The autumn programme of Warthog Promotions got off to an amazing start on Wednesday (Sep 23) with an appearance by French-born singer and guitarist Claude Bourbon at the Old Ship

Inn, Lowdham. Making his visit as part of a three-month tour of Europe and the US, Claude, classically trained in Switzerland, wowed a sellout venue with two hours of stunning fingerpicking.

His influences are rich and varied, including classical, Spanish, jazz, European folk and American blues giants like Robert Johnson, Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson; but the nearest thing to him on my album shelves is Segovia – and that is no exaggeration. His playing is a weave so intricate it is difficult to believe fingers can work so quickly, delicately and surely, and the sound he produces is serious food for the brain. He began with a 15-minute solo that mysteriously became George Gershwin’s Summertime, followed by an extensive tour of the American blues scene and a couple of songs from a personal friend of Claude,

Lincolnshire songwriter Tim Leaning. The second set started with a flawless performance of Recuerdos En la Alhambra, from Isaac

Albeniz, a half-hour blues medley and a French chanson. He ended with a lengthy medley so complex it was impossible to identify every tune. Having picked out La Marseillaise, Ravel’s Bolero, the Tennessee Quickstep and Frere Jacques, I settled back and simply enjoyed the sound. For an encore, there was a rousing traditional Cossack dance and more blues, the whole evening carried off with scarcely a pause for words, or even breath. As a guitar talent,

Bourbon knows few equals, and if this is a taste of what’s to come at Lowdham, I can only say “Wow”– FJC.

Breathing Space– 7th Feb 2009

The world of folk music covers a huge spectrum, but describing a band as skilful and wacky as the New Rope String Band can be quite a problem. They cover everything from English morris to Appalachian bluegrass, from Gustav Holst to improvised sound pictures, and New Orleans jazz to the songs of Hank Snow, and all with the audience rolling in the aisles at their antics.

The instruments they play include violins, guitar, double bass, trumpet, banjos, beer bottles, and even a Theramin. At one stage they even shower the audience in explosive confetti. They appeared at Lowdham Village Hall last Friday, before an inevitable sell-out audience, which included a noticeable number of youthful faces.

The band has changed its profile somewhat, perhaps concentrating more on its members’ musical skills, but the slapstick that has always been its hallmark is still there in huge dollops. New members Vera van Heeringen and Jock Tyldesley contribute enormously, both with their skills and their expressive, rubbery faces. Vera in particular can be just about anyone she wants to be, from the Polder housewife, to the bright young thing or the all-American vamp.

To those who have seen them before, there are new aspects, such as a great Klangers sketch, and even their long-time sketches are still well worth seeing.

The next Saturday show at Lowdham will be on February, with a visit from the classic rock band Breathing Space–FJC.

(Thanks once again to Frank Chester for this review, which first appeared in the Newark Advertiser).

New Rope String Band – 16th January 2009

Warthog Promotions maintained their reputation as the team that refuses to be pigeonholed in superb style on Saturday, with a visit from one of Britain’s top progressive rock bands. Breathing Space, from York, combine the highly orchestrated sound of twin keyboards, guitars and drums, with the powerful yet silky and soulful voice of Olivia Sparnenn, to produce a soaring sound reminiscent of Velvet Underground at their best.

In addition to Olivia, the band consists of Mark Rowen on lead guitar, Paul Teasdale on bass, Iain and Ben Jennings on keyboards, and Barry Cassells on drums. They brought a number of fans from the Home Counties and the South Midlands to Lowdham Village Centre for the sellout gig, which featured the full electric extravaganza – complete with dry ice, flashing lights and banks of amplifiers.

So just what was in this show for an old greybeard folkie like me? Well, they are all highly talented performers, and in his one and only solo spot, Paul Teasdale showed definite touches of Richard Thompson. Breathing Space are eminently listenable-to, and gave the audience over two hours of self-penned music from their two albums, with a third on they way.
Only once did they descend into those interminable instrumental solos I always associate with Procol Harum when they’re not performing A Whiter Shade Of Pale, and the audience had no trouble maintaining concentration.

I enjoyed them most of all when they performed their hard, driving rock numbers, and the excellent drummer was given his head. There were a considerable number of young rock fans in the audience, and they gave an enthusiastic response to the music. As for the rest, it was good to see that as the sixties generation nears their sixties, they still appreciate the sound of great rock.

There will be a return to more traditional territory at Warthog’s next show, an appearance by the acoustic folk trio Isambarde at the Old Ship Inn, Lowdham, on Wednesday, March 4.

(Thanks once again to Frank Chester for permission to reproduce this review).

DANIEL SMITH BLUES BAND
SATURDAY 13TH DECEMBER 2008

For the fourth year in succession, Daniel and his band delivered over two hours of blues and boogie-woogie to a capacity audience of 200. It makes obvious sense for us to vary our programme from year to year but it’s safe to say that the December gig is Daniel’s for as long as he wants it. There is a special something about this night, without doubt. This year saw bass player Mark Olbrich join the familiar line-up of Daniel Smith on keyboard, Jon ‘T-Bone’ Taylor on guitar and Pete Miles on drums.

As anticipated, Daniel made good use of the Village Hall piano which this year was sited against the far wall and the ‘drum solo on fire extinguisher’ also made a return appearance.

Highlights are almost too numerous to mention but we’ll single out an old favourite ‘Boogie On Swannee River’ which took in ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and Ramsay Lewis’s ‘The In Crowd’ along the way, and the fast boogie ‘Big Frank’s Fishfry’ which closed the second set, prior to the extended encore.

Daniel and the band will return on Saturday 12th December 2009 and by the end of the evening we’d already received quite a few orders for tickets. As the man himself said to us in the run-up to the concert, Lowdham is an institution not a gig! Next year is the band’s 10th anniversary… we’ll make sure they get a great send-off at the end of it.

Kerfuffle

Saturday 15th November

One of Britain’s hottest young folk bands played at Lowdham Village Hall on Saturday, giving their sell-out audience over two hours of traditional music updated as only they know how.

