Beaten by Brian

Funky Monk

Sometimes being a musician is playing to a full hall of people who are hanging on to every note and word, others, like for me today, it is trudging through heavy rain with heavier-still equipment on your back, sore from 2 weeks of the similar, day and night, toward one of your delayed trains, one of two trains and three buses for the day, delayed by the storm which will ultimately cut your work short that afternoon, work you'd still been preparing for at 3am that morning.
Ah well... you can't win 'em all, and when mother nature steps in, this time in the guise of Storm Brian no less, combined with an organisation understandably not wanting to put it's members from the risks of impending high winds, well, that was that.

Many at the Mexon Street Market, this being a special Halloween Themed event had put a huge amount of preparation into this, there are a lot of very disappointed people tonight, but hey ho, all you can do is go onwards and upwards...

Enzo - Words and Music Fest

Sunday October 15th, 2017 (updated with photos 20/10/17)

Roland, Yapp & Jacson. Photo by Chris Driver.

A bit of an extra special show I've performed and hosted in the last couple of years or more is Enzo Acoustic Zone, a part of the Words and Music Festival at the yummy coffee and pizza emporium that is Enzo.

I had the delight of introducing some of the most captivating and beautiful sound-makers in the UK, if slightly below the radar of many, namely Ian Roland's melodic, folk-orientated band with stunning musicianship and vocal harmonies Roland Yapp and Jackson and the hypnotic Ruth Theodore. Apparently (based on a conversation with Ruth's mum while walking back over to their hotel) Ruth is self-taught on the guitar and doesn't have any conventional knowledge on how your supposed to play or even about standard tuning, so she's taught herself her own, entirely unique way of playing, and hypnotic it is, too.
Wonderful songs, thanks all. Plus top talents in their own right Tim and Dayve who organised the sound and made it all actually possible!

Many thanks to photographer Chris Driver for these pics:

Me! Photo by Chris Driver.

The quite brilliant Ruth Theodore, Photo by Chris Driver.

Ruth Theodore. Photo by Chris Driver.

The wonderful Roland, Yapp & Jackson. Photo by Chris Driver.

Making Moments at Words & Music Fest.

12/10/2017

Tonight it was a pleasure to make an appearance on stage with Nigel Stonier and Special Guests as part of the 10th Words and Music Festival.
A great night!

One of his guests was the brilliant Tracey Browne who I caught soundchecking to an empty ballroom before the show. Not normally the done thing to share soundchecking shenanigans so I asked her of course.

L-R: Me, Fluff, Nigel Stonier, Thea Gilmore. Photo by Kirsty Rollings/KRPR Services.

At the @NigelStonier “and friends” gig last night, ending with Passenger’s Scare Away the Dark - @theagilmore @JonnieGitAhhr and #Fluff 💙 pic.twitter.com/VlzPyapG4L

— Kirsty Rollings (@kirstyvale) October 13, 2017