The Admirable Nelson

      After the enthusiastic reaction to the previous entry ( at least four Stalkbook 'likes'), it is evident that a few people are still reading/following the MoT Blog, so herewith a little cameo picture of a sultry musical evening in South Warwickshire yesterday. JK and I shared a floor spot at Stockton Folk Club.Stockton Warwickshire,not Teeside. Out Long Itchington way,beyond the Blue Lias which is a charming canalside pub where I used to go fishing as a youngster.          It was a return visit for us both, but this time without Flossy who was awa' in Northumbria searching for Uhtred and getting her head together on Holy Island. (Or was it Holly Island?) We were in exalted company, with a strong guest list and some quality musicians like Max Wright,John Wright and Jan and Campbell Perry sitting it out in the audience.

     Based at the excellent Nelson Club, we were astonished to find on arrival, that the car park and Main Street were jammed with vehicles. Alas, they had not all come to see us. There was football training on nearby and I think maybe, a Pool Fixture inside. John went upstairs to tune his guitar and I went to get a round in. The bar was “lively.” A heady mix of Folkies and Young Bloods, the latter loudly proclaiming specifically and punctuated by a lot of Industrial language, who was going to get what, and in what order, later that evening. 

     The Folkies were proclaiming very little although one or two looked a bit anxious. The bar staff were initially overworked, especially as the Timothy Taylor decided to go awol just as we arrived. During the thirsty wait for a new barrel to be pulled through, reinforcements arrived and one young man uniquely brought silence to the whole bar by very loudly announcing  “  That **** is going to get a ****** slap, (the ****), if he *******comes through that door now!”  It was all a little Wild West for a few seconds. Like those scenes when the Honky Tonk piano background music stops.As John Wayne blusters through the Saloon's bat-wing doors. But it was not unusually rowdy for watering holes in remote Warwickshire locations on a warm night. Conversation soon started up again,although a few were glancing towards the door, hoping that **** would not turn up before they got a tray of J20 up the stairs

     Topping the bill last night (and quite rightly so), were the constantly improving Daisybell. “Constantly Improving” sounds a bit patronising-but far from it. The band have always had a good sound and a good line-up, but the hard work quite evidently being put in on arrangements and harmonies means that they just sound (and look!) better every time I see them. It takes real commitment (and talent) to maintain such high standards,so well done to them. Their repertoire included some favourites from albums old and new, some classically-arranged covers and just generally, a most enjoyable set with no weaknesses. Encores well merited. Well done, Ladies.

Daisybell. (Great name!) 

    Away With The Fairies opened the evening with a nice balance between good musicianship and friendly banter. Some good singalong stuff to warm the audience up and get them singing. Followed swiftly by either two thirds of Nunc, two fifths of Mac Awe on Tour or more accurately, John Kearney and I. 
     We played as a duo, a selection of the current Nunc set list. Flossy and I are still pinching ourselves over our good fortune in finding that John has joined us permanently. And...he really seems to be enjoying himself! April Morning: Drunkards Roll: Folking Liberty: Dont Worry/Wild Rover/: Jolly Boys and Everyday/Rave On were all aired. The audience joined in gamely with every chorus and laughed in all the right places on the comedy numbers.. We had a blast-they seemed to quite enjoy it too.

       We then had, with an interval chucked in somewhere, John Hill, Alkevan, Rik Middleton and Keith Donnelly. John Hill I hadn't seen before. He enlightened us on some of the finer points of Kineton, and delivered two Leonard Cohen songs with fine guitar work and strong,assured singing. Rik reminisced about Dagenham (someone has to) and gave us a song about Rio and another about Barking Creek. 

     Alkevan I had seen on the circuit previously. They were accomplished musically and passionate vocally with some thoughtful arrangements and varied instrumentation. I think it was during their set that someone emptied the bottle bank outside downstairs.  It was either that or **** was finally getting the pasting he apparently deserved in the restricted confines of the smoking shelter. It came during a particularly poignant lyric-but it fazed Alkevan not at all. Keith was enigmatically Keith. Having arrived without a guitar, he borrowed John Kearney's. What a showman. I especially enjoyed his unique reworking of Men at Work's “Down Under.”

       Stockton is a really nice,friendly venue,with a good singing audience, and in good hands with AWTF in charge. A nice mix of contemporary, traditional and comedy music,skillfully compered. I recommend it.

