You may normally drop off at the word 'folk' which
conjures up images of pot bellied men with beards, hands cupped to
ears, sea shanty after sea bloody shanty whilst polishing off pints
of Rat's Testicle out of shiny pewter tankards.
Fear not. I assure you keen music listeners, these
days, the folk music scene is a much feistier, vibrant place, where
O'Hooley & Tidow - a generous pair of songwriters with a
healthy interest in the fairer sex, have been embraced to the
collective folk bosom. Oh yes. The LGBT community is alive
and well-represented in the folk music scene with plenty of gay
men; Sam Lee, Jim Causley and Roy Bailey to name but a few,
subverting the traditional folk song by singing from the woman's
point of view about lusty sailors and rakish gentlemen. Gina
Le Faux and Louisa Killen are both transsexual women folk
performers and there is even a female, dyke lead group of
sea-shanty singers called 'The She Shanties'!
This summer found me and my better half Heidi,
otherwise known as O'Hooley & Tidow, travelling the length and
breadth of the country, performing at folk festivals in our
battered but much loved dyke mobile - a Skoda Fabia which has
clocked up 132,000 miles in about as long as most people take to
walk to the local shop and back.
We started off in July with the trés cool, highly
eclectic gathering of Larmer Tree Festival, set in the beautiful
Larmer Tree Gardens in Salisbury, complete with peacocks and
torrential rain. Oh yes, the festival soon began to resemble
a refugee camp, with push chairs, tents and cars abandoned to the
knee deep mud which covered everything. The brilliant line-up
did make up for my digital piano starting to resemble something
fossilised which took many painstaking hours to get clean
again.
Luckily, a sunnier climate greeted us at Cambridge
Folk Festival - one of the most famous festivals in the UK, hosting
international acts such as kd laing, Anais Mitchell and Natalie
Merchant alongside home grown talent like Joan Armatrading, The
Proclaimers, Liz Green, King Charles and...us. We were selected for
one of their highly sought-after 'Showcases' this year and felt
quite nervous knowing that we were one of only four acts, that in
their opinion were tipped to make it big. Gulp.
Heidi bought a new fancy shirt for the occasion and
I had a proper bow-tie which I needed assistance to do up, minutes
before we went on stage. We played to a massive crowd and
despite the nerves, we really enjoyed ourselves. We couldn't
believe our luck when we discovered that The Guardian in their
review of the festival singled O'Hooley & Tidow out as their
best act of the entire weekend. Wowsers!
There were lots of other festivals over the summer,
and it all seems a bit of a blur now, especially as we're actually
on our autumn tour at the moment. Hope to see some of you lovely
ladies along the way.
O'Hooley & Tidow's double A-side single
'Gentleman Jack' and 'The Last Polar Bear' is released for download
only on 1 November.
Autumn Tour dates: For more info ohooleyandtidow.com
OCTOBER
13
NEWBURY New Greenham Arts
14
LONDON Walthamstow Folk Club
17
BURY Ramsbottom Folk Club
27
HUDDERSFIELD Lawrence Batley Theatre
28
GRIMSBY Folk Club
NOVEMBER
02
ISLE OF MAN Three Legs Festival
05
SKIPTON Folk Club
09
TORRINGTON Plough Arts Centre
10
ST AUSTELL Eden Project Cafe
15
LEICESTER Musician
19
CAMBRIDGE Junction
DECEMBER
04
MONTROSE Folk Club
06
FALKIRK Folk Club
07
EDINBURGH 42 Royal Park Terrace
