Eccleston Steam Fair

Saturday 4 June 2016. We found ourselves driving down twisting country lanes somewhere to the west of Eccleston in Lancashire. The Heskin Hall Steam Fair that we had played for years has moved from this year and we were heading for a farmer's field out in the country.

The event looked bigger than ever and with our long-time collaborator, Jack Gerrard at the helm, we knew that the facilities would be top notch. The marquee is always the size of a small palace and with a dance floor and twinkling LED lights set in the draperies over the stage area, it looks the biz, particularly once it goes dark.

There's always been a good crowd in the marquee at this event and so it proved this year. Despite the new venue, we recognised lots of regular faces and we gained some great feedback and a couple of future gigs too!

I even got to play a couple of instrumentals too - that'll teach him to "lubricate his throat" so much...

Memorial Concert

Saturday 14 May 2016. We played a memorial concert for a young lady, wife and mother who died tragically of cervical cancer. She was too young to be called for a routine test and by the time the cancer was found it was inoperable.

Remembering Rachel.

60th Birthday Party in Darwen

Last night we headed out to Darwen to play at a 60th birthday party. It was quite cold in the room to begin with and my strings were not eager to stay in tune until we had played for an hour or so and enough people had come in to warm the place up a bit!

We had (rather rashly perhaps) agreed to sing Let It Go from the Disney film Frozen for a couple of little girls who were going to be there. This was the first time I've ever sung the line "...and it looks like I'm the Queen"... A voice killer, but it went down an absolute storm and earned us a standing ovation after the entire room erupted with singing! A whole new career beckons...

Back on more familiar ground, every gig features a couple or more songs where I ditch the guitar in favour of playing the keyboard live. Not sure when Miss Franny took this photo but it could be on Peaceful Easy Feeling or It's Now Or Never or the crowd pleaser, Penny Arcade.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Letting The New Year In

On New Year's Eve, Creeping Bentgrass took to the stage at Coast Rider's Bar in Blackpool. It's become a bit of a tradition at Coast Riders to challenge us to do songs we don't usually do. Sometimes we are told in advance and have a chance to do a full backing and sometimes it's a song I've never heard of, leaving me to busk as best I can to whatever David is fondly imagining to be the tune... We did ok with Falling In Love With You but then came something called Seven Spanish Angels which I'd never heard of... Oh, and the one we had prior notice of was Lee Marvin's Wand'rin Star which tested how deep I could go!

A great night as always at Coast Riders - we are now proficient at previous challenges Running Bear, Penny Arcade and even my attempts to play Ravel's Bolero go down well! Happy New Year! We will be back at Coast Riders on 27 February for a charity night.

House Party at Christmas

Once again over the Christmas period Creeping Bentgrass headed over to Darwen to play at a large house party.

With all the weather that had been going around we were pleasantly relieved to get there without having to wade the car through any floods. What an awful time many people have had at a time of year that should be enjoyable.

Ours at least was an enjoyable night and plenty of the party-goers told us how much they looked forward to it every year. In fact I'm sure there were more people there this year! And we heard from the organiser of the Harvest Festival we did earlier in the year that audience members from that event had been asking for our return too!

A huge than you to our hosts Brian and Christine!

Creeping Bentgass in Charnock Richard

On Saturday night we played at the Football Club in Charnock Richard. This was for a charity night organised by Jack Gerrard, who for many years has organised the Steam Fairs at Heskin Hall.

The night included a fish and chips supper provided by a van. The lady was already there getting prepared when we arrived and it turned out she had a very early start the following morning. I hope we got everybody out to pick up their suppers in time for her to get home and to have a few hours in bed!

The raffle was a jolly affair too with two of the tables enjoying a healthy competition to see which could win the most prizes. Miss Franny and Miss Jeannie also had some success!

We unveiled our version of Procul Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale which gained us a huge roar of appreciation and we got many compliments at the end of the night which was very nice. A great audience throughout the night!

