HOME | news | gigs | bios & reviews | songs & cds | artworks | media kit | links | contact us

news archive

 

Previous News Pages.

July, 2003 - Far Distant, Far Distant
September, 2003 - The latest from England
October, 2003 - ... and now ...
December, 2003 - Winter Sets In and We Settle Down to Work
March, 2004 - The Adventure continues
May, 2004 - Here Comes the Sun!
August, 2004 - Into the Home Stretch
November, 2004 - Home Again, Home Again
January, 2005 - The Land of Oz
May 2005 - At Home on the Road
September 2005 - A-journeying we go
February 2006 - There and Back Again
May 2006 - The Road Beckons
July 2006 - Summer on the Far Side of the World
September 2006 - At Home in the Hills


July 2003 - Far Distant, Far Distant



1. The Story So Far...

Nicole and John left Australia on an extended trip to the UK on 1 May. The plan is to stay for 12 months initially, and longer if we prove sufficiently gigworthy. A bunch of gigs at festivals and clubs were successfully negotiated from Oz before
leaving, bags were packed with CD's, beads and mirrors for trading with the locals, and off we went.

 

2. A Birthday for Kate.

The first stop was Birmingham (Gateway to Birmingham and Surrounds). We met up with the wonderful Della Hooke who runs the Red Lion Folk Club (http://www.redlionfolkclub.com/) and had a great night with James Fagan and Nancy Kerr, who gigged with Kate Fagan in support. A late night around the kitchen table followed by a session the next day for Kate's (unnumbered for the sake of privacy) birthday.

 

3. Finding a Van.

Our search for transport started the next day, with much webbing-about. A hire car came to our aid a couple of days later and we spied a Nissan Urvan camper in fair condition which looked like it might suit our needs. We continued to ramble about the countryside while we considered alternatives, often driving indecent distances in any one day. We decided on the Nissan in the end and, fresh MOT (like a roadworthy, only posh) in hand, we hit the road for our first festival. Along the way we caught up with friends in London and Brighton.

 

4. Wheaton-Aston

The Wheaton-Aston festival (http://www.wheatonastonfestival.supanet.com/) is small but (as is often the case with festivals) run by a wonderful bunch of people. We had a terrific time and met some great folkies, including the amazing John Hare (more about him later). We played and sessioned into the early hours. John offered to give us a hand with the van in Essex and so this was our next stop.

 

5. The Van Turns.

After Wheaton-Aston, we hoped for a bit of a break to assemble our resources and prepare for what lay ahead. At Essex, John and John worked on the van, fiddling here and there. At one point it looked as though the MOT may not have been based in reality and a short excursion was undertaken to Birmingham to discuss the finer details of campervan maintenance with the former owner. Slowly, but surely the van moved towards readiness. Nicole met up with a friend in Surrey (known to most as Redshoes) and while John devoted his time to learning the ways of the campervan, she saw Peter Gabriel in concert at Wembley arena and met him at the after-concert party for family, friends and hugely VIPs. Some adventuring followed before heading into London where an Australian friend's niece had a flat which needed minding.

We had two weeks in London, going back and forth to Essex to ready the van. Saw some great sessions and managed a couple of floor spots (Sharp's Folk Club at Cecil Sharp House, The Ram at Claygate (Niamh Parsons), Twickenham Folk Club (James Keelaghan one night and Bob Fox the other) and Islington Folk Club (Elle Osborne).

After the Twickenham Folk Club, the van wasn't feeling well and so the RAC man towed us home. The next day, an ailing alternator was replaced. That night, we slept the sleep of the sleepy, preparing to pack the van for Scotland for a gig on June 8.

 

6. Danger in the Night.

We woke the next day to find the van gone!!!!! Theft, horror, police, phone calls, insurance policies and woe. Saint John of Essex once again came to the rescue and (of course) produced a friend of his who had a spare campervan. Cheaper, in better shape and ready to roll. The Nissan was stolen on Tuesday, but by Friday we were on the way to Scotland.

 

7. A Gig Too Far.

Several appalling puns later, we arrived in Glasgow. Our old Aussie buddy Toni Wood looked after us and the next night we played in Edinburgh at the Wee Folk Club at the Royal Oak. A wonderful night with Nicole's Scottish relatives in attendance. A couple of days later and we raced back South. The first day saw us to Birmingham and the next we made it to Brighton (circumstances beyond our control prevented us going further South). That night we performed as part of an amazing concert, "Elle Osborne and Friends" on the Verda, a restored passenger ferry which is now an art gallery and performance space.

 

8. R&R

A few days in the sun and fun of Brighton followed, then a couple of nights on a campsite near Cambridge. Then on to Nottingham and the wonders of Kate Tiler, a medieval craftsperson. Nicole headed straight to the studio and green men are slowly emerging.


9. We Also Play Music.

This weekend, we are booked at the Alcester and Arden Festival in Warwickshire. Next week, we head to Chester and then to Ireland. We have a club to go to in Northern Wales and our first stop in Ireland will be the Goilin Singers Club (where Niamh has promised to show us around). We're then planning to hit Willy Clancy Week with Jenny Fitzgibbon and then follow the music for a month before returning to England for what is shaping up as a busy August.

That's all from us for now...

 

 

September, 2003 - The Latest from England


1. The Van

The theft of our van in London in June was probably the biggest challenge we have had to face so far, but the new van is going well and the great people at Direct-line insurance came through with the cash for the Nissan. The new van has been nick-named "Swaggy" (thanks to the rego - SWG979Y - "Single White Girl" was rejected as being innaccurate and insufficiently Australian).

 


2. Ireland calls

Our month in Ireland was absolutely, mind-blowingly, spectacularly fabulous. We ferried over from Holyhead to Dublin at 2:50 in the morning (what joy) and then made our way to Niamh Parson's house. A great catch-up and then off to the Goilin singers' club on Friday. A wonderful night of great songs and singers. We then had a few more days of r&r in Dublin (including some busking with Jenny Fitzgibbon who was visiting from Oz). A terrific week and then....

 


3. Willy Clancy Week!

Every year in the coastal town of Miltown Malbay in Clare, the Willy Clancy Summer School is held. Having missed the week on our last visit to Ireland four years ago, we made sure that we didn't repeat that mistake. About 3000 students enrol in singing and instrument classes. Nicole spent the week in flute classes, while John wandered around the town sessioning in some of the 17 pubs in this tiny town. The Thursday before the summer school started we arrived in town and (following a very home-made sign) found a house close to town that rented out the vacant block next door as camping space. The van found a home in the driveway and we were set. That night, we found a great session at "the Blonde's", one of two pubs called Cleary's. Jesse, Jerry and Clare became friends that night, and the rest of the 10-day stay settled into a pattern of sessions, sessions, sessions. We played until we couldn't most nights, with the occasional singing session at Marrinan's thrown in.

The town becomes a bit crazy as the week goes on, with all the pubs so crowded that, even if you're lucky enough to get inside, we often found there wasn't enough room to open the guitar case, let alone play anything. Rather than experience the full horror of the weekend, we headed off to the Aran Islands for some roomier sessions. Nic stayed behind on the mainland and found an out-of-town singing session with Jenny, while John, Jesse, Jerry and Clare headed to Inishmor. Several extraordinary developments later, they were run out of town the next morning and so met up with Nic on Inisheer. Another great night of sessions and then the ferry home.

Willy Week was a wonderful experience and we hope we'll be back. Great friends, lovely place and the music is just unbelievable. Along the way, we even had a chance to catch up with some Aussies, namely Belinda Ford and (well pretty Australian) Eilish O'Connor.

 


4. More Irish Wandering

We roamed around for the rest of July, with Jenny along for the ride. We made it to Ennis, Enniscrone and eventually (barely into the North) the Rostrevor festival. Along the way, there was beautiful scenery, more music (including lucrative busking in Galway) and the slipperiest experience known to humanity, the seaweed bath! The month flew by and then it was time to ferry back to Wales.

 


5. August!

Our busiest month yet saw us back from Ireland and then straight to Warwick for the most Australian-feeling festival to date. A fabulous program, great venues and a very Canberra National style event. Highlights for us were a chance to see some more Aussie mates and seeing Jon Boden and John Spiers - a terrific act of fiddle, voice, stomp-board and melodeon with great versions of trad ballads with lots of rhythm. They seem to be playing every festival in the country this year and they are fabulous!

From Warwick, we made our way to Sidmouth. More Aussies with Mike Jackson and Di Hill. One of the largest festivals of the season, Sidmouth is spread out over a beautiful sea-side resort town and runs for 8 days. We played the open stage, a couple of folk club venues, took part in one of Mike's concert spots and sessioned every chance we could. The Bedford Hotel proved to be the favourite, with a huge front bar overlooking the ocean, and weather that allowed the windows to be opened for a largely smoke-free result. This week gave us the chance to see the debut concert of the Shamrock, Thistle and Rose tour, with James and Nancy, Alistair Hulett and Niamh Parsons. A fantastic collaboration.

Speaking of weather! It's been hot most of the time since we arrived. Disturbingly so. We're talking sunburn and sweat here. Thoroughly un-English. The closest comparison to winter that we can think of is Townsville winter. All in all, unexpectedly relaxed and pleasant.

And so on to Broadstairs. Devon to Kent. Arriving at about 9, we found our way to our billet for the week with the wonderful Dawn and Graham. Another sea-side town, another sprawling festival. A beautiful place and some lovely gigs, especially our final performance for the week in the Methodist chapel. We weren't worked too hard, so there was lots of time to find sessions and check out the concerts. Caught up with Chris While and Julie Matthews, and (a great surprise) Liz Frencham from Jigzag was with them! A terrific chat into the early hours.

So, a week in Kent and then racing up the motorways to Whitby. Our luck held as we found a campsite close to town, and made our way to the Tap and Spile, for the greatest singing sessions around. John at last got to fulfil his dream of singing The Green Man in that session (he'd been looking forward to that since he wrote it). The singing was incredible; this crowd seem to know the choruses even to songs they are hearing for the first time. Great harmonies and real ales into the early hours. (Whitby is one of the few places we've come across in England where the sensible Irish approach to licensing hours can be found.) The next day saw us play the Hiring Fair at Whitby for our 15 minutes of fame and then it was time to hit the road again.

 


6. A Scottish Aside

Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the whole of Folk Week at Whitby, as we had to race North again for gigs in Scotland. Monday saw us at the Glenfarg Folk Club. The tiny town of Glenfarg is home to this great club, in the (perhaps not surprisingly named) Glenfarg Hotel, a beautiful old pub with towering ceilings and comfy couches throughout. The gig went well, and we hope to be back in the new year.

Next day, we were back into Edinburgh for a night at the Royal Oak as part of Festival Folk at the Oak, and the Wednesday saw us in Dunfermline for a spot at the local club. All in all, a lightning trip with a chance to see some of Nic's relatives and spend some (far too little) time with Toni Wood in Glasgow (we're planning a longer visit in September).

 


7. And back to …

And from Scotland, we hit the motorways South to Staffordshire and the Bridgnorth Festival. Way back in May, we had met Vicky and Jonny from Serious Kitchen at Wheaton Aston. We sessioned a little one afternoon and they suggested we might do the same at Bridgnorth. This evolved into four joint gigs at the festival. Some racing rehearsal at Whitby and on the day of the first gig, saw us perform forty minute sets, mostly turn about, culminating in a combined version of King Willy, with Vicky on Scottish small-pipes and Jonny on guitar. It went down a hoot! Bridgnorth was a treat, and playing with Vicky and Jonny was a real joy. We caught up with Jan Davis again and then once more to the road for …


8. The Fabulous Fylde Festival

On the Lancashire coast is the wonderful town of Fleetwood and August saw us at the Fylde festival there. A great festival and we had a wonderful time, being worked hard and singing our heads off. A terrific way to finish the busy month of August.


9. And now …

We're spending a few days with Toni Wood in Glasgow for a proper visit in her new house. A great chance to catch up with Toni at last, as well as get some sleep and attend to the bookwork and mail.

We're well, the driving isn't too bad and the weather's terrific.

And more.

That's all of the latest. We'll stay in touch.

Love from the road,


John and Nicole.

 

October, 2003 ... and now ...

 

1. September and beyond.....

 

Fylde Festival

After a lovely few days with Jan in Studley, we headed North to Fleetwood, a
seaside town on the Fylde Peninsula on the Lancashire coast . An unusual place, with the remnants of tourist glory in evidence - apparently, it was once thought that the beautiful coastline would bring the visitors in their thousands with ferries running regularly across to Scotland - then they figured out how to build the railway line over the mountains to the East. A fantastic festival at which we worked very hard and had a great time. Lots of gigs, amazingly strong winds! We played some more with Jonny and Vicki from Serious Kitchen . The highlight for Nicole was an early morning session with Dougie McLean on the last night in the Moor and Coast tent (John slept instead).

