2025

The Time Bandits have had several incarnations in their 25 year existence, but their current 6-piece line-up has gelled together nicely and have made two CDs in this format with another one 'in the oven'. It's not easy to pin down their style or influences - they pride themselves on the range of styles in the music they play, covering songs and tunes from all over the last 500 years! And their musicians play a broad range of instruments: Helen de Lemos shines on recorders, english smallpipes and saxophone; Jamie Matthews plays bouzouki (and sometimes cittern, but not today); Ian Jones is the melodeon wizz; Chris Lee plays bass guitar; and Helen Armstrong plays violins ... and they all sing harmony and backing vocals. That's got the instruments well covered, but for almost all of the songs the lead vocal is supplied by the clear and powerful voice of Katrina Turner (one third of the a-capella harmony group 'The Waite Collective'). 

Lots of lively dance tune sets (Harper's Frolic/Bonny Kate; Church Street/Iron Legs; The Miller of Dee/Bishop of Chester's Jig; Morgan Rattler, etc) gave way to some very old traditional songs such as the Elizabethan 'Drive the Cold Winter Away'; 'Admiral Benbow'; and the very gory and blood stained 'Long Lankin' - "There was blood all in the kitchen, there was blood all in the hall, there was blood all in the parlor where my lady she did fall"!

More contemporary songs were also given a new lease of life, with versions of Sandy Denny's 'Like an Old Fashioned Waltz' and a Pete Coe song 'Farewell to the Brine', written about the Lion Salt Works in Nantwich where his father had worked. A song, new to me, about 'The Dancers of Stanton Drew' told of the dancers who were turned to stone pillars for dancing on the Sabbath! Then, with Soul Cakes from Warrington, Bell Ringers from the West Country, mad inmates from Bedlam, and Diggers from Scotland we had a Grand Tour of the country before the band finished off the night with a nice version of Les Barker's 'Hard Cheese of Old England'. 

The Time Bandits gave us a lovely, entertaining and varied night of songs and tunes - and they certainly lived up to their strapline : 500 Years of Songs and Music!

Finally, a huge thank you to our two Poppy friends, Norman Randall and Jenny Bell, who each sang a song to start each half - Norman sang the traditional 'Brigg Fair'; Jenny sang an excellent newly written song 'Walking with the Wind'.

It's over for another year - and relax!
Here's Peter Poppy's reminder of what happened.

SINGING & HARMONY WORKSHOP
Jess and Richard Arrowsmith were faced with the unenviable task of starting the Folk Day by teaching something useful to 50 individuals with 50 different experiences of singing and many types of voice. If anyone can do that, it's Jess Arrowsmith. Jess teaches groups and individuals in workshops and on courses, and specialises in encouraging those who have been told they 'can't sing'. At the end of this short session we had 50 people making a beautiful sound - a success by any measure.

After a short physical and vocal warm-up featuring the handy singing tip to 'over-enunciate'; and a simple children's canon (or round) to get us started; we were thrown in at the deep end with a Glee, 'Here's a Health to All Good Lasses', to be sung in three parts! It certainly got our brains working - especially for those who don't read music and hadn't heard the song before. Still, it worked ... and showed what could be achieved! 

Jess followed this with a really simple explanation of musical scales (even I understood it!) and an experiment in playing with fitting harmonies to 'Shallow Brown' - a tune we all knew, thank goodness - and another memorable teaching aid: 'wibbling and droning'. Again, the sound of all those voices singing together proved the big point - singing is fun and a beautiful thing.
Thanks to Jess for squeezing so much into 75 minutes, and to Richard who provided the bass lines and worked as Jess's wing man.

HAZEL ATKINSON & PHIL SMEETON
The afternoon concert certainly provided variety, featuring three acts with totally different musical styles. And talking of style, there was no-one in the room more stylish than Hazel and Phil who wouldn't have looked out of place at a posh wedding! But it's not a case of 'style over substance' - Hazel and Phil sing in harmony, perform only original songs, and Hazel does a great job of reminding us that the much-maligned Ukulele can be a proper instrument while Phil is accomplished on piano accordion.

Their repertoire has a warm, family orientated feel with songs about taking the kids to the beach and the like, but beneath the surface is some deeper subject matter. As an example, the children's jingle, 'Hey Diddle Diddle', turns out to be a reflection on dementia! The best song for me was the opener - 'The Blessed Villages' - about those places where there were no fatalities, but plenty of other issues, among the men who fought in the First World War ... 'Seven hollow men came home again'  ...
A lovely start to the afternoon concert.

LOOMA
Next up, we had the four-piece band Looma. The Leicestershire-based folk and roots band were booked to play for us in 2020, but we all know what happened next ... so it was great to have them with us at last. Looma are: Liz Logie, originally from Orkney and a piano accordion player since childhood; Tim Garland (founder member of Fieldwork) on cittern and fiddle; Mark Theobald on harmonica; and Bob Gilmour-Evans on acoustic guitar. And they all sing!

