Back on the road

The star of light at Chester Cathedral

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the Positive News story - and apologies for not answering them all - we're back out travelling and delighted to be doing so.   After so much illness this year we're slowly getting back on track, although the body has been grumbling a bit lol

Our new songs have been getting a great response, especially the more political rants that we've both been writing lately - it seems that nobody is happy with politicians at the minute.

So far we've been in the Lake District, Redcar on the East coast, Hull, across the M62 to Bradford and further along the same motorway to Northwich and yesterday we spent the afternoon at the Christmas market in Chester - what a beautiful town that is.  And it was freezing cold, perfect weather for a Christmas market.

Have a great week whatever you're doing - we're heading back north now, to Yorkshire, then up to Northhumberland and finishing up in the Scottish borders, where apparently it's been snowing - yikes - hopefully we'll miss the worst of it.

On the road Frequently Asked Questions

People have so many different ideas of what it's like to be on tour that I thought I would answer a few questions here and let you see behind the scenes.

The first, and most annoying, question that we frequently get asked is:

Are you on holidays?

Ok, let me first qualify my answer by saying I do love music and above all I love performing, but now let me ask you - would you choose for your holiday to work for 5 or 6 hours a night, pack the car, get up early next morning and travel to another town to repeat the process?  

Many people have a romantic idea of what it means to be a touring musician - one guy said to me, "I just picture you musicians heading off on the road and stopping up to play music for whomever will listen".   Hmmm, yes that's a good idea.   And how do we pay for our food and petrol etc?  "Oh, I hadn't thought about that".  Right! This was in a venue where the owner insists on putting around a hat to pay the artists, but passes no remarks on half of his audience leaving at half time before he passes around the hat!   Needless to remark we won't be going back - which is a huge shame cause it is a lovely venue and a great audience.  But every workman needs to be paid. 

So let me answer the question by quite categorically saying a huge No!   This is our job, our chosen path in life; however bizarre it may seem - and sometimes it feels very bizarre to me - but this is how we make a living.  

Driving off into the sunset?  I guess not :)

Do you just keep travelling around Europe?  You get to see some fabulous places.

I do love Europe - above any place else in the world - sorry to my friends further afield.  I love hearing different languages and eating different food.   However, it is always good to come home and then you can appreciate the travelling all the more.  And we do other things when we're at home.   Like planning future tours, recording, writing (although that's a painful subject for me), I also do some voice coaching, run a couple of community choirs, we have a studio and get involved in lots of side projects as well as also doing some gigs at home. 

We get to see lots of out of the way places, towns and villages that you wouldn't perhaps get to see on a holiday.  But the down side of that is that we also see an awful lot of motorway.  

But it is the people that most define a place for me.  

Over the years we have made friends along the road.   In the beginning we got to know them and then their children.   Now we are meeting their grandchildren and getting to know the pets and hobbies.  

The scenery whizzing by

How do you get these gigs? How did you come to this small town?

We have been travelling for nearly 25 years - after a concert someone will come to us and ask us to come to their venue on our next tour if we're in the area; or perhaps a friend will organise and publicise a concert or two for us in their home area.   This has been the case on our recent tour in Germany - our friend Barney organised some concerts in his area around Kiel and another friend Rita organised one on the Rhine.   They are both in the music community in their own areas and know the venues that would suit us.  

Then I put the tour plan together and decide the route we will take once I know what days certain venues usually work on.  

Have you a place near you that you would suggest we contact on our next trip to the UK or Australia or Germany?

Past places with exotic names - Shark Creek?

Why do you not fly?

Well, obviously we do fly to Australia or America.   But for concerts in Europe or the UK it is easier for us to take our own car so that we can fit in Tom's conga drums and a small sound system.   Plus with your own car it's easier to throw in an extra coat in case the weather turns cold and of course I leave enough room to bring some wine home from France :) 

Is it not tiring doing concerts every night?

Actually no ... you get into a rhythm and it becomes quite easy to keep going once you get past the second or third night.   It gets hard again once you have a night off.   Then your body thinks "weyhey we can rest up now" and doesn't like being kicked in to action again. 


