Nicole and John left Australia on an extended trip to the UK on
1 May. The plan is to stay for 12 months initially, and longer if
we prove sufficiently gigworthy. A bunch of gigs at festivals and
clubs were successfully negotiated from Oz before
leaving, bags were packed with CD's, beads and mirrors for trading
with the locals, and off we went.
2. A Birthday for Kate.
The first stop was Birmingham (Gateway to Birmingham and Surrounds).
We met up with the wonderful Della Hooke who runs the Red Lion Folk
Club (http://www.redlionfolkclub.com/)
and had a great night with James Fagan and Nancy Kerr, who gigged
with Kate Fagan in support. A late night around the kitchen table
followed by a session the next day for Kate's (unnumbered for the
sake of privacy) birthday.
3. Finding a Van.
Our search for transport started the next day, with much webbing-about.
A hire car came to our aid a couple of days later and we spied a
Nissan Urvan camper in fair condition which looked like it might
suit our needs. We continued to ramble about the countryside while
we considered alternatives, often driving indecent distances in
any one day. We decided on the Nissan in the end and, fresh MOT
(like a roadworthy, only posh) in hand, we hit the road for our
first festival. Along the way we caught up with friends in London
and Brighton.
4. Wheaton-Aston
The Wheaton-Aston festival (http://www.wheatonastonfestival.supanet.com/)
is small but (as is often the case with festivals) run by a wonderful
bunch of people. We had a terrific time and met some great folkies,
including the amazing John Hare (more about him later). We played
and sessioned into the early hours. John offered to give us a hand
with the van in Essex and so this was our next stop.
5. The Van Turns.
After Wheaton-Aston, we hoped for a bit of a break to assemble
our resources and prepare for what lay ahead. At Essex, John and
John worked on the van, fiddling here and there. At one point it
looked as though the MOT may not have been based in reality and
a short excursion was undertaken to Birmingham to discuss the finer
details of campervan maintenance with the former owner. Slowly,
but surely the van moved towards readiness. Nicole met up with a
friend in Surrey (known to most as Redshoes) and while John devoted
his time to learning the ways of the campervan, she saw Peter Gabriel
in concert at Wembley arena and met him at the after-concert party
for family, friends and hugely VIPs. Some adventuring followed before
heading into London where an Australian friend's niece had a flat
which needed minding.
We had two weeks in London, going back and forth to Essex to ready
the van. Saw some great sessions and managed a couple of floor spots
(Sharp's Folk Club at Cecil Sharp House, The Ram at Claygate (Niamh
Parsons), Twickenham Folk Club (James Keelaghan one night and Bob
Fox the other) and Islington Folk Club (Elle Osborne).
After the Twickenham Folk Club, the van wasn't feeling well and
so the RAC man towed us home. The next day, an ailing alternator
was replaced. That night, we slept the sleep of the sleepy, preparing
to pack the van for Scotland for a gig on June 8.
6. Danger in the Night.
We woke the next day to find the van gone!!!!! Theft, horror, police,
phone calls, insurance policies and woe. Saint John of Essex once
again came to the rescue and (of course) produced a friend of his
who had a spare campervan. Cheaper, in better shape and ready to
roll. The Nissan was stolen on Tuesday, but by Friday we were on
the way to Scotland.
7. A Gig Too Far.
Several appalling puns later, we arrived in Glasgow. Our old Aussie
buddy Toni Wood looked after us and the next night we played in
Edinburgh at the Wee Folk Club at the Royal Oak. A wonderful night
with Nicole's Scottish relatives in attendance. A couple of days
later and we raced back South. The first day saw us to Birmingham
and the next we made it to Brighton (circumstances beyond our control
prevented us going further South). That night we performed as part
of an amazing concert, "Elle Osborne and Friends" on the
Verda, a restored passenger ferry which is now an art gallery and
performance space.
8. R&R
A few days in the sun and fun of Brighton followed, then a couple
of nights on a campsite near Cambridge. Then on to Nottingham and
the wonders of Kate Tiler, a medieval craftsperson. Nicole headed
straight to the studio and green men are slowly emerging.
9. We Also Play Music.
This weekend, we are booked at the Alcester and Arden Festival
in Warwickshire. Next week, we head to Chester and then to Ireland.
We have a club to go to in Northern Wales and our first stop in
Ireland will be the Goilin Singers Club (where Niamh has promised
to show us around). We're then planning to hit Willy Clancy Week
with Jenny Fitzgibbon and then follow the music for a month before
returning to England for what is shaping up as a busy August.
That's all from us for now...
September, 2003 - The Latest from England
1. The Van
The theft of our van in London in June was probably the biggest
challenge we have had to face so far, but the new van is going well
and the great people at Direct-line insurance came through with
the cash for the Nissan. The new van has been nick-named "Swaggy"
(thanks to the rego - SWG979Y - "Single White Girl" was
rejected as being innaccurate and insufficiently Australian).
2. Ireland calls
Our month in Ireland was absolutely, mind-blowingly, spectacularly
fabulous. We ferried over from Holyhead to Dublin at 2:50 in the
morning (what joy) and then made our way to Niamh Parson's house.
A great catch-up and then off to the Goilin singers' club on Friday.
A wonderful night of great songs and singers. We then had a few
more days of r&r in Dublin (including some busking with Jenny
Fitzgibbon who was visiting from Oz). A terrific week and then....
3. Willy Clancy Week!
Every year in the coastal town of Miltown Malbay in Clare, the
Willy Clancy Summer School is held. Having missed the week on our
last visit to Ireland four years ago, we made sure that we didn't
repeat that mistake. About 3000 students enrol in singing and instrument
classes. Nicole spent the week in flute classes, while John wandered
around the town sessioning in some of the 17 pubs in this tiny town.
The Thursday before the summer school started we arrived in town
and (following a very home-made sign) found a house close to town
that rented out the vacant block next door as camping space. The
van found a home in the driveway and we were set. That night, we
found a great session at "the Blonde's", one of two pubs
called Cleary's. Jesse, Jerry and Clare became friends that night,
and the rest of the 10-day stay settled into a pattern of sessions,
sessions, sessions. We played until we couldn't most nights, with
the occasional singing session at Marrinan's thrown in.
The town becomes a bit crazy as the week goes on, with all the
pubs so crowded that, even if you're lucky enough to get inside,
we often found there wasn't enough room to open the guitar case,
let alone play anything. Rather than experience the full horror
of the weekend, we headed off to the Aran Islands for some roomier
sessions. Nic stayed behind on the mainland and found an out-of-town
singing session with Jenny, while John, Jesse, Jerry and Clare headed
to Inishmor. Several extraordinary developments later, they were
run out of town the next morning and so met up with Nic on Inisheer.
Another great night of sessions and then the ferry home.
Willy Week was a wonderful experience and we hope we'll be back.
Great friends, lovely place and the music is just unbelievable.
Along the way, we even had a chance to catch up with some Aussies,
namely Belinda Ford and (well pretty Australian) Eilish O'Connor.
4. More Irish Wandering
We roamed around for the rest of July, with Jenny along for the
ride. We made it to Ennis, Enniscrone and eventually (barely into
the North) the Rostrevor festival. Along the way, there was beautiful
scenery, more music (including lucrative busking in Galway) and
the slipperiest experience known to humanity, the seaweed bath!
The month flew by and then it was time to ferry back to Wales.
5. August!
Our busiest month yet saw us back from Ireland and then straight
to Warwick for the most Australian-feeling festival to date. A fabulous
program, great venues and a very Canberra National style event.
Highlights for us were a chance to see some more Aussie mates and
seeing Jon Boden and John Spiers - a terrific act of fiddle, voice,
stomp-board and melodeon with great versions of trad ballads with
lots of rhythm. They seem to be playing every festival in the country
this year and they are fabulous!
From Warwick, we made our way to Sidmouth. More Aussies with Mike
Jackson and Di Hill. One of the largest festivals of the season,
Sidmouth is spread out over a beautiful sea-side resort town and
runs for 8 days. We played the open stage, a couple of folk club
venues, took part in one of Mike's concert spots and sessioned every
chance we could. The Bedford Hotel proved to be the favourite, with
a huge front bar overlooking the ocean, and weather that allowed
the windows to be opened for a largely smoke-free result. This week
gave us the chance to see the debut concert of the Shamrock, Thistle
and Rose tour, with James and Nancy, Alistair Hulett and Niamh Parsons.
A fantastic collaboration.
Speaking of weather! It's been hot most of the time since we arrived.
Disturbingly so. We're talking sunburn and sweat here. Thoroughly
un-English. The closest comparison to winter that we can think of
is Townsville winter. All in all, unexpectedly relaxed and pleasant.
And so on to Broadstairs. Devon to Kent. Arriving at about 9, we
found our way to our billet for the week with the wonderful Dawn
and Graham. Another sea-side town, another sprawling festival. A
beautiful place and some lovely gigs, especially our final performance
for the week in the Methodist chapel. We weren't worked too hard,
so there was lots of time to find sessions and check out the concerts.
Caught up with Chris While and Julie Matthews, and (a great surprise)
Liz Frencham from Jigzag was with them! A terrific chat into the
early hours.
So, a week in Kent and then racing up the motorways to Whitby.
Our luck held as we found a campsite close to town, and made our
way to the Tap and Spile, for the greatest singing sessions around.
John at last got to fulfil his dream of singing The Green Man in
that session (he'd been looking forward to that since he wrote it).
The singing was incredible; this crowd seem to know the choruses
even to songs they are hearing for the first time. Great harmonies
and real ales into the early hours. (Whitby is one of the few places
we've come across in England where the sensible Irish approach to
licensing hours can be found.) The next day saw us play the Hiring
Fair at Whitby for our 15 minutes of fame and then it was time to
hit the road again.
6. A Scottish Aside
Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the whole of Folk Week at Whitby,
as we had to race North again for gigs in Scotland. Monday saw us
at the Glenfarg Folk Club. The tiny town of Glenfarg is home to
this great club, in the (perhaps not surprisingly named) Glenfarg
Hotel, a beautiful old pub with towering ceilings and comfy couches
throughout. The gig went well, and we hope to be back in the new
year.
Next day, we were back into Edinburgh for a night at the Royal
Oak as part of Festival Folk at the Oak, and the Wednesday saw us
in Dunfermline for a spot at the local club. All in all, a lightning
trip with a chance to see some of Nic's relatives and spend some
(far too little) time with Toni Wood in Glasgow (we're planning
a longer visit in September).
7. And back to …
And from Scotland, we hit the motorways South to Staffordshire
and the Bridgnorth Festival. Way back in May, we had met Vicky and
Jonny from Serious Kitchen at Wheaton Aston. We sessioned a little
one afternoon and they suggested we might do the same at Bridgnorth.
This evolved into four joint gigs at the festival. Some racing rehearsal
at Whitby and on the day of the first gig, saw us perform forty
minute sets, mostly turn about, culminating in a combined version
of King Willy, with Vicky on Scottish small-pipes and Jonny on guitar.
It went down a hoot! Bridgnorth was a treat, and playing with Vicky
and Jonny was a real joy. We caught up with Jan Davis again and
then once more to the road for …
8. The Fabulous Fylde Festival
On the Lancashire coast is the wonderful town of Fleetwood and
August saw us at the Fylde festival there. A great festival and
we had a wonderful time, being worked hard and singing our heads
off. A terrific way to finish the busy month of August.
9. And now …
We're spending a few days with Toni Wood in Glasgow for a proper
visit in her new house. A great chance to catch up with Toni at
last, as well as get some sleep and attend to the bookwork and mail.
We're well, the driving isn't too bad and the weather's terrific.
And more.
That's all of the latest. We'll stay in touch.
Love from the road,
John and Nicole.
October, 2003 ... and now ...
1. September and beyond.....
Fylde Festival
After a lovely few days with Jan in Studley, we headed North to
Fleetwood, a
seaside town on the Fylde Peninsula on the Lancashire coast . An
unusual place, with the remnants of tourist glory in evidence -
apparently, it was once thought that the beautiful coastline would
bring the visitors in their thousands
with ferries running regularly across to Scotland - then they figured
out how to build the railway line over the mountains to the East.
A fantastic festival at which we worked very hard and had a great
time. Lots of gigs, amazingly strong winds! We played some more
with Jonny and Vicki from Serious Kitchen . The highlight for Nicole
was an early morning session with Dougie McLean on the last night
in the Moor and Coast tent (John slept instead).
2. And Back to Scotland.
After a wonderful but tiring time at the Fylde Festival, we headed
North to Scotland again for a week of relaxation and catching up
with Toni Wood and her partner, Kevin in their new house. We had
a chance to explore the wonders of modern Glasgow, including the
Burrell collection - an amazing museum representing a gathering
of artifacts from around the globe which was presented to the city
of Glasgow in 1944 "by the millionaire ship-owner William Burrell".
We also had a great night at the "Star", where our floor
spot turned into another gig for April next year. The Star Folk
Club is held in St Andrews in the Square, a restored church in the
centre of Glasgow which, only a few years ago was destined for demolition.
It now houses an amazing performance space, with towering ceilings
decorated with golden angels, and a 3 second acoustic delay from
end to end.
Our stay in Scotland included a day trip to Edinburgh, where galleries
were
examined, before stopping into Plaisir du Chocolat, where Nicole
enjoyed their famous chocolate espresso, and John found pleasure
in one of their rare cocktails (Japanese green tea, lime juice,
cane syrup, and gin). We caught up with Toni again that night for
wine and a visit to her old flat to burn gum leaves and immerse
ourselves in nostalgic smells.
3. Derby, Nottingham, and Bromyard.
We packed the van and headed South, where we were interviewed about
coming Midlands gigs by Mick Peat and Lester Simpson (of Coope,
Boyes and Simpson) on their regular weekly BBC show. And then back
to Bingham and the amazing Kate Tiler (the Tudor re-enactor we spoke
about in June). We played the Carlton Folk Club in Nottingham and
then headed off for the Bromyard Folk Festival.
We had set ourselves up for a weekend of sessioning and camping,
but the
organiser of the festival, Dick Dixon, drafted us into replacing
one of the programmed performers who had called in sick. We scored
a hotel room, and six gigs in six days.
Bromyard is an amazing old town, with winding streets and those
weird black and white buildings that seem to be in a perpetual state
of falling down. The highlight for Nic was stumbling upon a beautiful,
oak-lined room, reverberating with the sounds of a four-piece band
and a dog, accompanying 20 spoons-players, all learning the William
Tell Overture. (John made for the stairs before the piece could
be identified). Vin Garbutt played the final concert and we had
a chance to chat to him about his recent concert back in Brisbane.
4. Stratford-upon-Avon
With a few days in hand, we found ourselves a caravan park a mile
outside
Stratford and set ourselves up for a week of playing and rest. We
wandered around Shakespeare-world (as I have no doubt the town will
soon be re-named by the tourist authorities) and best of all, found
a sauna in the local leisure centre. The caravan park was a lovely
place (how often does anyone say that) with a small motor-ferry
that ran to and from the city centre along the swan-infested Avon.
(Willow trees and ducks were also in evidence).
5. And then some more gigs.
Burntwood was the next stop, with a gig at the Chase Folk Club
), and then Birmingham Trad the next night. Upstairs in a small
pub in the backstreets of what was once an industrial area of Birmingham,
is a fabulous club. A terrific night for us, with heckling of the
highest order. A return gig will be one of our last before heading
home in October (we're slowly becoming used to how far ahead they
do the bookings over here). The next night saw us heading South
to Chobham in Surrey, where the wonderful Wilna Wilkinson put us
up and we gigged merrily at the Sun Inn (We even ate doves eggs
with Peter Gabriel's parents - but that's another story). While
we were there, we caught up again with James and Nancy at their
gig at the Chanticleer club in Dorking, before heading off the next
day for....
6. Back on the Boat!
A gentle afternoon on James and Nancy's new narrow-boat, the time
spent
heading towards Devises. (The night involved an introduction to
Filk! Hard to believe, but true! - search the web if you don't know
what Filk is). The next day, we helped their boat (as well as the
boat of another) to descend the Devises Lock Flight. 29 locks, 3
and a half hours, 6 people, lots of breakfast - a challenge of running
and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching,
and running and winching, and running and winching, and running
and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching,
and running and winching, and running and winching, and running
and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching,
and running and winching, and running and winching, and running
and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching,
and running and winching, and running and winching, and running
and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching,
and running and winching, and running and winching, and running
and winching, and running and winching, and running, before driving
(a new verb) to see another J and N gig and squeeze in our floor
spot at Solihull.
We spent the night in Birmingham in preparation for our very own
gig the next
night...
7. Vin Garbutt (and us) at the Red Lion.
One of our very first bookings way back before we left Australia,
was to support
Vin Garbutt at the opening night for the year at the Red Lion Folk
Club in Birmingham. It was only after being in England for a while
that we discovered the amazing following that Vin has over here.
Thousands of screaming fans follow him where- ever he plays (and
that's a lot of places).
He presents a beautiful mixture of wonderfully crafted songs and
rapid-fire, heckler- destroying patter. It was a real privilege
to play on such a wonderful night. What a hoot!!
8. The music never stops!
Sunday saw us find yet another sauna, this time near to Della and
Chris' house
(they organise the Red Lion) and then, off to London. Twickenham
Folk Club was
our next gig. Another fabulous club, this time with a chance to
see old friends
(Lucy Smith and Nicola Elwell, for those who know). (http://www.twickenhamfolkclub.moonfruit.com/)
is where you'll find the wonderful folk of the Cabbage Patch, home
of the Twickenham club. Monday and we found yet another great session,
Irish and pumping at the Herschel Arms in Slough. A long-standing
session, recommended by the folks we met in Clare and also by James
and Nancy. We were wonderfully looked after by the landlord, who
put us up for the night (not every pub owns the house behind). One
of the best.
9. A bit of a rest, and some wonderful developments.
We next spent a couple of days at Swiss Farm International, an
enormous (and at this time of year, almost empty) caravan park at
Henley-on-Thames. It was at this point that the phone rang. The
first call of the night was a great surprise. A woman who'd seen
us at Fylde and knew that we were looking for somewhere to stay
over the Winter, told us of a cottage which she owned on the Southern
coast of England and would possibly be empty, and offered to let
us live there for a few months. Astonishing generosity which really
touched us. About an hour later, another woman who'd seen us play
(in Birmingham at the Vin Garbutt concert) called. She'd already
discussed with Nicole the possibility of having us mind her house
while she was in Brisbane in January, 2004, and now she was calling
to say that, as it was already getting cold, and the room was already
empty, why don't we come and live there? Once again, amazing generosity
and very moving. We talked a bit more, paid her a visit and agreed
that this was too good a thing to pass up. And so, the Winter will
see us in the midlands, in Walsall, (just North of Birmingham).
We're looking forward to some quiet times, full of rehearsals, song-writing,
rehearsals, saunas (of course), sleep and preparations for next
Summer's festival blitz.
10. But wait, there's more!
Of course, before we could slow down, there was more music. A club
night back
at Bromyard, saw us play upstairs at the Hop Pole - lovely club
and a lovely night in a beautiful farmhouse just out of town. Then
back to Bingham, where Nicole had lined up some teacher-training
work with Kate Tiler. Kate does amazing work, in exciting areas
like paper-making and living willow weaving. They came back every
night, tired but happy. (We've now been offered work by the same
organisation, demonstrating some of the ways that music can be an
exciting thing to learn. - That'll be early next year.)
The following weekend, we went along to the Banbury Canalside Folk
Festival
and, once again, found ourselves drafted onto stage. A couple of
spots needed filling, and, hey, that's what we're here for! A great
festival (and one of the last for the year). Best of all, was Terry
Jacob from Brisbane, waiting outside when we finished our gig! An
amazing session followed, then Thai food for dinner and back to
Bingham the next day (pausing only for a sauna in Banbury - do you
see a pattern emerging?). It was wonderful to see Terry and hear
all the Brisbane news.
Nic spent a few more days teaching, we raced off to Bedford for
another session
with Terry and then made our way to Chelmsford.
11. And now...
The last few days have been spent delightfully chatting, furiously
webbing , and
occasionally sessioning with the gentle company of Jonny and Vicki
from Serious Kitchen. They've made us warm and welcome and we've
shared ideas and contacts for next year's festival season. The beginning
of the hibernation period, we think. Tomorrow sees us travel to
the warmth of Walsall and the beginning of the slowdown of gigs
for Winter.
We hope everyone is well, happy, and finding time for music. More
news soon.
Love,
Nicole and John.
December, 2003 - Winter Sets In and We Settle Down to Work
As the weather turned away from the glorious Summer we'd enjoyed,
we travelled to Walsall, North of Birmigham and settled ourselves
down in the wonderful home of our glorious benefactor, Christine.
We weren't sure what to expect but we knew thermal underwear was
likely to be involved.
1. At home in Walsall
It was a welcome change to be out of the van for a bit and we spent
the first few days catching up on some much-needed sleep and commencing
our exploration of Walsall. We were overjoyed to find ourselves
in a warm, welcoming house close to town, the best coffee in the
area and the peaceful surrounds of the Arboretum.
Once we'd settled, we started sussing out the work ahead. Rehearsing,
finding and writing new songs, staying warm, checking out the local
saunas (there's nothing better for staying warm) and planning for
2004. A new album on the horizon, and a million gigs to find. It
looked like the Winter was going to be busy.
2.Nicole has a birthday
On the 27th of October, Nicole turned (INSERT GUESS HERE), and
we celebrated with a lunch in Birmingham, shared with Christine
as well as long-lost Aussie mates, Jan and Snowy. Snowy was just
finishing up some work in Birmingham and it was terrific to miss
Brisbane together.
