Concert For Judith 28th June 2009

Thanks to all who made it a memorable experience Upstairs at The Maudslay last night. With the heat wave on and even with the windows open, it still felt more as if we were playing Lousiana rather than urban Coventry.

The room is a good one for acoustic and semi-acoustic music, and we had stimulating sets from everyone. Norman Wheatley started us off, expertly compering and singing a selection of pleasantly summery songs. LazyManzFlute followed, and they were really excellent. Maggie Coleman provided the first solo spot of the evening, with some thoughtful and typically tuneful renderings.

Tanza finished the first half, and they were a revelation. B.P.S. were due to appear with them at the cancelled Blue Pig gig in February. We must re-arrange this, for we’d be good on a bill together. They did a wide selection of very broad material which complimented the more traditional material very well. Good musicianship and splendid vocals. Excellent!

During the Interval we had the draw for the most lavish raffle I’ve ever seen at a Folk venue. Very different to the tongue in cheek Mock Raffle we conduct at the end of “At The Septic Monkey”! (When we get most of the prizes returned by an embarrassed and slightly flushed audience!Many thanks to all those who donated such lovely prizes.

Norman kicked off the second half, and he was followed by Phutnote. We knew all about them, having seen them many times at Bedworth Folk Club. They did not disappoint. They also brought along Declan, a prize winning Irish dancer who had appeared in Riverdance. Declan’s routines were an appropriate background to Phutnote’s set, and they all received a rapturous ovation! Phutnote finished (at my request!) with Eric Bogle’s “Willie McBride.” What a haunting song that is!

Then it was time for a Rod Felton slot. A True Legend, Roddie was enigmatically Roddie. He refused to use the stage or the P.A. and sat instead, cabaret style, on a chair at the front of the hall. Which was fine for those at the front. He opened with “Thighs” (at least I think that’s what he said!) and included typical examples of Feltonesque humour and one-liners during his set. He finished with my favourite Roddie song “Curly”-another of my requests. To my surprise he performed this unaccompanied-forsaking his beloved guitar. Some inspired singing by all those present who knew the song-it’s about his baby daughter-who’s a very grown up lady now!

And then it was time for Black Parrot Seaside to close the evening. One of Judith’s last wishes before she died in February was that B.P.S. should continue to play together after her death. So it was apt that I think we played a rousing and varied set. We opened with Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm.” And followed it with “The Bonny Black Hare,” accompanied by a much longer instrumental finish. Time then for a (semi) Parrot song after that. “Albert Balls” has very quickly proved an audience pleaser wherever we have done it-and the choruses were simply roared out! “ Wee Midnight Hour” was a simple low-tempo blues, and then it was time to lift the hilarity again with “ The Bold Pirate,” and its shock ending. (The HSE ring us and get it stopped during the 4th verse). (Honestly..) We finished with “ D.I.Y “

Finally, we got the whole company up to lead them in a frankly spine tingling version of “Go Lassie Go.” Which seemed somehow a kind of emotional closure. Singing so moving, it brought people up into the room from outside, to ask what it was. (One of whom was a music producer, interested in recording it-but that’s another story!).

We all had an ace time despite the miserly input of landlord Ambrose. Having previously promised us a bar, he promptly closed it, after less than an hour of the concert. His rationale for this? Not enough people were drinking, apparently. Despite the fact that almost 70 people turned out to raise funds for Myton Hospice, and to pay tribute to Judith. You might think that kind of turnout on a Sunday night might please a landlord who we had once thought was sympathetic-but apparently not. The audience and performers had to traipse downstairs thereafter, where (oddly, given the fatuous excuse for closing the bar upstairs, considerably less than 70 people were sprinkled around in corners of the Maudslay’s less than imposing lounge.

Finally the thanks. To Norman Wheatley and his partner Viv, for the immense work they put into the event and into organising the raffle To Norman for compering as expertly as always, and for superb advice and moral support. To Tanza for installing, providing “driving” and dismantling the P.A. To Jill Gilsenan who brought along a donation from Bedworth Folk Club and helped out selling raffle tickets. As always with Jilly, she also provided encouragement for the performers by her beautiful accompaniment of backing singing.

