the button...just missed you....stopped going regularly in 1983 when I moved over to Grimsby.

as far as best gig...does performing count?
The Roaring Forties "did" Orkney fest in 2005 and the whole thing was great...great performers...great craic...and the place itself is just awesome...up to then the best had been at Portpatrick maritime festival.....standing out near the lifeboat station,singing across the harbour/marina to people on the other side and hearing your voices bounce back from the sides of the valley...gives me a shiver just thinking of it. The other one that sticks out was at the first Plymouth Maritime festival (a pity this fest was so short lived)
The Roaring Forties and Roy Clinging, having finished their afternoon stint stood on the quayside alongside The Grand Turk and had a "private" sing. Other groups gradually joined in until there were about 50 or 60 of us giving it some welly. The highlight of the festival for me.