The Black Pig

And what fun it was. Hot though, I bet there were a few burned people. Dave the boss of Swamp Donkey is a free spirit who doesn't much like planning things and so generally speaking we play without a set list but the Glastonbury stage management is so precise that he was forced into it, which couldn't have been an easy task as he'd been smoking a awful lot of bob. He'd also invited two mates to join us so there were seven people on stage rather than the usual five and consequently it took an age to soundcheck. In fact it was all so rushed that when the soundman failed to get  a signal from my uke through the d.i. box there wasn't time to sort it out so I ended up MIMING! Hilarious, miming at Glastonbury, I felt like a proper pop star and posed like a good'un, shades of Marc Bolan. The set seemed to be over in a flash and I made my way back to the Cider Bus in something of a daze once it was all over. And after some cider I pretty much stayed in a daze...excellent.

Flagcracker Morris performing in Chapman Court, Pershore. The mandolin player had a transmitter to his amp, no old-fashioned leads for these folkies nowadays. Actually, it was a bloody funny day out all round; we initially went into Evesham but could find nothing whatsoever going on. So after a couple of pints we caught the bus to Pershore where we found a lot more activity. All pretty shambolic really and I think they're going to have to do some sorting out if they want the event to be successful in future, but we had fun...

Robert Dormer, my father, 83 years of age today. Fair play to him!

These lovely girls are Kokococo (or possibly Cocokoko, forgotten which way round it goes), one is from Spain t'other from Argentina and they are terrifically entertaining with full-on circus skills and lots of screaming. Knockout. The whole Bedlam Fair weekend (which is the central weekend of the two week Bath Festival Fringe) is great value for money, which is more than I can say for the pub in the background which charges £4 a bottle for Weston's Organic. Utterly outrageous!

Photographed this week on Bank Holiday Monday - hurrah! There are big pike reputedly lurking hereabouts but hopefully the new family will survive complete. Swans are nice.

Upton on Severn has some quaint ideas on street names, but it is a lovely little town and the folk festival was top notch. The sun shone and there was plenty of cider about. Of course being utterly puerile, when I saw Minge Lane on the festival map I had to seek it out. Pathetic. New tent tones nicely with my antique car... 

...so Moby & I have bought this. it's a Khyam Freelander and it's ace! Tall enought to stand up in at the front, the sloping rear bit is a double-skinned 'bedroom' and the whole thing goes up pretty quickly (4 minutes is claimed, it took us 40 on the first attempt) and even more surprisingly comes down and packs away easily. Mind you, it was a cold night in Worcestershire on Saturday. First event of the year is to be the Upton-on-Severn Folk Festival staring on May 1st. Cider, morris dancing and when-I-met-a-lusty-young-maiden here we come!

George on didj & drum, Marick on flute & pedals and self on uke & pedals. Can't beat a bit of meandering space rock on a Sunday afternoon...

It's a monthly event in Bath, and at £10 a go must be one of the best value gigs in the area. Last Thursday we got two stand up comedians, one Geordie, one Canadian (how eclectic is that?) plus a theatre group who did a hilarious version of Billy Elliott crossed with The Full Monty, the Hot Potato Syncopators who play hugely amusing '20's & '30's songs on ukulele, tea-chest bass and musical saw and finally my latest employers Swamp Donkey, who are loose but lovable. The venue is Widcombe Social Club, a building which is so perfectly ugly '70's that it should be listed. A good time was had by all, and check out my butch leather uke strap.

There's no-one like Bill Smarme & the Bizness; expert musicianship and hilarious schtick, it is a pleasure and privilege to work with them. As The Red Hot Lovers Bill & I performed "I'm Too Sexy" and "YMCA" (hence the headdress) and the band did their bluegrass/rockabilly thing with gusto. The theatre was sold out both nights and a splendid time was had by all. Mind you, all this theatrical stuff is hard work; playing a normal gig is much more straightforward. Next week's event with the much more (ahem) loose Swamp Donkey will be pie in comparison.

Don (organ) is in his seventies, Austin (drums) is 80 and,er, me. We played the standards, 'Blueberry Hill', Georgia' etc.The venue is the Harington Club, a Bath gentlemen's club of which I've been a member for 7 or 8 years. It used to be men only until I started taking Moby there on a "try stopping me" basis, and it is now much more successful and nicer for allowing ladies in. I love the place and would probably stay in on NYE otherwise. Top evening.
 

Phew, what a marathon; on stage at 13.20 and finish after 15.30! Mind you, the boys spend quite a lot of time deciding which song to play next, thus giving me plenty of cider drinking time. Anyway, a good time was had by all, us and the surprisingly crowded pub. Moby took these characteristic photos and there are more if you'd like to pay us a visit on http://www.myspace.com/juggrass - I've just put this together.

