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...they gig all venues big and small and are a true working band. Some of my favourite songs of the last few years have come from Steve's pen: Galway Farmer, Country Life, Roots, Red Diesel - all great songs. For the next week he'll be telling us what he's been up to.

Steve Knightley writes:

With twenty shows in the bag and ten to come we're coming to the end of

our 2008 festival run. It has to be said that from a technical and

organisational point of view they do get better all the time. It seems an age but it was only 14 years ago that we arrived at an event in Minehead

to find a P.A. constructed out of Meccano pieces, powered by car batteries

with modified cassette recorder mics to sing into!

Luckily we had our stuff with us and to the dismay of the ingenious chap

who had assembled the rig we put up our own. It is quite rare now to

encounter rubbish gear. It is more common however to encounter sound crews

with little or no previous experience of folk and acoustic music but with

the usual preconceptions about the music's power and dynamic range -

their grudging acceptance at the end of the night is always welcome. So,

if we do sound rough over the next month it's probably our fault (or our

sound engineer's).

Here are some completely random reflections on the summer so far: The

charm and originality of Ìýat Rochester Sweeps Festival (we've never

been sung onto the stage before). The sheer joy of driving down the M5 soaking up

the sounds of , Jim Moray, Benji KirkpatrickÌýand Seth Lakeman's new CDs. Watching Ìýgather in, then completely win over the crowd at Trowbridge. Knowing straight away from the size of Pronghorn's rider that 'Evolve' was doomed! And finally the fortitude of the English festival crowd who never

seem to let the rain dampen their energy and enjoyment.

Steve

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