2. And Back to Scotland.

After a wonderful but tiring time at the Fylde Festival, we headed North to Scotland again for a week of relaxation and catching up with Toni Wood and her partner, Kevin in their new house. We had a chance to explore the wonders of modern Glasgow, including the Burrell collection - an amazing museum representing a gathering of artifacts from around the globe which was presented to the city of Glasgow in 1944 "by the millionaire ship-owner William Burrell". We also had a great night at the "Star", where our floor spot turned into another gig for April next year. The Star Folk Club is held in St Andrews in the Square, a restored church in the centre of Glasgow which, only a few years ago was destined for demolition. It now houses an amazing performance space, with towering ceilings decorated with golden angels, and a 3 second acoustic delay from end to end.

Our stay in Scotland included a day trip to Edinburgh, where galleries were
examined, before stopping into Plaisir du Chocolat, where Nicole enjoyed their famous chocolate espresso, and John found pleasure in one of their rare cocktails (Japanese green tea, lime juice, cane syrup, and gin). We caught up with Toni again that night for wine and a visit to her old flat to burn gum leaves and immerse ourselves in nostalgic smells.

 

3. Derby, Nottingham, and Bromyard.

We packed the van and headed South, where we were interviewed about coming Midlands gigs by Mick Peat and Lester Simpson (of Coope, Boyes and Simpson) on their regular weekly BBC show. And then back to Bingham and the amazing Kate Tiler (the Tudor re-enactor we spoke about in June). We played the Carlton Folk Club in Nottingham and then headed off for the Bromyard Folk Festival.

We had set ourselves up for a weekend of sessioning and camping, but the
organiser of the festival, Dick Dixon, drafted us into replacing one of the programmed performers who had called in sick. We scored a hotel room, and six gigs in six days.

Bromyard is an amazing old town, with winding streets and those weird black and white buildings that seem to be in a perpetual state of falling down. The highlight for Nic was stumbling upon a beautiful, oak-lined room, reverberating with the sounds of a four-piece band and a dog, accompanying 20 spoons-players, all learning the William Tell Overture. (John made for the stairs before the piece could be identified). Vin Garbutt played the final concert and we had a chance to chat to him about his recent concert back in Brisbane.

 

4. Stratford-upon-Avon

With a few days in hand, we found ourselves a caravan park a mile outside
Stratford and set ourselves up for a week of playing and rest. We wandered around Shakespeare-world (as I have no doubt the town will soon be re-named by the tourist authorities) and best of all, found a sauna in the local leisure centre. The caravan park was a lovely place (how often does anyone say that) with a small motor-ferry that ran to and from the city centre along the swan-infested Avon. (Willow trees and ducks were also in evidence).

 

5. And then some more gigs.

Burntwood was the next stop, with a gig at the Chase Folk Club ), and then Birmingham Trad the next night. Upstairs in a small pub in the backstreets of what was once an industrial area of Birmingham, is a fabulous club. A terrific night for us, with heckling of the highest order. A return gig will be one of our last before heading home in October (we're slowly becoming used to how far ahead they do the bookings over here). The next night saw us heading South to Chobham in Surrey, where the wonderful Wilna Wilkinson put us up and we gigged merrily at the Sun Inn (We even ate doves eggs with Peter Gabriel's parents - but that's another story). While we were there, we caught up again with James and Nancy at their gig at the Chanticleer club in Dorking, before heading off the next day for....

6. Back on the Boat!

A gentle afternoon on James and Nancy's new narrow-boat, the time spent
heading towards Devises. (The night involved an introduction to Filk! Hard to believe, but true! - search the web if you don't know what Filk is). The next day, we helped their boat (as well as the boat of another) to descend the Devises Lock Flight. 29 locks, 3 and a half hours, 6 people, lots of breakfast - a challenge of running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running and winching, and running, before driving (a new verb) to see another J and N gig and squeeze in our floor spot at Solihull.

We spent the night in Birmingham in preparation for our very own gig the next
night...

 

7. Vin Garbutt (and us) at the Red Lion.

One of our very first bookings way back before we left Australia, was to support
Vin Garbutt at the opening night for the year at the Red Lion Folk Club in Birmingham. It was only after being in England for a while that we discovered the amazing following that Vin has over here. Thousands of screaming fans follow him where- ever he plays (and that's a lot of places).

He presents a beautiful mixture of wonderfully crafted songs and rapid-fire, heckler- destroying patter. It was a real privilege to play on such a wonderful night. What a hoot!!

 

8. The music never stops!

Sunday saw us find yet another sauna, this time near to Della and Chris' house
(they organise the Red Lion) and then, off to London. Twickenham Folk Club was
our next gig. Another fabulous club, this time with a chance to see old friends
(Lucy Smith and Nicola Elwell, for those who know). (http://www.twickenhamfolkclub.moonfruit.com/) is where you'll find the wonderful folk of the Cabbage Patch, home of the Twickenham club. Monday and we found yet another great session, Irish and pumping at the Herschel Arms in Slough. A long-standing session, recommended by the folks we met in Clare and also by James and Nancy. We were wonderfully looked after by the landlord, who put us up for the night (not every pub owns the house behind). One of the best.

 

9. A bit of a rest, and some wonderful developments.

We next spent a couple of days at Swiss Farm International, an enormous (and at this time of year, almost empty) caravan park at Henley-on-Thames. It was at this point that the phone rang. The first call of the night was a great surprise. A woman who'd seen us at Fylde and knew that we were looking for somewhere to stay over the Winter, told us of a cottage which she owned on the Southern coast of England and would possibly be empty, and offered to let us live there for a few months. Astonishing generosity which really touched us. About an hour later, another woman who'd seen us play (in Birmingham at the Vin Garbutt concert) called. She'd already discussed with Nicole the possibility of having us mind her house while she was in Brisbane in January, 2004, and now she was calling to say that, as it was already getting cold, and the room was already empty, why don't we come and live there? Once again, amazing generosity and very moving. We talked a bit more, paid her a visit and agreed that this was too good a thing to pass up. And so, the Winter will see us in the midlands, in Walsall, (just North of Birmingham). We're looking forward to some quiet times, full of rehearsals, song-writing, rehearsals, saunas (of course), sleep and preparations for next Summer's festival blitz.

 

10. But wait, there's more!

Of course, before we could slow down, there was more music. A club night back
at Bromyard, saw us play upstairs at the Hop Pole - lovely club and a lovely night in a beautiful farmhouse just out of town. Then back to Bingham, where Nicole had lined up some teacher-training work with Kate Tiler. Kate does amazing work, in exciting areas like paper-making and living willow weaving. They came back every night, tired but happy. (We've now been offered work by the same organisation, demonstrating some of the ways that music can be an exciting thing to learn. - That'll be early next year.)

The following weekend, we went along to the Banbury Canalside Folk Festival
and, once again, found ourselves drafted onto stage. A couple of spots needed filling, and, hey, that's what we're here for! A great festival (and one of the last for the year). Best of all, was Terry Jacob from Brisbane, waiting outside when we finished our gig! An amazing session followed, then Thai food for dinner and back to Bingham the next day (pausing only for a sauna in Banbury - do you see a pattern emerging?). It was wonderful to see Terry and hear all the Brisbane news.

Nic spent a few more days teaching, we raced off to Bedford for another session
with Terry and then made our way to Chelmsford.

 

11. And now...

The last few days have been spent delightfully chatting, furiously webbing , and
occasionally sessioning with the gentle company of Jonny and Vicki from Serious Kitchen. They've made us warm and welcome and we've shared ideas and contacts for next year's festival season. The beginning of the hibernation period, we think. Tomorrow sees us travel to the warmth of Walsall and the beginning of the slowdown of gigs for Winter.

We hope everyone is well, happy, and finding time for music. More news soon.

Love,
Nicole and John.

 

 

December, 2003 - Winter Sets In and We Settle Down to Work

 


As the weather turned away from the glorious Summer we'd enjoyed, we travelled to Walsall, North of Birmigham and settled ourselves down in the wonderful home of our glorious benefactor, Christine. We weren't sure what to expect but we knew thermal underwear was likely to be involved.

1. At home in Walsall

It was a welcome change to be out of the van for a bit and we spent the first few days catching up on some much-needed sleep and commencing our exploration of Walsall. We were overjoyed to find ourselves in a warm, welcoming house close to town, the best coffee in the area and the peaceful surrounds of the Arboretum.

Once we'd settled, we started sussing out the work ahead. Rehearsing, finding and writing new songs, staying warm, checking out the local saunas (there's nothing better for staying warm) and planning for 2004. A new album on the horizon, and a million gigs to find. It looked like the Winter was going to be busy.

 

2.Nicole has a birthday

On the 27th of October, Nicole turned (INSERT GUESS HERE), and we celebrated with a lunch in Birmingham, shared with Christine as well as long-lost Aussie mates, Jan and Snowy. Snowy was just finishing up some work in Birmingham and it was terrific to miss Brisbane together.

 

3. And what could round off the week better?

With two days notice, we found ourselves in front of a group of sixty primary school students just outside Nottingham. The principal of the school knew Kate Tiler and had asked her if she knew of anyone who could teach African drumming. And of course, she thought of us! Our planning for workshops later in the year was accelerated and we made it through the day - and what great

fun it was. The kids were absolutely fantastic (although as you can see, John had to defend himself with a large gold balloon at one point), playing percussion games and dancing and singing their heads off. The Redmile school is a small church-run school just outside of Bingham.

 

4. But of course there's always a gig...

Only a few days after we arrived, we were off again, back to Nottingham for the Bingham Folk Club. Another great night (It was becoming hard to keep track - with hundreds and hundreds of these clubs all over England. But slowly we began to find our way.)

 

5. And what could make more sense...

And so, by way of settling into Walsall, the next weekend we flew to Ireland! A combination of factors helped make this trip make sense - Nicole's flute needed some maintenance and the maker, Michael Grinter, was working just outside Ennis, it meant we would have the chance to catch up with our friends from Willy Clancy Week, and the Ennis Traditional Music Festival was on.

And what an absolutely wonderfully crazy week it was! Ryanair flew us over for almost nothing each and we found ourselves some digs in the middle of town - at the very same backpackers where year's before we had narrowly escaped a murder (It was now under much nicer management).

The Ennis Traditional Music Festival (www.ennistradfestival.com/) is held each year at the very end of the Summer season. As a result, almost all of those Irish traditional musicians who make their living touring are available and in town. With 30 sessions per day, there is little trouble in finding a place to play. Of course, being an organised festival, there must be a programme of concerts, and of course, being an Irish festival where pub sessions are the centre of everybody's attention, the concerts start at midnight so that people won't be distracted by the pubs (even though there's an even chance you won't be thrown out if you're there at closing time).

An amazing highlight was the midnight concert by Dervish, followed by an event which has to be experienced to be believed - The Trad Disco!!!!! A thousand people at 2:30am, stomping about on a fairly crusty dancefloor (by this stage) to a heavily amplified pounding of Christy Moore singing Lisdoonvarna. The sensible ones fled to the bar.

The Ennis festival is famous for its sessions and luckily for us, the latest sessions in town were to be found in one of the ground floor rooms of our hostel. Great music played by musicians from all over the world. A good time was had by all. (Apart from the awkward "a plastic sheep stole my tractor" incident which surprisingly enough was kept out of the local press - see picture)

After a mad week of playing nonstop and singing ourselves hoarse, we flew back to England.

 

6. More gigs and a family visit!

Settling down for the Winter hadn't turned into the relaxing time we at first imagined. After another gig at the Red Lion, John's brother Kevin and his wife Betty visited England on a flying work visit. We had a great afternoon together and confirmed that homesickness is real. Their visit was wonderful, but far too short! Fortunately, we had more work to take our minds off any feelings of isolation from distant loved ones. We caught up with Kristina Olsen at a club near Birmingham and then headed a little down the road to (for us at least) the final festival of the year at Bedworth (http://www.bedworth-festival.info).

 

7. And on into December...

The first frosts were finding us by now, with John insisting that puddles are not meant to be hard. Two whole weeks with no gigs or festivals a-calling and we really got stuck into the bookwork and gig-hunting for 2004. Lots of practice, and a bit of checking out of the local clubs (and of course, more saunas). The material for the new album started to come together (tentatively titled, The Fiddle Ship), and we put more work into our workshop program in Nottingham which is scheduled for late March.

December 17 saw us off to Rivelin for their Christmas party folk club. The club is held in the beautiful Rivelin valley behind Sheffield. We had a great night (and a terrific dinner), before spending the night with Gavin and Helena from Crucible, who we'd met in London some months before.

The next day, we explored Sheffield, checked out a couple of galleries, saw the Return of the King (YAYY!) and went along to Sheffield cathedral for the Spite Winter concert by the Sheffield Folk Chorale. And then we drove back to Walsall, ending a very long and very satisfying day.