The East Midlands band Kerfuffle, former BBC Radio2 Young Folk Musician of the Year finalists, are nearing the end of a seven-month tour, taking in such major events as Ely, Saddleworth and Southwell folk festivals. They are also promoting their latest album, To The Ground, the publicity for which is set in the Trip To Jerusalem, in Nottingham. In its honour, they named one of the upbeat instrumental sets The Trip, and it took the crowd at Lowdham by storm.

The band comprises Sam Sweeney on violin, viola, cajon (percussion) and English border pipes, his brother Tom on bass, Hannah James on accordion, vocals and English clog dancing, and Jamie Roberts on guitar. Sam is also blessed with the quickfire patter of a top class standup comedian, a talent he used to great effect.
While still only barely in their twenties, Kerfuffle have had phenomenal success, appearing on Radio3’s Late Junction, in the 400-seat bar of the Linbury Theatre, beneath the Royal Opera House, and making their third album in five years.

Their music is mainly traditional, with some self-penned work, and at Lowdham included The Castleton Carol, The Snows, Arise Arise, and Rondo, a three-tune set beginning with the English morris tune Bean Setting. There was also much from the John Playford Collection of dance tunes, which dates from the end of the English Civil War. Their delivery is modern and unpredictable, and it is really something to hear four professional musicians only just out of their teens performing traditional songs 400 years old and more, while the packed house screams for more fit to bring the roof down. If you haven’t tried it, you’re really missing something.

Hannah’s Lancashire and Westmorland clog dancing was especially popular, and their finale was a rousing version of the risqué Brisk Young Widow, with a strong rock and jazz flavour, and Scrap Metal, a tune written for Sam’s birthday by Hannah. Their diary for next year is already full, and sadly does not include a fourth visit to Lowdham. But They are on at Hoby Village Hall tomorrow, and next year sees them at St Mary’s Music Festival, Nottingham, and the National Forest Folk Festival in Leicestershire. See them if you can–FJC.

DEBORAH BONHAM BAND

October 11 - 2008

(A big ‘Thank you’ to Carol Borrington for this review)

The quality of musicianship presented by Lowdham Village Hall and Warthog Promotions continues to astound me and no more so than the performance of Deborah Bonham on October 11th. This was a top class performance by Deborah and the band that blues’d and rocked the hall to its very foundations.  Deborah wowed the audience with songs from her latest CD “Duchess”, music from previous recordings, and just a hint of the music of Led Zeppelin in honour of her family roots, of which she is truly a chip off the old block!

Her vocal is reminiscent of Janis Joplin’s but with a slightly lower register. It was pure power, feeling and intonation with excellent microphone technique. Her electric stage persona had that Lowdham crowd at times in stunned silence and admiration and then at others jumping to their feet in sheer cries of respect and applause. Deborah decided to give Lowdham a bit of a debut live performance with a song from her new CD called ‘Hold On’. A song that reflects on the many traumas and hardships of life and written about her feeling of loss when John, her father and other brother all died in a short period and the emotion she felt in that situation. It’s a song of having the inner strength to pull yourself through and although the pain never completely heals there is a future.

On the original recording, Deborah sang this in a duet with Paul Rodgers, ex Free and now lead singer with the band Queen. Paul unfortunately, as Deborah told the audience, was otherwise engaged out with Queen on tour. She decided though that she and her lead guitarist husband Peter Bullick would give it a go. Peter’s not quite Paul vocally but the rendition was nonetheless full of all the feeling and love of the original version and brought the odd tear to the eyes of those present with its sheer beauty in presentation. Especially through Deborah’s vocal and Peter’s guitar underpin, heart beating bass and soul grasping Hammond organ accompaniment. They say that Blues is more than a dictionary definition of technique, its true essence lies in the music's feeling to reach the soul. Deborah, through her delivery of empowering words, that life goes on and hope is not lost forever, even at moments of deepest pain, painted that village hall in the most beautiful shade of the ‘royal blues’ you could have wished.

Mad Agnes

Friday 19th September 2008

Mad Agnes are three singer musicians from Connecticut who simply defy categorisation. Folk, folk rock, chant, opera, zany comedy numbers, jazzy guitar solos . . . they do the lot. On Friday they brought their multitude of talents to Lowdham Village Hall, and won over yet another audience on this, their second tour of England. They first visited the UK last year, when they wowed audiences from village halls in the Yorkshire Dales to a crowd of 25,000 at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention.

 Their visit to Lowdham came midway through their present tour, and was an ideal vehicle for the three, Margo Hennebach, Adrienne Jones and Mark Saunders. They gave an assortment of music, mostly self-written, in a peculiarly American folk style, on an assortment of guitars, electric piano and mandolin. Neither Appalachian nor West Coast, their music exuded a skilled yet homey sound that made everyone in the crowd warm to them. Their songs had such titles as A Manic-Depressive Madrigal and Being Sad Won’t Make It Better, and they gave a view of the world that was highly reminiscent of satirist Tom Lehrer.

They were performed to guitars which wove a delicate and intricate tracery of music, rather than a series of chords, and went well with their perfectly matched trained voices.
Towards the end of the evening they thanked the crowd for coming to watch someone they had never heard of. This was a needless nicety. Mad Agnes are famous already to fans of live music from Oxfordshire to the Yorkshire Dales – FJC.

(Thanks to Frank Chester for permission to reproduce this review that first appeared in the Newark Advertiser on Sept 26th)

Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri

27th June 2008

To complete our trio of concerts held in conjunction with this year’s Book Festival, Kiki and Carmelo made a very welcome return following their outstanding show last year.

The set list was very similar to last year but being conscious of this Kiki and Carmelo brought along with them the world-class tabla player Pandit Dinesh, which gave an added and distinctive dimension to many of the songs. His playing – and vocals – were particularly well-suited to the tracks taken from the album Where Rivers Meet which has an Eastern feel to it and on which he played. These tracks included Amen And Goodbye, Under The Night Sky, Salty Water and Till We Meet Again, all composed by Kiki and Carmelo.

