Venue and ticket information is now available for the gigs in September.

See jj-rr.org/homecoming-tour-gigs for details.

JJ writes:

“7 years ago I started out on the very first Rambling Tour from my home, here  on the Welsh Borders, not sure how it would be received , whether I would last the pace, not sure really where we were going  and not sure anyone would give a damn. As ever my good friend Colin was with me  and  musicians Al Scott , Tim Cotterell , Dil Davies and Boff joined us at different times. We crossed Herefordshire into Gloucestershire, calling at Wychwood Festival and out across England, ending up finally at the Big Session Festival in Leicester. Sometimes there were 12 of us, on occasions just 3. Fans and friends carried our instruments in their cars and we met many people on the way who have subsequently become regular Ramblers with us.

Boff expresses wonderfully  in his blogs the hardship and joys of this connection with the land in movement and music. For me, what was an escape from Road Touring and a personal challenge became an inspiring source of ideas for songs and a chance to meet people who had only ever seen me on stage. A collision of the public and private that has been so rewarding…

We have all been treated to the gorgeous singing of Rowan Godel on the walking tours. Rowan also features on both of John’s  albums: Rising Road and Never Stop Moving, as well as on several Oysterband tracks.

Now you can have the opportunity to buy Rowan’s own EP: just click on the picture below or use https://rowangodel.bandcamp.com/album/september-skies-ep.

And, for the rest of this year, £1 from every £6/CD sold will go to Maccmillan Cancer Support!

Click on the link to watch JJ in conversation with Boff, talking about 

music, landscape, walking and more: https://youtu.be/gBn6S0uOQT0

Here is confirmation of some and adding other details about the walking next week. We will have map references for meeting points by the time we get together on Tuesday.

Click here for full descriptions of the walks and here for the gigs

Tuesday:

Meet at the Riverside pub in Aymestry from 11.30. The pub is now run by Andy. He will be open at 11.30 and is expecting us. Please call if you wish to order food – 01568-708-440.

He’s happy for a few cars to be left at the pub. There is a village car park nearby.

We will set off at 12.30, arriving at Ludlow Castle around 5pm then walking to the Brewery which is around 15 minutes walk away. They formally close at 5pm to the public but are expecting us so we can get a welcoming drink. Then the band have to sound check etc.

For the gig: doors 7.30, music 8.00pm

Wednesday:

Meet at Ludlow Castle at 9.00am (where we finish on Tuesday). Bring a packed lunch. We will stop for lunch in front of Downton Castle but it’s not possible to get cars there. It’s around a 2 mile walk to the nearest road.

After lunch, around 1.15, we walk on and across the A4113 at Decoy Cottage which is a possible pickup point for anyone doing a half day walk. We expect to arrive at Stokesay Castle around 5pm. The castle is a good place to look around for anyone not walking or going to pick up walkers. We then get lifts to the Woods Brewery. They are expecting us and can take a group of 20-25 for a tour. After that, we will gather for a session in the Plough starting around 8pm.

Thursday:

Meet back at Stokesay Castle to start walking at 9.30. Again, please bring a packed lunch. The lunch stop is at the car park at Bury Ditches. We expect to arrive at the 3 Tuns around 4.30pm.

For the evening gig in their function room: doors 7.30, music 8.00pm.

Friday:

This is the long walk! Meet at the 3 Tuns at 9.00am. Again, bring a packed lunch. After 19 miles, we expect to arrive in Presteigne around 5pm for a welcoming drink in The Dukes which is next to the assembly rooms for the gig.

Doors 7.30, music 8.00pm.

After the gig, we will return to The Dukes and everyone is welcome to join in a celebratory end-of-walk-and-gigs drink or three.

Any questions or problems, please call Tom on 07973 214 289 during the week of the walking.

Or email info@jj-rr.org

After exhausting (!) research, JJ has been forced to admit that starting the 4 days of walking with a 20+ mile near marathon is a bit much to expect of Reluctant Ramblers.

So, the walking will now begin from Aymestrey at lunchtime and take 12 miles along the Mortimer Trail to Ludlow Castle.

The other good news is that less exhausting research has discovered the Riverside pub [ 01568 708440 ] in Aymestrey where Richard is a very welcoming host. This is a good eating pub. Meet at 11.30 for an early lunch then a 12.30 start. There are benches outside if the weather is good.

Click here for full details of the walks

Further information on this walk and the gigs is now available on the website.

Click here for an overview.

Click here to go direct to the Walks page and click here to go direct to the Gigs page.

Meet you there.

For background to the walks this year please see the ‘Walks in 2016‘ page. If you wish to sponsor JJ, please visit his JustGiving page.

Further information about walks and gigs for 2016 can be found here.
You can sponsor JJ for Macmillan by donating through his new Just Giving page here.

Early announcement of walking plans for this year can be found here

A number of people have shown interest in having a photobook from the walks this year. For the past three years, Fran and Tom have put a selection of photographs from that years walking tour into a photobook and sold it at cost price. Normally around £30-35. Previous years have been one week tour.

This year, we have done three sets of walks: the Big Session walk out of Buxton, the Ridgeway and the Lakes.

We propose to gather together a selection of pictures from each of these three into one photobook. As before, we will add JJ’s blogs to give some commentary to the photographs.

There have been many lovely photographs presented on Facebook. For a photobook, we really need the original photographs to get the quality when printed.

If you have photographs to contribute to this then please get in touch via info@jj-rr.org

You can either send in a cd, we can transfer them via “cloud storage”, or we can meet up.

The aim is to have the book ready well before Christmas. Please get your photographs to use by the end of October to give us time in November to create the book.

Fran & Tom