HH Life Fellow Neil Mercer makes a welcome return with fellow musician Phil Riley.
Phil and Neil will be performing songs with guitar and mandolin, including some from their recent album, Lost Legions, which was launched in 2017.
Unfortunately, due to capacity restrictions, we can only welcome students to this event.
About the musicians
Some members of Hughes will first have heard Phil Riley and Neil Mercer perform with guitar and mandolin at the memorial event for Richard Berg Rust in 2017; and they last performed at Hughes just before the lockdown, in March 2020. They began playing together in the 1970s, when they recorded as the band Kites. They then went separate ways for some years, with Phil pursuing hits with the band Dots and performing as a solo singer-songwriter; and Neil following his academic career and playing with bands including the Cambridge-based Corellis. Since getting back together they recorded an album, Lost Legions, which was launched in a concert at Leicester Guildhall and which has had excellent reviews:
‘It felt like I’d met an old friend….Lost Legions has some great songs on it.’
Mike Harding, The Folk Programme
‘Throughout the album, which I might add, I enjoyed immensely, I kept hearing snippets of early sixties, influences of folk mixed with Americana and some purposeful acoustic moments spent in smoky clubs…’ Folkwords
You can check out their music on their Kites Collective YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Kites+collective
