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Phil Riley / Blog

White Horse Folk

A big thanks to Dave and Julia Taylor for asking Neil and myself along last Friday. We had a tremendously enjoyable gig - no p.a. - just incredible acoustics. Smashing audience and two sweet support slots from Colin Perks. Next up is a house concert in Wymeswold 1st December. Email me for details.

I've been busy

I've had a great time lately. Some lovely gigs so far this June in particular - really chuffed with all of them but especially the CD promotional gig at The Guildhall in Leicester. Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a memorable night. One more to go at The Riverside event in Stony Stratford, then July getting ready for the Germany cafe tour with Borderline Crossing, then August taking it a bit easier, festivalling and weeding the allotment!

Mike Harding Folk Show

A big thanks to Mike Harding for playing 'Sinner's Song' last week and this week will be featuring 'Cherry Tree' from our 'Lost Legions' CD. http://www.mikehardingfolkshow.com/

The Song Loft

The Song Loft (http://bit.ly/2mBsqQJ) is a great folk club run in the old fashioned way and very successfully too. Neil Mercer and I had the honour of being feature guests there last Friday. Jane Armour, the organiser, was sadly poorly and couldn't make it but Bill Reed and Colin Turner ran the evening very nicely. Lots of good floor singers to enjoy and an audience who seemed to know the choruses of our songs which they'd never heard before, better than we do! They are really a great ''if you sing - we all sing' club. No P.A. of course. It was a great evening and we hope to be able to play there again in the not too distant future.

New CD has finally arrived!

40 years ago Neil Mercer and I started recording an LP with our band, The Kites. Although, apart from ourselves, none of the original members are on it, nevertheless we have finally completed it in the form of our new CD "Lost Legions". VIsit my website (www.philey.org.uk) for the soundcloud link for a listen to a couple of tracks (or go to the lyrics page to buy a copy!). Hooray!

"Press the button, Max!"

I'm really pleased to say that - after many delays - Neil Mercer and yours truly have finally given the go-ahead to get the new CD duplicated, printed and packaged up. We're just sitting back and waiting for a week or so now. Hooray!

Getting there

After a great 5 week break in Ireland and Scotland it was nice to play a little gig with Neil Mercer and Neil Segrott at the Kontra roots club in Northamptonshire last Friday. We are still holding ourselves up though with yet another (but necessary) hold up with the new CD. I've got some final mixes though and will try and post a couple on soundcloud in the next few days or so - will advise when I've done so for anyone who might be interested in having a listen.

CD update

We had our final mixing and mastering session last week. I'm really pleased with how it all sounds - all we've got to do now is crack on and get the final product out!

Sweet Charity

Had a 'nice' weekend of charity gigs - Friday at Stony Stratford for fund raiser for the kids fun day, Saturday at Music on the Green Stoke Albany for Village Hall funds and Sunday at The Cherry Tree in Market Harborough for a music and raffle afternoon in aid of Rainbows - hence the new profile picture!

The Gathering

Had a wonderful long weekend in Preston on Wye at Roger Pugh and Di's annual gathering. A few days of real roots music - no big names - just us 'local' musicians - a little bit of story telling too. Beer straight from the cask at The Yew Tree Inn and the weather getting better all the time!

Then back for a smashing evening at The Royal Arms.(facebook 'Royal Arms Acoustic' ). Think I'll stay in tonight!