Saturday 4th October, The Barley Mow, Bonsall

Another belting night in Bonsall. We manage to set up at the end of the bar room with a stage made of beer crates, hell of a crush but great atmosphere. Landlord Alan was as welcoming as ever and this time asked to join us for our last few songs. His accordion playing is brilliant/wild/exciting and very load ! (Especially through Andy's vocal mic.) Another cracking gig for Scuppered and he wants us back in February.

Thanks Alan, and to the crowd including a very nice foursome from Wiltshire - musicians into the bargain. Thanks for coming and here's to Fairport Convention (perhaps you should ignore my comments re. RD and the Guv'nor !)

Saturday 13th September. Scuppered, Coal Aston Village Hall

What a splendid evening we had. Just us on stage with no complications, no hassle, no grief - just great fun. Oh, before I go on I must mention our one and only guest for the evening - Richard Hildebrand. Those who are old enough to recall Bourgeois Zoo in their mid life crisis stage might remember Richard playing drums with the band - He's Andy's brother and a darned good musician to boot ! Now the drums were never a favourite for me with BZ but we did have some fun back then, Richard (Aka. Richy Poos) subsequently spent a few years beating his skins with the Bakewell Rock legends "No Ginger". Anyway he came along last month and gave an absolutely tozzing set featuring some great songs, a tune of his own and some of the finest patter he's ever come out with. Great stuff and hopefully he'll be back for our Christmas Show.

Scuppered had a ball, we loved it and rattled through much of our repertoire including a first outing for John's new folk song, Jez Lowes "Bonnie Barque The Bergen" It went really well as did most of the stuff. We each did a solo spot in the middle part of the evening which seemed to go down a storm - Corky in particular should be mentioned, his solo accordion work was stunning and he was very, very funny in his delivery. It was a great nights fun for us and a good few people were more than complimentary of our efforts. Thanks for coming !

Saturday 5th July. The Tannahill Weavers, Coal Aston Village Hall

The Tannies approached us early in the year to secure this gig as part of their Highland Tour (well that's what they said) Their week covered venues like Inverness, Stornaway, Portree and Coal Aston ........... there was logic as their Sunday was at The National Forest Folk festival near Leicester.

Anyway who cares why they decided to chose us we just had the bestest possible night as a closer to Coal Aston Gala. A packed house revelled in The Tannahill Weavers music and entertainment with fantastic powerful renditions of so many tremendous Scottish tunes and songs. The whole night was a blur to me for a couple of reasons - I pulled my back early thatn day and was suffering considerably (still am actually a week later) then of course was the fact we'd been on the go all day Galaing - so sore and knackered was me. We managed to get everything set up in quick fashion with many thanks to great helpers, local stalwarts and friends Steve, Martin, Dave & the rest.

Young Richard on lighting did a great job, the piper just looked like the one at the top of Edinburgh Castle in the spotlight - everything went well including a Scuppered set without Hodgy once again (he's unfortunately had to miss the last 2 Coal Astons through other commitments) We missed him but Andy, Dave and I managed a 30 minute set almost without problems, apart from a massively missing instrumental at the end of Farewell to The Haven.

The Tannies have said they'd like to come back, we will oblige !

Dave Swarbrick had a double lung transplant only 2 years back which many doubted he would survive but amazingly he was able to lead the incredible foursome back on stage again and in full form. Chris Leslie, Martin Jenkins, Kevin Dempsey and Dave Swarbrick played 2 full sets of material gathered from the 3 Whippersnapper albums - Promises, Tsubo and Fortunes and after apparently only 5 days rehearsal it was as good as the first time round. My personal favourites were Swarb's Hard Times of Old England, Kevin Dempsey's Pride of Kildare and his stunning encore of One Way Donkey Ride. There's a couple of clips of the gigs on Youtube, you'll get the idea - just type in Whippersnapper and you'll find them. They were just superb in every way and who knows, we might be able to welcome them back to Coal Aston next year if they do it again (we're "on promise" !)

Here's a couple of photo's from the gig and also a couple shot by John Birchenough in Kendal circa 1988

Saturday 7th June, Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies - Coal Aston Village Hall

What a tremendous nights entertainment. Not only Scuppered who were short handed with Hodgy away in Spain for his annual sojourn but as a special treat we also had in support Christene Ledoux  She was due to appear in Sheffield the following week and we were delighted when friend and local impresario Pete Shaw asked if we could put a spot together for her. So with a support spot for each half we were away.

Christene did a lovely job, she has a rather cute and mellow American way about her which made a lovely comparison with Scuppered (no review necessary, you know all about us) Her songs tell tales of her life in America and beyond, for such a young person  she's certainly been around a bit. She presently lives in Innsbruck with her Austrian, non English speaking, Husband. Lovely songs embellished with bitter sweet stories of everyday life all over the World. She rounded up with a protest song "Dear Mr President" It can be found on her website - just click her linked name above.