Christmas saw us heading down to Surrey to spend the holidays with Wilna and Terence in Chobham. A lovely family time, which made us miss home even more, but we were overjoyed to have such wonderful people around.

 

8. Winter Woodford

New Year's Eve posed a particular problem for us. For the past 14 years or so, we'd spent the turning of the year at the Woodford Festival back in Australia, which was just not going to be possible this year. A solution was found. We teamed up with Nancy and James (likewise Woodford regulars), organised to have some wine with at least Andrew Pattison's labels on the outside if we couldn't manage authentic contents, a visit from Liz Frencham who was cruising past, some more roped-in muso mates, three narrow boats moored together, assorted family thrown in, a mini fire event on the canal, and we were ready to bring in the New Year with style.

We had a fabulous few days before and after, lots of music, lots of wine and lots of fun. A true celebration.


9. And now a New Year.

2003 was a year of great change and great progress for us. January sees us back into the work, with gigs starting up again on the 11th and then on into the months ahead. Nicole has found time for painting in the last week, we've been rehearsing and we're really looking forward to our coming shows.

So that's it from us for now. Once again, we hope everyone is well, happy, and finding joy in the things they do.

Lots of love,
Nicole and John.

 

March, 2004 - The adventure continues

 

1. January was huge.

The beginning of the year saw us snuggled away in Walsall, staying warm and wondering what was next. After the busy time of Christmas and New Year, we were back in the house for a few days before hitting the road. We'd planned to be as busy as possible and the plans came good.

 

2. Three in Three

Our first stop for the year was in Dursley, near Gloucester. David Cheffings organises a series of great house-concerts under the banner of the Dursley Acoustic Music Nights (DAMN). We arrived a little tired but found a wonderful session down the road from David's house which warmed us up nicely. The concert was great fun, with a lovely crowd and a chance to chat into the night afterwards (house concerts don't have licensed hours - a distinct advantage).

The next day we drove to Chesham in Buckinghamshire for the legendary Tudor Folk Club, managed by the equally legendary Hamish Currie, and then on to Ampthill for Ampthill Acoustic and the joyful company of Mike Gibson (Councillor for Mudcatters). Three terrific nights in quick succession and a great way to roll-start our year.

 

3. Rule 12 - Ancient Renaults Don't Like Snow.

The weather throughout our stay had been unswervingly wonderful. Blazing sun all Summer (as it should be) and a Winter that was cold, but generally dry. We even liked the frost on the lake leading to skating ducks. Driving in snow on the other hand is ... educational. It's a little like swimming in custard while wearing a diving mask.

As we made our way North from around Bedford, the snow started to hit the M1. Poor old Swaggy the Campervan was feeling the cold, with engine temperature plummetting and a gradual loss of power. We limped on, deciding to turn West towards Birmingham and wondering if we were going to make it to Scotland as planned. For once, the M6 was our friend and the snow cleared, and with it all engine problems. It seems that our bonnet seal isn't what it might be and so snow gathers , melts and pours iced water onto the engine block. But we carried on, hoping that there wouldn't be too much more snow (seemed reasonable to us).

 

4. Glasgow and Celtic Connections.

WOW!!!! What a party! Celtic Connections is a mad, three week celebration of music in Glasgow. We'd heard rumours, and many friends along the way had encouraged us to head North in January. Every day for three weeks, the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall and venues all over Glasgow host the festival, with the Danny Kyle Open Stage in the afternoon, concerts at about 7 and then the Festival Club from 10:30 each night until last one standing, or dawn (whichever comes first). And this goes on for three weeks. There are stories of the devastating effect on locals' health as they try to hold down full-time jobs as well as making it to the festival every day.

Luckily, we were only there for a week.

We were lucky enough to get a spot on the Open Stage (thanks to Gibb and Liz) as well as a couple of sets at the Festival Club and had a whale of a time. The club books the best of the festival's guests and gave us the chance to see Cherish the Ladies and the amazing Ricardo Tesi and his band. Being in Glasgow also meant that we could spend some time with Toni and Kevin as well as having a catch up with Alistair Hulett. And best of all was the unexpected joy of finding Chloe Goodyear from the Woodford Folk Festival crew, working at the festival. She was in Glasgow just for the festival, and we had a wonderful time together. (Special thanks to Charly for the photos).


An unexpected delight in Glasgow was seeing the Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre. An absolutely astonishing collection of moving sculptures by Eduard Bersudsky. One of the highlights of our trip so far. Combining lights and music with startling sculptures made largely from found objects and carvings, the performance is wonderful, inspiring and dazzling all at once. We can't recommend seeing this show enough.

All in all a thoroughly exhausting and fulfilling week.

 

5. And then there was music.

We left Glasgow and launched ourselves straight into a string of gigs. Blackpool first for the Clarence, then down to London for the Herga, Southend for the Hoy at Anchor, Islington Folk Club and at last, seeing our Aussie mates, Don and Angie from the Rogues. Then we were off to Brighton to see Elle Osborne. Nicole did a day of teaching with Elle while John ambled about town. It was great to see the sea again (and parking in Brighton is much easier in January).

February arrived to see us madly driving back and forth with some lovely clubs along the way. We played in a great new club in Coventry called the Fletch (run by the enthusiastic Keith Parris), and followed that with a night at the Chanticleer in Dorking, Surrey, run by Neil McRitchie of Hobgoblin fame. Being in Surrey also meant another wonderful opportunity to spend time with Wilna (also known as Redshoes) Wilkinson, who will feature on our new CD care of Wilna's Dance, a new waltz (and Christmas present.)

Slowly moving North, we had a wonderful few days in Oxford, including a performance at the Oxford Folk Club, spending the night with the infinitely hospitable Bob and Claire Lloyd, who introduced us to the secrets of the Half Moon pub - a much awaited Irish session. We will be back!

After the delights of Oxford, we headed North to the familiar warmth of Walsall and some downtime (washing, sleeping, eating). Then back into the trusty van...

 

6. We gig, we gig, we gig.

First of all a local club (Peeler's at Bloxwich) and then the Ride a Cock Horse at Banbury, with a lovely afternoon beforehand spent in the company of Liz Frencham from Jigzag (so many Aussies!). The next night we stayed on Derek and Mary's boat at Fenny Compton with John spending the night with food poisoning, spouting forth about the injustice of it all. (Not much sleep on the boat that night). Back to Walsall we roamed, with Sunday seeing us at the Saint Valentine's Day Folk Festival in Sutton Coldfield. Another few days in the house at Walsall to recuperate and then on we went...

... To Nottingham and the Carrington Folk Club and some more time with Kate and John. The next day brought a long drive down to London and an interview with Music in Hospitals, who organise concerts in hospitals and hospices all over Britain. They liked what we do and we now include their performances in our schedule. Another chance to see Don and Ang and then back to the Midlands for a night at the Red Lion, this time supporting John Tams and Barry Coope. And then off to Devises for Wiltshire Traditions, with Bob and Gill Berry. Another chat into the night saw us learning more and more about the wonderful people that make up the folk world on this side of the planet.

 

7. Hard at work.

At last we had a whole week in Walsall with no need to drive anywhere. But of course, there was work to be done. We had been booked to run two days of teacher-training in Nottinghamshire for NEBA (the Nottinghamshire Education Business Alliance) and we needed to put the finishing touches to our course. It was a nice change to be in the one place for a while with our resources being assembled, ready for action. We found time for our first Music in Hospitals gig at a local hospice, but generally we stayed home and got down to business. Before we knew it, it was time to get back onto the road for a few more gigs before heading to Nottingham to put the plan into action.

First stop was Basildon to see our mate John Hare and sing at the Jingling Gate in Pitsea, Mickey Spooner's club. Mickey is Danny Spooner's brother and together with John gave us a lot of help when our van woes were upon us. It was terrific to see him at his home club and away from the workshop. A great night.

And then we raced back to Walsall to meet Christine on her return from Oz (with many tales of great weather). And then we raced back South again all the way to Kent, where we sang at a wonderful club near Folkestone called the White Hart. A couple of nights in Maidstone followed, visiting our Sidmouth mate, John Bardon, and then on to Cressing to see more musical mates, this time Jonny and Vicky. It was terrific to be welcomed by such lovely friends as we continued our roamings. While back in Essex, we played at the Retreat Folk Club in Bocking.

 

8. We gotta teach!

The following week saw us back in Nottingham to run our course for primary school teachers. It was a great success - two days full of rhythm, singing, song- writing, and planning lessons (and yummy deserts at the local pub). We used a village hall just outside Nottingham and really made the most of it. The highlight had to be the teacher's all playing home-made instruments in an impromptu rhythm ensemble! The joys of the flubber-pipe and aggy-boing were fully explored.

 

9. And now...

So you can see, the start of the year has been wonderfully busy and full of excitement and an awful lot of driving. Nicole has found time to create somemore artwork, paintings and green men, we've found time to enter the final stretch of preparation for recording (current plans look see us hitting the studio in early May), we're both well and starting to plan for 2005. Of course, we are missing family and friends back home. But you can't have an adventure if you don't go adventuring.

So, best wishes to all.

Love from the road,

 

Nicole and John

 

 

May, 2004 - Here Comes the Sun!

 

1. Time flies, and so do we.

As the weather warms, the whole country bursts into action. A couple of wonderfully warm weeks in March saw us relaxing after the course (see our last update), and working towards the next big step in the adventure - the new CD. Our initial plan was to launch straight into recording the Monday after the course, but (luckily) these plans fell through when our recording studio turned out to be double-booked. This delayed us by a month but proved to be a good thing in the end.

 

2. The Postman Cometh.

John had had his mind on things concertina-ish for some time, and eventually his plans came to fruition. Ignoring pretty much everybody's advice, he found a box in fairly grim condition on ebay. His highest bid was pretty low, but there were still worries about what he was buying. Eventually, the ancient beastie arrived, clearly in need of some TLC. The gods were smiling though (as much as they do on concertinas) as it turned out to be a Wheatstone steel-reeded instrument. Almost immediately, it was sent off to Dave Leese for repairs. In no time it was back in John's inexperienced hands. And now the practising begins.

 

3. A visit to Shropshire.

With the collapse of our recording schedule, we found ourselves with some time to be tourists. We were headed to visit the lovely Genevieve Tudor and (the equally lovely) Allan Price in Shropshire and along the way took the opportunity to visit Ironbridge. It was here that industrialisation began its inexorable spread across the globe (Ironbridge is also the home to the Tontine Hotel - so named due to the quality of its pillows nb - Australian reference). Genevieve invited us onto her legendary folk show on the BBC, we sang, raved and enjoyed the wonderful company at Jackfield. Late nights, strange stories and wonderful wine. Here's Nic and Genevieve in the studio, with artworks displayed for the benefit of the webcam.

 

4. A Birthday for John

On the 8th of April, John turned 40. We were in London with Don and Ang and made a party of it at their flat in Brentford. The night became long as Don and John acquainted themselves with the finest Thai whiskey. The next morning, (bleary though it was) we had to leave London for South Wales, where our next festival, Miskin at Easter, awaited. A long day's drive was followed by an unexpected second party, thanks to Mike Gibson from Ampthill. Jonny and Vicki brought a cake, and the bubbly flowed. All in all, a wonderful surprise.

 

5. Miskin

The first weekend festival of the year for us was at Miskin in South Wales. A great weekend, and a great sing! Andy Jackson and the crew run Miskin at Easter, and this year's festival was a barrel of fun. Dormitory accommodation and camping, Jan's van, (with the customary Easter Chinese Dragon Parade), and another chance for us to play with Jonny and Vicki. We even had an Australian friend turn - Dave, who was over visiting family, and took the chance to remind us of home.

 

6. The Long Drive North, Glasgow and Glenfarg.

After Miskin, we once again headed to Scotland. There were gigs organised in Glasgow and a return trip to Glenfarg, this time for the annual folk-feast. A wonderful bonus on this trip was a visit by Nicole's sister, Jill. We also had the luxury of being given the use of Alistair Hulett's flat in Govanhill. It was a real delight to see Jill, and to share her birthday with her in Glasgow.

A highlight of the visit for us was the opportunity to play at the Star Folk Club, at Saint Andrews in the Square. This magnificent church was marked for demolition only a few years ago, but has been turned into a gorgeous venue for live performances. We tried not to be too awed by our surroundings, and managed to have a wonderful night. Glasgow was also our chance to see Toni Wood and Kevin, freshly returned from the land of Oz.

After the Star, we made our way to Perthshire and Glenfarg. They'd invited us back after our club spot in 2003, and we were really looking forward to the weekend. Held in and around the Glenfarg Hotel, the Folk Feast is an annual weekend event, featuring the World Puffabox Championship - an event so bizarre, it must be witnessed to be believed. Unfortunately, John's best puffabox efforts were not enough to secure gold for Australia. We were warmly welcomed by all at Glenfarg. A highlight was the chance to hear Crawford Howard perform his devastating parody of "Willy McBride" at the Saturday night concert.

