37/60 – Bluebell Roots with M G Boulter, 31 March 24
Yes, we were back in the Bluebell Kitchen again – 3 times in one month! This was the March Bluebell Roots event featuring a first half of floor spots and a second half of featured guest this time MG Boulter. We’d met Mat before at the Softly Softly gig in...
36/60 – The Section, 17 March 24
We were pleased to be invited to play at this new event in Arlington organised by Bruce Knapp and friends. We’ve know Bruce for a while now, he’s played on some of our recorded work, and is a brilliant musician and a lovely bloke. The Section is a band...
35/60 – Livestream from Arlington, 13 March 24
A Your Stories in Song event We hadn’t live-streamed for a while using Streamyard, something we did a lot during lockdown, so paid our mate and all round clever techy sound guy and MC, Neil Povey to come and help us for this event. Philippa and Michael Vine very...
34/60 – Live on Radio Reverb, 11 March 24
A whirlwind, hundred-mile-an-hour stop at the Radio Reverb studio in Brighton to chat with the inimitable Pete Jones. This man is a force of nature and was born to be on the radio – no, that doesn’t mean he’s ugly. His enthusiasm just cannot be dampened. He...
33/60 – Twickfolk, 3 March 24
Another memorable evening, a lovely event run by lovely people.The train journey there wasn’t as straightforward as to Croydon and we were wary of being stranded again so decided to drive to Three Bridges as there are more return options. Unrestricted parking in the...
32/60 St Edith Folk, Sevenoaks – 1 March 24
This was our second time playing St Edith Folk Club. It’s in a great hall in Otford, near Sevenoaks. That’s just over an hour’s drive away, not easy accessible by train for us. Car parking is free after 6pm but you have to get a ticket from the machine. The group...
31/60 – Bluebell Roots with Daria Kulesh, 24 February 24
Daria Kulesh is lovely and was really helpful getting us set up as we arrived pretty late, always rushing and that makes it very stressful. We’d had a busy morning then friends over for lunch and hadn’t managed to take the dog for a walk so had to exercise her first...
30/60 – Crowborough U3A, 15 Feb 24.
A Your Stories in Song event. Crowborough Community Centre is a bit special – it’s a HUGE hall with an enormous stage suitable for several levels of flats. Seating for 300 and a built in PA. We’d taken out own PA which was OK as the audience was about 100 and we...
29/60 – Croydon folk club, 12 Feb 2024
It’s always a pleasure coming to Croydon Folk Club. Brian and Jenny are a lovely couple who run the club, always the first to arrive to set up display boards, chairs, stage, banners, ticket desk, raffle and lighting. We’d actually arrived even earlier as we came by...
28/60 – Acoustic Sessions, Rainham, February 10th.
This is a very special gig and this was the second time we have played it. Held in the lovely Oasthouse Theatre in Rainham www.oasthousetheatre.co.uk, the evening is run by Luke Bailey as totally acoustic for a listening audience every 2 months or so –...
27/60 – Old Oak Inn, Arlington. 9th Feb 2024.
Back once again in our local. There was a good crowd when we got there including some of our neighbours and friends form Bluebell Roots, and most people stayed around, which is often not the case in food pubs – people will eat then leave. A group at one table,...
26 /60 – Frontier Bar, Eastbourne. February 7th, 2024.
This event was organised as a Your Stories In Song event (our first one) with Compass Community Arts. They had wanted to hold the event as part of Eastbourne Alive, arts celebrations alongside the Turner Prize at the Towner. We had originally talked about holding it...
22 – 25 of 60 – Bluebell Roots sessions
I had managed to miss out the Bluebell Roots monthly sessions in my earlier ’60 by 60’ write ups so am going back to October, November of 2023 and January of 2024 (I’d already written about the December 2023 session as it was a Milton Hide special). In case you...
21/60 E.L.F Battle – Abbey Hotel
Part 5 of 5 gigs for E.L.F – Every Last Friday in Battle. The previous duo were still playing when we arrived at the final venue, the Abbey Hotel. And then they got an encore so played another one while we were standing by the door with all of our gear waiting...
20/60 E.L.F Battle – Sarah’s Cellar
Part 4 of 5 gigs for E.L.F – Every Last Friday in Battle. The next venue, a bit further down the High Street and down a sideway, was Sarah’s Cellar which was like a breath of fresh air when we walked in. It was so much quieter than The Bull in volume and...
19/60 E.L.F Battle – The Bull
Part 3 of 5 gigs for E.L.F – Every Last Friday in Battle. Next up was The Bull, right opposite the Taproom. It did take quite a while to cross the road though as Battle high Street is surprisingly busy with traffic on a Friday night! We played in The Bull once...
18/60 E.L.F Battle – King’s Head
Part 2 of 5 gigs for E.L.F – Every Last Friday in Battle. We finished the previous gig on time, got packed up quick, and we’re into the next venue with a couple of minutes to spare. The duo in front of us were just getting their stuff out of the door so we could...
