that so many people have lurched to the anti-immigration right. But deeply depressing is the state of our politics and the chaos that this has caused. It’s depressing enough that people voted on the basis of anti-immigration rhetoric but more depressing is the fact that they really weren’t aware what they were voting for. Again, I’m not trying to be patronising here and I’m not trying to say this applies to everyone but the number of people who voted Brexit because they thought that meant the end of immigration or the beginning of the chucking out of the Poles etc is seriously depressing. The disgraceful abuse that immigrants have received since the referendum and the shameful placard in Newcastle suggesting that repatriation begin have made me very sad. It was probably a cherry picked example admittedly, but just listen to the Barnsley man on Channel 4 who voted leave because he thought it would mean the end of immigration from Syria and Iraq! Then again that poster of Mr Farage’s might have played a part in that…Politicians knew damn well that access to the single market, which is the one thing most people agree is essential, would not be possible without free movement of people. It’s bad enough there are that many racists but even worse that so many of them are that daft they don’t understand that brexit doesn’t mean what they want!

And why did all this happen? Why did this referendum happen in the first place? David Cameron saw a way to appease the right wing of his party and UKIP voters and secure more votes. He was pretty convinced the public wouldn’t vote out, well that worked well. And who campaigned for the leave campaign? Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. Ardent eurosceptics? Yeah right. An opportunity to undermine David Cameron in the jousting to become Tory leader so they took it – the look of surprise and bewilderment on Boris when Brexit actually won said it all. And now they’ve even backstabbed each other! This referendum happened because of political games. What is rapidly becoming a vast majority of MPs are from public schools where they are taught to be politicians, they are not taught about how it affects the wider world. I’m not being an inverted snob – I’ve no issue with people from public schools but that is what Westminster is. Just watch Prime Minister’s Questions and the Punch and Judy name calling that goes on. Just look at how many have gone straight from university into politics. If it is the property of an elite you will get a detatchment from the general public, simple as that. This referendum and the chaos that followed happened because of political jousting and the battle for power and look what it has caused.

I’m not trying to get at all leave voters, many had intelligent reasons for voting the way they did – the EU is far from perfect and if I genuinely thought that Boris et al had campaigned on the basis of what they actually even thought and had a plan for if it happened I would sit back and say democracy has taken its course. But that clearly wasn’t the case. It was political gaming pure and simple. I haven’t even mentioned the Labour party of course – backstabbing central at the moment. I’m not an avid Corbyn fan for the record – I never really wanted him in the first place and I thought that this would happen. He’s not electable which we all know and I think Labour would be better served by a leader who is which brings me onto a divisive point – Tony Blair. The devil who took us to war. I don’t like him any more than anyone else but the fact remains he was very good at winning general elections (he even won in 2007, post Iraq war). The popular line is ‘New Labour were just the Tories’. They weren’t. They introduced the minimum wage, civil partnerships, human rights act, increased worker’s rights and so on. They spent more on public services, didn’t make huge cuts and actually did a good job of the economy (the Labour government was not powerful enough to cause a global financial crisis it is a myth!!!). I didn’t like much of what they did but to call them ‘Tory-lite’ to me shows an unwillingness to look at the facts and simply going with the easy analysis (the same goes for the blind slagging of the Lib Dems conveniently ignoring the fact they were not in power and therefore not able to implement their manifesto as if they were and also ignoring what they did do in government).

I can already feel people shouting at me for that last paragraph and this is what I’m saying in conclusion. Disagree with me by all means, but tell my why. Explain why. Don’t go ‘you Blair apologist’ or ‘you Tory in disguise’. Don’t shout ‘you wishy washy lefty’ either. Discuss, read and think about all viewpoints on all topics. Don’t proclaim to be an expert who must have all the answers unless you actually are! I should stress – I’m not an expert this is merely my view. But I’m not planning to unfriend or not see any more the people whose hunches are different from mine! Ignorance breeds hate and division. Talk to each other, respect each other, be nice to each other. Don’t just mix with people in your ‘camp’. Don’t stubbornly settle on all your views and don’t be afraid to listen to another one. Let us learn from one of the darkest hours in our country. I don’t mean leaving the EU per se, that is a subjective question but I mean the campaign. It was dark. It was crass. It was ill informed and it showed a side of my country that I don’t like.