3. And what could round off the week better?
With two days notice, we found ourselves in front of a group
of sixty primary school students just outside Nottingham. The principal
of the school knew Kate Tiler and had asked her if she knew of anyone
who could teach African drumming. And of course, she thought of
us! Our planning for workshops later in the year was accelerated
and we made it through the day - and what great
fun it was. The kids were absolutely fantastic (although as you
can see, John had to defend himself with a large gold balloon at
one point), playing percussion games and dancing and singing their
heads off. The Redmile school is a small church-run school just
outside of Bingham.
4. But of course there's always a gig...
Only a few days after we arrived, we were off again, back to Nottingham
for the Bingham Folk Club. Another great night (It was becoming
hard to keep track - with hundreds and hundreds of these clubs all
over England. But slowly we began to find our way.)
5. And what could make more sense...
And so, by way of settling into Walsall, the next weekend we flew
to Ireland! A combination of factors helped make this trip make
sense - Nicole's flute needed some maintenance and the maker, Michael
Grinter, was working just outside Ennis, it meant we would have
the chance to catch up with our friends from Willy Clancy Week,
and the Ennis Traditional Music Festival was on.
And what an absolutely wonderfully crazy week it was! Ryanair flew
us over for almost nothing each and we found ourselves some digs
in the middle of town - at the very same backpackers where year's
before we had narrowly escaped a murder (It was now under much nicer
management).
The Ennis Traditional Music Festival (www.ennistradfestival.com/)
is held each year at the very end of the Summer season. As a result,
almost all of those Irish traditional musicians who make their living
touring are available and in town. With 30 sessions per day, there
is little trouble in finding a place to play. Of course, being an
organised festival, there must be a programme of concerts, and of
course, being an Irish festival where pub sessions are the centre
of everybody's attention, the concerts start at midnight so that
people won't be distracted by the pubs (even though there's an even
chance you won't be thrown out if you're there at closing time).
An amazing highlight was the midnight concert by Dervish,
followed by an event which has to be experienced to be believed
- The Trad Disco!!!!! A thousand people at 2:30am, stomping about
on a fairly crusty dancefloor (by this stage) to a heavily amplified
pounding of Christy Moore singing Lisdoonvarna. The sensible
ones fled to the bar.
The Ennis festival is famous for its sessions and luckily for us,
the latest sessions in town were to be found in one of the ground
floor rooms of our hostel. Great music played by musicians from
all over the world. A good time was had by all. (Apart from the
awkward "a plastic sheep stole my tractor" incident which
surprisingly enough was kept out of the local press - see picture)
After a mad week of playing nonstop and singing ourselves hoarse,
we flew back to England.
6. More gigs and a family visit!
Settling down for the Winter hadn't turned into the relaxing time
we at first imagined. After another gig at the Red Lion, John's
brother Kevin and his wife Betty visited England on a flying work
visit. We had a great afternoon together and confirmed that homesickness
is real. Their visit was wonderful, but far too short! Fortunately,
we had more work to take our minds off any feelings of isolation
from distant loved ones. We caught up with Kristina Olsen at a club
near Birmingham and then headed a little down the road to (for us
at least) the final festival of the year at Bedworth (http://www.bedworth-festival.info).
7. And on into December...
The first frosts were finding us by now, with John insisting that
puddles are not meant to be hard. Two whole weeks with no gigs or
festivals a-calling and we really got stuck into the bookwork and
gig-hunting for 2004. Lots of practice, and a bit of checking out
of the local clubs (and of course, more saunas). The material for
the new album started to come together (tentatively titled, The Fiddle Ship), and we put more work into our workshop program
in Nottingham which is scheduled for late March.
December 17 saw us off to Rivelin for their Christmas party folk
club. The club is held in the beautiful Rivelin valley behind Sheffield.
We had a great night (and a terrific dinner), before spending the
night with Gavin and Helena from Crucible, who we'd met in
London some months before.
The next day, we explored Sheffield, checked out a couple of galleries,
saw the Return of the King (YAYY!) and went along to Sheffield
cathedral for the Spite Winter concert by the Sheffield Folk
Chorale. And then we drove back to Walsall, ending a very long and
very satisfying day.
Christmas saw us heading down to Surrey to spend the holidays with
Wilna and Terence in Chobham. A lovely family time, which made us
miss home even more, but we were overjoyed to have such wonderful
people around.
8. Winter Woodford
New Year's Eve posed a particular problem for us. For the past
14 years or so, we'd spent the turning of the year at the Woodford
Festival back in Australia, which was just not going to be possible
this year. A solution was found. We teamed up with Nancy and James
(likewise Woodford regulars), organised to have some wine with at
least Andrew Pattison's labels on the outside if we couldn't manage
authentic contents, a visit from Liz Frencham who was cruising past,
some more roped-in muso mates, three narrow boats moored together,
assorted family thrown in, a mini fire event on the canal, and we
were ready to bring in the New Year with style.
We had a fabulous few days before and after, lots of music, lots
of wine and lots of fun. A true celebration.
9. And now a New Year.
2003 was a year of great change and great progress for us. January
sees us back into the work, with gigs starting up again on the 11th
and then on into the months ahead. Nicole has found time for painting
in the last week, we've been rehearsing and we're really looking
forward to our coming shows.
So that's it from us for now. Once again, we hope everyone is well,
happy, and finding joy in the things they do.
Lots of love,
Nicole and John.
March, 2004 - The adventure continues
1. January was huge.
The beginning of the year saw us snuggled away in Walsall, staying
warm and wondering what was next. After the busy time of Christmas
and New Year, we were back in the house for a few days before hitting
the road. We'd planned to be as busy as possible and the plans came
good.
2. Three in Three
Our first stop for the year was in Dursley, near Gloucester. David
Cheffings organises a series of great house-concerts under the banner
of the Dursley Acoustic Music Nights (DAMN). We arrived a little
tired but found a wonderful session down the road from David's house
which warmed us up nicely. The concert was great fun, with a lovely
crowd and a chance to chat into the night afterwards (house concerts
don't have licensed hours - a distinct advantage).
The next day we drove to Chesham in Buckinghamshire for the legendary
Tudor Folk Club, managed by the equally legendary Hamish Currie,
and then on to Ampthill for Ampthill Acoustic and the joyful company
of Mike Gibson (Councillor for Mudcatters). Three terrific nights
in quick succession and a great way to roll-start our year.
3. Rule 12 - Ancient Renaults Don't Like Snow.
The weather throughout our stay had been unswervingly wonderful.
Blazing sun all Summer (as it should be) and a Winter that was cold,
but generally dry. We even liked the frost on the lake leading to
skating ducks. Driving in snow on the other hand is ... educational.
It's a little like swimming in custard while wearing a diving mask.
As we made our way North from around Bedford, the snow started
to hit the M1. Poor old Swaggy the Campervan was feeling the cold,
with engine temperature plummetting and a gradual loss of power.
We limped on, deciding to turn West towards Birmingham and wondering
if we were going to make it to Scotland as planned. For once, the
M6 was our friend and the snow cleared, and with it all engine problems.
It seems that our bonnet seal isn't what it might be and so snow
gathers , melts and pours iced water onto the engine block. But
we carried on, hoping that there wouldn't be too much more snow
(seemed reasonable to us).
4. Glasgow and Celtic Connections.
WOW!!!! What a party! Celtic
Connections is a mad, three week celebration of music in
Glasgow. We'd heard rumours, and many friends along the way had
encouraged us to head North in January. Every day for three weeks,
the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall and venues all over Glasgow host
the festival, with the Danny Kyle Open Stage in the afternoon, concerts
at about 7 and then the Festival Club from 10:30 each night until
last one standing, or dawn (whichever comes first). And this goes
on for three weeks. There are stories of the devastating effect
on locals' health as they try to hold down full-time jobs as well
as making it to the festival every day.
Luckily, we were only there for a week.
We were lucky enough to get a spot on the Open Stage (thanks to
Gibb and Liz) as well as a couple of sets at the Festival Club and
had a whale of a time. The club books the best of the festival's
guests and gave us the chance to see Cherish the Ladies and the
amazing Ricardo Tesi and his band. Being in Glasgow also meant that
we could spend some time with Toni and Kevin as well as having a
catch up with Alistair Hulett. And best of all was the unexpected
joy of finding Chloe Goodyear from the Woodford Folk Festival crew,
working at the festival. She was in Glasgow just for the festival,
and we had a wonderful time together. (Special thanks to Charly
for the photos).
An unexpected delight in Glasgow was seeing the Sharmanka Kinetic
Theatre. An absolutely astonishing collection of moving sculptures
by Eduard Bersudsky. One of the highlights of our trip so far. Combining
lights and music with startling sculptures made largely from found
objects and carvings, the performance is wonderful, inspiring and
dazzling all at once. We can't recommend seeing this show enough.
All in all a thoroughly exhausting and fulfilling week.
5. And then there was music.
We left Glasgow and launched ourselves straight into a string of
gigs. Blackpool first for the Clarence, then down to London for
the Herga, Southend for the Hoy at Anchor, Islington Folk Club and
at last, seeing our Aussie mates, Don and Angie from the Rogues.
Then we were off to Brighton to see Elle Osborne. Nicole did a day
of teaching with Elle while John ambled about town. It was great
to see the sea again (and parking in Brighton is much easier in
January).
February arrived to see us madly driving back and forth with some
lovely clubs along the way. We played in a great new club in Coventry
called the Fletch (run by the enthusiastic Keith Parris), and followed
that with a night at the Chanticleer in Dorking, Surrey, run by
Neil McRitchie of Hobgoblin fame. Being in Surrey also meant another
wonderful opportunity to spend time with Wilna (also known as Redshoes)
Wilkinson, who will feature on our new CD care of Wilna's Dance,
a new waltz (and Christmas present.)
Slowly moving North, we had a wonderful few days in Oxford, including
a performance at the Oxford Folk Club, spending the night with the
infinitely hospitable Bob and Claire Lloyd, who introduced us to
the secrets of the Half Moon pub - a much awaited Irish session.
We will be back!
After the delights of Oxford, we headed North to the familiar warmth
of Walsall and some downtime (washing, sleeping, eating). Then back
into the trusty van...
6. We gig, we gig, we gig.
First of all a local club (Peeler's at Bloxwich) and then the Ride
a Cock Horse at Banbury, with a lovely afternoon beforehand spent
in the company of Liz Frencham from Jigzag (so many Aussies!). The
next night we stayed on Derek and Mary's boat at Fenny Compton with
John spending the night with food poisoning, spouting forth about
the injustice of it all. (Not much sleep on the boat that night).
Back to Walsall we roamed, with Sunday seeing us at the Saint Valentine's
Day Folk Festival in Sutton Coldfield. Another few days in the house
at Walsall to recuperate and then on we went...
... To Nottingham and the Carrington Folk Club and some more time
with Kate and John. The next day brought a long drive down to London
and an interview with Music in Hospitals, who organise concerts
in hospitals and hospices all over Britain. They liked what we do
and we now include their performances in our schedule. Another chance
to see Don and Ang and then back to the Midlands for a night at
the Red Lion, this time supporting John Tams and Barry Coope. And
then off to Devises for Wiltshire Traditions, with Bob and Gill
Berry. Another chat into the night saw us learning more and more
about the wonderful people that make up the folk world on this side
of the planet.
7. Hard at work.
At last we had a whole week in Walsall with no need to drive anywhere.
But of course, there was work to be done. We had been booked to
run two days of teacher-training in Nottinghamshire for NEBA (the
Nottinghamshire Education Business Alliance) and we needed to put
the finishing touches to our course. It was a nice change to be
in the one place for a while with our resources being assembled,
ready for action. We found time for our first Music in Hospitals
gig at a local hospice, but generally we stayed home and got down
to business. Before we knew it, it was time to get back onto the
road for a few more gigs before heading to Nottingham to put the
plan into action.
First stop was Basildon to see our mate John Hare and sing at the
Jingling Gate in Pitsea, Mickey Spooner's club. Mickey is Danny
Spooner's brother and together with John gave us a lot of help when
our van woes were upon us. It was terrific to see him at his home
club and away from the workshop. A great night.
And then we raced back to Walsall to meet Christine on her return
from Oz (with many tales of great weather). And then we raced back
South again all the way to Kent, where we sang at a wonderful club
near Folkestone called the White Hart. A couple of nights in Maidstone
followed, visiting our Sidmouth mate, John Bardon, and then on to
Cressing to see more musical mates, this time Jonny and Vicky. It
was terrific to be welcomed by such lovely friends as we continued
our roamings. While back in Essex, we played at the Retreat Folk
Club in Bocking.
8. We gotta teach!
The following week saw us back in Nottingham to run our course
for primary school teachers. It was a great success - two days full
of rhythm, singing, song- writing, and planning lessons (and yummy
deserts at the local pub). We used a village hall just outside Nottingham
and really made the most of it. The highlight had to be the teacher's
all playing home-made instruments in an impromptu rhythm ensemble!
The joys of the flubber-pipe and aggy-boing were fully explored.
9. And now...
So you can see, the start of the year has been wonderfully busy
and full of excitement and an awful lot of driving. Nicole has found
time to create somemore artwork, paintings and green men, we've
found time to enter the final stretch of preparation for recording
(current plans look see us hitting the studio in early May), we're
both well and starting to plan for 2005. Of course, we are missing
family and friends back home. But you can't have an adventure if
you don't go adventuring.
So, best wishes to all.
Love from the road,
Nicole and John
May, 2004 - Here Comes the Sun!
1. Time flies, and so do we.
As the weather warms, the whole country bursts into action. A couple
of wonderfully warm weeks in March saw us relaxing after the course
(see our last update), and working towards the next big step in
the adventure - the new CD. Our initial plan was to launch straight
into recording the Monday after the course, but (luckily) these
plans fell through when our recording studio turned out to be double-booked.
This delayed us by a month but proved to be a good thing in the
end.
2. The Postman Cometh.
John had had his mind on things concertina-ish for some time, and
eventually his plans came to fruition. Ignoring pretty much everybody's
advice, he found a box in fairly grim condition on ebay. His highest
bid was pretty low, but there were still worries about what he was
buying. Eventually, the ancient beastie arrived, clearly in need
of some TLC. The gods were smiling though (as much as they do on
concertinas) as it turned out to be a Wheatstone steel-reeded instrument.
Almost immediately, it was sent off to Dave
Leese for repairs. In no time it was back in John's inexperienced
hands. And now the practising begins.
3. A visit to Shropshire.
With the collapse of our recording schedule, we found ourselves
with some time to be tourists. We were headed to visit the lovely
Genevieve Tudor and (the equally lovely) Allan Price in Shropshire
and along the way took the opportunity to visit Ironbridge. It was
here that industrialisation began its inexorable spread across the
globe (Ironbridge is also the home to the Tontine Hotel - so named
due to the quality of its pillows nb - Australian reference).
Genevieve invited us onto her legendary folk show on the BBC, we
sang, raved and enjoyed the wonderful company at Jackfield. Late
nights, strange stories and wonderful wine. Here's Nic and Genevieve
in the studio, with artworks displayed for the benefit of the webcam.
4. A Birthday for John
On the 8th of April, John turned 40. We were in London with Don
and Ang and made a party of it at their flat in Brentford. The night
became long as Don and John acquainted themselves with the finest
Thai whiskey. The next morning, (bleary though it was) we had to
leave London for South Wales, where our next festival, Miskin at
Easter, awaited. A long day's drive was followed by an unexpected
second party, thanks to Mike Gibson from Ampthill. Jonny and Vicki
brought a cake, and the bubbly flowed. All in all, a wonderful surprise.
5. Miskin
The first weekend festival of the year for us was at Miskin in
South Wales. A great weekend, and a great sing! Andy Jackson and
the crew run Miskin at Easter, and this year's festival was a barrel
of fun. Dormitory accommodation and camping, Jan's van, (with the
customary Easter Chinese Dragon Parade), and another chance for
us to play with Jonny and Vicki. We even had an Australian friend
turn - Dave, who was over visiting family, and took the chance to
remind us of home.
6. The Long Drive North, Glasgow and Glenfarg.
After Miskin, we once again headed to Scotland. There were gigs
organised in Glasgow and a return trip to Glenfarg, this time for
the annual folk-feast. A wonderful bonus on this trip was a visit
by Nicole's sister, Jill. We also had the luxury of being given
the use of Alistair Hulett's flat in Govanhill. It was a real delight
to see Jill, and to share her birthday with her in Glasgow.
A highlight of the visit for us was the opportunity to play at
the Star Folk Club, at Saint Andrews in the Square. This magnificent
church was marked for demolition only a few years ago, but has been
turned into a gorgeous venue for live performances. We tried not
to be too awed by our surroundings, and managed to have a wonderful
night. Glasgow was also our chance to see Toni Wood and Kevin, freshly
returned from the land of Oz.
After the Star, we made our way to Perthshire and Glenfarg. They'd
invited us back after our club spot in 2003, and we were really
looking forward to the weekend. Held in and around the Glenfarg
Hotel, the Folk Feast is an annual weekend event, featuring the
World Puffabox Championship - an event so bizarre, it must be witnessed
to be believed. Unfortunately, John's best puffabox efforts were
not enough to secure gold for Australia. We were warmly welcomed
by all at Glenfarg. A highlight was the chance to hear Crawford
Howard perform his devastating parody of "Willy McBride"
at the Saturday night concert.
7. Rushing around
After a wonderful week in Scotland, we hit the road South again,
and it was time to return to the drive/gig/drive routine. Staying
in one place for a week was a luxury. We gigged in the Midlands,
caught up with friends in London, played at Saint Thomas' Hospital
on the embankment, went to a wedding party, and then headed North
again, this time for Whitby.
The Moor and Coast Festival is run by Glen and Chris, two great
blokes who can usually be found running their food tent at festivals
all over the country. Their idea of a chance to relax is to run
their own festival every May Bank Holiday. A real treat was to be
put up at the only Gothic B&B in Britain, "Bats and Broomsticks"
(their site is well worth a visit). "Folkie" and "luxury"
are not concepts which we easily connect, but this accommodation
combined the two with glorious effect. We managed to squeeze in
all our gigs, find a cranking Irish session and enjoy some wonderful
Whitby sunsets.
8. And into the studio.
We'd
finally settled on recording with Graham Bradshaw at Roots Records
and so our next step was to head to Coventry and into the studio.
We'd been having such a great time with Vicki and Jonny that we
asked them to join us on a few tracks. We threw ourselves into the
project, and amazingly managed to get everything done in the time
we'd alotted. A close call, but with the help of the amazing Graham,
we got there with a few minutes to spare. With a side-trip to Brighton
on the weekend for Nicole to do some more teaching with Elle Osborne,
we were back into the studio the next week to mix and pre-master.
Finally, we were done. (With the artwork still to come...)
9. Time for Music
The next weekend saw us back at Wheaton-Aston for the Wheaton-Aston
Festival. This festival has a special place in our hearts because
it was our first booking in the UK in 2003, and also one of the
bookings which was made from Australia before we left. Hilary and
Julian were their usual wonderful selves, and this year the program
included an art exhibition, as well as concerts by Jon Boden and
John Spiers and Kristina Olsen, who was appearing with the wonderful
Australian cellist, Peter Grayling. The festival was a real treat,
marred only by the onset of chickenpox for Nicole (!). At first,
we weren't sure why she was feeling unwell, but then the spots arrived.
And so she slept... By the end of the festival, she was on the road
to recovery and the day after the festival, we even managed a party
- on a narrow-boat of course (thanks Hilary). A 4-mile an hour pootle
up the cut , the next day was just the tonic we needed. The highlight
of the weekend for us was another chance to play with Vicki and
Jonny (starting to become a habit) in the Saturday night concert.
10. To London and then a rest by the River
Our next port of call was London again (thanks to Don and Ang)
and a trip to the Barbican to see the stage production of "The
Black Rider", a musical by William S Burroughs and Tom Waits,
that was being revived after 12 years, with Marianne Faithfull in
one of the lead roles. A real treat, especially because the show
includes one of our favourite songs, "The Briar and the Rose".
After London, we headed North to the midlands for another lovely
night at Birmingham's Red Lion Folk Club, and then spent a few quiet
days by the river in Shrewsbury, with Swaggy the Camper in full
Summer mode. A great relax.
11. And now...
The art for the new CD is done (hooray), and the gigs are coming
fast and furious as the Summer moves in. We're realising that the
flights to Australia are only 5 months away (with a stopover for
a gig with the Hong Kong Folk Society), so we're cycling through
feelings of homesickness, excitement about the work to come and
wonder at what Australia will be like after so long away. The adventure
continues.
So, update your records with our new email (mail@cloudstreet.org),
check out the new CD, "The Fiddleship" and travel well.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
November, 2004 - Home Again, Home Again...
1. Back into festival season:
We knew that we'd be returning to Australia soon and we'd tried
to organise as much work as possible before the big bird took us
home. And work we did!
We saw August out by returning to the Bridgnorth Folk Festival.
We had a lovely time performing around the festival and have been
promised a return booking for 2005 (thanks Sandra and Alan). Another
wonderful opportunity to play with Vicki and Jonny again, and of
course session with the fabulous Isambarde. Good times all 'round.
The sessions rolled on thick and fast as we launched into the last
few weeks. After Bridgnorth we were back to one of our favourites
- the Fylde Folk Festival at Fleetwood. Alan Bell and the crew organise
a wonderful weekend by the sea and the North Euston Hotel is hard
to beat as a venue, but our for sheer stage- decoration you just
can't beat the local British Legion Hall. A magnificent country
and western themed venue with fab acoustics.
