When, Oh When is this Ukulele madness going to stop!

No time soon, by looks ....

Driftwood is tooling up

If you missed them at the Deal Maritime Folk Festival check out the great Deal Band  Ukulele Gangstas : their neo-Formby-Punk ''Unicycle drive-byes' made me cough out loud (Sue's nephew is lead singer).

You do want see 851 ukuleles doing a mexician wave click here ....

Friday the 30th Oct - it should be more scary!

Busy Friday Night -  Driftwood were playing at Crabble Mill in Dover last night. Dave was reported as enjoying himself with his other job in Bottles (they were headlining at the event).

I decided to attend the Deal With IT meeting on 'Renewable Energy' at St Georges with Michael Meacher MP and Alistair Gould from the Pines Calyx in St Margaret's Bay (5miles along the coast).

Good to catchup with Patrick (we compared notes on last weekend's marathons) and discuss his ideas on getting a sustainable-cycling campaign going locally.

The meeting was well attended for a friday - about 70 people and there was was a good level of  discussion. I have not heard Michael Meacher since the Miners Strike and he was forthwright and critical of the Government and political class in general but enjoyable to listen too.

Personally I thought the discussion missed the point a bit:

 a) what should be no-brainers like delivering the 'decent homes' standard to the millions of council homes which is being put on hold by the Government to save money to pay the debts from bailing out the bankers.This will only get worse with all parties pushing the cuts agenda in 2010.

b) The not in my-back-yard localism - In my view this is because others are making profits from a perceived eye-sore (like a turbine), and there is no direct benefit to the communities effected. Easy remedy give them a percentage of the profits or free power...

 c) The sense of urgency - in 150 year if nothing changes, where the meeting was held (in a plush Georgian Church) will be under the sea (due to rising sea levels and the fact that Kent is sinking [thats the Ice-age for you]). Time to pick up the pace... we should be scared

All in MHO, Roadie

Celebrating Our Deal...

'CelebrateYour Deal'
This Sunday 25th Oct saw a very successful 'Think Global, Act Local' event - the day was jam packed with stalls from local producers, Canterbury Greenpeace, creative writing, seed exchanges, workshops, talks, some community singing, face painting, a scary lot of pumkins from Rippledown and a really dangerous amount of real chocolate...

There was a good presence of local performers at the event:

Bill and Mac kicking things off at 10:30 in fine style

and the Deal Hoodeners did a couple of sets outside - including the 'Great North Run' which went down well with Snowdon marathon recovering Roadie

Driftwood played from 2:30 to the close (well actually beyond the close - they did Nelson's Blood as things were being packed up and the lights were going off; but they do pride themselves on being a band that can out last their audience!). A great set which went down well, fuelled by some serial tastings of a local cider. Thanks to our loyal supporters Lynda, Martin and Karen + Oregano for the lovely cake!

A video of Bad Moon Rising can be found at the band's YouTube Site

Well done to Helen (Age??) and all at 'Deal With It' for organising a fantasic event - Here's to a Greener Deal

after the flood

Your intrepid roadie completed yesterday's Snowdonia Marathon in respectable 3:57:37 and was fully operational today in Deal for Roadie duties.

The weather totally fulfilled it forecast with horizonal rain and gusts of 60mph (there is about a inch of water in my rucksack still) and according to my garmin i did 4082ft of accent ... the last six miles were the killer with a three mile steep climb followed with  equally steep 1.5mile drop down a trackway (I wish I had my fell shoes for this bit!), then just to add to the fun the organisers had included a dog-leg in LLanberis with another hill in it to the finish....

Thoughly soaked, thoughly enjoyed it!

Roadie

http://www.snowdoniamarathon.co.uk/

Over the hills and far away....

Spare a thought for the poor roadie this Saturday 24th October - he is running the Snowdonia marathon and the forecast is for a mild monsoon.

To say this one is hilly is a bit of a understatement....