Jez and his Bad Pennies were simply sublime. This was without doubt the best folk music performance we have yet seen at Coal Aston with wall to wall quality. Actually my son Paul has to take a little credit here for handling the sound in a most professional way, it was terrific. The band meandered through Jez' songs with consummate ease, Kate Bramley on vocals provides a perfect harmony for Jez and her fiddle playing sits neatly with the Northumbrian Pipes of Andy May - his playing is World class as his his humour in telling the stories. Young David De La Hay lays down a wonderful understated bass through the whole set.

Another excellent night for our 2008 series, The Omega 3  are Derek Pearce, Clive Harvey (both from the wonderful comedy band Roaring Jelly along with musician Graham Taylor. We ran the night Folk Club style with Scuppered doing half a dozen songs for each half before getting the 3 into gear.

Tuesday 8th April. The Harlequin, Nursery St, Sheffield

Well we didn't realise it was going to be the Sheffield Derby that night (which resulted in an acrimonious 2 - 2 Draw. So the place was virtually deserted with only about 10 people at the peak. The audience did however include our friend Jim Swift and his good lady and then later on our regular hosts from The Moon Inn, Richard and Doreen MacGillivray. So despite a poor number the audience quality was excellent. Not much else to say other than we enjoyed the evening and are looking forward to a return booking later in the year when we can hopefully avoid Football clashes.

Tuesday 25th March. The Edale Rambler Folk Train

Gerry put us in as late notice substitutes for The Deepcar guys who dropped out through ill health - so we might have expected a quiet night . None of it, the train was packed and consequently the pub was heaving. I think this was our best yet Folk Train event not least because we had a dead easy sound set up. Big thanks to my Mary for ferrying the gear + Sarah and Jay out to Edale and for their good work setting things up.

In terms of the music we had prepared some loader stuff for the train and included a hastily re-written version of Freight Train (cheesy or what?) It all went down well and got the crowd into a receptive state of mind. Our session in the pub was nice and relaxed, John used his ebay special Martin travel guitar, the chair leg as it became known, and Dave played a blinder stuck in his usual corner.

On the way home the highlight became an aggressive window on the train which would not stay closed and created much hilarity in my attempts (failed) to beat it into submission.

These photos are courtesy of Gerry, he really takes a good shot but I really can't master the art of smiling ! His complete album can be seen at : -  http://www.folktrain.org.uk/Newpics.htm

Here's a couple with John giving his all on Chairleg guitar

After the obvious hilarity came the almost complete loss of voice, nothing a Leffe gargle won't cure

We're already looking forward to our next journey on The Edale Rambler Folk Train !

Monday 17th March (St Patrick's Night) The Rising Sun, Nether Green

This one was good news, and bad news ! We had a truly brilliant night on this special occasion - most of the time I was inspired/persuaded to go full on Irish helped by the fact we'd trawled our various histories to come up with an almost 100% Emerald Isle set list. Lately we've moved away from the singalongwithpaddy type stuff that had become a bit jaded but it was great to give all the old standards an airing again.

The room was packed, so much so that our host Robert got a bit stressed as he couldn't get in and out of the door to clear empties (bless him) Loads of good friends there and all in all a great gig. Our pal Ruth "The Broomhill Bard" Grimsley recited a poem what she had specially wrote for the occasion, a protest poem on why moving Easter forward meant that St Patrck's Day really wasn't supposed to happen!

Our new songs went down a treat with the crowd and we got the the end of the evening in full anticipation of e repeat booking later in the year, particularly when Robert told us that his takings were several hundreds up on the last music evening. But, and here's the rub, the brewery bosses have apparently decreed that what the Rising Sun needs is a few music-less Mondays so no more bookings available for now ! Oh Buggar. Having said that, Suzanne who looks after these things has promised that we're at the top of the list when they get back to it.

Saturday 1st March, Coal Aston Village Hall, Tom McConville, Claire Mann and Aaron Jones

As Coal Aston nights go, and they all go pretty well, we reckon this one was one of the best. After a slow start on audience numbers we ended up with a full house for a night of excellent music and humour.

We decided that for Tom and his crowd a Folk Club format was going to work best so Scuppered opened the night as support band with a set including the all new "Crying In The Rain", the Everleys hit. Our version features John and Andy in harmony and despite this first Coal Aston outiong being a bit edge of the pants/shaky it is going to be a cracker !
Our good friend Geoff Heppel was next up having been persuaded to make his first public singing appearance for a good many years, he did a fantastic version of The Mountains of Morne followed by a superb Mike Silver composition (the name of which escapes the aged brain this morning)  Despite self confessed nerves Geoff was in fine form and did a cracking job, You can find him on Youtube (enter Geoff Heppel in search) from 1991 last night at The Cartwheel Folk Club  recording.Tom Claire and Aaron were just superb, 2 sets of effortless playing and singing of the highest quality coupled with Tom's laid back presentation skill delivered with his well known Geordie humour. Clair and Aaron are both wonderfully talented, their instrumental work complimented by delightful vocals throughout the evening. I can't recommend the band highly enough !