 

7. Rushing around

After a wonderful week in Scotland, we hit the road South again, and it was time to return to the drive/gig/drive routine. Staying in one place for a week was a luxury. We gigged in the Midlands, caught up with friends in London, played at Saint Thomas' Hospital on the embankment, went to a wedding party, and then headed North again, this time for Whitby.

The Moor and Coast Festival is run by Glen and Chris, two great blokes who can usually be found running their food tent at festivals all over the country. Their idea of a chance to relax is to run their own festival every May Bank Holiday. A real treat was to be put up at the only Gothic B&B in Britain, "Bats and Broomsticks" (their site is well worth a visit). "Folkie" and "luxury" are not concepts which we easily connect, but this accommodation combined the two with glorious effect. We managed to squeeze in all our gigs, find a cranking Irish session and enjoy some wonderful Whitby sunsets.

 

8. And into the studio.

We'd finally settled on recording with Graham Bradshaw at Roots Records and so our next step was to head to Coventry and into the studio. We'd been having such a great time with Vicki and Jonny that we asked them to join us on a few tracks. We threw ourselves into the project, and amazingly managed to get everything done in the time we'd alotted. A close call, but with the help of the amazing Graham, we got there with a few minutes to spare. With a side-trip to Brighton on the weekend for Nicole to do some more teaching with Elle Osborne, we were back into the studio the next week to mix and pre-master. Finally, we were done. (With the artwork still to come...)

9. Time for Music

The next weekend saw us back at Wheaton-Aston for the Wheaton-Aston Festival. This festival has a special place in our hearts because it was our first booking in the UK in 2003, and also one of the bookings which was made from Australia before we left. Hilary and Julian were their usual wonderful selves, and this year the program included an art exhibition, as well as concerts by Jon Boden and John Spiers and Kristina Olsen, who was appearing with the wonderful Australian cellist, Peter Grayling. The festival was a real treat, marred only by the onset of chickenpox for Nicole (!). At first, we weren't sure why she was feeling unwell, but then the spots arrived. And so she slept... By the end of the festival, she was on the road to recovery and the day after the festival, we even managed a party - on a narrow-boat of course (thanks Hilary). A 4-mile an hour pootle up the cut , the next day was just the tonic we needed. The highlight of the weekend for us was another chance to play with Vicki and Jonny (starting to become a habit) in the Saturday night concert.

 

10. To London and then a rest by the River

Our next port of call was London again (thanks to Don and Ang) and a trip to the Barbican to see the stage production of "The Black Rider", a musical by William S Burroughs and Tom Waits, that was being revived after 12 years, with Marianne Faithfull in one of the lead roles. A real treat, especially because the show includes one of our favourite songs, "The Briar and the Rose". After London, we headed North to the midlands for another lovely night at Birmingham's Red Lion Folk Club, and then spent a few quiet days by the river in Shrewsbury, with Swaggy the Camper in full Summer mode. A great relax.

 

11. And now...

The art for the new CD is done (hooray), and the gigs are coming fast and furious as the Summer moves in. We're realising that the flights to Australia are only 5 months away (with a stopover for a gig with the Hong Kong Folk Society), so we're cycling through feelings of homesickness, excitement about the work to come and wonder at what Australia will be like after so long away. The adventure continues.

So, update your records with our new email (mail@cloudstreet.org), check out the new CD, "The Fiddleship" and travel well.

 

With love from the road,

Nicole and John

 

November, 2004 - Home Again, Home Again...

 

1. Back into festival season:

We knew that we'd be returning to Australia soon and we'd tried to organise as much work as possible before the big bird took us home. And work we did!

We saw August out by returning to the Bridgnorth Folk Festival. We had a lovely time performing around the festival and have been promised a return booking for 2005 (thanks Sandra and Alan). Another wonderful opportunity to play with Vicki and Jonny again, and of course session with the fabulous Isambarde. Good times all 'round.

The sessions rolled on thick and fast as we launched into the last few weeks. After Bridgnorth we were back to one of our favourites - the Fylde Folk Festival at Fleetwood. Alan Bell and the crew organise a wonderful weekend by the sea and the North Euston Hotel is hard to beat as a venue, but our for sheer stage- decoration you just can't beat the local British Legion Hall. A magnificent country and western themed venue with fab acoustics.

 

2. Where would we be without a nice long drive?

And what could be handier to the Lancashire coast than the Dartford Folk Club? They'd had a cancellation and gave us a call and so the trusty camper hurtled South as soon as Fylde was done and Tuesday night saw us in Dartford. A great club, lovely people and a terrific night all round. Hopefully we'll be back in 2005.

And from Dartford, we raced back North, this time for a return to the Midlands and the Bromyard Folk Festival. (Note to John: "Fleetwood, Dartford, Bromyard" is not a sensible series of destinations for an antique Renault to accomplish in a reasonable period of time). Once again, Dick Dixon organised a wonderful event and we were thrilled to take part. Bromyard is a beautiful town but we didn't have much time to spend as tourists with the programme keeping us running between venues. A real highlight was playing as a four-piece with Tom Napper and Tom Bliss and sharing the stage for a "Meet the Artist" session with Harriet Bartlett and the comic genius of Les Barker. With all the moving about we'd been doing, it was terrific to be settled enough (even if only for a few days) to do some Aussie-style collaboration. (With thanks to the wonderful Berni Coffin for the photos.)

 

3. More Playing With Our Friends:

We'd carefully planned a week off after Bromyard and so of course, this didn't happen. Nicole needed to add the finishing touches to the portrait of Keith Donnelly and so it was back to Coventry. Fortunately the wisdom and industry that are Isambarde's trademarks had been put to good use and we joined them at the Fletch for a double-bill which quickly turned into a triple when Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer made the journey up from Essex as a special treat. It was a great night for us all, and for Keith Parris and the club.

 

4. And Time for Another Drive:

After a return to Bromyard for "Thank Folk It's Friday" we then headed North for a final mini-tour of Scotland. John had worked overtime filling the week up with gigs and we certainly worked hard. Clubs in Edinburgh, Glenfarg, Chapelton, Dunfermline, Falkirk and then over to Newcastle. "Why Newcastle?" we hear you ask. Because the Essex Singers Club was our Saturday gig, then back onto the plane to Newcastle to play the South Shields Folk Club the next night. An absolutely wonderful, crazy race around the countryside. But what fun!!! South Shields was a special treat, with the night starting with a tune session. A great tradition.

Even though we ended the week falling about with fatigue, we did manage to have a few touristy moments, with a trip to the Falkirk Wheel (the world's first and only rotating boat lift! Wow!) and the Rosslyn Chapel (apparently named after Nicole's mum). The Rosslyn Chapel is an amazing place, but appears to be suffering a little from being featured in the book, The Da Vinci Code, with one tourist stamping on the floor, then turning to Nicole and whispering conspiratorially, "Hollow". But despite the madness, the chapel is well worth a visit, with seemingly every surface being covered in beautifully intricate carvings. Here's John next to the spiralling "Apprentice Pillar". The legend has it that while the master craftsman was away, the apprentice carved this pillar to show off his skill, all the other pillars in the chapel being carved without the spiral. On his return, the master was so incensed he killed the apprentice on the spot with his hammer. Every year, the story is acted out in the chapel in the form of a play.

And then a few days off, with lots of sleep and a bit more touristy-wandering around Gateshead (birthplace of Nicole's grandmother, without whom our ancestry visas would not have been possible). A highlight was a visit to the Marsden Grotto, a pub at the foot of a cliff near South Shields and built out of an old smuggler's cave.

 

5. The Home Stretch:

After a few days off, it was back into the gigs with 7 performances in 8 nights and then the Banbury Canalside Folk Festival to finish the tour. It was a wonderful opportunity to see some of the wonderful people we'd met over the 18-months of racing around. It was a fairly emotional time, and we sang our heads off all week in the lead up to our final festival gigs.

Banbury was always going to be special for us. It was our last festival on this amazing trip, Vicki and Jonny were joining us to finish the festival's final concert as a four-piece (always a treat for us), Derek and Mary had become friends from very early on in the tour, and a lot of other friends were making a special effort to be there, AND, we were making instruments for the Banbury Canalside Polypipe Whacky Band! But we did it. The weekend was an amazing and beautiful one for us. So many friends and beautiful moments. The Whacky Band proved to be a great success, the gigs were great fun and we didn't blub, although there was a close call when we were presented with a cake in the shape of a fiddleship. (You can check out Keith Kittson's great photos of the gig at folkfoto.co.uk.) All in all, a wonderful way to finish our performances in the UK.

And on the last day of Banbury, we said farewell to Swaggy the Camper. She'd been a real boon to us on this amazing journey, but at least she's gone to a good home,with Jan Davis deciding that she was just the trick for her future festival adventures.

 

6. The Last Few Days:

As every traveller knows, there are always things to do before you get on the plane and never enough time to do everything. Thanks to the generosity of Vicki and Jonny we had a warm and friendly home in which to spend our last few days before heading to Heathrow. It was very hard to leave such wonderful friends. Our final night was spent in London with Don and Ang and then we were off on the big white bird.

 

7. But Wait, There's More:

Figuring that going straight home wouldn't be complicated enough, we had made contact with the Hong Kong Folk Society and organised a gig on the way. We had four fantastic nights in Hong Kong with Charlie and Sue. As well as performing at Delaney's Irish Pub in Wanchai, we were royally fed and guidedabout by these wonderful Aussies (our first night saw us in an Australian bar drinking VB - a real shock after English ale).

We ate and ate and ate our way around Hong Kong, as well as making the mandatory tourist excursions to the Peak and across to Stanley Markets. Nic loaded up the luggage with rare and beautiful silks to make costumes, and we made huge inroads into our Christmas shopping.

Hong Kong was a great way to ease us back into a more familiar time zone as well. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the airport and to start the last leg home.

 

8. Back in the Land of Oz:

And at last we've made it back home. It's a real mind-blast to be back among familiar trees and birds again. That may sound a bit strange, but these are the things which can really define a place. The noises!We're looking forward to what the new year holds in store, with lots of miles to do and gigs to play. We also have an enormous pile of cds which we're expecting in the post any day - lots to listen to and learn from. We're back in our old house at Morningside at least until early next year, we've found ourselves a van (not quite Swaggy, but at least it makes a fair fist of approaching the speed limit) andwe're counting the days before the Woodford Folk Festival (now that's going to feel like coming home!)

Next week sees us off to Victoria for the Troubadour weekend and a catch-up with friends in Victoria.So to all of our new friends in the UK, we'll be back in July and to all of our old friends in Australia, let's do lunch!

The Journey Continues.With love from the road,

Nicole and John

 

January, 2005 - The Land of Oz.

 

1. Greetings

First of all, a belated seasonal greeting to all who come this way. We've been lucky enough to make a lot of new friends in the past year and we think of you all often. May your year be full of blessings, music and love.

 

2. Being Home.

After the non-stop travelling of last year, being in one place for a while came as something of a shock. And so of course, the solution was to not stay in one place for long. But we had to settle to some extent at first. We moved back into our old house in Brisbane's inner-East (Morningside for those with street directories), rediscovered old shopping haunts and favourite cafes, and began the long process of unpacking, having cds pressed and remembering all the instruments that we hadn't packed into our suitcases (did you know Nicole has a lovely acoustic bass?)

Brisbane is home for us and it was with great delight that we once again roamed the parks and enjoyed the beauty of the Brisbane river which winds windingly through the windiest parts of this ....

Anyway, here's a picture.

 

3. A Bit of a Relax

After having a big sleep, Nic headed North to Townsville to visit her family and reconnect with her tropical roots. The last time she'd seen her parents was in the UK and given they'd travelled to see her, a payback seemed in order. She did all of the usual North Queensland things like visiting Magnetic Island, eating far too much fresh mango, walking on the beach and catching up with friends. Typical November thing to do. Back in Brisbane, John engaged in manly pursuits such as ten-pin bowling and cattle-rustling with the wonderful Martin Pearson.

Shortly after our return, we had our first UK visitor with Emma Heath (of Emma and the Professor) coming to stay for a few days. It was interesting to see what she made of life in Brisbane, including her first taste of fresh mango ("like a cross between an orange and a parsnip" - we're not sure if Emma fully appreciates the glory of the mango).

 

4. Back to Work

After a few weeks of frantically lolling about we set off to Victoria for our first Australian festival for the year. Our good friend Andrew Pattison is a great patron of folk music in Australia, organising tours, running festivals, and all the while keeping everyone lubricated with his spectacular red wines. He had invited us down to central Victoria for his annual Troubadour Weekend, and so South we went. To give our English friends an idea of the trip, the weekend was held at Campaspe Downs, about 100 km (62 miles) North of Melbourne. Melbourne is about 1600 km (992 miles) from Brisbane. Travelling between gigs in Australia can involve a lot of driving!

