The Coal Porters News

The Coal Porters are winding up a hectic 2015 with some shows in mid-October and November and they are…

16th October (Friday) – Ampfield, Romsey
Ampfield Village Hall, Morleys Lane, Ampfield, Romsey, Hampshire SO51 9BJ
www.ampfield.org.uk – Phone: 023 8025 4040

12th November (Thursday) – Cambridge
The Portland Arms, 129 Chesterton Road, Cambridge CB4 2UA
www.theportlandarms.co.uk – 01223 357268 & 01223 357851

13th November (Friday!) – Scunthorpe
Cafe Indiependent, 169-173 High Street, Scunthorpe DN15 6EH
www.facebook.com/cafeindiependent – Phone:01724 847523

14th November (Saturday) – Southport, Merseyside
The Atkinson, Lord Street, Southport PR8 1DB
www.theatkinson.co.uk – Box office (01704) 533333

The Coal Porters will be taking time off in the first half of 2016, doing only two shows

6th February 2016 (Saturday ) – Wildhern, near Andover
Tangley Parish Village Hall, Tangley, Wildhern, near Andover, Hants SP11 0JE
hampshireculturaltrust.org.uk/content/hog-limelight

11th March 2016 (Friday ) – Chippenham, Wiltshire
The Neeld The Town Hall, High Street Chippenham SN15 3ER
www.chippenham.gov.uk/the-neeld-hall.2891.aspx – 01249 446699

The band has never taken extended time off in the fourteen years since Sid and Neil started playing these acoustic gigs and they are dog tired. Neil sez he has never had more than a month away from the Coal Porters in all that time, that the rest of the time there were tours or weekend gigs or an album to be recorded or whatever. It shows too as one of the CPs was recently diagnosed with exhaustion by their GP and told to rest for several weeks…oddly, this was after the band had already decided to take a break.

The Coal Porters, Fife, Scotland – Photo by Kerenza Peacock

As it stands the band (Neil, Sid, fiddler Kerenza Peacock, banjo ace Paul Fitzgerald and bass player Andrew Stafford) will reconvene in summer 2016 for concerts, refreshed and renewed.

The Coal Porters New Album

The Coal Porters are 90% done recording their new album. It will be called No. 6 (the Shoreditch Sessions) and this number six refers to the album being their sixth recording together and of course it was recorded in Shoreditch, hipster London, with the great John Wood faithfully manning the controls yet again.

The track listing is yet to be finalised and the artwork, again by Phil Smee, is not completed but we can say the cover art is based on a absolutely brilliant idea by Coal Porters banjo man Paul Fitzgerald. The band were amazed no other act had thought of this idea before but lucky for us all, no act had.

So hang on to your hats and don’t hold your breath but do believe me when I tell you this Coal Porters album is really, really something. (A secret…sssshhhh…there are other instruments on this album than the usual…OH, I said too much…)