Well it might as well have been THE MOON for some of the band ! What an hilarious night thanks in the main to Andy and John. On the first hand, to be perfectly honest the number of customers at the pub that night was pathetically few, I think at best we had  about 30 in the big room - which was a pity 'cause the room is brilliant and acoustically perfect. So musically we were delighted with the evening and gave an outing for a couple of new songs including John's splendid version of "Handyman" - taken from James Taylor of course. Yet again the song perfectly suits John's vocals and is going to become a new group favourite.

Anyway enough of the music and the grumbles, back to the real ale ! Towards the end of the evening I bought Andy and John a pint of Be El Zeebub which I spotted among the Abbeydale brews - 6% and looking like 3% (nice and pale as they tend to be) Well over the next 30 minutes we were able to watch them both losing the plot in a most amusing and entertaining fashion. John in particular got completely lost in the moment and having completely missed his cue for "Stop your rambling ... " in Irene turned to me a said "sorry, I thought I was somewhere else!" (like THE MOON?)

It was a very, very funny evening which we all enjoyed very much - just a shame not many people bothered to come out and join us. Mind you that might have been partly due to my forgetting to send a poster to the pub so maybe no-one knew we were on anyway !

January 19th, Coal Aston Village hall - Dave Berry and The Cruisers

What a cracking night ! A sell out crowd and Dave Berry and his band on absolute top form. Scuppered opened the night, well three quarters of Scuppered anyway - unfortunately John was detained elsewhere for his daughter Vicky's 30th birthday celebrations. Anyway we battled bravely on without him and just about got away with it. Brian from The Cruisers looked after the sound for our set, thanks Brian it was terrific and made us sound even better than normal (or so one sarcastic friend said later in the evening)

Dave and the Cruisers gave a storming set covering not only his hits from the 60's but many other classic interpretations including my favourite of the night "Sha Lah Lah Lah Li" The young guitarists with the band, sorry lads but the names escape me at the moment, were just brilliant and gave a significant ciontribution to what we all believed to be the best Dave Berry night we've seen yet - and there's been a few. Band stalwarts Brian on Bass and John Firminger on drums are just stars in their own right, their casual approach to setting up is in stark contrast to their total professionalism whilst playing. Totally and indisputably a terrific night out for us all !

Richard Grad was able to join us again on lighting and did a terrific job, the sound for Dave Berry was controlled by our very own Andy Parker who did a fantastic job and enjoyed being in control of his hero from the 60's (well one of them anyway)

Here's a couple of pretty shaky shots from the evening - maybe shaky due to the bar supplying Hobgoblin real ale in such copious amounts - hic.

We always enjoy a gig between Christmas and The New year, this was no exception. A great evening in a great pub with family and friends along for the ride. We all enjoyed ourselves and special thanks to "our Julie" for bravely taking Kirsty McColl's part in The Fairytale of New York. It's just a pity that the microphone was off !

Anyway a very good way to wind up our musical year, a year in which Scuppered seem to have developed a long way in the scope and quality of the material and presentation, a year in which we have produced a CD to be proud of, in fact a year at end of which I'd like to give my thanks to John, Andy and Dave for giving me so much fun and great music.

Here's to 2008 lads, I can't wait ! 

The Christmas Show, Coal Aston Village Hall, December 20th

Goodness knows how many of these shows we've done over the years but once again it proved to be a firm favourite with the locals, tickets were officially sold out by mid November.

We aimed at keeping things simple this year with The Call and Scuppered covering most of the night. Pete Jobson made another most welcome visit to join us and the music was rounded off with Chris Cork's help as on previous concerts.

Without over doing the review all I can say is that the whole night was a tremendous success, The Call with new Bassman Dave Micklethwaite were on great form, they did an acoustic first set and gave a storming full on rocking set to close the night - John of course was busy all night with both bands but managed to keep Scuppered on track for the Christmas set mid evening with yet another re-work of The 12 Days of Christmas (hopefully as we speak there is a video downloading onto Youtube - check out the news page) We wound up the first set with a mimed version of Whisky in the Jar giving our audience some confusion as Scuppered gradually vacated the stage with the song in full flow (this idea gratefully nicked from a Maxie and Mitch gig way back when)

Special thanks to - in no particular order - Viv Hodge/Mary Gray and Kuchene for the fantastic food, Richard Grad for lighting (and we hope he'll stick with us) Jay for sound (same comment) Steve Barnett for fairy lights and lots of help, Katie/Lesley and Amanda for stunning Mother Christmas and Snowwoman (see photo's) Pete (Jobbo) Jobson for travelling North to join the fun - for his fantastic songs, and not to mention (and I really shouldn't) his hilarious but very rude jokes, John Bennett for his DVD (see newpage) and Dave Hobson for the photo's

A great night which we all enjoy every year and thanks to all our regulars who give such great support to our nights.

The Girls.....................................................................The Boys