Tumps Bistros and Ragged Bears

      What a  busy eight days. Thursday 3rd November, the night after a hectic three hours of musical entertainment upstairs at The Crown,Nuneaton, saw John Kearney compering the excellent John Richards Night at The Tump Folk Club in Coventry. Some splendid floor singing at The Humber Hotel, besides John's uplifting selection of well-crafted songs. John did "Polly" by request, and the Finale of "Shine On" was very moving.  

An inspired John Richards at The Tump.

      A rare chance also, to see Terry St Clair. Quite a well known face in the area until a few years ago. Accomplished guitarist. I hadn't seen him since Rod Felton's Farewell Tribute at the same venue a few years back. Good stuff from him.

Terry St Clair at The Tump

Nigel Ward and Pete Willow gave us a rousing mini-set. Maria Barham and Malc and Gill offered fine contributions also. I joined John Kearney for renditions of "The Odeon" and
" Albert Balls."  The choruses of which I have to say, the audience sang right bonnily. 

Geoff and John in typically modest attire.

       On Wednesday 9th at Bedworth Folk Club's Newdigate Club setting, the guest was the highly versatile Anna Ryder. She played the usual assortment of instruments including keyboard,guitars,banjo,accordion and mini trumpets.

Anna and Noel at BFC. Look at all those instruments!

       Floor spots from Malc and Gill,David Parr, John Meechan, Brian Phillips and Stephen Tate. The latter I'd seen around at local venues, but hadn't heard perform. A bit nervous and suffering (as many of us do) from Arthritis, but I greatly enjoyed his voice and his work on the 12 string. I was still  recovering from severe dental surgery,so mumbled along with the choruses more like a ventriloquist than Alex Campbell. 

          The following night was a Bedworth Folk Festival Winter Warmer.in The Civic Hall. In the downstairs Bistro Bar to be specific. A nice cosy venue with some  lovely staff on, and some decent beer.

       Malc and Gill hosted whilst John Kearney Thrupp'nny Bits, Brian Phillips, John Neal,Jan & Campbell Perry,KC Jones and Katherine Fear did spots each side of the Interval.  John Kearney had enterprisingly commissioned some Nunc t-shirts-our first ever merchandise. (CD next)? My  jaw had healed sufficiently for me to join John and give "Folking Liberty " and  "Albert Balls." an airing. That certainly blew the rust off the tonsils. A thoroughly enjoyable evening with some good singing. 

      On to Saturday afternoon and some rushed commuting between Coventry and Nuneaton saw Nunc participating in The Ragged Bear Festival's most closely guarded secret. Hidden away in The Abbey Theatre, just across from their Main Venue of The Crew and Queen's Hall, this turned out to be a proper Fringe Event. Free Admission,no previous publicity other than Social Media and two hours of fun. One of the two Marilyns present even did some recording. Some raucous singing,Church End's Fallen Angel on behind the counter and a forty minute set each from each of the  area's Folk Clubs: Atherstone, Bedworth and Nuneaton. Passers by were certainly intrigued-a few even strayed into the Theatre Lobby-but you could see they were uncertain. Part of the Event? Alternative Fringe? Or mere coincidence? It was hard to tell. 

      It drew, unsurprisingly, a modest audience, which is a shame. Had it been publicised fully in the Ragged Bear Programme and not scheduled in direct competition with some excellent bands on simultaneously in The Crew, it could have been a heartwarming example of collaboration between all the Folk and Acoustic venues in the area.
      Unfortunate too, that such an event should be arranged to fall a fortnight before one of the country's best Folk Festivals just up the A444 in Bedworth. Undoubtedly, some would have wanted to attend both weekends but not all could afford to do so. Ah well.

      Well we all had a blast,together at The Abbey, anyway. Atherstone Folk Club's Finger In The Car kicked us off promptly at 2pm and ran through an eclectic list of covers from The Moody Blues to The Everly Brothers. New(-ish)  recruit Pete McParland was still only able to play an invisible guitar but this did not detract from some elegant vocal work from Ann, Steve and Pete.

Finger In The Car at Full throttle

        Next up, with the Fallen Angel still going down a treat, were Bedworth's Power Duo, Malc Gurnham and Gill Gilsenan. As accomplished and entertaining as ever, with a broad range of material, plenty of heckling and only the odd argument about key changes. 

