GIG DIARY

Simon Mayor & Hilary James

Saturday 8th January 2022

Kingston Barn, nr Canterbury

Doors 2.30pm for 3pm start

Tickets
£15 online
£17 on the door
£8 under 25s

We've been requesting a covid pass for admission to concerts. As time passes it seems to me that the most effective safety measure is a negative lateral flow test.  Please test before coming (if you are able to) and bring proof of a negative result.  Either a dated photo on your phone of the test, or the NHS acknowledgement of negative result (take a screen shot it saves the day if the wifi is dodgy) or print it out.  Or bring the test itself if the other suggestions are difficult.  Please stay away if you are feeling at all unwell or have been with someone that is, and please follow excellent hand hygiene and wear a mask for the well-being and consideration of others.  Please pass this message on to all members of your party. Let's keep live music happening!

These January concerts will replace our old Folk in the Barn 'Even Cosier' series at the Black Robin, until such time as it's safe to squish loads of people in a small room again.
Numbers in the Barn will be limited to the same number that we had in the Black Robin, so that everyone has more personal space in an airier building and that all the cars will fit on the hard-standing car park.  Please stop for a drink or a bite at the Black Robin en-route or afterwards and support Tom and his family if you'd like to.  There will be no bar at the concerts, but you're welcome to bring your own beer or wine.  Alternatively we'll be offering tea and cake, possibly (non alcoholic) mulled wine - as well as gorgeous music!

Simon Mayor & Hilary James 

They've lost count of the number of air and road miles they've clocked up over the last few years, but with the twin passports of Hilary's 'wonderfully, honey-dripping voice' and Simon's standing as one of the world's most renowned mandolinists - in any genre - they've taken on an impressive and diverse array of international engagements from Vancouver Folk Festival and The Stephen Leacock Humour Festival (Canada) to Rudoldstat World Music Festival (Germany) and guesting at the Classical Mandolin Society of America.

It's probably the diversity that surprises most people who haven't seen them before; the voice and mandolin playing isn't even the half of it. Both highly talented guitarists, Hilary is also an occasional step-dancer and arguably one of Berkshire's greatest mandobass players, Simon a dazzling fiddler.

With a repertoire easily crossing from traditional ballads to blues, Berlioz, classical mandolin show-stoppers and some of their own notorious comic songs, it's all wrapped up in a hugely entertaining stage show and some of the driest humour this side of Humph. Serious stuff - but don't take it seriously!  Oh and they supported Fairport Convention on their WinTour back in 2005, you may have caught them at the Marlowe Theatre.

'I've been wanting to book this incredibly talented and entertaining duo for a ridiculously long time and at long last here they are!' Debs FitB

Find them at www.mandolin.co.uk

'Just fantastic to go and see live. Do catch them if you can.'
Fiona Talkington, BBC Radio 3

'Monstrously enjoyable. If you see them advertised anywhere make a pilgrimage!'
Folk North West

'Britain's leading hot-fingered mandolin virtuoso' 
Cosmopolitan

'Simon Mayor is a real find'
The Daily Telegraph

'A witty and captivating mix of folk, blues, swing and classical showstoppers, spiced with a unique brand of off-beat humour.'
The Guardian