The first gig of the year was at Grimsby Folk Club early January. We were both full of cold, but we needed to get match fit for what lay ahead.
Twenty nine gigs in thirty two days on the road with Fairport Convention.
The whole tour was a blast. The band and crew were a dream to work with and we made a lot of friends. You can read about it all in detail by going to the tour blog here
Back in early 2017 we hadn't any plans to record a new album but Dave Pegg (Fairport bassist and all round good egg) suggested it would be a good idea to have something new to sell on the tour. Of course he was right, so we got stuck in and wrote and recorded Far Off on the Horizon (our eighth album). We set the release date for January 25th to coincide with the start of the tour and couldn't have been happier with how well the album (and tour) was received. The reviews were great and it is by far our best-selling album to date. The video for the title track was featured in the Daily Telegraphs Culture pages and the video for Ghost, the second single was featured in the Big Issue.
In March we were nominated for an award for the first time and were delighted to be runners up to Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman in the Folking.com Best Duo category. What made it really special was that it was a public vote.
We then set off on our own tour which took us all over the UK and Ireland and it was great to see so many new faces who'd come to see us following the Fairport tour.
It was a long glorious summer of festivals and we managed a trip to France for a few days in June. On the way home from France we went straight to the New Forest Folk Festival which was both sweltering and delightful.
The highlight of our summer had to be Cropredy Festival. 2018 saw the fortieth anniversary of Sandy Denny's passing and the band put together a tribute to Sandy during the final concert of the festival.
We were delighted, honoured and more than a little nervous to be asked to perform Sandy's Long Long Time with the band at the concert.
In September we got to play a couple of gigs with the legends that are Lindisfarne which was another treat.
October and November had us doing a few gigs in Germany and our first ever gigs in Belgium which was a bit special.
2019 is shaping up nicely. We return to Australia in January, the first gig of the year will be at Illawarra Folk Festival (NSW) on Jan 17th. We'll be over there for five weeks, returning in mid Feb.
We'll be in Spain in May, Canada in September and wherever the road takes us in between.
Oh, and all being well we will be putting out a live album (recorded on the Fairport tour) in the spring.
Thanks so much for the support. We are very lucky people!
Happy New Year..
Dave & Kip
