The SkinnyLister Folk Band Experience!

A   B r e a t h   o f   F r e s h   A i r

W O W ! What Excitement . . . . . . .

Read on and share it with me. . .

The other day I was moving my boat. I went into the first lock of the day, on the Grand Union Canal, just south of Linslade, (Leighton Buzzard).

A hire boat crew wanted to share the lock with me. (The Grand Union has “wide” locks and will accommodate 2 narrowboats side by side and up to 72 feet long).

On the Hire boat, there was a “Folk Singer group called the “Skinny-Lister Band”

They are a very lively Folk band, with a vivacious singer and dancer, (Lorna), who gets the crowd joining in before they even know it!

Their Folk Music is very lively and “bouncy”.  I’ll tell you a bit later how I got to know all about this.

The locks are known to be places for a “Chat” – Not Chat-up Chat –  but general conversation, whilst the locks are either filling or emptying with water.  The English Canal lock system is mainly DIY locking. There are no lock keepers to help.

Anyway, it was during our shared locking along the canal system that we got to know each other, negotiating the locks as we came to them.  The whole group were new to the canal system and had not been on the canals before, so I was able to show them a trick or two.

They had a tight schedule to keep and mammoth distances to cover between each venue where they were playing.  They had made out their schedule out without any experience of how long it actually takes through the locks and the slow meandering through the canals.

It was quite obvious to me that unless they introduced some form of structure and method to preparing the locks before they got to them, (With an advanced party), and a person (Usually called “Tail-end Charlie”), closing the paddles and gates, after vacating the locks, they were no going to meet the timetable they had set for themselves, so I set to and started explaining a few things in the form of some “quickie” lessons I learned from the “Old Bygone (Retired) Boaters”.

After a couple of minor mistakes, (They were all very quick learners), they were in the swing of it all and saving time on each lock they negotiated.

Every member of the band were interesting individuals.  They all put their heart and soul into what they were doing, whether it was the canal work, or all the gigs they set up and played along the way at various canal-side pubs and eating hostelries.

I moored up long before their first stop was due, where they had a GIG all booked at The Red Lion, Marsworth.  I knew the pub well and said that I would be along that evening to listen to them.

I also contacted a few of my boating pals and informed them of the pub intended entertainment, so we had a few people there, before they arrived with all the instruments – But no amplifiers or electrical equipment –  The instruments were all acoustic style of guitars and a couple of accordions including a double base and a “Foot -board” in place of drums accompaniment.  It all gelled together nicely and the end result is very professional and polished.

Don’t take my work for it!  I am going to take you straight to their web site, so that you can see the band for yourself, (In their header), you can hear their music too, in an audio recording (3 songs top right on the front page of their website), and a descriptive blog – so click here for THE FIRST “Skinny-Lister” GRAND UNION CANAL TOUR on the canal system.

You mustn’t miss this – I’m in there too! And you can ‘t afford to miss the comments they made about me now, can you?