There’s a place on the internet called "Talkawhile" where like-minded people meet to talk about Folk Music. You can find us at www.talkawhile.co.uk. We have over 3000 members and we talk a lot - informing, discovering, discussing and debating music that we like and dislike.
Every year, we hold a vote for our favourite music - the results reflecting not only the ability of every member to vote, but also to nominate. These awards began as a discussion, but when one of our founders and most popular members, Carey Hancock, died suddenly, we decided to honour him and create real trophies in his name to present to our winner - and since 2006 these Hancock awards have been presented to the winners by their fans at their own gigs.
This year, Spiers & Boden were voted the winners of the ’Best Group’ category by the members of the forum, and on Tuesday 16th September, I had the honour of presenting it to them at their gig at Paradise By Way of Kensal Green.
With the prior agreement of band, management and venue, we were primed and ready to leap onto the stage at the end of their set to do the presentation. The crowd cheered heartily, and somehow or other we managed to say what we needed to say and pass the award on. So many congratulations to Jon and John!