Squashed Into the Kiosk!

New venue for the band again last night. We played last Saturday at Turton Tower for the start of a walking festival and it was the end of the walking festival last night. The walkers were a little tired after tramping about for a full week I should imagine...

We were at the Olde England Kiosk in Darwen and weren't exactly sure what to expect from the name - visions of trying to play in a telephone box inevitably sprang to mind!

But we needn't have worried as the "kiosk" is an old lodge with a hall that will take 80 or so people quite happily.

I didn't fare too well in the photograph stakes last night for some reason. Everyone seemed to take the opportunity of setting up to take photos of the top of my head... This was the best of those from my point of view and some will never see the light of day... or the dark of night either for that matter...!

And I'm not sure why I'm looking so despondant here either. Sigh... It was an excellent night despite an extremely wet start and we had a brilliant time, with a hotpot and mushy peas supper and some enthusiastic dancers.

We played Clapton's Wonderful Tonight for the first time in public and it sounded very nice and certainly brought dancers together instead of the modern minimum 12-inch gap we see so often!

I'm not really sure what Miss Franny thought was so appealing here as to warrant a photograph but she seems to think it "turned out rather well"...

Playing at Turton Tower

Creeping Bentgrass were booked to appear at Turton Tower yesterday afternoon for the launch of a Walking Festival. We will be at the Olde England Kiosk on Friday night in Sunnyhurst Wood to celebrate the end of the festival too. Though they are not that far apart come to think of it, so if it takes anyone 5 days to walk from Turton Tower to Sunnyhurst Wood then they aren't trying! Far enough that I'd not try it though! Somehow I don't think that walking from one to the other is the aim of the Walking Festival to be honest!

We arrived a little early in order to give ourselves time to find the venue, which I'd not visited before.

Turton Tower is one of Lancashire's old halls. The house was built during the Tudor and Stuart period in the 1600s, though by making additions to a Pele tower which had been built in 1420. It was bequeathed to the local council in the 1920s and has been open to the public since 1974. More information can be found at the website of the Friends of Turton Tower.

We were sited against the wall of the tower and the kitchens to the tea room (from which came a wonderful range of smells throughout the afternoon and also a peal of delicious laughter at one point - not sure what was going on, but I did ask to join in, which got a laugh from the audience!

There was a wonderful view before us. Picnic benches were dotted around the grassed area where we were playing and we had a number of people listening to us throughout the afternoon, whilst over the hedges and fence opposite, woodland stretched in front of us an people walking along paths in the middle distance waved to us as they walked with family and dogs. The Mayor, who was present for the launch of the festival came to meet us and helped make it more of an occasion and the staff at the house were fantastic.

A sudden shower made us stop for a moment to withdraw under the cover of our gazebo, but we were soon set up and playing again and the audience were very brave, staying put. Sure enough it soon passed over and apart from having to shuffle a bit more backwards as the gazebo roof started to drip a bit we were fine. The sides of the gazebo were utilised to provide matching speaker covers!

It was a wonderfully relaxed afternoon. We were on form and we had a very appreciative audience - for this type of open air gig such enthusiastic applause is rare and was very much appreciated by us. This year has been busy for us. We normally play around a dozen gigs a year but yesteday was already the 13th public performance of 2010 and there's enough in the diary to take us to twice our normal quota before the year's end.

The first gig using the new car too - all the gear went in the back without too much trouble and David and Jeannie were able to sit on the back seats without having to share footspace with speaker stands!

Wharles the Heck Are We?

Last night we played a Steam Fair in Wharles, which is an area out in the Fylde countryside between Kirkham and the M55 motorway.

It was one of those all too familiar bewildering happenings.

We had a phone call from Jack, who does the steam fairs out at Chorley and he had told us it was Saturday night in Treales (which is an area out in the Fylde countryside between Kirkham and Wharles...)

Then David got a call to say it was Friday in Wharles and thought we wouldn't be able to do it because I was due to be working in Plymouth on Friday. However, having turned it down with the organisers, he phoned Fran on Thursday night and she was able to tell him I was on my way home (from Hertfordshire) because the event in Plymouth had been cancelled. (Following this ok?)

We loaded the car for the last time - I've swapped it in today for a new Mazda - and followed the SatNav as we weren't really sure where Wharles was.

