Dear all,
A lovely week last week with much giggage. First up Walsh and Pound played at Dartford Folk Club which was a very nice gig and great to stay with Lisa Bradley who is always good craic. After two nights with family and friends, some of my favourite people in all the world, I played at Bath Banjo Festival which was great fun and Leon Hunt was, as ever, superb and showed why he’s the finest bluegrass banjo player this side of the water. So began a solo-tastic gig weekend as I moved up the country to Knighton Village Hall on Saturday night which was again excellent if a very very late start! Big shouts to my old pal Pete Wearn who did a great set as did the almost sinfully talented 15 year old Lydia O’Dowd. That voice is something else it really is, a star of the future.
To finish the weekend I headed Northeastwards (after a sleep-free night courtesy of my lovely girlfriend’s on that occasion rather less lovely cat…) to play Seahouses Festival which was one of my favourite gigs of the year so far. The audience were wonderful, I was pleased with how I performed and I got Seahouses fish and chips. What’s not to like? I then watched England prove how shockingly short of quality they really are at football before a covers fest with Simma at Newcastle’s Gotham Town which was good fun and the crowd were considerably intoxicated but for the most part reasonably non-tossery.
So that about brings up to speed. Apologies to anyone who thought Walsh and Pound were playing in Gainsborough this weekend, it being on my website and all! The gig was mooted some time ago and we mistakenly thought it was confirmed but it wasn’t..so instead my next gig is on Sunday playing some corporate thing in Cambridge, they want three hours of banjo as all corporate functions do…Public action resumes with Pound in Priddy and the hopefully rather less sodden than of late Isle of Wight.
I am in a public library and running rapidly out of time so this will have to be relatively quick and typically I can’t think of a single amusing thing to say…oh dear…er…Gove. Yes Gove! What the hell is this man on?! Does he honestly think the best way to replace an admittedly failing exam is to replace it with the one that didn’t work in the first place and was therefore replaced by the one that is not now working either?! Oh Gove, was the last time you went into a school 1953?! Anyway it looks like it’s not going through anyway so I guess that’s some comfort. Tell me, do you think one day this band of twits might actually think through a policy first before everyone with half a brain cell makes them realise it’s cobblers. No? Probably not. Oh well I’m just off for a Cornish pasty. I’d better make sure it’s not hot…