2. Where would we be without a nice long drive?
And what could be handier to the Lancashire coast than the Dartford
Folk Club? They'd had a cancellation and gave us a call and so the
trusty camper hurtled South as soon as Fylde was done and Tuesday
night saw us in Dartford. A great club, lovely people and a terrific
night all round. Hopefully we'll be back in 2005.
And from Dartford, we raced back North, this time for a return
to the Midlands and the Bromyard Folk Festival. (Note to John: "Fleetwood,
Dartford, Bromyard" is not a sensible series of destinations
for an antique Renault to accomplish in a reasonable period of time).
Once again, Dick Dixon organised a wonderful event and we were thrilled
to take part. Bromyard is a beautiful town but we didn't have much
time to spend as tourists with the programme keeping us running
between venues. A real highlight was playing as a four-piece with
Tom Napper and Tom Bliss and sharing the stage for a "Meet
the Artist" session with Harriet Bartlett and the comic genius
of Les Barker. With all the moving about we'd been doing, it was
terrific to be settled enough (even if only for a few days) to do
some Aussie-style collaboration. (With thanks to the wonderful Berni
Coffin for the photos.)
3. More Playing With Our Friends:
We'd carefully planned a week off after Bromyard and so of course,
this didn't happen. Nicole needed to add the finishing touches to
the portrait of Keith Donnelly and so it was back to Coventry. Fortunately
the wisdom and industry that are Isambarde's trademarks had been
put to good use and we joined them at the Fletch for a double-bill
which quickly turned into a triple when Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer
made the journey up from Essex as a special treat. It was a great
night for us all, and for Keith Parris and the club.
4. And Time for Another Drive:
After a return to Bromyard for "Thank Folk It's Friday"
we then headed North for a final mini-tour of Scotland. John had
worked overtime filling the week up with gigs and we certainly worked
hard. Clubs in Edinburgh, Glenfarg, Chapelton, Dunfermline, Falkirk
and then over to Newcastle. "Why Newcastle?" we hear you
ask. Because the Essex Singers Club was our Saturday gig, then back
onto the plane to Newcastle to play the South Shields Folk Club
the next night. An absolutely wonderful, crazy race around the countryside.
But what fun!!! South Shields was a special treat, with the night
starting with a tune session. A great tradition.
Even though we ended the week falling about with fatigue, we did
manage to have a few touristy moments, with a trip to the Falkirk
Wheel (the world's first and only rotating boat lift! Wow!) and
the Rosslyn Chapel (apparently named after Nicole's mum). The Rosslyn
Chapel is an amazing place, but appears to be suffering a little
from being featured in the book, The Da Vinci Code, with
one tourist stamping on the floor, then turning to Nicole and whispering
conspiratorially, "Hollow". But despite the madness, the
chapel is well worth a visit, with seemingly every surface being
covered in beautifully intricate carvings. Here's John next to the
spiralling "Apprentice Pillar". The legend has it that
while the master craftsman was away, the apprentice carved this
pillar to show off his skill, all the other pillars in the chapel
being carved without the spiral. On his return, the master was so
incensed he killed the apprentice on the spot with his hammer. Every
year, the story is acted out in the chapel in the form of a play.
And then a few days off, with lots of sleep and a bit more touristy-wandering
around Gateshead (birthplace of Nicole's grandmother, without whom
our ancestry visas would not have been possible). A highlight was
a visit to the Marsden Grotto, a pub at the foot of a cliff near
South Shields and built out of an old smuggler's cave.
5. The Home Stretch:
After a few days off, it was back into the gigs with 7 performances
in 8 nights and then the Banbury Canalside Folk Festival to finish
the tour. It was a wonderful opportunity to see some of the wonderful
people we'd met over the 18-months of racing around. It was a fairly
emotional time, and we sang our heads off all week in the lead up
to our final festival gigs.
Banbury was always going to be special for us. It was our last
festival on this amazing trip, Vicki and Jonny were joining us to
finish the festival's final concert as a four-piece (always a treat
for us), Derek and Mary had become friends from very early on in
the tour, and a lot of other friends were making a special effort
to be there, AND, we were making instruments for the Banbury Canalside
Polypipe Whacky Band! But we did it. The weekend was an amazing
and beautiful one for us. So many friends and beautiful moments.
The Whacky Band proved to be a great success, the gigs were great
fun and we didn't blub, although there was a close call when we
were presented with a cake in the shape of a fiddleship. (You can
check out Keith Kittson's great photos of the gig at folkfoto.co.uk.)
All in all, a wonderful way to finish our performances in the UK.
And on the last day of Banbury, we said farewell to Swaggy the
Camper. She'd been a real boon to us on this amazing journey, but
at least she's gone to a good home,with Jan Davis deciding that
she was just the trick for her future festival adventures.
6. The Last Few Days:
As every traveller knows, there are always things to do before
you get on the plane and never enough time to do everything. Thanks
to the generosity of Vicki and Jonny we had a warm and friendly
home in which to spend our last few days before heading to Heathrow.
It was very hard to leave such wonderful friends. Our final night
was spent in London with Don and Ang and then we were off on the
big white bird.
7. But Wait, There's More:
Figuring that going straight home wouldn't be complicated enough,
we had made contact with the Hong Kong Folk Society and organised
a gig on the way. We had four fantastic nights in Hong Kong with
Charlie and Sue. As well as performing at Delaney's Irish Pub in
Wanchai, we were royally fed and guidedabout by these wonderful
Aussies (our first night saw us in an Australian bar drinking VB
- a real shock after English ale).
We ate and ate and ate our way around Hong Kong, as well as making
the mandatory tourist excursions to the Peak and across to Stanley
Markets. Nic loaded up the luggage with rare and beautiful silks
to make costumes, and we made huge inroads into our Christmas shopping.
Hong Kong was a great way to ease us back into a more familiar
time zone as well. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the
airport and to start the last leg home.
8. Back in the Land of Oz:
And at last we've made it back home. It's a real mind-blast to
be back among familiar trees and birds again. That may sound a bit
strange, but these are the things which can really define a place.
The noises!We're looking forward to what the new year holds in store,
with lots of miles to do and gigs to play. We also have an enormous
pile of cds which we're expecting in the post any day - lots to
listen to and learn from. We're back in our old house at Morningside
at least until early next year, we've found ourselves a van (not
quite Swaggy, but at least it makes a fair fist of approaching the
speed limit) andwe're counting the days before the Woodford Folk
Festival (now that's going to feel like coming home!)
Next week sees us off to Victoria for the Troubadour weekend and
a catch-up with friends in Victoria.So to all of our new friends
in the UK, we'll be back in July and to all of our old friends in
Australia, let's do lunch!
The Journey Continues.With love from the road,
Nicole and John
January, 2005 - The Land of Oz.
1. Greetings
First of all, a belated seasonal greeting to all who come this
way. We've been lucky enough to make a lot of new friends in the
past year and we think of you all often. May your year be full of
blessings, music and love.
2. Being Home.
After the non-stop travelling of last year, being in one place
for a while came as something of a shock. And so of course, the
solution was to not stay in one place for long. But we had to settle
to some extent at first. We moved back into our old house in Brisbane's
inner-East (Morningside for those with street directories), rediscovered
old shopping haunts and favourite cafes, and began the long process
of unpacking, having cds pressed and remembering all the instruments
that we hadn't packed into our suitcases (did you know Nicole has
a lovely acoustic bass?)
Brisbane
is home for us and it was with great delight that we once again
roamed the parks and enjoyed the beauty of the Brisbane river which
winds windingly through the windiest parts of this ....
Anyway, here's a picture.
3. A Bit of a Relax
After
having a big sleep, Nic headed North to Townsville to visit her
family and reconnect with her tropical roots. The last time she'd
seen her parents was in the UK and given they'd travelled to see
her, a payback seemed in order. She did all of the usual North Queensland
things like visiting Magnetic Island, eating far too much fresh
mango, walking on the beach and catching up with friends. Typical
November thing to do. Back in Brisbane, John engaged in manly pursuits
such as ten-pin bowling and cattle-rustling with the wonderful Martin
Pearson.
Shortly after our return, we had our first UK visitor with Emma
Heath (of Emma
and the Professor) coming to stay for a few days. It was interesting
to see what she made of life in Brisbane, including her first taste
of fresh mango ("like a cross between an orange and a parsnip"
- we're not sure if Emma fully appreciates the glory of the mango).
4. Back to Work
After a few weeks of frantically lolling about we set off to Victoria
for our first Australian festival for the year. Our good friend Andrew Pattison is a
great patron of folk music in Australia, organising tours, running
festivals, and all the while keeping everyone lubricated with his
spectacular red wines. He had invited us down to central Victoria
for his annual Troubadour
Weekend, and so South we went. To give our English friends an
idea of the trip, the weekend was held at Campaspe Downs, about
100 km (62 miles) North of Melbourne. Melbourne is about 1600 km
(992 miles) from Brisbane. Travelling between gigs in Australia
can involve a lot of driving!
The weekend was a real hoot. It's held in a convention centre in
the Victorian countryside and is always a wonderful party. With
bunkroom accommodation (we opted for the van) it's very reminiscent
of Miskin at Easter, but with different weather. Our friend Jasmine
has posted some photos if you'd like to have a look.
The following week, we spent enjoying Melbourne's coffee and nightlife,
catching up with old friends and setting up some work for later
in the year. Then we were off to yet another winery, for a lovely
afternoon and evening of music at Loxley, with Colcannonon the bill. Good times, marvellous wine and a magnificent sunset.
Not a bad way to spend the day.
And on the way North, we stopped in Sydney to play a concert organised
by Margaret
Walters at the Cafe Church in Glebe. A great night, followed
by a wonderful few days down at Bondi Beach. The drive North which
followed saw us being absolute tourists, stopping at the Big Banana
in Coffs Harbour. The Big Banana, like John, turned 40 in 2004,
a fact which was not lost on him.
5. Some Gigs Closer to Home
After
Sydney, we made our way home for a few gigs, playing in Maleny with
the Goodwills, at the wonderfully-named Madass Folk Club, and finally
on a double-bill with George
Papavgeris visiting from the UK. It was a great delight to see
George and Vanessa again: we'd stayed with them near London while
we were touring, and recorded on George's latest album. We even
got to share the stage as his backing singers! Of course, George
went down a storm in Brisbane and there was celebratory whiskey
to follow.
6. The Biggest Party
It was rare for us not to eventually mention the Woodford
Folk Festival to people we met on the folk scene in the UK.
It is a real highlight of the year for us and of course we'd missed
it in 2003. Woodford is an astonishing artistic catalyst which grew
out of the South-East Queensland folk community in 1987 when the
first Maleny Folk Festival was held. The festival outgrew the Maleny
site and so in 1994, the Queensland Folk Federation purchased land
at Woodford. The festival is held in a large valley, with a natural
amphitheatre at one end. To say the event has grown would be a massive
understatement. This year saw an aggregate audience of around 140
000, attending 400 events featuring 2000 performers over 6 days.
With further land purchases in recent years and some good financial
fortunes, the site is now 320 acres and is owned outright by the
Folk Federation.
Being held over New Year, the festival is our annual party (as
well as being an enormous amount of work). This year cloudstreet played every day, including at the Australian launch concert for The Fiddleship. John was also
up every morning to present the Variety Breakfast at 9 am (yes AM!!!)
with Martin Pearson, and the week included some wonderful sessions,
collaborations and partying. And of course, New Year's Eve would
never be complete without the ABBA singalong (hard to explain that
one - you sort of needed to be there - as about 1500 people were).
The final night of the festival features a huge fire event, with
a choir of about 1000, fireworks, theatre, and all manner of wonder.
The amphitheatre was packed and the beginning of the new year was
well celebrated. It's hard to describe in
words and photos don't really do the event justice, but here are
a couple of glimpses of the night.If you're ever in Australia for
Christmas, you reallyshould make the effort to experience this festival!
7. A Little More Travelling
After the wild and woolly Woodford experience, we
settled down for a few days by the beach at Peregian on the Sunshine
Coast. An Irish music session with the Barleyshakes at Noosa was a real treat and we stayed for a few extra days to
play at the Noosa benefit concert for the victims of the tsunami
in Asia, Sunshine Aid for a Brighter Day.
And now we're back in Brisbane for a few days before
once again heading South to Victoria.
And so the journey continues.
We hope this update finds you all well. We'll see
you down the road.
Love
John and Nicole
May 2005 - At Home On The Road
1.Back to Victoria
It became clear very quickly that we were going to spend a fair
amount of time on the road during our months in Australia before
heading overseas again in July. Continuing our substantial investment
in the petroleum and secondhand van industries, we were soon once
again on the road to Victoria, this time for the Chewton
Folk Festival. Organised jointly by Andrew Pattison and the
master flute-maker Michael
Grinter, and held in a small town near Castlemaine in central Victoria,
Chewton is a wonderful gathering (Andy Irvine once described it
as "The best festival I've ever been to"). Given Michael's
influence there was no shortage of beautiful Irish flutes at the
late-night pub session (I counted 16 one night), and the concert
series was well-serviced by Andrew's fine wines.
A highlight was the trad disco in the town hall - the magnificent
Ado from Trouble
in the Kitchenorganised this extravaganza, with two Apple
Powerbooks, a mirror ball, and a crowd ready to stomp to the likes
of Noel Hill ("Here's the reel you've all been waiting for!").
The final day saw the now annual Strings vs Winds cricket match
easily won by the team with the greatest breath control.
After a great weekend at Chewton, we spent time in Melbourne, catching
up with friends and family, enjoying the wonderful food and playing
at the Melbourne Folk Club.
2. And To Brisbane.
Once again it was time to hit the road for the three-day drive
back to Brisbane (you can do it in two, but why rush?). We'd realised
we were going to be on the road for a couple of months from mid-February
and so we thought it was time to pack up the rest of our belongings
and transfer everything into storage.There were also some jobs to
do. John was busy organising the production of a show at the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival (more on that later) and Nicole was
finding time to create the artworks for the show and to once again
launch herself into Green Man production. We also found some time
to see long-lost friends in Brisbane.
After 2 weeks we were packed, stored, tuned and ready to go.
3. A Wedding Beckons.
A trip out of our driveway wouldn't be complete without a stop in Victoria and so we once again ventured down the Newell Highway
(for those non-Australians reading this, all proper roads should
have names rather than numbers). First stop was Melbourne for our
friend Andrew's buck's night. Being a strictly men-only affair,
all the women in attendance were required to dress as men (see right).
The night was great fun, with lots of lovely wine, and some watermelon
dancing (don't ask).
Andrew Pattison has been a mainstay of the folk music scene in
Australia for many years, establishing the Troubadour Cafe in Melbourne
and then later running the Troubadour Wine Bar at some of Australia's
largest festivals. He and Heather have been great friends to us
and we were very glad to be able to attend their wedding at their
new Burke and Wills Winery in Central Victoria (yes, this is the
same Andrew who organises all those festivals). The wedding coincided
with the opening of the winery and resulted in a fabulous party.
The ceremony itself was beautiful, being held under a magnificent
gum tree in the grounds of the winery, and with all those prepared
to attend in red dresses taking the part of bridesmaids. The music
saw us all well into the night. A great occasion.
4. And Then To The West.
After the wedding we were off for two weeks in Western Australia
- our first trip to the other side of Australia. Nicole's sister
Jill lives and works in Perth and so we were keen to catch up, as
well as having some gigs to play.
First up, we headed to Kulcha in the heart of Fremantle, a great venue for live music. The following
week saw us at the Nannup
Music Festival, catching up with Kristina Olsen and Pete Morton
as well as lots of Australian friends. The Beetles concert with
Bernard Carney was particularly good fun, but the highlight was
definitely a sunset concert with Jay
Turner and Cath Mundy on the Sunday night (at a winery, of course).
The two weeks flew by, with lots of swimming at Cottesloe Beach,
but before we knew it, it was time to fly back East.
5.Some Racing Around.
The weekend after Nannup saw us back at Andrew's for the Burke
and Wills Festival. Yet another tremendous weekend of song,
wine and fun, with Kristina Olsen and Peter Morton at the party
again, with James Keelaghan and Oscar Lopez, and Alistair Hulett
rounding out the international crowd. Billed as "probably the
smallest festival in the world"(no correspondence will be entered
into), the Burke and Wills weekend is great fun, and coincides with
one of the biggest festivals in the world, the Port
Fairy Folk Festival. As no weekend would be complete without
a drive, we played at Andrew's on Friday night, drove the 4 and
a half hours to Port Fairy on Saturday, took part in the Eureka
concert on Saturday, sang into the night at the bar, helped out
with the second Eureka concert the next day, and drove back to Andrew's
for another concert. A tiring weekend, but a great chance to catch
up with musical mates we hadn't seen in ages. And heading back to
Andrew's always feels like going home.
6.Fun Times at the National.
Australia's National Folk Festival in Canberra is the compulsory
annual musicians' party for us. Great venues, always a terrific
lineup and an unparalleled session bar. And this year we had Keith
Donnelly on his first trip to Oz. We had a great week, with
a monster ballad session led by Jenny Fitzgibbon, early-morning
tune sessions for beginners (Nicole on violin and John and concertina)
with the festival culminating in the ever-important midnight-to-3am,
unprogrammed last-night concert. Under the supervision of Martin
Pearson were gathered Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, Roy Bailey, Martin,
John, and James Keelaghan. Three hours later, we stopped singing
and all went to our respective beds, tired but happy. (And John
wore his special jacket).
6.The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien.
John
has performed with Martin Pearson almost constantly since they met
at a festival in Kuranda in North Queensland in about 1989. Martin
is an amazing parody writer and performer, with a great gift for
interpretation of songs and a lightning-fast wit. In the dim dark
past, the two began performing together as Never
the Twain, releasing
3 albums (2 of which are lost in time, but John will burn you bits
if you ask nicely enough). While we were in the UK, what began as
Martin's short parody of the first Lord of the Rings movie
exploded into a 2-hour comedy show and The
Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkienwas born. It was decided
that the two would once again join together, with John producing
the show for the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival. And so we found ourselves back
in Melbourne for three weeks, learning how to encourage Martin into
radio studios and comedy-lovers into our theatre.
In the end, the three-week run went down a treat, with the occasional
full house and a lot of joy-filled punters screaming for more. Here's
a picture of Martin in both full costume and flight.
7. But Let's Not Forget...
Fearing that we'd get too much sleep if all we did was produce
a show for three weeks, we drove back to Canberra
and had a fabulous night at the Merry
Muse Folk Club, on a double-bill
with Bob Fox. It was a
great night for many reasons,not least of which the attendance of
a young man wearing a BEAVER HAT!!!! He had constructed this masterpiece
without any knowledge of our version of Two
Sisters and the shameful euphemism therein. Here it is
in all it's glory. (John wore it for the song, but it danced and
the resulting pictures were just too suggestive for this family-friendly
site. Here's a shot of our host for the night, Bill, instead).
And a week after the Muse, we found ourselves at one of Melbourne's
great folk venues, The
Boite World Music Cafefor another night of fun, and then
the day after Bolkien's final show, we were off to Central
Victoria (at least it's on the way home) to support the legendary Eric Bogle.
8. A Rest (of sorts) Back in Queensland.
We
drove back to Brisbane, managed a few days rest up at Noosa, caught
up on some sleep, played at the new Mullumbimby Folk Club in Northern
New South Wales, had a wonderful time at the Woodford Folk Festival
Tree-planting Weekend, spent some time in Brisbane with one of John's
sisters, managed a couple of wonderful weeks at Noosa (thanks Jan),
swam in the surf and organised a series of singing and performance
workshops with some Brissie friends (have a look at the website if you're interested and/or likely to be in Brisbane between 14
May and 26 June. (John even went fishing!).
We're looking forward now to a couple of months of house-sitting,
with time devoted to practising, collecting and writing some more
music.
And so the journey continues.
As always we hope this finds you all well and with your lives full
of love,
Nicole and John
September 2005 - A-Journeying We Go
1. The Voices
We joined our friends Andrea Baldwin and Helena Bond to form The
Voices, a workshop-running collective, based in Brisbane. Helena
and Andrea initiated the idea and we were more than happy to join
in. Together we ran a series of singing and performance workshops
in Brisbane between May and July. Demand for the courses led to
a second series being added and eventually about 60 singers enrolled
and together we stretched, learnt and sang, exploring harmonies,
warm-ups, improvisation, tone, pitch and more. We plan further series
in 2006.
July also saw Angie Kitzelman's karaoke birthday party. a disturbingly
enjoyable and absolutely unforgettable night (New York, New York!!!!!!).
2. Fun at the Judy
We
planned a big night for our final Australian concert before our
second UK tour, and Chris Bowen and the crew at the Judith
Wright Centre, a state-run arts centre in inner-city Brisbane,
gave us a great night. Rebecca Wright joined us both as support
act and on cello for the last few numbers of the night. It was wonderful
to be joined by so many friends (see pic) for a beautiful send-off.
3. The Big Bird to the Other Side of the World, and a Party
The joys of Royal Brunei took us to Heathrow in three 7-hour hops.
We arrived in July to be met at the airport
by Jonny Dyer (of Jonny and Vicki from our Fiddleship album). A couple of days later, we'd acquired a car (faster than
the old camper) with the help once again of John Hare (St John of
Essex). This time we're getting about the place in a 1994 Peugeot
405 Turbo Diesel. Cool. We set ourselves up to travel, just in time
to go to Vicki's birthday party. The local pub is a classic (The
Willows) and a whole lot of musical buddies got together there
to celebrate. Dinner was followed by the inevitable session, including
the guys from Isambarde(that's the top half of Chris' head).