It took us down a road labelled as a dead end, but we figured that as we were in a field it could well be correct. The road tuened into a track and the track turned eventually into ruts and potholes and after a mile and a half with 3/4 of a mile still to go the surface was getting me worried about the bottom of the car and I had to reverse a mile before we could turn round to go through Kirkham to get to it on surfaced roads. The SatNav woman refused to apologise and kept trying to make me turn back to try again...

"Turn around when possible" kept being met with a chorus of "P*** off"

Anyway, we found it in the end and had a great night with a smallish but enthusiastic crowd. It went pitch black outside. Going to the loo was a painful experience for one member of the audience as he walked into a 3-foot high metal pole that had been erected to mark out a pitch.

Fran was gingerly coming back from a visit, feeling the way cautiously in the dark when someone came out of the disabled loo and banged the door just behind her. "I'm gobsmacked you didn't hear me scream, I jumped out of my skin!" she said.

So to the garage who took my Mondeo in part exchange, I'm sorry about all the mud caked all over it...

A Touch of Festival Atmosphere at Larbreck Hall

After several years of playing inside the Great Barn at Larbreck Hall Caravan Park, our annual visit coincided with some good weather this year so we played on the green behind the farmhouse and car park.

Numbers weren't quite as high as at Glastonbury, but they spread themselves around a bit and there was certainly a great atmosphere and an enthusiastic response from the audience to every number. The Eagles' Lyin' Eyes got a first play last night too and (even if I do say so myself) sounded a bit spivish rare! We normally find that any song that sounds right from the very first playing (and at the start of the evening David hadn't even heard the backing arrangement!) then it will become a firm favourite for future gigs!

So we swapped the usual backdrop of spare caravans for a backdrop of cars and minibuses, but we had a great night and started off with the sun in our eyes, ending in the glare of our mobile spotlights as the temperature plummeted and only stopped when it got cold enough for the condensation to form on every surface and we decided there were too many electrics for that to be ignored!

RIP my mic stand too - the thread stripped and I had to use it as a straight-up instead of being able to use the boom arm. An interesting experience leaning over the guitar to sing and impossible to play the keyboards and lean far enough over to sing into the mic... A visit to the music store called for before our next gig!

A quick thanks to all the people who have bought the The Sunnyside of Creeping Bentgrass album and told us it's our best yet! We must start on the next one - though first we are planning to release a folk album as we have continually had to turn down requests for one. This will be a compilation of all the folk style songs from previous albums plus a number of new tracks. No telling when we'll have The Folk Side of Creeping Bentgrass ready at this stage but we are hoping to have it out by the end of 2010.

Myerscough College Open Day 2010

Sunday 6 June was the day of Myerscough College's Open Day. Creeping Bentgrass were in their usual spot near the greenhouses of the Plant Centre and after setting up the weather quickly made us retreat under our large gazebo.

It didn't rain hard and it certainly didn't stop the numbers attending, but for the second year it meant that the chairs set out for the audience were a bit too damp to entice people to sit down. Later in the day it got better and we had a good day with both troupes of dancing girls and a platoon of the Home Guard enlivening the day!

(We must get them to mention us by name in publicity...)

Heskin Hall Steam Fair 2010

On Saturday 5 June Creeping Bentgrass were back at Heskin Hall to play in the marquee during the annual steam fair.

It's usually a great night and this year was no exception with a couple of the traction engine owners being dressed complete with bowler hats and looking rather like Homepride Flour graders...

We ran through the whole range of styles from Country to Irish Folk through the 50s and 60s to Status Quo and Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds and we got some brilliant feedback after we had finished and were loading stuff back into the car for the following day at Myerscough College's Open Day.

National Family Week, Picnic Day at Witton Park

Another fabulous afternoon for us at Witton Park today as we played in the courtyard for a Family Picnic Day as part of National Family Week.

We unveiled two new songs. David has been wanting to sing Tell Laura I love Her ever since we got together - he has a thing for songs with a death in them...!

Actually he's been suffering from a chest infection all week so he did really well today. The wives overheard a member of the audience saying "I wish I could sing like that even without a chest infection..."

Bah! I'm sure he was just out to get the sympathy vote!

The other new song was Concrete and Clay familiar to any 60s child but not often heard these days. You'll definitely hear it from us in future!

Blackburn's fast becoming our second home this year - we're at Turton Tower on Saturday 24 July 2010 and will be performing at the Walking Festival Showcase at Sunnyhurst Wood on the evening of Friday 30 July.

