Alistair Hulett’s Sporadic Newsletter.

Just one last Gallows Rant and quick news update before Me Onma Lonesome and my good chums in The Malkies and David Rovics (USA) launch our frail and tiny crafts onto the stormy waters of Showbiz together once more. It’s a howling blizzard of gigs we have ahead of us, me hearties, and there’s no let up till we hit 2009. This is a situation I’d surely love to be much more accustomed to than I am!

But right now though, there’s little time for anything but what’s in store, so without further ado, this is the low down…

Next weekend, that’s September 20th and 21st I’ll be down in West Yorkshire at the Otley Black Sheep Music Festival www.otleyfolkfestival.com just outside of Leeds. On Saturday 20th I’ll be doing my solo thing on an afternoon concert at The Civic Hall along with fab young blades Kerfuffle and the wonderful Chumbawumba.

On the very next day, Sunday 21st, I’ve got a couple more festival gigs with my lovely new band The Malkies, also in Otley Civic Hall. In the afternoon we’re on with Coope, Boyes and Simpson and that night with Vin Garbutt. So, there will be plenty of good times in Otley for us over that weekend, by gum. Our very dear, special guest harmony vocalist extraordinaire, Rachel Goodwin is doing a solo set at the Festival as well, in Korks Cabaret Bar on Thursday 19th. Do get along and see why the rest of us Malkies rate her so very highly. Miss that gig at your peril! Rach also joins us on stage for our evening show on Sunday 21st at The Civic.

On October 4th I’m back down Yorkshire way to team up again with The Malkies (including Rachel) for a gig at The Red Shed in Wakefield. This venue does exactly what its name implies. It IS red and it IS a shed! The Red Shed is in fact the official home of all progressive groups and tendencies in militant Wakefield, a town that shone like a beacon during the Miners Strike in ’84. The venue has two websites, one being in its official capacity as Wakefield Labour Club at www.theredshed.com and the other is the unofficial anarcho/commie punk and folk site at http://redshedbootlegged.bravehost.com/gigs.html I played there a while back with Jimmy Ross and it’s a cracking good shed for a night out, so it is.

On the following night, Sunday 5th, The Malkies (full squad) will be at The Cumberland Arms in Byker, Newcastle for a gig that promises to be a pure stoater as well. Organized for us by the bold Craig Wilson from the Anarchist Festival ‘Projectile’, we began speaking ages ago about getting the band on at the Star And Shadow Cinema where that fine festival took place a few months and a couple of newsletters ago. With no suitable dates available there, Craig has relocated the whole cunning plot to The Cumberland Arms, so huge thanks to him for doing that. Visit the pub’s website at www.thecumberlandarms.co.uk for all the details and directions you need.

Hot on the heels of those two gigs, I’ll be heading out with fellow Malkie, Phil Snell, for a string of gigs around Germany. The first of these is at The Weltruf in Kiel on October 9th and it all winds up on the 18th at The Kulturbahnhof in Moerfelden. All these gigs are listed on my website at www.alistairhulett.co.uk and I’m hoping to see a fair few dear pals from previous jaunts in Germany at some of the venues coming up over there.

Of particular interest to me, as a big fan of Glasgow Celtic FC (fitba’ club), is our gig on Oct 10th at The Jolly Roger Bar, home-fans’ drinking howf of Celtic’s sister team in Hamburg, the legendary St Pauli FC. I’m already brushing up on my arrangements of some auld Parkheid Classics for that night, even as we speak. Seriously though, folks, the gigs are looking great and huge thanks to my good friends and staunch comrades Hubert Barteska, Chrischan Berg and Eckhard Franke for working so hard and selflessly to set this all up for us.

Not long after we get back I’ve got just one solo gig in Glasgow, on November 5th starting right after the Celtic v Man U home game, just down the road from Paradise at the famous Scotia Bar (celebrated nerve centre of political folk music in Glasgow during the 1960s) in the Saltmarket. A few days later I’ll be heading out with David Rovics (USA) for a six-week tour of New Zealand and Australia, beginning in Katikati in ENZED on November 14th. Really though, that’s all a full Gallows Rant on its own, so just let me say for now that the NZ and Oz gigs are displayed on the website and I’ll send more details in another newsletter closer to the time. ‘Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof’, as our cheery brethren of the cloth and book are fond of reminding us. I’m out for here, so tatty-bye for now!
Ally