The Flown Tour : Part The Third

Ey Up 🙂

Well how’s it going? I am having a great week,  things are going good and I am feeling very productive. In fact, I would go as far to say that I’m on a roll! My ability to get work done however, is directly linked my spring tour coming to an end…booo 😦

But hey, what an awesome two months it’s been; it has been proper cathartic to get back out on the road and just play! I’ve had a chance to play loads of songs from the new record (more news on that soon!), I’ve done a couple of gigs with my lovely band and I’ve also frequented some right lush venues. So all in all, a very special send off for Adelphi, so here it is,   Part 1 of the final round up from The Flown Tour:

This is gonna be well pic heavy cos…well just cos 🙂

Well I headed off to Seaton, Devon for a return visit to the lovely Jurassic Folk. A cracking event hosted in a night club…the most exciting thing about it being in a night club is that there is a pole dancing podium in the middle of the room! Not many folk clubs can boast that now can they! I was tempted to have a go, but I decided that I really couldn’t afford to break any limbs so that was the end of that :p

I’ve gotta show you these…they belong to Hilary, the lovely hostess from jurassic folk. The pink laces just make them, don’t you agree?

Woo Dr Martens!

After that gig I was up at the crack of dawn and on the road for 6am to get myself over to cambridge for a day in the studio with Stu and Sam laying the bass down. I was cream crackered, mornings are not my cup of tea! On route we did pass Stone Henge, however from the road it looks distinctly less impressive and strikingly more like the ickle spinal tap version which did make me smile at early o’clock 😀

The day in the studio was great, although I will admit I was a little sleepy at times and had to eat A LOT of malted milks to maintain focus! Sam played amazingly, I’ve known him for 19 years and the dude is just a bass master! Much like the guys in the video below!

…Sam is also a moog whisperer

Moog getting involved 🙂

Next on the touring schedule was Bothy Folk Club in Southport. My first time at this proper club full of fantastic resident singers and a very friendly audience! It’s completely acoustic and so given the opportunity to not be stuck to a microphone I was having a right boogie on stage…I made a joke about being like beyonce…worrying, I know :p however it seem to fly over the heads of the most traddie in attendance

Hehe, I wish I could move like that…my standard dance moves are much more akin to an octopus trying to put on a jumper 😀 Anyways, Fatea Magazine came and reviewed the evening…you can find it by heading to their website and clicking on ‘live’ 🙂

A few days past and I was flung back into the studio, working with the beautiful soul that is Joy Gravestock. Oh man, it was such an awesome day, it was the beginning of all the grand plans falling into place. I just sat and listened 🙂

Joy

Busy day alert! 2 festivals in a day! although I have been known to do 3 😉

First up the utterly scrumptious and brand-spanking-new Derbyshire festival ‘Hairpin Hullabaloo‘. I was playing there  with Mills and Chimneys, but the main reason I just have to give this a mention is because this festival was run by my very good friend David Gibb of David Gibb and Elly Lucas with help from ‘Mills…’ compadre Julian Butt and they did a smashing job! 2 days of great folk music including Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies, Pilgrims Way, Greg Russell and more. Here’s to the brilliant hullabaloo long may it reign! 🙂

How gorgeous is this stage?!

BEAUTIFUL VENUE ALERT!!! Pot Belly Folk Festival at Kettering Arts Centre is a relatively new venture too, this was their 5th folk festival and what a special day it was (I was there for the evening only but I was told the day was just as mighty!). Held in a church this place had a real magic atmosphere to it…proper spinetingling stuff! And I was headlining…headlining…a festival…totally cool 🙂 we did have a few technical hitches but once we got going  all was well. I managed to catch the lovely Hadrian’s Union and Jez Hellard, whom I had never seen before but was totally ace!

Jez Hellard rocking out!

Just three more stops on the solo dates then I shall leave you in peace for today 🙂

Record Store Day was on the 20th of April and I headed down to ‘David’s‘ in Letchworth for a cheeky stint in their beautiful shop which sells not only records but books/instruments/cake and everything else that is good in the world! I spent lots! Or Rob did, I wasn’t carrying cash 😉

The 1963 production for Radio 4 of The Hobbit = GEEK HAPPINESS!!!!

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

The lushly (yes I did make that word up) Dunton Folk is pretty brand new, they started at the back end of 2012 and are really passionate about supporting acoustic music and putting on a fantastic programme of gigs. Also in a church, the venue is just gorgeous, in fact as we drove into the village we could see the church, sun blazing down, flower beds all in bloom it just looked like something out of a water colour ya know 🙂 My old friend Kate Denny (formerly of The Kittiwakes) did a beautiful support set. Awesome arrangements, accompanied by Charlie Skelton…ah it was just so up my street, lots of death, misery and crunchy harmony!

The very last date on the tour was at a launch event for Beverley Festival and I was sandwiched in between 2 lovely gents. T.E Morris who was new to me, but boy has he got passion! And headlining that evening was Steve Tilston. Supporting Steve was my first ever paid gig and it always feels great to play on a bill with him. The man is just such a beautiful songwriter!

Also at this gig there was caravan in the backstage area! Awesomesauce!

Indoor caravanning for the win!

Right then, that really is enough for today 🙂 But check back tomozipan for the part 2 of this blog where I will be rambling about

• The recent Lucy Ward Band gigs
• Top 5 Tour Stats
• FESTIVAL SEASON!!!
• The forthcoming new album

Ciao peeps, hope you are enjoying the sunshine!

Luce xx