There was birthday cake and a cast of supporting singers representing the various generations involved in Edinburgh Folk Club's 40-year history.
Some people had travelled from as far as Grimsby and Bath for the occasion, and the star of the show had somehow got himself back from Denmark, via a mirthful tale-inducing Glasgow gig, to revisit the club he had helped to launch as its opening night guest on October 10, 1973.
Mike Whellans gives every impression he might be able to power himself across the North Sea by means of the energy he puts into being the heir to the great one-man blues bands he revered in his youth, Joe Hill Louis and Tony 'Duster' Bennett.
He was joined for quite a bit of his two sets by his old pal and fellow Borders-dweller Brian Miller, playing some neat and nimble mandolin. But by himself, as he approaches a significant birthday of his own - his 70th - Whellans seems to be becoming even more of a master of his art.
Jumpin' In The Neighbourhood got a party started that somehow managed to musically refer to Champion Jack Dupree and Mamma Italiana in Lauder, with Whellans' churning guitar, wholehearted singing and pulse providing kick drum and hi hat setting the pace for the first of innumerable harmonica breaks.
This smallest of instruments is Whellans' forte. The variety of tones and phrasing he produces is spectacular and when he combined mouth organ and mouth percussion - creating drum and cymbal sounds with an intervallic accuracy and tonal realism way beyond anything beat-boxers achieve - he was in a class entirely of his own.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article