Mill Race Folk

I have just finished this poster for a new night that is happening over at Bromham Mill Cafe. It's an acoustic, unplugged evening of folk music with the fabulous Stick In the Wheel headlining. They have been nominated for two BBC Radio 2 folk awards and the ceremony is tomorrow! Fingers and toes are crossed. I hope they win something.

Playing live in Bedford

The Bedford Oxjam Takeover raised £4600 this weekend. The music festival has been running in Bedford for three years. I was the opening act, so I was very nervous. I had played in a band when I was at school, but all the arrogance and confidence of my youth had dissipated since then and I was feeling terrified.

Playing at St. Cuthbert's Hall in Bedford

We didn't get off to the best of starts. The volunteers who were doing the sound desk were having technical difficulties with the p.a. system. My gig was suppose to start at 12:10pm. Half an hour later they still weren't ready to go, so I decided to play the whole thing without amplification. The next band were scheduled to play at 1pm and I didn't want to over-run.

I had to play completely unplugged!

 Fortunately everyone gathered round and I managed to play a set without breaking down into tears or being physically sick! Find out more about the whole day on the Bedford Blog and Board website.

The following day, I played at Bromham Mill

The next day I played 4 songs at Apple Day in Bromham, Bedfordshire along with some amazing singer songwriters from Bedford who have many more years experience than me. I was so annoyed with myself because I couldn't hear what I was doing. The speaker was positioned on my deaf side! Once I worked out what my issue was I managed to play my last two songs with more confidence. It was really windy and I had a lot of hair in my mouth. Hopefully I will play more in the future and try and beat my nervousness and get some more experience.

Me Playing Live Is As Rare As Rocking Horse S**t

On Saturday 18th of October Bedford is hosting it's own Oxjam festival. The takeover is a sweet idea: A bunch of bands play all over town at various venues for the whole day. Punters pay £8 for a wristband that gets them entry everywhere. It starts early and goes on until late and all the money goes to charity.

I've only played once this year. I been offered a few gigs but had to turn them down because they all clashed with various weddings I had to attend (there were six this year). Before that my last show was in 1998. I play and sing everyday at home and although I've written a whole album's worth of songs I just can't seem to motivate myself to perform in front of an audience. 

I play well in a finger picking style, but my voice isn't great, although I can sing in tune, it'll be too breathy for some tastes. I've tried to change it, but I can't fight what comes out of my mouth. 

The thing is... This could be my last gig in Bedford for ages, so it'll probably be the only chance for people to come and see me. As an unknown quantity to the organisers, they've put me on at brunch-time. It's going to be dead quiet, but the hall is incredible so at least I got lucky with the venue.

Maybe designing my own gig poster might persuade more people to come out and see me play. It sort of looks like what the music sounds. You can play lyrics bingo with it during my set.