Darwen Gig

Last Saturday saw us out at a church hall in Darwen, where we played for a Harvest celebration.

One of those nights where the audience could be seen - and heard - enjoying themselves! People were singing along, clapping, dancing and nodding their heads in time with the music and they were very generous with their applause. A raffle and tombola helped the night along and there was a rather excellent supper served as well.

We got some good rapport going with the audience as I called out the raffle numbers and the time went all too quickly. I always love it when the organiser of an event says "Oh, everyone stayed a lot longer than I expected them to...!"

Creeping Bentgrass At The Fylde Farm Weekend

Friday night 26 June saw us out at Treales in the depths of the countryside for our gig at the Fylde Farm Weekend.

The weather in Blackpool had been a bit hit and miss but the field was nice and firm as we drove over to the marquee for our set-up.

It was our sixth year at this event and the second one that we had played on the Friday night. A quietish start but the marquee began to fill up and we recognised a few faces and they joined into the banter with us a bit and we had a great time. Special mention to the good folks from Leyland Eagles!

We'd had a request for Fields of Gold to be played tonight - a song we have played ad hoc before but I spent Monday afternoon putting an arrangement together. It was good, but I think I might slow it down a bit and add some pauses in.

Some fabulous feedback when we finished around midnight - it is much appreciated, folks. Someone told us we were the only reason they came to the event! Well, yes, I do like a good laugh myself... No, it's very heartening to be told such things and to be asked to sign CDs. We floated home once the car was loaded up.

It's become a bit of a tradition to find somewhere to stop and partake of a handful of jam butties that Miss Franny makes when we know we will have a late night. Then I took a wrong turn somewhere and instead of heading for Kirkham, we found ourselves doing the back roads to Singleton. But that was ok once I'd worked out where we were in the dark!

Myerscough College Open Day

Sunday morning saw us up bright and early to set up the new PA and speakers at Myerscough College where we have been a feature of their Open Day for a goodly number of years. Our first appearance was in 2002!

The old PA and speakers required three trips to the car. The new ones require just a single trip! And once in the car fully loaded I could see through the rear window instead of having to rely solely on side mirrors to see behind me!

Mobbed! Miss Franny and Miss Jeannie find our name in the programme and interrupt proceedings to show us! Setting up took a while longer than usual as I had to balance all the settings before I felt comfortable. Once done it should be like the old equipment that we hardly ever tweaked apart from the overall volume.

This year for the second time we were playing opposite the entrance to the Stumble Inn - the college's on-campus pub and tables and chairs were set up so that people could sit with a drink and listen to us.

We set a new record I think on Sunday - we played for about 6 hours! My fingers tips weren't so bad at the end strangely, but the arthritis in my index finger knuckle gave me gyp later and on the following day! And my back was rather sore - a solid-bodied guitar is ok around your neck for an hour or two but six...? That singer is a slave driver!

And here we are (were) in 2002, with Bob Snape on bass, playing on a very rainy day, with towels spread over the keyboard to keep it dry and my old Sumbro Japanese Stratocaster copy! At the time we were all members of staff at Myerscough. Only David remains on the staff there now.

New PA System

Well we've gone and done it... Bought a new PA system that is.

You may remember me commenting that we had to spend ten or fifteen minutes fiddling with the PA to get both speakers working at Heskin Hall last weekend and I didn't want to risk going to a gig and not being able to make it work. The old Phonic Powerpod had lasted us fourteen and a bit years so we can't dismiss it as rubbish, it's played many many hours making people happy and that's what we like to do.

The replacement is a Yamaha Stagepas 400i and the entire thing could fit into the cabinet of one of our old speakers! But this is just two speakers, I hear you say... Where's the PA?

Well, it's in the back of one of the speakers whilst cables and perhaps even space for a microphone can be found in the back of the other!

The mixer controls can be used whilst docked in the speaker or can come out to play - which they will in our case - on a stand at the side of my keyboard! Tomorrow's gig at Myerscough College Open Day will see us test drive it.