TYNESIDE Irish festival bursts into life this weekend, at a variety of venues in central Newcastle.

It’s always a lively and varied series of events, and among those taking part this year are The Wildcats of Kilkenny, Heidi Talbot, Sharon Shannon, and fiddle virtuoso Paddy Glackin.

Full details can be found at tynesideirish.com I’ll be in Newcastle myself on Saturday night, as part of a special songwriters showcase concert at The Bridge Hotel, along with Richard Dawson and Jon Gomm, both of whom come from a quite different avenue of acoustic music to myself, so it should be an interesting evening. More details for this show are at canopynewmusic.co.uk. Also on Saturday, Tom McConville and his band are special guests at Washington’s Davy Lamp, so make sure you get there early for that one.

Andy Clarke, a singer and guitarist from Devon, is at Stockton’s Sun Inn on Monday, and over at the North Briton in Aycliffe Village that same evening, Miriam Backhouse has her first gig in our region, on her current visit from her home in South Africa.

Then on Wednesday, I’m back with my fellow Pitmen Poets Bob Fox, Billy Mitchell and Benny Graham for a show at Alnwick Playhouse in Northumberland. As you may have heard, Bob Fox has recently accepted a role in the prestigious West End play War Horse, appropriately enough as The Songman, which will keep him busy and away from regular folk gigs for the next year or so. We wish him the best of luck with this new career, and happily he will be able to fulfill his obligations at the rest of our Pitmen Poets gigs over the next few weeks. My own travels take me to Spain this week for a couple of gigs, but as usual I’m reachable at jez@jezlowe.com for all your correspondence on all matters folk.

􀁧 Dick Gaughan plays tonight at The Wellington (Folk Club), Wolviston, 8:30 pm.