folk
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Hurstpierpoint Wassail 2024
Another weekend, another Wassail. This time we went to the Sussex village of Hurtpierpoint, where Jo spent the day teaching tunes to locals, before we all gathered for a procession and some wassailing of apple trees. We ended up in a pub on the high street, in all our fairy lights and ivy finery, confusing… Read more
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Walthamstow Wassail 2024
I have been going to the Walthamstow Wassail for so long that it has been a decade since I wrote about it for the Guardian. I have been going to the Walthamstow Wassail for so long, that when I tried to give my friend a hug, she pulled a muscle. I have been going to… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir at Apple Harvest Day in Stanmer Park 2023
Our second Apple Day Sunday in a row! I don’t usually use exclamation marks but it seems justified here. If you can’t use exclamation marks about apples then when can you use them? We performed in the orchard, a beautifully idyllic place on a terrifyingly warm October Day. I’d never been to Stanmer Park before,… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir at Ditchling Apple Day 2023
On a worryingly hot October morning, I cycled over Ditchling Beacon for Apple Day 2023, a fun event on the village green for which my folk choir was providing the traditional element. The kind of gigs the Brighton Folk Choir get invited too are always brilliant, local and mildly eccentric, and Ditchling Apple Day was… Read more
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Review: Howlin’ Fling 2023, Isle of Eigg
Hello! I had a lovely time on Eigg, thanks to everyone there, punters and artists alike. This review originally appeared in the Morning Star newspaper. I’ve added some photos; some of the festival, and some of the various fun walks I was able to do while on the island. From the ferry, Eigg comes into… Read more
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The Ballad of Ms Doris Wu
I’ve written another demo. This one has actual lyrics and everything, which I shall post below to help me remember what they are. As always, I only really have one means of writing lyrics: utter stream of consciousness. Let it all hang out, I say. It’s been a while since I published an album of… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir at Oldland Windmill; walking back via Ditchling and the South Downs
Our second Bank Holiday gig in a row: this time at a 300 year old windmill, near Hassocks, a village that arrived 150 years later with the railway. The mill is in full working order, as I discovered when I saw flour from it for sale in the local Budgens nee the station. From here… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir at Jack in the Green, Hastings
May Day is a day for socialist action, and for folk adventure, as we celebrate the end of darkness and the beginning of the summer months. In more recent times, the folk tradition of May Day is, in the public imagination, a rather genteel thing: kids dancing around the May Pole on some village green… Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir live session on Mid Sussex Radio
Last night I went to Burgess Hill with the Brighton Folk Choir to sing a live session on Mid Sussex Radio. Burgess Hill is only ten minutes on the train but feels a generation away. The shops are largely gone – Amazon waits for no one – but it was good to see a board… Read more
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Oh I am come to the low country
It is Burns Night tonight, and so at folk club on Monday we sang some Rabbie Burns, specifically 1794’s The Highland Widow’s Lament. Full lyric is published below – he’s long dead, so I suspect he can’t sue me. Oh, I am come to the low Countrie, Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Without a penny in my… Read more
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