Chequers in the Chilterns
When we were booked to play Chequers Folk we had no idea what a special time we would have. From a stunning venue, warm welcome and fascinating stories to awesome views, inspirational exhibits and glorious weather, we experienced a lot in a wonderful 24 hours....
Video Premiere 19th March
We are doing a live ‘premiere’ of our brand new video for the single we are releasing on 19th March – Simon’s Nick. This is the first track on the forthcoming album, Bungaroosh, which will be released on 19th April. Simon’s Nick – an...
Making Progress – revisiting a review and interview
“wait a minute… what’s this? A driving rhythm…a melody you can whistle…. lyrics with something to say…. a jaunty chorus…. all in an undeniably Albion rock style” Making Progress – revisiting a review and interview (Say that quickly three...
Can you buy fairy wings in Glastonbury?
Visiting the town to take part in Glastonbury Calling one day music festival, we took time to explore and search the town for props for our music video. There is no shortage of gothic, fantasy, creative, wicca, crystal and healing shops and a constant aroma of...
Fat Tuesday and Uncovention
Together with Neil Povey, we headed over to Hastings on Friday 28th March for Unconvention, a one day grassroots music conference, which kicked off the annual Hastings Fat Tuesday. We could only stay for the morning (as Jim had to get back for a blood donor...
Bungaroosh – it seemed like a good idea at the time
We named our new album Bungaroosh which seemed like a good idea at the time. After thinking about it, we do have some very slight misgivings. Here’s why What is the meaning of Bungaroosh? Many people from the Brighton & Hove area will know what Bungaroosh is...
Folk For Climate Justice
It’s easy to keep trotting out the phrase ‘this was a brilliant gig’ but truly, this was and we felt privileged to be part of it. We were approached by Jan of Music For Climate Justice following a recommendation by Laura of Bird In The Belly. She...
Wordsearch 1
How many words can you find in our first word search? Our name is in there, words in our lyrics, track titles and more. Just a bit of fun! Let us know what you find 🙂 Words can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal and can be back to front and upside...
Life after Meta….
We have made the decision to become inactive on Facebook and Instagram as from 1st May 2025. Why the wait? – Although we’d love to just step away now, we need to get some other things in place first, create other methods of keeping in touch. Why step away?...
Planting Trees
We had planned to plant a whole load more trees in our field here at Pickhams in East Sussex, but as the property is on the market (with Lewes Estates) and we won’t be here to care for them for their first few important growing years, I’ve donated to the...
We’re leaving META
On 1st May 2025 we will become inactive on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) BUT we’ll definitely still be around! It will help us out a HUGE amount if you could sign up to our mailing list so we can stay in touch – send us a link to sign up to yours too, if you...
Tide Mills Choir
We were pleased to work with Tide Mills Choir for our final concert of the ‘Your Stories In Song’ project. Our friend Claire had put us in touch with Ellen, the choir leader, and we exchanged emails about how we could write a song for the choir to perform....
Project complete
We are pleased to have finished our National Lottery funded project – not that we didn’t enjoy doing it! it was great fun and now it’s over we really feel we have achieved something special. Over the course of 12 months we ran 11 interactive...
We did it!
Photographs by Alex Thomas We set ourselves a challenge to do 60 gigs in our 60th year. Jo’s birthday is in September, Jim’s in October so we allowed a start date of Jo’s 59th and an end date of Jim’s 60th, giving us a total of just over 13...
60/60 – Jenny Lind, Hastings – 11/8/24
Hastings Aug24-01photo by Alex Thomas Hastings Aug24-2 Hastings Aug24-03photo by Alex Thomas Hastings Aug24-04photo by Alex Thomas Jenny Lind 3 Jenny Lind 2 Jenny Lind 1 This was it – gig number 60 in the series. We’d shared it around on social media that...
59/60 – Little Arts Festival, Rushlake Green – 8/8/24
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Little Arts Festival 2024 (@littleartsfestival2024) This was a fabulous stage, great hall, bar, easy access and lovely organisers. All it was missing was the audience numbers that this little festival deserves. Little Arts...
58/60 – Bluebell Roots, 28/7/24
It was a scamper to get ready to leave for Bluebell Roots, having got back from Bridport at 4.30pm. But we know what a lovely evening we’ll have every time so it was no hardship and it’s only a five minute drive from home. Chris and Dan, The Long Shorts,...
57/60 – Bridport Folk Festival, 27/7/24
We set off form our layby kip at about 8am, stopping en route for a fresh coffee and biscuit (£9!) and at Dorchester Jim popped into the music shop as it opened to buy a new guitar lead. After taking it in turns driving, we arrived at Bridport at 11.so, waved into the...
56/60 – Colindale Barnet Folk Club, 26/7/24
Ah, this was a lovely gig, We had played for the Colindale Folk Club on 2 previous occasions when it was at the Chandos Arms in Colindale, North London. It was a pub so had more of an open mic feel to it than a sit down folk club, but was good fun and Mark who runs it...
55/60 – Hailsham Library, Your Stories In Song – 18/7/24
We had no idea what to expect from this ‘Your Stories in Song’ gig, fully anticipating an empty library, but were pleasantly surprised. Three people had come specifically and came to sit with us for the whole set, a few others wandered over and sat for a...
54/60 – St Pancras Church, Arlington – 7/7/24
We were approached by a neighbour who was putting on a fundraiser concert (for local refugees) at our local church to ask if we’d be prepared to play a set. Of course we said yes but we did then find that a big family do had been planned for that afternoon so we...
53/60 – Bluebell Roots, 30/6/24
Bluebell Roots with The Browns. Jim arrived early at the Bluebell Farmhouse Kitchen to set up while I stayed at home to sort out our spare room as our son was coming to stay the night. I managed to persuade Mum to come round to the gig and she really enjoyed it...
