The August bank holiday seems like a long time ago now, as I sit here on a cool September afternoon. It seemed like a good moment to reflect on a summer of festival gigs.

This year was my first proper appearance at Greenbelt festival (having appeared the year before with the marvellous Jude Simpson) and I really enjoyed it.

Here I am, with guitarist Phil Baggaley and bassist Ian Blythe rocking the Performance Cafe:

(Photo by Photoglow)

After our slot in the Performance Cafe, we were privileged to watch Yvonne Lyon's set from the side of the stage. She's a fab singer-songwriter, and despite protesting about having a cold, she sounded great. I'd met her and her husband David a few years ago, and it was great to catch up with them. Really brilliant songs - been listening to lots of her stuff since I got back.

After that, I headed across the site to the G-Music venue, which is basically the CD shop at Greenbelt. I had a great time playing there last year, and it was great to go back and play some more. Lots of fun to be had plugging your CD amongst all the others.

Four of the staff from 2010 had got married (in pairs of two) in the meantime, and had my song "What I call romance" at their wedding, which was sweet - I got to dedicate it to them. Lovely warm feelings all round.

Here's a video from the G-Music gig:

Would have loved to stick around at Greenbelt to catch some of the other fab acts playing there over the weekend - lots of my faves (Ron Sexsmith, Kate Rusby, Miriam Jones) but I had to get back to my other gig of the weekend...

The Grapevine festival has been a fixture in August for the whole of my life. This year was the 30th anniversary of the first Grapevine. As I'm only 29, I haven't been to all of them, but probably as many as would have been possible.

I often play in the band in the big top meetings, and I did that again this year - a great bunch of people and fantastic musicians, always fun. For the past 6 years I've also played late night gigs in the Blink Venue, which is always fantastic - feels like a real "home crowd" which I love. Quite a few of the photos and videos on this site are taken at those "Blink" gigs, and it's great to see some friendly faces.

I generally play a late night gig or two in the Tearfund Cafe at Grapevine - always a nice way to finish the day, and it feels like having a few friends round in my front room and playing some songs for them.

A pretty full-on and tiring weekend, but some good gigs.

Earlier in the summer, I played a couple of gigs at the New Wine festival - memorable for the experience of trying to fit a pop-up tent back in the bag, and the multiple "Canine hydrotherapy" facilities I passed on the way down.