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Thread: Durham Folk Festival (Read 1855 times) |
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Alan
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I love Midnight Voices!
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Durham Folk Festival
« : 11.08.26 at 21:21 » |
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Hi folks, I'm back after some years and Steve has kindly given me my very old but not very memorable password.
I don't know how or where to look, so I'm raising this question in a new thread.
What day will Pete actually play a set at the above event? I live in nearby Newcastle so there's no excuse for not going,coherent I'm concerned. It will be a first. While my Pete albums have survived LP Apogroms since the 70s , I have yet to see the esteemed gent in concert.
Thanks.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=0#0  |
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Alan
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I love Midnight Voices!
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #1: 12.08.26 at 09:49 » |
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on 11.08.26 at 21:21, Alan wrote:Hi folks, I'm back after some years and Steve has kindly given me my very old but not very memorable password.
I don't know how or where to look, so I'm raising this question in a new thread.
What day will Pete actually play a set at the above event? I live in nearby Newcastle so there's no excuse for not going, where I'm concerned. It will be a first. While my Pete albums have survived LP pogroms since the 70s , I have yet to see the esteemed gent in concert.
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The above is the corrected version. Autocomplete made a bit of a nonsense of my post.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=1#1 |
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jonnymohun
MV Fresher
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #2: 13.08.26 at 18:24 » |
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Hi Alan
Here's the full weekend schedule:
https://durhamfolkfest.netlify.app/
As you can see, Pete will be doing an hour-long 'in conversation' event on Friday afternoon; additionally, he will be playing a 45-minute spot on Sunday teatime at the Academy in Prince Bishops Place. The former event requires a day or weekend ticket, but individual tickets for the latter are £10 and can be purchased at the following link:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/durhamfolkfestival/1896122
Hope that helps!
Jonny
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=2#2 |
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S J Birkill
MV Administrator
just a sensible reserve
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #3: 14.08.26 at 02:56 » |
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Thank you Jonny, and Alan. I've added this information to the Website's "Gig Guide" listing.
Steve
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=3#3 |
Stephen J Birkill
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jonnymohun
MV Fresher
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #4: 20.08.26 at 16:57 » |
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Appreciate that Steve, thanks!
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=4#4 |
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Alan
MV Friend
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #5: 22.08.26 at 17:18 » |
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Thanks Steve and Jonny.
Sorry it took me a while to get back- thought i ticked for email notifications, but I mustn't have.
I really hope to get to the performance.
Alan.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=5#5 |
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Alan
MV Friend
I love Midnight Voices!
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #6: 20.09.26 at 20:41 » |
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Well, Pete's set was excellent- the only thing wrong with it was it was too short.
I didn't attend the q and a because it was on a different day. There was no merch stall to see Pete at and say hello. All the same I feel glad to have finally seen one of my favourite artists perform, after 50 or more years listening to the records. The rest of the audience seemed to like it too- but no encore. The event seemed tightly organised.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=6#6 |
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S J Birkill
MV Administrator
just a sensible reserve
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #7: 21.09.26 at 02:49 » |
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Thank you for this, Alan, and so glad you enjoyed it, 50 years on!
I don't suppose you remember which songs Pete played? He'd been wondering whether to include Canoe, a piano song, in an arrangement for guitar.
Shame about the absence of merch/meet & greet. An important part of the show!
Steve
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=7#7 |
Stephen J Birkill
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Alan
MV Friend
I love Midnight Voices!
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #8: 21.09.26 at 10:51 » |
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Hi Steve
Pete played:
'Touch has a Memory
'Girl on a Train
Beware of the Beautiful Stranger '
'The Ice Cream Man'
'Senior Citizens'
The Flowers and the Wine
'Laughing Boy'
I'm not certain of the order, only that 'Laughing Boy' was the last song. No 'Canoe' - such a great song.
It could be there was no merch stall because Pete had already done a q and a, and perhaps sold CDs as well?
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=8#8 |
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Pete Atkin
MV Godfather
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #9: 22.09.26 at 16:47 » |
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Greetings, Alan, and everyone else who came to see me in Durham last weekend. I played at Durham University several times in the seventies, but I've not been back since then, so it was good to be reminded what a remarkably beautiful place it is.
This is the first year the Folk Festival has taken place there (it was previously in Hartlepool for ten years, but its venue there almost literally fell not only apart but also down) and the venues and accommodations are now scattered around the city, which involves walking up and down lots of hills or using the free shuttle buses so thoughtfully provided.
Johnny Mohun, the co-director (alongside Joanie Crump - there's a great name!) kindly booked me in for a few turns across the three days, the first one of which was an on-stage conversation (him and me) in which I wittered on about some of my past extra-curricular activities (the curricular ones being writing songs with Clive), illustrated by some brief clips, which included a minute or two from me on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1974, and a clip from the unique edition of Just A Minute which I produced which featured the amazing Elaine Stritch. Oh, and while we were talking about A&R, the musical play I wrote in 1977, we brought on Barrie Rutter, who I've known since he was in the cast of the Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1978, and together we did an (unrehearsed) reading of a scene in which Barrie (as Will, the studio engineer) told a story about some dreadful producer he'd worked with, making it far funnier than I ever could. To vary the texture a bit, I sang a short version of one of the songs from the play (Not Born To Boogie), and finished it off with Together At Last.
