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The sun was high, heatwaves shimmered off the car bonnets, sweat trickled persistently and we drove, airless, to Romsey. 'Twas the day of the annual Beggars Fayre, a large street festival that has the otherwise respectable town ringing to the sounds of live music of every sort and this year we were on the line up for the Old House at home stage, a brewery lorry which bounced up and down creating a suggestion of being adrift which almost made me Seasick Sandy!

When we arrived there were Morris dancers galore strutting their stuff in various glittery costumes, we found a bit of shade to stand in and watched as The Day of the Rabblement attempted to set up on the wobbly stage. The electrical equipment was just not playing ball and kept banging and popping making it impossible for them to play on the stage, so like true professionals they dumped the electrickery, hopped off the stage and played acoustic. They were terrific, beautiful vocals, great musicianship and the only way amplification would have made it better was to enable more to hear the lovely harmonies that were being sung as it appears every one of them sings beautifully! An outrageous, even unseemly, amount of talent to have in one place! I will definitely be seeing them again, loved the folk indie mix they were really excellent. Check them out here  http://www.reverbnation.com/thedayoftherabblement

We weren't sure how the electric daemons were going to treat us as we set up but we were lucky, being only 4 and having minimal equipment, I didn't take the piano, we had no trouble. The crowd were lovely and we did a predominantly up-beat set with a distinct leaning towards our folkier end. I was really pleased with Day for Crows and was completely lost, within minutes of getting up there, in a world that can only be accessed by singing songs that mean something to you. I love it there. The audience were jigging about and dancing at times and I think the Quiet Joys of Brotherhood went down well although I always miss the response as it takes me a while to come back to the now when I sing songs like that. As we were playing a HUGE hairy bumble bee kept flying in towards me so not only was I, at times feeling a little motion sick i was also resisting the urge to flail my arms around and run away screaming!  Anyway, great day out and great place to play indeed, hope we can go there again.

So, next stop for WB is Aachen in Germany, a beautiful university city near the border to Belgium. Oh we are excited, terrified, squeaking and cool in varying degrees about the whole week we will be away. The next blog will be all about our adventures in Deutschland, something tells me it will be a good one. Speak when we get back. xxx