This weekend was Folk Weekend Oxford 2021 (the event previously know as the Oxford Folk Festival). The whole shebang was put together virtually, using Zoom, YouTube and Facebook. What a mammoth task, but thankfully, no mammoths were hurt during the weekend. Well,...

It’s Bank Holiday Monday in May 2021 so thought I’d while away a few hours tweaking my websites. This post is about my bands and I will elaborating on them during the next … well, who knows?     I play for several different bands and dance groups in and...

Patrick collected me and off we went to Jean’s back garden in Grove. Cornucopia practice of course! I had a beer (thank you Patrick) and homemade biscuits (thank you Jean) and really enjoyed playing while Patrick and Jim fiddled, and the ladies danced.  ...

Vale Islanders. Sadly, no gigs with this dance group took place. The Vale Islanders got together a few times in a paddock to try and work out some socially distanced versions of dances (to give that authentic Black Plague vibe) but it turned out to be a bit too...

So, no more live music for Howard in 2020? Well, no. Using the well known “let’s do this” algorithm, I managed to play loads of times this year. I almost always played outside where it is breezy and therefore, very safe. May 2020 VE Day I busked in our street,...

Jigworks. One of the biggest impacts of corona virus was that I have only done one paid gig in 2020 and that was with Jigworks Ceilidh Band. I normally do around 50 or 60 gigs a year (with various bands and a mixture of paid and unpaid events). The one I did with...