I set off yesterday afternoon on a week-long ‘tour’ in the van. ‘Tour’ is admittedly a bit of a stretch - the week is bookended by two paid social club/care home gigs, but in between I plan to take in a folk club/acoustic session/open mic each evening, with the hope of (a) securing bookings and networking, (b) meeting up with old friends in the various music circles I’ve been part of over the years, and (c) generally having an open-road blast. The downside is that this time it’s just me out on the highway - Carol and the pups are holding the fort back home - but we are of course in regular touch, and I gather my dressing gown is being used - particularly by Chilli - as a proxy me in my absence. (Just as well I hadn’t thought to put it in the laundry basket for, well, let’s just say ‘a while’…)
I set off yesterday so that I wouldn’t have to rush this morning to the first paid gig, at a social club in Kidlington, Oxfordshire (where my family home was for forty years). That meant that I could take in the Monday night meeting of Chipping Norton Folk Club, at a lovely country pub in Chadlington, where I indulged in a very nice meal and where they were happy for me to park up overnight in the beautifully rural and peaceful car park. I knew most of the folk who came along to play or listen - first of all outside, and then, when it got a bit chilly, in the dining area inside. It was a really great evening, and I particularly enjoyed chatting with Sylvia, a regular at the club, but who I only learned last night spent 55 years delivering milk in the Witney area (I can practically hear that familiar early-morning sound of the milk float as I write this!), and gave talks about her life at the very same venue I’m about to play at this afternoon.
Speaking of which, I’d better start getting ready to entertain. Kidlington, here I come! 😎
More later…
I set off yesterday so that I wouldn’t have to rush this morning to the first paid gig, at a social club in Kidlington, Oxfordshire (where my family home was for forty years). That meant that I could take in the Monday night meeting of Chipping Norton Folk Club, at a lovely country pub in Chadlington, where I indulged in a very nice meal and where they were happy for me to park up overnight in the beautifully rural and peaceful car park. I knew most of the folk who came along to play or listen - first of all outside, and then, when it got a bit chilly, in the dining area inside. It was a really great evening, and I particularly enjoyed chatting with Sylvia, a regular at the club, but who I only learned last night spent 55 years delivering milk in the Witney area (I can practically hear that familiar early-morning sound of the milk float as I write this!), and gave talks about her life at the very same venue I’m about to play at this afternoon.
Speaking of which, I’d better start getting ready to entertain. Kidlington, here I come! 😎
More later…
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