Steel Eye Spon

        In one guise or another I've played a lot of Coventry venues. Some of which are still with us, and many of which alas are now deceased. Indeed, Nunc are gradually adding to that former collection nowadays. We've played Drapers and The Twisted Barrel this year alone. and on Monsoon Saturday (just gone) we added The Broomfield Tavern to our collection. Whilst in Black Parrot Seaside I'd played the Dyers Arms, just round the corner. But I had never previously strayed into this particularly delightful corner of Spon End before. Tucked away in a neat little terrace, with architecture pretty typical of the older parts of Earlsdon and Chapelfields. And having the additional bonus of a bijou, compact stage area, a P.A. and complete with sleeping dog, of which more later.

   Tucked in between the Viaduct and the Rugby Ground, as a card-carrying CAMRA member,I was pleased to see  ten hand pumps, nine of which were in action. It was sunny when we got there, so we sat outside, sampling the Produce until Ian Bourne arrived.

     What we had was a rolling Open Mic format with acts playing a set each. I'm afraid I didn't catch the names of some of the earlier acts preceding our spot, or a few afterwards. Except for Kiaya Lyons. ( I asked her). Petite,young, pretty-and with a voice belying all that, she belted out a few songs. Sometimes plucking a diminutive guitar, sometimes accompanied via a keyboard,sometimes acapella. My, she was versatile! She even made Justin Bieber seem palatable with a storming version of “My Mama Don't Like You.” John Kearney was singing along enthusiastically to this, which I found a little disturbing. John had made his usual spectacular entrance by tumbling down the steps whilst parking his guitar. He is such a show off. He readjusted so cleverly in mid air that you could see he had done this a million times before. 

     Shortly after the entertainments began there was a rumbling which shook the glasses and a roaring noise outside. I assumed this was a freight train crossing the viaduct,but upon going into the bar to refresh my pint I could see that Armageddon appeared to have occurred outside. You could barely see the spectators huddled for warmth in the Rugby Stand at The Butts Stadium and in the park outside, a family group were (unwisely) taking shelter beneath a tree.

       Nunc ran through their usual kind of set and devotees will be impressed to hear that for the first time, we needed neither a set list nor the words. ( Hurrah!)  Expertly and with nary a hitch (!!) we rolled out  April Morning,When I Get To The Border, Bring It On Home To Me, Down Where The Drunkards Roll, Cold Haily Windy Night and Perfect. (Which it damn near was as far as we were concerned).

      The dog was clearly agitated by the thunderstorm raging outside. Lying just behind me, it snored gently throughout,in the Key of E. This made melodramatic gestures, Dad Dancing and twirling the microphone stand over my head Rod Stewart style, a logistical impossibility. The audience sang along bravely-even when we didn't have a chorus-which was nice. They seemed a very friendly bunch all round. Dan Gascoigne and Amelia had arrived with their Great Uncle Des, and so that added to the general joviality. 

      After our set, replenishing (again!) my pint (Flossy and I agreed-it seemed rude not to), I was astonished to see a young man wearing a Pork Pie hat fall from his piano stool. And he wasn't even playing it. I reckon it was all part of his act,too. Blimey, he was good. Later on he would set up an electric piano in the stage area and play anything rather well. From Classical to Jerry Lee Lewis's “Great Balls of Fire.” 

      On directly after us was our old buddy Des Patalong, and although we heckled him very rudely throughout, he seemed unabashed. Among his numbers he performed “The Call ” a song my sister wrote (and which Flossy recorded whilst in Pennyroyal). Very wisely, with half his sessions choir in the room, he also did a song off his recent (excellent) album, the poignant  “ Shallow Brown.” Shrewdly, because he knows that's my favourite and six part harmonies rocked the rafters. This time it wasn't a train, a thunderstorm, a piano stool or the dog breaking wind which caused the vibrations.
        It was the second time we'd heard/seen Amelia as she was at Nuneaton Folk Club recently. Her distinctive voice remains as enigmatically difficult to categorise as ever. (She loves that!). An appealing vibrato and some highly original phrasing, with a good choice of material. But promise me Dan and Amelia, you'll have a go at a Billy Holliday, Memphis Minnie or Bessie Smith number soon? That voice was made for the Blues. 

       By about 4.40pm the drenched egg-chasers were paddling in and so JK very kindly dropped Flossy and I off in Gosford Street. The Twisted Barrel beckoned, as Flossy had to meet her other half there. He had been to The Ricoh. (Someone has to) to watch Coventry City claw a point from that Football Behemoth Northampton Town. He felt he would need a beer afterwards and he was dead right. Luckily, there were a few on offer. 

