Sunday 9th September 2007

It's been a funny old week.

The Irish session for the Faversham Hops Festival was not so much a session, more a battle with the noisy drinkers but profound thanks to all those who came out and played personfully to entertain the indifferent masses.

To make up for it, on Sunday, after the Festival Band had finished its excellent gig, we retired for a cup of tea and to wait for the Phoenix session led by Chris Taylor. For some reason or another (I think it was the clearing of us off the pavement so that the procession could come by), we retired to the Bear which was almost deserted. There was only Barbara Kelly of the A2 band, Ralph Jordan of Patterson, Jordan & Dipper and Housewife's Choice, Judy Knight fellow sessioneer, Shelagh Bradley (who has taught most of East Kent to play guitar and has been in most of the folk bands in the area) and myself (and briefly, one of the Trommelfluits) and it was a fantastic little session. By fantastic, I mean relaxed, tuneful and inspiring. And enjoyable.

After that, we went to watch the Trommelfluits on the main stage and then home.

The Wednesday Irish session had its first outing at the new venue of The Old Beverlie. Everyone was looking forward to it. There was a big turn out. We arrived and got settled. And started. And then it all went horribly wrong. It was as though we had inadvertently held it on a night where astrologers would tell us that the conjunction of planets was least auspicious. Maybe we'd offended the God of Sessions by moving from the Anchor at Wingham and losing the opportunity to use that well known spoonerism.

The first casualty left after the first set. I'm not sure why so I'm not going to speculate although I have my suspicions.

The second casualty was the piper's case which got filled with drink. Nasty thing, a sticky chanter. That had to be wiped out and then taken away for extensive cleaning of the contents. So the third casualty was the piper. Fourth casualty was the one who accidentally spilled drinks in the case. At this rate, we did wonder on the viability and wisdom of the session, but it seemed to quieten down and we all played longer than usual. It is really good to have Chris Taylor back at sessions though.

By contrast, Thursday at the Bear was very quiet but there were two new faces. Fiddle players who might come more often. We shall see.