I think it's time I had a blog....

...goodness knows when I'll find time to write a blog. Probably in the wee small hours, so it is likely to ramble around the more obscure regions of my brain.

At the moment, I am in folk musician mode. I have just returned from Rochester's Mayday celebrations, the Sweeps Festival - so named because it was the traditional holiday (THE traditional holi-DAY, there was only the one...) for London's chimney sweeps, including of course the children who used to climb the chimneys. (One band did actually start to play Chim-chim-n-nee from Mary Poppins, but they were French - so we'll let them off!)

It's now a three-day folk festival featuring end-to-end Morris dance teams along the historic Rochester High Street. It's quite a spectacle especially when the sun shines - which it did, this year. It isn't looking back to Merrie England through rose-tinted glasses; it is actually celebrating Britain's folk heritage and having a damn good time with it. Something we simply don't do enough of in England.

The band I play with, Pig's Ear, run a stage in the High Street outside a purple bar called the City Wall Wine Bar. It's an extremely chavvy pub, run by very nice people.

Anyway, we had a great time, though playing 3 hours a day plus setting up and pulling down the PA is pretty hard work. We had some excellent guest acts, and managed to get to see a few of our favourite local bands too. Should you come across any of the following, take time out to have a listen:

The Singing Loins
Moveable Feast
Heretique
The Two Man Gentleman Band (and last year's manic yanks, Truckstop Honeymoon!)
Norcsalordie
Foolproof
Happy Trails
Sur Les Docs
Trouser Trumpet
Phoenix
Wheeler Street
The Dealers

So that's it for another Sweeps festival; the sun shone, the music was great, the restaurants are really friendly even though they're maniacally busy, and there was only one stabbing among the local yobs.

Oh, and thanks to Medway council for sorting out somewhere convenient for us to park! It's very difficult carrying a stage across the bridge to Strood....