Ten Years of T Shirts... (Continued)

2001 - Wotno Festival (Bottle Green)

Remember this year? This was when most festivals were cancelled because of the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease and when Linda seemed to be constantly on call as Press Officer for the Welsh Assembly’s Minister for Agriculture. There was a steady request for our T shirt from disgruntled festival organisers across the country and we still made it to Ireland. This time we got to play in a fine assortment of Declan‘s favourite bars.

2002 - Annusaurus Rex (Maroon)

The slogan on this T shirt was a tribute to our beloved Leader who celebrated a rather big birthday. The spoof Latin is supposed to reflect our King’s golden year, rather than that other gold jubilee coinciding with our festivities. That’s why we opted for the closest colour to royal purple. This was also the year when Declan reinvented the Dysart Harvest Festival as the excuse for our visit. This momentous event included an all-Ireland drystone wall building championship, an agricultural fair featuring vintage farm machinery and guest rats in the hay baler, a celebrity concert (headed by accordionist Joe Burke) and our personal favourite - the “Novelty Hunt“. We were intrigued as to what this was going to be - but it turned out to be a misprint and should have read “Novice Hunt”. Still, those handsome farmers on horseback inspired Kate’s tune “Rural Assets” and Dysart village was delighted to experience its first traffic jam. This was also Emma’s first visit to Ireland with the band and there was a memorable night getting lost in the mists of Rahara (cue: a song from Kate).

2003 - Off The Map (Black)

It was entirely fitting that this year’s T shirt should commemorate Allan yn y Fan’s first CD, so dozens were distributed. Cunningly, the T shirt also advertised the zippy website designed for us by Chris. To top it all, we got to be the Resident Band at Jimmy Murray’s bar for the Knockcroughery Fair. We got to hear him sing “The West’s Awake” and in return we gave him his own tune(“Famous Jimmy Murray”). Happy days….even the accommodation was so good it was immortalised by Chris (“Lacken House”).

2004 - Eine Kleine Celtmusik (Black)

Our good friend Thomas Roth from the Geyers helped to organise this first trip to Germany, and Caerphilly’s twin town of Ludwigsburg. No doubt the highlight of this tour was the unforgettable Mediaeval Fair in Nordlingen. It was slightly disconcerting performing next to the axe throwing sideshow but at least we didn’t set fire to our stage. Our host’s hospitality was the inspiration for Chris’ tune “Castell Thomas” and lunch at a local inn resulted in Kate’s composition “Amazing Grapes” for Ria and Bernt. The T shirts looked great, but owing to a production defect went scabby after the first wash….sorry!

2005 - Gland Slam (French Navy)

Well, who could resist this opportunity to flaunt our Welsh rugby victory to the defeated French supporters? This year’s tour was to the spectacular Interceltique Festival in Lorient in Brittany. Thanks to David Peterson, we had a brilliant time performing on a stage next to the harbour. Not to mention the excellent gig in the best old people’s home in the world (we’ve already put our names on the waiting list). We even got to play on an old fashioned fishing boat (it was worth the sunburn in return for the ambience, wine and prawns). This was also had an extraordinarily productive time musically, with Kate’s al fresco breakfasts providing the inspiration for two tunes from Chris, plus some lovely pieces co-written with Geoff. C’est la vie.

2006 - Taith Ewrop / Belonging (Sky Blue)

Allan yn y Fan celebrated the launch of the second CD with a trip to Germany and Luxembourg one week, followed by a weekend in France a fortnight later. This in itself deserved a T shirt. Once again, Thomas organised a fantastic tour for us and this time we got to share a stage with the Geyers in Moglingen performing their tune entitled “Allan yn y Fan” (which we also recorded on the “Belonging” CD). How we actually ended up representing Devon at the Fete de l’Europe in Benouville is a bit of a long story but that weekend was an unexpected bonus enjoyed by all. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to support us on this tour…we still have some of the T shirts available!


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