52/60 – Pickhams, Your Stories In Song – 15/6/24
‘Your Stories In Song’ is a year long lottery funded project run by Summer Trifle and delivered by Milton Hide. Summer Trifle is a not for profit organisation set up with the original aim to run accessible arts events at and around Pickhams in Wilmington /...
51/60 – Dorking folk Club, 12/6/24
We managed to tie in my art demo with this gig, heading to West Meon the day before and camping overnight, then back up to Dorking Golf Club after lunch. A little less driving than returning home between. We took the caravan to a lovely little site at West Meon which...
50/60 – Old oak Inn – Bungaroosh Fundraiser, 1/6/24
Kate and Paul at The Old Oak are really big supporters of Milton Hide. When we we put out our Bungaroosh fundraiser campaign email, Kate got in touch to say ‘come here and do a fundraiser gig!”. We quickly put the word out and had a good turnout of...
49/60 – Yacht Club Open Mic, Fishguard Folk Festival – 26/5/24
In the morning, after another good night’s sleep in the caravan, we drove up for a flying visit to some friends living nearby. A quick downpour of rain but then the sun came out as we headed back to Fishguard to set up for the Open Mic we were scheduled to run...
48/60 – St Mary’s Church, Fishguard Folk Festival – 25/5/24
We had a good night’s kip in the caravan then had another band practice in the morning before a lunch of leftover pizza from last night. Then drove into town with the gear – didn’t realise we could have parked inside the gates of the church so parked...
47/60 – Ffrwn, Fishguard Folk Festival – 24/5/24
We had two days at home after the Glossop gig before heading off to Wales ready for the Fishguard Folk Festival. We booked a campsite for the little caravan at Llandow close to Llantrisant Folk Club intending to visit the club and do a couple of numbers, but when we...
46/60 – Glossop Labour Club, 18/5/24
We left a day early so that we weren’t playing immediately after a long drive. I was taking hay fever tablets as I had a persistent cough, blocked sinuses and was deaf in one ear, but they make me drowsy so Jim did all of the driving. Nightmare traffic jam on...
45/60 – Sweeps Festival part 2
Part 2 – see 44/60 City Wall Stage Boley Hill Stage 5th May 2024 Jo was recovering from a long lasting chest infection and we even wondered if we were going to be able to do these gigs. She managed to get through both gigs though without seeming to make things...
44/60 – Sweeps Festival Part 1
We were delighted to be invited back to Rochester Sweeps again this year and were booked to play The City Wall (wine bar) Stage and Boley Hill Stage, which is positioned between the Cathedral and Castle. The weather in early May can be tricky but Sweeps was blessed...
43/60 – Bluebell Roots April
with special guest Johnny Campbell. 28th April 2024 at the Bluebell Kitchen. This session was pretty well attended with some regulars who hadn’t been for a while, returning. Jim picked Johnny up from Polegate Station (after a ‘phone call from Johnny to...
42/60 – ELF in Battle part 4
26 April 2024. Final part of ELF, Every Last Friday mini music marathon in Battle. A quick trot down the High Street the The Abbey Hotel. This was our final stop last time we played ELF and we were a bit disappointed then. The bar man (manager/owner?) was unfriendly...
41/60 – ELF in Battle part 3
26 April 2024, Part 3 of ELF, Every Last Friday – music marathon in Battle. Venue 3 this time was Sarah’s Cellar and the duo playing before us had obviously gone down well as the audience were enjoying themselves, They were also obviously enjoying the...
40/60 – ELF in Battle part 2
26th April 2024. On to the Bull for part 2 of ELF (every last Friday, the monthly mini music marathon in Battle). When we played here last time we were on a hiding to nothing with getting ourselves heard so had low expectations. But we were pleasantly surprised. It...
39/60 – ELF in Battle
25th APRIL 2024 We were back again at the monthly mini music marathon in Battle. This time we started at The Kings head (Ye Olde Kings Head) which wasn’t too busy, nice and easy to set up and we started with a few people sitting at the side listening, some...
A summer of gigs coming up
We are very excited about all of our gigs this Summer. We have lots of festival and folk club bookings plus several ‘Your Stories In Song’ events. Find full details of all of them on our GIGS page. We’re also busy writing and recording songs so...
Bungaroosh!
We’ll be releasing our next album in Spring 2025, called Bungaroosh and YOU can help us get it off the ground. Over the next few days we’ll release various pre-order options with added extras. Keep an eye on Social media and on our SHOP page. Tickets to...
38/60 – Royal Oak, Tunbridge Wells. 5/4/24
We’re back again! See post number 2 in the series (https://www.miltonhide.com/2-60-the-royal-oak-tunbridge-wells-8-9-23/) . This time our mate Delby couldn’t be there but The Harveys played as a duo to kick off the evening. Pete’s mate did the sound...
Competitions
We decided to enter four competitions this year – Talent Is Timeless; Purbeck Rising; Milkmaid Songwriters; pFite Talent is Timeless is a great initiative started by Saskia Griffiths-Moore as a free songwriting competition during lockdown aimed specifically at...
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...
Livestream!
Wednesday 13th March, 8.30pm GMT Join us, Jim and Jo, as we sing some of our songs and tell the stories behind them live online. We’ll ask you to share some of your own stories – personal recollections, family history, local legends or people, reality or...
Songwriting session in Norwich
Time & Location 12 May 2024, 12:00 – 16:00 Norwich, 11-15 Fye Bridge St, Norwich NR3 1LJ, UK About the event Join singer-songwriters Milton Hide for songwriting sessions aimed at experienced and aspiring songwriters. It will start with a Songwriter’s Circle –...
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...