WHILST DRIVING TO THE CHESTER CLUB I was thinking about a song a friend had recently sent to me on tape, the song was called Train On The Island. In my own little world I approached a roundabout and glanced up, and to my astonishment there in front of me was what appeared to be a line of rail carriages moving across the island! As I manoeuvred round I saw a low loader accompanied by police escorting this spectacle. It baffled me as to why anyone would transport rail carriages by road... any suggestions? Anyhow I hear you say, what has this got to do with the music? Nothing directly, except that when I think about song/tune titles I wonder when someone will write something related to the ‘picture on the wall’ which no doubt will be the backdrop for the photograph related to this article.

Arthur and his Lebeda Mandolin

When I arrived the small room was quite full and already in full swing and I noticed that there were a significant amount of new faces of both players and listeners. On the table in a plastic cover was a nice hat and I was kind of hoping that it may have been a special raffle prize, but no such luck; Arthur soon put it on and kicked off the showcase in pure Arthur style and image. To put the icing on the cake, he was backed by the last showcase artists Bakers Fabulous Boys, who are superb and well worth the effort of going to see... appearing at the Conwy festival, I believe.

Feeling exhausted before I left home, I was soon given a second lease of life when the music started, and enjoying that ‘high lonesome sound’ familiar to many of us, and songs including Sweet Georgia Rose, Crying my heart out over you, Time That Binds and Don’t That Road Look Rough And Rocky. Actually we came to the conclusion that Arthur was a true romantic and a big softie at heart, especially when he described the lyrics of one song driving folks to have “tears like plums”. Unfortunately, like any excellent performance, it always comes to an end too soon and we began to measure how many songs there were left by the reducing level of beer in Arthur’s bottle.

All in all a thoroughly good night enjoyed by all... thanks everyone.

Julie Cross, Crewe

Updated 23rd Jan 1999