Return of The Spring Hare

      What a pleasure it is to welcome back an artiste of the calibre of Phil Hare to The Queens Hall at The Crew. Making his fourth appearance at Nuneaton Folk Club, he is a man of great integrity,of prodigious musical talent and a writer of extremely incisive,clever songs. Add to this the effort he puts in to working an audience and the brilliance of his onstage improvisation,his sets are the epitome of professionalism. And thoroughly enjoyable. 

       Having previously appeared only at The Cr*wn some of us were greatly looking forward to seeing him in front of a bigger auditorium and using the vastly superior sound system of The Crew. The only disappointment was the number of people who turned out to see him do this. This is no reflection on Phil. The NFC Facebook page has 339 members and 14 additional current requests are pending attention. Where do all these 300+ people go on the First Wednesday of each month? One despairs sometimes, of repeatedly asking this question.

        However we won't dwell on the mystery of absent friends and will celebrate instead the positive aspects of another good evening of music and fun. Nunc had been reduced to a duo,but this was no great hardship for us as it is how we began together in 2014. As always, there was no soundcheck for us-no time-so we went straight up and launched into "T'was on an April Morning."   Nowadays we do this with guitar accompaniment,but without any we had to rely on a battery powered pitch-pipe to get the starting note right(-ish). Trying to get a slightly smaller than usual audience to sing along was always going to be a challenge,but they rallied bravely through "John Ball," and gave us stolid backing on our own specially adapted segue of "When I Get To The Border" and "Soldier Soldier." 

NUNC-and then there were two.

               Bob Brooker followed. That was not always the plan but as we had someone drop out from the original list of Floor Singers,Bob was rapidly coerced from being a simple audience member (and I do mean simple) to becoming a performer. Bob is a master of several instruments. It's not that often you see him away from his banjo or Bazouki, but we were treated to a couple of intricate instrumentals on the mandolin-which is another of his specialisms. Thoroughly entertaining and played with great concentration. The photo below (which like all of those used here is courtesy of John B Smith) captures the essence of Bob's stage presence.  

         Reverting to the original running order,Wes Hall and Simon Roberts then made their NFC debut as a duo. Wes had appeared with Paul Moore at NFC in the past,but having seen him appearing with Simon elsewhere I was keen to get them on stage at The Queens Hall. They did a nice version of "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" and a couple of instrumentals. Top fiddle playing from Simon and solid vocals from Wes. Try as we might we could not get them to come out from behind those foldbacks so alas,we have no photographic evidence that, (see proof below) both chose to appear naked from the waist down

         Craig Sunderland has quickly won the hearts of NFC audiences (and a few other venues too) So there was a warm welcome for him on another return. He plays well, he sings well and he interprets his song choices with great feeling and sensitivity. And of course it is always nice to see a few younger faces on stage at NFC

              The evening just kept on giving as another great guitarist and raconteur,Brian Phillips gave us two fabulous songs hallmarked by his warm vocals and remarkable finger-picking dexterity.

        Supplemented by some bright comedy and a further rendition of one of his whimsical spoken pieces,Brian continues to do for poetry what William McGonagall did for Iambic Pentameter. He finished his spot by rolling out  an epic reflection on that much neglected topic,Flatulence.The audience soon got wind of what he was up to and responded enthusiastically. Was that just green vapour billowing from the smoke machine or serious method acting from another,nearer source? Hard to tell. Brian looks like a man who has just got rid of something in this picture, doesn't he? 

            How could anyone possibly follow that? Well K.C. Jones aka Colin and Karen, two talented local singers,also attempted to get to the bottom of things. Colin won the audience over immediately by taming an errant mike stand which had been demonstrating erectile dysfunction by spontaneously sagging over during other peoples' performances. Stage gear sorted,they then outgunned Ian Bourne (who was off abroad plying his trade across the county in Stratford). They did  a very strong cover of the Gretchen Peters standard " Hello Cruel World." Ian always makes a good fist of it but somehow it was less eerie and considerably more wholesome, when Karen at the end of a long descending note,sang " I'm a very lucky girl." The couple finished with "Sonny." My fault entirely. I'm a sucker for schmaltz. I requested it. I love it and they hadn't planned to do it. But off they went and the audience loved it too 

          Phil stepped up to complete his first "taster" set,one of two. He had arrived without fuss,despite having been baffled by the mysteries of the Ringway. He sailed through a brief soundcheck (an exemplar for those who take so long agonising over these pre-gig rituals). Whilst not performing, he exchanged banter with the audience. He eschews hiding away in hospitality rooms preferring instead to mix with the hoi paloi. He takes on board the creative work of others and always has time to talk to other musicians. He is that rare thing a Man of The People. Many on the Folk Circuit have pretensions to owning that title-Phil simply delivers.   

          A breathless and joyous first half came to an end. After a quick break then drawing the raffle and awarding prizes,Phil gallantly accepted a challenge to join Nunc on stage for a version of "Jesus on The Main Line."  We'd really like to keep him in the band after this but as he and Stef live in Cambridge,rehearsals could be a problem.

                Having persuaded him to noodle along with us,it was,(happily)  time for him to close the evening with a second set. Phil is a top performer. He makes you chuckle with "Potato Man" or "I got my Country Back"  He makes you ponder with " Everyone's A Hard Man Now." He makes you gasp with instrumentals and fills where harmonics and key changes are flung about in great profusion. He has a great voice with a strong range. The sensitivity of his vocals on " Lady London" or his wonderful interpretation of Glenn Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" were stunning He gave us two encores and I got the feeling that he would have been up for more. A great showman and a top bloke. I hope a few more turn up to see him next time he's appearing locally.