Folk duo invite fans to ‘grow your own gig’ in your garden or hall

Kip Winter and Dave Wilson during one of their Live Lounge sessions. EMN-210315-170130001

Dave Wilson and Kip Winter have toured the UK, Europe and Australia during their career, but are now offering to play in fans’ back gardens.

The singing and songwriting couple explain: “It’s been a tough year. We’ve all been missing live music, whether as performers, audience members, promoters, or whatever, but there is now a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

“As the Government has announced a gradual easing of covid-related restrictions, we are beginning (albeit tentatively) to put some gigs in the diary for later this year and all of next. Sadly, many music venues will not be re-opening, so we have decided to follow Steve Knightley’s ‘grow your own gig’ approach.”

The major dates on the Government’s roadmap are May 17 at the earliest for people be able to meet outdoors in groups of up to 30. Then from June 21 all legal limits on social contact would be removed.

With this in mind, Kip and Dave ask: “How big is your garden?

“Is there a village/community hall or a room suitable for a small gig nearby? Would you like a house concert?

“All we need from you is enthusiasm. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never done anything like this before, we’ve done it loads of times.

“If you can secure the space and can drum up some local support, put up posters (which we will provide), promote it on local social media sites, we will sort out the rest (sound, lighting, ticketing, gazebo in case of rain, etc). We don’t ask for a set fee; we’ll work on a percentage of the ticket sales after costs for the hire of the venue (or donations if it’s a garden/house concert). You can run it (and a raffle of course) as a fund raiser to raise money for local causes or not – the choice is yours.”

If interested email them via their website, www.winterwilson.com or call 01529 300277 for a chat.

The pair have also been doing a weekly online concert, Live from the Lounge, from their front room during lockdown via their Facebook page at 8.15pm every Thursday or you can view the series here on their YouTube channel.