What a perfect day, what a crappy end to the night.
Everything had started well. Try and imagine what kind of festival this guy would put on:
Yep meet Walter Micklethwaite, creator of The Insider Festival and a gem of a man who showed us around the gorgeous 200-acre grounds of his scottish manor.… Read the rest
Drunken nights have consequences, and much of the day went by in a daze of blurrily epic scenery. At one point I even wondered what on earth I’d write about it, but as it turned out something special happened in Aviemore – I felt totally and utterly at home.… Read the rest
The most northerly town in mainland scotland, Thurso greeted us with a now-familiar sight – two young men sitting on the floor pissed out of their skulls singing unrecognisable songs and hurling casual abuse at people at 4pm. Still – you shouldn’t judge a whole town on two loud drunks, so let’s get to the venue.… Read the rest
“Ladies and gentleman we are currently experiencing engine problems, which is why we’ve basically stopped moving. We are trying to repair this and hopefully we’ll be on our way again soon.”… Read the rest
I didn’t once hear a calm reaction to our Bath – Inverness drive. What?!? 500 miles?! But actually the trip flew by in a flash- thanks in no small amount to scenery like this:
And this:… Read the rest
Everyone loves receiving postcards. This tour I’m going to send one every day. Here’s how it’s gonna work…
Step one: get the postal address of a person who comes to a gig
Step two: travel to the next town/city we’re playing at
Step three: buy a local postcard
Step four: write the postcard and send it to the person in step one
Step five: repeat
So someone from Bath gets a postcard from Inverness. Someone from Inverness gets a postcard from Stornoway, and so on.
If you’d like to be the one in your town that gets the postcard, just come to a gig (dates here) and ask me. All I ask is that you trust me with your address and post your postcard up on my Facebook page and / or twitter.… Read the rest
There are always more interesting things to do than be tidy, organised and on time, so of course I haven’t packed. I didn’t actually tell any of the band this, but in our week rehearsing in Wales I forgot to pack any underwear. I thought I had but…. well… I didn’t. Rumaging through my case on day two I found only shirts, socks, my laptop and a toothbrush wrapped in cling film. Needless to say I bought more in town, but you’re getting an idea of what I can be like.
We’ve been basically gigging all year, so the ‘start’ of the tour … Read the rest
I can probably admit now to a little overconfidence in joining John for his running schedule. 5 miles? Eeeeasy. Up at 7:30am and wearing temporary £15 Tesco walking shoes, I set out into the Welsh countryside with John and Kev. Harry, a keen runner, had objected on moral grounds – “I don’t agree with running in the morning”. It turns out they don’t call it the valleys for nothing – I swear we ran up a vertical incline at one stage.
Walking for the rest of the week wasn’t easy. The hills and valleys in western wales are stunning but my calves were shot to pieces. A problem not made easier by the fact that the cottage floors tended to sweat, making them slippy. If in doubt I turned my inability to walk into a comedy dance.
It’s not a given that you can get everyone together for a week’s … Read the rest
About 6 months ago I started to pick up whispers of something… and before I knew it sets were being built
and Pablo had come to life, looking all wise and friendly. Melody Wood and James Beck were making a stop-motion animation video for Many Fish To Fry. Totally unprompted from me and with fire in their bellies.
Set a scene, take a photo, make a tiny, subtle change, take photo, tiny change, photo, tiny change… It takes AGES and requires fanatical obsession, the patience of a saint, artistic eyes and understanding friends.
Fast forward to now and all 5 minutes of the video is finished. I think a celebration is called for!
On Thursday 8th September there will be an extremely special MFTF screening night and gig at Melody’s own night of live music, For The Love Of Folk at Indy Jax in Hemel Hempstead. I’ll be bringing a … Read the rest
This Thursday 1st September I have the great pleasure of playing at Wagon, one of the most respected nights in London, hosted by BBC6 Music’s Chris Hawkins. Chris has been a real champion of mine at 6 Music, and we’d love to have your support.
It’ll also be the first time I’ve ever played these songs with… Read the rest