A late new year's resolution - less Facebook, more blogging. Am entering my fourth year with my company;the first three have been full of twists and turns. Working hard with my husband Phil Martin now to get his second solo album, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark finished and distributed, as well as organising a tour from May onwards around his solo work. We'll be starting off at the Station Inn Whitby in May - what better time and place? The launch date (and party!) to be announced early next week. Then there are my gigs and other events - what a long, hard but largely enjoyable slog this has been, for an assortment of reasons! I've been looking at collaborations with other promoters, and late last year teamed up with TwickFolk to plan a few events. Our first two are tomorrow, one has sold out and hopefully the evening gig with Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker will be suitably and comfortably stuffed too. I'm hoping this is first of many joint ventures with TwickFolk and others! I'm managing an exciting project with the rock group I Love Thunder - the group is largely made up of people with varying degrees and types of learning disability, who have bonded over a love of music - they've been awarded a grant by the BBC, and will be working very hard over the next 6 months with other musicians, towards a fantastic show at Watermans theatre. These are the things exercising my mind right now - Once Phil's album is mastered and out of our hands, he has promised to enter the digital age more fully and write a blog too! One of the bands he's in, The Bitter Springs has just released a double album, Everyone's Cup of Tea, which has had a very warm reception in the press including 4/5 stars in the Daily Mirror - you can read the reviews here All very exciting!

Bank Holiday weekend: Friends, gigs, cider, wine and more

At a loose end on the Friday so I went to see Phil playing as the other half of Elaine Samuels' Kindred Spirit duo, at the Fox in Twickenham. I like the Kindred Spirit vibe although at times I'm a little sceptical, particularly regarding rock songs like Horse With No Name with an Irish jig or two stuck in the middle of it. However I'd been to see the duo at the Fox in Hanwell a few weeks earlier and it had been a very lively night with a diverse and 'up for it' crowd so we all had a wonderful night until Elaine's guitar amp was stolen, but that's another story. Well, we arrived at the pub and Elaine and Phil set up the PA, people were vaguely curious but being a Friday after work crowd not necessarily there for the music. Then the music started: It was a very rainy August day so a few sing along summertime songs were in order, people bopped about quite enthusiastically enough and then the strong stuff started - an early favourite being Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, complete with wild fiddle! People were going bonkers - cheering the band - grown men hurling themselves at Phil in their enthusiasm (the fiddle does seem to catch people's imagination) and knocking into the mics and everything! Phil and Elaine have to literally barricade themselves into the performance space with guitar cases, chairs, anything else to hand!
The songs and the jigs got more extreme and Elaine said that Phil had gone into overdrive , to which Phil replied that overdrive was his default setting. A great night all round because as well as the set fee the pub was paying the duo, the bar staff went round to collect tips for the band and they got £60 in tips as well from an extremely enthusiastic audience!