Forbes Legato takes Cambridge

It's been a long year since I had the honour of meeting Forbes Legato at the 2011 Warwick folk festival. At least it has for me - he seemed remarkably untouched by the passing of time, cocooned perhaps by his legendary misanthropy.

There he is, nose in the air.

If you remember, Legato has several recording credits to his name - honestly, he does, I'm not joking, look at the CD covers - most recently arising from his association with Pilgrim's Way.

When I ran into Forbes's business associates, Jon and Gill Loomes, at The Music Room instrument shop at the Cambridge folk festival, I seized the opportunity to ask how he'd been?

"Drinking heavily," said the long-suffering Jon, who's given up trying to conceal Forbes's alcoholism - he's over-partial to tequila - and was avoiding looking towards the nearby shelf on which the crabby cat was perched.

"He's also been swearing a lot and generally giving us a hard time.

"But there's a new Pilgrim's Way album on the way - 'the ginger gits' as Forbes calls them. The tunes are all ready to go and Forbes has cleared some studio time for it in September."

Pilgrim's Way are playing at Cambridge this evening in the Club Tent.

Just don't ask about Legato's recent visit to Catford. Loomes says Legato had a narrow escape coming across the Isle of Dogs and he's been extra antisocial ever since. The cat's back.

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