The couple’s more recent offering, The Walk of Faith was represented by Running Up That Hill, Like Nobodies Child and Oh Life, minus the BBC Olympic commentary included on the CD. And of course the old classics were there – Amoureuse, I’ve Got The Music In Me and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.

Carmelo admitted that they had been somewhat apprehensive about returning to the same venue so soon. The sight of most of the capacity audience standing on their feet to applaud them off stage told them they need not have worried.

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The Lark rise Band

21st June 2008

Singing of life in rural England

(We should like to thank Frank Chester for the use of this article, which first appeared in the Newark Advertiser).

The exploration of English folk music traditions occurred at Lowdham Book Festival with an appearance by the Lark Rise Band.

It was formed by Ashley Hutchings, a founder member of folk rock leaders Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band but with this outfit he was strictly in traditional mode.

The band is composed of six highly skilled musicians, Mark Hutchinson on guitar and vocals, Guy Fletcher on guitar, vocals, violin and percussion, Ruth Angell on violin and vocals, Judy Dunlop on vocals and percussion, Simon Care on melodeon and vocals and Hutchings on bass and vocals.

All are well-known in the folk world and all have played with Hutchings before.

Their music was based on the novel Lark Rise To Candleford, by Flora Thompson, which tells of life in rural England in the decades leading up to the first world war.

They gave the near-capacity crowd almost two hours of music either from the period or written for the two National Theatre plays based on the book, starting with the original Cotswold morris version of The Girl I Left Behind Me. They followed with such items as Arise And Pick A Posy, Queenie’s Bees, an athletic Cotswold morris dance by Guy Fletcher and Till The Time We Meet Again.

The band encored with the haunting Laura’s Song.

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Show of Hands

21st June 2008

Book festival rocked by musicians

(We should like to thank Frank Chester for the use of this article, which first appeared in the Newark Advertiser).

Britain’s premier folk duo launched the musical side of Lowdham Book Festival in great style on Saturday night, to a sell-out crowd in the event’s main marquee.

Many people outside the world of folk music have never heard of Show of Hands, but within that world they are regarded as simply the best.

Their singing and playing, and their hard-hitting and highly pertinent songs on rural poverty in modern-day England have made them justifiably famous.

West Country men Steve Knightley and Phil Beer have sold out at London’s Royal Albert Hall three times and twice been finalists in the Radio 2 Folk Song of the Year competition. Both times they were pipped by less politically-challenging offerings and Knightley is probably the only artist ever to have been quizzed on Radio 4’s today programme about the political nature of his songs.

They were accompanied at Lowdham by Lincolnshire’s own Miranda Sykes on vocals and double bass and they gave 2 ½ hours of largely self-penned songs, sung to a range of guitars, fiddle, flat-back mandolin and South American cuatro.

Their songs were never far from Britain’s seafaring heritage, and they rocked, very much in the Bruce Springsteen manner.

They began with the darkly atmospheric Bristol Slaver, went on to a medley based on Fare Thee Well Sweet Donegal and on to The Galway Farmer, before Beer took the spotlight with Hoyt Axton’s The Blind Fiddler.

They finished the first part of their set with Knightley’s highly romantic I Promise You, a delicious rendition of The Sailor’s Hornpipe, Crow On The Cradle and a medley based on two more Knightley songs, The Train and Santiago.

But this was just the warm up. The second half kicked off with a medley of The Wrecker’s Prayer, Tall Ships, Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy and The Falmouth Packet.

Knightley then went into the traditional Keys of Canterbury, Peter Gabriel’s Secret World and his own composition, the rocky and politically-challenging Country Life, before Sykes gave a solo spot with her own Hard Hard Heart.

They closed with Cousin Jack, about the collapse of the Cornish tin-mining industry and encored with Roots, Knightley’s reply to Labour MP Kim Howells’ stated aversion to folk music.

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Cadillac Kings

29th March 2008

We were looking for a lively, party atmosphere to round off our season and that’s just what we got. Although reticent during the first half, the jivers came to the floor after the interval and by the conclusion of the evening more than twenty couples were dancing away happily.

Lead vocalist Mike Thomas ensured everything moved along apace and he was surrounded on all sides by some terrific instrumentalists. Gary Potts excelled on harmonica – he has been described as ‘one of the best harmonica players on the planet’ - whilst also taking some of the vocals whilst Mal Barclay was a revelation on guitar. Original keyboards player Gary Howard had been drafted back into the line-up and nobody would have guessed that he had only been introduced to two of the other band members earlier in the afternoon! (It’s best we don’t say why the usual keyboardist wasn’t available!). Completing the band in the ‘back line’ were T.C. Copp on a rather grand double bass and Roy Webber on drums.

Although the music played was very much in the style of the 50’s many of the self-penned lyrics dealt with current themes such as regular exercise – no prizes for guessing the standpoint taken on that subject! – male impotence and plastic surgery. Several tracks were taken from the band’s award-winning ‘Highway 17’ CD whilst others will feature on a new album set for release later this year.

It was great to welcome quite a few new faces to a ‘Warthog’ gig amongst the very, very close to capacity audience

(Unfortunately our resident photographer Ed Herington was unable to attend the gig due to a raging toothache, which necessitated a visit to NHS Direct).

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Rainbow Chasers

23rd February 2008

The music of Rainbow Chasers is intelligent, thoughtful and articulate but never dull. The performance they gave left everybody in a happy frame of mind, knowing they had seen Ashley Hutchings – resplendent in his red beret – delighting in letting his three young companions take centre-stage, figuratively speaking. Many of the songs in their near two-hour set were taken from their most recent CD ‘Fortune Never Sleeps’ including the upbeat ‘Better Be Smart’, the superb ‘River’s Tale’ performed accompanied in four-part harmony and ‘Stanley’s Wake’ which reflects the demise of the traditional English family farm. By strange coincidence, reference was made in the introduction to the song of ‘The Farm’ by Richard Benson, which it just so happens is being performed at Lowdham Village Hall in May.

