Fiona and I had a very good evening at the Butterknowle Acoustic Club. The musicians were very good and I particularly enjoyed Valse Maria. I found their repertoire a bit mixed up and I would rather they stuck to the more serious stuff which I think they did absolutely brilliantly. But the acoustic club is a pitch for the middle place and that is exactly what they did. Mel and myself did our three songs bit and considering I have not played in public for years I thought I was up to my usual exuberant self. It was very hard to not break out into bebop! Within the context of a country music night I'm pretty sure that bebop would not go down too well.I promised Fiona I would not play bebop on any song and I kept to that! Mel was as solid as a rock, a nice performer.

I particularly enjoyed the family atmosphere in the village hall and I have a fondness for village halls because of the great memories of playing in them from my early teens.Many thanks to Bryan, Klara, Heather and Kev for putting together a wonderful evening which totally enhances the quality of life in the Lower Teesdale/Weardale area. I sincerely wish there were more venues like this across northeast England and they adopt the format of having an open mike night for the first half of the evening and then give a local group or solo performer an opportunity to do 10 or so songs to let people know what they have got.