The Farmers Arms, Holmfirth

I spent an enjoyable evening at the Farmers Arms in Holmfirth last night courtesy of the open mic.  There was a friendly and relaxed atmosphere and a good crowd of musicians, many of whom I’d never heard play before.   They ranged from a young folk band with fiddle and some excellent tunes, to singer song writers, and a spot on cover of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold.  And I always like it on a night like this when something unexpected pops up as it usually does, this time in the form of some  solo saxophony.

This night takes place every second Tuesday, unless it snows badly, which it did in January but is hopefully unlikely to do so for the rest of the year – famous last words and all that.  I’ll certainly be bobbing along to the next one for a few beers and songs.  Hope to see you there.

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Just as an aside, I took a picture of the ladies toilet - to be clear, of the ladies toilet door, on which a passing punter had randomly drawn this fun picture:

   

Open Mic Poster

Guitar n Verse (Manchester)

Played a couple of pieces over in Manchester last week courtesy of Jeff and Andy at Guitar n Verse.  Obviously, it being a night for guitars (not electronics) I had to ditch the kaossilator in favour of some strumming and picking (mostly strumming).  There was some first class poetry and song-writing on offer upstairs at Gullivers. 

I turned to Old Man Pie for comfort and played (1) Vague Plague (2) The Poisoning of Captain Floyd.  Jeff took some photos of my busta blood vessel red face and plastered them all over facebook.  Here's one of the least worst!  I won't make a habit of that solo guitar thing but it was fun as a one off.

Open Mic #1

At the end of the first ever open mic I'd organised, I staggered happily home along Huddersfield Road with a great sense of satisfaction and achievement.  James from Old Man Pie had offered me a lift, but I’d refused, wanting to take in the night and what had been achieved.  First and foremost we’d raised over £230 for the Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team and the new HQ they are working towards.  The audience had been so generous and although you can’t keep everyone happy all of the time, I reckon most of them had enjoyed a good night of live music and talented performers.

I also felt my quest for original music had worked out, providing a mix of entertainment and creativity.  We had Robert Sharp and the Black Hill (pictured right), a band that included a Cajon, bass, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals and keyboards.  The limited PA may have struggled with the combination, but you could still hear the quality of Robert’s song writing coming through.  There was also comedy from ‘itsmoida’ with Ken's Folky Karaoke, and quirky nonsense from Jim Murdoch’s upbeat take on life, dreams and being chased.  The band Fishing for Compliments, a duo from Golcar, caught quite a few at the end of their set and Steph Stephenson, as always, a God send to the night, playing her own songs to an attentive audience.

Chris Martin, from Batley, jokingly told us he’d never needed the help of Mountain Rescue because he’d always just followed the person up ahead.  That was all very well, remarked one of the Mountain Rescue guys, as long as the person up ahead knew where they were going.  Chris played some wicked slide guitar and sneaked in a few covers, also observing the differences between Holmfirth and Batley, including the price of a pint.

Old Man Pie topped and tailed the night, and Dan Gallo (left) provided some superb dobro guitar.  I first saw Dan playing outside the local market in sweeping wind and rain as part of the Holmfirth Arts Festival a few years back.  There was hardly anyone around and the flimsy canopy under which he was standing looked like it was going to take off, leaving his Marshall amp exposed to the elements, but I could hear the quality of Dan’s playing even on that winter’s day.  In fact it wasn’t winter it was summer, but it felt like winter.

I believe the space we'd created allowed people to listen to the music, but also have a chat with friends and enjoy a night out.  It was less formal that way and that’s exactly how I wanted this event to be.  People work hard and need some down time; the live music was there to be enjoyed among the company of friends and in a good atmosphere.  At times there was hushed attention, at other times it got noisy, some things went wrong and some things went right, but at the end of the night the most important thing was we had raised money for an essential local cause and had a lot of fun in the process.

The next open mic is on 28th February at Cellar 88 in Holmfirth and if you fancy playing please get in touch.  All forms of music welcome and anything goes (I'm still hoping for some shrieking metal guitar solos as it happens) and THE most important thing is that this one will be for the local project skate4issac - find out more here:

http://skate4isaac.co.uk/