Are Swamp Donkey, my latest musical associates the greatest-ever musical slackers? With only our second gig together approaching this Sunday, I was fairly relieved when a rehearsal was called for last night (Wednesday). Since the string bass player couldn't make it (no problem, Mike's the best musician in the band) I volunteered to host it at my place, bit of a squeeze with four players but ok. Except they never showed up! Vocalist Dave sent me a text at 22.45 saying he'd fallen asleep waiting to be picked up at 21.00. The rehearsal had been scheduled to start at 20.00. So on Sunday, for only the second time in my life (the first was as keyboardist for a Quo covers band when I was 16) I am to play a gig almost totally making it up as I go along. I love a challenge.

John Milton, great English poet. In this picture he looks a little like Barry Norman in a wig, but in the picture Cactus Suzie of the Bizness ripped out of the Independent 5-12-08 and gave me on Sunday, he looks frighteningly like me! But that didn't stop me from enjoying the gig immensely and being extremely gratified by being presented with their new cd 'The Man with Lucky Lips'. We're not worthy...

Hallowe'en at Bath Folk Club. Costume optional, but I decided to play 'Reynardine' from 'Liege & Lief', so the full-on goth look seemed a good idea. I look like Heath Ledger's grandad. To think Alice & R.Smith look like that pretty much all the time. Moby looks ace.

Mitch Mitchell has died. My favourite drummer and in my opinion the only one capable of allowing Jimi Hendrix to flourish in the way in undoubtedly did. He was only 61 and apparently died of natural causes. And I'm so upset I can barely bring myself to make a joke about that not being very rock & roll...

Friday last I got together with Dave & Mark from Swamp Donkey and the estimable Mike Pryor from Bill Smarme & the Bizness who was to play bass. Guitarist Andy didn't show up despite the fact that we'd only picked on Friday as that was the only evening he was available! Anyway, Dave conducts his band in such a loose fashion that it wasn't really a rehearsal, more of a kind of jam. Mike knew the songs, his knowlege of Americana seems bottomless. I hadn't got a clue about most of them, apart from the handful I'd played at the last gig so it was all a bit Challenge Anneka on my part. But it was most enjoyable and since the next gig is not until Dec 14 at The Bell, the best music boozer I've ever known, we're under no real pressure. Sunday lunchtime is the ideal time to enjoy the jug band music of Swamp Donkey, with a pint or three, and I'm looking forward to it.

Swamp Donkey. Don't bother searching them cos although they've been trading for over 15 years they've never bothered with the new-fangled interweb thingy. They mostly play jug band music from the '20's & '30's and are raucous, energetic and all-round ace. Loads of Bath musos have passed through their ranks but the core has always been Dave (gtr.voc.kazoo) and Mark (banjo, harmonica, washboard). And now they've added yours truly, hands tightly gripped around pathetically small instrument as usual. They were busking in the street ten years ago when my parents came down to visit and mummy loved them. Shame she can't see her little boy doing his thang in their midst. But gigs to play and a whole new songbook to learn and loads of twiddly. I'm excited.

Another lovely sunny Bank Holiday Saturday, and clever Moby got third prize for her outstanding damson jam made from damsons grown at my father's place. Also, we won a bottle of champagne on the tombola, so hurrah!

Moby & I have just returned from a 2 week, 1100 mile round trip of England, going up to Northumberland visiting places like Alnwick (not up to much), Craster (full of yum-scrum kippers) , Seahouses (ace, proper little seaside town). After looping through Berwick on Tweed, the most northerly town in England, we started southward. The middle pic above is of Blanchland, a beautiful mediaeval village near Derwent Water reservoir where I discovered there is no mobile phone signal on ANY NETWORK! Hurrrah! We journeyed through the Yorkshire Dales and then the Peak District, all beautiful ever-changing scenery. The camping pics are of a pub with campsite near Carsington Water reservoir where the landlord had a smallholding which included chickens, donkeys and er, ostriches. Excellent. After that it was down to Worcestershire to house-sit for the old man as he journeyed north coach-wise with his girlfriend pitching up in Skipton where we'd stayed only two days before. Motored back to sunny Bath on Thursday and then Friday pointed the car south west to the Dulverton folk festival which sadly wasn't as vibey as last year and the less than summery weather didn't help. So we came home on Saturday evening, much to the joy of the Skroggy Cat who although well fed and watered in the intervening time was distinctly depressed and hadn't been grooming. So maybe next year we'll hire a cottage and take him with us. But it was a Top Trip, anyway...