So, Kootch struck up the band and played support for (checks bird dictionary) The Crows? Wait, no, black and white, likes shiny things - THE MAGPIES, we supported The Magpies! At one of (we have to be diplomatic) our favourite venues, Doncaster Roots Music Club, at the Ukrainian Club in - you guessed it - Doncaster. Or maybe you didn’t guess it? That would explain why you are here, reading our blogs, when the more intellectually inclined would be reading The Guardian, or taking the goldfish for a walk.
We SWIFTly packed up our stuff and headed down the M18 (look, we are gunna try and get a lot of bird names in this post, if you get lost let MINNOW - hold on, wait no, damn, that’s a fish, shit).
Moving SWIFTly on (yes it’s the same bird as before, we don’t know a lot of birds, okay?). We arrived promptly and got set up for the soundcheck. Here we have to say a HYUGE, EMU sized thank you to Ian and Stuart for their patience on the sound desk. Due to a weak signal coming from Katy’s fiddle - she had to plug in to something called a PARROT - no joke, amazing fortune for the blog writer, we must say. We did our mic checks with our Slovakian friend - but don’t worry, we had a Czech one too, Czech one too.
The Magpies did their soundcheck and the night was ready to go. Beth donned her bowler hat, and Ian his flat cap - this is about as close as the band gets to a uniform. It was blummin’ lovely (to say the least) to hear the audience sing like LINNETS, singing along to the chorus of both The Pussy Willow and Shady Grove. After the set, Beth and Isn discussed the relative sweatiness of their heads and varying degrees of EGRETS (regrets? No?) At choosing to wear hats - Ian’s serving as a sort of 80’s exercise sweat band and Beth’s having the potential to just be turned upside down and used as a salty bird bath.
The Magpies were amazing. Truly. As individual singers and instrumentalists they are fantastic in their own right - but together they were something special. Not only this, but they were everything that we believe being a folk band is all about. They often say that you should not meet your heroes - but we don’t think that is what folk is. It’s a community more than anything, where everyone can talk about music and no one is above anyone else or aloof - it’s all about the roots. It’s not beneath them to speak to the audience, or acknowledge the support band, and it was nice to get a down to earth chat about music, recording, murder ballads and merchandise. On top of the fact that their music is shit-hot, this band really do have it all, and it made for a lovely experience for both us as the support and for the amazing audience.
If you like good music (which, we can’t be certain of at this point as you are obviously on the Kootch website) then you cannot go wrong buying a ticket for Doncaster. Every single night that we have attended hosts fantastic musicians (and average support i.e us) and is worth so much more than the small entrance fee. Please support your local music and just take a gamble. For £10 - £15 it’s an intimate venue that you are guaranteed to enjoy. At that price, you’re practically ROBIN’ them!
Love, harmonies, cwtch,
Kootch x
