Hiya

Twas very nice to meet ....

John Bardon & his Mrs. Some very nice singing in the bar on Sat Mr B! We would have liked to join in - but were in the wrong mood really, having just got back from dashing back to Reading to get the poor old dog put down.

Mairsea and the splendidly thatched Mr. - Both such smiley happy friendly people that I felt like I'd known them for years. Not sure how come they got onto the stage in the youth concert though......... :>)

Twas nice to nearly meet...

Bridwidder - I think I saw you. You were going into the loos as I was coming out & it just wasn't the right place to start a conversation along the lines of "hello - excuse me - are you ....?". I thought I'd surely see you around again & could say hello - but unfortunately I didn't. Next time eh?

Twas a shame not to have met...

Beardy & any other 'catters that were there.


Highlights of the weekend:

The spoons workshop - where we were taught to play that handy instrument that you can take everywhere & be always ready (this from the irrepressible JR the workshop host).... - except that we'd better not dare to actually join in on any sessions else we'd piss off a lot of musicians (this from his mate Stacey who was banjo'ing for the workshop). Mixed message - which we found hilarious. We could truly feel the horror that poor Stacey was clearly feeling - the thought of a dozen or so novice spoon bashers being unleashed on the world......
- seriously though, it was a really great fun workshop & very instructive actually. And that JR is SUCH a nice bloke.

The guitar workshop - where the blokie from Legacy gave us a manageable chunk of information & inspired us to experiment with it. Then 4 workshops (guitars, bodhrans, flutes & got together on the tune we'd all been preparing - and like a miracle it all worked!

Jackie Leven - Martyn Joseph - Show of Hands - Ron Trueman-Border - Mick West Band - Maggie Boyle & Clive Carroll - Legacy - John Spiers & Jon Boden - Helen Andrews - Jim Moray - (all in no particular order) were my personal favourite performers. Though everyone was excellent - except Ian Anderson who irritated me to death with his fan-interviewing antics (plus I didn't catch a single word he sang).

All in all a very good festival - as always. Great start to the year.


Kris