4. Time to Work
After a few days of recovery from jetlag (and the party), it was
time to go to work. Our first gigs were in the form of a tour for
the charity, Music
in Hospitals. These guys organise around 6500 concerts a
year in aged care homes, children's hospitals and hospices all around
the UK. They booked us for occasional gigs during our last tour,
and we really enjoyed singing in hospitals, so this time we were
off to Northern Ireland.
We spent 10 days in and around Belfast, playing twice a day and
navigating desperately between hospitals, and along the way meeting
amazing groups of people. Our job was to entertain them with a variety
of mostly lighthearted material, tailoring our repertoire to each
group, playing requests as well as items from our regular songlist
and including tune sets. Waltzing Matilda was the surprise hit!
We were amazed to find the extent to which the arts are incorporated
into the health sector in Northern Ireland. (One regional hospital
authority we encountered employs a resident artist, a resident musician
and a resident dancer whose full-time jobs are to involve patients
in the arts - a truly amazing network.)
5. Back to England
The Portsmouth and Southsea Show was the first gig of the tour
organised by our new agent, Jacey Bedford. The Southsea show was
great fun, a real seaside fair, with musical stages surrounded by
stalls and genuine "fairground attractions", including
the last travelling helter skelter (104 years old). Of course, we
couldn't resist that one.
After a few days at Southsea, we were off to Kent for the Broadstairs
Folk Festival. We had three great gigs, and the highlight was
playing as a six-piece with Vicki
Swan and Jonny Dyer and Tom
Bliss and Tom Napper in the Methodist Chapel. A terrific night,
wonderful music and wonderful friends.
6. A Place to Call Home (for a while)
During our days off we'd organised to stay with Jacey at her home
in Yorkshire. This meant that we at last had a base - a place to
recuperate, rehearse and prepare for the next run of gigs. We had
a week off after the Irish trip and the first few gigs, and it was
great to have somewhere to spend the time. We set about some serious
relaxation.
The following week, we played at our first clubs of the tour (Northampton and Uppermill). At Uppermill
we were told about the Rushcart to be held that weekend. The rushcart
is a tradition which is re-created each year in Uppermill. Every
Winter, a cart is built to collect rushes to be strewn on the floor
of the local church. The laden cart is paraded around all the villages
in the area, pulled by as many morris teams as can be mustered.
The band (which John joined after the first pub) consisted of 17
melodeons, 1 concertina, 6 drummers, 2 bass drums, 1 fiddler, 1
flute and 1 euphonium, and were joined by roughly 120 dancers.
A twelve-mile walk, a very long day, and a whole
lot of fun.
7. A-Gigging We Shall Go.
While it was great to have a few days off in August,
we came here to gig and it wasn't long before we were back on the
road. A huge weekend at Bridgnorth beckoned. Sunday saw us start the day with a singing workshop (a
terrific and enthusiastic group of around 60), followed by gigs
on all three of the major stages at the festival, as well as two
chances to sing harmonies with Kristina
Olsen, who was also booked at the festival. Long days but great
gigs.
The next weekend was one of the wildest runs we've
ever had. Glasgow, Burntwood in the Midlands, Lewes in Sussex and then the Wallingford Bunkfest to top the whole thing
off. A lot of miles and a lot of fun. They even turned on Queensland
Summer weather at Wallingford to make us feel at home.
8. We've Never Been There Before.
We had another week off and our Aussie mate, Suzanna
was in Morocco. And so... Well, we'd be crazy not to. Follow the link to Nicole's diary.
9. And Back to Work.
After sun, sand and donkeys, we were back to Jacey's
and back into the gigs. Another run of clubs, including a catch-up
with former Townsville-dwellers Dave and Linda at Northwich, and
our introduction to Sutton Folk Club in Bedfordshire - two great
nights, and there were even some relaxing tunes after Sutton.
We have a couple of days off at the moment. We delighted
in a fabulous Irish session at Freshford, running into a guitarist
we met two years ago in Ireland! Nicole is always looking for a
chance to play tunes. And then it's back on the road. October's
looking busy!
And so the journey continues.
We hope this update finds you all well. We'll see you down the
road.
Love
John and Nicole
February 2006 - There and Back Again
It's been a while since our last update and so we have lots to
catch up on. This is what we've been up to since September last
year, when we were still in the UK, enjoying the touring and another
Summer full of sunshine.
1. October
After a run of folk clubs throughout September, we really settled
into the rhythm of travel in October (One four day jaunt saw us
in York, Southampton, Birmingham and South Shields on consecutive
nights!). Along the way, we encountered even more of Nicole's seemingly
endless supply of relatives, caught up with a lot of old friends,
and played at some beautiful clubs (One of our favourites being
The Sutton Folk Club in Bedfordshire). This tour saw us travelling
to a lot of clubs where we had not previously played, as well as
a fair few return visits to places we'd been in 2004. It was a real
treat having Jacey Bedford looking after the organisational side
of the tour, making it possible for us to concentrate our energies
on our performances.
We did manage to find time to be tourists as well
as playing, even making it to Stonehenge between two gigs. John
was happy that there was no repeat of his first visit, when he emerged
from the tunnel to see the ancient stones among the mist, only to
hear a loud, harsh voice from behind him (you guess the accent),
"IT'S NOT AS BIG AS I THOUGHT IT'D BE". To balance things
up, on the right you'll find a photo of John appearing to be much
larger than you thought he'd be.
Towards the end of the tour, we managed a
few days of down-time at Birdsedge and for Nicole's birthday, celebrated
with Canadian band Tanglefoot who were staying with Jacey and playing at the beautifully restored
local village hall. A great night.
We finished the month off with the Sheffield
Folk Festival. Once again, we had the pleasure of teaming up
with Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer to play our final performance as
a four-piece. (Plans are afoot to get these guys to Australia, so
we can repeat the experience on our home turf - we have a dream
to meet up with them at Woodford, but we're not sure that small-pipes
like the heat - more on that later).
2. Off to the Channel
As well as Jacey, our friends at Music
In Hospitals were looking after us well on this trip, and so
after we'd finished off the folk clubs and festivals, we were off
to Jersey for a leisurely 29 performances in 11 days. Fortunately,
Jersey isn't all that big a place (about 8 miles by 5 miles), but
they have managed to cram 400 miles of road onto the island. Astonishing
how many times you can become lost in so small a place. We had a
great time on Jersey, finding it a land rich in aged-care facilities,
amazing sunsets and ever-flowing Harvey's Bristol Cream.
The hospital performances are necessarily different
to our normal folk-club repertoire, with lots of opportunities for
singing along, and trips down memory lane. We are also always open
to requests, occasionally being thrown completely (We even managed
to rise to the occasion when someone wanted an Elvis cover).
We were well looked after on Jersey, and after three
gigs a day, we left exhausted but happy (and we've said "yes"
to Guernsey for 2006).
3. A Jaunt on the Continent
After a hectic tour in the UK and a madly busy time on Jersey,
we were ready for a break. Our friend Wilna (of Christmas generosity
and Wilna's Dance fame) found herself in the beautiful
French town of Lalinde, with an all-but-empty chateau, and so we
leapt to her assistance. We were very tired and didn't know what
to expect (we are desperately short in the chateau department in
Australia). WOW!
A short drive from the Bergerac airport, the chateau seemed like
a magic place to us. Turrets! The Dordogne flowing outside the windows!
It was almost impossible to believe, but there it was. Once again,
Wilna made us welcome and we had time, space and the perfect surroundings
in which to relax. Four days later, we flew back to Stansted, our
hearts full of our wonderful time in France.
4. Once More Onto the Big Bird
After France (God, that sounds posh!) we had a couple of days in
Essex with Jonny and Vicki and then we were off to Heathrow, and
into the arms of Royal Brunei, and the three 7-hour hops home. We
left England, just as the weather was starting to turn, and arrived
back in Australia, just as temperatures were starting to rise. Brisbane
can be humid place over Summer, but we weren't sticking around to
find out - we headed North after a couple of days to visit Nicole's
parents in Townsville - Tropical North Queensland.
5. Fresh Fields Closer to Home
While we were in the UK, John had organised a short tour in New
Zealand to investigate the scene there, and so, after only 10 days
back in Australia, we were off again. We spent two weeks driving
around some of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable, combining
our tour with a little bit of holiday time. Beautiful beaches, with
snow-capped mountains in the background. Lovely folk clubs, great
people and absolutely incredible wines.
We flew into Christchurch in the early hours of the morning (made
it to our accommodation at around 3am, thanks to the plane being
delayed at Brisbane Airport by lightning strikes!). Next day, we
picked up our car and headed off to Blenheim for our first gig.
A great house concert (thanks Terry and Helen), and then off to
Nelson the next day. This time we played at Fairfield
House, a restored mansion overlooking this harbour town. A beautiful
room, and (best of all) a great session into the early hours to
follow the gig - of course there happened to be fiddle and flute
players in the room.
We drove over the range to Golden Bay and Takaka, home of the Mussel
Inn. It is hard to describe how wonderful this place is. Andrew
and Jane built this venue from scratch and have created a beautiful
building where the local community gather and party. With music
every weekend of the year, it's well worth a visit. Gilly
Darbey described it to us as "like playing inside a huge
guitar" (not quite sure how she knows).
(Editor's Note: Among the
brews produced in the Mussel Inn's micro-brewery, they make a Manuka
beer. Based on a recipe used by Captain Cook to avoid scurvy among
his crews, the beer is flavoured with the tips of leaves from the
Manuka tree. Notwithstanding my delightful experiences of English
Real Ales, I have after much consideration, concluded that:
"Captain Cooker's Manuka Beer from the
Mussel Inn in Takaka is AS GOOD AS BEER CAN POSSIBLY GET."
This decision is final. No correspondence will
be entered into.)
We made the return journey to Christchurch and the Christchurch Folk Club.
Once again, great hospitality, with another branch of the folk family
making us welcome. We took the opportunity to explore Christchurch,
before driving all the way back to the top of the South Island.
There we caught the ferry to the North Island.
Palmerston
North Folk Music Club was first. The crowd in the Theosophical
Hall gave us a warm reception, and in the next two days we had another
chance to experience some of New Zealand's natural beauty, this
time in a glorious valley just outside town. Our next stop was the
West coast and Gill Winter's Upstairs Room. Gill runs the Flying
Piglets as well as the venue, and has made a lot of performers
welcome in this excellent venue above her home in North Taranaki.
We were by now into the home stretch of this short trip, heading
down to Wellington for the Acoustic Routes club in the
Wellington Arts Centre. A terrific club to finish the trip, followed
by an early morning flight back to Australia.
We highly recommend that you visit New Zealand, and
we certainly hope to be back there in 2007.
5. Woodford.
We had 10 days of catching our breath in Australia, enjoying being
back in our home town, and seeing family and friends for Christmas.
Our next destination was only an hour away but, as always, a trip
to the Woodford Folk Festival is a journey to another world. Every year is different, with the
festival representing an amazing coalescence of music, visual arts
and the use of the physical environment to create a true cultural
festival. We were very busy, it was incredibly hot, and once again,
the festival was a totally engaging, amazing life experience.
Cloudstreet performed every day at Woodford, singing in the opening ceremony
and as part of the fire event, playing in the Children's Festival
and presenting a Green Man dance and song cycle, in conjunction
with Queensland's Belswagger Morris. Nicole and the other
members of TheVoices also ran two successful
singing workshops, while John was up every morning to co-present
the Variety Breakfast with Martin Pearson.
6. A Month of Rest and Then We Journey North.
After a long year of travelling, we had time in January to stop
for a while, catch up on our sleep and start the process of rebuilding
for the new year. It was good to have time to get some perspective
on 2005, and to start work on some of our plans for 2006 (including
a new album!)
Two weeks after Woodford we packed the van and headed North to
Townsville. Unlike our normal rushing about, we decided to take
our time and spread the trip out over 4 days (the normal plan is to do the 1600km (1000 miles) over two
days, with a break around Rockhampton). And so we took it easy,
on the first night stopping at Inskip Point, near Rainbow Beach,
about an hour off the highway. A beautiful National Park campsite
on the beach (the view from our camp is on the right).
The next day saw us off to make the halfway mark near Rockhampton,
stopping just North of the city at the Capricorn Caves, a series
of limestone caves full of bentwing bats. Of course, we ran into
some travellers from Townsville who remembered us from the folk
club there. (It makes you feel very famous when the only other people
in a campground greet you with, "You're John Thompson"
- so, for the record, my 15 minutes of fame was spent in Rockhampton).
In the morning we toured the caves (including singing in the underground
chapel - an amazing acoustic space), and then we headed back to
the highway and North... and into the rain. 'Though we'd planned
to continue our leisurely pace, we drove into steady rain that felt
as though it would never stop. We decided that camping would not
be as much fun as we'd like, and that we'd better keep driving.
The rain slowed us down, the closer we got to Townsville, the more
often we found water running over the highway, and so the later
it became. We persevered, and after 12 hours on the road, we arrived
at Nicole's parents house at around 10.30pm. We slept.
(We learned the next day that Townsville measured 290mm of rain
on the day we were driving (just shy of 12 inches) - as much rain
as they'd had in the preceding 12 months. Great day for a drive.)
7. Music in the North.
Our journey to Townsville was, in part, to spend time with Nicole's
parents, but also to run a series of singing workshops in our old
stomping ground. The interest in the workshops was tremendously
gratifying, easily outstripping our expectations. Sunday, 5 February
was our first three-hour session, with a terrific bunch of 30 singers
gathering at the Rocks Guesthouse on Melton Hill, overlooking Cleveland
Bay and Magnetic Island. We're looking forward to the next two weekend
sessions, and then a concert at the Townsville School of Arts Theatre
(home of Dance North) on Saturday the 25th.
8. Coming Up.
After our time in Townsville, we'll be heading South for the Port
Fairy Folk Festival in March, we'll be in the recording studio,
April is full of festivals and May sees us back in the UK for another
tour.
And so the journey continues.
We hope this update finds you all well. We'll see you down the
road.
Love
John and Nicole
May 2006
- The Road Beckons
As always, we've been keeping busy. Since February we've recorded
a new album (of which we are very proud), crammed as much work as
possible into an exciting April and travelled once more to England
for another tour.
1. Singing in the North in February.
February was spent in North Queensland running a series of singing
workshops under the title Find Your Voice and Sing. The
workshop series was a lot of fun and far exceeded our expectations,
with eventually 49 students enrolling in the various classes over
the month. The group was extraordinary, committing a lot of time
and a lot of trust in their voices. The work really paid off - we
had fun together, we learnt together and the singing was superb.
To top the month off, we performed at the School of Arts Theatre
in Townsville (home of Dance
North) where we joined by 20 singers from the workshops
for a grand finale sing. It was a terrific way to finish the month
and for all of the singers to lift the rafters with Time
is a Tempest. We were very proud.
Nicole was especially busy during the whole of February, having
booked a studio beneath the Umbrella Gallery, and spending some
time every day painting. She finished the month with some fabulous
work. (Our artworks page is currently undergoing some refurbishment,
but we'll let you know when it's up and running).
2. Port Fairy
March saw us drive back to Brisbane for a few days of downtime
and catching up with friends, a chance for a session at the Broadway
and then off to Port
Fairy Folk Festival on the Southern coast of Victoria. One of
Australia's biggest festivals, we were delighted to find that our
first gig was in front of a cloud-covered backdrop - now that's
planning!
Being in Victoria also meant a chance to see Andrew and Heather
at the Burke and Wills Winery, where we joined in the Burke
and Wills Festival on Monday night, along with James
and Nancy, Kristina
Olsen and Peter Grayling, and Martin
Pearson with his new group, the MP3. A wonderful night
with friends to finish off a busy weekend. The next day we were
off back to Queensland and...
3. Back Into the Studio
Our plans for a new album came to a head in the middle of March
when we travelled up to Conondale on the Sunshine Coast hinterland
to record. We stayed with the Goodwills (thanks Bob and Laurel) and headed down the mountain every morning
to record. We had great plans for Dance Up The Sun and
a friend had recommended a man by the name of Pixie to do the recording
(which we thought was a good sign). Pix Vane Mason was a godsend
to us - a fabulously
supportive, good-humoured, and technically gifted soundie, living
in a beautifully isolated house at the foot of the hills behind
Maleny. The process of recording was made a little bit frantic by
our time constraints, but it also turned out to be a real pleasure,
with a lovely verandah to relax on between takes, whip-birds in
the trees and no major disasters along the way. Over three days
of recording, we started to see the ideas we had for our new songs
crystallise, with new layers being added each day. Once the tracks
were down, we moved straight into mixing and finally mastering,
with Nicole all the while developing the artwork. Eight days after
we'd started work with Pix, we travelled down to Brisbane and handed
over the master recording and the artwork. It was marathon week,
but we are over the moon about the results. A special treat for
us was to be joined once again by Rebecca
Wright, who played cello on Sweetest
Complexity, John's new love-song to whiskey.
You can check out Dance Up The Sun on our music
page (where you can also order a copy). Our special thanks go
to all of those who helped us along the way by pre-ordering.
4. A Few Days to Relax
After the madness of recording and the race to the deadline, we
were ready for a bit of time back in Brisbane, to see friends and
to pack for the next leg of the journey. We found ourselves a temporary
home in Herston with the wonderful Shez Wright and the gang at Bramston
Terrace, venue for many a bacchanalian party. We'd almost forgotten
what it was like to have a base and it was a great pleasure to unpack
and sprawl a little. We had ten days of lying about and recharging
the batteries.
5. A Very Busy April
We were ready for a big month ahead as we headed to the airport,
with the cd safely off to the presses.
First stop was Sydney, where Chris and Prue looked after us down
at Bondi, we caught up with John's step-brother Peter (who with
his partner Kate form the duo Lyrebird), celebrated John's
birthday, and performed with George
Papavgeris at the North by Northwest Folk Club. We
also had a chance to catch up and have a sing with Kristina
Olsen again, this time at the
Harp. They were busy, fun-filled days in a truly gorgeous city.
And after a few days in Sydney, the Canberra bus took us to the National Folk Festival.
One of our favourite events of the year, the National is always
a great chance to catch up with musicians and friends from around
the country. We were particularly excited this year, as we took
delivery of Dance Up The Sun with only two days to spare
before the festival started. We were billeted with good friends
Lorna and David Garrett, who were also kind enough to find space
for George and Vanessa Papavgeris. George went down a storm at the
National on his first time there, and we had a couple of opportunities
to sing together which was a real treat, and a crossing of worlds.
We launched our brand new cd with the generous help of Belswagger
Morris, our local side who were featured at the festival. Once again,
an (unplanned) cloud-covered backdrop proved ideal for the launch
and Belswagger were perfect, dancing along to our new song, Dance
Up The Sun. The best dancer from the audience received a free
copy of the new cd.
As always, the National meant a chance to spend time with Martin
Pearson, who is featuring this year at both the Festival
at the Edge and the Warwick
Folk Festival. John and Martin performed together on the final
night of the festival, with the annual Martin's party this year
including George and as always, starting at midnight and continuing
into the early hours. (Martin's Tolkien parody, The
Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien has achieved legendary
status in Australia and should not be missed if you have a chance
to see him in the UK).
A highlight for John this year was being invited to take part in
the World Poetry Debate. Each year, the National includes this debate
as part of its spoken word programme. The topic of debate always
relates to poetry in some way, and the debaters' contributions must
be in verse. This year
the topic was Poetry is Seditious and (needless to say,
ed.) John led the affirmative team to a glorious victory. Here's
a pic of the winning team (John, Bruce
Watson and Carole
Heuchen) with the MacArthur's Fart trophy.
We had a fabulous year at the National and left exhausted but happy,
heading for...
6. The Wild West
2006 saw us playing at the Fairbridge
Festival for the first time and so we hopped on the big bird
and flew from Canberra to Perth. Nicole's sister Jill met us at
the airport and we were whisked off to see her new house in Fremantle
(with its fabulously beautiful, polished jarrah floors). After a
couple of restful days, we headed to the festival site, about an
hour South of Perth. We had a great weekend at the historic
festival site, and caught up properly with a lot of people we'd
seen only too briefly the weekend before in Canberra, including Chris and Julie who were over touring from the UK.
After the festival, it was back on the bus to Perth (with a lot
of interesting, lost-luggage-led side-trips). We played in Fremantle
at Kulcha as part of a triple-bill
(Martin Pearson, cloudstreet and Never the Twain,
John's occasional duo with Martin). We had a great night and hope
to be back there next time we're in the West.
After an all-too-short stay, it was time to head back East for
Wintermoon.
This lovely festival on private land North of Mackay has always
been a special occasion for us. We were returning after a four year
break due to our travelling and other commitments, but we were quickly
welcomed back into the Wintermoon family. The layout of the site
is perfect for collaborations with other performers, and we had
plenty of opportunities to play and sing with our friends, and be
joined on stage in return. Wintermoon now has two festivals a year,
so if ever you're about, check it out.
On the art front, Nicole had seen a lot of people at the National
wearing coloured horns. As is her way, she checked them out and
made lots of sets. Wintermoon was where they really came into their
own. Here are some examples:
8. Time to Go
When
the whirlwind that was April finally settled, we had three days
to stop, repack, catch up on some sleep and then head to the airport,
this time bound for London and our third adventure in the United
Kingdom. After a short stop at the Hong Kong airport, we arrived,
lagged and shattered, in Essex to once again enjoy Jonny
and Vicki's hospitality. Masses of sleep later, we found ourselves
at the the Cressing
Temple Barns for the annual Templar's
Fayre. An amazing venue for this event, with lots of costume,
pageantry and apppropriately ancient ballyhoo.
A few days of adjusting to life on the other side of the world,
and then it was time to head North. Back to Yorkshire, where we
will base ourselves for the Summer.
