The Harrison Pub advertises itself as “the best pub in Kings Cross and Bloomsbury” and they are not wrong. Officially it’s a community pub (aka “the local”), but it attracts people from afar. There was a lively birthday party going on when we arrived.
The basement hosts live events most evenings. It has a capacity of 40 to 50 people with a good sound system and lights.
Ray’s show was promoted by Graham who has been promoting live music since 2009. See his Folk and Roots website for details of who is on at a number of venues around this area of London.
There used to be a lot of his type of venue but they have slowly disappeared. We are very thankful for the few that remain.
The venue suited a different set to the previous night. Ray began with Falling Like Thunder and later added Love And Vengeance on the piano. Tonights first encore brought back The Puritan which Ray describes as “my only hit”. It does get requested quite a lot which is particularly good as Ray has added an extra verse since it was recorded on his first album in 2010.
For his second encore, Ray picked up his new mandolin and played two slängpolskas which are traditional Swedish dance tunes. These particular tunes come from Småland which is described as being “as Swedish as it gets”. This was a nice way to finish the evening of music and song.
Monday is a day off and then on Tuesday the middle part of the tour begins with a drive up to Manchester to visit Band On The Wall,
followed by the Vinyl Café in York,
and the Prince Albert in Stroud.
A Visitor On Europe’s Roads 
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