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| No more hill-walking photos
this time round, so we're back to onstage action shots. This was taken
at Sheffield Folk Festival in October by Pete Simmonds, who posts hundreds
of live folk music videos to Youtube under the user name SIMMO7TS and
was kind enough to post the footage of my performances you'll find linked
elsewhere on these pages. The stage lighting at this gig was spectacularly
lurid, and I especially like the “golden keyboard” effect
on my melodeon. I spent most of the afternoon at Sheffield in the Kelham
Island Tavern, a 'proper pub' hosting a lively English music session,
where fine players like Nick and Mary Barber, Edwin Beasant and Nancy
Kerr were to be found squeezing and scraping. |
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Those of you who have ever visited Sidmouth can't have failed to have been impressed by the floral sea creatures lurking in the Blackmore Gardens, and so taken was I with the anatomical accuracy and startled expressions of these herbaceous denizens of the deep, that I persuaded one of them to share a photo-opportunity. At the time I'd just emerged from the Bedford Hotel's concertina concert, having shared the stage with Tim Laycock, Sandra Kerr, Jody Kruskal and other notable squeezers, hence the rather unnecessary prop. |
| September saw a slightly surreal gig in Amsterdam, where Jeff Davis and I had been booked at a maritime festival that was cancelled at the last minute. With Jeff having already booked his flight, the organizers decided to honour our engagement despite the absence of audience or venue, so we ended up playing to bemused tourists and period-costume staff members on board the tall ship 'Amsterdam', moored in the harbour. Oddly enough, we had a really good time, and took a few moments out to pose with the crew on what is a really impressive modern reconstruction of a famous vessel. [insert photo Amsterdam here] |
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 In
November I was booked to teach once again at 'Melodeons At Witney' and
was pleased to see the name of Geert Oude Weernink amongst my fellow
tutors. Geert is an old friend from Gronigen who booked me several times
at the legendary 'Music Without Frontiers' workshops in the Fresian
island of Schiermonnikoog, and is an excellent box player himself, with
tastes ranging from Ireland to the Balkans. He also plays my Tapestry
/ Mill Race set of waltzes, which gave me the excuse to write a harmony
part and perform them onstage with him. On the teaching side, having
foolishly offered to give a class on Tex-Mex accordion (a style I've
listened to a lot more than I've played it), was viewing the prospect
with a little trepidation, especially since twenty had signed up for
it. Fortunately all twenty were so able and eager to learn that it went
really well, although unfortunately I don't have a photographic or musical
record of my Tex-Mex students, accompanied by a Latin percussion section
consisting of fellow tutors Saul Rose, Simon Care, Issy Emeney and,
performing a cumbia at the Sunday workshop showcase event. I do have
a photo, though, of the Friday night pub session. Now, I've always thought
that the best pub sessions are those with a good variety of instruments,
with not too many of any one type. Oh well…. |
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The Guardian - which as a fully paid-up folkie leftie is of course my daily read of choice - runs a daily editorial piece entitled 'In Praise Of…' which highlights some character, artifact or aspect of life worthy of admiration. In that spirit, I'd like to nominate Ted Poole, who - although no longer the organizer of Swindon Folksingers' Club - is still a regular there, still singing well, and watching the club prosper under different management, along the lines he established during many years presiding over it. My gig there last October was one of the most enjoyable of the whole year (after repeated moves the club has found a venue where it seems very comfortable), and so I took the opportunity to have my photo taken with Ted, the only pity being that Ivy wasn't at the club that night and so couldn't be included as well. |
| Lastly, you should know that I have a new e-mail address, at which I'd welcome your comments and suggestions. In case you missed it on the Home page, I've finally got round to setting up a Myspace account which you can view here , to access several songs and photos that you won't find on this site. And don't forget the new Youtube clips either! |
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My
US tour in the summer is built around bookings at two of the major summer
schools over there. 