Our first gig was in Warwick at the folk club there, we're back
in our faithful Peugeot and we've even found time to be tourists
and visit Warwick Castle, as well as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
(where we met up with our Australian mates Joe and Kelly and John
got in trouble for lying on a Henry Moore).
9. And So...
We're settling in and looking forward to a busy time ahead. There's
lots of music to be made and we have a few breaks here and there
and are making plans to play tourist a few more times.
That's all of our news for now.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
July 2006 - Summer on the Far Side of
the World
We've been keeping busy in England and Scotland since our last
update in May, incorporating some valuable exploration time into
our schedule. (The photo above was taken at Glastonbury as the sun
rose on 1st June).
1. A-Driving We Will Go
By now we are well used to the British motorway system and after
a leisurely start at Warwick (see previous news), it was time to
hit the roads. First stop was Ely, then Halifax, then Ipswich. Up
and down the country in three nights (about 4-5 hours driving each
day).
Ely was a great club,
held in a restored maltings on the banks of the canal in Ely. It was a treat to have a large
contingent of Australians in the crowd. Our mates Joe and Kelly
were also over from Brisbane and made a special trip to see us -
a welcome surprise.
The next day saw us hurtling Northwards to a beautiful restored
church in Halifax - The
Square Chapel (prizes will be awarded for guessing it's shape
and former function). The very enthusiastic crowd contained quite
a few who came along because they'd seen us play at Cleckheaton
festival in 2004(!). The restorations on this building are sympathetic
to the classic old chapel, and the acoustics are incredible. A feature
of this tour was proving to be fabulous buildings in which to sing
and the next day continued the trend. The tithe barn in the village
of Sproughton,
near Ipswich is being kept in use by a group of locals, and once
again proved to be a very special place to have a sing. We were
joined by Vicki and Jonny for this performance and tried out a few of our new songs as a four-piece
(we'll keep doing that every chance we get!).
2. To the North!
Our next journey was North into Scotland, stopping on the way for
a visit to Bamburgh Castle (we Australians don't have as many opportunities as some to see
castles, and so we take advantage of them whenever we can - especially
when it's "The Finest Castle In England"!)
That night we had a return visit to the Wee Folk Club at the Royal
Oak in Edinburgh. It was a great night, with a full house of
30(it is "wee") and a terrific bunch of singers in the
audience.
With our friends Tom and Sarah, who surprised us by living in Scotland
and not Tasmania, we made a return visit to one of the great destinations
for travellers to Edinburgh - Plaisir
du Chocolat. Chocolate espresso!!!!!!!! Edinburgh was in
pre-festival mode, with their own particular spin being put on the
fibreglass-cow painting epidemic that is sweeping the globe.
Laden down with sweety goodness, we left Edinburgh that afternoon
and headed just up the road to Glenfarg for another night at the Glenfarg Village Folk
Club and some more wonderful singing from the audience. (It
must be something in the air).
Another day of catching up followed (this time with Nicole's relatives,
Bill and Nan), a lovely walk around Aberdeen and then off to Montrose
for the Montrose
Folk Club at the Links Hotel.
(We're hoping that each time we go back to Scotland, we'll make
it a little further North - we're talking about Iona for next year!
Even though its west.).
3. Festival Time!
After all this driving around Scotland, we were ready
for a rest - but... After one night of take-away curries and Buffy
the Vampire Slayer at our Yorkshire base, Jacey's place,
it was time to set off for the Chippenham
Folk Festival. We
had a very busy Saturday, with the highlight being members of the Westrefelda Morris from
Westerfield near Ipswich joining us to perform Dance Up The
Sun.
After Friday night and Saturday at Chippenham we were
back in the car and on the road up to Chester for the Chester
Folk Festival on Sunday and Monday.
Chester was a lovely festival for us, especially as
we had a chance to see some old friends as well as having a good
sing. James Keelaghan was
there, as well as Isambarde (and importantly, Dave and Linda) and we even managed a meal with
Les Barker who happened by. All in all a busy but fun weekend.
4. And While We Were There...
It just wouldn't be a cloudstreet tour if
we didn't make a boat-related detour and so, after the festival,
we popped over to see the Anderton
Boat Lift. Enormous, powerful, and full of boats, the boat lift
is used as a lift for boats. The boats go in and then it lifts them.
The boats are lifted by the boat lift. Hours of fun for the whole
family as you gather together and watch the boats being lifted -
very slowly. Laugh as the boats are lifted, cry as they go up and
down, gasp in awe at the mighty power of the boat lift. It lifts
boats. A must for the desperate tourist.
5. A Few Days in the South
After driving down to Kent for the Faversham
Folk Club, we had a couple of days off and so we headed off
to Glastonbury. We spent two nights at the amazing Shekinashram and indulged ourselves with saunas, massage and yoga, along with
walks up Tor Hill. Glastonbury is a great place to relax - lots
to see. On top of Glastonbury Tor stands the surviving tower from
an early church, with amazing views over the town and surrounding
fields.
6. Rest and Clubs, and Rest and Clubs, and Rest ...
Following our break at Glastonbury, we taught a singing
workshop near Bristol, and checked out the funky area of Clifton
and the Forbidden Planet Megastore. Then we visited our
friend Nancy near Bath and enjoyed some spectacular Summer weather.
A short drive to Swindon saw us at the White
Horse Folk Club (with special thanks to Derrick and Chris for
making us so welcome - and to Lefty for thinking up the whole idea).
Next morning we paid homage to the spectacular and ancient White
Horse of Uffington, cut into the chalk hillside 3000 years ago.
Our next stop was Whitehaven on the coast of Cumbria
(which turned out to be the birthplace of Nicole's grandfather).
Folk in the Barn is held at the Rosehill
Theatre and is full of enthusiastic singers and a welcoming
atmosphere. We had a ball.
After Cumbria and a trip around the Lakes, we had
a quick stop to sing at the Alison Arms Folk Festival on the way home to Birdsedge for a
few days rest. And then the Blackpool Folk Club (Music at the Clarence)
beckoned before we were off to Wales to play at Llantrisant and the Valley Folk Club Pontardawe, with Wessex
Acoustic in Dorset to round out the month's folk clubs. (And
we even found time to visit the fairytale Castell Coch while we
were in Wales).
7. Music in Hospitals
As with our earlier tours, 2006 sees us once again
in partnership with the Council
for Music in Hospitals, performing at hospitals and aged-care
centres across the United Kingdom. This is a wonderful charity,
providing over 5000 performances a year and "providing joy
through live music" (a great mission statement). We finished
June with half a dozen MIH gigs around the Lakes District and enjoyed
a couple of traditional tune sessions along the way.
8. Close to Home
Our most recent work has been in the village of Birdsedge,
where we've been based while in the UK. We were asked to work with
the local Birdsedge First School and so we spent a morning with
class 3, putting together a performance for the weekend's Birdsedge
Village Festival. The kids were fantastic and the crowd needed
no encouragement to go wild. The class learned two songs for the
show and put together word rhythms for a percussion piece ("Barbecued
bananas, spaghetti bolognese, cake!", "Cup-cakes and chocolate
chips" and "France, France, cake!" - do you see a
pattern emerging?)
The Saturday night concert featured the Brian Bedford
Band (with a truly stunning version of Brian's Wings),
a set by cloudstreet and Vin Garbutt to round off the evening
in style.
9. And Now
Tonight sees us off to Lancashire for another club,
then we pick Martin Pearson up before heading off to Festival at
the Edge. We're planning a week in France at the end of July before
heading home to Oz in early August.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
September 2006 - At Home in
the Hills
This update comes to you from Australia, where we're setting up
house in the hills behind Maleny, on the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
But before we get to that bit, here's what we've been up to since
July.
1. A Friend Flies In.
Martin Pearson arrived in the UK in early July. John has sung and
played with Martin since about 1992, and joins him in presenting
the Variety Breakfast each morning at the Woodford
Folk Festival in Queensland. On hearing that he was suffering
severe jetlag, we raced through the night to his rescue after playing
at the Four Fools Folk Club in Lancashire. Braving the wilds of
Chester, we found him, huddled and sneezing at Les Barker's house
in North Wales. We hosed him off, dusted him down, slapped him sideways
and put him in the car. Exhausted but happy, we arrived back at
our Yorkshire base, Jacey's house, at around 3am. Time for bed.
Up at our usual 6 am for calisthenics, cold showers and croissants
(would you believe 10am for coffee, coffee and coffee?) we had a
few days of intense preparation - Genevieve
Tudor had convinced the Festival
at the Edge to book Martin and John to recreate their Australian
breakfast show on English soil. John and Martin watched DVDs with
a never-before-seen intensity, until finally... they were ready.
Festival at the Edge was the first time John and Martin had performed
together in the UK and we were over the moon at the response. The
Festival took advantage of the many Australians in attendance and
featured a Bonzer Aussie Meet with Nicole, John, Martin, and Di
and Mike Jackson. We discussed our homeland with wisdom and sensitivity.
We also made a lot of stuff up.
2. More Work to be Done
After the delights of Shropshire, Martin was off to the South,
while we headed North-east, wending our way around Alnwick, performing
for Music in Hospitals at care homes and hospices around the area.
While we were there, we spent an afternoon at the amazing Alnwick
Garden including a visit to the greatest tree-house in the history
of arborial accommodation. Cleverly named, The
Treehouse is ENORMOUS!!, containing restaurants, shops, ladders,
walkways, an elephant enclosure and 9 million hidden jelly babies
(we didn't have time to see all of these things). The gardens are
definitely worth a visit (and they're just around the corner from
a fabulous second-hand book store. Not to mention a famous castle
with Harry Potter connections).
One of our aims on this trip was to spend a bit more tourist-time
between gigs, and so, on our way to the next festival, we took time
off to check out Hadrian's Wall, saw the Sage in Gateshead (a fabulously modernistic performance venue, rising
like a giant stainless-steel snail over the Tyne), and stopped off
at a few galleries along the way.
3. The Last Few Gigs
Our three months were nearly up, as we headed towards our final
festival of the tour - Brampton
Live. Just outside the city of Carlisle, Brampton Live is a
great festival run by Ken and Sue Bradburn of Emerging
Music. Held at a school, the festival is very much like a typical
Australian festival - based around a specific site, rather than
centred on a town. It was a special celebration for us, with opportunities
to see and play with a whole bunch of friends, including Jonny
and Vicki, the guys from Isambarde and a very special concert on the Sunday with Kristina
Olsen. Billed as Kristina Olsen and Friends, the show
was 90 minutes of some of Kristina's favourite songs, with harmonies
supplied by the two of us and Martin Pearson (who'd come up after
the Warwick festival), along with blues harp and trombone from Rory
McLeod. It was an amazing concert for us, and a real highlight
of the trip - we've had a few chances to sing with Kristina in recent
years, but this really topped them all - great sound, a beautiful
venue and a real chance to let rip.
After a lovely weekend of catching up with friends and singing
our heads off, we were back to Jacey's to farewell the Bedfords
as well as seeing fellow musicians William and Felicia (Pint
and Dale) one last time and enjoying our relaxation drugs of
choice (Indian take-away, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and munching on chocolate) together.
Jacey's really was a wonderful haven for us during the tour.
4. Another Drive
After packing up, deciding what was coming and what was staying,
throwing money at the nice men from Fedex for the balance of our
possessions, and loading the car up one last time, we were off. The Hoy at Anchor was our very last gig for the trip and we had all day to get there.
We stopped off on the way South for a cuppa break with Kate
Tiler and Jack
Greene, both people with wonderful job descriptions - Kate is
a Medieval Tiler, while Jack is ...
Dr Jack Greene - Apothecary, Alchemist and Archmagus
of the Philosopher's Stone
(He must have had a wonderful career's adviser at
school. He also has the coolest work van - here's a pic.)
Jack is a fine example to us all that living our dreams
is possible. When he was a little boy he visited a museum and decided
that one day he would live somewhere like that - surrounded
by all of the weird and wonderful artefacts, the rampant knick-knackery
of ages past. And that is now how he lives. His house is a marvel.
Everywhere you turn, you find new wonders - flintlocks that Jack
has restored or made, potions, carvings, dried pufferfish hanging
with bats and birds, books of ancient wisdoms alongside marvellous
costumes and spinning wheels. We only had a brief visit, but we
hope to be back (Besides, it's always handy to know an alchemist).
After a quick cuppa and a chat, we were back on the
motorway and heading for Essex. A lovely last night at the Hoy with
a lot of terrific singers in the crowd to see us off for the tour.
5. A Day to Recover And Then...
Once the gigs were out of the way, it was time for
a holiday. We were off to France to visit our friend Redshoes and
her chateau at Lalinde.
This beautiful place just filled our hearts, with the river
rushing past under the windows, and relaxed company after all the
rushing about. We checked out the local markets, buried ourselves
under piles of magnificent cheese and talked into the wee hours.
A great bonus was to find Sandy (an Australian friend, author and
broadcaster) visiting at the same time. Once again, we had far too
short a time to visit, but we made sure we conjugated the verb to
eat at a local restaurant before hitting the road again.
The legendary Lorient
Interceltique Festival was happening during our time in France,
and so we hired a car and headed North to Brittany and Lorient.
A full day's drive (on the wrong side of the road - a first for
us) and we made it to our hotel with some light remaining. After
getting settled, we headed into town. All we knew that was that
the festival was on and that it was huge.
Based largely around the celtic music of Brittany,
the festival is an amazing gathering of musicians from around the
world. We caught the parade on Sunday morning - a seemingly endless
stream of marching bands. Irish, Scottish and (with Australia as
the featured country this year) even bands from home, including
the Queensland Irish Association Pipe Band. The parade featured
dozens of Breton pipe bands, playing spectacular music on bombard
and bagpipes, drums and brass. Flag-throwers and drum majors passed
by with dancers of every conceivable celtic type and traditional
costume. There was an Australian pavilion (kangaroo burgers, yum!),
with an elegant sufficiency of inflatable kangaroos and Aussie flags.
There were even a couple of wallabies in an enclosure near some
of the artists' accommodation. (We visited them one morning while
we were there to find that one had developed a nose-bleed. Plumbing
the depths of John's high-school French managed to finally get some
help for it after many, many misunderstandings (I mean, who learns
to say "No, it's not my kangaroo, but it is unwell" when
learning a foreign language?)).
But of course, it was music that brought us to Lorient.
We managed some busking by the dockside on Thursday night, and then
on Saturday were lucky enough to run into a friend we'd met at Sidmouth
in 2004. We talked of things sessiony, and ventured to the nearest
pub. Tunes ensued. As the day drew on, more and more musicians arrived,
including a great bunch of guys from Dublin. Eventually, at 2 am,
after ten hours of playing, chatting and generally enjoying the
craic, we wandered off to bed. (While it might seem a long way to
fly in the wrong direction to play with some tunies from Ireland,
it was one of the best days of session we've ever had - thanks guys).
The next day we did it all again, but at a different pub this time.
Lorient is an incredible event. We had a terrific
time, even though we only managed three of the seven days before
heading back to Britain. A festival well-worth visiting.
6. Eighty Hours Up In The Air
After battling with the bureaucracy of Ryanair ("How much
extra to carry a guitar?!!!???!"), we made it back to England,
had a couple of days of repacking and then hit Heathrow for the
trip home.
To save space, we've put the narrative into point form:
- We left Heathrow late;
- Two hours out of Hong Kong, we were told that we were being diverted
to Bangkok due to a typhoon;
- We land in Bangkok and wait on the tarmac - Immigration won't
let us off the plane until accommodation has been organised;
- We leave the plane and wander lost around the terminal;
- Eventually we are united with buses to take us to hotels;
- We arrive at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok and are swamped
by unimaginable luxury and countless doo-dads;
- Breakfast the next day is a dream of unimaginable excess, followed
by a bus-trip back to the airport;
- We fly to Hong Kong, arriving at 7pm, local time;
- HUNDREDS of stranded Australians, all trying to get into any
available seat to their chosen destination back home wait, milling
around,
and exploring various levels of grumpiness;
- At 4 am local time, we get boarding passes for a flight home
at 11.30pm;
- We sleep;
- At 11 am, we phone a friend;
- We leave the airport and watch the Australia/South Africa rugby
match with the brother of an Australian friend in the pub in Wanchai
where we played a gig in 2004;
- Back to the airport on the super-fast-train thingy and then we
board our flight;
- Take-off is delayed;
- Then it's delayed some more;
- We fly to Cairns;
- We fly to Brisbane;
- We fly to Townsville.
- WE STOP TRAVELLING AND WE FALL INTO A DEEP SLEEP.
But at last we were home.
7. On Australian Soil
As much as we love travelling, there's nothing like being home.
First stop was for a week in Townsville with Nic's folks, Ros and
Rob and lots of rest. It was the middle of Winter when we arrived
and so the weather was pretty much the same as the weather we'd
left behind in England (Townsville is in the tropics, after all).
We lay about the place untidily, ate a lot, saw friends and generally
veged out. It was fabulous.
Because of the delays in getting home, the week we'd originally
planned was shrunk to 4 days, but we made the most of it and had
at least partially recharged the batteries when the time to head
to Brisbane came around.
8. A Place Of Our Own
After three years of almost constant travelling, we'd decided that
we needed to finally find somewhere to stop for a while. Ideally
we were looking for somewhere beautiful, hopefully about halfway
between musician friends on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, not
too far from a town with a post office and maybe even a friendly
cafe or two, somewhere that we could afford to take on and keep
as our home base while travelling in 2007. We knew we were asking
a lot of the universe, but it's a big place full of lots of possibilities.
And we found it.
We moved in two weeks ago to our own place in the hills near Maleny,
just up the range from the Sunshine Coast. There's space for us,
our music, Nic's art, it has a vege garden out the back, and at
last, the books are coming out of the boxes and onto our shelves.
So now we're planning our work for the rest of this year and into
the next and looking forward to some peace, some regeneration and
lots and lots of music.
And so as one journey ends, another one begins.
And that's what we've been up to since July.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
January 2007
- Journeying Closer to Home
This long-overdue update sees us in Australia, recovering after
a busy four months. We've settled into our new home, and we're planning
the year ahead. Here's the news since our last entry.
1. September in the South
We'd only just had time to settle into our new home on top of the
range at Maleny, when we were off again - this time to Victoria.
We were booked to play at an artspace near Lakes Entrance, a beautiful
part of the world in Victoria's east. After a couple of days in
Melbourne catching up with family and friends, we hopped on the
train and made our way to our hosts' lovely home in the hills. There
was a choir practice on that night, but John begged off and watched High Noon with Brian instead (It's not every day you get
to see Gary Cooper in all his glory).
Elizabeth and Josephine run a series of concerts every year at
Josephine's Bungalook Studio and we were very happy to be included.
The studio is mud-brick and as well as being a venue for concerts,
houses Josephine's art practice. Nic was right at home. The concert
was a great success, with tea, coffee and cake included in the entrance
fee (Important note to concert organisers: scones with jam and cream
are an essential element).
All in all, we spent a week in Victoria, along the way assisting
Nicole's brother Christopher to consecutive victories in his local
pub quiz nights. Showered in such glory, we returned to Queensland.
2. Bits and Peace and Quiet
After so long on the road, stopping in one place for a while was
quite a strange experience. We slowly managed to set up an office,
unpack all of our books and get to work in the vegie garden. We
started to learn the habits of the neighbour's dog, we had our bikes
fixed up and immediately found ourselves in magpie season. For those
not familiar with this season, when magpies are nesting each year,
they scout out their territory, identify all of the regular locals
and then, for about 3-4 weeks, they viciously attack anyone else
who comes near their nesting area. They are particularly fond of
swooping on passing cyclists, innocently on their way to the shops
for tasty loaves of much-needed bread. Cycling was placed on hold
for a time.
While John got stuck into the house and Nic began reviving her
art practice, we also found time to play and sing. Along with our
good friends and singing buddies Andrea and Helena, we ran some
more Voice Gym classes as The Voices. Monday night classes
for those on their way home from work. The series was heaps of fun
and we were once again reminded of how many people are keen to incorporate
singing into their lives.
And as well as some teaching work, we performed at Noosa at the
weekly "Get Up and Go" concert (where the amazingly energetic
Alan Kelly from the Barleyshakes organises a backline of drums, bass and lead for anyone who wants
to "get up and go"with their songs) and made an appearance
at the Samford
Performers Cafe (which also features great cakes - can you see
a theme developing yet?)
A very special part of being back in South-East Queensland was
the chance to reintegrate ourselves into the local musical community.
We started making the trip to Brisbane for the Wednesday trad session
at the Irish Club, getting to the Broadway for the Saturday session
and catchup with old mates, and heading up to Noosa for Alan's Tuesday
night session. We popped along too to the Upfront Club and joined
in a couple of the ABOFOTS (A Little Bit of Folk on the Side) nights.
We particularly enjoyed their birthday party. Here's a shot of the
distinctively-dressed organiser, Paul Lawlor. For those who haven't checked it out yet, Bob from
the Goodwills recorded
some of our performance that night. You'll find a (dimly-lit but
beautifully-sounding) film clip of The Briar and the Rose on YouTube here.
October also saw us play with the Champion Moreton Bay Band at
the Morningside Colonial Dance and run a full-day Masterclass Workshop
with the Voices. Once all that was out of the way, it was time to
fly to North Queensland for theYungaburra
Folk Festival.
3. Back in the Tropics
The Yungaburra Folk Festival really felt like coming home to us.
Up on the Atherton Tablelands to the West of Cairns, the festival
centres around the magnificent Lake Eacham Hotel. 2006 was the festival's
25th birthday and so lots of familiar faces were on hand to join
the party. Martin Pearson came up from Victoria, The Rogues reformed
for a special appearance, Danny
Spooner, Rebecca
Wright, Mike Jackson - it was a great party with lots of friends, and we even managed
a family dinner to celebrate Nicole's birthday.