There is a great empathy between the two ladies in the band, Jo Hamilton and Ruth Angell who come over as being ‘best buddies’ as well as bandmates. It was their playing and their happy smiling faces that arguably stole the show. The gentlemen even retired from the stage on a couple of occasions to let them perform alone, when their sense of fun was evident.

The band’s first album was only visited three times and whilst it was a shame not to hear one or two personal favourites such as ‘Those Broad Shoulders’ and ‘When I Jumped Ship’, the encouraging implication is that a new, third album may be on the way at some point. The newer, as yet unrecorded, material shows that the inspiration for new and varied songs is very much still in place. ‘Weather’ was an epic, inspired (if that is the right word) by climate change and Ruth Angell’s composition ‘Mrs. Lowther’s House’ was written for the late poet Dr. Roi Ankhkara Kwabena and tells of his childhood in Trinidad. Opening the show was another new composition, the up-tempo ‘High Peak Trail’ which was also played as the encore. And that worked……. a song we didn’t know became an old favourite just a couple of hours later!

Rainbow Chasers are a group you want to give a warm, collective hug! Lovely people playing contemporary music superbly well. As somebody said at the end “They’re up there with Kerfuffle”. Knowing how much our audience loves Kerfuffle, that is high praise indeed!

(Joe Topping will be performing solo at the Woodlark Folk Club in Lambley on Monday May 5th, whilst Ashley Hutchings and Ruth Angell both play in the ‘Lark Rise Band’ who will be appearing for us at the Lowdham Book Festival on Tuesday June 24th).

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Demon Barbers

25th January 2008

Fans of traditional music and dance were in for a rare treat on Friday night, when the Demon Barbers played to a full house at Lowdham Village Hall.

The Demon Barbers – led, of course, by Damien Barber – are an all-action band who bring the English tradition bang up to date. They use the standard line-up of guitar, violin, accordion, bass and drums to perform rocky versions of folk standards, with support from two highly disciplined clog dancers. Under their guise as the Demon Barber Roadshow, they gave one of the most impressive sets at last year’s Gate to Southwell Folk Festival, going into local schools for several days before the event to teach youngsters the delights of traditional song and dance.

Friday’s performance was a slightly smaller affair, with no rapper (sword) or Cotswold Morrismen on show, but Fiona Bradshaw and Hannah James did a great job as cloggers, even managing a sassy dance to the bluesy American tune Pit Boots. The music had all the ambience of the modern folk rock scene, and even included a heavy metal version of Death of a Lady, complete with bass and drum solos.

The set was disappointingly short, but it finished with the Grateful Dead’s Friend of the Devil and a medley based on the American song Katie Cruel, which was enough to send everyone home in a happy frame of mind, especially at the violin playing of Bryony Griffith.

The Demon Barbers perform with such style and passion, bringing in so many modern influences, that I was left with the thought that they represent nothing less than the future of the English tradition.

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Daniel Smith Blues Band

14th December 2007

They may not wear flashy clothes or appear on stage amidst a swirl of dry ice, but boy do they know how to grab the audience’s attention right from the off. In a matter of minutes they had blitzed through their opening three or four numbers without even pausing for breath, and the audience knew they were in for a great night of blues and boogie-woogie.

The 2007 line-up was the same as 12 months earlier and they were well aware that they were coming to a Hall packed full with people ready to enjoy themselves. Daniel’s dry humour was familiar to many who had been to previous concerts. Of course it was his playing that they had come to see and at times the keyboard was being pounded so hard it seemed it would crash to the floor. Daniel and his band ran through a mixture of established blues favourites as well as some of Daniel’s own compositions, taken from the ‘Chicken and Egg’ and ‘Sitting On Top of the World’ CD’s. Tracks included ‘Friday Night’, ‘Chicken and Egg’, ‘Hey John’ and ‘Boogie On Swanee River’.

Previous experience suggested that the Village Hall piano would be put to good use and the audience was not disappointed as Daniel made two extended visits, giving some in the audience a real ‘up close and personal’ view of his flying fingers, supported from the stage by Pete Miles on drums. Pete excelled throughout but came into his own on an extended drum solo that included a ‘party piece’ on one of the Village Hall fire extinguishers – and this year the fire alarm was NOT set off!

On lead guitar was Jon ‘T-Bone’ Taylor – still wearing the same hat! – and he clearly revelled in playing in front of the packed house, leaving the stage on one occasion to play guitar in amongst those dancing at the side of the stage. Completing the line-up was George Pearson on bass, acoustic bass and vocals who received a rapturous reception for his trademark ‘Sitting on Top of the World’.

One final party-piece to which the audience was treated was the rarely-seen ‘bottleneck’ playing of both guitar and piano by ‘T-Bone’ and Daniel respectively. (For the record, from where I was sitting it looked like an (empty) bottle of Indian ‘Cobra’ lager!). Daniel, Jon, George and Pete played for almost two and a half hours, before sending everyone home in a very happy frame of mind.

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Battlefield Band

23rd November 2007

One of the finest bands on the British folk scene played at Lowdham Village Hall on Friday night, and left everyone in the packed audience feeling their ears had not enjoyed such a harmonious bashing in a long time. The Battlefield Band – named after a district in Glasgow – have been on the music scene for three decades now, and have toured the world several times with their trademark blend of ancient and modern.

They are Alan Reid on keyboards, guitar and for many years the unmistakable voice of Scottish electric folk, Mike Katz on Highland bagpipes, small pipes and assorted flutes and whistles, Sean O’Donnell on vocals and guitar, and Hebridean fiddler Alasdair White, who is shortlisted this year for instrumentalist of the year in the Scottish Folk Awards.

Their music tends to be rousing, North of the Border electric folk, played in overdrive and guaranteed to get anyone’s toes tapping, with Mike Katz more than happy to prove the pipes can keep pace with the most sparkling fiddle-playing.

