Red Shoes

It seems like only yesterday, when a young chap auditioned as a guitar player for a punky reggae electropop band, fronted by a 24 year old female singer with a voice to die for!

With a few changes and the addition of a drummer and bass player . . . . RED SHOES were born in the Autumn of 1983.

Gigs booked, gigs played, local press reviews, radio sessions and record labels courted. Vinyl singles released an album recorded and shelved, airplay around the world and rave reviews of live performances. All of this in a few heady years with the four members Carolyn, Mark, Derek and Nick calling it a day in 1989.

Fast forward a few years and Carolyn and Mark - now married - their two daughters posted videos on YouTube and songs on MySpace. This in turn led to interest from legendary bass player Dave Pegg, who in turn went on to produce and play on the latest incarnation of RED SHOES, with their album “Ring Around The Land”. Fairport Convention chose to cover a song, “Celtic Moon” from that album and suddenly the re-born Shoes were busier than ever . . . all over again!

Two more albums followed with various players along the way, most notably the enormously talented Nigel King on guitar, became a mainstay of the line up.

In 2019/20 original bass player Derek Eynon returned “home” and a new chapter started, only for it to be cut short with the Covid Pandemic. But not giving up, the trio returned to gigging in 2021 with festivals and theatres on their gig calendar. 

So now we find ourself in 2023 and our four decade journey brings us to our Anniversary year and gig at the wonderful Kitchen Garden Cafe, in Kings Heath Birmingham. 

We'll be playing some old, new, borrowed and blue songs over the evening and it would be wonderful to see you there!

Red Shoes 40th Anniversary (1983-2023) – The Kitchen Garden Café (kitchengardencafe.co.uk)

Thanks for the love and support through the years folks,

See you all very soon,

Carolyn, Mark and Derek

Since our last posting, where we played The New Forest Folk Festival, we've been quite busy when it comes to treading the boards.

We've performed at the South Downs Folk Festival in Bognor Regis, supporting Steve Knightley and also played a whole host of smaller venues around the Midlands, tightening our little unit and airing new material. This culminated in a return to the Cropredy Festival Fringe this month after a four year gap . . . obviously there's been a pandemic in-between! It was great to be back and we played an hour and a half set on the same bill as such names as Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, Rick Sanders and annA ryderR. We had an absolute blast and we were joined for this one by our old guitarist Nigel King (Derek Eynon was away, holidaying in Bonnie Scotland), who filled in perfectly. For our last four numbers, the outrageously talented Marion Fleetwood leant us a hand, playing some unbelievable fiddle on "Celtic Moon", "You ain't goin' nowhere", "Swansong" and "Red Coat Ride" . . . . Fabulous indeed and we can't wait to return in the future!

With new songs being included in the current set, an old chestnut has made a welcome return . . . . "Rollercoaster" and we're really pleased at how it's working out. It's going down a storm!

As we head into the end of summer and welcome autumn, we've got an increasingly busy schedule, so please check out out current calendar and we'll hopefully catch you on one or two of those forthcoming dates.

See you soon folks!

Mark, Carolyn, Derek 

Red Shoes 

8th July, 2021 - The day finally arrived and we packed the car with guitars, mics, leads, pedals, cd's, stage clothes, then headed off to play at the New Forest Folk Festival! Stopping over at the Shoe Inn, Plaitford, quite literally a stone's throw from the arena, we arrived on the Friday morning, feeling bright eyed and raring to go. Booked in, temperature taken, lateral flow tests done, we were feeling good and the sun was shining too. 

After loading our gear onto the stage, we had a quick line check, Carolyn strumming her acoustic, Derek riffing on bass and Mark on acoustic, then a couple of one, two's on the mic and with a spare few minutes we waited for our introduction. Ladies and gentlemen I give you Red Shoes . . . . 

Kicking off with "The Well", it felt good, the sound was great, the whole crowd were with us and as we fired up song after song there was a definite air of . . . . this is how it should be! "Colours", "Celtic Moon", "House of Cards" . . . one by one the tunes came and went. Then with the last two songs, the T.Rex classic "Ride a White Swan" and "Swansong" we asked the wonderfully talented Marion Fleetwood to join us on fiddle. What a blast we had! A fabulous crowd reaction, dancing, singing, cheering . . . . those 18 months of being away due to Corona just faded away in that hour, it was exhilirating.

We'd like to thank everyone who came up and chatted with us, people who bought our albums at the Merch Tent and Nick Curtis and his team at New Forest Folk Festival. So onwards and upwards and onto the next one in a few weeks time, see you soon folks!

It's been a long, long time since we trod the boards and who knows, it might be a little bit longer . . . . But we do have some gigs coming up very soon. We didn't want to tempt fate and put them on the website and then have to pull them down, been there and done that over the past 15 months! So it is with a glad heart we tell you all that we're back and hopefully this is the homestretch on this pandemic road.

We have a new member, who is in fact an old member coming back to join us onstage. His name is Derek Eynon, playing bass and adding some glorious harmony vocals. He was in the original 4 piece Red Shoes from way back and in the intervening years when he wasn't playing with us, he has led a colourful musical life in rock bands and as a solo performer, he's currently a member of a power trio called English Electric Lightning. We're still a 3 piece, but our guitarist Nigel King has decided to take time out from his picking duties with us, so Derek has come onboard and it gives us a slightly different sound. And with Carolyn strapping on her acoustic guitar again, we're really keen for everyone to hear how it sounds!

