We’ll start at May, the month that we released ‘Crossroads’. In my eyes this was the month that summer started, not only as it was beautifully sunny but this was the month where things started to happen.
With the joint effort of the 5 of us, Sarah Abbott for providing the beautiful artwork, D!L!P!R! for providing the tapes and Ondryland for representing the Digital front, ‘Crossroads’ was released on the 16th of May. For the release show we supported the lovely Peggy Sue at the Yardbird in Birmingham, which was great.
May was also the start of festival season for us too. We’d never played at festivals before this summer so it’s been very exciting for us to be lucky enough to play a couple this year. The first was Wood festival on what proved to be a very busy day for us. Weather wise, everyone knows summer starts in May and lasts for about a week, and fortunately this week coincided with Wood. It was swelteringly hot and early on in the afternoon when all five of us took to the stage to play and we had a blast. We didn’t clash with any of the other bands so lots of people popped over to check us out and we got a very nice response, which were ever so grateful for.
After we spent the afternoon enjoying the chilled out vibe of the Wood site, the boys jumped into the car and shot off to Nottingham for the second show of the day. This time we were playing with Johnny Flynn, and even in our sun ravaged, wilted states we loved playing and had an even better time watching the Sussex Wit wow the crowd.
In May we also played Dot to Dot in Nottingham which was great for us. We opened the Trent Room which was probably the biggest room we’ve played so far, as well as being the biggest crowd we’ve played to. There were some friendly faces in the crowd and we all felt so at home on stage it was a shame it was over so quickly!
We would have been more than happy to spend the rest of the day taking in some of the bands, and there were some pretty special acts on, but we had another gig to make it to, this time in Coventry! One of Canada’s finest, The Acorn, were playing Taylor John’s and we were supporting. We’ve played at Taylor John’s a few times before and even on a Sunday afternoon this was the busiest I’ve ever seen it and it was easy to see why. The Acorn were in fine form and showcased tracks from the new album in staggering style. Another incredible day! It was quite hared going back to normal weekends after May, especially after we’d started to get used to doing two shows a day!
The month that birthed both Ben and I was also a month for excitement and fun for Boat. We started recording 5 new tracks as a full band, something we we’re all very excited and ready to start. Keeping it local, we recorded with our good friend Craig Wainwright, someone who is exceptionally good at what he does, introducing me to Coffee for the first time (I take 2 sugars, very milky incase you we’re wondering) and fixing my banjo. You’ll get to hear these tracks in question very soon, maybe even for free.
We then played at Paul Murphy’s infamous ‘Tree House Songwriters Cafe’ with the impeccable Crooked Fiddle Band and Goodnight Lenin. The night was so much fun, 40 or people at the bottom of a two tier tree house, literally how you always imagined a tree house to be. Only this had electrics, so tea was on the house, a ventilated fire, cushions everywhere, and a wee stage! It was the first time we met and had a chance to hang out with Goodnight Lenin, a band from Birmingham that we’d heard a lot about and we’re eager to greet. They we’re lovely lads and played equally lovely music. Crooked Fiddle Band were incredibly talented musicians and lovely people, playing a ‘Balkan Folk, Bluegrass’ style, we had the pleasure of jamming Johnny Cash and Donovan songs with them before the night kicked off.
July was another month packed with exciting shows. First off we had a London date to look forward to, a Truck warm up show, and it more than whet our appetite for the weekend of Truck. We were playing with two of the other lucky bands playing the festival, Dog is Dead and Danny and the Champions of the World. Dog is Dead were already good friends of ours, and it was great to finally check out Danny and the Champs after weeks of our friends excitedly telling us how great they were. They didn’t let us down!
Despite the early start to our slot we were lucky enough to play to a room rapidly reaching it’s capacity and we loved every second! We’ve only played London a couple of time, and this was the best time yet by far! We were all still on a massive high while we watched Dog is Dead absolutely smash it, and there was barely a person in the room who wasn’t dancing by the end of their set!
A couple of weeks later it was time for the big one, Truck! To complete the weekend we also had the fantastic Off the Cuff Festival in Birmingham on the Sunday so as we packed the car up on Friday night we knew we were going to be in for a weekend to remember. We arrived in the dimming light with the help of our fantastic, dashing and super talented friend John Joe McCreedy from the equally dashing Goodnight Lenin, put up Rosie’s very exciting Cath Kidstson teepee.
