Having largely taken a break from my own gigs over the summer in anticipation of the Keepsakes album launch tour this September, I’ve had a chance to get my fingers into some other musical pies.

In May Jon Boden put me in touch with Ben Naylor, a director and lecturer at Central School of Speech and Drama. Following a recommendation from Jon, Ben asked me to come in an act as Musical Director for a production of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, the final performance by students on the MA course in Classical Acting. The play was to be set in Sicilian-style rural Italy circa 1920, so I got to do lots of research into Sicilian folk music and particularly enjoyed listening to the field recordings that Alan Lomax made in the area. Armed with a mandolin, a cajon, and both classical and steel-string guitars, I composed and performed live the dances and themes, arranged and sang a couple of Shakespeare-penned lyrics and even had a couple of lines as the minstrel character Balthazar.

I’ve also had the pleasure of playing with the Memory Band, a musical collective with an ever-changing line-up led by Stephen Cracknell. Instead of playing the Memory Band’s original material we played the soundtrack to the 70s horror film ‘The Wicker Man’, wailing our lewd Pagan incantations at Glastonbury, Supersonic Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Green Man Festival. Thanks to those of you who remained clothed during the shows.