oh yes – there she is – a walk in the park compared to our last tour with no more than 32 miles a day to cycle and virtually no hill climbs involved…
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Author Archives: Robin Grey
A warm welcome To ‘Chance Kellner’
Canadian violinist Chance Kellner has been working with Robin gigging around London for the last year.
To our delight she has agreed to come on the next Pedal Folk tour.
Above is a photo of her and Tim learning some new tunes on a lazy Sunday morning in Bath at Tim’s place.
Glastonbury gig confirmed
Tim has now confirmed that we will perform at The King Arthur in Glastonbury during our April ‘In Pursuit Of Spring’ tour, which means we nearly have a full house of gigs.
Now we just need to work out if we are going to do a show in Salisbury or have the night off!
The beer garden looks ace – I hope it is this sunny when we are there in April.
A few recordings from a rehearsal
Tim was down in London this weekend and we all got to play together for the first time.
We are working on a track called ‘Leaving London’ which is based on the chapter in ‘In Pursuit Of Spring’ where he is leaving London… Clever song name, hey?
You can hear a little demo of part of it here and a recording we did of John Ball on a cold Sunday morning.
Photos from our second tour in August 2013
Gig in Raves From The Graves, Frome, tour 2
Recovering from the hills around Clifton, tour 2
More Raves From The Graves in Bath this time, tour 2
North of Swindon is the Coltswold Lake District, who knew? from tour 2
The lovely bike path between Bath and Bristol – we love sustrans, tour 2
At The Prince Albert in Stroud, tour 2
Robin and Katie performing in Bath, tour 2
Tim taking some time out in Frome, tour 2
Tim and Katie at Raves From The Grave in Bath, tour 2
Nearly time to tour
Gosh, it is only a few weeks to go. Tim has made a lovely poster. We are both trying out our new cycling cleats and I am off to Swindon tomorrow for a cheeky rehearsal with Katie. Bring it on.
Please note the change of Bath gig venue. The old place has closed down.
Performing for my grandparents
We have always had ambitions to do pedal folk shows in schools and old peoples homes, so I am totally chuffed that we have manage to sort out a lunch time chapel performance at Cote Lane, where my grandparents live.
Not sure if I am allowed to invite people along who don’t live there but worth dropping us a cheeky line if you are in the area and fancy it – 2pm on Friday 30th August in Westbury-on-Trym, north Bristol.
I hope they like it! My grandparents tend to prefer Frank Sinatra or Bach to folk music…
EFDSS Creative Residencies application done!
Ok, deep breath, it is sent, done, dusted, completed, phew, exciting.
For those of you not in the know, EFDSS takes on a few people/groups for creative residencies every year. You can find out more about them here.
We have put in a little application to them for our ‘In Pursuit Of Spring’ tour next year which would give us even more excuses for hanging out in the wonderful Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and generally sitting in Cecil Sharp House playing music.
I would be hugely grateful if you could cross your fingers and toes in the coming month whilst they are judging the applications. Getting one of these residencies would be a major lovely happy moment for us. If you know anyone who works for them, make sure you say lots of nice things about us please!
Right, I am off to sacrifice an old mandolin for good luck.
Hannah Martin said yes!
Tim and I had a brainstorm a couple of weeks ago about who we would most love to join us for the third Pedal Folk ‘In Pursuit Of Spring’ tour in April next year.
Hannah Martin was pretty much top of the list after we both saw her play in her duo with Phillip Henry at Sidmouth Folk Week last year. She is a superb singer, song-writer, performer and plays violin, viola and banjo amongst other instruments.
The great news is she up for it and seems pretty excited about the idea too, hurrah! She’d even heard of Edward Thomas, which shows that a) she is smart and b) she knows more than me.
For those of you who do not know of her, i suggest that you have a listen to the recording below and check out the website of her duo with Phillip Henry here – http://www.philliphenryandhannahmartin.co.uk/.
In Pursuit Of Spring and Edward Thomas
Edward Thomas in 1905
Edward Thomas is one of our country’s unsung literary heroes. He lost his life in 1917 during the First World War and his words and poetry are little known to the vast majority of people, which is sad as many well known authors, musicians and poets cite him as an influence. I had certainly never heard of him until a few months ago.
His last literary work ‘In Pursuit Of Spring’ was published in 1914 about a cycle trip he made from London to Somerset. Tim had the lovely idea of ‘Pedal Folk’ recreating this journey.
We have set aside the last week of April next year to make this happen and below is a rough idea of what the route looks like and the sort of schedule and venues we hope to sort out.
PLEASE NOTE – this is our tour wish list! none of these gigs are confirmed/booked and most of the venues don’t even know who we are and what we are up to yet – best pencil into diary if you are that way inclined.
| Date | Town/City | Venue wish list | ||
| 21/04/14 | Monday | Day 1 | London | Cecil Sharp House |
| 22/04/14 | Tuesday | Day 2 | Farnham | Farnham Maltings |
| 23/04/14 | Wednesday | Day 3 | Winchester | The Railway Inn |
| 24/04/14 | Thursday | Day 4 | Salisbury | Salisbury Arts Centre |
| 25/04/14 | Friday | Day 5 | Trowbridge | Arts Centre |
| 26/04/14 | Saturday | Day 6 | Glastonbury | Assembly Rooms Fabulous Furry Folk night |
| 27/04/14 | Sunday | Day 7 | Crowcombe | Halsway Manor |
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