It was Nearing December when - Yorkshire stopped for Snow

So it was an eventful, event less week for most us, especially those of us who found themselves under a couple of feet of snow, or more, by Wednesday tea time.

The week had not been without it's personal disaster for Richard. As I was later to find out when my leaky pipe was sorted on the car and the coolant topped up not enough anti freeze was added, so when last Sunday I started the the car there was dreadful grinding sound, followed by a lot of smoke pouring into the cab as the water pump belt frayed. The RAC man later showed me the frozen pipe of water that caused the problem.

Fortunately no major damage was done, and it does demonstrate the importance of making sure that the anti freeze in your car's coolant system is properly topped up.

I was impressed by MSN who Manage the Bill Plant Fleet though. I called them at 9:00am on the Monday of the week to report the breakdown. By 11:00am I had a replacement car and mine was making it's independent way to the repair man. Not that conditions allowed for any driving lessons.

And yes I managed to loose a complete week of work, not the best thing at this time of year when one is already fighting to keep the Bank Manager from the door.

The Park was nice though.

That's not to say that I have been completely idle. Fortunately a Web Site job presented itself and I've been able to get a working site up in some sort of shape in very short order. If you've got time pop over to http://www.ziggysworkhousegym.co.uk and I'd be interested in finding out if the site works for you – not the subject matter necessarily but the colour and build of the site.

For most Folk Clubs etc, this week has been a non starter. Top of the casualties being Doreen and Roy Blackman's Party which was due to happen on the 4^th. No new date has yet been announced but as soon as it is we'll let you know.

ALSO CANCELLED IS DAVE'S FOLK DAY, ON MONDAY 6^th December, at The Bridge. This event is part of an exchange Singers Club with events taking place in Lancashire and soon Yorkshire. The date is now 10^th January 2011.

But coming up very soon, The Myke Barritt Music Trust Yule Time event on the 14^th December. Check out all the details and the cries for Santa's little helpers on the MBMT page HERE There's some great acts confirmed for the evening event from 6:30pm. With duos Tina Mckevitt and Matt Hegarty, First Fall, and Florin being supported by the gang of Myke's Bands, Tyburn, Earthtales, The Mashers, with Welsh Geoff and Barry and Sue doing a bit to. So fingers crossed that the weather conditions allow it all to go ahead. Remember that it all starts at 2:00pm with a Singaround hosted by Dave Kidman and a Bring and Buy sale with a few bits of Myke stuff up for grabs. 

Some more bad news came my way this week.  The Rawmarsh Mashers have always been great fans of the young band of musicians collectively known as Folk On Fire.  So I was greatly saddened to learn that they will not be setting our stages alight anymore.  What the trio acheived over the past eighteen months was nothing short of brilliant. 

You can find a couple of FOF tracks on the Acoustic Rotherham Player HERE and Lucie tells me that their are still a few CDs left at £5 if you Email her at  folkonfire@btinternet.com

There is some good news though Lucie and Matty are still going to be out there, and there is talk of an electric folk based band being rehearsed - and even Acoustic Rotherham just might make an exception to the rule to welcome them when they are ready back to the Queens.  

There has been a few additions to the Diary pages for December, and I suppose I'm going to have to start on January very soon.

Many of you will have noticed that The Rawmarsh Mashers Blog has disappeared from the RSS corners of some sites. OK I've said this before – but it's worth repeating that this is has nothing to do with Richard playing, it was just done without notice by Myspace. I did ask Myspace for help to put this right, and the answer I got was typically unhelpful, they are “not allowed” to help me. This means that I still have to find an answer to the problem. Meanwhile the best way to find us is to head to the Acoustic Rotherham News page or The Mashers News Page. The main upload now goes to Blogspot HERE and you can, despite everything, still find The Blog on Myspace, but you'll need to go to Rawmarsh Mashers Profile.

Since the sudden “cut” two weeks ago we've had a drop in readership around the World, by about 50% so I'm working really hard to sort the technical problems out.

And of course there's my seasonal cry for support for Acoustic Rotherham by buying your CDs etc through our Amazon store............... Amazon has everything you need at really good discounted prices and with free postage in many cases. So go on use the Acoustic Rotherham links on any of our site pages and help to finance the Web Site please – please – please. What's not in the Acoustic Rotherham Shop can be found by clicking through to the Amazon main site. 

And while we're on Web Sites - what on earth is going on at Reverbnation.  All very strange.  According to their Charts not one act in the top 25 moved up or down a postition in the Yorkshire Region.  All very strange.  

So let's hope the temperature keeps rising and that we can all get out and about in the week ahead. You might like to know that it's not snowing in Ambridge yet.

Meanwhile I really look forward to seeing friends old and new at The Bridge on the 14^th, it will be really good to be out and about again.