They revel in this style of music, which comes across as an easy blend of tradition and rock and they are well used to their audiences standing up to dance.

They ended the first half in great style, with a furious ten-minute bagpipe medley that practically raised the roof, and began the second half in similar style, clearly determined not to lose the energetic jigging mood. I never realised there were so many Scots in Lowdham.

But the Battlefield Band also have a more considered side, as witnessed by their delicate arrangement of My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose, and Ewan McColl’s The Ballad Of Accounting, a thoughtful and highly political 1960s protest song.

This was an evening of great music from a band that is justly world-famous, and the packed audience loved it.

They don’t pay too many visits to this part of the world, but I’m sure I speak for everyone in the audience when I say: “Haste ye back.”

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Kerfuffle

6th October 2007

What a wonderful evening. Kerfuffle seem to have come on a ton since last year and they were superb then. The knowledge that they were coming to a familiar and friendly venue enabled them to relax and enjoy themselves right from the off. The interaction between the band and the audience was lovely to see.

Much of Kerfuffle’s music is lively, toe-tapping material, particularly when Sam Sweeney (violin) and Hannah James (accordion) get into full swing but they are equally capable of hauntingly beautiful work such as Quendale Bay, taken from their first CD, recorded when they really were young. Several of the songs so beautifully sung by Hannah – for example, The Bold Grenadier and The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry – were followed by joyous tunes. One of the many humorous moments came when Hannah dedicated one of these tunes – The Old Maid of Galway – to a lady in the audience without immediately appreciating the implications!

Hannah’s clog-dancing, on her own personal section of extended stage, drew loud applause. This gives the band an added dimension as did the surprise inclusion – even to us – of a couple of four-part harmony songs. New guitarist Jamie Roberts has clearly settled well into the line-up and Sam’s older brother Tom was more vocal this year, ribbing his brother for returning from Newcastle with a cockney accent, after just one week!

The band will shortly be recording their fourth CD and judging by the new material played here, it will be a worthy successor to ‘Links’.

We’ll leave the final words to Tom and Sam’s dad –

“What an amazing gig. Thank you all very much indeed. When you set up such a splendid gig, look after the band and generally make everyone – audience included – feel special, then you get the best out of everyone. It was one of the best gigs I’ve heard them play. They really began to rock as the evening wore on”.

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Waking the Witch

21st September 2007

This additional fund-raising event gave us the opportunity to welcome back to Lowdham our now good friends Patsy, Jools, Rachel and Becky. As the audience gathered from the ‘blooming Becky’ comments, there were actually five people on stage! (The baby is due in April – we’ll keep you posted!)

Once they were off and running, the girls really relaxed and enjoyed themselves in these by now familiar surroundings. The ‘Boys from the Abattoir’ CD provided the bulk of the songs, which are now familiar to many in the audience. The outstanding ‘Top of the Hill’ was especially moving, having been dedicated by the girls to Dave Watchorn. The happy sing-along ‘Yorkshire Boys’ gave the audience a chance to sing and clap along before the extended version of ‘Horse to Water’ with its band-member introductions closed the set

The earlier albums also featured with tracks such as ‘Poet of Harlem’, ‘Waking Hour’ and ‘Watching the Stars’ being familiar favourites. ‘Always One Like Her’ has become a particular crowd-pleaser as Becky plays a jaw-breaking jaws harp from start to finish – encouraging the others to prolong the end of the song, rather unkindly!

The show finished with ‘Kerry’s favourite’ ‘I Can’t Breathe’ which sent everyone away happy again. We are delighted that the evening raised around £250 for the Dave Watchorn trust.

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Heidi Talbot with Boo Hewerdine and Tola Custy

7th September 2007

To the list of people who have been stuck on the A46 on a Friday evening can be added the names of Heidi, Boo and Tola. Long delays meant they arrived just before the ‘doors open’ time of 7.30pm. Thankfully, a very speedy sound-check enabled them to take to the stage not long after 8pm. (One fan travelled up from Portsmouth, leaving at 2pm and arriving nearly 6 ½ hours later).

It didn’t take long for Heidi’s charm to captivate the audience as she held centre stage, flanked by fiddle-player Tola and guitarist Boo. Heidi’s one solo album to date, ‘Distant Future’ , was released in 2004 and tracks taken from this album included ‘Jealousy’, ‘Geography’ and ‘Muddy Water’, the latter two being Boo Hewerdine compositions. Her second album is scheduled for release in January and included on this will be ‘Invisible’ and ‘Cathedrals’, two undoubted highlights of this performance.

Boo took the limelight to sing another of his own songs, the beautiful ‘Patience of Angels’ whilst, in the second half, Tola had his turn to shine when he played a trio of Irish tunes whilst Heidi and Boo looked on admiringly.

Whilst some of the songs told of jealousy, plague and death it was not all gloom and doom! Heidi succeeded in getting the audience to sing along with the chorus of ‘The Music Tree’ and also to an unexpected composition familiar to everyone present – ‘Whispering Grass’. Other highlights included a very plaintiff and moving love song ‘If You Stay’ and the sorry tale of ‘Betsy Bell and Mary Gray’.

A great start to our new season.

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Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri

29th June 2007

The two words we kept hearing in the aftermath of this concert were ‘wonderful’ and ‘fantastic’. Anyone expecting to see a ‘pop star’ relying on past glories to sustain a performance soon realized that Kiki and Carmelo were going to provide very much more than that. Yes, the hits were in there – and most in the audience were no doubt pleased to hear ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’, ‘Amoureuse’ and ‘I’ve Got the Music in Me’. But also very much to the fore was material from the more recent albums ‘Where Rivers meet’ and in particular ‘The Walk of Faith’, including the uplifting ‘Oh Life’, a song inspired by Olympic swimmer Eric Moussambani. A third strand was provided by some very selective cover versions such as Tom Petty’s ‘Learning to Fly’, Peter Gabriel’s rather dark ‘Digging In the Dirt’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’. And who would have expected to hear a stunning rendition of ‘It Was A Very Good Year’ recorded most famously by Frank Sinatra. Carmelo Luggeri was a revelation, his intensely passionate guitar-playing leaving the audience in awe. A further dimension was added by backing vocalist Annabel Lamb who did mistime her entrance at times, it has to be said. Kiki and Carmelo encored with versions of two very well-known and popular numbers – ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ and ‘How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You’ on which the audience joined in on the chorus. After leaving to a standing ovation, Kiki and Carmelo kindly stayed on for quite a while to sign CD’s and chat with members of the audience.