The only fly in the festival ointment was an over-zealous security
guard on Saturday night. The pub was being closed by the police
because of a fight in the street outside ("But if you close
the pub, we'll have to go out into the street where the fight is").
John advised the security guard that he was staying at the pub,
"So where should I go?". It's been a long time since John
was told to go to his room, but he took it well. ("But I'm
not tired."). Despite this slightly weird interlude, we had
a lot of fun and sang our heads off.
We had a particularly good time at our kids' gig, which included
the soon-to-be-chart-topping Kings and Queens and Horses and
Dragons, in which John makes up the verses according to the
kids' enthusiastically screamed suggestions, while Nicole does the
drawings.
After a lovely week in the North, the time came to head home again.
4. The Summer is A-Coming In
Back in Maleny, we busied ourselves with art, office-work, playing
and some long-sought-after lazing about. The odd session here and there kept our hands in as we started planning
for the Woodford Folk Festival at the end of the year. John played
a few gigs with a local Irish band who found themselves a member
short, we cast a stack of concrete Green Men for an local arts and
crafts market, Nicole got stuck into clay sculpture with the local
pottery group, a Maleny gallery took one of her paintings, and she
started work on a commission for some Brisbane friends and art-lovers.
There were parties to attend, and rehearsals to get underway. We'd
been booked at the Woodford festival to play as a four-piece. Now,
while we'd done some four-piece work in the UK with Vicki and Jonny,
this time we were planning to play with a new line-up and try some
new arrangement ideas. We joined with Rebecca
Wright on cello (whom you may remember from her playing on Violet
Sarah and Muckle John and Dance Up The Sun) and our
friend, flautist and fiddler Belinda
Ford (another member of the Barleyshakes). December
saw us starting to put it all together and we had a ball! Two flutes
jostling and flying on the Blacktown Jig and the deep earthy
hum of the cello, and some sweet four-part vocals.
And then... John got a job. The earth shifted on its access and
the stars were jolted from their orbits as the demands of getting
up at the same time every morning for the first time since 2003
were felt. Bill Hauritz, the organiser of the Woodford Folk Festival
was in need of an assistant and John was in need of some money and
so these two facts had their happy co-incidence in December. Fortunately,
John and Bill are old friends and so it all went well. The routine
was welcome, the work was interesting and Nic was at last left alone
to get on with her painting.
In amongst all of this, there was the reformation of John's old
trio, One Step Forward. Maree Robertson and Ann Bermingham
sang with John up until 1997 in Brisbane and at some of the major
festivals around Australia and we thought it was time to get back
together, also for the Woodford Festival. Around these rehearsals,
John was writing a debate, put a short article on English floor-spots
into one of the Aussie folk mags (a copy of which you can read here),
and started preparing for the annual resumption of the breakfast
show with Martin Pearson.
5. And On To Woodford
You're probably wondering by now if all the work was worth it.
Absolutely! The Woodford
Folk Festival was once again an amazing musical and personal
experience of discovery, growth and song. It's hard to overstate
what a significant event this is. (At one of his gigs this year, James Keelaghan said that
he considered it "the best festival in the world").
Apart from 2003-4 when we were in the UK, we've made it to every
Woodford but this year was one of our busiest. Cloudstreet played
5 gigs including a spot in the Childrens' Festival, Nic joined with
the Voices for two of their five Voice Gym sessions, we sang in
both the opening ceremony (Time
is a Tempest) and the Fire Event on the night of January 1st. John also played
5 performances
with One Step Forward, 7 breakfast shows with Martin (including
an opportunity to sing with Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil - now a member of the Australian parliament), and even found time
to lead his team to a magnificent victory in the Great Debate (if
you're a sucker for detail, you can read his speech here).
A highlight during the festival was the chance for the four-piece cloudstreet to play at the tribute concert for June Nichols,
a dear friend and a true stalwart of the Brisbane folk scene for
many years. We were joined in the performance of Dance
Up The Sunby four members of the Ragged Band Morris.
We finished the festival tired but happy.
6. And Now...
We're resting up after the craziness that was the festival, we've
eaten our way through a tray of mangoes, and in 10 days time, we're
off to New Zealand. Time to recharge the batteries, wash all the
clothes and catch up on a bit of work around the house.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
PS. Here's the view from the desk at home - the office
job was never like this!
(With thanks to Mary Brettel for the Duck and
Shovel photos of One Step Forward and the June
Nichols Tribute)
March 2007 - At Home and
On Tour
This update sees us touring New Zealand as well as playing some
great gigs closer to home, and working on our new CD.
1. Singing close to home
Our first performance after a busy Woodford was playing to a bulging
full house at the Upfront
Club, centre of social life in our new home town, Maleny. A
room full of friends and smiling faces made for a great night.
2. New Zealand in January
Thanks to the organisational brilliance of Gill Winter at Flying
Piglets, January saw us tour New Zealand for the second
time. The tour was centred around the Auckland Folk Festival, and
we had 3 1/2 weeks of beautiful scenery, lovely people and some
great chances to sing.
On the flight over, the pilot alerted us to the comet that was
visible over the wing of the plane
(this does not normally happen).
First stop was Katikati on the East coast of the North Island.
We were well looked after by the Logans and the club vies with The
Bunker at Devonport for the best view. (We think Katikati just edges
out Devonport, because you can see the view from the stage while
you're singing - and Katikati had the comet too! Here's the view
so you can judge for yourself)
After our sojourn in the Bay of Plenty, we were off to The Bunker,
home of the legendary Devonport Folk Club. It was our first time
at the Bunker, a former army establishment overlooking Auckland
Harbour. (We were told that since the club has moved into the concrete
and iron underground venue, there have been two break-ins. Now really,
the combined might of the Japanese empire's militairy could not
get into the bunker, but the unemployed youth of Auckland....).
An absolutely wonderful room in which to sing, a great club and
a truly enviable library of cds, tapes and lps. Organisers Hilary
and Roger were a real delight to meet and spend time with.
After
exploring Devonport and a day on the road, we caught up with Gill,
our agent, and Peter down at Taranaki, played at Wanganui and at
Gill's very own Upstairs
Room,and then it was time to head up North for the Auckland
Folk Festival. We were delighted to be asked to the festival
as guests in 2007, as we'd heard great things from musical friends
who had played there in years past. What a terrific festival! We
had a ball, sang our heads off, spent some time with musicians we
admire, James Keelaghan and Oscar Lopez, as well as the Goodwills (over from Oz for their own tour), made lots of new friends, especially
Francis, Dougal and the session crew, and topped it all off with
a fabulous singing workshop ("Singing for the Brave").
Dozens of brave festival-goers sang up a storm. In hindsight, Time
is a Tempest may not have been the best choice - that night
at the final concert, our workshop goers joined us in song, the
heavens opened and the tempest joined in the chorus. Here's a short
clip of the workshop (with thanks to Bob Wilson for the footage).
NB. The clip will take a while to download unless you have broadband.
We travelled down to Wellington, a nine hour drive, for a couple
of days off followed by a house concert with our hosts, Ruth and
Gerald. We helped christen their house (they'd only moved in about
a week earlier) managed to fit in a gig at Palmerston North, and
then it was time to hop on the ferry to the South Island, sailing
in through the Marlborough Sound, very spectacular.
We had a busy time on the South Island. First stop was Westport
for a concert as part of Waitangi Day celebrations. We stayed in
a wonderful house, full of art and magical objects. The next day
saw us back on the road and headed for one of our favourite destinations
anywhere, The Mussel Inn.
We've raved about this place before and cannot sing its praises
enough. Fabulous food, drink and atmosphere, a real appreciation
of beauty and creativity and ways to merge them into everyday life.
A must!
Next stop was the Boathouse Theatre in Blenheim. This place was
a real treat to play too - a great theatre used by the local repertory
company. Lovely acoustics and a full-house of happy people.
To finish off the tour with a bang, it was time to head up to Nelson.
We ran an afternoon workshop with the local Mosaic World Music Choir
and presented an evening concert, both at the beautifully restored
Fairfield House. Once again it was a privilege to spend time with
such enthusiastic and talented musicians.
And then it was time to catch the big bird back home.
3. A Return to the Judy and catching Up with Vin
We were looking forward to being back at the Judith Wright Centre
in Brisbane after touring away from home for much of the previous
18 months. Over 200 fine patrons came along to see us in concert,
with Rebecca Wright and Belinda Ford joining us for much of the
night. We were also joined by Davydd MacDonald who set the stage
alight with some amazing Irish dancing. We had a blast!
The following week saw us back in Brisbane to play a surprise support
spot for Vin Garbutt on
his visit to Brisbane. This was a special night for everyone, with
long-lost friends, birthday celebrations and of course, great music
and hilarious stories from Vin. (follow this link for a terrific Youtube clip of Vin in action) As you can see from
this photo, he seems to have picked up a less-than subtle stalker
on his travels.
4. Time for Bed...
Almost immediately on returning home, we were both struck down
with this year's vicious seasonal flu. This led to two weeks of
lying about, catching up on our reading of Harry Potter, heaps of
chicken soup and no flattering photographs.
5. But It's Not All Just Lying About
As well as much coughing and spluttering, in March we attended
a spectacular birthday party at Noosa - Alan Kelly from the Barleyshakes turned 40 and we were there with a range of costumed friends to
help him grow old disgracefully. Good party!
6. And On to Our New Project
After some down-time, we've started ploughing through the tapes
of our gigs in New Zealand and from the Judith Wright Centre and
we're very excited about our new CD project. With the working title, Clouds on the Road, our new live recording is planned for
release on June 1. You can find out more (and pre-order a copy)
by following this link. The album will
be a mix of new songs, new arrangements (with the help of Belinda
Ford and Rebecca Wright) and live versions of some of our favourite
pieces from our earlier albums. We're very happy to be once again
working with the amazing Pix Vane Mason on the production process.
7. Off to Canberra
In a few days we head off to Canberra for the National Folk Festival
and gigs at The Merry Muse (Canberra) and The Harp (Sydney). A nice long drive to one of our favourite festivals. See
you there!
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
(John & Ryk from the Pirate
Brides paid a welcome
breakfast visit with the whole gang - they even cooked!)
May
2007 - We Move Through the Year
Hello to all followers of our journey, and welcome to you if you
have recently joined our email list. We're back in Maleny after
some time on the road, and we're adding the final touches to the
new live recording, Clouds on the Road.
1. The National Folk Festival in Canberra
Once again, Easter saw us heading South to Canberra for the National.
We thought it a good sign that when it was time to pack up the van
and drive down to Canberra, we were looking forward to the drive.
(Being settled for a few months had obviously done us the world
of good.) A leisurely drive down the coast, and it was still warm
enough to stop for a swim at the Gold Coast.
The National is where Australia's folk music community gathers
every year, for tunes and songs, networking, an excellent concert
programme and a chance to be reminded of the vibrant movement that
exists here. We had an enormous week of playing and singing until
the early hours every morning, immersing ourselves in the community
of music at the festival. We took part in Keith McKenry's Lost
Folk Songs of Australia concert, drank a lot of hot chocolate
and saw some great shows. (My favourite was seeing Keith Donnelly
doing a live radio spot on an outdoor stage - genius in action,
tremendously funny and deeply confusing for the poor announcer.)
And John got to dress up as a nun. It's a long story. They decided
that this year's "theme concert" would be "The Infinite
Sound Of Music Competition". Now as you all know, John was
chosen to portray Maria
in the Sound of Music when he attended an all-boy primary school.
(Don't be shocked, it's all showbiz). A complicated set of circumstances
saw him dressed in a borrowed habit, playing guitar and rendering Climb Every Mountain in falsetto on the main stage in Canberra
for the final of the competition. (And no, he didn't win, but the
judges did recommend his beatification. And the Canberra Times article did say that he hit the high notes "as easily as Julie
Andrews or June Bronhill". Here's a snippet of the photo from
the paper).
2. A Week in the Nation's Capital
After the festival, we had a few days of playing tourist, with
visits to galleries, a few drives through Canberra's beautifully
wide streets, some promotional spots on radio and then it was time
for a return to TheMerry Muse, home of the Monaro
Folk Society. We shared the night with the amazing harp-maker and
multi-instrumentalist Andy
Rigby, who played before us and had us join in on a kwela number.
This link will take you to an mp3 sample of what we got up to with Andy (or
that to which we got up). All in all, a lovely night in a great
club. (Thanks to Myk Dowling for the photo).
3. And On To Sydney
After a week in Canberra, we drove to Sydney for a performance
at The Harp in
Tempe. John Gallagher had really been working the venue hard in
March and April, with a huge bunch of visiting and Australian performers
packing out the programme. It was our first time there, and we've
included some of our performance from the concert on the new album
of live recordings.
We spent time in Sydney with John's step-brother, Pete Doherty
and his partner Kate Henshaw (of Lyrebird and Goose Studios).
A few very pleasant days of sharing ideas, music and fine Sydney
food. And Nic was able to talk flutes with the lovely people at The Woodwind Group.
4. And Back Up The Range
We took it nice and easy on the way back to Maleny, spending some
quality tourist time at The
Macadamia Castle near Byron Bay. After exploring this authentically
medieval breeze block castle, we dined on ye olde scones and
admired yon stuffed toy dragons. The Macadamia Castle is vastly
weird and a wonderful place (And look at how huge it makes John
look).
That night we caught up with Nadia Sunde , Jeff Licence and their
two beautiful babies. Nadia's powerful voice once led the Brisbane
band, Spot the Dog, and she's now immersed in the joys
of motherhood - and the MothersMilkBank).
We had a perfectly gentle night of talk, food and laughter at their
house in the hills just inland from the Gold Coast.
A little more driving and we made it back to Maleny, tired but
satisfied with our time away. Once again, we were delighted to have
a home to arrive at.
5. Domestic Adventures
Fire! Exactly what we wanted to hear as the weather started to
turn cold. And our landlords were of a similar mind and so decided
that a slow-combustion fire was what was needed. After a long day
of sawing, lifting, and general banging, a chimney rose from the
roof of casa del cloudstreet. And with it came an oven, so at last
we were able to once again explore Enda Kenny's Irish soda bread
recipe.
And so, as the nights turn cool, we have started to bake, to play
tunes with friends and to watch the flames. After a long time on
the road over the past few years, this is luxury.
6. The Finishing Touches To The New Album
As April drew to a close, we were back in Pix's studio at Conondale,
sorting through the recordings we'd brought back from our trip South,
making some final changes and mastering the sound on Clouds
on the Road, our fifth and newest album. We're on course for
the finished product to be ready for release on June 1st. This has
been a very satisfying project for us and we're very pleased with
the results. Have a look at the tracklist on our Songs
and CDs page, where you can also can still take advantage of
our pre-order discount.
7. We Dance Up The Sun
On the morning of May 1st we were up on top of Mt Coot-tha to welcome
in May Day with the various morris sides of South-East Queensland.
It was an astonishingly clear day, the dancing was a joy to behold
and, as one of the dancers put it, "Look what we did!".
We joined with the rest of the musicians and shared in the celebration
of the passing of the seasons.
8. The Planting
The Planting is the annual tree-planting and site maintenance weekend
at the Woodford Folk Festival site. A much smaller crowd than during
the folk festival itself makes this a very special event. Workshops
are run during the day as well as the working parties around the
site. There are two stages for concerts at night and the weekend
is a big party in a beautiful place. Martin and John revived the
madness that is occasionally Never
the Twain, before the fabulous Pirate
Brides(pictured) took over. Saturday was full of friends
on stage too, with Jigger,
Martin Pearson and then the Barleyshakes, who invited us up
for some harmonies.
And on Sunday night it was our turn for a set, with Belinda from
the Barleyshakes joining us on flute, fiddle and vocals.
(She's on the new album too). To round the night out, we had the
legendary John Schumann,
with Hugh McDonald and Shannon Bourne. Hugh and John were both members
of Redgum,
a political folk band in the 1980's that was the inspiration for
many of Australia's current folk acts. Hearing John sing again after
a fairly long break, was a moving experience. A top set to round
out the night and the festival.
9. And Now...
We're planning to spend some time writing this month, Nic is keen
to get back into the studio to paint some more, we're teaming up
with The Voices for another two series of singing workshops in May and July and
in June we're off again, this time to North Queensland.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
July 2007 - Up to the North, and Now Winter is
Upon Us
Hello to all followers of our journey, and welcome if you've joined
our mailing list since our last update in May. It's been a busy
couple of months, and now we're back home and spending some time
in front of the fire.
1. Martin climbs the Mountain
We've really enjoyed making our home up on the range behind Queensland's
Sunshine Coast. Maleny is a town with a thriving artistic and musical
community. One of the central features of the town is the Upfront
Club - gathering point, gallery, music venue and home of
the best coffee in town. We played there earlier in the year. After
a weekend at Woodford's Planting festival and a gig in Brisbane, our old friend Martin Pearson gave
us a night of fun and music. Of course John was happy to join in
(If you're really keen to hear the two of them together, have a
look at the slowly-being-created Never
the Twain website and click on the pic).
2. The Voices - back in action
It's
always a pleasure to collaborate with other musicians and one of
our favourite ongoing projects is to work with Helena Bond and Andrea
Baldwin as The Voices. Together we organise and run singing workshops in and around
Brisbane. June saw us conduct an introductory singing series (Find
Your Voice and Sing) for an enthusiastic bunch of singers at
the Metroarts centre. (We have a follow-up series planned for later
this month and into August - details on the website).
3. Nicole and the Fiddle
In between touring and painting, Nicole has been managing to keep
up with her fiddle playing. She took part in a bluegrass fiddle
workshop weekend run by the guys from Fiddlesticks and Andrew Clermont.
She had a weekend full of music and came back with a load of new
ideas (and an occasional bluegrass accent).
4. Into the Studio Again and Spending Time at Home
After spending time working on a new recording only a year after
the release of Dance Up The Sun, we headed back down to
Conondale and the studio of Pix Vane Mason. This time we had two
tracks to record for a friend's new CD due for release later this
year. (OK, that's very little information, but we're not sure that
anyone's allowed to know that we're on the CD. And it is what we
we're up to for a couple of days, so I'm going to include it in
the news!) It was a lot of fun and as always, it was a pleasure
to work with Pix.
In between rehearsing, workshops and a lot of driving - Noosa for
the Tuesday session, Brisbane for the workshops - we spent time
at home catching up on reading, playing and eating chocolate.
John has also been studying again, having enrolled in the Graduate
Diploma in Folklife Studies offered by Curtin University. He's adapting
after many years of intellectual inactivity while working as a barrister
and is once again reading textbooks and doing assignments.
5. Back on the Road
The weather was starting to turn cold, and so we drove North into
the warmth, the van loaded down with still-warm copies of the
new cd. First stop was Yeppoon, for a concert and singing workshop.
We were
joined for the workshop by some of the members of the local youth
choir. Enthusiastic and talented, they then introduced us at the
concert the next day. The local community arts group use a fabulous
venue, the Little Theatre, and they pulled out all stops to give
us all a terrific evening.
After two days of music by the sea, we continued the journey up
the coast, this time stopping at Mackay. We had a night camped by
the beach and Nic woke the next morning dreaming of bagpipes. She soon realised that she was
in fact hearing bagpipes. It turned out that one of the
local players likes to practice in a nearby park on his way to work.
John's first thought for the day was "I think I know that tune".
After a day of tourist frenzy in Mackay, we headed a little way
up the highway to the Wintermoon site for a relaxed night with Jenny, Chris and Bob. Music and fun
with good friends.
Then it was back to Mackay for our next concert in the Mackay Entertainment
Centre a couple of nights later. Another beautiful venue, with terrific
sound.
6. Palm Creek
Up early the next morning and we hit the highway North again, this
time for Nic's old home town, Townsville, and the Palm
Creek Folk Festival. Held at the Mountain View Lake Eco Park,
the festival was a beautiful gathering. A highlight was the 26-member Wattle'n'Gum Bush band, playing for the bush dance on Saturday night. Bruce
Watson was up from Melbourne to fill the air with his song-writing
brilliance, The Voices were there to run workshops and
play our (first-ever) concert spots, The
Pirate Brides, The Rogues and Poms
from Ozwere some of the other friends at the festival
(and we even squeezed in our own gigs). As well as the Voices
spots, Andrea and Helena had their own wonderful gigs (Andrea
gaining bonus wardrobe points with her great show, Gardening
in Pyjamas, about the joys of being a multi-tasking master
of the balanced life). A colourful weekend was had by all.
7. A Week in the Capital of the North
After Palm Creek, we had a week in Townsville, spending time with
Nic's parents, visiting friends and giving John a chance to revisit
his legal past by sitting in on the Hurley trial in the Supreme
Court. (Seargent Hurley was eventually acquitted of the manslaughter
of Cameron Doomadgee who died in the watchhouse on the community
of Palm Island 2 1/2 years ago after his arrest for drunkenness.
The case has been widely reported on in Australia, as it was the first time a police officer had ever
been charged over the death in custody of an aboriginal man).
At the end of the week, we played a concert at the Old Magistrates
Court, and the next day led the final singing workshop of the tour,
and then packed the van for the long drive home.
8. And Now...
We're back home for a few weeks before heading back to the UK for
what is promising to be our busiest tour yet (you can check out
the details on our gigs page), we're catching
the sessions whenever we can in Brisbane, Noosa and Maleny, Nic's
painting, John's studying and minding the website, new songs are
coming along nicely and we're doing everything we can to enjoy being
in the one place for a while.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
October 2007 - Across the World Again
where rainbows come from
October sees us in the middle of a tour in the UK. Here's what
we've been up to since our last news in July.