Dear all,

Well here I am back on UK soil, finally. I suspect some of you probably think I make up half the travel crap that happens to me but I swear it is real! Here is the story of my return from Canada…firstly my initial plan was Fredericton to Halifax on the Sunday night then a quick turnaround before Halifax to London getting in at 9am on Monday morning. My flight from Halifax to London was of course cancelled so they rescheduled me for twenty fours later. Needing to get back for a day of banjo teaching at home on the Tuesday I asked if there were any other options and they said yes 0530 to Toronto (and a free hotel for the night) then onto London from there getting in for 9pm. Not ideal but ok. Then when I arrived at the airport at 4am the next day I was informed the 0530 was delayed by four hours thus my connection to London was not possible so instead I will now get in at 0630 Tuesday morning before heading to Stafford to teach banjo (and hopefully not fall asleep) for the day. So then I was at Fredericton for a 5 and a half hour stay (there ain’t much to do there…) and then in Toronto for the best part of eight hours (not much to do there either). The really bloody annoying thing is if I’d have just gone with the 24 hours later option I would have got back at roughly the same time, had a proper night’s sleep, maybe seen some chums in Halifax and been able to kill time in places that weren’t airports! And as if that wasn’t enough the crowning turd in the water pipe is Toronto is a further hour behind so I effectively lost another hour’s sleep!

Anyway all that nonsense was most definitely not enough to overshadow a thoroughly good time in Canada with some wonderful gigs, brilliant company and actually a little bit of much needed rest. I was fairly busy out there but had short drives and there’s something so relaxing about that part of the world that it rather reinvigorated me a little bit. First up was the Red Herring in St Andrews which was an awful lot of fun and what an amazing town! Relaxed is not the word…I arrived at my accommodation, the brilliantly titled Salty Towers to find all the doors wide open and a note saying the owner was out but to give him a call or head on up to the room. Then to Fredericton, a cracking little city and I had a cracking little gig at Corked. Next up it was onto Nova Scotia to play GPS concerts, a great little gig near Halifax with a really lovely audience although it did involve an unexpected drive to A and E in the evening as my host couldn’t move his neck! Thankfully he is ok now!

And then Prince Edward Island…ah Prince Edward Island. I do love you! It’s impossible not to adore this wonderful little place with its red beaches, lovely lobster, astounding music and simply delightful people. I felt honoured to be invited to the Small Halls festival for the second year running and I had a belting time from start to finish. Thank you thank you thank you PEI! Then to complete the tour it was back to New Brunswick to play the bloody marvellous Plan B in Moncton, a truly awesome music pub which has music of all types every night – I was sharing the bill with a soul band! Lastly it was to Parkindale Hall, a delightfully quirky little hall in the middle of bloody nowhere and the people there gave me the most wonderful time. Canada you are just awesome. I had toured there a couple of times with the brilliant Meaghan Blanchard but this was my first time solo and I just love the place!

Thanks to Air Canada’s incompetence I have been frantically dashing around trying to work since I got back. I was at a lovely school in Stourbridge for a couple of days for their annual folk fortnight –  a tradition created by my great friend Matt Price whose mum works there as the music teacher – which is basically two weeks of tutors teaching instruments, workshops and doing a ceilidh and a concert. It was a great couple of days as always and the concert was lovely. A rare Walsh and Pound reunion even happened – Will was one of the other tutors so we played our old hit Turkish Delight. Good fun.

So then. I have been deliberating over whether to comment much on the whole EU thing. I have concluded perhaps not in terms of my own personal view but I would like to say this. I think we as a society must learn to listen to each other, respect each other and above all stop placing ourselves in ‘camps’ where everybody thinks the same thing about every issue and doesn’t want to hear from anyone who deviates from it to any extent. It’s got to stop. As an example, I have frequently seen on facebook the status ‘if you voted Tory unfriend me now’ or ‘if you’re voting remain unfriend me now’. What, so you only want to know people who think the same way you do? You’re so scared of having a debate or hearing an opposing view that you are going to not be friends with someone who potentially you might actually be friends with? I don’t know why there seems to be this trend now towards ‘oh we’d better not talk about that in case we fall out’. I have never understood this. Is it not possible to have a debate with a friend and stay friends?! I lived with two devout Christians, a faith I do not share, and we discussed it a fair amount but never once did we ‘fall out’. A good proportion of my family are Tory voters which I’m not but we don’t ‘fall out’. I listen to views and understand the arguments and draw my own conclusions. Do you know what, sometimes I learn something from people who disagree with me. It doesn’t mean I shift over to their view neccessarily, just that I understand an issue more than I did. Don’t be so close minded and don’t dismiss people on the basis that they believe a fairer society can be achieved via a different means than you think. Research, listen and learn and arrive at a view but don’t refuse to listen to another one. We can do better than that.

