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BiTS: What do you know about the venues and the people with whom you will
be playing?

Andres at Storyville Helsinki, Finland, ​AR: Of the venues, only what I’ve been told
​
2023. Photo by Leif Laaksonen.
– why, what have you heard?! :D I mean, I’ve
played some of the northernmost venues in
the UK, all the way up to Shetland and Unst,
but I think the southernmost gig I’ve done

so far was in Croydon, so it’s all new to me.
Out of the towns on this mini-tour, I’ve only
ever visited Tunbridge Wells as that’s where
my harmonica playing friend and mentor

Steve Lury lives, but back then the Green
Duck Blues Club didn’t even exist yet. Steve’s
better half Alison Ashcroft-Gent helped set

that one up and I’m very much looking
forward to seeing the two of them there.

Steve and I played the Shetland Blues

Festival together in 2013 and that’s where I
first met Richard Townend, who is behind
my upcoming Maldon gig at the Madison
Heights. Both Steve and Richard contributed

to my 2016 album “Winter”, but I haven’t
seen Richard since that epic sea voyage –
he’ll be doing his set at Madison Heights, I’ll

be doing mine, and Tim Aves will be doing his, and then I suspect we’ll do something
as a trio, too. Tim I’ve never met in person, but I know him from the prehistoric days
of The Blindman’s Blues Forum. Should be fun!

​BiTS: Do you enjoy playing with other people?

​​AR: In this format, yes – I mean everyone does their own thing first, and then you
jam and goof around at the end. In a proper band, not so much – I guess I’m still
recovering. You see, I was a bandleader from 1996 to 2018, and little by little, it got

to the point where I realized I needed a holiday from being responsible for a gang
of unreliables – preferably before I murdered somebody!

So I decided to focus on solo gigs and recordings for a while, and then COVID

happened and suddenly that was the only option available, so I just kept going... In
the process, I found a new audience and discovered that I actually quite like travelling
– I’d always thought I hated it, but it turns out it’s only travelling with a band that
I’m allergic to.

​BiTS: In the past you have played with Dave Arcari. He has a very different
style to you. How does that work?