In February this year, John Tams and Barry Coope were joined in the Netherlands and Belgium by Graeme Taylor. John and Graeme kindly supply their reflections on the tour, followed by the audience reaction!

The Occidental Tourist (John)

After years of globetrotting, I don't get out much these days or at least out of the country, having become something of a 'home' bird. And so it was with unalloyed excitement that Barry and I set off from Derbyshire to join up with our special guest Graeme Taylor at his home in Surrey, en route for a short but very sweet tour of Belgium and Holland.

Barry alongside Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson has established a considerable and justly earned reputation over the waves, though on this trip, we took the subterranean passage under the waves to our European neighbours there to be greeted in a beautiful café theatre on the outskirts of Dranouter by an audience most of whom Barry knew - indeed I knew a few myself.

It became increasingly obvious that many of our audience had discovered Graeme and me in previous incarnations - the Albions, Home Service and some went even further back turning up with Gryphon albums for Graeme to sign and even the rarely-spotted Map of Derbyshire, one of my early long-trousered offerings.

It would be invidious to pick out any one gig. The trio meshed together excellently both musically and socially and at every venue without exception we were greeted with generic hospitality and technical support so much a part of the personable and generous spirit of this region. My thanks go to my two colleagues for their enduring cheer and professionalism; to Sally for running the office; the bar staff at one of the venues who oiled a slightly creaking throat with a glass or two of high octane herbal remedy; to Egide and Anita Vissenackens for their bounteous table and love; and to the industry of Marius Roeting who set the tour in train and made it all work.

One factor that shone brightly throughout the trip was how seriously the two governments and other agencies take their responsibility for arts funding and the level of engagement they have with the community. I know how difficult it is to properly sustain some of our live venues in the UK and more could be done by our government instead of wasting time, effort and money on something as marginalising as the 'Two-in-the-Bar' fiasco that serves only to diminish opportunity. I suppose at the centre of all this is the level of respect shown to performing artists by those who have the power to facilitate rather than emasculate.

Passing a military cemetery on the outskirts of Ypres my thoughts turn to the propensity we have of doing harm to one another. I wish you a Spring of Peace and for every season thereafter.

Thine
Tam
February 27th 2003

From Graeme:

The Lowlands tour I think was a great success, particularly the more informal venues such as Dan Ekser near Dranouter, the Theater Landgraaf and the Zwolle festival and the Arsenaal Theatre, Vlissingen. I think Tam found the natural reserve of the Lowland audiences a little hard, thriving as he does on feedback from the floor, although after the gigs they were as warm as you can get and thoroughly knowledgeable and appreciative of our work.

Tam is not used to performing night after night and his rather strained voice benefited greatly in the latter part of the week from a little lubrication, particularly courtesy of a cocktail blended from Geneva and herb extracts, a speciality of the barman at the Landgraaf theatre.

We also had a wonderful day off and were put up, fed and entertained brilliantly by Anita and Egide just outside Leuven, including a brief tour of the lovely city and its home brewery and unique Bangladeshi restaurant.

I thoroughly enjoyed my appendagement to what was already a tried, tested and effective duo, and was amazed to witness the folks pulling out dogeared copies of 30 year-old Gryphon and Albion LP sleeves for autograph purposes. We even arrived back at our end of the tunnel with pretty good kitty with which we should just be able to pay our tax bills!

And thanks to Henk for this view from the other side of the footlights:

After more than 25 years, a legendary concert with the Albion Band at the Rotterdam Folk Festival, we saw John Tams again at the Zwolle Folkfestival in a concert with Barry Coope (piano, vocals) and Graeme Taylor (electric guitar, mandolin).

We expected semi-acoustic songs taken from his highly appreciated solo- CD's "Unity" and "Home". Tams surprised us with a set with lots of "old" (but still very enjoyable) material from his period with The Albion Band ( "Lay me Low", "Snow Falls"), Home Service ("The Old Man's Song"), a Ewan McColl classic ("Manchester Ramble") but also a wonderful new fisherman song based on an old Dutch play: "Op Hoop van Zegen". Highlight of the set: the combinated songs "Over the hills and far away" and "Scarecrow".

John Tams looked a bit older but still has this fantastic voice. His musicians were in great form: Coope with delightful piano playing and stunning supporting vocals; Graeme Taylor proved on numerous occasions that he can rock. In Zwolle he played modest, quiet and with lots of feeling. Fabulous guitar player!!

Great concert!!
Paul en Henk