What sort of places do you want to play at?

If you want to do "concert" performances (as opposed to ceilidhs) your options seem to be:

• folk clubs, in which case you need to go to folk clubs that have guest nights and do a floor spot. If you're not familiar with the folk club format, get familiar with it! Bear in mind that they are all different in booking policy as well as other respects. And a club organiser pointed out to me only yesterday that just because his club is full of singers that don't play instruments, that doesn't mean they aren't interested in hearing instrumental music played well.
• Pubs, bars, cafés etc. that have live music
• Folk festivals
• Arts centres and theatres. Definitely for celebrity status only!

Apart from local clubs where you can do a floor spot, you'll need to send out demo CDs and follow up with phone calls. Best practice seems to be to phone first (or email but in my experience you don't often get a reply), send demo when you've found out who to send it to, then call a week later to see if they are interested and maybe talk about dates.

It's hard work getting started - nobody wants to book you if they haven't heard of you or they think their audience hasn't heard of you. For this reason, bizarrely it seems that festivals are a good place to get in, then club organisers will be more interested.

I don't know much about the "pub and bar entertainment" scene - that may depend on how wide an appeal your music has.

As non-singing instrumentalists you will not find it especially easy. It isn't easy for anyone! Dave Shepherd (Blowzabella fiddler) told me recently that he and Becky Price (Finality Jack accordionist) aren't getting much work as a duo because they do instrumental music only and don't sing - and there's no doubt about the quality of their music! Expect to make a lot of phone calls and get turned down. Don't let that put you off...but if it doesn't seem to be work ing out, you could always try teaming up with a singer!

Don't expect 'open mic' events to produce lots of gigs. Anything is worth doing for the performing experience and it gets your names about, but events like than can be full of others trying to do the same thing.

Certainly get aound your local clubs, pick up local folk and listings magazines and get to know people and make friends - that's often how the work comes - who you know makes all the difference. Good luck and keep at it!

Anahata