Eric Bogle & John Munro - Parkgate Folk Club - 8/6/06

This isn't going to be too easy to write - Eric Bogle is after all a superstar in folk terms - but lets wait a moment and comment on a new rising star that appeared in the Wirral Folk on the Coast Festival - Big Bob - Bassman came on with club organisor Eddie Morris to sing "Kelty Clippy" and play along on "Can't do right", and then this new duo abandoned their instruments to sing "The old pool" a'capella to geat acclaim. We didn't manage to photograph this event, but here's Bob enjoying a quiet moment earlier in the Festival. The duo were joined by another local legend and registered wreck, Don, with his bones for "Making Songs". We look forward to reporting on more gigs by this new act in the near future!

Eric Bogle and John Munro - not one but two superstars that had sold out the Parkgate Folk Club months ago and had poor Eddie's phone ringing day and night for weeks as people became more and more desperate to get tickets. So the upper room at the Boathouse Hotel was jammed tight with expectant folkies from all over, the temperature was high, the air was still and the air conditioning not up to much.... Eric advised us early on that he was suffering with a cold, but he battled on anyway. With Eric on accoustic guitar and John Munro on mandolin, they introduced themselves with a little comic number "My name's Eric" which had us all laughing. After that things seemed to be more serious as the pair worked their way through their set. Eric rumbles away, leaning back a touch, head back, eyes closed when he's singing, whilst John sings higher, seemingly nonchalant. The sound is very crisp and accomplished, and John's mandolin playing got special notice from me several times, particularly during "A good man died today" and "No man's land".

In the second half John sang his own great song "Cross the border" in fine style, then "A reason for it all" found the duo singing alternate verses with some great guitar work, building up to the amazing finale where both men sang separate words in opposition to each other to end this moving and powerful song which had lots tears in lots of eyes, men and women alike. This section was the highlight of the set, which, while I often wrote down things like "nice guitar" and so on, ultimately failed to light my fire. The balance of the songs was heavily towards the protest, miserable and maudlin, the mood between songs similar and the whole thing felt a bit heavy and disappointing. Not bad by any means, but certainly not up to the star billing I'd expected. I said at the start that Eric had a cold, so maybe that was getting him down, and the room was very hot and airless, not a great help in the circumstances, so fair enough, I'd see them again certainly, but I'd hope for something more next time.

The good news is that John is returning to the UK and Parkgate with the great Australian band Colcannon next year, we'll be there!