After a cracking weekend playing first Hull Folk & Maritime Festival and then the truly brilliant Tramlines Festival in Sheffield, my next stops out there on the road are two capital cities- London and Belfast– and I can’t wait!

First up is London on Sunday July 30th. I’ll be playing a couple of short sets as part of the Betsey Trotwood Summer All-Dayer– one poetry and one music. Both will be pretty early as I have to be back on a train north well before closing time, but if you are in the area and fancy me getting lyrical on yo ass (See! I’m in the mood already!) then the day kicks off at 2pm and my first set will follow soon after. Then my music set is from 6.30pm. In between is a feast of rhyme and para-rhyme and outright-rejection-of-the-conformity-of-rhyme, and I’m proper looking forward to soaking it all up.

I fly to Belfast the following Friday for my first Irish date in 20 years. It’s a city I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting so I’m looking forward to taking it all in. My gig is at the Sunflower pub that night, and it would be great to have your company.

So having spent the last 30 years getting to gigs by automobile, I’m finally adding the planes and the trains!

All in all, 2017 appears to be getting madder by the minute. With the next album being built behind the scenes, and the hard yards of organising We Shall Overcome a daily challenge, it feels a little like being a feather in a hurricane at the moment.

Sometimes the only thing you can do is wait and see where you land.

Two capital cities in 6 days. I have never done that before.

Proper excited.