Espresso Bongo.

Sunday, Oct 18th 2015

Photo by Chris Driver.

To Enzo, purveyors of the finest espressos and pizzas around, again hosted a lovely Words and Music Festival afternoon. Producer/percussionist Dan Logan was in the hot seat driving, well, not bongos (that just makes for a better headline, perhaps), but a rather fabulous mini drum kit.

On top of all this loveliness, we had the most fantastically talented special guests in the form of ...click on their names to link to them and check them out!.. Tracey Browne, poet Oliver Lomax and hot properties in the folk world right now, Gilmore and Roberts. 

Musical and poetic brilliance, went down a storm of course.

Thanks everyone who came along and to a brilliant songster in his own right, Tim Lee, on the sound.

Photo by Mike Willacy of The Shop Sessions fame.

With 'Red Severn', before the show.
Thanks to Kirsty Rollings of The Cat FM for the photo

*Sound Guy Cam* - @JonnieGitAhhr and @theDanielJLogan smashing it today at @wordsnmusicfest @EnzoNantwich pic.twitter.com/3GR9hQ0bsJ

— Tim Lee - Songwriter (@timleesongs) October 18, 2015

Oxjam, Nantwich.

Sound-checking in the square.
Photo by Andrew Roach
Please see http://www.roachphotography.co.uk/ for more of his work.

Photo by Jonathan White

The paving of Nantwich town square formed the stage for The Blue Yellows. This was an Oxjam event in association with The Words and Music Festival. 

Radio Two favourites, The Reads also played and  a bucket of cash was raised for Oxfam.
A couple of great photos from the event here, by Jonathan white and the extraordinary fish-eye like photo of us sound-checking in the square by Andrew Roach, you can check out more about his photography HERE.

Emma - photo by Jonathan White

Simon - photo by Jonathan White

Dave - photo by Jonathan White

Cabaret time...

Oct 14th 2015.

Photo by Dick Jones.

It was post-gig anniversary night of The Words and Music Festival with a range of festival performers putting in some decidedly off-piste performances in celebration of this Eighth year, hence the song-themes of bronze, lace and all things railway in honor of our hosts and festival supporters, The Railway Hotel, Nantwich.

Performances from me, Thea Gilmore, Nigel Stonier, Jim Kirkpatrick, Chris Capel, Poet Helen Kay and a hot property in the folk world right now, Kelly Oliver. All the artists performed something especially for the occasion, including a new song from me, "Butterfly (on the railway line)".

Fun!

Thea Gilmore playing in a pub!? Only here. :)
With producer/songwriter Nigel Stonier.

It's all about to happen in Nantwich.

Oct 6th, 2015 (Updated 12/10/15)

My appearances at The Words and Music Festival this week;

Wednesday, Oct' 14th 9.30 - The Railway Hotel, Nantwich - Festival Anniversary Night (expect the unexpected).

Saturday, October 17th 10.30am Oxjam opener with The Blue Yellows, Nantwich Square.

Sunday, October 18th 2pm - Enzo Coffee Shop, Nantwich with Dan Logan (& guests).


The other night I went on Steven Bebe's show on Redshift Radio to talk about the upcoming Words and Music Festival and it's fantastic line up including Super-furry front man Gruff Rhys, Frazey Ford, Barbara Dixon, Mark Chadwick and talented super (not-so-furry) talented buddy, Tim Lee. 
I really think Gruff's American Interior show is going to be unforgettable, perhaps the last time he'll perform this in Northern Europe. I'd recommend finding out a bit more about it, which you can do at http://american-interior.com/. I'm lucky enough to be going to this show and I feel a bit like a 7 year old a week before Christmas.
The Blue Yellows are also playing (see poster) and I'm doing a special show with Dan Logan at the award winning independent coffee shop, Enzo, where I'll also introduce some top talent including UK Folk Award nominees Gilmore and Roberts. That's on Sunday, October 18th from 2pm.

Steve also played a couple of tracks from Attachment Theories.

Listen again here;

What's Happening on RedShift Radio with Steve Bebe (6th October 2015) by Steven Bebe on Mixcloud

Oxjam by Tram.

Oct 3rd, 2015

My first ever ride on a Manchester tram and I couldn't fault this wonderful service, one arrived as soon as I got to the tram station a couple of minutes after leaving the train at Piccadilly, same on the return, are they always that regular!? Clean, quiet, plenty of seats and cheap. Every town and city should have this.

There was a gorgeous, misty backdrop to the canals and buildings of Manchester from the often high vantage-point of the tram window, quite beautiful really, you could almost forget that the evil ones were arriving in town.

My stop was Chorlton, for the Oxjam Manchester Takeover. A great event and all for a good cause, my gig taking place in a cool and characterful bar, Strange Brew, were I enjoyed a gorgeous pre-gig black coffee (espreso-esque in it's tastiness) and one of the fabulous ales to keep the vocal cords lubricated, during.

I also got to see Richard Lomax perform, brilliant lyrics and tunes and not at all an Ed Sheeran sound-alike, unlike almost every other 'original' songwriter these days!

Talking of Oxjam, it's a good excuse to mention my next gig with The Blue Yellows and another one for the charity, in association with the fantastic Words and Music Festival, Nantwich. Radio Two favourites The Reads will also be performing.