On Tuesday 29th March I was thrilled to once again support Edwina Hayes at The Robin 2, Bilston. If you've visited the blog before you will know all about Edwina, if not she's a wonderful singer well know for having a song featured in a Cameron Diaz film. See her website for more info and to hear some of her beautiful music.

I arrived at the Robin at the same time as my good friend Sam Draisey, who was also performing, and his girlfriend Michaela. Me and Sam have played together many times all over the place but hadn't seen each other for quite a while. So the pre gig hanging around for once was good fun as we caught up and exchanged stories about being in the highly privileged position of a west midlands singer songwriter. Or something like that. This chat was only briefly punctuated by our sound checks.

The doors opened and the audience began to arrive. By sheer coincidence an old school mate walked in and we had a quick catch up. Turns out he's a big fan of Edwina...

...who now arrived having travelled all the way from her home in East Yorkshire and did a brief sound check. She came to say hello to Sam and I and happily remembered me. A little later she appeared again to offer us some sandwiches, which we had managed to miss by not venturing back stage...


Sam performed and went down a treat with the audience, a proper music fan audience. And why not, he's great! My favourite lyricist on the circuit. Then it was my go, and the lovely crowd were again very appreciative. Despite the very very bright lights I was able to make out my girlfriend, having only just finished work in Wolverhampton, arrive halfway through the first song. So that completed a good line up of some of my favourite people!

After a short break Edwina performed, and we were all yet again floored by her beautiful voice. She gave us a number of fabulous originals and very moving interpretations of great songs by other people.

She's also just genuinely very nice and witty which makes for some great stories and banter between the songs. With Edwina the whole gig feels like she's performing in front of dear friends, and indeed judging buy the reaction of the audience she truly was. It's easy to understand why she gets so many requests to perform at weddings/birthdays/engagements.

As always the sound and vibe at the Robin was great, I like playing there alot.

What a lovely night! Shame it's such a drive home, but I had one of Edwina's cds to listen to so it wasn't so bad.

Supporting Edwina Hayes

I'm very happy to announce that I'll once again be supporting the magnificent Edwina Hayes at The Robin 2, Bilston tomorrow night. Edwina is a wonderful Singer Songwriter, who's version of Feels Like Home was featured in The Cameron Diaz movie My Sister's Keeper. She has also supported a whole host of amazing people, have a look at her website for more info.

To add to the excitement my friend Sam Draisey is also playing, so I must say I'm really looking forward to this one.

Sam Draisey 8.20pm - 8.40pm

Robert Lane 8.50pm - 9.15pm

Edwina Hayes 9.30pm - 11.00pm

It has been a very busy fortnight since my last post, and circumstances have once again left me unable to do much communicating with the world at the very moment when there's an awful lot happening I'd like to shout about!

First of all, a beautiful short break in Pembrokeshire with my lovely girlfriend, parents, brother, sister in law and baby niece was the perfect way to relax a little and get some perspective on the busy week that was ahead of me. This has got nothing to do with music but I really love, with a frankly worrying zeal, everything about Saundersfoot, Tenby and the surrounding areas. I did when I was twelve, and I can confidently say I always will. I think we're successfully passing it on to a third generation of our family too, as Baby Lily had a fabulous time, and she isn't easily pleased.

Back in the West Midlands and I'm stepping on stage at The Robin 2, Bilston. I was supporting Edwina Hayes (I mentioned her and talked a bit about her bio in the last post) and was very pleased to find a warm and welcoming audience, many of whom were kind enough to come and chat with me, buy my CD and join the Robert Lane mailing list.

As for Edwina herself she was very friendly and passed on a few cool stories from her time supporting musicians as diverse as Jools Holland and Loudon Wainwright III. This kind of unassuming but thoroughly interesting anecdote also populated her set, alongside fabulous originals and some great covers that introduced me to some new artists.

She also had Mark Wynn along for the drive from up north who delivered a short set of bluesy folk tunes.

Here's a couple of slightly unlit pictures of Edwina and I taken by one of her super-fans



The gig was great, and I'm hoping to return to The Robin very soon. The rest of that week was spent in the studio working on two new tracks. More inf0 to come...

The Robin 2

On Sunday April 11th I will be performing for the first time at The Robin 2 in Wolverhampton, supporting Edwina Hayes.


Edwina is a very successful singer songwriter who has opened several shows for Van Morrison, twenty-six shows for Jools Holland, toured the UK four years in a row with Nanci Griffith and performed twice for Michael Parkinson at his Maidenhead pub The Royal Oak. She has also toured the UK with and supported shows for artists including Gretchen Peters, Loudon Wainwright III, Roy Harper, Sandi Thom, Tom Baxter, Boo Hewerdine, KT Tunstall, Clive Gregson, Chris Difford, Ruby Turner and Lulu. Find out more about Edwina and hear her music at her website

Tickets for the show are £10 in advance and £12 on the door, and can be purchased on the Robin's website or by calling 01902 401211.