On the Saturday morning I led a songwriting workshop with a dozen or so participants, in which I did my best to be as helpful as I could in talking about how to get things started - something that it turns out just about everybody finds the hardest bit of trying to write a song. As always at this kind of occasion, the person who learned the most was probably me.
And then on Sunday afternoon I did my actual turn which Alan witnessed. If I'd wittered on a bit less between songs I could probably have fitted in a couple more, but it's hard to keep your eye on the clock while you're performing. It's incidentally fascinating that Alan said that the only thing he was certain of was that 'Laughing Boy' was the last song: it was the first! Honestly! And I was indeed going to do a guitar version of 'Canoe', but when the MC urgently reminded me of the time I had to jump past it and several others to finish with a short one, which was clearly so short that Alan didn't even remember it! (It was 'Have You Got a Biro i Can Borrow?') I'm guessing, but probably the majority of the audience hadn't heard the stuff before, so I hope I made a few new friends. They were all exceptionally and generously appreciative anyway.
(Not that it matters much, but the actual order of the set was: Laughing Boy, Ice Cream Man, Girl on the Train, Touch Has A Memory, Senior Citizens, Beware of the Beautiful Stranger, The Flowers and the Wine, Have You Got A Biro?)
And yes, I'm sorry not to have been able to offer an array of musical bargains on the merch table. If I had driven up to Durham I'd certainly have put some in the car, but I travelled by train and the box of CDs would have loaded me down just a bit too much. Straws and camels' backs.
There were altogether exactly a hundred events and performances across the three days, a huge variety of things some of which I had the pleasure of catching, including the Wilson Family with the Easington Colliery Band in the cathedral itself. Amazing! Jonny and Joanie had done an astonishingly good job of putting it all together, and I was flattered and hugely pleased to be asked to be a part of it.
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=9#9 |
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Alan
MV Friend
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #10: 23.09.26 at 17:26 » |
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Hi Pete
Thanks for this very full reply.
Yes of course how could I forget 'Have you got a biro i can borrow'? Especially as it was your last song, and I recall now you said you would finish on a lighter note. My memory in the short term is fair but not great, the only way round these things is to keep a pen and notepad with me at a gig which I tried a few times but it sort of spoiled the concert experience, and involved writing in the dark.
I do remember hearing you do 'thief in the Night' as a sound check, from just outside the performance area, and I rushed through thinking things had started.
A close friend of mine from years ago , and a very accomplished guitarist, (i"ve heard a few people play, so when I say very accomplished, I mean he was at professional level, though he never played professionally) revealed to me once that Val Doonican was in part his inspiration to start playing!
I introduced him to your music back then and he really took to it, was able to work out some of the songs- ' thief ' was one of his favourites. He also liked ' Beware of' etc though I think that was more for the storytelling aspect of the song. I think the song he found a challenge was ' Faded Mansion' , where there was one transitional chord he couldn't identify, but eventually managed. He loved a challenge like that and was so talented.
Oh and regarding merch- I have all of the CDs already, unless something has happened which I don't know about, but a stall can be just an opportunity to see the artist off stage, say hello , shake their hand and mumble some thanks.
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| « Last Edit: 23.09.26 at 17:45 by Alan » |
https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=10#10 |
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Pete Atkin
MV Godfather
Posts: 517
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Re: Durham Folk Festival
« Reply #11: 24.09.26 at 16:43 » |
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Hello Alan - and everyone
Yes, you're right, I think I did play a verse of 'Thief In The Night' in the (very brief) soundcheck. It was in any case on my list for the set, but it was one of the ones (along with 'Canoe') that I had to jump past when my time started running out ('History and Geography' and the Honky Tonk Train song were there as well, if it's not creating too much retrospective frustration to mention that).
By the way, I wonder if your friend happened to spot that each verse of the main tune of 'The Faded Mansion On The Hill' is a twelve-bar blues? Perhaps not every proper blues player would have used exactly those chords, but still ... Those hard-to-identify passing chords are not part of a plan, they are simply the result of me playing around with it and changing things until it sort of felt right. It took me a while to figure out what some of those chords were!
And yes, I do understand the added value of the merch table. The trouble was, I took my guitar back into the backstage room and started talking to someone there so that by the time I came out to the front again, with no merch table functioning, pretty much everyone had gone, and the next performer was setting up. I'm sorry about that.
But mostly, thank you for being there. It was an enjoyable occasion and I'd have liked to go one longer. Maybe next year ...
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https://peteatkin.com/forum?board=news&action=display&num=1786479703&start=11#11 |
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