Ragged Glory

Well, they were a cheerful bunch!
There was something on to suit my musical tastes two days running at the Globe - so off I went to see the folk band.

Before they went on stage, they were sitting under the wall where the silent, arty films are projected throughout the evening. They might be shadows on a wall, or traffic at an intersection, or people walking up and down a street - that sort of thing. As they were due to go on, the lead guitarist said: "We can't go yet - something exciting's going to happen in a minute. A pigeon is going to fly across there."
That started them off creating a narrative for the piece of film they were watching. "That guy on the sand heap's been waiting for the train for fifteen years, and that guy in the background is jealous because he isn't sitting on the sand heap..."

The line up for the first half was a fiddle player, singer and guitarist, and about the third song they did was called Ragged Glory, "...and we are such people," said the lead guitarist in his introduction.
"It's eponymous," said the singer.
"A hippopotomous? Right, this is a song about a hippopotomous...."

In the second half, the first three were joined by a drummer and bass guitarist. It was, apparently, only the second gig they had done all together - and there was also a flute player in the band, but he was up at Shrewsbury Folk Festival. "We thought he might be able to play his bit up there and phone it down to us, but it hasn't happened yet," they said. The singer also played the flute for one song, when the guitarist was singing.

A fun evening!