It was off to the Plough Inn in Thorpe Acre tonight for a spot of carolling, along with my double bass and a couple of other musicians. It wasn’t entirely clear how it was going to run so we turned up with some songbooks and instruments. I must admit a quiet sigh of relief when the karaoke machine wasn’t playing ball so it was over to us.

We did a few traditional carols including one or two from the folky end of the spectrum, along with a couple of more contemporary songs. From my end, the highlights were Good King Wenceslas (the audience were delighted when I broke into falsetto for the parts sung by the page) and The Twelve Days of Christmas. I didn’t do a lot of bass playing on that but it is always a crowd pleaser and we also got an echo from the other bar in the pub – sometimes a bit behind but eventually catching up. All good fun and a good use of song as thread for weaving community.