Tuesday 8th September 2009

An advance viewing of the next Session Diary entry is at sessiondiary.com.

I will post it here as well a little later on.

Friday 4th September 2009

Greetings Sessioneers!

I've been toying with a new home for the Session Diary, and its own URL – sessiondiary.com. Not quite ready yet, but getting there.

This week, I have been exercised by certain activities concerning an upcoming festival. Now, it’s well known that some of the committee don’t like Folk Music so it’s been a bit of a battle for a few years to keep the Folk community happy and active amongst the rest of the events.

So, the committee asked for an evening Irish Session and two mixed lunchtime sessions. And we agreed. Hoorah!

What exercised me is that the programme fails to mention any one of the three sessions or their leaders. They can do it at Broadstairs. They can do it at Deal. They can even do it at Tenterden. Despite the organisers have a famous brewery in their locale, the likelihood of their being able to organise a drinking festivity in the establishment must rank near the lower end of the scale. The best they could offer was a three day ‘Come all Ye Session’. God alone knows what that will attract. I don’t want to be a session snob, but at any festival you get the instrument worriers (usually melodeons), the cutlery percussionists and the 3 tune repertoire. There are many fine players who would gather for a tune if it were properly advertised. Add to that Blues, Singers, Jazz, Country etc etc…

I am in wholehearted favour of these things but anyone with an ounce of sense would lay them on at different venues and advertise them properly!

I know that each and every one of the members of the committee is well meaning, so I assume that it is a case of committees blighting the planning process. That, or there are some very strange non-folk members who have way too much control.

And that’s a shame, because a lot of goodwill will be lost. Most, if not all the sessioneers give up their time, usually for free or at most for meagre expenses and travel from as far as the Medway towns and Folkestone. And we are not talking of ‘enthusiastic amateurs’. We are talking about people who have shown a certain dedication to Folk, their instrument and the music over a long period of time. Most have been in bands and recorded somewhere along the line and all of them are worth listening to.

Now to get this for free and not even put it in the programme is taking the recycled beer. Even worse is to lump Irish Session and Mixed English Session in as just a ‘Come all Ye’ pub session. Barbarians.

I offset this with a fantastic gig last Saturday for a Scottish Wedding which was highly enjoyable for all. The Irish Session was cancelled this week because there will be one (should be one) tonight and Thursday was a practice for Saturday and Sunday.

Never mind, in two weeks time, it’s Deal.

Friday 28th August 2009

A Bank Holiday weekend, Hoorah!

I'm glad to say that the madness of Broadstairs is behind us. As one of the sessioneers put it, Broadstairs showed every indication that it remembered that it was on Thanet, and then reverted to type.

I'm also glad to say that the Irish Session on Wednesday was swelled by guests and although the music veered a little East and North of Ireland sometimes, it was a jolly good evening. Joining the regular crew or 'team' as we now say at work (please somebody shoot the management gurus) were members of Rude Albert from Ashford, Chris-the-KGB-staff-car {K=Kernow}and his wife (I'm sorry I don't know her name) and Mick-the-plumber. Altogether there were 12 of us and it really made a noticeable difference having a large number of musicians round the session table. Some cracking reels were played, which we kind of take for granted as normal session fare but you realise when you have guests how playing together every week for 12 years gives the session a very tight and polished feel.

The audience, which is normally composed of locals, was a large contingent of vintage bikers (yes, both bikes and riders were vintage) who seemed to like what we did. We liked their bikes too and drooled a little over the AJS, the BSA and the Royal Oilfield. There were some foreign ones there too. They don't count.

By contrast, Thursday was back to normal. Although there were several guest sessioneers or semi-regulars, the evening was not one of those where others were invited to play which is a shame.

Sunday is an Irish Session at Ospringe and you have Bank Holiday Monday to recover!