9 JUNE 2010
Lively FolkWeek Programme at the Bulverton Marquee
One of the main venues for Sidmouth FolkWeek is the Bulverton Marquee. Situated on the edge of the town, and near the official festival campsite, the Marquee is the venue for the evening “Festival Clubhouse” events, including the famous Late Night Extra. The theme at the Bulverton Marquee is lively and high energy events, giving a contemporary, fresh vibe.
Top of the bill at the Bulverton Marquee is the eleven-piece, award-winning folk band Bellowhead (Wednesday). Winners of several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Bellowhead also featured as the main band at the BBC Proms Folk Day in 2008 – the concert was broadcast live on BBC television. They also hosted a sea-faring themed New Year’s Eve party on London’s Southbank in 2009.
A real scoop for the festival is the reunion concert of Cordelia’s Dad (Tuesday). This American-based punk-tinged band, led by fiddle-player Tim Eriksen, was much sought after in the 1990s, but later disbanded. This reunion gig is their only appearance in the UK.
Celtic music comes from the Edinburgh-based “acid-croft” band, Shooglenifty (Thursday), who combine fiery and infectious Scottish traditional music with modern dance grooves; as well as from Diamh (Saturday), who combine Scottish, Irish and Cape Breton traditional music led on the pipes and fiddle. Ace Irish folk musician, Michael McGoldrick, brings his Trad Collective to the Bulverton Marquee on Monday – traditional Irish music fused with Afro-Cuban rhythms, flamenco, samba, reggae and hiphop! A heady cocktail of musical styles that will have the audience dancing all night long.
On Sunday evening, last year’s highly popular Silent Disco is being extended with the addition of a Silent Ceilidh. The audience dances to the music on headphones, and there’s a Christmas theme to the whole event!
The final night, Friday 6 August, sees Scottish and Latin American fusion band, Salsa Celtica take the stage in a display of virtuosity and energy.
Following each of the evening Clubhouse events, there is the Late Night Extra where the country’s top ceilidh bands lead the dancers in an energetic ending to each day’s events. Among the bands featured are London’s The Committee Band, Bedlam from Sheffield, Shropshire’s All Blacked Up and Tickled Pink in their 21st birthday year. Blowzabella will bring their special Euro-sounds to the event.
Sidmouth FolkWeek runs from July 30 to August 6, and a Taster Programme containing many of the major events is available from the website www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk
Tickets for all the Bulverton events (except Bellowhead) are available in advance from the Sidmouth Tourist Information Centre, Ham Lane, Sidmouth, EX10 8XR. Telephone 01395 578627. Or online from the festival website www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk Week, weekend and day season ticket holders do not need a separate ticket for Bulverton events.
Sidmouth FolkWeek also announced this week that local brewer, O’Hanlon’s Brewery, is to become the Festival’s first official brewery sponsor.
Based locally at Great Barton Farm in the village of Whimple, O’Hanlon’s Brewery is an award-winning family business, brewing top quality ales. The business started in London, but in 2000, Liz and John O’Hanlon relocated to Whimple, and since then the brewery has gone from strength to strength.
O’Hanlon’s Brewery will be supplying the beer to the FolkWeek bars in the marquees at the Ham, Bulverton and in the Blackmore Gardens.
Festival Director, John Braithwaite, welcomed O’Hanlon’s as a major sponsor and festival supplier, saying: “Wherever possible, we want to source our supplies from local businesses.”
John O’Hanlon said, “We are proud and delighted to be supporting such a high profile local event which, in addition to bringing tourism and revenue to the area, also provides so much fun and enjoyment to a great number of people.”
Sidmouth FolkWeek has a range of sponsorship packages for local and regional businesses, and there is also the opportunity to advertise in the festival programme. To find out more about sponsorship and advertising call John Dyson on 01395 512416, or Barry Lister on 0781 2486362 or Steve Thompson on 01395 577394. Or email adverts@sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk
21 MAY 2010
Folk Week Taster Programme Now Available
The brand new Sidmouth FolkWeek Taster Programme is now available from the Sidmouth Tourist Information Centre and on the FolkWeek website.
The Taster Programme gives details of all the events in the Ham Marquee (lunchtime, afternoon and evening) and Bulverton Marquee (Festival Clubhouse and Late Night Extra), as well as a selection of the main events in the Manor Pavilion, Bedford Hotel, Methodist Church, Blackmore Gardens Marquee (evening ceilidhs) and Anchor Garden (lunchtime and afternoon ceilidhs).
Advance Tickets are available for many of these events from 1 June – details are in the Taster Programme. Advance tickets are available at the discount prices until 25 July. Festival Director, John Braithwaite, urged anyone interested in buying tickets not to leave it too late. “Advance tickets are limited in number, and we confidently expect that we will sell out of some of the quotas well before 25 July!” John explained.
Amongst the Ham Marquee concert acts that are expected to be especially popular are local award-winning duo. Show of Hands (Saturday 31 July), folk super-group Blue Murder, comprising FolkWeek Patron Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson, their daughter Eliza Carthy and Coope, Boyes and Simpson (Monday 2 August) and accordionist Andy Cutting and Friends, who will include the singer June Tabor, Blowzabella and ace guitarist Martin Simpson (Thursday 5 August).
At the Bulverton Marquee, high-energy Festival Clubhouse events include Shooglenifty (Thursday 5 August), Salsa Celtica (Friday 6 August) and Bellowhead (Wednesday 4 August).
The Taster Programme also includes details of the workshop, social dance, ceilidh, dance display, Sidmouth traditions and storytelling areas of FolkWeek. There is a page in the Taster Programme devoted to events for Families and Children and another to Folk Week’s new-look youth programme, called Folk-a-Cola.
