The National Re-Visited

I'm sorry to say that my previous post on the National was a bit rushed, I only had a short time to type it as we were waiting to be picked up from the hotel, so here goes.

I was very impressed with this superb weekend of Folk Music in Canberra, The National is a true Folk Festival and concentrates on Folk Music from Australia and around the world. The range of artists was very extensive and everyone I saw was excellent. The venues were well organised, the sound was great and the audiences were wonderful.

All of Vin's concerts were jam packed full, he was in wonderful form and his humour as ever sharp as a knife. Cd's were flying out of our hands at every concert and they were queuing up to get into his whistle workshop on the Sunday morning. From our point of view it was a huge success. We met many old friends from our trips around the clubs and festivals in Australia and it was great to catch up with them again, unfortunately there are far too many of you to mention.


I even caught Kristina Olsen busking for a new dress in one of the Stalls!


The highlights from our point of view we without doubt the concerts at the Troubadour, Andrew Patterson's venue is a central focal point for artists and discerning audiences alike and is always full. Gigs are by invitation only and no one gets paid to perform there. The best of the best are invited so all the gigs are quality. Vin played there twice, one the afore mentioned late night gig and the other Vin's desert Island disks. I was also fortunate enough to be offered two gigs.



As we were helping Andrew and Heather pack up the Troubadour we had a number of visitors, one notable fellow turned up looking for one of my Cd's called Ken Prato he is an old friend of Martyn Wyndham-Read's and was sporting a Whitby T Shirt, well worth a pose! He presented me with a notable volume of his poetry called "Sheepshit On The Brain".


The weekend was filled with special moments, the weather was fine and Canberra was an exciting and beautiful Capital City, it was a pleasure and a great experience.

Of course I'm writing this in in Perth, we are now staying with Richard and Helen in their lovely house in Double View. So called because from the top of the estate you can see the Indian Ocean and the City, wonderful. I think I've found my perfect part of Oz. Western Australia is spectacular, the weather is almost perfect, the air is crystal clear and it's clean and well just a nice place to be. You'll find some of the best beaches in Australia here and this morning we drove down to Scarborough Beach and swam in the Indian Ocean, heaven. The waves were powerful and huge, the water warm, no sharks this morning thank goodness but we did see a dead blowfish, yes they're deadly too.


First day we were here Vin popped into the ABC studio's to be interviewed by Gillian O'Shaughnessy. To anyone who is logging in and who will be around the Fremantle area on the 14th April, Vin and I will be doing our last concert at the Fly By Night Club in Holdsworth Street, starting at 7.30 and we would love to see you there. Come alone and join the party.