Thursday 30th August 2007

In the lives of every sessioneer there comes a time for change. That nice cosy venue with the same chair every week for years suddenly gives way to somewhere new! So the Irish session is moving from the Anchor at Wingham which has been its home for quite a number of years now and taking up residence at 'Ye Olde Beverlie' (no, don't laugh at the name - it's a really great pub). By the way, the Y in Ye is usually an adaptation of the Middle English character 'thorn' which had a sound akin to 'th'. The Bev is quite old but 'ye olde' does sound a bit like an affectation. Ye is now genuinely 'The' and Ye is very Merrie England. Nevertheless, a good pub who are enthusiastic about having us there. It will be sad to leave the sticky lino and dusty bench tops but it's time to move on. For roughly half of us, it will be 8 miles further to travel and for the other half it will be 8 miles nearer so that's fair then - balanced over the years. Parking is not brilliant, there's the street or three (yes three!) parking bays outside.

The trial session last Sunday (at the Beverlie) was very well attended. And that really annoys me. It was great to have a large gathering and good musicians and an audience but where are they all the rest of the time? How many times do the hardy sessioneers struggle through storm and flood and earthquake to keep the regular weekly session going? It's not as much fun with just 4 of you but that's what keeps the venue so that the others can 'drop in' when they fancy. I don't have a beef with jobbing musicians who have gigs, or shift workers (where is Jez?) or people with family commitments or illnesses or teachers who have to prepare and mark- just those who can't be arsed. It's as though we're normally infra dig but occasionally they will bestow upon the audience and regular musicians their presence. We've seen before an enthusiastic inaugural session followed by a decline as winter draws on (yes Pete, there is a joke set up for you) and the landlord being less than keen to keep us there. The glint in their eyes is usually profit and who can blame them? Sessions will not be a guaranteed income stream. They're something you accept because you like the idea. God bless all the landlords who like the sessions for the music and the atmosphere.

So, Wednesday evenings will be in 'The Old Beverlie' in St Stephen's Green, Canterbury for the foreseeable future.

Thursday (tonight) in the Bear at Faversham will be a rehearsal for the Festival Band I dare say, back this year by popular demand. They will be at the Preston Street stage on Saturday, hopefully playing as loudly as possible. On Sunday, they will be in the Market Square on the main stage. I have taken the liberty of noting down the main sessions at Faversham Hops Festival (sorry, the International Faversham Hops Festival) on my site (click on the link). In this way, I hope to see more of you in the sessions.

Swale.gov have still not published the programme on the web which is plain daft. Many people from out of the area want to know what's on when before they come over. They won't be able to get a programme easily in advance but they usually buy one when they arrive. They probably won't bother coming this year. Takings will be down, and then the town's economy declines and Faversham becomes a ghost town with tumbleweed blowing through the market and sagebrush cracking the tarmac... Sorry, back to reality. Deal have published theirs by the way for the Deal Maritime Folk Festival 2007.