Back on Roadie duty on the Sunday as it the 'Celebrate Your Deal' Green event at the Landmark Centre ... with your favorite band playing at 2pm.

Bill & Mac are playing at 10:30 and the Deal Hoodeners are also lending their support....

Lots of interesting stalls ... see the report in this week's East Kent Mercury

Driftwood playing at Winter Folk Fest at Ash Sat 2nd Jan 2010

Adrian O is organising another of his very successful and Roadie rated mini-folk fests at the Chequer Inn in Ash on Saturday 2nd January 2010.

Driftwood will be there ... so watch this space for details...

Driftwood (short of a plank - Sue had absconded) playing at the much warmer August 2009 Mini-Fest organised by Adrian (the 'Kat in the Hat')

Driftwood playing at Blean Barn Dance 14th Nov 2009

Driftwood will be supporting the Deal Hoodeners at the Barn Dance in Blean School Hall (nr Canterbury) on Saturday 14th November.

The dance is raising funds for Blean Village Hall  Project - starts at 7:30pm £5, Bring your own food/drink - contact Carol Sturgeon sturgeon.carol@googlemail.com for further detals.

This will be a womens only Driftwood line up (Dave is on the Bottle{s} that night)

http://www.driftwood.uk.net/gigs.html

Raising the St Leonards's roof - Gig Report October 17th 2009

There was a real roll-call of local talent at the St Leonards repairs fund raiser on Saturday. The Evening was billed as one of 'music & song' and saw over 15 local groups and performers do their thing in fine style.

The Deal Hoodeners kicked off the event with a sea soaked medley, followed by rockers combo Mac & Clive, a lovely song from Janet, followed by Eddie, the marvellous Val & Bill, Sue Watson's Deal Fisherman's song with Stuart, Mike Woods' bluesy 'Mary Don't You Weep', New kids on the block 'Beux & Belles made their first outing and finally on the second half Bill and his magic accordion & dulcimer.

The second half kicked off with the excellent Loose Change, Mike Broomfield managed to sing his song without being struck by lightning, Jim rendered a great version of the dark isle, Adrian O give us his Ball of Blue, Steve O'Kane sang us his beautiful songs + Fiona lifted the roof (if not the spire) with amazing grace, then Driftwood got them singing in the aisles (literally).

The Management ended a great evening with abba's 'thank you for the music'.

Driftwood YouTube playlist : http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8CEAB4C7BCD8620B 

(as the roadie cannot multi-task there is a bit of wobble on the videos,sorry)

Roadie's photos from the evening : http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/213823947
(There will be some copies for performers at the next Deal Folk Club on the 23rd  - but you can order your own copies/enlargements direct from photobox - if you need a electronic copy drop the roadie a line at roadie@driftwood.uk.net)

A big Driftwood thank you to Lynda for organising the evening

Like a virgin....

The Roadie has manged to get into the 2010 London Marathon - It will his nine outing at the event.

Sponsorship has moved over the years from Mars (health food?) to Flora (Fatty spreads) and next year will be the turn of Virgin (beardie failed-ballonist capitalist). ...

so as madge says 'like a virgin, for the very nineth time'

It keeps the roadie on the streets....

October 30th an evening with 'Dave Marshall'

Driftwood's lead flutist Dave Marshall will be playing with local bad boys 'Bottles' who are headlining at the Crabble Mill Folk Club in Dover on Friday 30th October.

Driftwood will also be there playing a few songs. Do you need a brodhran accompaniment ?

A few more sets on the 30th and we can declare it 'Dave Marshall Day'

http://www.myspace.com/thebottlesband
http://www.ccmt.org.uk/events.htm

Saturday 3rd Oct Busk - Deal High Street

Members of Deal's local folk club came out today for a busk to publise the gig at St Leonards on the 17th Oct.(See earlier postings for details)
Rose and Sue were joined by Mac, Lynda, Eddie, Bill & Val and Jim

They raised £44 for the church repair and a good time was had by all

See all photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/38482905@N08/sets/72157622381585133/