17/60 E.L.F Battle – Brewery Taproom
Friday 26th January 2024 We had been in conversation with Darren Watson about playing at E.L.F in Battle in April. Every Last Friday is a mini music marathon in 5 different venues in Battle. We did it once before a few years back and enjoyed it. One venue, a...
16/60 Bluebell Roots
16/60 Bluebell Roots24 Dec 202317/12/23 Christmas Special in ArlingtonWe have written before about the wonder that is Bluebell Roots. For the Christmas Special we invited some of our regular floor spot performers to do longer sets and Philippa and Michael Vine served...
15/60 – Live at Thornsett Road. 16/12/2023
VIDEO – https://youtu.be/6QZzOeiU4Hc?si=bvfKRozYtqJn-SmU House Concert in Penge When we first started performing we looked at the gigs that artist friends were playing, especially those artists who we think we are similar to in style. In fact we still do this in...
14/60 – Bodiam Castle. 09/12/23
What better to do on a day of heavy rain and floods than go and play music in a castle!? We’d been invited, after recommendation from a friend who volunteers for NT, to come and play music in Bodiam Castle (National Trust) for a Christmas Special event. Having...
13/60- Under Ground Theatre, Eastbourne. 2/12/23
This event was a double header with us and Terry Lees & Natasha Norodien. The night was extremely cold with a freezing fog so we were amazed to have any audience turn up at all! But there was a decent crowd of about 25 in the Venton Centre, opposite the railway...
12/60 – The Grove, Eastbourne. 23/11/23
Notes Home at The Grove Theatre, Eastbourne The idea for this event morphed a couple of times before we got to the planning stage. First we had an idea to run a one day music festival at The Grove, booking several acts to perform in both the main auditorium and the...
11/60 The Stag, Hastings. 12/11/23
We had one of our best gigs ever on Sunday. Neither of us could stop grinning. We’ve played here before but never had such the enthusiastic response we had this time. Usually in a pub you expect to be ignored the majority of the time, especially when they serve food,...
10/60 – Old Oak Inn, Arlington. 03/11/23
The Old Oak Inn is our local – we can actually walk here when we haven’t got a load of PA gear to cart about! Owners Paul and Kate (really friendly people) love having music at the pub and encourage all sorts of live music, especially in the summer months...
9/60 – Tenterden Folk Festival – The Saddlery. 8/10/23
Our final gig of the weekend was a bit of a surprise. We honestly thought we would be lucky to get one person at the ‘Meet the Guests’ event. Partly because tickets were £6 (or included in the weekend pass) and partly because it clashed with the final...
8/60 – Tenterden Folk Festival – Free Stage – 8/10/23
We had played the free stage in 2022 and really enjoyed it so were really pleased to be playing again. Sunday morning, just before lunchtime was a good time for us. We made sure to have a hearty breakfast and drove up to the car park by the rec as it was pretty hot...
8a/60 – Tenterden Folk Festival – Ancient Boro. 6/10/23
by Josie Hm, well, not all gigs work out. This one just wasn’t right for us so I’m not including it in the 60 performances, just giving it a nominal 8a listing! As one of our 4 appearances at Tenterden Folk Festival 2023 we were to perform at an event...
7/60 – Tenterden Folk Festival – Afternoon Concert. 6/10/23
Our first appearance at 2023 Tenterden Folk Festival was mid-afternoon on the first day of the event. We were both very excited as we were booked to open the afternoon concert. We were camping at the festival campsite which, although no more than a 15 minute walk from...
6/60 -Bentley Wood Fair. 17/09/2023
When our boys were little we used to regularly go to the Weald Wood Fair at Bentley but we heard that the motor museum and the wildfowl centre had closed down so assumed the wood fair was not longer happening. So we were surprised when we had a message from our friend...
5/60 – The Albion, Hastings – 16/09/2023
We had been warned that there might not be many people in the Albion because the gig clashed with the Seafood and Wine Festival down the road and that most punters would sit outside in the sun, so we went expecting to maybe perform outside. As we pulled up the whole...
4/60 – An Evening With Milton Hide. 13/09/2023
As part of the annual Hailsham Festival (of Arts & Culture) we put on a special evening event at The Bluebell Kitchen in Arlington. This is our regular venue for our monthly Bluebell Roots and Philippa Vine who usually does the cooking for the event was very happy...
3/60 -Cranfest. Larkin’s Alehouse, 9/9/23
We’d not spent any time in Cranbrook before but it is one of the prettiest towns, with white weatherboarded houses lining the streets. Being a scorcher of a day we decided to leave the campsite early and head to the festival to hear some music, hopefully in the shade,...
2/60 – The Royal Oak, Tunbridge Wells. 8/9/23
We decided to make a couple of days of it as we were playing in Cranbrook the following evening, so we hitched up Michelle (Eriba caravan), stuck the canoe on the car roof, and headed for The Hop Farm. It’s only half an hour from T Wells so we arrived in time to cook...