Way out west – part 1 of 2

HAMPSHIRE

It started on a Thursday when we set off for Hampshire for our first overnight stop on our way west. There’s a lovely campsite we’ve found, no toilets or electricity, just a field, taps and waste area, in a peaceful spot by a disused railway line and walking distance to West Meon which is a beautiful little village. We made a brief livestream video. Having had glorious weather for days, it rained that evening and the wind picked up so much it destroyed the toilet tent! We made the most of a wet morning and had a band practice in the caravan before setting off for Blandford Forum.

DORSET

We’d booked in advance at The Inside Park near Blandford Forum, not realising what a wonderful place it would be. The road was closed by the usual access gate so we had to come in the back way which involved driving along a very long single lane track with vicious speed bumps, past fields of sheep and alpacas. The site itself is set in parkland of an estate and has some amazing, huge trees and woodland walks on site. We weren’t there in school holidays but there were a few children enjoying a huge kids playground – oh our boys would have loved it here!

We set up in the wind then got ready and headed out to our first gig of the tour at Purbeck Folk Club.

Before we headed to the club we did another quick livestream from one of our favourite beaches, Swanage. Purbeck Folk Club is held in an old school hall in the village of Langton Matravers a short drive away. We were the headline act on the bill with Tim Lacey as support who played an excellent set. He was nervous but it didn’t show and he’s good songwriter. There was some debate about whether or not we should use a PA but it was quite a large room so we set ours up beside the warm glow of the standard lamp – it felt cosy in a large space. It’s a small club with a few regulars and they serve tea and cake in the interval which is very civilised! John, who booked us, took a video of the evening which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/DqIN9ma0OkU

Wimborne Minster Folk Festival

The following day, Friday, we were invited into the Radio Wimborne studio for a chat in advance of our Saturday morning performance at the folk festival. Polly Morris was being interviewed when we arrived and Glyn greated us prior to doing our interview, Glen was running the desk. Community radio is great – so many people can get involved and they are able to broadcast specialist programmes. The interview was really good as Glyn had done his research and asked some interesting questions, we played three songs live. You can listen again here: https://podcast.canstream.co.uk/wimborne/index.php?cat=Folk%20Festival%202025%201-2

On Saturday morning we made our way into Wimborne Minster Folk Festival for our set on the ‘Willow Stage’ (now the Dacombes of Wimborne stage). Parking is extremely difficult as the whole town is taken up with the festival so we dropped the gear off and Jim went off to find a space. I got what I could set up then had an agonising wait for Jim to get back to the stage to start our sound check. It was a big stage and they had a camera set up which was projecting onto a giant screen next to it – we were there in full, huge glory! Just before we went on we added a song to the set which we know back to front but hadn’t practised and I forgot the words in the second line – that look of surprised terror on my face was about 20 ft tall. It started to rain so those in the ‘arena’ were sheltering under trees or in the craft marquees but we did have an audience, especially at the end of the set as the choir and their families turned up early for their set – always good to be on before a choir!

Huge thanks to all of the organisers and volunteers for the festival – it’s a massive amount of work and when the rain lashes down, it’s heartbreaking. But the show went on despite torrents of rain all afternoon. We sheltered at a local pub in the band marquee to watch the awesome Curst Sons with our friends Sarah and Terry.

DEVON

Although we didn’t have any gigs booked in Devon, we decided to do some busking between the rain. Sidmouth is a nice seaside town, we found a good spot at the end of a pedestrianised road and popped into the local shops to let them know we’d be playing a few songs and asked them to let us know if it was too loud – we had a little busking amp with us. There weren’t a huge number of passing people but a small group stopped to listen, take photos and dropped some coins into the clarinet box  – they had a chat a bit later on their return and were on a cycling holiday from France.

The place we stopped had a convenient wall behind us which meant we weren’t obstructing any doorways or shop windows, but perhaps we should have paid more attention to the streaks down the wall – it was only after a seagull blessed Jim during our song Festival Of Freaks that we put two and two together and realised we were under a roosting spot.

After half an hour, we packed up, went to find some donuts and paid for the parking – the ‘haul’ only just covered the parking, 2 of the coins were euros (..wonder who put those in!) and the donuts were the most expensive I’ve ever bought! – then headed off to Weymouth to have tea with Sarah, after which we went back to base via Portland Bill and some bracing sea air.

We did another Livestream this time from Dartmoor close to our next campsite which was at Barley Meadow near Crockernwell (a tidy and compact site with excellent facilities, quiet but a bit soulless as it didn’t allow children). We’d wandered up to an impressive stone circle and spent ages mooching around just appreciating the beauty of the place and the feat of moving those stones – photos don’t do it justice.

To come in Part 2 – more of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and back to Hampshire