Gill telling Malc that Steve Bentley is buying a round

        Finally, up strode Nunc from Nuneaton Folk Club, to finish off the session. We were able to run through several new songs we have been rehearsing recently. "Ae Fond Kiss" with Flossy leading on some very strong vocals, was performed for the first time in public. So was our cover of "All Gotta Die Some Day."   "Weather with You," actually got the mobile phones in the air. Well three of them,anyway.  Nice to do "The Call" a song about my Grandad and his WW1 experiences at The Somme, once more in his home town. "Angel from Montgomery"  got a second run out too- these three all done publicly for only the second time. 

Did Nunc enjoy it? You decide...

         John, bless him,had been suffering from hearing loss over the last week,but it did not appear to affect his guitar playing or singing.  I have to say also, that the chorus singing and audience support was outstanding. Next stop for John and I in tandem is Bedworth Folk Festival. In the Lord Mayor's cafe-a new venue to me. 

Each poster is different. You will be set a written test afterwards.

        Then after NFC again on the 7th December ( when we have TWO guests sharing the headline billing-Flaky Tarts and Moses and The Ref), we are due to share a bit of Christmas Fun back at The Twisted Barrel,Coventry on the 16th December. Flossy is taking some time out for some minor surgery.  We hope to see Nunc back as a three piece soon after the Festive Break.  

£300 Raised for Two charities

     

CAKE! I lo-o-o-ve CAKE!

The advertised Guest for NFC's  November had pulled out, leaving us little time to recruit a replacement. Instead, we turned the First Wednesday over to having a bit of fun and raising some money for two Charities which have a  place in the hearts of many NFC regulars. NFC audiences have raised money for Nuneaton Food Bank, SIFA Fireside and several other Charities in the past. 

      Last Wednesday, our audience once  again excelled themselves.  Many regulars donated prizes to swell  a Bumper raffle. Our thanks go to Catherine Cope, Karen and Colin Jones,John Kearney, Asda, "Crown" gaffer Julian Harkins, "The Tilting Kettle,"  Bedworth Folk  Festival,John Goodman and many others. A bigger audience than usual turned out and (most of them) put their hands in their pockets during the Interval.

And this is only half the audience:it was a Full House!

          We had lured them out with a generous dollop of local talent. We began the evening with  a period of spontaneous applause to mark the passing of One Of Our Own-Bill Bate's son Matthew, who had died after a brave battle against Cancer, on Friday 28th October. John Kearney then led the whole audience in a moving rendition of " We Shall Overcome" before the evening got fully under way.

          Regular NFC Sound Man Matt Mallen Allen stepped up and launched proceedings with two songs-one of which was a clever arrangement of a Slade Song. Whilst he warbled, our back-up Soundsman Liam took over the bridge.

Matt feels the Noyz. (Later he actually would).

       Sue Sanders then played two rousing numbers on the fiddle. Sue has had good cause to be grateful to Macmillan, having just gone back to work following a tough fight against The big C herself. It was lovely to see her back out there under the (very hot) spotlights), and also joining in from her base near the stage later on. 

Sue Sanders bows to popular opinion.

     John Neal is one of the more unsung heroes of Nuneaton acoustic music. He is a leading light of the Monday Night sessions at The Fox in Attleborough, where you can regularly see more of the area's immense reservoir of talent. John did us a couple of lovely songs-one a Ralph McTell one. And no,it wasn't about London. 

John Neal. Keeping it real. 

Cantering on at breakneck speed (so we could fit in as many guests as possible),Des Patalong was in Bohemian muse, airing he claimed, the first outing of his Ironing Shanty. Some of us had applauded the words earlier on Stalkbook, but hearing it in public was awesome. He had to be pressed to do it but Des wants to put it away in the airing cupboard now. We can't have him doing that, can we, readers? The picture below has an almost Mystic,holy aura about it, until you notice that  Ancient Prophets rarely wore spectacles.

Des, dashing away with his Morphy Richards. 

      Finger in The Car, one of many Personnel variations of the Atherstone Folk Club Residents gave an ingenious demonstration of how best to squeeze three songs out of the two allotted by effortlessly segueing their second one into a third.. It was quite shocking to see  Peter Mcparland  all strapped up and he looked well..different without having his trusty guitar. Either he really has injured his shoulder or Anne has whacked him with the flute during FiTC rehearsals. 

Finger in The Car. Wait...where is Pete's trusty guitar?

       We suspect something Steve Beeson had done confused the electronics because it sent our Sound Boys into meltdown during FiTC's spot. They started crawling all over the stage and making Tic Tac signs to each other behind The Wright Brothers,during their performance. Wilbur and Orville had flown in  fresh from their triumph at Kittyhawk. Max and his brother gel together well. Their version of  "Jug of Punch" actually got Max shouting out stuff, which made a few people in the front row jump out of their skins. (Nice to see the Old Boy so animated).

