withtheband

On Saturday night in a sleepy little village in Bedfordshire some Christmas magic happened.

Every month the back room of a pub comes to life with live music and gives a chance to musicians and bands to take to the floor. Local band Ragged Staff organise the NAF Club (Not a Folk Club) which often features folk acts but offers a warm welcome to performers of other genres.

With the approach of Christmas, they decided to hold a special Christmas Party in the village hall and invite some of their favourite acts to perform. The music on the night came from the NAF Club’s regular floor singers as well as some performances worthy of a special mention :

NAF Club regular Leon, a young lad with an amazingly soulful voice, sang a few covers including “Cannonball” which made all the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

Radio 6 Presenter Tom Robinson’s favourites (and withtheband favourites too) The October Game played a brilliant set made up of songs from their new album “Wildblood” as well as some from their last album “Box Of A Billion Lights”. Judging by the amount of cds that were sold by the band throughout the night i think it’s probably safe to say they went down pretty well.

Ragged Staff band member Ned played a set of jigs and reels on the Uillean Pipes and whistle with acclaimed musician James O’Grady. James has in the past toured with The Oysterband & Cara Dillon, and features on Cara’s album “Hill Of Thieves” which has received 3 nominations for the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Resident band Ragged Staff performed their brand of Irish Folk to end the night and had everyone’s feet tapping.

Everyone had a great night and roughly £1000 was raised for the Primrose Cancer Unit at Bedford Hospital.

If you would like to perform at the NAF Club or want to know more email Ned.