Home Service chooses Sidmouth FolkWeek for fourth gig after re-uniting

HOME SERVICE may have given their audience huge pleasure when they performed on Monday but the feeling was mutual as lead singer John Tams said immediately after the concert.

“It was a remarkable feeling to be out there on stage. We are a group of friends who have known one another for 30-odd years, so to have the opportunity to re-unite is something of an indulgence for us because we enjoy one another’s company so much that we are already strongly bonded as a group of men.

“We have music on top of that which is another bonus and then we have the most glorious of audiences that festivals throw at us – notably Sidmouth - which always presents one of the greatest and I have been playing for 40 years, so I speak from my heart and deep memory.

“This only our fourth time on the road since we got back together, twice in Putney, at Cambridge last night and here we are today at Sidmouth.”

Talking about the songs, virtually all of which appear on the ‘Home Service – Live 1986’ CD Tams said: “The funny thing is that not only have the songs grown up but the people who listen to them have grown up as well, so while we may be a little grey and a little older we have lived through those times so when we reflect back on them the songs are banners and flags and memories of our past endeavours.”

“If anything the messages behind the songs may be even more appropriate now.”

What were the future plans for Home Service?

Tams said: “We are obviously performing at festivals this year and then we will have a review to see where we are, over a dinner because we all get on so well, and then decide, if everybody agrees that we will go out again, but it only works if everybody is on board. We then might make an album of a few more songs and make a bit more fuss!”