The weekend was a real hoot. It's held in a convention centre in the Victorian countryside and is always a wonderful party. With bunkroom accommodation (we opted for the van) it's very reminiscent of Miskin at Easter, but with different weather. Our friend Jasmine has posted some photos if you'd like to have a look.

The following week, we spent enjoying Melbourne's coffee and nightlife, catching up with old friends and setting up some work for later in the year. Then we were off to yet another winery, for a lovely afternoon and evening of music at Loxley, with Colcannon on the bill. Good times, marvellous wine and a magnificent sunset. Not a bad way to spend the day.



And on the way North, we stopped in Sydney to play a concert organised by Margaret Walters at the Cafe Church in Glebe. A great night, followed by a wonderful few days down at Bondi Beach. The drive North which followed saw us being absolute tourists, stopping at the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. The Big Banana, like John, turned 40 in 2004, a fact which was not lost on him.

 

5. Some Gigs Closer to Home

After Sydney, we made our way home for a few gigs, playing in Maleny with the Goodwills, at the wonderfully-named Madass Folk Club, and finally on a double-bill with George Papavgeris visiting from the UK. It was a great delight to see George and Vanessa again: we'd stayed with them near London while we were touring, and recorded on George's latest album. We even got to share the stage as his backing singers! Of course, George went down a storm in Brisbane and there was celebratory whiskey to follow.

 

6. The Biggest Party

It was rare for us not to eventually mention the Woodford Folk Festival to people we met on the folk scene in the UK. It is a real highlight of the year for us and of course we'd missed it in 2003. Woodford is an astonishing artistic catalyst which grew out of the South-East Queensland folk community in 1987 when the first Maleny Folk Festival was held. The festival outgrew the Maleny site and so in 1994, the Queensland Folk Federation purchased land at Woodford. The festival is held in a large valley, with a natural amphitheatre at one end. To say the event has grown would be a massive understatement. This year saw an aggregate audience of around 140 000, attending 400 events featuring 2000 performers over 6 days. With further land purchases in recent years and some good financial fortunes, the site is now 320 acres and is owned outright by the Folk Federation.

Being held over New Year, the festival is our annual party (as well as being an enormous amount of work). This year cloudstreet played every day, including at the Australian launch concert for The Fiddleship. John was also up every morning to present the Variety Breakfast at 9 am (yes AM!!!) with Martin Pearson, and the week included some wonderful sessions, collaborations and partying. And of course, New Year's Eve would never be complete without the ABBA singalong (hard to explain that one - you sort of needed to be there - as about 1500 people were).

The final night of the festival features a huge fire event, with a choir of about 1000, fireworks, theatre, and all manner of wonder. The amphitheatre was packed and the beginning of the new year was well celebrated. It's hard to describe in words and photos don't really do the event justice, but here are a couple of glimpses of the night.If you're ever in Australia for Christmas, you reallyshould make the effort to experience this festival!

7. A Little More Travelling

After the wild and woolly Woodford experience, we settled down for a few days by the beach at Peregian on the Sunshine Coast. An Irish music session with the Barleyshakes at Noosa was a real treat and we stayed for a few extra days to play at the Noosa benefit concert for the victims of the tsunami in Asia, Sunshine Aid for a Brighter Day.

And now we're back in Brisbane for a few days before once again heading South to Victoria.

 

And so the journey continues.

We hope this update finds you all well. We'll see you down the road.

Love

 

John and Nicole

 

 

May 2005 - At Home On The Road



1.Back to Victoria

It became clear very quickly that we were going to spend a fair amount of time on the road during our months in Australia before heading overseas again in July. Continuing our substantial investment in the petroleum and secondhand van industries, we were soon once again on the road to Victoria, this time for the Chewton Folk Festival. Organised jointly by Andrew Pattison and the master flute-maker Michael Grinter, and held in a small town near Castlemaine in central Victoria, Chewton is a wonderful gathering (Andy Irvine once described it as "The best festival I've ever been to"). Given Michael's influence there was no shortage of beautiful Irish flutes at the late-night pub session (I counted 16 one night), and the concert series was well-serviced by Andrew's fine wines. A highlight was the trad disco in the town hall - the magnificent Ado from Trouble in the Kitchen organised this extravaganza, with two Apple Powerbooks, a mirror ball, and a crowd ready to stomp to the likes of Noel Hill ("Here's the reel you've all been waiting for!"). The final day saw the now annual Strings vs Winds cricket match easily won by the team with the greatest breath control.

After a great weekend at Chewton, we spent time in Melbourne, catching up with friends and family, enjoying the wonderful food and playing at the Melbourne Folk Club.

 

2. And To Brisbane.

Once again it was time to hit the road for the three-day drive back to Brisbane (you can do it in two, but why rush?). We'd realised we were going to be on the road for a couple of months from mid-February and so we thought it was time to pack up the rest of our belongings and transfer everything into storage.There were also some jobs to do. John was busy organising the production of a show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (more on that later) and Nicole was finding time to create the artworks for the show and to once again launch herself into Green Man production. We also found some time to see long-lost friends in Brisbane.

After 2 weeks we were packed, stored, tuned and ready to go.

 

3. A Wedding Beckons.

A trip out of our driveway wouldn't be complete without a stop in Victoria and so we once again ventured down the Newell Highway (for those non-Australians reading this, all proper roads should have names rather than numbers). First stop was Melbourne for our friend Andrew's buck's night. Being a strictly men-only affair, all the women in attendance were required to dress as men (see right). The night was great fun, with lots of lovely wine, and some watermelon dancing (don't ask).

Andrew Pattison has been a mainstay of the folk music scene in Australia for many years, establishing the Troubadour Cafe in Melbourne and then later running the Troubadour Wine Bar at some of Australia's largest festivals. He and Heather have been great friends to us and we were very glad to be able to attend their wedding at their new Burke and Wills Winery in Central Victoria (yes, this is the same Andrew who organises all those festivals). The wedding coincided with the opening of the winery and resulted in a fabulous party. The ceremony itself was beautiful, being held under a magnificent gum tree in the grounds of the winery, and with all those prepared to attend in red dresses taking the part of bridesmaids. The music saw us all well into the night. A great occasion.

 

4. And Then To The West.

After the wedding we were off for two weeks in Western Australia - our first trip to the other side of Australia. Nicole's sister Jill lives and works in Perth and so we were keen to catch up, as well as having some gigs to play.

First up, we headed to Kulcha in the heart of Fremantle, a great venue for live music. The following week saw us at the Nannup Music Festival, catching up with Kristina Olsen and Pete Morton as well as lots of Australian friends. The Beetles concert with Bernard Carney was particularly good fun, but the highlight was definitely a sunset concert with Jay Turner and Cath Mundy on the Sunday night (at a winery, of course).

The two weeks flew by, with lots of swimming at Cottesloe Beach, but before we knew it, it was time to fly back East.

 

5.Some Racing Around.

The weekend after Nannup saw us back at Andrew's for the Burke and Wills Festival. Yet another tremendous weekend of song, wine and fun, with Kristina Olsen and Peter Morton at the party again, with James Keelaghan and Oscar Lopez, and Alistair Hulett rounding out the international crowd. Billed as "probably the smallest festival in the world"(no correspondence will be entered into), the Burke and Wills weekend is great fun, and coincides with one of the biggest festivals in the world, the Port Fairy Folk Festival. As no weekend would be complete without a drive, we played at Andrew's on Friday night, drove the 4 and a half hours to Port Fairy on Saturday, took part in the Eureka concert on Saturday, sang into the night at the bar, helped out with the second Eureka concert the next day, and drove back to Andrew's for another concert. A tiring weekend, but a great chance to catch up with musical mates we hadn't seen in ages. And heading back to Andrew's always feels like going home.

 

6.Fun Times at the National.

Australia's National Folk Festival in Canberra is the compulsory annual musicians' party for us. Great venues, always a terrific lineup and an unparalleled session bar. And this year we had Keith Donnelly on his first trip to Oz. We had a great week, with a monster ballad session led by Jenny Fitzgibbon, early-morning tune sessions for beginners (Nicole on violin and John and concertina) with the festival culminating in the ever-important midnight-to-3am, unprogrammed last-night concert. Under the supervision of Martin Pearson were gathered Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, Roy Bailey, Martin, John, and James Keelaghan. Three hours later, we stopped singing and all went to our respective beds, tired but happy. (And John wore his special jacket).

 

6.The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien.

John has performed with Martin Pearson almost constantly since they met at a festival in Kuranda in North Queensland in about 1989. Martin is an amazing parody writer and performer, with a great gift for interpretation of songs and a lightning-fast wit. In the dim dark past, the two began performing together as Never the Twain, releasing 3 albums (2 of which are lost in time, but John will burn you bits if you ask nicely enough). While we were in the UK, what began as Martin's short parody of the first Lord of the Rings movie exploded into a 2-hour comedy show and The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien was born. It was decided that the two would once again join together, with John producing the show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. And so we found ourselves back in Melbourne for three weeks, learning how to encourage Martin into radio studios and comedy-lovers into our theatre.

In the end, the three-week run went down a treat, with the occasional full house and a lot of joy-filled punters screaming for more. Here's a picture of Martin in both full costume and flight.

 

7. But Let's Not Forget...

Fearing that we'd get too much sleep if all we did was produce a show for three weeks, we drove back to Canberra and had a fabulous night at the Merry Muse Folk Club, on a double-bill with Bob Fox. It was a great night for many reasons,not least of which the attendance of a young man wearing a BEAVER HAT!!!! He had constructed this masterpiece without any knowledge of our version of Two Sisters and the shameful euphemism therein. Here it is in all it's glory. (John wore it for the song, but it danced and the resulting pictures were just too suggestive for this family-friendly site. Here's a shot of our host for the night, Bill, instead).

And a week after the Muse, we found ourselves at one of Melbourne's great folk venues, The Boite World Music Cafe for another night of fun, and then the day after Bolkien's final show, we were off to Central Victoria (at least it's on the way home) to support the legendary Eric Bogle.

 

8. A Rest (of sorts) Back in Queensland.

We drove back to Brisbane, managed a few days rest up at Noosa, caught up on some sleep, played at the new Mullumbimby Folk Club in Northern New South Wales, had a wonderful time at the Woodford Folk Festival Tree-planting Weekend, spent some time in Brisbane with one of John's sisters, managed a couple of wonderful weeks at Noosa (thanks Jan), swam in the surf and organised a series of singing and performance workshops with some Brissie friends (have a look at the website if you're interested and/or likely to be in Brisbane between 14 May and 26 June. (John even went fishing!).

We're looking forward now to a couple of months of house-sitting, with time devoted to practising, collecting and writing some more music.

 

And so the journey continues.

As always we hope this finds you all well and with your lives full of love,

 

Nicole and John

 

September 2005 - A-Journeying We Go

 

1. The Voices

We joined our friends Andrea Baldwin and Helena Bond to form The Voices, a workshop-running collective, based in Brisbane. Helena and Andrea initiated the idea and we were more than happy to join in. Together we ran a series of singing and performance workshops in Brisbane between May and July. Demand for the courses led to a second series being added and eventually about 60 singers enrolled and together we stretched, learnt and sang, exploring harmonies, warm-ups, improvisation, tone, pitch and more. We plan further series in 2006.

July also saw Angie Kitzelman's karaoke birthday party. a disturbingly enjoyable and absolutely unforgettable night (New York, New York!!!!!!).

 

2. Fun at the Judy

We planned a big night for our final Australian concert before our second UK tour, and Chris Bowen and the crew at the Judith Wright Centre, a state-run arts centre in inner-city Brisbane, gave us a great night. Rebecca Wright joined us both as support act and on cello for the last few numbers of the night. It was wonderful to be joined by so many friends (see pic) for a beautiful send-off.

 

3. The Big Bird to the Other Side of the World, and a Party

The joys of Royal Brunei took us to Heathrow in three 7-hour hops. We arrived in July to be met at the airport by Jonny Dyer (of Jonny and Vicki from our Fiddleship album). A couple of days later, we'd acquired a car (faster than the old camper) with the help once again of John Hare (St John of Essex). This time we're getting about the place in a 1994 Peugeot 405 Turbo Diesel. Cool. We set ourselves up to travel, just in time to go to Vicki's birthday party. The local pub is a classic (The Willows) and a whole lot of musical buddies got together there to celebrate. Dinner was followed by the inevitable session, including the guys from Isambarde (that's the top half of Chris' head).

 

4. Time to Work

After a few days of recovery from jetlag (and the party), it was time to go to work. Our first gigs were in the form of a tour for the charity, Music in Hospitals. These guys organise around 6500 concerts a year in aged care homes, children's hospitals and hospices all around the UK. They booked us for occasional gigs during our last tour, and we really enjoyed singing in hospitals, so this time we were off to Northern Ireland.

