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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
