Discovering a duo performing ‘folk’ songs in the bar of the Pennine Hotel, we developed a love of Gordon Lightfoot’s songs and found that there were monthly concerts in the hotel conference room on a Sunday night, hosted by local folk trio The Lonesome Travellers (Doug Porter, Steve Rostron and Graham Cooper)

So began our deeper love of the music and the many characters performing their songs in the thriving folk clubs of the time. We would come to know the Travellers well, along with Jack Hudson and the Ripley Wayfareres from the Derbyshire scene and enjoy the many guests who performed at Derby’s Peasemouldia Folk Club and later Mike Dilley’s clubs at The Bridge Inn and then for many years, The White Hart in Duffield where we would first meet Brian and the Tom Topping Band.

The songs of McTell, Mike Siver, Johnny Coppin, Harvey Andrews, Allan Taylor, Colin Henderson and so many more, would lead Julie to begin her writing and so here we are over fifty years later, singing our own songs, recording our own albums and still loving the journey and the music

SEVENTIES SATURDAY NIGHT takes us back to Julie’s final year at school and Saturday morning shopping for clothes with a friend in Derby and a coffee at the Kardomah followed by Saturday nights at The Old Mill pub, with the finest juke box in Derby and a landlord who turned a bling eye to underage girls drinking.

CROWLAND DELIGHT is inspired by the peel of bells from Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire, once the refuge of a Saxon prince from Repton in Derbyshire and damaged by Cromwell during the civil war. The town sits on higher ground in the middle of the fens, much of which was reclaimed by the work of Dutch engineers and Irish labourers. The flood land provided speed skating in the winter and the creation of new drainage. Diversion of the old river has left Trinity Bridge high and dry in the town.

WRITER OF SONGS is Julie’s tribute to fine song writer Paul Metsers. Paul, along with Mike Silver, Johnny Coppin and Reg Meuross provided inspiration for Julie’s writing down the years.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER is the story of three women who campaigned against the trade in bird plumage, resulting in the death of hundreds of thousands of birds in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Margaretta (Etta) Lemon, Emily Watson and Eliza Phillips were key figures in the conservation movement which we know today as RSPB.

A BUMP IN THE NIGHT is the story of an Irish stoker, Jim Mulholland, who’s life was saved when he saw the ship’s cat on The Titanic take her kittens off the ship before she set sail and decide to follow suit.

THE DARKER SIDE OF TOWN features some lovely guitar by our Irish cousin David Mulhall and speaks of the subculture in many town centres of today.

MIDNIGHT ROAD Again features David Mulhall on guitar and tells of our long nights on the road, often diverted due to road closures with our iPod shuffle taking the mick with songs like “I Get Around” and “Morning Has Broken”

Join Brian Jones as he sits down with Steve and Julie Wigley, whose story begins in a youth club in the late 60s and runs through decades of clubs, gigs and songwriting.

From discovering live folk music at the Pennine Hotel to becoming part of a busy folk club scene, they look back on the artists, venues and moments that shaped their musical lives. With influences including Gordon Lightfoot and The Lonesome Travellers, it’s a story rooted in live music, local scenes and a long-standing love of folk.