25-Mar-09 The Clarence Folk Club, Blackpool

We had been asked by our Lancashire friends Penny Black if we would take part in a special evening they were putting on at The Clarence Folk Club... we were delighted to say 'Yes'. They were taking over the club for the evening and along with jiva there were also slots from Gwen Hechle and Steve Ferguson, two performers we had met last year at Oswaldtwistle Mills and Fleetwood. Penny Black then took over for the second half of the evening with their Lancashire humour and some whirlwind banjo playing from Pete.

It's a three hour drive to Blackpool but it was worth every mile. We were given a 30-minute slot and had a great time. We were well received by the audience... they sang along heartily in all the right places and listened attentively in the quiter parts too. We had our by now customary competition with 'One More Song' which was great fun - it's always great to have the audience gustily joining in and, wow, the Clarence folk were super! It was good to meet and say 'Hi' again to Ann who normally runs the Clarence Folk Club (we had been to the club last year to take part in an Allan Taylor theme night').

Before the show we were treated to fish and chips at The Cottage - reputedly the best fish and chip shop in the country (well at least in the county) - by Anthony John Clarke and his friend John. We had mentioned to Anthony John when we saw him at the Davy Lamp Club in Washington that we were going to be at the Clarence and he said he'd try and get over to see us, and he was as good as his word.

We performed mostly our own songs:

• 'Love At The Five And Dime' (Nanci Griffith)
• 'Best Friends' (jiva)
• 'Different Dreams' (jiva)
• 'Some Way Home' (jiva)
• 'One More Song' (jiva)

We received a lot of positive comments afterwards from the audience and were chuffed to bits when Anthony John said that he thought 'Best Friends' is a "belter of a song".

Links
jiva website
jiva MySpace
The Clarence MySpace