We spent 10 days in and around Belfast, playing twice a day and navigating desperately between hospitals, and along the way meeting amazing groups of people. Our job was to entertain them with a variety of mostly lighthearted material, tailoring our repertoire to each group, playing requests as well as items from our regular songlist and including tune sets. Waltzing Matilda was the surprise hit! We were amazed to find the extent to which the arts are incorporated into the health sector in Northern Ireland. (One regional hospital authority we encountered employs a resident artist, a resident musician and a resident dancer whose full-time jobs are to involve patients in the arts - a truly amazing network.)

 

5. Back to England

The Portsmouth and Southsea Show was the first gig of the tour organised by our new agent, Jacey Bedford. The Southsea show was great fun, a real seaside fair, with musical stages surrounded by stalls and genuine "fairground attractions", including the last travelling helter skelter (104 years old). Of course, we couldn't resist that one.

After a few days at Southsea, we were off to Kent for the Broadstairs Folk Festival. We had three great gigs, and the highlight was playing as a six-piece with Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer and Tom Bliss and Tom Napper in the Methodist Chapel. A terrific night, wonderful music and wonderful friends.

 

6. A Place to Call Home (for a while)

During our days off we'd organised to stay with Jacey at her home in Yorkshire. This meant that we at last had a base - a place to recuperate, rehearse and prepare for the next run of gigs. We had a week off after the Irish trip and the first few gigs, and it was great to have somewhere to spend the time. We set about some serious relaxation.

The following week, we played at our first clubs of the tour (Northampton and Uppermill). At Uppermill we were told about the Rushcart to be held that weekend. The rushcart is a tradition which is re-created each year in Uppermill. Every Winter, a cart is built to collect rushes to be strewn on the floor of the local church. The laden cart is paraded around all the villages in the area, pulled by as many morris teams as can be mustered. The band (which John joined after the first pub) consisted of 17 melodeons, 1 concertina, 6 drummers, 2 bass drums, 1 fiddler, 1 flute and 1 euphonium, and were joined by roughly 120 dancers.

A twelve-mile walk, a very long day, and a whole lot of fun.

 

7. A-Gigging We Shall Go.

While it was great to have a few days off in August, we came here to gig and it wasn't long before we were back on the road. A huge weekend at Bridgnorth beckoned. Sunday saw us start the day with a singing workshop (a terrific and enthusiastic group of around 60), followed by gigs on all three of the major stages at the festival, as well as two chances to sing harmonies with Kristina Olsen, who was also booked at the festival. Long days but great gigs.

The next weekend was one of the wildest runs we've ever had. Glasgow, Burntwood in the Midlands, Lewes in Sussex and then the Wallingford Bunkfest to top the whole thing off. A lot of miles and a lot of fun. They even turned on Queensland Summer weather at Wallingford to make us feel at home.

 

8. We've Never Been There Before.

We had another week off and our Aussie mate, Suzanna was in Morocco. And so... Well, we'd be crazy not to. Follow the link to Nicole's diary.

 

9. And Back to Work.

After sun, sand and donkeys, we were back to Jacey's and back into the gigs. Another run of clubs, including a catch-up with former Townsville-dwellers Dave and Linda at Northwich, and our introduction to Sutton Folk Club in Bedfordshire - two great nights, and there were even some relaxing tunes after Sutton.

We have a couple of days off at the moment. We delighted in a fabulous Irish session at Freshford, running into a guitarist we met two years ago in Ireland! Nicole is always looking for a chance to play tunes. And then it's back on the road. October's looking busy!

And so the journey continues.

We hope this update finds you all well. We'll see you down the road.

Love

John and Nicole

 

 

February 2006 - There and Back Again

It's been a while since our last update and so we have lots to catch up on. This is what we've been up to since September last year, when we were still in the UK, enjoying the touring and another Summer full of sunshine.

 

1. October

After a run of folk clubs throughout September, we really settled into the rhythm of travel in October (One four day jaunt saw us in York, Southampton, Birmingham and South Shields on consecutive nights!). Along the way, we encountered even more of Nicole's seemingly endless supply of relatives, caught up with a lot of old friends, and played at some beautiful clubs (One of our favourites being The Sutton Folk Club in Bedfordshire). This tour saw us travelling to a lot of clubs where we had not previously played, as well as a fair few return visits to places we'd been in 2004. It was a real treat having Jacey Bedford looking after the organisational side of the tour, making it possible for us to concentrate our energies on our performances.

We did manage to find time to be tourists as well as playing, even making it to Stonehenge between two gigs. John was happy that there was no repeat of his first visit, when he emerged from the tunnel to see the ancient stones among the mist, only to hear a loud, harsh voice from behind him (you guess the accent), "IT'S NOT AS BIG AS I THOUGHT IT'D BE". To balance things up, on the right you'll find a photo of John appearing to be much larger than you thought he'd be.

Towards the end of the tour, we managed a few days of down-time at Birdsedge and for Nicole's birthday, celebrated with Canadian band Tanglefoot who were staying with Jacey and playing at the beautifully restored local village hall. A great night.

We finished the month off with the Sheffield Folk Festival. Once again, we had the pleasure of teaming up with Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer to play our final performance as a four-piece. (Plans are afoot to get these guys to Australia, so we can repeat the experience on our home turf - we have a dream to meet up with them at Woodford, but we're not sure that small-pipes like the heat - more on that later).

 

2. Off to the Channel

As well as Jacey, our friends at Music In Hospitals were looking after us well on this trip, and so after we'd finished off the folk clubs and festivals, we were off to Jersey for a leisurely 29 performances in 11 days. Fortunately, Jersey isn't all that big a place (about 8 miles by 5 miles), but they have managed to cram 400 miles of road onto the island. Astonishing how many times you can become lost in so small a place. We had a great time on Jersey, finding it a land rich in aged-care facilities, amazing sunsets and ever-flowing Harvey's Bristol Cream.

The hospital performances are necessarily different to our normal folk-club repertoire, with lots of opportunities for singing along, and trips down memory lane. We are also always open to requests, occasionally being thrown completely (We even managed to rise to the occasion when someone wanted an Elvis cover).

We were well looked after on Jersey, and after three gigs a day, we left exhausted but happy (and we've said "yes" to Guernsey for 2006).

 

 

3. A Jaunt on the Continent

After a hectic tour in the UK and a madly busy time on Jersey, we were ready for a break. Our friend Wilna (of Christmas generosity and Wilna's Dance fame) found herself in the beautiful French town of Lalinde, with an all-but-empty chateau, and so we leapt to her assistance. We were very tired and didn't know what to expect (we are desperately short in the chateau department in Australia). WOW!

A short drive from the Bergerac airport, the chateau seemed like a magic place to us. Turrets! The Dordogne flowing outside the windows! It was almost impossible to believe, but there it was. Once again, Wilna made us welcome and we had time, space and the perfect surroundings in which to relax. Four days later, we flew back to Stansted, our hearts full of our wonderful time in France.


 

 

4. Once More Onto the Big Bird

After France (God, that sounds posh!) we had a couple of days in Essex with Jonny and Vicki and then we were off to Heathrow, and into the arms of Royal Brunei, and the three 7-hour hops home. We left England, just as the weather was starting to turn, and arrived back in Australia, just as temperatures were starting to rise. Brisbane can be humid place over Summer, but we weren't sticking around to find out - we headed North after a couple of days to visit Nicole's parents in Townsville - Tropical North Queensland.

 

5. Fresh Fields Closer to Home

While we were in the UK, John had organised a short tour in New Zealand to investigate the scene there, and so, after only 10 days back in Australia, we were off again. We spent two weeks driving around some of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable, combining our tour with a little bit of holiday time. Beautiful beaches, with snow-capped mountains in the background. Lovely folk clubs, great people and absolutely incredible wines.

We flew into Christchurch in the early hours of the morning (made it to our accommodation at around 3am, thanks to the plane being delayed at Brisbane Airport by lightning strikes!). Next day, we picked up our car and headed off to Blenheim for our first gig. A great house concert (thanks Terry and Helen), and then off to Nelson the next day. This time we played at Fairfield House, a restored mansion overlooking this harbour town. A beautiful room, and (best of all) a great session into the early hours to follow the gig - of course there happened to be fiddle and flute players in the room.

We drove over the range to Golden Bay and Takaka, home of the Mussel Inn. It is hard to describe how wonderful this place is. Andrew and Jane built this venue from scratch and have created a beautiful building where the local community gather and party. With music every weekend of the year, it's well worth a visit. Gilly Darbey described it to us as "like playing inside a huge guitar" (not quite sure how she knows).

(Editor's Note: Among the brews produced in the Mussel Inn's micro-brewery, they make a Manuka beer. Based on a recipe used by Captain Cook to avoid scurvy among his crews, the beer is flavoured with the tips of leaves from the Manuka tree. Notwithstanding my delightful experiences of English Real Ales, I have after much consideration, concluded that:

"Captain Cooker's Manuka Beer from the Mussel Inn in Takaka is AS GOOD AS BEER CAN POSSIBLY GET."

This decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.)

 

We made the return journey to Christchurch and the Christchurch Folk Club. Once again, great hospitality, with another branch of the folk family making us welcome. We took the opportunity to explore Christchurch, before driving all the way back to the top of the South Island. There we caught the ferry to the North Island.

Palmerston North Folk Music Club was first. The crowd in the Theosophical Hall gave us a warm reception, and in the next two days we had another chance to experience some of New Zealand's natural beauty, this time in a glorious valley just outside town. Our next stop was the West coast and Gill Winter's Upstairs Room. Gill runs the Flying Piglets as well as the venue, and has made a lot of performers welcome in this excellent venue above her home in North Taranaki. We were by now into the home stretch of this short trip, heading down to Wellington for the Acoustic Routes club in the Wellington Arts Centre. A terrific club to finish the trip, followed by an early morning flight back to Australia.

We highly recommend that you visit New Zealand, and we certainly hope to be back there in 2007.

 

5. Woodford.

We had 10 days of catching our breath in Australia, enjoying being back in our home town, and seeing family and friends for Christmas.

Our next destination was only an hour away but, as always, a trip to the Woodford Folk Festival is a journey to another world. Every year is different, with the festival representing an amazing coalescence of music, visual arts and the use of the physical environment to create a true cultural festival. We were very busy, it was incredibly hot, and once again, the festival was a totally engaging, amazing life experience.

Cloudstreet performed every day at Woodford, singing in the opening ceremony and as part of the fire event, playing in the Children's Festival and presenting a Green Man dance and song cycle, in conjunction with Queensland's Belswagger Morris. Nicole and the other members of The Voices also ran two successful singing workshops, while John was up every morning to co-present the Variety Breakfast with Martin Pearson.

 

 

6. A Month of Rest and Then We Journey North.

After a long year of travelling, we had time in January to stop for a while, catch up on our sleep and start the process of rebuilding for the new year. It was good to have time to get some perspective on 2005, and to start work on some of our plans for 2006 (including a new album!)

Two weeks after Woodford we packed the van and headed North to Townsville. Unlike our normal rushing about, we decided to take our time and spread the trip out over 4 days (the normal plan is to do the 1600km (1000 miles) over two days, with a break around Rockhampton). And so we took it easy, on the first night stopping at Inskip Point, near Rainbow Beach, about an hour off the highway. A beautiful National Park campsite on the beach (the view from our camp is on the right).

The next day saw us off to make the halfway mark near Rockhampton, stopping just North of the city at the Capricorn Caves, a series of limestone caves full of bentwing bats. Of course, we ran into some travellers from Townsville who remembered us from the folk club there. (It makes you feel very famous when the only other people in a campground greet you with, "You're John Thompson" - so, for the record, my 15 minutes of fame was spent in Rockhampton).

In the morning we toured the caves (including singing in the underground chapel - an amazing acoustic space), and then we headed back to the highway and North... and into the rain. 'Though we'd planned to continue our leisurely pace, we drove into steady rain that felt as though it would never stop. We decided that camping would not be as much fun as we'd like, and that we'd better keep driving. The rain slowed us down, the closer we got to Townsville, the more often we found water running over the highway, and so the later it became. We persevered, and after 12 hours on the road, we arrived at Nicole's parents house at around 10.30pm. We slept.

(We learned the next day that Townsville measured 290mm of rain on the day we were driving (just shy of 12 inches) - as much rain as they'd had in the preceding 12 months. Great day for a drive.)

 

7. Music in the North.

Our journey to Townsville was, in part, to spend time with Nicole's parents, but also to run a series of singing workshops in our old stomping ground. The interest in the workshops was tremendously gratifying, easily outstripping our expectations. Sunday, 5 February was our first three-hour session, with a terrific bunch of 30 singers gathering at the Rocks Guesthouse on Melton Hill, overlooking Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island. We're looking forward to the next two weekend sessions, and then a concert at the Townsville School of Arts Theatre (home of Dance North) on Saturday the 25th.

