One of the many things we're very lucky with, doing what we do, is to have the opportunity to work in a variety of unusual places. This has been an exceptional week in this respect as we've visited a couple of stunning locations. Wednesday night saw us play inside some beautifully restored miners' cottages at Blakemoregate, situated in one of our favourite places - the Stiperstones Nature Reserve in the South Shropshire hills. Natural England were hosting an open day and evening to celebrate the completion of the project. The journey up won the best approach to a gig we've ever had - it was either by foot or via a Land Rover if you have lots of stuff to carry. Because we ALWAYS have lots to carry... the very helpful people from Natural England who look after the area shuttled us up a very rugged route.
It's hard to believe that such a tranquil place was once one of the most important lead mining communities in Europe during the 1800s. Many of the miners' houses were abandoned and slowly disintegrated when the mines closed so Natural England have overseen the restoration of some of the buildings to demonstrate the harsh conditions people lived in and faced. The dwellings were known as Squatters' cottages - if a person could build a house on common land overnight and have smoke coming out of the chimney, they could live in it and as far they could throw an axe from the door was their boundary. So it was very atmospheric to sit and play music in a dark lit room and to wonder when the last time that that had happened. We also got to play 'Devil's Chair' very near the Stiperstones, which was very pleasing, as was the view from the composting toilet according to Steve!
Last night we travelling just over the border into Wales to meet up with our favourite faery Beck Sian and play some music in the grounds of Powis Castle. Luckily, the weather held and the resident peacock who is apparently called 'Alan' didn't mind us making more noise than he did.
It was lovely to see Beck again, catch up and hear her beautiful voice, we're going to be performing with her in a few weeks at St. Aelahaiarn's Church in Guilsfield, Powys at the start of July. In the meantime, we're off to Box in Gloucestershire this afternoon, to play at a village hall which is nestled in the cliffs of the Cotswolds and surrounded by lots of beautiful mills - one of which has been converted into an arts and educational centre based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner (who I seem to be reading and hearing about a a lot recently). It's a wonderful place called Ruskin Mill and it has a fantastic cafe. It has inspired us to start planning a tour of groovy arty cafes where we can simultaneously satisfy our love of cake, tea and making music :) oopps, just remembered that's how we started, very circular. You can take the band out of the cafe, but you can't take the cafe out the band. Tee Hee.