Thanks to the audience, of course, for turning up. Some had come from as far away as Bristol! The audience was a really eclectic and responsive mixed bag-of young and old. Many familiar faces from the clubs we’ve played since reforming-thanks for that, folks!

Thanks to Pete Willow who gave the event a great write-up in Friday’s Coventry Telegraph. Thanks to all those (including Pete), who had hoped to help out but had other commitments on that particular evening. Kristy Gallagher, Malc Gurnham, Pete Grassby Chris Tobin and Keith Donnelly to name but five. There’s always next time!
Finally, thanks to the performers, who gave up their time or for free. Ladies and Gents you were all superb. I salute you. We must do all that again some time. But possibly, not at The Maudslay.

We think we’ve raised over £200 for Myton Hospice-I’ll make public the final total.

On The Road to Warwick

We had a splendid night at Warwick Folk Club last night. Because of the tragedy that had hit the band earlier in the year, this was only our second appearance of 2009 as a four-piece-and our first as a four piece since Rugby in April. Many of you reading this will know that we have appeared in all kinds of other permutations since January, but the four of us together is really our favoured format. And the best experience of the Parrot magic that an audience can hope for.

We started our feature spot there with "The Septic Monkey," our homage to the Folk Club from Hell, as they had so obviously enjoyed it when we'd done it there last time. (So much so that during the interval that night someone had scrawled out "Septic Monkey" and put it over the "Warwick" bit of their Club Banner!

I don't think we've ever started a set or a floor spot before with The Monkey-but it is turning out to be a very good interactive song for getting Folk Audiences involved and warmed up. The Mock Raffle at the end of Monkey is getting a bit scary, though. I try to make the "prizes" so vile that the audience will give them back. Increasingly we're finding that some folk are keeping them. I lost "Scratch and Sniff Halloween " at Beduff last week like that (shame on you!) and last night someone with issues hung on to an album of Barbara Cartland reading extracts from her greatest works. Val returned "Get to know Your Chinchilla" though. And the "Hitler's Birthday" DVD was left under a chair, unsealed. Incidentally-the real raffle followed ours. I won it-but I'd thrown my ticket in with all the stage stubs-so it was redrawn and compere for the night Maggie Coleman won my box of chocs instead. It just serves me right for taking the p*ss out of so many clubs.

We followed a fairly riotous version of the Monkey with "Albert Balls" and "The Odeon" and finished with " The Bold Pirate." Albert Balls isn't on the CD but it is proving to be very popular.The chorus singing was really good. I think we scared Warwick Audiences a bit at first, when we first started playing there, but they seem to really get us now.

Maggie Coleman compered, and sang. She gave Concert For Judith a big plug and so did we. There were only a couple of other floorsingers besides Maggie. Ian? was an excellent guitarist, and a lady called Sue? Sang two delightful songs. One of them was Fairport's " Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" My own personal Sandy Denny performance. That was a very brave choice but I have to say that she pulled it off and got the whole room singing.
Main Guests were Fairfield, from Bromsgrove Folk Club. Strong singing,good instrumentalism and punchy banter. A mixture of wistful songs and funny, good-feel ones.

During the Interval we were introduced to some Hotel Guests from Jersey who had drifted in as we started. They had been falling about during our spot and wanted to buy a CD-"Pirate" had absolutely knocked them out! The shock ending usually catches some audience members out but we'd done this one there before too and many were ready for it. Not the usual ending to a BPS set-we usually finish with an extended version of DIY-but it worked tonight. Onto the Maudslay on June 28th and then Newbold Rugby Club in July.

We still owe loads of venues cancelled or re-arranged bookings, and we're working on the backlog, but as we get into Autumn, availabilities should become easier. If you're a solo artist it's easier to say "yes" when an Organiser offers you a booking.
But with four of you, three working full time, that means there is a four to one chance that we can make a first offer. But we'll get there. And do more floor spots, too.