1. Some Time at Home
After the trip to North Queensland in June, we had 9 weeks in Maleny
before we were due to fly again, this time to the UK. John was getting
into some post-graduate study, including some fieldwork study on
the session at Noosa. We made it there as often as we could, and
began holding some tune sessions at home as well (the soon-to-be
legendary Souper-Tunes, with both soup and tunes!!!). With Winter
really making itself felt, we had the fire going most nights.
As well as spending some time nesting, July saw us play a Sunday
afternoon concert under the gum trees at Brookfield, teaming up
once again with the fabulous Rebecca
Wright.
2. Some More Music
As well as hitting the sessions at Noosa, there was the new session
at Maleny, Nic was off to Scottish fiddle workshops, and we had
a day of volunteer stewarding at Pig City, a mega-concert
of Brisbane music from the 80's and 90's. Everybody who ever picketed
4ZZZ was there. Joh is gone and we're still around. A good day.
3. And More Workshops
We were up and down the mountain from the last week of July for
another series of workshops with The
Voices. It was the last series for a while and once again
it was a real joy to sing with such an inspiring group. With our
co-conspirators in voice, Andrea and Helena, we had a ball at the Powerhouse in Brisbane.
4. Packing and planning
We
spent the month of August preparing for our UK tour and getting
through some work at home. Nicole was painting up a storm, with
a commissioned work to finish. (Here's a sneak preview of her latest
work in oils). She's continuing her work on Banyan figs and planning
an exhibition in April.
For his part, John was getting stuck into transcribing and analysing
interviews with some of the Noosa session-goers as part of his fieldwork
subject towards the Graduate Diploma in Australian Folklife Studies.
Much typing and thinking. (The project was based around a recording
of the Noosa session one night, and follow-up interviews with four
of the musos).
In between times, we were hanging out at home, spending some time
at the Upfront
Club and making it to the Noosa session as well as the
new Sunday session at Maleny's Finbar,
and terrific night performing at Bellavista in Montville,
where Phil and Kylie created a scrumptious dinner to go with the
show. We also attended a night of industry glam at the QMusic Awards,
where despite the fact that we looked fabulous and had cocktails
with John's sister Margie, The Wooden Spoon was not honoured
with a prize.
Amazingly enough, all deadlines were achieved, the house was packed
away and we ate the last of the vegies from the garden before heading
off to Brisbane for family catch-ups (including delivering the fig
painting), a night with friends and the trip to the airport the
next morning.
5. Once more across the oceans and into the work
We landed in England on Tuesday, 28 August, and Friday saw us in
Fleetwood for the Fylde
Folk Festival. A terrific weekend, including a gig where we
shared the stage with George Papavgeris (here's the link to a download of an mp3 of our singing together on one of George's
songs).
Before the busy part of the month hit us, we had a few days in
Yorkshire with time to acclimatise, Buffyto watch and Maxi's to enjoy (for John at least).
September was a busy month for us, with fifteen folk clubs up and
down the country, as well as the Swanage and North Devon Folk Festivals.
A lot of driving and a lot of fun too. We quickly got back into
the rhythm of drive/gig/sleep, but also managed to squeeze in some
quality tourist time.
We saw castles,
There were dancers by the sea,
And friends to spend time with.
All in all, we celebrated being in beautiful places, among friends
and surrounded by music. As you can see, we each celebrated in our
own way.
Of course, as well as enjoying the last of the Summer,
we were gigging a great deal with some lovely club-nights up and
down the country.
In Birmingham, we (along with the club) were thrown
out of the pub by the fire brigade! The Black Diamond Folk Club has a long and proud history of great
singing and we were looking forward to a fun night there. The night
we played there featured a spot fire-brigade safety inspection,
which the pub's upstairs room unfortunately failed. Thanks to the
generosity of the dominoes players (how often can you say that),
we moved the whole night to the lounge downstairs. We can now say
that we filled the club to well beyond overflowing, by having it
moved to a smaller room. Everyone rallied beautifully and a great
night was salvaged from what was a bit of a shock. We still don't
think the policeman needed to stop us half-way through a song! (The
club has since found a temporary home while the pub makes some slight
changes to their upstairs layout).
We had a delicious afternoon with Tom
Bliss in York, we checked out James
and Nancy's new boat, we sang with Vicki
and Jonny at the Red
Lion, our Aussie mate, Emma Nixon met us at South
Shields and joined us for a sing and some tunes at our club-night
there.
All up in September, we played at 15 clubs and three
festivals and drove around 3 500 miles (5 600 km) along the way!
6. Into Western Scotland
After a mad rush at the end of the month, with 11
gigs in 12 days, we were due for a break, and so we headed to the
West of Scotland and the magical
isle of Iona. A drive from Glasgow, a ferry to Mull, a drive to
Fionnphort and a ferry to Iona made for a longish day, but what
a destination. We played in the village hall on Wednesday night
to a beautiful crowd (which we estimate as around 25% of all the
available people - a new record!)
After the gig, we headed up the hill to The
McLeod Centre where we're spending a few days of rest, thanks
to the generosity and imagination of Simon and Rowena (who we met
in 2006 at Woodford) We're enjoying the many opportunities to check
out the island, walk around a lot and sleep in even more. The island's
famous abbey and the island is chock-full of beautiful places to
sing and many pleasant
walks to be had (not to mention magnificent cream teas). The contemplative
nature of this holy island is creating a peaceful space in a busy
tour.
John's also been playing with our new portable audio-recorder,
the Zoom H4 and its multi-tracking possibilities. Here's a sample
of what you can do with a little bit of modern technology and an
ancient chapel on a wind-swept island - click on the pic of the
chapel to have a listen
8. And Next...
In a couple of days, we're back on the road with gigs a-plenty
in Scotland and then all points South. The few days on the island
have been just what we've needed.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
December 2007 - What a huge year!
wonderful workshop group in Cumbria
As the year comes to a close we find ourselves back in Australia after a very busy tour of the UK and some further touring in Australia since we got back.
1. Our Busiest Month Ever.
At the end of our last news update, we were spending a few days relaxing on Iona, off the Western coast of Scotland, taking some time to see friends, enjoy the sights and prepare for the gigs to come. And come they did! After leaving Iona, we played 4 gigs in Scotland (Stirling, Montrose, Edinburgh and Glasgow). Each club was different and each reminded us in different ways of how vital the folk scene is in Scotland. We were particularly chuffed to play at Stirling and Edinburgh folkclubs for the first time. Having played four times in the past at the small, but perfectly-formed, Wee Folk Club, we celebrated our first gig at the larger Edinburgh Folk Club in Pleasance by having a drink back at the Royal Oak (home of the Wee club)! In Glasgow, at the magnificent St Andrew's in the Square (home of the Star Folk Club), we sang with Australian friends, Toni Wood and Willow, both of whom currently make their homes there. It was great to hear those voices again. Alistair Hulett even made an appearance and brought the house down with some hard-core trad. The old church in St Andrew's Square is one of our favourite places to sing.
We journeyed south from Scotland, back to the Hope Village Hall, home of Britain's finest beetroot wine. Our concert coincided with England's rugby game, with any mention of the game meeting with universal derision. We hardly mentioned it. At all.
On the drive to Shropshire, we passed this innovative blending of old and new technologies. The Midlands Space Agency's first foray into satellite technology lies in a field just outside Shrewsbury. We see great things emerging from these perhaps humble beginnings.
We spent some quality tourist time in the South between the next few gigs. After singing with Shep Woolley and Harvey Andrews, we toured the HMS Warrior 1860 (a hysterical ship, as Shep put it) in Portsmouth Dockyards. We wandered agog around Salisbury Cathedral that afternoon, before another sing that night with Bob & Gill Berry at The Devizes Folk Club, a strong 'joining in' club. We had a long-overdue catch up with James Fagan and Nancy Kerr on their new boat. The ingenious use of space in narrowboats always delights us, and every one is different. After a peaceful night on the water (Nic went and sessioned with James and Nancy, John caught up on sleep in the little floaty house), we were once again off to Devon and the hugely enthusiastic Bideford Folk Club. With a full-house, strong voices, and even some Morris Dancers thrown in, it was probably John's favourite gig of the tour.
But there was more excitement to come: Bodmin Folk Club took us for the first time into Cornwall, and the next day we had the thrill of a whole day visiting the famous Eden Project, a visually enthralling experience exploring the wonders of plants, art and architecture. We couldn't help but make comparisons to the surprise, delight and visual innovation of Woodford Folk Festival. Eden was breathtaking. Well worth a visit.
We drove on. Poole, Bromsgrove, Southampton (we know!), Redditch (!), Sheffield and then Warwick. A mad run to finish off the busy part of the month. We started getting into a "drive, eat, gig, sleep" daily routine, that was fun but a lot of work. One more folk club saw us through to the end of the club part of the tour, and for a very special final night, we played at Baldock and the Orange Tree. Our second time at the club and we were welcomed back to a cracking club and joined for some harmonies by George Papavgeris, on his composition The Mill (if you follow the link, you'll not only find the words, but also a pdf of our suggested harmonies).
To round out all of this talk about touring, here's a flash video from Peter Simmonds who was out and about filming at Sheffield (thanks Simmo)
3. A day off and then a drive to Cumbria
We raced back to Jacey's after a quick kip, and kicked back with our favourite combination of good food, a comfy bed and a couple of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (all in the name of research. Are there vampire ballads? Please discuss).
And early next morning (not our favourite time), we headed up North one last time to Maddy Prior's Stones Barn for our weekend singing workshop. It was a little daunting to work with Maddy, one of our favourite singers ever, but we immediately hit it off and the weekend was a huge success musically and socially. We were really impressed with how everyone in the group gave of themselves, and sang their hearts out. A grand dinner and singaround on Saturday night led to a gentler Sunday to wind down after the hard work. We did squeeze in a performance of all eight songs we'd worked on during the weekend. A highlight for us was teaching the group, All the Rivers Run Into the Sea by our good friend and fellow-Voice, Andrea Baldwin. It came together beautifully.
We were very lucky to be able to work with such an open and talented group. We made some new friends who generally sang up a storm.
(We'll be back at Maddy's in July for another workshop. Check out her website for further information and for bookings).
4. The Big Bird Home
A few days of lazing around and packing up (how is it possible to accumulate so much in such a short time?) and then it was time for two days of wandering around London, indulging in the ultimate tourist extravagance of a proper show - The Lion King It was a load of fun with incredible costumes and sets - a real visual feast, with music thrown in. (For those who don't know, The Lion King tells the story of deranged tenor who haunts the Paris opera, revealing himself only to the woman he loves. A roller-coaster ride of zany antics and circus tricks. Not to be missed).
While we were in London we had a day to catch up with friends, including Jonny and Vicki and the fabulous Nicola Elwell, a good mate from Townsville days who's lived in London for a few years and is having a ball. Good coffee, too much cake and talking at a mile a minute for several hours was a great way to finish the trip.
Another early start and we went through the usual Heathrow rigamarole before settling in with Royal Brunei and our three flights home (the fares are great, and you stop in both Dubai and Brunei. The stops actually work out really well, because you can get off the plane and stretch your legs for an hour or so). We arrived back in Brisbane late at night, were picked up by friends and headed straight to sleep.
5. Home again
After feasting on tropical fruit (John was straight down to the fruit shop in the morning for pineapples, bananas, grapes, pawpaw and melon), we drove the trusty old van up the range to Maleny. Our house had survived our absence beautifully, the tank was full and landlord's dog was even glad to see us back.
The long slow unpack began as we re-acclimatised ourselves to being back in Australia and back in Maleny. After the long trip, there's always a bit of a mental lag involved in adjusting to being home. The washing got done, we restocked the fridge, we started to resuscitate the veggie garden and then, after five days, we hit the road again, this time for Victoria.
6. Bendigo and Lakes Entrance
This short trip had been planned around our return to Lakes Entrance for a reprise of last year's Spring Trilogy concert. We added in a trip to the Bendigo Folk Club and a couple of days with Keith McKenry (formerly of the National Folk Festival and now an alpaca farmer and expert folklorist). We marvelled at Keith's astonishing collection of Australian folk music and reference material (including an IOU from Henry Lawson for a bar tab), we helped out on assorted farm-related tasks (that John still doesn't fully understand), we moved gates and fences, we handled sheep, we ate good food and drank fine coffee, there was laughter and good times, and it was all rounded off with a concert in the Jindarra Springs winery next door. A terrific few days. Here's a photo of Nic, Keith and Jenny engaged in various sheep-related activities and a doozy of Keith with a red-bellied black snake that was caught in some netting in the garden. It was cut free and later released into the wild a long way from the house.
After a few days in Melbourne with Nic's brother and a huge dinner party with friends in Castlemaine, we were off once again on the train to Lakes Entrance and the Bungalook Studio. A terrific mud-rendered, hay-bale construction just out of town, Bungalook is home to Josephine Jakobi, artist, alpaca-farmer (again!) and the venue for three very special concerts each year. Josephine, along with Elizabeth Blakeman and a host of supportive locals, organise these community-based concerts each year, raising money for local charities as well as providing an artistic hub for the community. The venue is beautiful, and the atmosphere is unbeatable. And there's a mountain of cake at every concert! Our performance there coincided with election night in Australia. Fortunately there was very little impact on numbers and we still managed a full-house because (as was explained to John) "that's just stuff that city people worry about". (John did rush over to the house to catch up on televised election results during the interval). The night was a huge success and lots of fun.
7. Back to Queensland and Then Away Again.
A short broken-down-bus-missed-train adventure later, we were back in Melbourne and then once again home to Queensland. Two days later, we hit the road again, though, this time heading just over the border into New South Wales for a beautiful wedding in the hills. Karina and Ian have been music and morris-dancing friends for years and it was a delight to be part of their day. There was a fabulous ceremony up on the highest hill, with stunning views in every direction, heart-warming vows were sworn, there was a concert, and of course, morris danced only as Australians can dance it.
After the ceremony and a night of merriment, we all camped out and then it was back up the highway for home the next day. We played at a local art group's Christmas party and then fell asleep.
8. But Wait, There's More
And since early December, we've been at home. Not driving very much (except for a couple of trips to Brisbane, and of course the weekly pilgrimage up to Noosa for the Irish music session at Irish Murphy's). It's been a time of rest, a time to enjoy the great town of Maleny, to play some music for fun, listen to cds and recordings collected over the last few months, and to get back into the swing of eating at home, sitting around the house, reading books and generally just living.
And of course we've started rehearsals for Woodford which is only a few days away now. Rebecca Wright will once more be joining us on cello and we've been mixing up some fab three-part vocals to fill out the sound a bit and add to the fun. Then there's Christmas shopping, lots of planning to do for the new year and time to think about the year that's gone.
2007 has been an amazing year for us. We've travelled more than ever before (with five months of the twelve spent on the road), we've met new people, revisited old friends, and continued to enjoy the privilege of making music and artistic expression the centre of our lives.
Have a happy Solstice. We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
March 2008 - Rolling on into a new year
The 2008 Woodford Fire Event Choir
(photo by Steve Swayne)
We're well into 2008 and have been travelling fairly constantly since our last update. Here's our news since we last spoke.
1. It Doesn't Get Much Wetter Than That!
After Christmas with the families in Brisbane, we were once again off on our annual trek to the Woodford Folk Festival, Australia's biggest. While the festival never fails to be a dazzling experience of music, magic and wonder, it also has extremely unpredictable weather and in this time around, it rained, and rained and rained. As ever, we had a busy time of it, with concerts most days, John joining Martin for the comedy breakfast show every morning, and workshops and sessions aplenty. And did we mention that it rained? (This detail from the photo above shows John wearing wellies on stage). It did stop raining for the fire event, but to give you some more weather context, the photo below is the view from the stage at the amphitheatre on the morning of the big show.
But it wasn't raining inside the venues (mostly) and the show went on. A fabulous array of talent and creativity. This festival in particular allows ideas to blossom and grow. Anything is possible at Woodford. If anyone remembers our "wacky band" at the Banbury Canalside Festival in 2004, you'll appreciate how much further the idea can go, with Sprocket, a moving percussion sculpture made by Maleny artist Steve Langton, featuring thongaphones, giant marimbas, bells, a drum-kit, horns and a classic Australian touch, a revolving Hills Hoist on the top.
Street-theatre at its noisy best.
Our concerts this year included Rebecca Wright on cello and vocals (We had hoped to recreate the four-piece, but unfortunately Belinda had to pull out at the last minute) We had a great time expanding on our usual sound. Rebecca will be joining us in the UK this year for the first few weeks of our tour starting in May.
Like every festival, Woodford changes every year, and this year was no different. Our good friend, Andrew Pattison, founder of the Troubadour wine bar in Melbourne, vintner and true patron of folk music in Australia, decided that this year should be his last at Woodford. He'll still be running the Troubadour Wine Bar at the National Folk Festival and his own festivals in Victoria but we'll just have to get used to our favourite festival without him. And without Andrew and his wine bar, Martin decided that the Wine Bar Breakfasts wouldn't be the same, and so it was time to call it a day for the breakfast show too. We saw the show out in grand style on January the 2nd, there were tears, one last bit of fun, and a final chorus of Time is a Tempest.
2. The Annual Gig in Maleny
This is becoming a bit of a tradition. Our favourite coffee haunt in our home town is also a renowned live music venue, The Upfront Club. And straight after Woodford is a great time to play there, with the whole Sunshine Coast buzzing with excited musicians who’ve just been let out of the big festival. A room full of our lovely home crowd, and a stage full of us and Rebecca Wright on cello, and a piece of Harry’s famous sticky date pudding for afters, and it was a great night. Four of Nicole’s paintings of musicians were on the walls of the Club while we played; she was involved in a group show of portraiture and showed Martin Pearson, Greg Sheehan, Tony O’Rourke and Elle Osborne.
And just in case you can't get enough of the poorly-lit, blurry, mobile-phone-camera movies that are the hallmarks of modern communication, here is a video of the afternoon sound check at the club (why spoil you with costumes, lights and an enthusiastic crowd when you can share the experience of being there three hours early).
3. And then back on the road
January saw us head to Tasmania for the first time to play a short tour. First stop was the Cygnet Folk Festival, a beautiful weekend festival with lots of old friends and lovely music. Sixty people came to our 'Singing for the Terrified' workshop, so they're obviously not very terrified down there. The festival unofficially centred on the Red Velvet Lounge, a fine eatery where whole choirs could get together and socialise, and the Spooky Men's Chorale, Dev'lish Mary and Shooglenifty were some bands seen hobnobbing. A couple of days on Bruny Island followed the festival - an amazing place. We walked on the beaches, went penguin watching by torch-light, and stalked the savage white wallabies. Just the holiday we needed.
After a couple of days of vigorous recuperation by the beach we headed back to the mainland of Tasmania, had a lovely time playing at the Brookfield Winery, and then headed to the North of the island for the Georgetown Folk Festival. Once again, a great gathering of folk, and, while a smaller festival than Cygnet, it lacked for nothing in enthusiasm. The Tamar Valley has been the focus of controversy of late, with the proposed introduction of a huge pulp mill just around the corner from Georgetown. To say the community is divided is an understatement. The area is a great treasure of natural beauty and with any luck they'll be able to hang onto it. On the musical front, we got to meet the wonderful quartet that is Milk. Here's a shot of them warming up their ukeleles (armed guards were on hand in case the crowd lost control).
In the days between festivals, John spent time with a friend near Castlemaine (thanks Sandy), while Nicole joined in Music Under the Southern Cross, an annual teaching week at Campaspe Downs, Kyneton. She managed to find a spot in the fiddle class and spent three days playing, learning and sessioning until all hours. (For those who like to book ahead, we'll be there running singing classes in 2009). Next it was time for the final leg in this great Southern journey when we headed into central Victoria for Newstead Live. This is a beaut little festival. It used to be located at Chewton, near Castlemaine, and two years ago it moved to the tiny town of Newstead, 10km away. Newstead has embraced the festival and lined its streets with flags and decorations for the weekend. The inspiring line-up for the festival included The Wise Family Band with their huge harmonies and vast collection of instruments (mostly made by father, Scott Wise), and stunning Australian Irish outfit Trouble in the Kitchen, amongst a long list of top acts. Trouble’s dynamic Ado and Benno were also implicated in the running of Australia’s one and only Trad Disco, this year with smoke machine, strobe, and impressive light display. Traditional concertina and whistle music was made for disco.
Andrew Pattison ran his inimitable Troubadour venue, a comfortable mix of fine food, wine and music, under the one shade tree in the field, and on the Australia Day holiday, there was an historic cricket match in the adjacent sports field, the fifth consecutive annual clash between Strings and Winds. Nicole was naturally on the Winds team, while John had to make a choice (and wisely chose to join Nicole’s team!) Flutemaker Michael Grinter and Trouble’s fiddler Ado Barker take their cricket very seriously as team captains, but for the fifth time, Ado’s Strings team seemed to field a few more actual cricket players and a few more actual runs, in this close strategic battle. Or maybe the Winds players just ran out of puff. Michael was barely able to be consoled at yet another thrashing on the sports field, but Nicole did her best by ordering a new flute. Below is a shot of one of the few times John got to run anywhere during the game (Nicole took two wickets during her first over, for the loss of only 8 runs. One wicket was clean-bowled, the other was caught by a promising young alpaca farmer from Dandura, Keith McKenry).
4. Home for a while.
The Tasmanian and Victorian gigs meant that we'd been on the road pretty much constantly since Christmas and we were looking forward to being home. After a couple of days, however, we had some sad family news and had to travel to Nicole's uncle's funeral. When we got back home to Maleny it was time to pack again and hit the road.
