“My dad used to run the weekly folk session at the Cuckoo, the local village pub. My brother got involved playing the banjo, and not wanting to be left out, I found a ukulele banjo and learnt the chords for New York Girls. I quickly got to be a regular part of the session.

Years later I ended up playing music with my brother again - In London sitting around our kitchen table. By now I had swapped the ukulele for the mandolin, but hadn’t played it much for years. He’d come round on a Friday night with some other friends, and, together with Beth and I, we would all play music and talk till the early hours.  Some performances came out of these kitchen table sessions and this is when the name ‘The Umbrella Factory’ emerged.  

At the time it wasn't practical for the two of us to perform together, so Beth would go out and sing with the ‘band’ (by now working through various different names), and on other evenings I would go and play in bluegrass and old-time sessions in pubs around London.”

“ I grew up in London and spent a lot of time in the 50p bargain basement of Reckless Records. That’s where I discovered so much of the music that has stayed with me — Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joan Armatrading,  Bessie Smith. 

I was drawn to the Laurel Canyon scene and the singer-songwriters who came out of it. I started writing songs and played and sang in a few all-female bands as well as and touring in both plays and musicals.

When my parents got ill, everything changed.  My guitar ended up gathering dust.

I started playing again when a friend asked us if we could come and play some songs around the bonfire at a birthday party. 

Due to our different musical interests Nigel and I had not really considered playing music together, but when we started to look at possible songs to perform, we realised how much common ground there was.

 - Joni was originally part of the 1960s folk revival, and Janis was another connection because her early recordings drew on the old-time American music that Nigel had grown up with.

About this time, at a festival, I went to a song writing workshop led by Gretchen Peters. I was unexpectedly moved to tears. It made me realise just how much I had missed playing and, even more, how much I had missed writing songs.

So, in a way, we came at the music from two different directions. I brought the rock and the California singer-songwriter tradition, while Nigel brought folk, bluegrass and old-time American music, and we suddenly discovered this enormous body of music that excited both of us. -Folk, Americana, Jazz, Blues, Country, and we found a common ground and a whole musical landscape we could explore.”