It’s the long silences that are hardest to bear. Yet when sounds come: a burst of bird song; the rain on the roof; the wind through the eaves, I envy their melodies and rhythms. They remind me of the past when I too had the power of sound and could lif…
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“I’m afraid you may never have a desk job again. Employers prefer younger people! They shouldn’t – but they do. You must be more flexible”.The man at the unemployment office had looked embarrassed. He’d still got his job. Age for age, responsibility fo…
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The waves were crashing onto the sea shore and the sunset was all crimson and blues across the bay as we fired up with Marlene on the piano accordion, Bob on the Bodhran, Tad on the banjo, Bruce on the melodeon and yours truly on the flute and sax.We f…
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Yesterday was the best day yet for yours truly at the Sidmouth Folk Festival.It was also the longest, because I arrived at about 11.00 and left at midnight. I really must get a campervan. The two hour drive through the English countryside back to West …
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Read about Bideford Folk Festival 2007My first impression on arrival at the car park close to the Blacksmiths Arms, East the Water (the companion town to Bideford) in 2006 was how many more cars were in the car park than on my previous reconnoitring vi…
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The bad news is that my wife’s got a brand new Ford Focus Zetec car 
costing loads of dosh!The good news is that she wanted to try it out on a long drive. So off we went on Sunday over the bank Holiday weekend to Wadebridge in the English county of …
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I was still champing at the bit for a no holds barred stomping flute and sax playing pub session after finding that the Sunday session at the Coach and Horses, Appledore was sadly discontinued (see previous post).So I decided on Monday evening to leap …
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The regular Wednesday country folk music jam session at the Coach and Horses in the quaint West Country harbour town of Appledore, North Devon, started at 8.30pm and has to be the friendliest session I have ever attended. If you’re looking for a musica…
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The elderly at rest homes or nursing homes are always so appreciative of even modest musician efforts so when I got an invitation from a musician friend, whose mother had just moved into the Dunster Lodge Residential Home, Minehead, Exmoor, to welcome in the new year one afternoon with some folk music tunes, I readily [...]
Hopcott news archive – articles, stories, discussion from Rob » Search Results » song
I always very much enjoy playing music for the elderly at rest homes or nursing homes so when I got the invitation from a local West Country folk musician friend, whose mother had just moved into the Dunster Lodge Residential Home, Minehead, to play some music to welcome in the new year one afternoon, I [...]
Hopcott news archive – articles, stories, discussion from Rob » Search Results » song