Old News

Last Thursday saw the final ever gig featuring Myself and Paul Sullivan. Paul's moved to Oxford to start a new job and can't gig any more. I'm delighted to say that we got Reed Weir in from Ingram sounds to make a live recording from Topic Folk in Bradford. It was a cracking night, with a wonderful warm audience, and I'm really looking forward to hearing the recording!

In other news, Myself and Gren are heading down to Devon to support Les Barker this Friday. It'll be my first gig in Devon! Our Happy Return gig has now moved to Thursday to make room!

It's been a hectic schedule trying to get round this album tour, particularly as I'm limited to public transport. The tour is going really well. We had a particularly good gig at the Lincolnshire Poacher last Sunday.

Loughborough Festival is not long off now, and we're rather looking forward to opening the Friday concert.

The CD is finished, and will be officially released at the Swan in the Rushes, Loughborough on the 31st of August. The tour that follows contains about 14 concerts in 11 venues! Make sure you get to one of them. We've even got two that aren't in the East Midlands...

I've also massively updated the website to include details of the tour and the cd. You can download one of the tracks from the 'recordings section'. Please do, it's rather good!

In other news, I've just got back from Folkworks summer school, which was superb once again. I was lucky enough to have tuition from Emma Reid and Sturla Eida over the course of the week. Two of the finest musicians you'll see in the world.

This is a bit overdue! I've had a mad time running round rehearsing and gigging over the last few weeks. Gren and myself are preparing to record, and fitting in rehearsals amongst the other things we need to do has been interesting! Reed Weir will be engineering for us, and we hope to have it completed by the end of July.

Which leaves the album tour! I've always wanted to have to have one of these, incorporating all our favourite venues. Planning is in progress for this, and we'll have a provisional list soon. We're aiming for September/October. Let us know if you want your venue to be a part of this tour!

Last weekend was great fun, as I had a small floor spot for both Julie Felix on the Friday and Nancy Kerr and James Fagan on the Sunday! Inbetween, the Fox Hat had a wedding on the South coast near Swanage. I got there early and made a sandcastle!

This weekend is Hexham, and my third year of attending. I'll be playing at Corbridge middle school on Friday night, and all over Hexham on Saturday afternoon. I'm also delighted to have been invited to Abbey Court retirement home for a third consecutive year.

Monday sees Albireo in Todmordon for a wedding ceilidh, so it's a busy time!

Firstly, I'm delighted to have been asked to guest with the legendary and implausible Biggles Wartime Band who really have to be heard to be believed.

Topic Folk Club, Bradford have agreed a date in December for Sull and myself to perform. We're both really looking forward to that, as we also are to the festival that Folkworks are organising for the first weekend in July. I'm not sure what the format of the festival is yet, only that we're playing in it!

Apologies to anyone who went to Molly's in Leicester last friday, as the gig was cancelled at very short notice.

China was fantastic! I not only visited some of the last remaining steam engines in the world, but also managed to play quite a bit of music. I was lucky enough to record a jam track in the magnificent 'Oasis' studio in Beijing with a fabulous Old Time band, and hopefully I'll be able to put that online shortly.

Until then, here's some more steam engine pics.

Having arrived home, I played with Sull at the excellent Mansfield Brown Cow folk club on Tuesday. It was a great night, and we had a full house, which probably speaks far more for the strength of the folk club than us!

Sunday saw the Fox Hat playing at The Wetmore Whistle in Burton-on-Trent, Tynemill's newest pub. We were really loud, and seemed to go down well!

Two Fox Hat gigs happened last weekend, and inevitably there's a story to tell. On Friday night at Molly's, our new singer, Sarah, made a storming debut. On Saturday, we played for a wedding at a venue called 'Bracken Bank Lodge' near Lazonby, Cumbria. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to tell either us or the happy couple about the sound limiter installed in the venue. Even quiet strumming seemed to trip the power for the stage, and it totally destroyed the ceilidh we were trying to have. My advice to anyone thinking of booking the place would be to ensure that you don't intend to have any amplified music at all, as it simply won't happen.

All this aside, there's a couple of new gigs in the guide, including a gig with Gren at the Swan in the Rushes on the 19th of this month to raise money for Sarah D's charity marathon running mission! Best beer in Leicestershire guarenteed and another chance to hear our exciting new set of material, having debuted it all at the Vat and Fiddle on the 5th.

Also, thanks to Loughborough University for another excellent and enjoyable lunchtime gig on the 7th!

Finally, you may have noticed a gap in the gig schedule in early April. I'm heading out to China to learn a few tunes and visit a few interesting places again. Some of the trip might just be steam engine related...

I was delighted to have been invited by Leicester Morris Men to play for them during the legendary Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival last Saturday. It was a fantastic day, and much ale was consumed . The Straw Bear Festival is a wonderful oddity of tradition, and an excellent day out for all the family, although it's fairly likely you'll get raddled by a red faced Morris man if you accidentally let your guard drop...