Dear all,

I am here in an irritatingly wet but otherwise wonderful Fredericton. It is a quite wonderful city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick packed with lovely cafes, quirky shops and a decent dollop of live music. I arrived in Canada yesterday and begin my gigging tonight over in St Andrews (not the one in Fife obviously…). I got to my accommodation in the pouring rain and was keen to head out and get a bite to eat and maybe a cheeky beer but operating as I do a no-drink policy with driving, I was a little dubious of the whole ‘walking’ thing. The rain eased off so I thought right let’s go. And it did that thing, I’m sure you’ve had it too, where I got just far enough away that turning round and getting in the car instead was relatively pointless as it was far away enough that I would just get soaked anyway. So I thought screw it I’ll keep on heading into Fredericton. Good god did I get soaked. I got to a little food pub and sat down and the whole table was drenched in seconds! Still I had clam and chips and some very nice oatmeal stout so all was not lost…

Anyway to bring you up to speed, my last outing was on the eve of the end of a big UK tour. Cambridge was first up and a small but perfectly formed audience gave me a nice Continue reading “Canadian parking meters…” →

Dear all,

Incredibly my solo tour is coming towards the end after what seems like no time at all. It has been really rather splendid and I’ve really enjoyed playing new material alongside stuff from last year’s Incidents and Accidents and a bit of other stuff from times gone by. It’s all been a tad exhausting too of course with ludicrous amounts of miles but I have really enjoyed seeing faces both old and new. Touring is something I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with but performing is something I cannot live without so thank you for allowing me to do it!

So to bring you up to speed…after my last blog it was a crazy weekend of gigs beginning in the old hometown of Stafford at the Gatehouse Theatre for a typically wonderful gig at that venue. My hometown provides me with a beacon of wonderful support from wonderful people upon which to build my career and I really do appreciate it all the time. Traditionally the aftershow party Continue reading “Am I just OCD?” →

Dear all,

Well I’m running about like a bluebottle with the runs just lately but all in the name of my ludicrous career choice. So dating back, the UFQ tour finished with cracking gigs in Maldon, Moreton and Chester. The first named has been a long time favourite of ours at the town hall thanks to the wonderful Barrie and Nicki of MAC Theatre who put on wonderful gigs. Moreton is a village just 20 minutes from my home and thanks to Tricia and Tony who do a wonderful job of bringing music to rural Staffordshire/Shropshire/Whichever-county-it-falls-in. Then it was to Chester to play Alexander’s and we had an absolute cracker in a venue that’s had a real lift since new manager Jamie came in. All in all, a bloody marvellous end to a bloody marvellous tour.

In between some of those gigs was an appearance at Todmorden festival with the legendary Alistair Anderson which was a lot of fun as always. Then sandwiched in between the UFQ tour and the beginning of my tour came a weekend trip to Austria for a one off gig with superb harmonica player Lee Sankey who after a decade of relentless touring decided to go down the business route but is occasionally persauded out of retirement as he was here. We had a great time and the scenery was lovely. I also managed to fit in an open top bus gig on Llandudno pier. I don’t know if any of you have ever been to Llandudno pier. It gets quite cold. It was quite cold. But I had fun.

Then my tour began up in Bridlington in Yorkshire. It was a cracking night and great to catch up with the lovely Edwina Hayes (check out her stuff if you haven’t already) although in the end my original tour plan of doing that gig and staying up in Yorkshire with some family/friends until my gig in Kirkby Fleetham a few days later was thrown out by a trip to the Royal Albert Hall for the Folk Awards thanks to my nomination. Still, if you’re looking Continue reading “The time anyone?” →

Dear all,

Well it’s another day in the office today as I try and practice, write and plan my life. But there’s been a fair bit of giggery since my last outing and a fair bit of time on the road. Oswaldtwistle was a cracking little gig with UFQ and a first experiment into wearing a fingerpick. Yes I have had to consider succumbing to the dark side as my fingernails are beginning to show the wear and tear of such constant playing since I was 13. Don’t worry I’ll always be a clawhammerer…just it might be a fake nail that does the playing.

Anyway, then I went for a little three day holiday to my parents house in the Lakes (always lovely to have time with them although my dad was unfortunately in Dubai) and then to my old home of Newcastle where I saw the outstanding Pons Aelius who delivered an absolutely superb performance. I actually wrote this on my facebook the morning after about the folk degree I did:

I was fortunate enough to do a degree in folk music. From the age of three, Scottish and Irish folk music in particular has been a constant love of mine and to study it with such terrific players of my own age, playing sessions in all kinds of ridiculous places, going to gigs, trading tunes etc was a wonderful time. I was reminded of it last night as I was back in Continue reading “The peculiar phenomenon of self service checkouts” →