5. A quick tour this time.
We were off again to Canberra for a double-bill at the new Folkus Room with Bob Fox. He was in fine voice and it was great to spend some time catching up. Bob's on a longish tour of Oz which will see him here until after the National at Easter. A master of his craft. The next day, we drove out to the coast to Nowra for a house concert. A beautiful setting for a delightful evening. Of course on the way we stopped at The Giant Merino for photos (it would be wrong to simply drive past). If the perspective of the photo on the left seems a little difficult to gauge, this is because the giant merino is HUGE!!!! (He's behind you!)
After Nowra, we dropped the car back in Canberra and caught a bus to Bateman's Bay for a couple of days holiday by the beach, a developing theme we are keen to pursue whenever possible. A highlight of our stay there was discovering the North Street Cafe - absolutely perfect food and coffee. (I'm drooling just thinking about their marinated octopus!) Come to Australia if you're not here already, just so you can eat at this cafe! If you are in Australia reading this, move to Bateman's Bay so you can eat there all the time. We liked it a lot.
From Bateman's Bay we headed South to Moruya for a visit to Jim MacQuarie of NewSouthFolk who's been helping us out with our Australian bookings, before it was festival time again and we were off to Cobargo on the South coast of New South Wales. The Cobargo Folk Festival was reminiscent of the early Maleny festivals in Queensland, which eventually grew to become Woodford, being held at the community showgrounds just outside town, in a beautiful valley packed with campers, well-run venues and the perfect combination of local and visiting artists. We were also lucky enough to be billeted on the coast at Baraga Beach, and the weather held good for two delightful morning swims.
We packed a lot into this short trip, with a seven-hour bus-trip up to Sydney after the festival, and a night with John's step-brother Pete and his partner, Kate. And the next day, before we knew it, it was time to fly home.
6. Back in Maleny
We've been home for a week now, with a lot of work to catch up on. We're rehearsing with Rebecca for the next trip and for the UK tour coming up in May, John's rehearsing with Jenny and Steve from Tulca Mor for a long series of school performances coming up in September, Nic is preparing singing workshops for a local choir and for the workshops we have planned for the tour. John's also very excited that he'll be joining the Spooky Men's Chorale for their Northern New South Wales and South-East Queensland tour in April.
A couple of nights ago we were lucky enough to be down in Pix's studio with local poet, Joe Lynch. We added some musical backing with Rebecca to Joe's poem for his son, Somewhere Over In Iraq. While it's a Christmas message, we think that the sentiment bears hearing at any time of the year. You'll find the track on our downloads page.
7. Coming up
As you can imagine, we have a busy time ahead before making our way to Brisbane International at the end of April for the flight to the UK and four months on the far side of the world. We're expecting George Papavgeris in a day or two, with gigs planned with him in Brisbane and at the Yackandandah and National festivals, we're running a workshop with a local choir this weekend and there's a veggie garden to look after.
So far this has been a very hectic year, we've been on the road for most of it and we've been given lots to think about, but we wouldn't trade it for anything. There's music to be played at every turn.
We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
April 2008 - The National and the Beckoning Road
(recorded at the National Folk Festival, 2008)
A busy month has just passed with a lot of travelling, and a load of music.
1. A Visit From the Far Side of the World
George Papavgeris arrived back in Australia in early March for a busy three weeks of touring (thanks to John's diligence, application and skill in tour management). He arrived on Friday and that was the night of his first gig (followed by Saturday in Sydney, Sunday in Canberra, Monday in central Victoria .... get the idea?). His arrival gave us time for a quick catchup, setting up the stage at the East Brisbane Bowls Club and then we were onto the stage for the first half. George overcame some slight jetlag and gave a wonderful performance. A lovely crowd at home in Brisbane and as always, a welcome chance to get Rebecca in on the act.
George was off the next day, and we still had lots to do before hitting the road ourselves. Two days after the Brisbane gig, we ran a workshop for the members of Tapestry one of the local community choirs, John got on with some study, and prepared for an after-dinner speech engagement. Preparations were accelerated on Tuesday night, when the phone rang while he was at his desk. Nice and relaxed after a bath, he was working on his speech for the next night's dinner:
"Hello"
"We were just wondering what time you'll be here tonight"
"Isn't it tomorrow night?"
"No, we're all here now"
(a slight panic ensued).
A leisurely drive to the venue saw John arrive on time, deliver his address to great acclaim and be showered with gifts. The drive home was even more relaxed.
2. Yackandandah Beckons
Friday saw us back at the airport and on our way to Victoria, this time for our first visit to the Yackandandah Folk Festival. We met up with George again, were given chocolates at artists' reception (note to all festival organisers), settled into our billet and hit the stage with George that night for the opening concert. Yackandandah is a fabulously beautiful small town, about half an hour's drive from Albury on the Victorian/New South Wales border. The whole town gets involved with the festival, with venues up and down the main street, the giant Yackandandah Jam (run by Jane Thompson and James Rigby), a huge lineup, including Judy Small, Margret Roadknight and visiting overseas performers, Rachel Unthank and the Winterset and Faerd. The festival has a great carnival atmosphere. On the final night, we ended up having a great tune and song session with the guys from Faerd and with George. The perfect end to a festival weekend. (Here's John and George in a relaxed, country-style mood.)
3. Onto the National
Every year, we try to make it down to Canberra for Easter and the National Folk Festival. As well as a fabulous line-up every year, the National is the chance for folk performers in Australia to get together, touch base on what's been happening in each other's years, relax in the amazing session bar and play, play and play music together.
But before we even started our work, Nic was straight into the Traditional Ballad Masterclass run by Danny Spooner. Three days of inspirational classes left her enthused and reinvigorated, with just enough energy left over for nightly sessions with the tunies.
This year we were lucky enough to be on the programme, and of course we took the opportunity to include Rebecca and join George for a couple of his gigs. We held the Australian launch ofClouds on the Road, with the addition of Joe Lynch and Somewhere Over In Iraq (we know it's not on the cd, but we just had to get him up on stage), and sessioned every chance we got. We managed two gigs on the main stage (the Budawang) which were filmed by the wonderful people from the CIT Media Unit. (The clip which opens this news page is an extract of that footage. You'll find that clip and another on our Youtube site, with more to follow).
The National always includes myriad opportunities for participation and this year once again featured Andy
Rigby's impromptu Kwela Band. Here's a short clip of the action from the street.
As well as having a fun time playing with friends, there was serious work to be done. John went on an accidental shopping trip and found
himself a new guitar. Jack Spira is a well-known Australian luthier and John fell in love with one of his creations. Delivery is expected later this week. The excitement in the cloudstreet household is palpable (ie able to be palped. Usually with a ladle, or spatula. If you just can't stand the suspense, this link will take you to a photo of a guitar very similar to the one that is arriving soon.) It's already been played on stage, along with Nic playing her new blackwood whistle from Oz Whistles and micro-stomp box which she picked up at Yackandandah.
4. And Yet More Gigs
Our busiest year yet was continuing to bring on the work, with a quick school concert the day after the National followed by two days by the sea at the Entrance, and then a short drive back into Sydney for another couple of bookings. Our first concert at the Hornsby-Kuringai Folk Club was a raging success. A full house of enthusiastic singers and a load of fun, then a catchup with New South Wales friends until the early hours. And on the next day to the Blue Mountains for dinner, a day's lying about and an afternoon house concert in the hills. We met a whole lot of new friends and generally had a ball.
And the next day we were appropriately touristy and visited the Blue Mountains on our way West to the airport. Here's a shot of the lovely Nicole obscuring that historic view.
5. Home at Last
After a couple of very busy weeks on the road, it was wonderful to drive back up the mountain and settle into Maleny again. We've had a few days of coffee, catching up with relatives, and celebrating the Festival of John (his 44th birthday). We've undertaken a few projects to fill in the spare time, with plans underway to travel to the UK again at the end of the month. Nic is off to Townsville for a few days to visit her family, and John will be joining the marvellous madness that is the Spooky Men's Chorale from mid-April for a ten-day tour before heading to the airport for England (running it close, the last Spooky gig finishes 9 hours before liftoff).
As you can see, we've been having a busy time, but it's been spent doing the things that we love. It's certainly feeling like an adventure these days.
And that's what we've been up to.
With love from the road,
Nicole and John
(Don Jarmey at the National)
June 2008 - Travelling Again
We're 6 weeks into our UK tour and the adventures keep coming.
1. The Lead-up to the Tour
Our last update saw us preparing to head to the UK for another Summer of festivals, clubs and workshops. And this year there are three of us! The Sunshine Coast's gorgeous Rebecca Wright agreed that she needed an adventure too, and has come along to play the cello and sing on our first "Three's a Cloud" tour.
Before we left, we managed to squeeze in some family catchups, checking out the ANZAC day parade in Maleny (featuring the local Light-Horse re-enactment group), a concert at Montville, dinner with friends and of course, John toured with the Spooky Men's Chorale up until the last minute (check out his OneSpookyMan blog if you dare). In fact, the final performance on the Spooky tour was on a Sunday night, finishing at 6pm. We then had dinner hosted by the wonderful Helena, spent far too little time with our friends, and were at the airport to check in at 10.30pm, for a 1.30am departure.
There's nothing quite like 3 hours in an airport to make you appreciate how difficult it is to attractively decorate a concrete barn. We got checked in, guitars were handed over with a degree of trepidation, and then we settled back, drank expensive softdrinks and watched the minute hand slowly work its way around the clock towards our flight time.
It seemed like only a day or two before it was time to board our Royal Brunei aluminium tube.
2. The First Few Days
After a stop-over for the day in Brunei, we landed safe and sound in England. A quick drive over to Essex and it was time to sleep. There was only time for a brief stay with the wonderfully hospitable Jonny and Vicki before it was time to head North and get to work. We picked up a cello, a car and some cds that we'd left behind last year and then we were off to Whitby. Three days after landing, we performed as a three-piece for the first time in the UK at the Moor and Coast Festival. Straight into work, with loads of friends around, and a cold North Yorkshire wind coming off the sea to welcome us back.
The festival was a real hoot, with enough time off to climb up to the Abbey, and for all three of us to catch colds.
3. Derbyshire and the search for Wacky Instruments
Fortunately for us, we had 10 days before our next gig after Whitby and we used the time to recover, overcome any residual jetlag and gear ourselves up for the next gig. Thanks to Debi's mum, Louise (another saunaclub connection) we had a place to lay our heads in beautiful Derbyshire, a delightful house just outside Matlock. We caught the local session, did some proper tourist trips into town, and even visited a nearby stone circle (the Nine Ladies) with James and Nancy, who had a gig nearby. And there was time left over for tunes in the lounge room. John was busy typing assignments for his postgrad studies (never travel without home work) and of course, it was time to make Wacky instruments.
A festival in Wales had asked us to run some childrens workshops with local schools and wanted us to include a wacky instrument component. For those who haven't come across these marvels of very little technology, they involve using lengths of Polypipe (aggypipe in Australia) to make large, portable and very loud percussion instruments. We also constructed a large number of cardboard and rubber-glove flubber pipes (like a bassoon, only friendlier). John managed to source polypipe in lengths of less than 100 metres (much harder than it sounds) and we put the whole shebang together in record time. Here are some glimpses of the construction and packing phases of the operation:
With a car full of plastic, our first stop was Blackpool for the next gig - Music at the Clarence. Here's a short clip to give you an idea of what it was like (a big file - broadband recommended):
4. Back to School
The polypipe instruments were for part of our work with the Berwyn Festival of Music, Art and Food (we think their priorities are right). We'd been asked to work with three local schools, and help them with a concert presentation. We used the wacky instruments in the workshops and taught songs and some rhythm games. The kids from the 3 schools were a delight and it all went off well. We played a concert that evening with Jez Lowe finishing the night. All in all, a busy weekend but lots of fun in this amazingly beautiful valley. (If you just can't get enough of video clips, you can have a look at a short one of the kids at work here).
And of course before heading off, we followed everyone's advice and climbed a mountain the next morning to see Castell Dinas Bran. Dinas Bran is one of very few castles ever to be awarded 4 stars on the Castle Wales website. We think it deserves every one, but it is a very long way up. (Castell Dinas Bran fell into disrepair in the 13th century when local artisans were unable to climb any further. Oh, and there was also a fire.)
A good friend from Gloucestershire had invited us to visit in between festivals and so we headed down to Dursley (home of the Lister diesel engine, as featured on all the best narrow boats). John had assignments rapidly approaching deadline, so he stayed indoors and typed himself into a frenzy, while Nic and Bec drove down to Bath and a night of sessioning with James and Nancy and gentle slumber on the canal. John was not in the least bit jealous. He enjoys the thrill of academic challenge and typing until 2 am. He is lucky in that way. All deadlines were met, joy was unbounded, Manchester United won the game and before we knew it, we were off again for a weekend of music.
5. Chippenham, Chester and Beyond
First we went to Chippenham. This great festival really involves the whole town, with venues and markets up and down the high street. We'd played there two years ago and it was terrific to be back, this time with Bec to fill out the lineup. Her parents turned up as well, which added to the fun. We worked hard all day Saturday, playing in some beautiful venues and then were up early Sunday morning to drive up to Chester. Bec stayed behind to spend some time with family for a few days.
We arrived at the Chester Folk Festival just in time for our first show, and just kept playing. As well as running workshops and performing in the marquees, we managed to find a cranking session in the aptly-named Morris Dancer.
After Chester we had a night with Chris Green from Isambarde, shot back to Jonny and Vicki's place for another night of good cheer and lying about, before an indecently early morning trip to the airport.
6. Morocco
When we last visited Sandy and Suzanna's riad in Fez, it was 2004 and the renovations had only just begun. Now they are all but finished and the place is fabulous! You will find all the details (and a wonderful narrative of all things contemporary and Moroccan) on Sandy's blog, The View From Fez. We spent a week exploring the Fez medina and soaking up Sandy's glorious hospitality. Of course we had to sing for our supper, with a delightful house concert at the riad, including rose buds in the fountain, followed by a huge Sunday afternoon at Fez's newest hot spot and all-round cultural delicatessen, Cafe Clock. Here we are with Mike keeping perfect time on his first outing with a shaky egg (thanks to Sandy for the action shot):
And here's a short walk through the medina's back streets to give you small taste of the place.
Our time in Fez just flew past, and before we knew it, it was time for us to head back to the UK. Bec decided to stay behind for a few days of the Sacred Music Festival, planning to catch up with us again in another week. We left Morocco after a wonderful, wonderful week with good friends in one of the world's special places.
7. Straight Back Into Action
Ryanair took us home (I'd give them a link, but only if they give me back the extra £100 it cost to take the guitar to Morocco), we had one night to readjust to a very different cultural context, and then we hurtled up the M1 to Nottinghamshire and the Gate to Southwell Festival. A couple of workshops with local schools, a concert spot on the Friday night and then driving into the night to Sussex! A busy weekend, this one. Saturday saw us running an all-day singing workshop at the Lewes Arms Folk Club, with the folk club that night. The workshop was a joy. A really fabulous club, with wonderful floor spots and enthusiastic choruses. We were back on the road the next day and so we missed the Dwyle Flunking. But you can enjoy it, here's a clip!
8. And Now...
We're spending a few days in Essex, rehearsing with Rebecca and Jonny and Vicki for our gig at Brampton Live later in the tour. In a couple of days we drive North for more gigs and in a week we should be in Ireland for a few days of session-hunting at Solstice.
The road keeps unrolling before us. We'll keep you posted.
ousands
with ferries running regularly across to Scotland - then they figured
out how to build the railway line over the mountains to the East.
A fantastic festival at which we worked very hard and had a great
time. Lots of gigs, amazingly strong winds! We played some more
with Jonny and Vicki from Serious Kitchen . The highlight for Nicole
was an early morning session with Dougie McLean on the last night
in the Moor and Coast tent (John slept instead).
We'd
finally settled on recording with Graham Bradshaw at Roots Records
and so our next step was to head to Coventry and into the studio.
We'd been having such a great time with Vicki and Jonny that we
asked them to join us on a few tracks. We threw ourselves into the
project, and amazingly managed to get everything done in the time
we'd alotted. A close call, but with the help of the amazing Graham,
we got there with a few minutes to spare. With a side-trip to Brighton
on the weekend for Nicole to do some more teaching with Elle Osborne,
we were back into the studio the next week to mix and pre-master.
Finally, we were done. (With the artwork still to come...)
Brisbane
is home for us and it was with great delight that we once again
roamed the parks and enjoyed the beauty of the Brisbane river which
winds windingly through the windiest parts of this ....
After
having a big sleep, Nic headed North to Townsville to visit her
family and reconnect with her tropical roots. The last time she'd
seen her parents was in the UK and given they'd travelled to see
her, a payback seemed in order. She did all of the usual North Queensland
things like visiting Magnetic Island, eating far too much fresh
mango, walking on the beach and catching up with friends. Typical
November thing to do. Back in Brisbane, John engaged in manly pursuits
such as ten-pin bowling and cattle-rustling with the wonderful Martin
Pearson.
After
Sydney, we made our way home for a few gigs, playing in Maleny with
the Goodwills, at the wonderfully-named Madass Folk Club, and finally
on a double-bill with 
in
words and photos don't really do the event justice, but here are
a couple of glimpses of the night.If you're ever in Australia for
Christmas, you reallyshould make the effort to experience this festival!
Victoria,
Chewton is a wonderful gathering (Andy Irvine once described it
as "The best festival I've ever been to"). Given Michael's
influence there was no shortage of beautiful Irish flutes at the
late-night pub session (I counted 16 one night), and the concert
series was well-serviced by Andrew's fine 
wines.
A highlight was the trad disco in the town hall - the magnificent
Ado from 
stop in Victoria and so we once again ventured down the Newell Highway
(for those non-Australians reading this, all proper roads should
have names rather than numbers). First stop was Melbourne for our
friend Andrew's buck's night. Being a strictly men-only affair,
all the women in attendance were required to dress as men (see right).
The night was great fun, with lots of lovely wine, and some watermelon
dancing (don't ask).
ional.
John
has performed with Martin Pearson almost constantly since they met
at a festival in Kuranda in North Queensland in about 1989. Martin
is an amazing parody writer and performer, with a great gift for
interpretation of songs and a lightning-fast wit. In the dim dark
past, the two began performing together as 
Canberra
and had a fabulous night at the 
double-bill
with 
We
drove back to Brisbane, managed a few days rest up at Noosa, caught
up on some sleep, played at the new Mullumbimby Folk Club in Northern
New South Wales, had a wonderful time at the Woodford Folk Festival
Tree-planting Weekend, spent some time in Brisbane with one of John's
sisters, managed a couple of wonderful weeks at Noosa (thanks Jan),
swam in the surf and organised a series of singing and performance
workshops with some Brissie friends (have a look at the 
harmonies,
warm-ups, improvisation, tone, pitch and more. We plan further series
in 2006. 
We
planned a big night for our final Australian concert before our
second UK tour, and Chris Bowen and the crew at the 
rt
by Jonny Dyer (of Jonny and Vicki from our 
Cloudstreet performed every day at Woodford, singing in the opening ceremony
and as part of the fire event, playing in the Children's Festival
and presenting a Green Man dance and song cycle, in conjunction
with Queensland's Belswagger Morris. Nicole and the other
members of The Voices also ran two successful
singing workshops, while John was up every morning to co-present
the Variety Breakfast with Martin Pearson. 
4 days (the normal plan is to do the 1600km (1000 miles) over two
days, with a break around Rockhampton). And so we took it easy,
on the first night stopping at Inskip Point, near Rainbow Beach,
about an hour off the highway. A beautiful National Park campsite
on the beach (the view from our camp is on the right). 
,
and exploring various levels of grumpiness;
The odd session here and there kept our hands in as we started planning
for the Woodford Folk Festival at the end of the year. John played
a few gigs with a local Irish band who found themselves a member
short, we cast a stack of concrete Green Men for an local arts and
crafts market, Nicole got stuck into clay sculpture with the local
pottery group, a Maleny gallery took one of her paintings, and she
started work on a commission for some Brisbane friends and art-lovers.
a
in the Sound of Music when he attended an all-boy primary school.
(Don't be shocked, it's all showbiz). A complicated set of circumstances
saw him dressed in a borrowed habit, playing guitar and rendering Climb Every Mountain in falsetto on the main stage in Canberra
for the final of the competition. (And no, he didn't win, but the
judges did recommend his beatification. And the Canberra Times article did say that he hit the high notes "as easily as Julie
Andrews or June Bronhill". Here's a snippet of the photo from
the paper). 
were
joined for the workshop by some of the members of the local youth
choir. Enthusiastic and talented, they then introduced us at the
concert the next day. The local community arts group use a fabulous
venue, the Little Theatre, and they pulled out all stops to give
us all a terrific evening. 
next morning dreaming of bagpipes. She soon realised that she was
in fact hearing bagpipes. It turned out that one of the
local players likes to practice in a nearby park on his way to work.
John's first thought for the day was "I think I know that tune".
After a day of tourist frenzy in Mackay, we headed a little way
up the highway to the 
Finbar,
and terrific night performing at Bellavista in Montville,
where Phil and Kylie created a scrumptious dinner to go with the
show. We also attended a night of industry glam at the QMusic Awards,
where despite the fact that we looked fabulous and had cocktails
with John's sister Margie, The Wooden Spoon was not honoured
with a prize.
de town, in a beautiful valley packed with campers, well-run venues and the perfect combination of local and visiting artists. We were also lucky enough to be billeted on the coast at Baraga Beach, and the weather held good for two delightful morning swims. 
visited a nearby stone circle (