 

8. Coming Up.

After our time in Townsville, we'll be heading South for the Port Fairy Folk Festival in March, we'll be in the recording studio, April is full of festivals and May sees us back in the UK for another tour.

 

And so the journey continues.

We hope this update finds you all well. We'll see you down the road.

Love

John and Nicole

 







May 2006 - The Road Beckons

 

 

As always, we've been keeping busy. Since February we've recorded a new album (of which we are very proud), crammed as much work as possible into an exciting April and travelled once more to England for another tour.

 

1. Singing in the North in February.

February was spent in North Queensland running a series of singing workshops under the title Find Your Voice and Sing. The workshop series was a lot of fun and far exceeded our expectations, with eventually 49 students enrolling in the various classes over the month. The group was extraordinary, committing a lot of time and a lot of trust in their voices. The work really paid off - we had fun together, we learnt together and the singing was superb.

To top the month off, we performed at the School of Arts Theatre in Townsville (home of Dance North) where we joined by 20 singers from the workshops for a grand finale sing. It was a terrific way to finish the month and for all of the singers to lift the rafters with Time is a Tempest. We were very proud.

Nicole was especially busy during the whole of February, having booked a studio beneath the Umbrella Gallery, and spending some time every day painting. She finished the month with some fabulous work. (Our artworks page is currently undergoing some refurbishment, but we'll let you know when it's up and running).

 

 

 

2. Port Fairy

March saw us drive back to Brisbane for a few days of downtime and catching up with friends, a chance for a session at the Broadway and then off to Port Fairy Folk Festival on the Southern coast of Victoria. One of Australia's biggest festivals, we were delighted to find that our first gig was in front of a cloud-covered backdrop - now that's planning!

Being in Victoria also meant a chance to see Andrew and Heather at the Burke and Wills Winery, where we joined in the Burke and Wills Festival on Monday night, along with James and Nancy, Kristina Olsen and Peter Grayling, and Martin Pearson with his new group, the MP3. A wonderful night with friends to finish off a busy weekend. The next day we were off back to Queensland and...

 

3. Back Into the Studio

Our plans for a new album came to a head in the middle of March when we travelled up to Conondale on the Sunshine Coast hinterland to record. We stayed with the Goodwills (thanks Bob and Laurel) and headed down the mountain every morning to record. We had great plans for Dance Up The Sun and a friend had recommended a man by the name of Pixie to do the recording (which we thought was a good sign). Pix Vane Mason was a godsend to us - a fabulously supportive, good-humoured, and technically gifted soundie, living in a beautifully isolated house at the foot of the hills behind Maleny. The process of recording was made a little bit frantic by our time constraints, but it also turned out to be a real pleasure, with a lovely verandah to relax on between takes, whip-birds in the trees and no major disasters along the way. Over three days of recording, we started to see the ideas we had for our new songs crystallise, with new layers being added each day. Once the tracks were down, we moved straight into mixing and finally mastering, with Nicole all the while developing the artwork. Eight days after we'd started work with Pix, we travelled down to Brisbane and handed over the master recording and the artwork. It was marathon week, but we are over the moon about the results. A special treat for us was to be joined once again by Rebecca Wright, who played cello on Sweetest Complexity, John's new love-song to whiskey.

You can check out Dance Up The Sun on our music page (where you can also order a copy). Our special thanks go to all of those who helped us along the way by pre-ordering.

 

4. A Few Days to Relax

After the madness of recording and the race to the deadline, we were ready for a bit of time back in Brisbane, to see friends and to pack for the next leg of the journey. We found ourselves a temporary home in Herston with the wonderful Shez Wright and the gang at Bramston Terrace, venue for many a bacchanalian party. We'd almost forgotten what it was like to have a base and it was a great pleasure to unpack and sprawl a little. We had ten days of lying about and recharging the batteries.

 

5. A Very Busy April

We were ready for a big month ahead as we headed to the airport, with the cd safely off to the presses.

First stop was Sydney, where Chris and Prue looked after us down at Bondi, we caught up with John's step-brother Peter (who with his partner Kate form the duo Lyrebird), celebrated John's birthday, and performed with George Papavgeris at the North by Northwest Folk Club. We also had a chance to catch up and have a sing with Kristina Olsen again, this time at the Harp. They were busy, fun-filled days in a truly gorgeous city.

 

And after a few days in Sydney, the Canberra bus took us to the National Folk Festival. One of our favourite events of the year, the National is always a great chance to catch up with musicians and friends from around the country. We were particularly excited this year, as we took delivery of Dance Up The Sun with only two days to spare before the festival started. We were billeted with good friends Lorna and David Garrett, who were also kind enough to find space for George and Vanessa Papavgeris. George went down a storm at the National on his first time there, and we had a couple of opportunities to sing together which was a real treat, and a crossing of worlds.

We launched our brand new cd with the generous help of Belswagger Morris, our local side who were featured at the festival. Once again, an (unplanned) cloud-covered backdrop proved ideal for the launch and Belswagger were perfect, dancing along to our new song, Dance Up The Sun. The best dancer from the audience received a free copy of the new cd.

As always, the National meant a chance to spend time with Martin Pearson, who is featuring this year at both the Festival at the Edge and the Warwick Folk Festival. John and Martin performed together on the final night of the festival, with the annual Martin's party this year including George and as always, starting at midnight and continuing into the early hours. (Martin's Tolkien parody, The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien has achieved legendary status in Australia and should not be missed if you have a chance to see him in the UK).

A highlight for John this year was being invited to take part in the World Poetry Debate. Each year, the National includes this debate as part of its spoken word programme. The topic of debate always relates to poetry in some way, and the debaters' contributions must be in verse. This year the topic was Poetry is Seditious and (needless to say, ed.) John led the affirmative team to a glorious victory. Here's a pic of the winning team (John, Bruce Watson and Carole Heuchen) with the MacArthur's Fart trophy.

We had a fabulous year at the National and left exhausted but happy, heading for...

 

6. The Wild West

2006 saw us playing at the Fairbridge Festival for the first time and so we hopped on the big bird and flew from Canberra to Perth. Nicole's sister Jill met us at the airport and we were whisked off to see her new house in Fremantle (with its fabulously beautiful, polished jarrah floors). After a couple of restful days, we headed to the festival site, about an hour South of Perth. We had a great weekend at the historic festival site, and caught up properly with a lot of people we'd seen only too briefly the weekend before in Canberra, including Chris and Julie who were over touring from the UK.

After the festival, it was back on the bus to Perth (with a lot of interesting, lost-luggage-led side-trips). We played in Fremantle at Kulcha as part of a triple-bill (Martin Pearson, cloudstreet and Never the Twain, John's occasional duo with Martin). We had a great night and hope to be back there next time we're in the West.

After an all-too-short stay, it was time to head back East for Wintermoon.

 

7. Wintermoon

This lovely festival on private land North of Mackay has always been a special occasion for us. We were returning after a four year break due to our travelling and other commitments, but we were quickly welcomed back into the Wintermoon family. The layout of the site is perfect for collaborations with other performers, and we had plenty of opportunities to play and sing with our friends, and be joined on stage in return. Wintermoon now has two festivals a year, so if ever you're about, check it out.

On the art front, Nicole had seen a lot of people at the National wearing coloured horns. As is her way, she checked them out and made lots of sets. Wintermoon was where they really came into their own. Here are some examples:

 

8. Time to Go

When the whirlwind that was April finally settled, we had three days to stop, repack, catch up on some sleep and then head to the airport, this time bound for London and our third adventure in the United Kingdom. After a short stop at the Hong Kong airport, we arrived, lagged and shattered, in Essex to once again enjoy Jonny and Vicki's hospitality. Masses of sleep later, we found ourselves at the the Cressing Temple Barns for the annual Templar's Fayre. An amazing venue for this event, with lots of costume, pageantry and apppropriately ancient ballyhoo.

A few days of adjusting to life on the other side of the world, and then it was time to head North. Back to Yorkshire, where we will base ourselves for the Summer.

Our first gig was in Warwick at the folk club there, we're back in our faithful Peugeot and we've even found time to be tourists and visit Warwick Castle, as well as the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (where we met up with our Australian mates Joe and Kelly and John got in trouble for lying on a Henry Moore).

 

9. And So...

We're settling in and looking forward to a busy time ahead. There's lots of music to be made and we have a few breaks here and there and are making plans to play tourist a few more times.

That's all of our news for now.

We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.

 

With love from the road,

 

Nicole and John

 

 

July 2006 - Summer on the Far Side of the World

 

 

We've been keeping busy in England and Scotland since our last update in May, incorporating some valuable exploration time into our schedule. (The photo above was taken at Glastonbury as the sun rose on 1st June).

 

1. A-Driving We Will Go

By now we are well used to the British motorway system and after a leisurely start at Warwick (see previous news), it was time to hit the roads. First stop was Ely, then Halifax, then Ipswich. Up and down the country in three nights (about 4-5 hours driving each day).

Ely was a great club, held in a restored maltings on the banks of the canal in Ely. It was a treat to have a large contingent of Australians in the crowd. Our mates Joe and Kelly were also over from Brisbane and made a special trip to see us - a welcome surprise.

The next day saw us hurtling Northwards to a beautiful restored church in Halifax - The Square Chapel (prizes will be awarded for guessing it's shape and former function). The very enthusiastic crowd contained quite a few who came along because they'd seen us play at Cleckheaton festival in 2004(!). The restorations on this building are sympathetic to the classic old chapel, and the acoustics are incredible. A feature of this tour was proving to be fabulous buildings in which to sing and the next day continued the trend. The tithe barn in the village of Sproughton, near Ipswich is being kept in use by a group of locals, and once again proved to be a very special place to have a sing. We were joined by Vicki and Jonny for this performance and tried out a few of our new songs as a four-piece (we'll keep doing that every chance we get!).

 

2. To the North!

Our next journey was North into Scotland, stopping on the way for a visit to Bamburgh Castle (we Australians don't have as many opportunities as some to see castles, and so we take advantage of them whenever we can - especially when it's "The Finest Castle In England"!)

That night we had a return visit to the Wee Folk Club at the Royal Oak in Edinburgh. It was a great night, with a full house of 30(it is "wee") and a terrific bunch of singers in the audience.

With our friends Tom and Sarah, who surprised us by living in Scotland and not Tasmania, we made a return visit to one of the great destinations for travellers to Edinburgh - Plaisir du Chocolat. Chocolate espresso!!!!!!!! Edinburgh was in pre-festival mode, with their own particular spin being put on the fibreglass-cow painting epidemic that is sweeping the globe.

Laden down with sweety goodness, we left Edinburgh that afternoon and headed just up the road to Glenfarg for another night at the Glenfarg Village Folk Club and some more wonderful singing from the audience. (It must be something in the air).

Another day of catching up followed (this time with Nicole's relatives, Bill and Nan), a lovely walk around Aberdeen and then off to Montrose for the Montrose Folk Club at the Links Hotel.

(We're hoping that each time we go back to Scotland, we'll make it a little further North - we're talking about Iona for next year! Even though its west.).

 

3. Festival Time!

After all this driving around Scotland, we were ready for a rest - but... After one night of take-away curries and Buffy the Vampire Slayer at our Yorkshire base, Jacey's place, it was time to set off for the Chippenham Folk Festival. We had a very busy Saturday, with the highlight being members of the Westrefelda Morris from Westerfield near Ipswich joining us to perform Dance Up The Sun.

After Friday night and Saturday at Chippenham we were back in the car and on the road up to Chester for the Chester Folk Festival on Sunday and Monday.

Chester was a lovely festival for us, especially as we had a chance to see some old friends as well as having a good sing. James Keelaghan was there, as well as Isambarde (and importantly, Dave and Linda) and we even managed a meal with Les Barker who happened by. All in all a busy but fun weekend.

 

4. And While We Were There...

It just wouldn't be a cloudstreet tour if we didn't make a boat-related detour and so, after the festival, we popped over to see the Anderton Boat Lift. Enormous, powerful, and full of boats, the boat lift is used as a lift for boats. The boats go in and then it lifts them. The boats are lifted by the boat lift. Hours of fun for the whole family as you gather together and watch the boats being lifted - very slowly. Laugh as the boats are lifted, cry as they go up and down, gasp in awe at the mighty power of the boat lift. It lifts boats. A must for the desperate tourist.

 

5. A Few Days in the South

After driving down to Kent for the Faversham Folk Club, we had a couple of days off and so we headed off to Glastonbury. We spent two nights at the amazing Shekinashram and indulged ourselves with saunas, massage and yoga, along with walks up Tor Hill. Glastonbury is a great place to relax - lots to see. On top of Glastonbury Tor stands the surviving tower from an early church, with amazing views over the town and surrounding fields.

