Martyn Joseph's Pipefest at Lancaster University

I’d always wondered why Lancaster hosted a festival for pipers but seemingly Pipe was a nickname Martyn had when he was younger, so it has nothing to do with the Northumbrian, Highland or Uilleann instruments.

The afternoon session started with a discussion titled, “Finding Hope in a Hopeless World” hosted by festival organiser, Nikki. She was joined by all the performers them being - along with Martyn – Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage, Patrick Jones and Stephen Fearing. The talk was mainly about how recent events such as Covid have affected them all and the negative effect of social media, with Twitter coming in for more than a little criticism. Inevitably the mood was quite downbeat until Ben started one of his replies by saying, "I made a lot of cider."

There followed a Songwriter Circle, the songs being interspersed with Patrick Jones' poems. When he started talking I had a feeling that I knew him from somewhere, but it transpired that it was another member of his family who I had previously seen on stage, namely his younger brother Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers.

I had to miss a couple of the afternoon sessions but returned in time to catch Patrick’s main performance. He read some wonderful poems ranging in subject matter from browsing LPs in a record shop to being stuck in an abusive relationship. He and Martyn have been working on a project together which I’m sure will be well worth a listen when it is finished.

Then on to the music.

I had seen Ben and Hannah at a festival earlier in the summer and their singing and guitar playing are really something quite special. There seem to be quite a few duos on the folk music scene these days, the names Edgelarks and Gilmore & Roberts spring to mind, but Ben and Hannah really grabbed my attention for some reason. Perhaps it is something as simple as them both sharing the same microphone which brings an immediate intimacy to their performance and Hannah has one of the most impressive voices I’ve heard in quite a while.

I've known Stephen Fearing's music for a few years, having been sent promo copies of a couple of his albums when I was on local radio, but he tends to record with a backing band. On his own, I was impressed with his guitar playing and it was one of those cases of when you finally see someone live, you really appreciate how good they are. He was probably the highlight of the day for me.

I realised I had only seen Martyn once before which was also at Lancaster University a number of years back when he played support to Show of Hands. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t all that impressed with him on that occasion but he played a very good set last night. He brought on the others to help out on a few songs, with Patrick reading a poem on one number while Martyn played guitar and sang the chorus. I enjoyed the songs from his new album 1960 and he obviously enjoys playing at this event with it being something of an annual pilgrimage for many of his fans.

So not a bagpipe in sight but instead there was much excellent music and thought-provoking poetry.