        Jan and Campbell (or is it Campbell and Jan?) followed them. Later Jan would return to do a spot of egg shaking. Their second song was The Bonfire of Vanities. or maybe it was a Golden one. 

It is certainly the Perry Duo. Jan on the left. 

            KC Jones were in strong voice. They very generously donated some CD sales to the Collection. They arrived fresh from Colin's "Best Newcomer" Award whilst playing Harold Wilson in "Made in Dagenham,"  

    Suspiciously, there were more photos of Malc Gurnham and Gill Gilsenan posted on the NFC Facebook page, than anyone else. They did a couple of songs including " Over The Lancashire Hills"   Malc would return later on and Gill could be heard singing along with all the tunes all through much of the second half. 

Malc and Gill. 

         Concluding a whirlwind first half, and with the sound fully restored, up popped Maria Barham, like a Bat out of Coleshill. Maria is renowned for her um, "relaxed" posture on stage, and as she carelessly hooked up her guitar neck with a trailing mike cable, the audience held their breath before she noticed and became disentangled. It says everything about Maria's energy on stage that this is the only photo we have of her on Wednesday. What the hell was she doing? Who knows?

Maria is directing traffic. Or inviting John Kearney to dance?

It tooks us a while during the Interval to set up Comharsa, whose name John Kearney expertly tutored me, needs to be pronounced like a certain Vauxhall car. So Senator, or Vauxhall Victor, whatever, assembled in droves and led us through " On Raglan Road " and "I'll Tell Me Ma." Their vocalist Mick Stanley,is one of those rare NFC members who has actually seen this room not only from the inside, but whilst lying outside on the road, groaning. Serve him right for sneaking out early.

Comharsa. It means Neighbour, you know. 

Cresta, or Wyvern, as they like to be pronounced,initiated the first of many spectacular musical collaborations to follow, by dragging Sue Sanders back up onto the stage . And here is the proof. It certainly got Mick scratching his head, and that's the truth. 

Comharsa,having added Sue Sanders. They are going to tell their Ma,apparently.

         We then had a mammoth raffle, where frankly, I was virtually giving away prizes. Boxes of Chocolates.  CD's: Biscuits. Packs of Beer. Wines. T-shirts. An Anker Radio Mug-kindly tested for strength by Max Wright, who proved conclusively that it could bounce. John Goodman of Anker Radio, won this prize initially, so we took pity on him and swapped it for something else. Seemed fair-he probably already has a few of these. Another NFC Cake was specially baked and donated by The Tilting Kettle. A Monster prize of TWO tickets to this month's Bedworth Folk Festival was won by Joe Roberts. The Oldest Swinger In Town. Take your soundproof helmets along people, if he is sitting near you. And if you want a few details about who is who, he will give you a complete discography. AND the blood group of every individual artiste. Whether you want it or not.

          Most (but not all) of the £300 collected came from the raffle, and though most people offering currency in exchange for a strip of tickets actually put a note (or two) in, there were unbelievably still a few Meanies who were only prepared to drop a few coppers into the collection tin. Lets hope the Macmillan Nurses or Staff at The Eliot are a little more generous with their time if they ever need it, eh? Or perhaps, when they next win a bottle, we can first decant the contents and just let them have the last few millilitres and the cap,eh? 

         Raffle concluded, and running out of time  Nunc finished the night with a truncated set list. We gave NFC debuts to "Weather With You,"  "The Call", and "Angel From Montgomery."  

Nunc

         We then set about supplementing ourselves with a few extra personnel to run through a few other songs.Malc Gurnham, proving that size isnt everything, brought up his Bass Uke and played along with " Bring It On Home." And pretty well everything else, as it happened. 

      Sue Sanders fiddled away furiously from the floor (well from her seat to be technically accurate) during "Cold Haily Windy Night," whilst  Matt Mallen Allen returned and guested with us on "Down Where The Drunkards Roll" 

John,Malc, Flossy, Geoff and Matt . 

        Max Wright joined us for "John Ball." The stage was rapidly filling and we had room left only to add Maria Barham  who joined us on "Perfect." We were  were rapidly running out of time and floor area. What else then to finish with than John's wonderful Irish Reggae song "Don't Worry? " And we didn't ...................not one of us. 

Nunc: plus Malc Gurnham and Maria Barham. Must have been perfect?