 

6. Rest and Clubs, and Rest and Clubs, and Rest ...

Following our break at Glastonbury, we taught a singing workshop near Bristol, and checked out the funky area of Clifton and the Forbidden Planet Megastore. Then we visited our friend Nancy near Bath and enjoyed some spectacular Summer weather. A short drive to Swindon saw us at the White Horse Folk Club (with special thanks to Derrick and Chris for making us so welcome - and to Lefty for thinking up the whole idea). Next morning we paid homage to the spectacular and ancient White Horse of Uffington, cut into the chalk hillside 3000 years ago.

Our next stop was Whitehaven on the coast of Cumbria (which turned out to be the birthplace of Nicole's grandfather). Folk in the Barn is held at the Rosehill Theatre and is full of enthusiastic singers and a welcoming atmosphere. We had a ball.

 

After Cumbria and a trip around the Lakes, we had a quick stop to sing at the Alison Arms Folk Festival on the way home to Birdsedge for a few days rest. And then the Blackpool Folk Club (Music at the Clarence) beckoned before we were off to Wales to play at Llantrisant and the Valley Folk Club Pontardawe, with Wessex Acoustic in Dorset to round out the month's folk clubs. (And we even found time to visit the fairytale Castell Coch while we were in Wales).

 

7. Music in Hospitals

As with our earlier tours, 2006 sees us once again in partnership with the Council for Music in Hospitals, performing at hospitals and aged-care centres across the United Kingdom. This is a wonderful charity, providing over 5000 performances a year and "providing joy through live music" (a great mission statement). We finished June with half a dozen MIH gigs around the Lakes District and enjoyed a couple of traditional tune sessions along the way.

 

8. Close to Home

Our most recent work has been in the village of Birdsedge, where we've been based while in the UK. We were asked to work with the local Birdsedge First School and so we spent a morning with class 3, putting together a performance for the weekend's Birdsedge Village Festival. The kids were fantastic and the crowd needed no encouragement to go wild. The class learned two songs for the show and put together word rhythms for a percussion piece ("Barbecued bananas, spaghetti bolognese, cake!", "Cup-cakes and chocolate chips" and "France, France, cake!" - do you see a pattern emerging?)

The Saturday night concert featured the Brian Bedford Band (with a truly stunning version of Brian's Wings), a set by cloudstreet and Vin Garbutt to round off the evening in style.

 

9. And Now

Tonight sees us off to Lancashire for another club, then we pick Martin Pearson up before heading off to Festival at the Edge. We're planning a week in France at the end of July before heading home to Oz in early August.

 

We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.

 

With love from the road,

 

Nicole and John



September 2006 - At Home in the Hills

 

 

This update comes to you from Australia, where we're setting up house in the hills behind Maleny, on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. But before we get to that bit, here's what we've been up to since July.

 

1. A Friend Flies In.

Martin Pearson arrived in the UK in early July. John has sung and played with Martin since about 1992, and joins him in presenting the Variety Breakfast each morning at the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland. On hearing that he was suffering severe jetlag, we raced through the night to his rescue after playing at the Four Fools Folk Club in Lancashire. Braving the wilds of Chester, we found him, huddled and sneezing at Les Barker's house in North Wales. We hosed him off, dusted him down, slapped him sideways and put him in the car. Exhausted but happy, we arrived back at our Yorkshire base, Jacey's house, at around 3am. Time for bed.

Up at our usual 6 am for calisthenics, cold showers and croissants (would you believe 10am for coffee, coffee and coffee?) we had a few days of intense preparation - Genevieve Tudor had convinced the Festival at the Edge to book Martin and John to recreate their Australian breakfast show on English soil. John and Martin watched DVDs with a never-before-seen intensity, until finally... they were ready.

Festival at the Edge was the first time John and Martin had performed together in the UK and we were over the moon at the response. The Festival took advantage of the many Australians in attendance and featured a Bonzer Aussie Meet with Nicole, John, Martin, and Di and Mike Jackson. We discussed our homeland with wisdom and sensitivity. We also made a lot of stuff up.

 

2. More Work to be Done

After the delights of Shropshire, Martin was off to the South, while we headed North-east, wending our way around Alnwick, performing for Music in Hospitals at care homes and hospices around the area. While we were there, we spent an afternoon at the amazing Alnwick Garden including a visit to the greatest tree-house in the history of arborial accommodation. Cleverly named, The Treehouse is ENORMOUS!!, containing restaurants, shops, ladders, walkways, an elephant enclosure and 9 million hidden jelly babies (we didn't have time to see all of these things). The gardens are definitely worth a visit (and they're just around the corner from a fabulous second-hand book store. Not to mention a famous castle with Harry Potter connections).

One of our aims on this trip was to spend a bit more tourist-time between gigs, and so, on our way to the next festival, we took time off to check out Hadrian's Wall, saw the Sage in Gateshead (a fabulously modernistic performance venue, rising like a giant stainless-steel snail over the Tyne), and stopped off at a few galleries along the way.

 

3. The Last Few Gigs

Our three months were nearly up, as we headed towards our final festival of the tour - Brampton Live. Just outside the city of Carlisle, Brampton Live is a great festival run by Ken and Sue Bradburn of Emerging Music. Held at a school, the festival is very much like a typical Australian festival - based around a specific site, rather than centred on a town. It was a special celebration for us, with opportunities to see and play with a whole bunch of friends, including Jonny and Vicki, the guys from Isambarde and a very special concert on the Sunday with Kristina Olsen. Billed as Kristina Olsen and Friends, the show was 90 minutes of some of Kristina's favourite songs, with harmonies supplied by the two of us and Martin Pearson (who'd come up after the Warwick festival), along with blues harp and trombone from Rory McLeod. It was an amazing concert for us, and a real highlight of the trip - we've had a few chances to sing with Kristina in recent years, but this really topped them all - great sound, a beautiful venue and a real chance to let rip.

After a lovely weekend of catching up with friends and singing our heads off, we were back to Jacey's to farewell the Bedfords as well as seeing fellow musicians William and Felicia (Pint and Dale) one last time and enjoying our relaxation drugs of choice (Indian take-away, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and munching on chocolate) together. Jacey's really was a wonderful haven for us during the tour.

 

4. Another Drive

After packing up, deciding what was coming and what was staying, throwing money at the nice men from Fedex for the balance of our possessions, and loading the car up one last time, we were off. The Hoy at Anchor was our very last gig for the trip and we had all day to get there. We stopped off on the way South for a cuppa break with Kate Tiler and Jack Greene, both people with wonderful job descriptions - Kate is a Medieval Tiler, while Jack is ...

Dr Jack Greene - Apothecary, Alchemist and Archmagus of the Philosopher's Stone

(He must have had a wonderful career's adviser at school. He also has the coolest work van - here's a pic.)

Jack is a fine example to us all that living our dreams is possible. When he was a little boy he visited a museum and decided that one day he would live somewhere like that - surrounded by all of the weird and wonderful artefacts, the rampant knick-knackery of ages past. And that is now how he lives. His house is a marvel. Everywhere you turn, you find new wonders - flintlocks that Jack has restored or made, potions, carvings, dried pufferfish hanging with bats and birds, books of ancient wisdoms alongside marvellous costumes and spinning wheels. We only had a brief visit, but we hope to be back (Besides, it's always handy to know an alchemist).

After a quick cuppa and a chat, we were back on the motorway and heading for Essex. A lovely last night at the Hoy with a lot of terrific singers in the crowd to see us off for the tour.

 

5. A Day to Recover And Then...

Once the gigs were out of the way, it was time for a holiday. We were off to France to visit our friend Redshoes and her chateau at Lalinde. This beautiful place just filled our hearts, with the river rushing past under the windows, and relaxed company after all the rushing about. We checked out the local markets, buried ourselves under piles of magnificent cheese and talked into the wee hours. A great bonus was to find Sandy (an Australian friend, author and broadcaster) visiting at the same time. Once again, we had far too short a time to visit, but we made sure we conjugated the verb to eat at a local restaurant before hitting the road again.

The legendary Lorient Interceltique Festival was happening during our time in France, and so we hired a car and headed North to Brittany and Lorient. A full day's drive (on the wrong side of the road - a first for us) and we made it to our hotel with some light remaining. After getting settled, we headed into town. All we knew that was that the festival was on and that it was huge.

Based largely around the celtic music of Brittany, the festival is an amazing gathering of musicians from around the world. We caught the parade on Sunday morning - a seemingly endless stream of marching bands. Irish, Scottish and (with Australia as the featured country this year) even bands from home, including the Queensland Irish Association Pipe Band. The parade featured dozens of Breton pipe bands, playing spectacular music on bombard and bagpipes, drums and brass. Flag-throwers and drum majors passed by with dancers of every conceivable celtic type and traditional costume. There was an Australian pavilion (kangaroo burgers, yum!), with an elegant sufficiency of inflatable kangaroos and Aussie flags. There were even a couple of wallabies in an enclosure near some of the artists' accommodation. (We visited them one morning while we were there to find that one had developed a nose-bleed. Plumbing the depths of John's high-school French managed to finally get some help for it after many, many misunderstandings (I mean, who learns to say "No, it's not my kangaroo, but it is unwell" when learning a foreign language?)).

But of course, it was music that brought us to Lorient. We managed some busking by the dockside on Thursday night, and then on Saturday were lucky enough to run into a friend we'd met at Sidmouth in 2004. We talked of things sessiony, and ventured to the nearest pub. Tunes ensued. As the day drew on, more and more musicians arrived, including a great bunch of guys from Dublin. Eventually, at 2 am, after ten hours of playing, chatting and generally enjoying the craic, we wandered off to bed. (While it might seem a long way to fly in the wrong direction to play with some tunies from Ireland, it was one of the best days of session we've ever had - thanks guys). The next day we did it all again, but at a different pub this time.

Lorient is an incredible event. We had a terrific time, even though we only managed three of the seven days before heading back to Britain. A festival well-worth visiting.

 

6. Eighty Hours Up In The Air

After battling with the bureaucracy of Ryanair ("How much extra to carry a guitar?!!!???!"), we made it back to England, had a couple of days of repacking and then hit Heathrow for the trip home.

To save space, we've put the narrative into point form:

- We left Heathrow late;

- Two hours out of Hong Kong, we were told that we were being diverted to Bangkok due to a typhoon;

- We land in Bangkok and wait on the tarmac - Immigration won't let us off the plane until accommodation has been organised;

- We leave the plane and wander lost around the terminal;

- Eventually we are united with buses to take us to hotels;

- We arrive at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok and are swamped by unimaginable luxury and countless doo-dads;

- Breakfast the next day is a dream of unimaginable excess, followed by a bus-trip back to the airport;

- We fly to Hong Kong, arriving at 7pm, local time;

- HUNDREDS of stranded Australians, all trying to get into any available seat to their chosen destination back home wait, milling around, and exploring various levels of grumpiness;

- At 4 am local time, we get boarding passes for a flight home at 11.30pm;

- We sleep;

- At 11 am, we phone a friend;

- We leave the airport and watch the Australia/South Africa rugby match with the brother of an Australian friend in the pub in Wanchai where we played a gig in 2004;

- Back to the airport on the super-fast-train thingy and then we board our flight;

- Take-off is delayed;

- Then it's delayed some more;

- We fly to Cairns;

- We fly to Brisbane;

- We fly to Townsville.

- WE STOP TRAVELLING AND WE FALL INTO A DEEP SLEEP.

But at last we were home.

 

7. On Australian Soil

As much as we love travelling, there's nothing like being home. First stop was for a week in Townsville with Nic's folks, Ros and Rob and lots of rest. It was the middle of Winter when we arrived and so the weather was pretty much the same as the weather we'd left behind in England (Townsville is in the tropics, after all). We lay about the place untidily, ate a lot, saw friends and generally veged out. It was fabulous.

Because of the delays in getting home, the week we'd originally planned was shrunk to 4 days, but we made the most of it and had at least partially recharged the batteries when the time to head to Brisbane came around.

 

8. A Place Of Our Own

After three years of almost constant travelling, we'd decided that we needed to finally find somewhere to stop for a while. Ideally we were looking for somewhere beautiful, hopefully about halfway between musician friends on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, not too far from a town with a post office and maybe even a friendly cafe or two, somewhere that we could afford to take on and keep as our home base while travelling in 2007. We knew we were asking a lot of the universe, but it's a big place full of lots of possibilities.

And we found it.

We moved in two weeks ago to our own place in the hills near Maleny, just up the range from the Sunshine Coast. There's space for us, our music, Nic's art, it has a vege garden out the back, and at last, the books are coming out of the boxes and onto our shelves.

So now we're planning our work for the rest of this year and into the next and looking forward to some peace, some regeneration and lots and lots of music.

And so as one journey ends, another one begins.

And that's what we've been up to since July.

We'll stay in touch as the journey continues.

 

With love from the road,

 

Nicole and John

 

 

HOME | news | gigs | bios & reviews | songs & cds | artworks | media kit | links | contact us