MaW’s Blog

So I’m back from the Show of Hands concert organissed by Cambridge Folk Club to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Good on the folk club I say. The venue was Comberton Leisure, which is attached to the village college (Comberton is a mediumish village a few miles west of Cambridge). I have to say I was skeptical about it, but the seating was no worse than at the Cambridge Corn Exchange (where the seating is awful). Actually, I take that back - the seating was better than at the Corn Exchange. The acoustics were also amazing. Although the hall is clearly used as a sports hall, it was also clearly designed for performance as well, and apparently fulfils both functions most suitably. There are slits and baffles and all kinds of things in the walls to stop it echoing overmuch, retractable tiered seating, blackout curtains, spotlight mounts… excellent indeed.

And as for the concert itself… Show of Hands won the Best Live Act award at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and they deserve several of them. Absolutely stunning. Lots of jokes about lots of things - why the Romans didn’t bother invading Cornwall (cholesterol - the Cornish threw pasties and clotted cream at them, and then the Devonians drove them out with custard, parking tickets and extortionately priced guest houses); the time Phil Beer’s land rover got towed away after a concert, with an orange sofa in the back; how many ways local newspapers can find to misspell the name of the band or their albums or their songs or their members… endless fun. And then the music, which was top notch. Phil and Steve had with them this evening a talented young double bassist by the name of Miranda Sykes, who also did some vocals. I was so impressed I bought her CD (along with a Show of Hands disk from 1995) and got them both autographed. Miranda thought she’d seen me earlier in a petrol station, which is unlikely as I haven’t been to one for weeks. Steve Knightley thought my name was Nat, so that’s what it says on my copy of ‘Lie of the Land’. Ho hum.

Got a T-shirt too. Woot.

In other news: back’s playing up again, need to do more exercises to keep it happy I think, if only I could figure out what they actually are. NaNoWriMo novel is up to 34,500 words and counting. Some people who’ve read it even say they like it. I haven’t figured out why yet. Survived my trip to Germany, photos may go up if I decide I like any of them enough. Didn’t get the landscape shots I wanted to do some new visuals for the blog, maybe another time, another place. Going to Nottingham on Monday to visit CSiT and talk to potential PhD supervisors. Will be there Sunday evening if anyone fancies Wagamama, or indeed Monday evening, depending on how long the CSiT thing takes and how much I decide I want to go home (which will probably depend on how well it goes). Back to work on Tuesday, final push to get things done before Christmas.

And bed time now, as if my back’s happier in the morning I’ll be going to archery, and for that one needs to be in that state known as ‘awake’. Somehow I don’t think it’s likely though… there’s just something stopping me doing it during this indoor season. Must figure out what it is, and why, and then jump on it until it stops.