So there you have it - a little peak into life behind the scenes on the road. 

Motorways, charity shops and too many goodbyes

OK!  I have to have a rant!  What is going on with the motorways in England?   And who’d commute these journeys every day ?  It’s unbelievable.  It’s now official.  I hate the M6!! Forecasters are saying that there will be another 10 million people living in England by 2020.  How is anyone going to move and get anywhere??? Some re-thinking is needed.

Phew – I feel better after that lol

We’ve just finished 3 lovely gigs - first off in the Red Lion Folk Club in the Black Heath area of Birmingham and stayed with the delightful Della and her husband Chris who's fabulous old house is like Aladdin's Cave - I want to have a week long holiday there.   

Tom, Della, Chris and myself in Birmingham

Then a great night in the Topic Folk Club on Thursday night – the longest continually running folk club in the world apparently.   Great songs from the floor singers and a wonderful audience for us to perform to. And finishing up the run last night we were at the folk club in Bollington - again, wonderful singers, great local songs and a very willing-to-sing audience which is always a huge bonus.  

Rahel and Tony at the Topic

I love hearing floor singers at folk clubs - the standard is always very high, with lots of original songs and regional traditional songs.   It's like having a run of mini history lessons about various localities and much more interesting to me than visiting museums.  

On our way down from Yorkshire to Lancashire we visited an old friend who sadly is very very unwell with cancer.  So sad.  I often feel afraid to contact people, thinking they won’t want to hear from me, but being self conscious is so selfish -  it made her happy to get a surprise visit and we were both so happy to have seen her. 

Sitting on the motorway and looking at all the traffic and all these people in their little tin boxes driving up and down these crazy roads, some of them commuting for 3 hours each way during the day, I think to myself that we have chosen a path that has blessed us.  We say goodbye too many times and sometimes I wonder who won't be there when next we're through this way.   But I was reminded on this trip to think about all the lovely hellos and don't dwell on all the goodbyes.  

Anyway, on a lighter note – in Birmingham on Wednesday I paid a quick visit to Off the Scales which is a not for profit shop mainly selling vintage clothes and shoes - it was suggested by Vintage Vixen - I got myself a fabulous coat for just £18 – not vintage, but I'm delighted with it nonetheless.   More charity shopping will be on the cards if we can fit in another hour somewhere.

And finally, a few things that were posted on my Facebook page this week - 

Firstly just for Kezzie, I had to share it with you J

And this fabulous video mash up to a very modern funky song - I can't seem to embed it, but here's the link - Fred Astaire dancing to Uptown Funk :)

Have a good weekend everyone and stay safe.  I"m off to share a glass of wine or three with my lovely cousins. 

What have you been at for the weekend?  I hope it's lovely. 

Camp Base Bonn

Bonn Folk Club meets on the first Friday of every month.   IT's mainly a platform for local acts to perform and then if a touring artist is in the area and free they'll do the main guest spot.
Their normal venue was busy on 2nd October when we visited so they had to move for the night and ended up in this place - Camp Base.

If you are ever looking for an unusual place for Bed and Breakfast then this is it.

Take one abandoned aircraft hangar, fill it with caravans, camper vans, railway carriages, a couple of buses, bits of planes and a few other ingenious sleeping places - tart them all up - and hey presto, beds for the night.

To sing in acoustically, this place was a nightmare - I had a proper hissy fit when we first went in to the stage and then I just shrugged my shoulders and said "whatever, let's get on with it".   You couldn't hear people talking from the stage beyond the first couple of rows, but you could plainly hear their guitars and hear them singing at the bar at the other end of the building!

But it turned out to be a great night and I met a lot of people that I have only met before either on email or Facebook or blogging.

So here's a feeling of Camp Base, Bonn.

 This railway carriage has 30 or 40 beds in it ... there's another one outside the hangar as well.

A ski lift carriage

And the best of all .... a Trabant with a tent on top!!   Two beds in it - the cheapest price for the night - just €24 per person per night. There used to be an Irish traditional band called Upstairs in a Tent - I wonder had they been here.

