Jackie Oates

The nominations for the BBC Folk Awards 2010 were announced on The Mike Harding Show last night (Weds 2nd).  Jackie Oates and her new album Hyperboreans have picked up an astounding three nominations for the Album of the Year Award, Folk Singer of the Year Award and Best Traditional Track for ‘Isle of France’ from Hyperboreans.  The Award ceremony is held in London on 1st February 2010, and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 the following Wednesday.

Hyperboreans was released outside of the UK this month and reviews are starting to roll in from the international press.  Hyperboreans is this week’s album of the week in Austria’s Der Standard – see here to see the review.  Hyperboreans was also reviewed in last weekend’s special edition of the major Austrian daily The Kurier.  Meanwhile the album scored 8 out of 10 in the mainstream Swedish monthly magazine Sonic.

For the second year in a row a Jackie Oates album has featured in Mojo’s top ten folk albums of the year.  Hyperboreans has reached number 5 on the end of year album chart of 2009 in this the biggest specialist music magazine in the UK.

We are thrilled to announce that Jackie Oates’ album Hyperboreans has been shortlisted as one of just ten nominees for the fRoots magazine’s Critics’ Poll 2009 Album Of The Year marking it out as one of the outstanding folk, world or roots albums of 2009 chosen by an extensive panel of industry specialists.  The winning album will be announced on BBC Radio 3’s World On 3 programme at 11.15pm on Friday 4th December.  For more details follow the link here.

If you’re based in the south-west you can catch Jackie performing in a duo with James Dumbelton this weekend.  Based at The Falcon Hotel, doors open at 7.30pm.

Our final gig for this tour began for me in Exeter, where I have been recouperating since leaving South Petherton. It has been great to get back home to Devon and begin teaching my violin pupils again. I spent the first part of the morning teaching some pupils at school and it took me a while to get organised and leave the house as have very quickly got out of the habit of instrument vehicle loading. After packing the car and dressing/preparing Keith and Julia (my t-shirt models) for their journey we set off to meet the rest of the band. Having arrived at the depot to load the van we bumped into my dear friend Phil Beer who is on a break from extensive touring with Show of Hands.

Life feels a lot more dark, cold and rainy since October ended, and it was dark by the time we arrived in Cardiff. Having loaded all our stuff from the van, onto a trolley thing, into a lift and then onto the stage, soundchecking began. Post soundcheck, we headed into the centre of Cardiff to find edible things. The early evening turned out to be quite a momentous occasion for rural Devon-born Mike Cosgrave, as it was his first experience of Wagamamas, and possibly Japanese food. Full of noodles and green tea, we tore James Budden away from his artistic defacing of his paper place matt and headed back to the venue.

It was great to have a packed venue for the show and a joy to see familiar faces in the audience, this time from all different stages of my life thus far: school, university, my first job and some of my old violin pupils. Post gig we had a long drive back to Exeter, and back to normal daily non-touring life.

Thanks to everyone who came to see us on the tour.  I’m very grateful for all of your support and look forward to seeing you again soon.

We’re happy to announce that the winner of the Jackie Oates tour ticket holders’ competiton is Mary Deeming from Stafford.  Mary wins an original framed poster of David Owen’s beautiful cover artwork for the vinyl version of Jackie’s single ‘Birthday’ (released 2nd November) personalised with Mary’s own birth date.   Well done Mary and thanks to everyone who took part in the competition.

Jackie’s single ‘Birthday’ (released on limited edition vinyl on 2nd November) has once again been played on John Kennedy’s new music show on XFM on Weds 28th October.  You can listen to the show again by following the link here and clicking on the box of the right hand corner of the opening page.

The final day of this stint of gigs arrived and predictably my voice was suffering quite a bit.  Nice Mike Cosgrave ran to the chemists straight after breakfast to get Olbas Oil.  After dousing myself in it, we set off for South Petherton.  It felt wonderful to be finally heading South West, and the sun was shining as we arrived in Somerset.  I have fond memories of The David Hall having played a few gigs there with singer songwriter and good friend, Reg Meuross.  And it was great to see that the venue has undergone improvements since my last visit; it now has a new lift and a lighting rig.  That night we performed our set for the final time this month, to another friendly audience including a few old friends.  After the gig we packed up and set off for Devon and the complicated task of unloading and returning the van.

I am back in Exeter and coming down from the last 3 weeks. My throat and left ear are still suffering a bit, but it was all worth while for the amount of great experiences, and people that I have met over the past month.  A huge thankyou to everyone who came to our shows, to Scott our engineer, and to my wonderful band for their enthusiasm and talent.

Day 12 began in Norwich.  We set off for Sussex early and it didn’t take long before we arrived in sunny Shoreham by the Sea.  Staff at the Arts Centre were extremely accomodating and let us unloaded the van before we headed off to check in to our accomodation.  Post power nap, we went to a cafe and various health food shops and chemists before heading back to the venue.  It was more of a battle this time around, to overcome the husky gravelly tones that my voice wanted to adopt.  Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the gig.