20 MAY 2010
Pre-Folk Week Jazz and Comedy at the Ham Concert Marquee
Two pre-festival events were announced this week as a warm-up to Sidmouth FolkWeek.
On Thursday evening, 29 July, John Shuttleworth, star of the popular BBC Radio 4 series The Shuttleworths and BBC TV’s 500 Bus Stops, will bring his hilarious songs and deadpan wisdom to the Ham Concert Marquee.
John Shuttleworth has achieved a devout following with such songs as Pigeons in Flight, I Can’t Go Back to Savoury Now and Eggs and Gammon. Accompanying himself on his legendary (and sometimes hilariously temperamental) Yamaha keyboard, John will be certain to have the Ham Marquee audience rolling in the aisles!
On Friday 30 July at 2pm, The Temperance Seven will fill the Ham Marquee with their famous syncopated jazz rhythms and legendary humour.
The Temperance Seven achieved international fame with such hit singles as Home In Pasadena and You, You’re Driving me Crazy. An afternoon of good-time jazz as it used to be – musical skill with a great sense of fun.
Joan Crump, Artistic Director of Sidmouth FolkWeek which is promoting the two concerts, said this week: “These two concerts will attract a wide cross section of residents in East Devon and beyond, as well as visitors and holiday-makers before FolkWeek itself gets off the ground. With Pam Ayres in 2009, we really tried to cater for a local audience, and these two events are just the same. As with Pam, we are anticipating bumper audiences. Both John Shuttleworth and The Temperance Seven are seasoned and well-loved performers who always deliver a great show.”
Tickets for both concerts will be available from Sidmouth Tourist Information Centre on Ham Lane from Tuesday 1 June. Tickets can be booked by phone on 01395 578627, or bought online through the website, www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk Discount ticket prices (£15 for John Shuttleworth and £12 for The Temperance Seven) are available until 25 July. (These events are separate from the Festival, and are not included in the FolkWeek season tickets.)
22 MARCH 2010
More Guest Added to Sidmouth 2010 Line-up
More names have been added to the guest list for this year’s bumper Sidmouth FolkWeek.
2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards winners Show of Hands will be appearing at the Ham Marquee. A huge draw wherever they play, the Devon band’s Sidmouth shows are always especially popular.
Eliza Carthy & Saul Rose, Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, Heidi Talbot with John McCusker and Boo Hewerdine, and young Scottish dynamos Breabach have also been added to the star-studded Ham Marquee bill. Brand new supergroup KAN, featuring Flook’s Brian Finnegan on flute and Lau’s Aidan O'Rourke on fiddle, has just been confirmed.
Andy Cutting has announced that June Tabor will be one of his guests at the Andy Cutting and Friends concert, and his debut solo CD (ten years in the making!) will be launched at the concert.
The cream of the 21st century folk scene will celebrate the influential legacy of Nic Jones, who now lives in the south-west and is looking forward to joining us for a very special concert. Guests at “In Search of Nic Jones”in the Ham Marquee will include Martin Simpson, Pete Coe, Jim Moray, Jackie Oates & Belinda O’Hooley, Faustus, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Jon Boden and Sam Carter.
Other recently-booked festival artists include solo appearances from Oysterband’s John Jones and Ray “Chopper” Cooper, Alistair Anderson, Coope Boyes and Simpson, Hannah James & Sam Sweeney, Rachael McShane, Spiro, The Wilsons (making their Sidmouth debut), Lynne Heraud & Pat Turner, Roger Watson, Brian Peters and Lucy Kearney & Jonny Farrell.
There’s Cuban music from Asere, Russian Gypsy music from Koshka and traditional Lithuanian dance group Saduto. Two concerts under the banner “The World on your Doorstep” will feature international musicians who are now resident in the UK, including a special concert featuring the music of refugees.
Daimh, a dynamic young band blending Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton music, will rock The Bulverton, Sidmouth’s venue for high-energy stand-up gigs; the rest of the stellar Bulverton line-up includes Bellowhead, Shooglenifty, Salsa Celtica and Cordelia’s Dad.
The ceilidh programme just gets better and better! Sheffield’s Bedlam, Tickled Pink, Polkaworks, The Committee Band, Chalktown, Mr Gubbins’ Bicycle and newcomers The Tiggerz (featuring Simon Care and Laurel Swift). They will be joining previously announced Blowzabella, Toothless Mary and the Spiers and Boden Ceilidh.
The social dance programme will include The Bristol Players, Stick Shift, The Watch and Belshazzar’s Feast, plus callers Adam Hughes, Mike Courthold and, making a rare visit home from the States, Michael Barraclough.
John Howson of Veteran Records has helped us to assemble some of the finest traditional singers and musicians in the UK and Ireland for the Sidmouth Traditions programme. Guests include Scots Traveller singer and storyteller Sheila Stewart MBE, Ireland’s Four Star Trio, The Orchard family from Devon, Vic and Viv Legg from Cornwall, Jim Eldon and The Watchorns.
The extensive workshop programme will include a week of workshops led by Alistair Anderson, leading to a performance of his groundbreaking Steel Skies. The Instep Research Team will present a week of clog dance workshops. More workshops will soon be announced in music, dance and song, featuring many of the festival’s star names.
All of the artists detailed above join the previously-announced guests - the full list is on the website www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk
Season tickets have been selling well since the start of January, but the discount ticket deal finishes at the end of March. On-line tickets are available from www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk and post and telephone tickets from the Box Office, Sidmouth TIC, Ham Lane, Sidmouth, Devon, EX10 8XR. Tel: 01395 578627.
Sidmouth Folk Week 2009 Pictures. Copyright Sidmouth Town Website www.sidmouth.com
Visit the official Sidmouth Folk Festival Site
[ SIDMOUTH FOLKWEEK MEMORIES See our photographs from past years ]