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.

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.

After our mini break, myself and the James’ set off early on Thursday morning, across the Yorkshire Dales and down to Norwich.  We arrived at Norwich Arts Centre very early, and had a lovely lunch with my university friends Deleh and Steve and their 2 children.  Post lunch James barricaded himself in the dressing room to get some sleep, and I set off into Norwich to search for various sore throat remedies that I’d been recommended via Facebook.  By the time I reached the middle of Norwich however, I realised that I wasn’t ready to be in the outside world yet, so I headed back without any manuka honey.  Back at the Arts Centre I ate cake with the rest of our band who had arrived from Devon.  The arts centre is attached to a church, and the acoustics of our gig turned out to be very atmospheric.  We enjoyed our gig, especially the support from Canadian singer Amelia Curran.

After a great night in Fareham, we woke up and set off for Liverpool. James Budden had a prior engagement in Basingstoke that day so we’d arranged for my Devonian friend Nick Wyke to play in his place. So after dropping James off en route we headed through Hampshire and up the motorway on what felt like a never ending journey. Having abandoned all dietary self control a couple of days ago, we stopped at several motorway services to stock up on beige stuff. At Stafford services, we sat outside to eat beige things and were joined by some ducks, which was nice. We arrived in Liverpool just in time to meet Nick and begin the daily unloading and sound checking ritual. Another enjoyable evening followed. Without realising, I had got ready for the show in a disabled toilet and then sat in the kitchen storeroom with Mike waiting for our on-stage time, only to discover 5 minutes before the gig, that we had our own dressing room prepared on the floor below, with wine and mirrors. Post gig we headed to our accomodation but somehow ended up at an Irish session which was taking place near the Philharmonic as part of the Liverpool Irish Festival. So, all in all, another great night with no major mishaps + huge thanks to Nick Wyke for his skills.

Day 7 of the tour began in a travel lodge in Feltham. I quickly realised on waking, that I had left my laptop in a safe place, in the Borderline, in Central London the night before. My laptop case also contained my phone charger, which promptly died. So I spent most of the day on a quest to retrieve the it via various trains and tube stops. Thankfully, it was still in the venue and I caught a train and arrived in Fareham in plenty of time, and not feeling narked. Ashcroft Arts Centre, was a joy: full of nice staff and nice surroundings, especially the dress room which is covered in band posters of previous gigs. It was strangely comforting to see that so many fellow folk acts have appeared there in previous years. Amongst them, Mike Harding, Swap, who appear in their poster,with biro engraved beards, and our accordion player Mike’s old band Sin E.

Day 6 began in TGI Fridays on the outskirts of Bury next door to our Premier Inn. We made an early start for London after a ‘grab and go’ style breakfast. After crawling through Central London, we arrived at the Borderline and started the daily setting up ritual. After setting up for the gig, we wandered down into Soho where we found a great, reasonably priced cafe called ‘Stockpot’, for food before the show. The Borderline was another great evening, with lots of familiar faces. I love London gigs as they have an added air of excitement about them. Post gig, we headed for a Travel Lodge in Feltham. However, the satnav led us to a Tescos instead, and it took what felt like an eternity of driving around to track down our accommodation, which turned out to be accessible through a multi storey car park.

Day 5 of our tour began at my parent’s house on the outskirts of Stafford, where we had the luxury of doing lots of sleeping. So after a very slow morning, we went for a walk across Cannock Chase, a vast area of brackeny countryside behind the house. We then headed for Bury in the rain. The Met is a fantastic venue with a large auditorium and restaurant and great backstage facilities. James was delighted to find that the shower in the dressing room had a curtain. (Up until this point, all of the in-dressing room showers have had a clear plastic screen, meaning that all persons in the dressing room have a full view of the person in the shower).  We had a luxurious gig that night with friendly, talky audience members.