          Whilst in the TB we were greeted cordially by guitar wizard Glyn Finch. He looked both dapper and delicate-we suspected he'd had a good night there the night before. I also got talking to one of the guys behind a new Listings  magazine- -#Cov&Warks. We had a good old reminisce about Jimmy Jimmy, the early Specials ,Godiva Festivals from long ago and other stuff. We were sure we'd met before,but the Twisted Barrel is like that. It's a friendly, busy networking sort of place,and my kind of watering hole. Like the Broomfield Tavern. 

An August Moment

      Some Folk Clubs close during August because of the holidays or because some of their regulars are away at Festivals. Local ones including NFC don't. Last August, Winter Wilson (understandably!) pulled them in at The Crown and last Wednesday (3rd August) we had a good crowd turn up again, to see two talented home-grown Warwickshire-based acts share the Guest Spot.

     The first half Feature set came from Nuneaton duo KC Jones, regular visitors to the club. Karen's fine voice and Colin's excellent guitar work combined to give us a nice selection of songs. Some of their own such as “Hey!” and “The Ivory Battle” and some nice singalong covers including a Mary Black Song and a spirited version of “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” to round off the First Half.

K.C. Jones

Our second guest spot saw the night finished off with two encores from Chris Tobin. He had to travel a little further, but his papers were all in order and he managed to cross the M69 without challenge. Chris is a good guitarist with a lot of nifty tricks and a fine voice. His carefully crafted arrangements really got our audience singing and tapping their feet. He had so many requests he couldn't fit them all in!

Mr Tobin in full song

   Nunc (alsa minus the holidaying John Kearney) had opened the first half with “ 'T'was On an April Morning," and “All The Good Times.” 

Nunc

    Our very own Sound man Matt Mallen Allen then followed us, with “Down Where The Drunkards Roll " and one of his own. 

Matt Mallen Allen. A Sound Man. 

     Next up was Max Wright, showing off the new guitar which he'd purchased in York earlier in the week. “ This Land is Your Land” went down well, with the audience joining in with  the choruses enthusiastically.

That's a lovely machine, Max!

     Amelia Roberts made her debut next, with two of her own songs. A voice which (in the nicest possible sense) was difficult to pin a label to. Amelia is married to Dan Gascoigne- Talented couple. 

Amelia Roberts debuts at NFC

     Malc Gurnham had been doing some tinkering with songs he already does, and he gave us new arrangements of John Richards's fabulous “Shine On” and “Union Miners Stand Together.” He also did a moving version of a song about the Aberfan disaster.

Malc Gurnham giving it some welly

       I'd been trying to get Glyn Finch to come along and entertain the NFC crowd since appearing with him at Drapers and The Twisted Barrel in Coventry. His unique version of “She Moved Through The Fair” won him some new friends, and he then added a very competent version of a Skip James song and one of his own.

Glyn Finch gets his head down

     Thrup'nny Bits warmed up for KC Jones with an a cappella trio from the front of house-eschewing all forms of artificial amplification! This had the added bonus of giving Matt a chance to crawl round the back of the stage to surreptitiously replace a dodgy DI battery which had been causing us a bit of concern earlier on. He thought no-one had spotted him-but he was wrong.

Matt is praying that the battery works

Des Gareth and Barbara had a virtual pop-up shop of CD's with them and performed three songs from their latest one.

Gareth Wyatt leading from the front

Nunc did “Bring It On Home” to kick off the second half, and then the raffle saw an interesting selection of prizes distributed amongst a fairly satisfied audience.

     All in all a very eclectic evening with all seats filled and standing room only at the back. One of the nicest things about NFC is the number of artistes who come along to support the event even though they don't have a floor spot. For example, noted in the audience and adding their vocal talent to the choruses were Comharsa's Mick Stanley,Maria Barham, Brian Philips, Sue Phipps , George Van Ristell and Joe Roberts.

long shot from half way up the room

      Afterwards there were some lovely comments on the Nuneaton Folk Club  Facebook Page, but my favourite one came from two young ladies who were joining us for the first time. They seemed to be having a whale of time each time I saw them and one of them later confirmed this by posting “ Amazing Night! Thanks Guys. You were all brilliant.” Makes it all worthwhile reading stuff like that.  I think they'll be back!