• Jim D'Ville, Oregon, USA, the booking agent for fiddler Richard Greene and The Grass is Greener, has been approached by the Cambridge Folk Festival, who are interested in having the band play this year's festival (July 24-27). An aid to securing that would be some other gigs the preceding week, so other festival organisers should get onto him PDQ if they want to snap them up for their event. According to Jim's news-sheet The Acoustic Outpost, the band plays only instrumentals. Jim can be contacted at: Box 108, Yachats, OR 97498, USA; Phone/Fax: 001-541-547-3237, or by Write to at: dville@pioneer.net.
• Terry Holland and Janet, of the midlands-based Missing Strings, are actively searching a new place to live in South Wales. Anyone up this end wanting to book them should do it now before it gets logistically too difficult with extra expenses!
• Just after Christmas Kevin Garratt re-formed the Leeds-based band The Generation Gap, with his son Neil Garratt providing some lead vocals and playing guitar (mainly) plus mandolin. Completing the line-up are Pam Gray (bass, lead vocals), Angela Gray (Mandolin, lead vocals) and Bill Forster (banjo). All five provide harmony vocals. The band is practising weekly and plays at The Leeds Bluegrass Club at The Groves and will appear at The Yorkshire Dales Festival. Bill's position as banjo picker with The Acme Band is unaffected by this move.
• This will be a British Bluegrass Scoop if the Acme Band can pull it off! Although not yet confirmed, arrangements are at an advanced stage for them to do a solo Gospel set on May 4th at Durham Cathedral!! Phone Bob Armstrong 01434-382609 for final details.
• Well-known singer - guitarist - mandolinist Matt Ditchburn has left the North-West-ish scene to live in the deep south near Eastleigh. He has nailed down the crack job of Chief Engineer at Eastleigh-based Wessex Trains, who enabled Richard Branson's high-speed Edinburgh-Penzance run.
• The Acme Band is working on a new recording. They have written several new songs and tunes which they are gradually incorporating into a stage show! In a way they are trying their own version of "Operation Breakout!" because, as they see it, there is little point in endlessly copying USA bands and in any case it's a lot more fun creating something new.
• The BBMA was represented by Tom Travis at the funeral of Wally Whyton at Golders Green Crematorium in February. Wally was presenter of the popular Saturday afternoon 60's radio show Country Meets Folk. Also present were the likes of Ralph McTell, Martin Carthy, Pete Stanley and Brian Golby. Tom sang the Stanley Bros. songs White Dove and The Darkest Hour, accompanied by Pete on banjo and himself on guitar.
• Sponsors Steve Read and Geoff Bowers had a hand in starting a new Bluegrass club at The Robin Hood, Mansfield Rd., Nottingham on 1st Friday every month. 8 p.m. start with picking session followed by stage performances by Nottingham band The Bootleggers and guest bands. Not in the North West, but still a place for our bands to get gigs. Phone: 0115-920-0027 or 0015-987-2520.
• Tom Travis was interviewed in the recent BBC Radio 2 series Bluegrass Comes Home. After he enthused about the bright, young creative people in Bluegrass today, Johnny Plank and The Planktones illustrated his point by playing an excellent rendition of their own pop-bluegrass-mix- derived number Swamp Creek.
• Kathy Chiavola was awarded Female Vocalist Of The Year, Contemporary in the SPBGMA Bluegrass Awards, 3rd Feb., in Nashville. Two other bands members also received awards:
  Randy Howard is Fiddle Player Of The Year and Roy Huskey, Jnr., is Bass Player Of The Year. Kathy and her band played at Edale in the 1996 festival.
• A special feature on The Dillards is to presented by Tom Travis in Country Club on BBC Radio 2. The program goes out from 7-30 to 8-30 p.m. on 15th May.
• Tony Furtado has released (11th Feb.) a new CD called Roll my Blues Away having lots of slide guitar, slide banjo, dobro-banjo and steel banjo, with percussion all the way through.....
• Following the cancellation of the Edale Bluegrass Festival for a year to allow re-structuring to take place, Tom Travis would like to thank all who wrote to him with their ideas. Tom is pleased with the progress made so far and has been surprised at the amount of interest shown - especially that from unexpected quarters.

Updated 23rd Jan 1999