Thanks to those lovely people at CVFolk, last Sunday we were invited to showcase the NFC wares in my home town at one of their Sunday Afternoon sessions in The Albany Theatre Bar. It's a lovely venue and very friendly. As Drunk Monkey/Nunc we'd played it before and I'd also been there this year as part of The Hawkesbury Trawlermen.
So how best to fit in a snapshot of what you might see on each First Wednesday up in the Queen's Hall? Those of you who are NFC regulars will know the immense pool of talent we have to draw upon in the North Warwickshire triangle to drawn upon. Mal,c Phil and I (as respective Club organisers),often marvel at our good fortune in this.
Pete Willow asked me to compere,so that bit was easy. Jon Harrington I believe is a CovFolk committee member so he did the paperwork and financial management. Given a couple of hours to fill, we went for Wes Hall to open up,George van Ristell and Neal Pointon to follow,and Dragonhead to close the first half. All of them are Nuneaton residents so that was entirely appropriate.We even took the NFC banner along to make everyone feel at home. My thanks to John Kearney and Paul Monks for the photographs.
( By request) Drunk Monkey completed the line-up second half ,our second headline gig in five days. Four of the band-the three Johns and Paul (Beatles thing?-live in Nuneaton. Both Flossy and I have family roots there too and collectively (albeit in various formats), we are the NFC Houseband.
It's a lovely venue with great facilities. It's one of the few venues I know where original art work for sale is displayed on the corridor walls, and where the prize Objet'd'art in the bar area is a Grand Piano. The Sound is always mixed magnificenlyt there and the staff and volunteers are all really friendly. We've played quite a few Coventry venues this year-Twisted Barrel, MotoFest,Earlsdon Festival etc-so we are known. It was encouraging to see that a few people had popped out to see us.
Wes Hall is a musician who is gaining in confidence and finally reaching a wider audience. At Warwickshire venues like NFC,Bedduff and Atherstone,or in pubs like The Fox and the Anker Tavern, he's gradually been getting back in the saddle. Honing his skills on the circuit (which I believe he let lie fallow for a few years). Never easy,the dead spot (opening up) he started with "Nobody Knows You." Here he is trying to remember where he put his capo.
To his credit this timelessly angry song is a Wes version-he puts his own stamp on the arrangement and the vocal. Cannily he followed with "Times They Are a Changing" a Bob Dylan standard which got the whole room purring. I would like to point out that it was not just all Folk Fogeys in there-some were under 30-but everyone knows the words. Wes finished an accomplished set with an ambitious tilt at Billy Joel's "Piano man." Which got the audience singing yet again.
Next we had a proper treat. George van Ristell is a regular at NFC and an all round good egg. But I've never been able to entice him up on that stage at The Queens Hall. A respected session musician,I'd heard lots about him. But finally he agreed,and he did a lovely little set with Neal Pointon. Neal is local but we've not seen him at NFC before. Together they made fine music, with audience feet tapping and audience heads nodding as they coaxed various reels and tunes from a variety of instruments after having started with "Ashokan Farewell." And as the icing on the cake we also heard George sing,too. No excuses now they've broken their NFC duck-they've both promised to play in their home town. Neal is almost as shy and retiring as George. I knew I'd seen him before,but he wasn't letting on. He only used to be in The Fallows!
Dragonhead closed the first half. Basically Anne and John Harris, they've been promoting and playing Folk,Cajun,Roots and good time music across warwickshire for years. Both from Nuneaton,John was the last person to try to run a Folk venue in the town before NFC started up in October 2014. They've also run Blues and Nostalgia sessions in various local pubs and taken various themed tours out on the road.
John famously claims to dislike Folk Music. Despite having played Warwick and Moira Folk Festivals this year (and every year?) and doing one of the most rumbustious versions of "South Australia" I've ever heard. Their set also contained Cajun,some blues and well...more folk. " I'll Tell Me Ma?" (That's Reggae then,is it?). What John really means is he knows what he likes and he hasn't much time for Richard Thompson. The co-operative nature of Nuneaton was well demonstrated as our guitarist Paul Moore (known affectionately as Pedro Fivebands)played percussion,virtually throughout their set. And here's the evidence.
After the break Drunk Monkey at full strength ran through a similar set to the one we did last Wednesday. Both "Landslide" and "Gaudete," new additions, were triumphs. The former a song we've been working on for a while now but which we only aired publicly for the last time last week. The latter one of the first songs Nunc ever did. Unless I get a chance to do Lighten Up For Christmas" that may be the only festive song I get loose on this year.
Fabulous audience singing on "Knocking On Heavens Door," and our Bob Marley segue which we finished with. Other highlights were particularly boisterous versions of "When Love Comes To Town" and "Copperhead Road" which got a few people dancing. Either that or they were standing on a live cable. Not strictly Folk-but fun! The next session there is in January. here's a link to their website. Check it out.