So after a tour of the site from the wonderful Isla and a little bit of dancing we went to bed excited for the next day. We were playing on the Village Pub stage, right between the Main stage and the Barn which was great for us as lots of people were popping in to check us out as we played. We were up after This Town Needs Guns, a massive favourite of ours, so we got to listen to some of their sweet jams and wonder at the guitar wizardry on display as our nerves built. When we hit the stage we were all pumped and ready to go, and the set flew by all too quickly. The tent filled up as we played and there were lots of smiles flying around the stage as we loved every minute of the set. One thing I’ve learnt this summer is that I definitely want to play lots more festivals!
As if playing one of our favourite gigs ever wasn’t enough we left the stage and headed straight to the hay bails to record a little session video for Club House Records. I think people mistook us for superstars what with all the cameras and microphones pointing at us and stopped to have a watch which was nice. The guys were all great and made us feel right at home and we’re over the moon with the end product:
Thanks gang!
THEN (!) we jogged on over to the merch tent and watched Stornaway perfom an intimate little set and dropped off our gear ready for when we played. We grabbed some food, watched a few sets and popped back in time to play in the merch tent. Before we played I browsed the records on display and picked one or two up and had the bizarre experience of queuing behind someone buying our tape! Thanks mystery man! We played our final set of the day and John Joe filled in for Libby on violin which was a lot of fun! Shredding violin all over the tracks! Then all that was left to do was to watch Mew be absolutely mind blowing and dance the night away across a series of tents starting with some indie classics on one side of the site and progressing through tents and beats getting ever dirtier as the night went on, all culminating in hilarious meetings with our pals in Brontide and Dog is Dead in the twilight hours.
Waking up slightly worse for wears and with legs that told the story of a night jam packed with dancing and a giant game of tig we packed down the teepee and hit the road again. This time all roads led to Birmingham and we arrived at the flapper just in time for the bands to start. It was a nice change of pace to see a few heavier bands, Talons and Shoes and Socks Off killed it in particular, and it was fun to be the odd ones out on the line up. Off the Cuff is one of the best events of the year in Birmingham and it’s run by some of the best people the city has to offer. We were perhaps a little worse for wear before we played with the crazy weekend taking it’s toll on us but we pushed through the tired barrier and had a lot of fun playing to lots of friends. Then it was home and time for bed! Work the next day was not an enjoyable experience!
In comparison to the manic month proceeding it, August was a lot quieter on the gig front so we took some time to work on some new material and wrap up the recording we’d started earlier in the summer. All we had left to do was a few extra guitar tracks, the backing vocals and get everything mixed which took us a few evenings. We’ve only just got the final mixes back and we’re very excited by what we’re hearing! Craig has done a brilliant job and it feels great to have some recordings with the full band captured just how we want.
With the success of the recordings fresh in our mind we’ve started work on a fresh batch of songs, the first two of which we’ve given one or two airings over the summer. We’ve been trying to build on our sound a little, and this time we’ve been writing as a group, building on the initial ideas Mike’s brought to practice with everyone adding their own stamp to it. ‘Working Class’ and ‘Thimble and Thread’ are the two new ones we’ve been playing, and they’re a lot of fun to play so hopefully we’ll be dropping them in to the sets a little bit more soon. September was a extremely exciting knowing we we’re going to be playing Moseley Folk Festival, knowing we we’re going to be able to see Donovan, The Low Anthem, Johnny Flynn, hoping to meet the Hurdy Gurdy man himself. We played on the Bohemian Jukebox Stage, which had a nice low key vibe throughout the day, it was nice to see people taking the time to come and check us out as well. The day was blessed with beautiful weather and beautiful people the same, capping the night with not only witnessing Donovan live, but meeting the man with my fairtales LP in hand, very good day.
We head back to the Moseley site on Sunday morning to the tennis club hut where BBC WM had set up a make shift studio, documenting the weekend with interviews and sessions. We were one of the bands doing a session which was all very exciting. Unfortunately Hannah couldn’t get out of work as we were a last minute addition, but the rest of us got to play a couple of tracks with St Wallis making the final cut for the Moseley Folk Festival highlight on Janice Long’s show on September 14th. If you’re quick yo might still be able to catch it on iPlayer! All in all, it’s been an incredible summer and we’ve loved every minute of it. Massive thank you’s to everyone involved in making all of these amazing things happen for us, especially Isla. Luckily we’ve still got lots to look forward to so the winter blues haven’t sunk in just yet. We’re playing a few shows soon, make it down to one and say hello!
September 30th - w/ SLOW CLUB, Buck’s Student Union, High Wycombe.
October 9th - OX4 w/ Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Willy Mason, Dog is Dead and loads more! Oxford, along Cowley Road
October 21st - Folk For Free at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham
December 9th - The Courtyard w/ Pete Roe, Jonquil and Mersault, York.
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