November newsletter

Photo by Alan Cole: www.folkfestivalphotos.co.uk

November has been a hugely significant month, I’ve worked incredibly hard and played just as hard too and created some of my most significant lifetime memories in the process!

I started the month on stage with none other than the legendary Nic Jones of Penguin Egg fame in an utterly surreal set of duets where he provided support vocals to two of my own songs ‘The Sailor’s Farewell’ and ‘The Wanting Wife’ before we were joined by the lovely Lukas Drinkwater and Greg Hancock in singing ‘The Rose of Allendale’ and the classic ‘The Little Pot Stove’ in a performance that will stay with me forever. A very special gig indeed!


The next thing November was to bring me was probably one of the most poignant moments of my life as I stood, bare footed in central lobby of the houses of parliament at the turn of midnight on the centenary of WW1 and sang, acapella, amazing grace. Wow!

I was also lucky enough to sing ‘She Moves Through The Fair’ in Westminster Hall and ‘John Ball’ along with two members of Merry Hell and Blanch Rowen on the Parliamentary patio while there. (We were all invited to a very rare and beautiful evening of folk music held by the All-Party Parliamentary Group
 for Folk Arts hosted by Cerys Matthews in the House of Commons
Jubilee Room. It was supported by the EFDSS and TRAC)

What would my bare footed self at the age of 14 on the streets of Ireland have said if someone had told me that this is what I was going to do with my life?! A very significant day in my life and I owe a huge thank you to the beautiful Tamsin Rosewell who chose to take me on that journey and even travel it bare footed with me! You can follow our bare feet through our London trip…



Next, I continued on tour with the hugely talented, extreme gentleman and now good friend Steve Pledger (aka ‘Legs’). 

I sent Legs up many a long driveway on our flyer drops as we proceeded to hand promote 10 of the hilliest villages in Somerset, we went through many pairs of socks, packets of ‘go ahead’ bars and costa coffees together and we have had an utter blast on what ended up being a sell out tour!

Huge thanks goes to Becky, Steve’s lovely wife for all of her help in running the bar and lights and to Rob my amazing ‘husband face’ who did all the design, web work and sound. It was an epic tour and I am utterly exhausted but it was just so much fun. Steve and I have loved singing together and although we are going onto our solo projects again for the moment, I am certain that we will be joining forces again before too long.


So, December is almost upon us and I for one can not wait for the twinkling lights, glowing fire, Minced pies and slightly too intensely competitive family board games that Christmas has to bring! I had planned Decmber entirely off but… like that was going to happen ;)

So, before we get out the scrabble…

I am off to Stevenage on Tuesday/Wednesday to record a session on Daria Kulesh’s Show ‘The F Spot which will go out on Blues and Roots Radio on the 12th December at 10pm.

Then I will be performing at the BBC Somerset Christmas Special, hosted by 'The Emma Britton’ to be held in St Mary’s Church in Bridgwater on the evening of the 12th and will be recorded and then broadcast over the Christmas period on BBC Somerset.

I will be continuing to finish planning the Feb/March northern tour in hope of announcing the final dates before Christmas. 

And finally…

Something especially Christmassy shall be happening on the 12th of December but I can’t say what! All I will say is that when you all find out…it will be music to your ears ;)

 TTFN, Ange x 

Posted by Ange Hardy on November 29th 2014

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