 The view from the stage at the end of the night when the audience were starting to leave.

On the way home

Saying goodbye to Denmark,
Molly thought we were there to play with her!!

After nearly a month on the road, we're nearly back home.   The ferry gets back in to Ireland in another couple of hours, then it's one more concert in Co. Cork and up to the North on Saturday.

We've driven almost 6000 kms (about 3,700 miles), been through France, Germany, into Denmark, back down into Luxembourg, had lunch in Belgium on the way to the ferry and now back to Ireland.   Not once did we spot another right hand drive car until we pulled up at check in last night.

We've played 13 concerts in churches, theatres, clubs, pubs and houses and even in an aircraft hangar - met old friends all over the place and made many new friends.   Practised our French and Germany, learned a few words in Danish and were impressed by the Luxemburgers who as a matter of course speak 3 languages, oh and plus English naturally!   Many of them speak 5 languages seamlessly.

We've kept company with cats and dogs as well as friends and sold lots of CDs.   All the concerts were really well received and we're well pleased with the tour in general.

Got her to sit down this time - with Kanne from Sommersted, Barney from Kiel and Tom and myself,
bags packed and ready to head down into Germany again

But 3 1/2 weeks is a long time away from home and 6000 kms is a long time sitting down.  We're so fed up with all the roadworks on the German motorways - what a pain - it felt like the whole country is getting a new road surface. I'm looking forward to emptying the suitcase and various bags and seeing what treasures I've brought home - goodies :)   And also to getting a bit more internet time - I've missed reading all your stories and seeing your photos - roaming charges are way too high to be indiscriminate about logging in each day and in people's houses you want to chat rather than work.  

But most of all I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed - a different bed each night, even though they were all comfy and lovely beds, checking the layout of the room before going to sleep in case I need to get up in the middle of the night without tripping over something, becomes a bit unsettling.  However we are now experts on both showers and beds and mattresses  - so if you need any advice about the best ones to get, I'm your man!!

I'll be back with some pictures from the trip in coming weeks - memories for my own historical records department ...

Songs from the Road

This is a short post to share a video of Tom and myself from our visit to Cahors Folk Club in France this Summer.

The two songs are Seoladh na nGamhna - which in English means "Herding the Calves" - a young girl goes out to the woods to bring the calves home and meets a young man and the calves go home alone!!!

The second, the faster one is Sí do Mhamo í - a bit of a nonsense work song from the West of Ireland - it means She's the Granny - and is sometimes called Cailleach an Airgid - the hag with the money - what a title!!   It's about a wedding - someone gets married to the old woman with the money!!  Enough said :)

That's Tom on the left.

Winter seems to have descended really suddenly around here - the nights have drawn in without noticing the shortening.  Haven't brilliant sunshine until just a few days ago will be a huge help for getting through the Winter to come.  I don't know about you, but I feel so much better - my bones still feel warm :)

How's Autumn coming in for you?  Are you well settled into a routine?

Germany and Guitars

Today's is another travel post .... but first, a song for you to listen to while you're reading - Goodbye Mick, Goodbye Pat.   This is an old come-all-ye song, written about emigration to America - one of the few happy sounding ones that are around.  

I've been playing guitar for many years, since I was at school, and have had many different guitars in my time but my absolute favourite is my newest addition ... an Avalon, hand made here in Northern Ireland.  I'm not very technically minded but for those of you who are, the front body is made of bear claw spruce - so called because of the natural markings in the wood that aren't visible until it's cut.  I adore the eccentricity of it... 

We travel a lot in our work, Tom and me, sometimes with others, sometimes just the two of us.   One of our favourite destinations is Germany ... In the next blog, H, I'll introduce you to Hallig Hooge an island off the north west of Germany, but for this one, here's a few images from around the country.  

Waiting to cross the Rhine on our way home.   We took the ferry from Ireland to France, drove around Holland, Denmark and down through Germany.   This was our last stop before heading back to Cherbourg

I love these lampposts and the tram line running behind it.

We often play in old churches that are used for arts centres as well as worship.    This one is in a tiny village called Annahuette.

Dresden

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