We love our little blogs, don’t we? Well, someone’s gotta!
Friday night we were back at one of our favourite places - The Ukrainian Club in Doncaster. Now, because we are so professional and make absolutely no mistakes whatsoever while playing a set (what are you laughing at?) it may come as a surprise that we have to unshackle the chains of a 9-5 before we transform into the superheroes of the support band circuit you see before you.
So, after a full week of answering questions such as ‘Miss, can Sean Connery cook mashed potato?’ (We don’t know) and ‘Sir, can Sean Connery cook mashed potato… Quickly?’ (We don’t know) - we put our pants on over our trousers like all superheroes (and certain in-patients) and fly on down to Doncaster. ‘You the support band? Know any songs about mashed potato?’ (We don’t, no).
We finish work, throw our junk in the trunk, and travel down the outside lane of the M1 (the one reserved entirely for committing CRIME, some superheroes we are) and arrive just in time for a soundcheck.
photo by Ian Tilbrook
It was lovely to see Stuart Palmer on the sound desk, he always does a cracking job and this gig was no different. So we checked, gave the thumbs up, and then scurried offstage to hurriedly eat a cheese sandwich we prepared earlier (we tend not to get chance to eat lunch at work, too busy furiously googling if Sean Connery can, in fact, make mashed potato, and then discussing the relative speed at which he does so. This of course nearly turns into a heated debate and we get pulled in to a meeting with HR - turns out mash debating in the staffroom is frowned upon).
Long joke, worth it for the punchline. You may disagree but we’ve already written and posted the blog piece and are now living our lives, making mashed potato for our tea - what are you doing? Still reading, aren’t you? You read on, hoping there’s no more, but we live in the future and we’ve come back to tell you - it never ends.
We set up our little CD box with the ladies at the back, had a bit of a natter with some good friends and our number 1 fan (Beth’s Mum, sorry Sara, it was a close one between you both but, Jude pipped the post from the beginning after renting out her womb for Beth to grow in. ‘RENT?’ We hear you ask, oh yes, Beth has paid heavily for this privilege, the most noteworthy expense being her teenage years in a two man tent, with just her mum, hungry mosquitos, and her mother’s trumps, instead of getting drunk with her friends in a field). ‘Don’t forget to tell everyone you have CD’s for sale!’ Beth’s mother scoffed as she stole the only slice of cheese from our sandwiches.
photo by Allan Wilkinson
We really enjoyed our set, and I think we heard people singing along to some of our songs which just felt divine! We threw in a few mistakes to let everyone know they were listening to live music. Ian did a cracking job MC’ing. Everyone knows that no folk night is a success without a good MC - who else would introduce the raffle?! With a couple of CD’s up for grabs and maybe even a free ticket to the next show, pale hands gripped tightly to their little yellow stubs of hope. Big shout out now to a gentleman called Mac - who on Friday the 13th harnessed the full power of unluck and won one of our CD’s. Mac said when he died his music collection would be left for his daughter and he asked for a little autograph and something witty. Dean opted for ‘To Mac, From Dean’ Beth Opted for ‘To Mac, what a cruel and unusual punishment for your daughter, there are much easier ways to be disowned than leaving them obscure folk music. Have you tried starting a debate about mashed potato? Beth x’.
We just managed to catch Bob Fox off the plane from Hawaii, thank goodness. He regaled us with beautifully written songs, and stories of the folk revival, a time when artists were kind and pleasant and hung around after gigs and sessions to - well - do more of the same, play more music, talk more about local history and just have a great time.
It’s one of the reason we love folk, we have found for the most part that it is dealt with an open hand. We don’t kid ourselves that we get much footfall to our site, or that we will sell millions and travel the world. But one visitor, that is genuinely interested in what we do and comes and speaks to us at a gig, is worth a million blurred faces to us. We like to link in other artists to our blogs so you can travel to their site if you fancy. You could check out some different music or some fantastic photography. We really, really enjoy meeting new people. Through support slots like this we have met some amazing photographers, musicians, luthiers, artists, writers and poets.
This being said, we really hope you enjoy this little gallery of work from Allan Wilkinson who took some fab shots of the night. Any text you see on our blog pages that are a slightly different colour will open up a new window to some beautiful work from others. So if our puns haven’t put you off, and the blog hasn’t been too long or made you really hungry for some mash, go click some of the hyperlinks and enjoy.
Love, harmonies and cwtch.
Kootch x