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Paul Jones and Dave Kelly

23rd June 2007

REVIEW BY CAROL BORRINGTON, REVIEWER FOR BLUES MATTERS AND NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST

I had the great pleasure of attending, as part of the Lowdham Book Festival, Warthog Promotions’ concert featuring Paul Jones and Dave Kelly. Well done to Lowdham Book Festival and Warthog Promotions, not only for the organisation of this event but managing to battle the weather to allow it to take place. I attend a lot of gigs and venues trying to support live music and Lowdham you’re doing a great job!

To the concert itself, seated in the marquee on that for once dry evening, its atmosphere was like being in church with its feeling of deep concentration on the music in hand. This though, is typical of Blues audiences, they expel visible energy only in applauding material, the rest of the time it is channelled into intense listening and observation skills.

I’ve interestingly seen Paul Jones many times with his R’n’R hat on but this was the first time back to his Blues roots. Paul was keen to express that he was really a Bluesman first and foremost, offering as exhibit ‘A’ for his defence, a self penned song, ‘Without You’, which was on the ‘B’ side of Manfred Mann’s 5,4,3,2,1, which had been the early theme music to ‘Ready Steady Go’ in 1964. ‘Without You’ was written while at college whilst still 19 and before his professional career. Paul though needed no defence to show this and any audience that he truly is the Blues; that came through his music, as witnessed at Lowdham. Along with Dave Kelly, his colleague from The Blues Band, not only did they take us through some fine renditions of covered Blues in a historical context, but their own self-penned material as well. The dialogue from the stage from both performers was not only funny but like taking a Master Class of Blues history and noting this was a cross-generational audience and contained a number of younger members, a good grounding in the early Blues history.

Dave’s slide playing on his dobro was top class, it was fluid with good sustain, fretboard use and bends and had a real feel of those early days of the pioneer Blues players. There was great harp playing from Paul Jones and although he does have and uses the more polished vocal of the popular singers, when the song required we had all the grit in the throat of the true Bluesman and the facial and body language required to underpin the intensity and at times pure satire of the Blues.

This was an excellent evening’s entertainment provided by all involved. My sincere thanks to the artists, organisers and the people of Lowdham for making me so welcome in your community and being able to share a night of quality live music. Keep Supporting Live Music, Lowdham.

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Jacqui Dankworth

17th March 2007

From the moment she took her position centre-stage, Jacqui Dankworth gave an outstanding show in front of another full house. Looking elegant in her figure-hugging halter-neck black dress, this was a regal performance by a very classy lady. On either side sat her superb guitarists Chris Allard and Mike Walker, who made a huge contribution to the evening.

Jacqui’s vocal control was exquisite and effortless and various musical styles came to the fore as the evening progressed. As expected there was a heavy jazz influence with the likes of Lerner & Loewe’s ‘Almost Like Being In Love’ being very familiar but equally there were some surprises. One particular highlight was ‘Wild Is The Wind’, written for the 1956 film of the same name and popularised by David Bowie some twenty years later, when included on his album ‘Station to Station’. Also, Jacqui had added words to a composition by jazz-fusion band Oregon – whilst enduring a long drive down the M1 – it was one of those tunes that you recall from somewhere but can’t remember where!

Jacqui’s composition ‘Strange Woman’ was another highlight as were the forays into more bluesy territory, notably ‘Sitting on Top of the World’ which was delivered with a wonderfully raspy vocal. Emotion was there too, particularly when Jacqui delivered a from-the-heart version of ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, recorded most famously by Bonnie Raitt.

We watched in admiration as this complete professional performed at a high level for well over two hours. The well-deserved encore was entitled ‘But Beautiful’……. which just about sums it up.

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Waking the Witch

2nd February 2007

“Fabulous! The audience here is one of the best we ever play in front of”

We are required by Arts Council England to obtain artist feedback after some of our events. The above quote is Waking the Witch’s comment in the ‘Audience reaction’ section after this performance, so a big thank you from us to everyone who helped to make it such a great night.

Last year the band took the bold step of opening the show with an acapella version of ‘Always One Like Her’ and this time around, in another surprise move, they kicked things off with the dramatic ‘Poet of Harlem’ taken from their debut CD, which also provided the glorious ‘Waking Hour’ and ‘Like Everybody’.

The newly-released ‘Boys from the Abattoir’ helped the girls to display their more ‘urban and gritty’ (their words, not ours!) side, with ‘Me Leaving Me’, ‘Only Human’ and ‘Horse to Water’ all fitting this description. Becky Mills’ songwriting skills are developing apace – contrast the last-named with the story-telling of ‘Jenny Thornton and the Boys from the Abattoir’ and, from the second CD, the plaintiff and beautiful ‘Man of Moon’. Not only this, she has also added the slide guitar and jaws harp to her repertoire.

All four girls can deliver cracking songs as evidenced by the likes of Rock’n’Roll (Patsy), My Conscience Keep (Jools) and I Can’t Breathe (Rachel). Bands like Waking the Witch pose us a real problem – we know we can’t put on too many repeat concerts, but how can we not want to welcome them again!

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Daniel Smith Blues Band

15th December 2006

Daniel and his band became the first artists to perform twice for Warthog Promotions, this concert being the second year that they have played in the run-up to Christmas. And once again all tickets were sold. There was just one change in the band line-up, with Pete Miles taking over from Damon Sawyer behind the drums.