Meanwhile, there's a handful of new gigs sneaking into the gig guide.

On a totally non music related note, I've completed the pages for my trip to China. Pictures of my trip to visit the steam railways and industry of Northern China and Inner Mongolia can be found here.

Due to Sull having another commitment, we've moved the gig on the 7th January at the George through to the 11th of February. Make sure you join us for that. It was spectacular last time!

I'm also delighted to announce that the Fox Hat have been rebooked for our residency at Molly O'Grady's in Leicester for another year, with 8 gigs over the 12 months. It's Leicester's most vibrant music venue, and it's great to see the continuation of the excellent music policy under new management.

I've had a rather nice week travelling around the North East. I busked in Hull on Tuesday, played for my lunch in the excellent Dreams tearoom in York on Thursday, before coming back to play at the Burton Union on Friday night. Between all that I managed to squeeze in a trip to Newcastle to see a few friends from Random, the band who so kindly adopted me at Hexham earlier this year!

There's one extra gig in the guide for next february.

I'd like to thank everyone who turned out at the Pack Horse Folk Club on Friday. It was a thoroughly pleasant evening, and we enjoyed every minute of it. It's always a pleasure to have a gig like that in your home town! We've been told that we're welcome to do it again at some point during the next season, but we'll leave the date unconfirmed until the summer.

There's another two gigs added to the guide as well.

Last night, Paul Sullivan and myself had the very great pleasure to support Ken Nichol at Buxton Club Acoustic. It was a cracking night with an excellent turnout. The music scene in Buxton really is one of the most vibrant and well supported in the country. Ken Nichol is a fabulous musician and some of his guitar playing was simply jaw dropping!

Tonight, we're playing at the legendary Pack Horse folk club in Loughborough, and I'm sure it's going to be one of the best gigs of the year. Come down if you're in the area!

I was in Hull midweek, and got to see David Elf play at the Whiteroom. He's a great songwriter who really knows his way round the guitar, and I can heartily recommend going to see him if he's on in your area.

Finally, after I finish this mini weekend tour, I'm going to be spending next week rehearsing with Gren Bartley, mainly to see what we can come up with. Look out for us at open mike nights around Leicestershire in the next few months!

Another great weekend. I had two wonderful gigs this weekend. Friday night at Molly's was exceptionally chaotic and entertaining, and Saturday at the George in Buxton was fantastic! Thanks must go out to Claire (Or is it Clare?) who came down from Manchester to see us, having found the Steal the Recipe CD in a bargain bin, and declaring that it was one of best things she'd ever found in a bin...

Also, happy birthday to Hookie, who came down for the end of the gig and moshed his way through 'Le Soldat' like the 14th Century folk punk epic it is.

The only thing that would have made the gig better would have been the return of Watson on guitar. We miss you, Watson. Come back soon.

Next weekend looks particularly exciting with at least four gigs, maybe five. Sull and myself are supporting Ken Nichol for Buxton club acoustic on Thursday before heading off to Loughborough for our main spot at the Pack Horse folk club. After that, there's a few private functions too. Should be great!

I visited Sheffield folk festival just over a week ago, and had a thoroughly good time. I managed to play English, Irish and old time music in the space of three days! I even sneaked a polska in when no-one was looking. I also managed to give a copy of 'Another Door Closes' to someone who promised to get it reviewed in 'Shreds and Patches', so watch this space.

November 19th at the Freehold has been cancelled, as Jason, the bass player is undergoing an operation the day before. We hope it goes well, and look forward to helping you choose a new name...

I've also added 3 new gigs to the diary, and have several more provisional pending which I hope to be able to confirm by the end of the week.

I did an interview for High Peak radio that should have gone out twice today. I didn't do too badly, but may have upset every morris dancer in the North West by mistake...

I played a support slot for Chris Coe at Swan Folk, Loughborough last night. She was fantastic, and I really recommend seeing her live.

The first Tom Kitching newsletter will be heading out early next week when I finally figure out how to make a mailing list. Sign up now, via the contact page! Another cancelled gig this weekend, this time at Old Poet's Corner, but it has been replaced with two short notice ceilidhs with Albireo, which should be great fun!

Equally exciting is that I now have a date for the folk train gig with Paul Sullivan, which will be taking place on the 26th Jan, on the Glossop route. I'll put more details up nearer the time.

Finally, last week's gig at Ashton with Albireo was such a success that we've been booked again for next year already! The giglist has been updated with all this and more.

The Fox Hat is having their annual reunion gig at the venture Theatre in Ashby on the 5th November. Get your ticket now at http://www.thefoxhat.com/cds/

Sure to be a great night!

Played a superb ceilidh with Albireo last night, for a silver wedding anniversary in Timperley. A thoroughly pleasant evening. Last weekend was quite hectic, (look at the schedule if you want to know why!) but was also a success, with Britain's rail network serving me better than you might believe.