Pete Morton carries on a Christmas tradition with Cambridge Folk Club

Continuing a rather long-standing Christmas tradition, Pete Morton, along with Emily Sanders and Chris Parkinson, will be performing at the Cambridge Folk Club this Friday (December 9).

For this new seasonal show, Pete and co will bring together carols, popular songs, social commentary and a sprinkling of silliness all in one night – as well as a Christmas tree.

The singer-songwriter, who recently returned from Germany, where he had a few gigs, will be singing new songs especially written about issues that have made the news and affected our lives over the last year, all intermingled with seasonal favourites, so get ready to sing along.

“One of the things I tried last year was a different show, with the same trio,” explains the Leicester-born musician, 58, “but after a discussion we decided to revert back to a tried-and-tested show which has actually been going on for more than 10 years.

“Me and Chris Parkinson, who’s the accordion player, we started it many years ago with a friend of mine Roger Wilson, then it moved on to Maggie Boyle and then there was a young guy called Tom, and now it’s been Emily Sanders for five years.

“And we have this show called The Magical Christmas Tree where we do these kind of unusual skits. We don’t know which order they’re going to come in or what’s on the tree; we put different things on the tree – we call them scrolls – and the audience pick them.

“It’s all Christmas stuff and we might end up dancing and things like that. It’s a lot of fun; it’s quite anarchic and it’s a well-loved show wherever we go. We’ve been asked to come back many a time and especially to Cambridge. Cambridge really loves it and we always have a good time there.”

Pete, whose latest album, A Golden Thread, was released in 2020, says last year’s show was “good – but we were doing a lot more popular songs and people were picking these popular songs out of a hat, almost like a raffle.”

He notes that this year they have brought back the Christmas tree, which hadn’t been used since before Covid struck. “We decided to go back to the magical Christmas tree, and a lot of people were asking for it,” explains Pete, “so we thought we’d bring it back for them. It’s a lot of fun; we know the routine very well and even though we don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s a very magical tree!”

So there will be a lot of improvisation on the night at the Cambridge Folk Club, upstairs at the Golden Hind pub? “Yeah, there’s a lot of improvisation,” replies Pete. “We put extra things on the tree, various things happen, and the audience are picking the scrolls off – so we don’t know the order of where they’re coming.

“And every night, the banter and the bits in between the songs becomes different, becomes unique to the place. It keeps us very much on our toes.”

[Read more: Singer-songwriter Pete Morton returns to the Cambridge Folk Club this Christmas, Boo Hewerdine to headline Cambridge Folk Club gig for East Anglia's Children's Hospices]

Pete has performed at the Cambridge Folk Club every Christmas, give or take a couple of years, for between eight and 10 years. He says that it’s a show “not to be missed”, adding: “It creates an atmosphere, it creates a festive feel that’s really nice because there’s all the carols and the songs which everybody knows.”

See Pete Morton, Emily Sanders and Chris Parkinson at the Cambridge Folk Club this Friday (December 9). Tickets are priced at £12 on the door, £11 in advance and £10 for members. Visit cambridgefolkclub.co.uk. For more on Pete, go to petemorton.com.