The band soon had everybody tapping their feet, whilst marvelling at the speed of Daniel’s keyboard-playing. If anything, the volume was turned up a bit compared with last year. Everybody had their turn in the limelight and we will remember Pete’s drum solo for the accompanying fire alarm! Daniel was to blame for this as he unintentionally set it off whilst carrying the fire extinguisher to Pete for him to play on!

Once again Jon ‘T-bone’ Taylor excelled on guitar to the delight of his growing Lowdham fan-base. Bass guitarist George Pearson contributed some fine vocals, and also joined Daniel at the village hall piano for one of the two boogie-woogie sessions that was lapped up by the audience. The customary extended encore sent everyone home happy once again.

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New Rope String Band

17th November 2006

Three of the band members are playing a gentle, lilting melody but sadly there is no need for an accordion player so Tim is dispatched to the side of the stage. After staring at the ceiling and the floor for a while, he produces a flask and proceeds to pour himself a mug of tea, which he rests on his accordion. Feeling peckish, he finds a hot boiled egg in his pocket along with an egg cup, and the egg is duly consumed. Seeing his reflection in the teaspoon and noticing his stubbly chin, he produces shaving cream and a razor to rectify this. The audience is laughing hysterically whilst the beautiful tune is being played, resulting in an upset Vera leaving the stage and heading off to the dressing room, the door to which is slammed shut, very loudly. Pete chastises the audience in no uncertain terms, explaining that he now has to “comfort that poor Dutch girl with my own bare hands”, at which point he, too, departs from the stage.

This is one small section extracted from almost two hours of non-stop, musically-inspired tomfoolery that captivated a capacity audience. It is less than a year since Tim Dalling and Pete Challoner (‘Old Rope’) joined forces with Vera van Heeringen and Jock Tyldesley (‘Young Rope’) to form ‘New Rope’ and the act is still evolving, with old favourites such as “J’ai plongez mes long-jeans” appearing alongside new material such as the weird and wonderful ‘pipes tune’, that concluded with a section of the audience being showered with shiny confetti. (That did less damage than Tim’s flying false arm which unfortunately demolished somebody’s glass of red wine!).

Tim’s facial expressions make him ideal for the role of fall guy and funny man, whilst long-time colleague Pete is a great communicator with the audience, even when reprimanding or insulting them. Jock and Vera are clearly growing more comfortable with their roles within the band and ‘musical notes’ was a lot slicker and funnier than when we saw it performed six months ago.

We’ll leave the final verdict with the audience. 90% of those who completed the audience feedback questionnaires rated the show as ‘Fantastic’, whilst 100% said they would wish to see the band again. Lowdham has not seen the last of the ‘New Ropes’, all being well.

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Kerfuffle

13th October 2006

What a stunning performance from this quartet, whose appeal is so diverse that teenagers and senior citizens alike were swept along by their musical prowess. All four have talent but no doubt most eyes were trained on the left-hand side of the stage where stood (or sat) Sam Sweeney and Hannah James.

Sam’s opening line immediately got the audience on his side, as he explained that his cold was so bad that he’d had to have a day off school! (Age-wise, 1 Acoustic Strawb = 3 Kerfuffles!) What a precocious talent, not only with the violin but also with handling the audience! He could play haunting, lyrical melodies but it was the up-tempo playing that really got the audience going. To quote the lad himself – “This next tune’s a bit of a stonker”.
To have such an outstandingly gifted player in a band is fair enough, but isn’t having two just a wee bit greedy? In Hannah James, Kerfuffle has its second rising star – not only does she have a sweet, maturing voice, her playing of the accordion is a joy and her clog-dancing got some of the loudest cheers of the night. The band is completed by Sam’s older brother Tom on bass guitar and Chris Thornton-Smith on guitar – who at his tender age also produces the band’s albums. As for highlights….. there was just one….. the entire time they were on the stage.

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Acoustic Strawbs

9th September 2006

The day got off to an unexpected start, with the band arriving more than two hours ahead of schedule. Dave Cousins announced that he was feeling “exceedingly tired” and so Pete kindly lent him a spare bedroom for a couple of hours – which was much appreciated! Our labelling of the seats with individual names seemed to work well on the whole, despite one or two minor hiccups.

Just a few minutes after 8pm, the band were on stage and launching into Benedictus, soon followed by other tracks from the classic ‘Grave New World’ album, including ‘Heavy Disguise’ and a personal favourite, ‘New World’. (Magic moment No. 1 – Dave Cousins rasping out in typically dramatic fashion ‘May you rot, in your grave, new world’). He added that the song was given added poignancy by the proximity of the 5th anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers. The first half closed with a superb rendition of ‘Autumn’. (Magic moment No. 2 – Dave Lambert’s ‘seagull cries’ at the opening of the track).

Dave Cousins held centre stage, of course, but many we have spoken to saw ‘the other Dave’ as their personal favourite. Mr Lambert had complete command of his guitar and some of his ‘thrash acoustic’ playing certainly made you sit up and take note. The second half of the two-hour long set included some lesser-known tracks including Golden Salamander, Midnight Sun and the more delicate ‘If’. Saving the best-known song until the end, the opening chords of ‘Lay Down’ got a few people out of their seats and swaying in time with the chorus. (Magic moment No. 3 – looking across the Hall at everyone having a great time, whilst Dave Cousins roared out ‘Lay down, ah, lay me down….’ The much-deserved encore was a stunningly simple version of ‘Hero and Heroine’ – free of all the studio-added dramatic effects and featuring some fine playing of the bodhran by Dave Lambert. Lest no-one should think this is a two-man band, it would be remiss not to mention Chas Cronk – the quiet one certainly, but also making his presence felt and a great contribution to the overall sound of the band.

Another great night…… and only just over a month to the next one!

