Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo

I took this shot just as Emily and her band came on stage at the Stroud Subscription Rooms tonight. Their Swedish friend, Christian Kjellvander, had played the support act a little earlier and they had all joined him for the last of his songs. They have all been playing together around the country for the last month and this was the last night of the tour. But not only that, Emily and the band were playing together for the last time, as they are moving on musically to pastures new, very amicably after nine years together, off and on.

I had arranged with the management for permission to take photographs and was limited to the first three songs to move about the venue. After that I found a spot and stayed there for the rest of the gig, and took far too many pictures. I haven't managed to examine them all yet so have chosen virtually the first one I shot as my blip.

Emily is Australian, but now lives in Stroud with her husband, who is also a musician, and they have started a new band together called Vena Portae. They managed to arrange for the last night of the tour to be in their home town and they put on a wonderful showcase of their many musical talents both as singers and multi-instrumentalists. Helena and I are relatively new to their music but we now know how much there is to discover.

Helena has been ill for many days, and yesterday I began to feel similar symptoms which are now getting worse. I have a feeling I will have to wait to sort out the pictures for me to send some to the band as a memento of their final gig, and their obvious friendships.

This is the song 'Nostalgia', which Emily wrote as the title music for the English version of 'Wallander', starring Kenneth Branagh, which won awards for her.