Their repertoire covers a whole lot of ground, influenced by Orcadian tunes, Cajun music and the English and Celtic folk traditions. Dance tune sets followed ballads which followed more lively songs - and rotation of the lead singers added further to the variety. Bob's song, 'Praying for the Rain' had a catchy chorus and a lovely tune picked out by Tim on the cittern, while the finishing song 'The Men of Sandringham' (about troops from the Norfolk Battalion who 'vanished' in Gallipoli) featured strong vocals and cittern playing from Tim. 

JESS & RICHARD ARROWSMITH
For the closing act of the afternoon concert we welcomed back Jess and Richard to the stage to sing and play for an hour. 

We know what to expect with these two - we've seen them as a duo and as half of the Melrose Quartet, and they never fail to give a high quality, emotional and entertaining performance. Jess plays fiddle and has a gorgeous singing voice, while Richard sings and is a master of the melodeon. While I've seen them play many times, there were several songs in this set that I'd not heard them sing previously, including a couple of real gems.

Among the more familiar songs were Richard's singing of the traditional 'Shepherd's Song' and the song written for him by Jess: 'Raise Your Voice with Mine' (we did!). Jess's songs included an Ian Robb song 'God and the Orange Clown' (I wonder who inspired that one), a lovely ballad 'Earl Richard's Daughter'. As always, some great tune sets were interleaved with the songs.
But the highlights for me were Jess's unaccompanied (and well remembered) Keith Marden song 'Doin' the Manch', and an absolutely gorgeous rendition of the desperately sad 'The Death of Queen Jane' (Seymour) from the duo's back catalogue (the 2012 Customs and Exercise album).
The concert finished with the audience joining in with 'All the Salt' (written by Jess) and the Alec Thompson anthem 'A Bright New Year'.  Altogether wonderful!

TUNES SESSION
In the interval between afternoon and evening concerts, a small group of enthusiasts joined Jim Hellewell in the bar to play tunes - fiddles, flutes, guitars, concertinas and harmonicas were all in evidence and a good little session ensued. 

KELLYS HEROES
Kellys Heroes (no apostrophe, apparently, but I still find it hard to type) are so well known around the East Midlands that we were a little afraid there would be no-one who needed to see them again. We need not have worried - we had a full house, and now I've seen them (for the first time!) I can see exactly why! They are all great musicians, and although they perform songs and tunes from English, Celtic and European traditions, dance tunes (with a fair sprinkling of morris) and ballads, it all has a very clear and identifiable 'Kellys Heroes' sound. 

Main vocalist Tony Dugan (vocal and bodhran) leads most of the singing with a powerful and emotive voice, and adds some nice anecdotes in the song introductions. A huge part of the 'Kellys' sound is the result of Helen O'Connell's incredible (and sometimes blisteringly fast) melodeon playing, while Patrick Gray (fiddle) keeps pace with Helen (and adds beautifully to the slower songs), and Steve Hall (guitar) provides a driving rhythm. 

Although much of the repertoire was well-known traditional or popular folk songs, they were performed with a special kind of energy and emotion that made them sound unique to Kellys Heroes - the emotion being very strong in the political and protest songs: 'The Silent Majority (Stays Silent)' and 'The Auld Triangle'. The audience picked up the energy and sang heartily to 'Mingulay Boat Song', 'The Rambling Rover', 'Maids When You're Young' and 'Seven Days in the Week' (in almost every circumstance); and listened intently to the lovely 'Captain James' - a slower number with lovely violin playing from Patrick. Some very brisk tune sets were introduced into the mix on several occasions, resulting in the postage stamp sized space in the corner of the room becoming a very small dance floor for a few minutes. 

Finally, the band closed the night with a rollicking 'Couldn't Have Come at a Better Time and that great Ewan MacColl classic 'Dirty Old town'.

It had been a concert brimming over with energy and passion, and a brilliant end to the day's concerts.

As usual, each half of the main concert was started by a Poppy friend performing one song from the floor. Tonight's floor heroes were AJAR, who sang the Ed Sheeran song 'Nancy Mulligan', and Jim Hellewell who sang 'Tom Payne's Bones'. Well done both!

LATE NIGHT SINGAROUND
It had been a long day, but a handful of people stayed back for the singaround at the end of the evening. We used to have singarounds after all our concert nights, but they fell by the wayside after the Covid lockdown (we also had some very late bedtimes!), so we thought it was worth another try. Many thanks to Jenny Bell, Marion Downs, and to Dan and Debbie for staying to sing along with the Poppy Crew of Juliet, Ally, Rick, Dave and Mary, all organised by Ian Price.

Finally, a massive thank you to Dave and Marion Downs who ran the sound desk and provided all the PA for the whole Folk Day.