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The Cecil Sharp Show

18th June 2006

For an hour and a half, Ashley Hutchings ceased to exist. From the moment he walked through the door into the Hall, he was Cecil Sharp. Was this really the same person who, less than 24 hours earlier, had been expertly playing the acoustic bass guitar? This charming performance held an audience of around eighty people captivated. The ‘Show’ seems to be rarely aired these days and the Rural Arts Touring Scheme would seem an ideal vehicle for it, such is its quiet appeal. Ashley/Cecil took us back in time with stories of characters he had encountered as he travelled the country collecting songs – people who would only sing whilst working, or whilst ironing, or who were reluctant to sing for him. Cleverly, his way of encouraging the latter was to (deliberately) give a song some wrong words, knowing they would not be able to resist correcting him!

As well as listening to ‘Cecil’, we heard some very tinny and crackly early recordings made by the great man. A very worthwhile contribution was also made by ‘Rainbow Chaser’ Ruth Angell who sang some of the collected songs, accompanying herself on guitar and violin. Cecil Sharp travelled to America and in particular the Appalachians (“where most of the women smoke pipes”), noting that here, unlike at home in England, it was the youngsters who provided him with songs. One such song was the murder ballad ‘Matty Groves’ which was given a stunning solo rendition by Ruth, albeit a truncated version.

This was a show in great contrast with the previous night, and an utter delight.

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Ashley Hutchings' Rainbow Chasers

17th June 2006

What do the blue-stocking movement, the singer Nick Drake and knitting have in common? They are all the subjects of songs written and performed by the band put together by folk legend Ashley Hutchings. And over 200 people squeezed into the Village Hall on a very warm evening to hear this diverse mix of songs. We had to raid the Festival marquee for extra chairs so that we didn’t disappoint those who had turned up ‘on spec’.

As senior band member (by quite a distance!), Ashley Hutchings was the clear leader but when it came to the playing he was content to let the youngsters take the limelight, often casting admiring paternal glances in their direction. Ruth Angell’s fiddle-playing had everyone tapping their toes, especially on upbeat numbers such as ‘He Throws a Brilliant Light’ and the delightful ‘Gypsy Jigg’. Her gentle, haunting voice also shone through on quieter songs such as ‘Ghosts in the Rain’ which was preceded by Ashley reading the poem by Edna St Vincent Millay that inspired the song. Arguably the strongest vocalist of the four was guitarist Mark Hutchinson who excelled on ‘Stand Quite Still’, one of the few songs not written by the band. Viola and guitar player Jo Hamilton has a rich, striking voice that was perfect for the song written about….. knitting! (The girls both love to knit!).

Most of the songs played feature on the band’s excellent debut album ‘Some Colours Fly’ but the follow-up has just been completed and our audience was privileged to be the first to hear the new songs ‘live’.

The combination of young and ‘not so young’ make a fascinating line-up and we’ll be following the progress of Rainbow Chasers with interest. On this evidence, they deserve to find their pot of gold.

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Waking the Witch

24th March 2006

Waking the Witch treated a packed Hall to a stunning display of acoustic and vocal wizardry – or should it be witchcraft? - and the audience undoubtedly fell completely under their spell. The start of the second set was delayed because they still had a queue at the ‘CD shop’! With the exception of Hazel O’Connor’s ‘Will You’ all of the songs were self-penned, most being taken from their two albums ‘Like Everybody’ and ‘Hands and Bridges’, with some new songs included that are likely to feature on their third album, due to be recorded later this year.

In between numbers the audience was kept amused by anecdotes, largely regarding Becky Mills’ search for a husband! This search provided the inspiration for her composition ‘The List’ which was a Becky highlight along with the delightful ‘Man of Moon’. One of the strengths of Waking the Witch is that all of the band contribute great songs and vocals, Rachel Goodwin excelling on the haunting ‘I Can’t Breathe’ and ‘Waking Hour’ whilst Patsy Matheson – arguably the ‘band leader’ on stage – came to the fore on the likes of ‘Like Everybody’ and ‘Through and Through’. Jools Parker has a wonderfully rich voice and she closed the first half with the dramatic ‘Poet of Harlem’ and was responsible for one of the many highlights with the bluesy encore ‘Bluer Than This’, during which you could have heard a pin drop. Magical.

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Daniel Smith Blues Band

16th December 2005

If pianos could smile.....

What a night! The proximity to Christmas helped to create a vibrant atmosphere and Daniel and his band delivered the goods to an expectant audience that was clearly ready to enjoy itself!

Guitarist Jon ‘T-Bone’ Taylor tried his best to steal the limelight from Daniel and seemed to develop his own fan-club on the right-hand side of the Hall! The expressive George Pearson excelled on fretless bass, acoustic blues guitar and vocals, whilst Damon Sawyer was superb on drums, even treating the audience to the ‘dreaded’ drum solo!

Daniel himself was in rip-roaring form, clearly responding to an appreciative audience. Having spotted the under-used (but tuned) Village Hall piano, he pushed it out into the audience who were treated to some dazzling boogie-woogie (with Jingle Bells in the middle somewhere!) which received a roar of approval at its conclusion. Most of the music played was taken from the excellent CD’s ‘Sitting On Top of the World’ and ‘Chicken and Egg’, which sold suitably well at the end of the gig. The band played a delightfully long set, eventually leaving the stage at 10.50pm. So much great feedback was received after the show that Daniel and his band were immediately booked to return on Friday 15th December 2006.

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Ric Sanders Group

10th September 2005

This was a fabulous inaugural concert, performed in front of a near-capacity audience.Although Ric is best known for being Fairport Convention's violinist, the music played was a truly diverse offering. It ranged from well-known classics such as God only knows and Tears in Heaven, to compositions by the likes of Chick Corea and John McLaughlin. The audience was a mix of villagers and Ric aficionados and they left suitably elated. The final words in the review published in the Newark Advertiser were 'Truly brilliant'.

The profit from the event was donated to the Music Fund for Cuba, in memory of Joe Scurfield of the Old Rope String Band, who had been due to appear at the Village Hall.

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