Blog

Another two gig weekend, most stimulating!  First up was QDs Live Lounge in Gosport High Street, this newly opened club is creating a must see venue for live music, comedy, local talent and opportunities for wild dancing for the over 25s. Luckily I just scraped in age-wise whilst the others were helped up the vast back stairs by my verbal encouragement and emotional support The audience were far away but appreciative and the lighting was too good! There are some fabulous photos taken of us by two very talented photographers. At one point Jim Houlbrook (one of said photographers) was laid on the dance floor at my feet taking a photo, it really was quite a moment, I was unable to comment on it being mid song and by the time I'd finished he was on his feet again so the moment for reflection had passed, but the moment stays with me  This venue has great potential and for those of you in the area get down there and check it out I'd say, it's a grower! The staff were really friendly too, which makes all the difference. Look forward to playing there again, I intend to check out their comedy night if I can.

Ah, then the Feast of Easter Folk which WB favourite Shep Wooley organises, held at the Masonic Hall Gosport (again Gosport, no travelling for me!) there were so many acts on, too many to mention really. I was moved to tears by the 21st century Lullaby sang by Pete Quinn such a beautiful song and sang angelically by a burly folk singer with a big beard, lovely! The Pompey Pluckers were rousing with their ukuleles and uplifting songs, Ade Cull (previously featured as naked snail picker in blogs of 2011) was there, and so were we. The set went ok, I was far more nervous then I expected to be, not really suffering with the nerves much these days so the low notes took a bit of a tumble overall. We did 'No Man's Land' the Eric Bogle song about a soldier who died in WW1, all of us were nervous about it but it was our destiny to do the song this day with it being 100 years since the outbreak of the war and in the event, even with the slight tentative nature of our rendition, the song is so powerful and there were multitudes of comments about it afterwards! Really lovely gig, and I didn't drink far too much and I wasn't to be seen dancing with my wild midwifery friend behind the screen to Reavers Rant. Highlight of the day for me though was Gary and Vera Aspey for even with the coughs they clearly both had, they were really impressive. Such a lovely lovely couple too and Gary is such a wise man. If you ever get the chance to see them (and A feast of Easter folk is still on today so there is a chance till the end of Easter Monday anyway) grab it with both hands and expect to be delighted and moved, to laugh and sing and generally behave in an unseemly way that totally befits the folk scene 

Right, I'm off to Dover xxx