Club Night in Blackpool

It's not actually all that often that we play in our home town of Blackpool. But last night was one of the exceptions.

We were at the Highfield Road Club for a social evening for ex-servicemen and their wives. So did they want nice easy relaxed music? No...

"Status Quo!" came a shout from the audience as we threatened them with Cliffy... So Status Quo they got!

We had a great night, singing, playing and joking our way through an hour and a half of good old-fashioned fun! Fran and Jeannie seemed to mop up in the raffle too... We came away with a bottle of brandy and one of Martini... Honestly... you can't take them anywhere!

Witton Park

Yesterday was our first visit of the year to Witton Park in Blackburn. It was for an Open Day event arranged by Myerscough College and there were all sorts of things going on. We had reptiles, snakes and a hog roast going on near us and there were carriage rides, tractor and trailer rides a large fairground and lots of stalls throughout the park showing the different courses and career paths the college caters for.

We were in our usual spot in the courtyard and what a fabulous day we had. People were waiting for us when we turned up in the morning. "We saw you last year and hoped you'd be back!"

We set off at 11:00am and apart from a 20 minute break for lunch we played straight through until gone 4:00pm. I know my fingers were smarting somewhat from the guitar strings!

A string broke during Cliff Richard's Move It and I finished the song on keyboards with a piano sound. Of all the songs... It's in the key of E with far too many black keys involved!!!

Apparantly 8,000 came through the gates and whilst they didn't all come to see us, we had a decent sized crowd watching us all day with a few people staying with us for the full day.

We're back at Witton on Spring Bank Holiday Monday. It's a family picnic day event so bring your picnic or buy it from the cafe in the corner of the courtyard and come and join us for another day of music!

70 Years of Billy Fury

Yesterday found us out at the Billy Fury event in Liverpool. 17 April 2010 would have been Billy's 70th birthday but for the tragedy of his early death in 1983.

We met up with David and Jeannie for breakfast in Blackpool and then drove down to Liverpool where the Billy Fury, In Thoughts of You fan club were celebrating his life at a meeting at Billy's statue on the waterfront next to the Mersey on which he worked for a short time.

There were already a number of people gathered at the statue which was covered in flowers, cards and balloons. As one o'clock drew near it was hard to count everybody but I'd have reckoned between 150-200 people.

The fan club arrived with refreshments and set up tables and Billy's Mum, Jean Wycherley arrived looking and sounding cheerful, smiling and chatting to Billy's fans and friends. A chair was found for her and she sat at the foot of the statue whilst cameras blazed away from all sides.

Colin Paul, the well-known performer, who includes a Billy tribute in his act, hosted the day for the fan club and called everyone over to the Maritime Museum on the nearby Albert Dock where a room had been booked.

There was a raffle, a quiz to identify Billy's songs from a split second of the opening - we decided we wouldn't stand a chance given we were surrounded by hardcore Billy fans, but in the event we'd have made it into the bottom ranks of prize winners had we written our ideas down!

Then a few songs from Colin Paul before another refreshment break following which we had a bit more music.

He sang a new tribute song to Billy, The Gentle King which was superb. Colin had written the words to the song himself and I'm sure all Billy fans will be delighted if they order a copy of his CD, available through billyfury.com.

The Colin called a few performers from the audience. Jean Wycherley sang In Thoughts of You to rapturous applause. The big man with the big heart, Paul Staines from London gave us a song, there was one from someone whose name I didn't catch and then Colin was calling David and myself up. Talk about a build up! "...privileged to work with them at Sunnyside..." and more - thank you Colin. All we can say is that if Billy was the "Gentle King of Rock and Roll" then you are the true Gentleman of Rock and Roll, it is likewise a privilege for us to know and work with you.

We had no instruments of course and we don't do backing tracks or karaoke, so we did an acapella version of Billy's Like I've Never Been Gone, sharing a mic as there was only the one - I got horrendous bristle burns from David's beard...

The only disappointment of the day was that Billy's brother, Albie, was too ill to join us. He has to have dialysis several times a week and was in hospital on the day. Albie, we wish you well and hope to see you at some future event.

Nice to see Colin again, Marie, Frank and Pat, Margaret, Mags, Paul, Mike, Mark (Little Elvis!!!) and to meet new friends too. Several people were heading down to Mill Hill where Billy rests and where there will be another meet and event today. We can't make that one but send our love to all our friends who will be there.

Photos will eventually appear at Flickr, hopefully later today.