The musicians on this tour were John Jones, Ray Cooper and Al Scott.
Read John’s reflections and stories from the tour on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/johnjonesoysterband
This may be a long read but there are quite a few photographs …
Being Tour Manager for a trio and touring in England is very different from touring with one musician in Europe, specifically Denmark and Germany. While in theory, there was time to update this blog during the tour, that time was needed to both rest and to keep up with the tour admin.
In summary, this tour criss-crossed the country with 20 gigs over 24 days and 2900 miles. That may sound a lot but Rich, our agent from Midnight Mango, had booked the venues giving us only two really long drives with most of the hotels not very far to drive after the show. Both are key factors when touring.
After driving up from Brighton to meet in Oxford, we started in the East Midlands at the Ropery Hall in Barton upon Humber, overlooking the Humber Bridge. This was followed by The Greystones in Sheffield, over to Settle and Kendal via Manchester and Liverpool. Then down south to two converted churches, now arts centres, in Colchester and Norwich, next three nights in Brighton which is where they record, up to London for a show at Cecil Sharp House and the next day over to the Ropetackle in Shoreham. Then out west to the David Hall in South Petherton, the Phoenix Theatre in Exeter and up to the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow and the Huntingdon Hall in Worcester then down to Kent via Farnham Maltings and to St Dunstan’s Church in Cranbrook where Ray was given access to the mighty church organ for John’s song ‘A Time Of Her Own‘. The final shows were in Cambridge and Nettlebed, which John and Ray visited in 2012 on the first Reluctant Ramblers walking tour.
Here are three of us about to leave with the instruments, including John’s melodeon, packed into the back of the tour bus. We met John at the first venue. His train ride was longer and harder than our four hour drive.
Highlights for me must start with the very first show at the Ropery Hall. This is a cosy venue at the end of the ropemakers building which itself is a quarter mile long. Here you can see us loading in. The hospitality was first class and the room was full for the concert.
Being professional musicians, they need to make sure their clothes are ironed before going on stage.
This was my first chance to see the set and how they had interpreted the songs they had chosen from the immense back catalogue from John, Ray and Oysterband. I was very impressed. The picture shows what became the last number at every venue – Newlyn Town sung and played acoustically. A lovely way to end the set.
Lee Partis, former drummer with Oysterband for many years, has moved to the area and came to the show.
From Barton On Humber, we did the short drive over to Sheffield and the Greystones where we met Steve and Lioux Heap who came to see the show. Then it was farther west, over to Manchester and Liverpool, and back east to The Witham in Barnard Castle and Gosforth near Newcastle.
Following Gosforth, we first drove south and then took the “pretty route” west through John’s home territory around Holmfirth, before venturing north to Settle and the lovely Victoria Hall. Then farther north to Kendal and the Brewery Arts Centre in the sunshine. We spotted the Layland Motors Clock.
We then had a much needed day off and did a little walking in the north Lake District – well I did four miles on the flat while John did ten miles, climbing hills with his friend Graham.
Next was the long drive down to Colchester followed by Norwich. Both venues are Arts Centres in converted churches and are lovely venues for this type of music. A special mention for the veggie chilli cooked for us by Mick in Colchester. A hot meal is always very welcome. First, two pictures from Colchester.
During sound check at Norwich, here are Al and Ray working out the best way to start a particular song.
Norwich gave us an unexpected tour story. We had to drive up a very narrow alley to load into the venue and could not leave the van there as it was a public walkway. We drove around looking for a car park and found one with plenty of space run by a large store named Home Bargains. We parked and looked for somewhere to pay. The sign said “3 hours free parking until 8pm”. It was now 4.40 and we needed to get back to set up. Feeling that 20 minutes over would not be noticed we headed back to the venue. Then some 10 days later, due to the eagle eye of ANPR, we received a parking fine. Something, and I don’t remember what, prompted me to look around on the internet and I found the email address of the boss of Home Bargains and found an account of how he had let someone off the parking fine for being just a few minutes over the limit. I duly emailed him, explaining the situation. The email got passed down two levels of management and a week later the parking fee was cancelled. There are some good business people in this world who will support live music. A week later, when the Sunday Times published their rich list, I saw that number 26 is Tom Morris, the boss of Home Bargains who I had emailed. It was not just a local store but one of 620 around the country.
The next three days saw us based in Brighton with a trip up to London to play at the Cecil Sharp House, and a show at the Ropetackle in Shoreham. Then it was over to the David Hall in South Petherton where Kerstin joined us to take some photos. Here are just three.
Next was the Phoenix Theatre in Exeter followed by the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow which was a local show for John. The sound and lighting here were excellent and with many friends in the audience and the trio well played in, this was a very good gig.
We moved on to Huntingdon Hall in Worcester and then Farnham Maltings, before arriving at St Dunstan’s Church in Cranbrook, the Cathedral of the Weald. Ray had played here before solo and knew of the church organ. He was permitted to play it and used it for John’s song A Time Of Her Own‘, anchored by Al’s guitar. This sounded wonderful in the church. They had tried this out in Worcester using the church organ setting on the electronic keyboard where it sounded like Ray was playing the real organ behind the stage at Huntingdon Hall.
John got one break from the stage at each gig. In the second set, Al sang ‘Thunderclouds’ accompanied by Ray on piano. This picture was taken at the Huntingdon Hall in Worcester.
The penultimate show of this tour was at Cambridge Junction where the acoustics of the room and the atmosphere from the audience led to an amazing gig. We can also recommend the Turkish restaurant across the square from the venue.
Finally, we came to Nettlebed Folk Club, my local venue until I moved farther away. Here are two photos from Nettlebed.
After the show, we were allowed to stay a little longer to celebrate the end of a successful tour.
It was a privilege to tour with these three talented musicians and see their music and performances develop. Along the way, I learnt a lot, visited many lovely venues and met many very helpful people. We experienced the good and bad (including many potholes) of the road network over the 2,900 miles in 24 days; enjoyed driving through the English countryside, mostly in good weather thankfully.
Perhaps do it again in 2027 – but before that it’s Ray’s September tour in Germany.
A Visitor On Europe’s Roads 
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