London here we come!

This Thursday sees us play what is probably our biggest gig to date. We’re playing main support to the staggering Australian singer/songwriter Rory Ellis at the famous Half Moon in Putney.

Rory is a guy I (Phil) have known for a while through my folk connections, and met up with him on his first ever tour over here about 6 years ago – where he played a 30 minute set in-between two acts from a local acoustic guy at the back of a tiny pub in Newbury. Suffice to say the local talent got absolutely blown off the stage by Rory’s sheer power and emotive songwriting – I can’t imagine he was invited back!

He’s since gone on to gain quite a reputation for himself in this country, generally heading over here for the summer months and playing all over the place. He’s a guy who needs to be heard. Without a doubt the finest talent I’ve ever had the pleasure of ‘discovering’ through a CD sent to my house for review. Not only that, an absolutely brilliant bloke, full of stories.

This gig then is big for us in two ways. It is the first of a couple of main artist support slots we’ve got in the next few weeks (the other being nu-folk songstress Lisa Knapp on June 14th), which is a position we were looking to get in to around the time of the album coming out – which is great. The second reason is because of the venue. The Half Moon marks a step up in class for us. A venue synonymous with top quality intimate acoustic performances from the very best artists on the scene, both from the UK and from across the world. Acts like Billy Bragg, Eddi Reader, Show of Hands, Nick Cave, Paul Brady and KT Tunstall have all played there in the last few years – so it’s a bit special to be joining that calibre of act to play on that stage.

These are the sort of venues where we absolutely have to make a good impression on both the promoter (for re-bookings and recommendations) and also the paying punters who will visit here expecting the standard of act to be very high. This is the sort of venue where a band like us, who have been playing everywhere we possibly can over the last year or so need to aspire to headlining one day and its up to us on Thursday to put in a performance worthy of the venue. Hopefully a good reception to that and the album might go some way in making a headline appearance happen somewhere down the line!

So – for anyone wishing to see this momentous occasion, tickets are available by visiting the Half Moon website.