NEWS

It’s been a glorious summer, and now it’s time to look forward to my autumn gigs when I’ll be returning to some favourite venues and discovering some new ones.

Over recent months, I’ve been developing a show with the very funny, and totally original, songwriter Kath Tait. A New Zealander, Kath now lives in London. Her songs are, in the words of an Australian critic, ‘pearls wrung from the disasters and irritations of modern life.’

She’s an excellent finger-picking guitarist and also plays the concertina and harmonica. In our show, Kath and I each sing our own songs, now and then providing accompaniment for each other. Together, we provide an offbeat, and surprisingly positive, take on the strange and stressy  times through which we are all living.

We’ll be playing at one of my favourite theatres, the Fisher Theatre in Bungay, on 18^th September, and have a number of folk club bookings, including Islington and Watford, in 2026.

The next day, I’ll be travelling down to Sevenoaks to play at a great folk club, St Edith Folk, supported by Cruel Folk whom I can’t wait to hear (‘I think we get the point, lads. This isn’t going to be The Spinners,’ wrote one reviewer).

Down the years, I’ve occasionally been asked whether there is any merchandise to go along with my song ‘Sad Old Bastards With Guitars’. There are a few million of the said sad old bastards in the world, the argument goes – why not give them the chance to proclaim the fact with pride?

Now they can. A beautiful, sophisticated and highly  fashionable range of tee-shirts and baseball caps, featuring the design of Anne Steel of Mauwi Wauwi Design, will now be available at gigs and from the website. An early prototype was worn at a festival this summer and was said to have been deeply coveted by guitarists of a certain vintage.

If you happen to be an ancient strummer or picker, or indeed if you have a sad old bastard in your life, here is a perfect early Christmas present.

Looking forward to seeing you at a gig soon.