My Armistice Tour kicks off this weekend with three gigs in two days, taking in Glossop, Wigan and Bolton. I would be delighted to have your company.

I’ll be accompanied by Rebekah Findlay on violin and vocals, and we’ll be revisiting some of the songs from my 2009 and 2012 albums ‘Music From Potter’s Field’ and ‘Going Home’, stories of men and women struggling to survive and make sense of the world caught up in the maelstrom of the First World War.

The songs are about love and loss, superstition, the nature of remembrance, survivor’s guilt, shellshock, conscientious objection, burying the dead, and above all the quest for a glimmer of light in the darkest of times.

There are also four new songs including two duets, and a narrative weaving the whole thing together and trying to make sense of who we’re remembering and why, together with what put these ordinary people at the mercy of fate in the most extraordinary circumstances.

It’s good. Trust me.

The tour continues the weekend after in Wakefield and Ulverston before concluding in Middlesbrough on Remembrance Sunday which falls on the centenary of the Armistice itself.

All gigs are We Shall Overcome events, so donations of groceries for the local food bank, warm clothing for #SocksAppeal, or sanitary towels for #EndPeriodPoverty solidarity campaign are very welcome.

See you there x