So if you're interested in seeing this new incarnation of the Shoes, then our first outing will be at the New Forest Folk Festival, where we were due to perform last year, but was cancelled due to Covid. This will be on the afternoon of July 9th - See you there friends, it's been too long . . . . 

Well we didn't see this coming did we? It's March 2020 and only last month we were getting excited about upcoming dates and playing live again. Festivals, Folk Clubs, Theatres, a healthy calendar and rehearsals with our original bass player back in the fold. Yes we were on sparkling form, old tunes, new tunes, covers and standards and a whole lot of fun into the bargain!

Then suddenly smack bang out of the blue the national news tells us of a new virus that's heading our way and that plans might have to change. But that's okay, we won't be affected will we? Well we have been affected, all of us and our diary of live work has been decimated! All but two gigs remain currently.

But it's more than that, the Coronavirus is in the UK and we're having to live a different existence to normal, because these are scary times. Sadly people are dying, we're all social distancing, having no contact with others, washing our hands excessively in order to not contract anything. Stopping in our houses and the Government has instructed us not to leave our homes unless absolutely necessary!

No live music, live theatre, entertainment, cinemas, pubs, clubs, bars, cafes . . . . All closed for the foreseeable future . . . . where will it end?

So we're in our abode and strumming out guitars and we're waiting until we can come out and entertain again . . . . 

Take care folks, keep well and stay safe.

As summer ends and the nights start drawing in we find that we're about to head off to the coast and play the South Downs Folk Festival in Bognor Regis. We're looking forward to continuing our run of fun gigs and having a great time entertaining the folk who're going to be attending. It's very likely we'll do a Facebook Live from the car, the venue, the sea front and a post gig catch up too, it's going to be positively grand! See you there folks, come say hello!

And so here we are already heading towards the end of January 2019! Our Christmas single highlighting the plight of the homeless has been downloaded by lots of you and we'd like to say thank you for that. Anyone who still hasn't heard the song can download on the link available on our Homepage or Store, it will only be available until the end of this month, so here's your chance folks. Remember 50% of profits are going to CRISIS UK. During this really cold spell spare a thought for the people sleeping rough on the streets of this country.

We're currently rehearsing for our upcoming shows and the next one is just around the corner on February 9th at Number 8, Pershore, Worcestershire. Just check the link on our dates page for details. Be great to see you there and if you do come along, it'd be really nice to chat before or after the gig.

With our calendar filling up for the year ahead, if any of you would like to see Red Shoes in a venue near to you, then please either contact us via this site or request that we play at a club, theatre, festival in your hometown.

See you all further along the road . . . . keep on keeping on!

We are thrilled to announce that our newly recorded Christmas Charity Single ‘Time Stands Still’ will be available from 1st December via the Charity page on this website.   

We have chosen to donate 50% of the profits to Crisis UK. 

Crisis UK work directly with thousands of homeless people every year. They provide vital help so that people can rebuild their lives and are supported out of homelessness for good. They offer one to one support, advice and courses for homeless people in 12 areas across England, Scotland and Wales. 

The single was produced by Jared Bryant at Severn Valley Studios in Worcester.  We had an absolutely great time recording this single and are incredibly proud of the results.  We can’t wait to share this with you.  All of us involved have been quite emotional, as Carolyn has woven some powerful words to make us all think about the plight of the homeless during this time of year. 

You may have seen our promotional video, if you can keep sharing it as we want to raise both money and awareness for Crisis UK.  We would also like to thank all the radio stations who have responded to us and are now playing our single across the airwaves. 

Don’t let your TIME STAND STILL folks….join us and let’s try to end homelessness.

The clocks have changed and Jack Frost is now visiting our garden in the South Of Brum. As we are all snug and warm our thoughts turn to those less fortunate than ourselves. On November 14th we will be going back into the studio to record a new song “Time Stands Still” which will be released as a single on December 1st. It will be available to download via our website with 50% of all profits going to a Charity for the Homeless, soon to be announced. The song is a reflective view on Christmas and how many people suffer sleeping on the cold streets of our cities. We will be performing this new track at our Festive Folk Nights,  along with carols and pop classics that have been given the Red Shoes Twist. Please see our forthcoming dates and if you can come and join us at one of our Yuletide events, we'd love to see you!

We look forward to catching up with many of you over the next few weeks and as always we thank you for your support by attending our gigs.

We've just braved the scorching hot weather and baking sunshine in the idyllic village of Brackley for their "Folk in the Park" festival and after playing to a lovely appreciative audience we took the journey home, stopping off to be fed and watered!

Rewind back about six weeks and Carolyn had accidentally sprained her wrist, only to find that after about a month it was still painful, so much so that using tambourine's, shakers and assorted percussion was becoming a no, no. After much soul searching, we ended up at A&E . . . . And to cut a long story short she'd broken her wrist!! But not only that, she'd also torn a ligament . . . All of this added up to very little rehearsal time, hardly any playing and therefore no Facebook Live for June.

But we intend to amend this for July and will definitely be bouncing into your homes, phones and wherever you roam to entertain you with songs. In the meantime we're gearing up for a Hometown Show at the Kitchen Garden Café on Sunday, July 1st, it'd be great to see you there and you never know we might even do a live link from the venue (See our gig dates for details).

Catch you soon folks!