Doncaster....who knew?

I had a fantastic time last night with Edwina Hayes and the great '8:00' Boo Hewerdine at the Doncaster Roots Music club. It was my first time in Doncaster, and won't be my last. The lovely Fiona Hannon and Anita Collins came along too for a mini Moniak reunion. Fiona flew in from Dublin just for the night. Edwina invited both Fiona and me onstage to play during her set, which was extremely kind. I met her gorgeous beau, Dom Dudill, who I have spoken to on the phone before but not in person. He played a mean fiddle during her set.

Boo was of course hysterically funny - a great entertainer as well as a superb songwriter, singer and guitarist. His sense of humour is so dry, it took me about halfway through his set before I realised he had been having me on for a large part of a conversation we had before the show started.

The Roots Music Club is at a great venue with a fantastic line up of multi-talented artists. If you haven't been there before, put it on your list of things to do. I met so many brilliant people - most notably Stuart Palmer who was the soundman for the evening (also a respected luthier who is going to do some work on my old Gibson), Jonti Willis who ran the show, and Shaun Hutch, a Sheffield based singer/songwriter and extraordinary guitarist. I will be keeping an eye out for Shaun's future gigs and suggest you do too!

Some exciting news - not only have I been booked at the Roots Music Club to support Beverly Smith and John Grimm on October 7th, but Boo is going to produce my next CD! We need to work out the timings with his busy schedule, but I am hoping to have it completed within the year.