Foakies is an evening devoted to singer songwriters and poets performing their own original songs and writing. It takes place on the first Monday of every month (except  August and January) in the downstairs lounge of The Royal Oak  at 1 Infirmary Street in Edinburgh. We charge £5 entry, which is really a method of restricting the crowd to those who seriously want to listen and also so that we can give something to the main performer and in order to pay for publicity and a website.

 Foakies came from an event called the Songwriters Showcase, which Martin Boland and I organised with a lot of help from Mark Barnett. It ran for 73 consecutive evenings and it was a real challenge. It almost seemed to take over our lives and I think I can say that in many ways we were glad when it ended although it did give us some fantastic evenings. However, Mark was keen to keep the momentum going, which is why he and I decided to start Foakies. 
 It has, at times, been absolutely magical and it has never been less than a great evening. We've had a wealth of talent at Foakies and, after a couple of years out, we are back with the help of fellow songwriter, Simon Kempston. It was really at Simon's insistance that we try and kick start Foakies again and along with the support of another local songwriter, Kenny Vass, we're giving it another go.

 I intend to put all the posters and all of my somewhat notorious Foakies emails on this site as soon as I can.
Foakies now has its own MySpace site which can be found at
http://www.myspace.com/foakies.

Updated 1st October 2008

The October Foakies takes place on the 7th. The main act are the brilliant Kathy Stewart and Ken Kennedy who are just an amazingly talented duo. Kathy is a renowned and recorded singer-songwriter with a gorgeous voice and Ken plays a whole host of instruments fantastically with his harmonica playing having been described as "world class". They have both played on my album The Journeyman, and also recorded with me for the upcoming album As Eden Lay In Darkness.

Ken and Kathy are supported by a singer-songwriter new to Foakies, Baz Smith. Baz is from Lincolnshire and writes wonderful songs which he sings with a powerful voice. You can hear him on www.myspace.com/bazsmith001

No doubt Mark and I will perform a couple of songs too, and there are always floor spots available to musicians who turn up on the night.





The September Foakies session will be headed by Brother Crow, a songwriting duo from South of the Border, support will come from Carolyn Anona Scott (winner of the 2008 Royal Oak Songwriting Competition), Mark Barnett and myself.

October Foakies will feature that wonderful duo Kathy Stewart and Ken Kennedy, supported by Baz Smith a singer/songwriter from Scunthorpe.



The February 08 Foakies kicks the year off to a great start with the amazing Dave Gibb  http://www.myspace.com/davegibb  who stuns everyone with his incredible finger picking and clever songwriting. Not to be missed!

We're still lining up support acts for the year so if you fancy a Foakies spot make contact through my Contact page on here.

Here's an unfinished list of some of the performers who have appeared at Foakies and it's predecessor The Songwriter Showcase...

The Travelling Waverlies, Tom Clelland, David Ferrard, Nick Allmark, Martin Stephenson, Donald Buick, Martin Boland, Kenny Vass, Arthur Wilson, Ken Kennedy & Kathy Stewart, Gill Reid & Audrey Hunter, Bernard Brogue, Sara Kamin, Andi Neate, Chris Rogers, Peter Nardini, Robin Laing, Taxicab, Michelle Hughes, Mark Barnett, Tom Fairnie, Gavin Inglis, Nancy Somerville, Steven Harvey, Ash Dickinson, Irene Brown, Jane McKie, Mark Rafferty and Andrea Tomlinson, Rob Cairns, Mike Dillon, Rachel Dawick, Paul Simon (alright, it may have been a lookie likie).