So, here we are, still on a high from a few weeks' sensational gigging! Let's go back a fortnight or so to Sat 28th June and The Queen Charlotte Pub in Andover. We'd only played there a month before and were a little wary about going back so soon to the same venue. But the landlord, Barry, was keen to get us back before the end of the summer and this was the only mutual date he and we had available. So we were expecting a bit of 'What are you guys doing here again?' instead of which we were greeted like long-lost friends and yells of 'Welcome back!' and ' Good to see you again' and, of course, 'Where's your eggs?'! What can I say? We had a brilliant night and even though it was a warm and sultry evening, people still piled into the pub inspite of the heat, listened, joined in, danced, sang and shook their eggs and were just a fabulous audience. The following day, we headed off for the village of Wroughton near Swindon to a new venue for us - The Fox and Hounds. Having had such a great gig the night before, I was a bit worried that this might be a bit of an anti-climax. It was a really hot Sunday afternoon. We arrived at the venue to find a sizeable audience gathered already with a real sense of anticipation. We set up outside in a lovely paved area with tables and flowers and it was all just gorgeous. From the very first song, the audience were with us. And what an audience!They danced, they sang, they heckled and joked with us, but they also listened to our more mellow material too and our lovely ballad 'Mudeford Mood' was one of the songs that absolutely went down a storm. I can't remember how many encores we did before they finally let us stop playing - 4? 5? more? - there's no feeling like it to get that kind of response to your own songs. It was just brilliant. We're looking forward to a return visit there in October.
So, then we travelled down to Wales. First stop, the beautiful Chainbridge Inn near Usk. What a setting. Right on the riverbank surrounded by fields. Again, it was a glorious summer's evening. The best kind of British summer. We played on the decking next to the river under the setting sun. The whole feeling of the evening was much more gentle and mellow than the week before but just as enjoyable and memorable with an audience that seemed to hang on every note and every word. One guy, Big John, had travelled from Abertillery for the gig as he'd seen us play at the Beaufort Theatre in Ebbw Vale the previous autumn. At the end of the gig , he took me by the hand and said 'When you've made it and you're famous, you won't forget to come and play for us at the Beaufort, will you.' It was great that he thinks there's a chance we might become rich and famous. Actually, modestly well-off and infamous will do!
The following day, we rolled into Chepstow Race Course for the Two Rivers Festival. What a lovely, friendly event! We set up camp and then made our way into the little town of Chepstow. We did a really fun, stripped down gig at The Chepstow Castle Inn in the afternoon with Keith on African drum and percussion. Played for about 40 minutes and it seemed to go down well. We then watched the headline act, Seth Lakeman, on the main stage back at The Racecourse.Terrific sound and a really tight band - exceptionally fine bass player we thought! The next day, we chilled gently outside our caravan in the sun working on one of Malcolm's songs. OUr main gig was that day playing on the bandstand at 5.00pm. Unfortunately, at 3.00pm the glorious sunshine made a run for it, the heavens opened, it bucketed down, and the sound system at the Bandstand gave up! But we were not to be thwarted! We had our own PA and equipment with us, so we pitched up at the pub where we'd played the previous day, set up, plugged in and played an absolutely storming gig for the next couple of hours! We had a fantastic time and by the time we were having a little half-time break the organisers had asked us back for next year to play on the main stage! Not a bad result for being rained off! When we finished playing, a really fun, impromptu sing-song, led by Nigel on guitar, with a book of everyone's favourite songs! I fetched the shaky eggs from the van and the whole pub joined in. We stayed all evening - it was really great and just how a festival should be. I must just mention a fantastic singer song-writer Stu Simpson who sang one of his own songs that was just so lovely it stopped the whole pub and you could have heard a pin drop. Check him out on myspace. The song has the line 'If you believe in fairies, clap your hands...'. At that pub, we all believed in fairies. We'd just like to say a big, warm thank you to all the lovely people we met who made us so welcome; to Phil the landlord; and to the Two Rivers organisers Steve, Lisa, Tim and Mike for doing such a grand job. But our Welsh weekender doesn't end there, oh no. The Monday found us with our great friends at BRfm - Brynmawr Radio - for a chat and a live session. Pete and his team couldn't be more supportive of our music. They really are brilliant. We then went on to Cardiff for an interview and live session on the Alan Thompson Evening Show for BBC Radio Wales.That went really well. We played 4 songs live and had plenty of chat and lots of laughs too! We received loads of emails and calls from people who'd been listening in - even from New Zealand - and Alan invited us back for another sesssion in the Autumn when we're back in the area to play at The Beaufort Theatre. We finally arrived home in lovely Dorset at about 3 in the morning - tired but extremely content! After a weekend like that you realise you haven't just met people, you've made friends.
Charlie
State of Undress
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