I’ve just made it back to London after a pretty tumultuous weekend. As I’m sure most of you know, the Pukkelpop Festival got cancelled at the weekend due to a freak storm which wreaked havoc, causing 5 people to lose their lives. All this rock’n’roll bullshit seems a little small at times like these. It was a tragedy, and my heart goes out to those who lost their lives, who were hurt, and everyone who lost out with the cancellation. The Souls and I ended up in Belgium on Saturday without much of a plan, and in the end I played a last-minute show in a bar in Ikkerbeek, which was a wonderful occasion which kind of reminded me why, actually, music ain’t so weak after all. Strange and sad times.

Some news for you. First of all, I have a brand new song called “Sailor’s Boots” doing the rounds, which you can check out right here. Die-hard fans may know it as “Rod Stewart”, but the title got changed (sorry). It’s the B-Side for “If Ever I Stray“, which is out as a single online on August 29th. That song is currently single of the week on XFM Radio, which is ace.

On the live front, the ticket links for the European shows are now all up on the gigs page, check that out. Also, my set from this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival will be broadcast tonight on Sky Arts.

Finally, I stopped being lazy and got round to editing and posting the next two installments of the tour diary from Europe this summer. Enjoy.