Here we are

This could be the place of the Kiel Weekend in September:


Größere KartenansichtVilla Falkenhorst

Kiel? How far is that?

It depends.
But for example the price for one person with Ryan Air from London(Stanstead) to Hamburg(Lübeck) -return flight- is 48,46 GBP including taxes (maybe there´s an extra charge for the banjo).
There should be other companies offering this trip too.
Worth thinking it over?

"What is the date for the Kiel Retreat?"

Well, I thought about this before.
There is a house (see above) near the sea at the outskirts of Kiel which offers bunk-beds, kitchen, two (or three?) rooms where we could make music. We would do our own cooking etc (or we order the pizza sevice). Not comparable to our comfortable home in Sheffield, but we would have a house of our own. (No draught beer though, only six-packs :-). There are rooms with three bunks and six bunks (details on the plan at the Villa´s site). Sleeping bags advised.
We could rent this house during a weekend in September from Friday night till Sunday, i.e. September 18th to 20th the upcoming year (no other spare times there). Costs will be shared per capita.
I think I could organize some sort of shuttle service for a few people to and fro the Hamburg airport (one hour drive).
The only question is:
Will there be enough participants?
Including me I count on three to five Germans (maybe more, but insecure) but I´m not sure if this is interesting enough for the UK (and Spanish and others) Folkies to make such a journey.
Think it over, folks, and either send me an email if you would like to join in or post a comment. So far there is no obligation, just counting the prospective participants.
I would be happy to see the UK-Spanish-Irish-US Folkies again and hopefully some others too - and could make a reservation for a closet in case Fred from Baltimore drops in :-)

Seasonal Greetings?

MERRY CHRISTMAS to my dear readers -
especially to all those whom I met this year for the first time through music.
No time to practice a new christmas tune (although I had a try with "Fairytale from New York", but it´s not ready to be published), so here´s an old one: Very german, very banjo.
Let´s take our time during these holidays to share some music!

UKFPCT String Band

As we all know one of the most important skills of the REAL FRAILER is every morning after having had a closer look into the wardrobe: To choose the ultimate shirt - as this really will help the bump ditty on it´s way.
As luck would have it we all were properly dressed at the Sheffield weekend:



Thank you very much indeed, Roland, for lending us this excellent frailer´s tool and Bill, for helping the "UK Folkies Patrick Costello Tribute String Band" into this red thingy.

Sorry, DoD, I know you would prefer other clothings, but this had to be done!

Bump Ditty

When I began my first frailing tries I was quite insecure how to hold my right hand while hitting the strings - i.e. while frailing the banjo. Now I know that there are many ways to execute the bump-ditty. Here you can see some of the participants at the UK Folkies Weekend frailing Cripple Creek. You may notice that not two of them are moving their right hands in exactly the same way - everyone has found his own way.
I´d like to know if Patrick is satisfied with our right hands...

Video

James put a video on youtube. Hopefully banjohopeful will add one or two more videos?

Fotos

You can find lots of fotos from this weekend´s meeting in Sheffield at Carlos´Flickr set and at Dick´s Flickr account.

Jamming

That´s how it sometimes went in Sheffield:
Someone started a tune (I think it was James on this file), some others did recognize it, then - after a few lines - joined in, soon the rest of us came familiar with the tune and joined in also
and by such the the band played a tune, which half of us never had played before.
Could we have achieved that without Patrick´s and DoD´s teaching?

What Did I like Most at the UK Folkies Weekend?

Dunno,
enjoyed frailing together with (almost) 20 open backs - "they shook the rafters and the floor"
had the courage (oh boy!) to sing in front of 20 listeners - phew!
stole Danny´s guitar - sounded fine
even played together with a piper: Dick had brought his small pipes and allowed me to accompany him with the banjo on "Blue Eyes" (no, not "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", although we did this about 4 times this weekend :-)))

Here is "Blue Eyes" with pipes and banjo.

UK Folkies

The UK Folkies Weekend is over. It was a blast! Music and banjo talk from morning til late after midnight (on Friday night it ended not before 3 a.m.).
First reviews and fotos are on Tangiersound
More later - have to catch the plane.

1st UK Folkies Weekend

Going over to Sheffield, skip to my loo!
...
The UK Folkies will meet at Sheffield this weekend - and several non-UK guys will join in: Two from Spain, one from Irland - and me!
Looking forward to see you all, guys.
I will be happy to meet Camilo, Carlos, Colin, Dick and Keith again (who all were at the Crisfield, Maryland, retreat too)
...
Going over to Sheffield, skip to my loo
Keith did the arrangements, skip to my loo
Happy to meet you, skip to my loo
Skip to my loo my (well, ok, let´s better say) friends