Banjoist Broadsheet

Julian writes:
Just found your blogspot. Thanks for writing it.Can I contribute to your world by introducing you to the Banjoists' Broadsheet, freely downloadable as below. I, too, have been following Tim Dowling's saga with the banjo. I contacted him but didn't get very far. Perhaps you'd have better luck?
Best wishes Julian Vincent

http://people.bath.ac.uk/ensjfvv/BB

A private little compulsion - Tim Dowling

Tim Dowling writes a regular column in the Guardian magazine on Saturdays. Although it usually charts the ups and down of his frighteningly recognisable 'dysfunctional' family, one of his recurring themes is his ongoing struggles to play the banjo, which bizarrely parallels my own. To the extent that I thought Tim Dowling must be eavesdropping on my life. You'll find an archive of his columns at http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/timdowlingsweekendcolumn

Here's a snippet of his column from 11 Jul 2009.

I have been playing the banjo for two years. It's a private little compulsion that does no harm to me or to anyone else who is more than 50 metres away. This is about to change, however, because I have a gig. A friend of mine who has a band - a sort of urban bluegrass outfit - wanted a banjo player, and he asked me to come to a rehearsal. I told him I wasn't very good, but he didn't seem to care. I guess the average person doesn't meet that many banjo players. It's like running into an MP at a party and telling him that your hobby is cleaning moats.

"You clean moats?" he'd say. "I have a moat! You should come and clean my moat!"

"But I'm really not very good," you might protest.

"Don't worry," he would say, "I'm not paying."

So if you want an occasional laugh at banjo related issues and a regular laugh at his domestic arrangements catch him on a Saturday.