2004 has been an action-packed summer for everyone involved in howdenjones as the festival season saw the various line-ups performing across the UK. Kate and Paul returned to Wombwell Festival as a duo and the band and trio performed at the first home-grown Glasson festival. The Hardraw Gathering in the deepest Yorkshire Dales saw a full band performance and more appearances throughout the weekend by the duo.
At Bromsgrove Festival after our I fell in with the lads of Croabh Rhua and propped up the bar until the landlady pleaded for some sleep. I'm now busy passing trad tunes on to Kate and Paul . Who knows where this will lead!
The full band played a lively gig at the Saturday afternoon of Brampton Festival and Bridgnorth Festival was a whirlwind of appearances for the trio including a memorable evening session on the steam train.
The last festival of the season was at Wadebridge in Cornwall where Kate, Paul and I caught the start of the late summer hot weather - we now have suntans the envy of our northern neighbours. Wadebridge kicked off a short tour of the south west including stints at Truro Folk Club and the Square and Compass in Worth Maltravers (we have decided that we all want to live there … and you should have seen the effect of the 'special' 60+% whiskey on Paul!). We've made some new friends, and revisited many others - thankyou to everyone who made us feel so welcome. We'll be back.
New material has been coming together over the last couple of months including the surprise 'hit single' of the season 'Splitscreen' which went down a treat at the packed Cornwall Festival survivors concert in Wadebridge and again at the extended spot we did in Milverton near Taunton. It's currently on a limited edition single along with 'Somedays' featuring the trio. The trio will now be recording at Ken Nicol's studio in Preston.
We've now got howdenjones t-shirts available. Tasteful black with green lettering and a steal at £8 each in a good range of sizes.
Dates for the autumn and winter include a sequence of rural gigs throughout Lancashire which have been organised by Spot On Rural Touring as well as dates in Hereford and Colchester. Please see the gig guide for more details.
And the 'big gig' of the winter will be at The Platform in Morecambe on November 27 where the full band will be giving it their all with a big venue to play with. We had a great atmosphere there at the CD launch in February. Hope to see you there!