David Cyril Eric Swarbrick was an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He was one of the most highly regarded musicians produced by the second British folk revival, contributing to some of the most important groups and projects of the 1960s, and he became a much sought-after session musician, which led him throughout his career to work with many of the major figures in folk and folk rock music.
Towersey Festival is an annual festival of folk, world music and traditional dance, previously held in the village of Towersey, relocated to neighbouring Thame in Oxfordshire, England through 2019. It moved to the Claydon Estate Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire from 2020. It has taken place every August bank holiday weekend since its founding in 1965.
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.
"Barrett's Privateers" is a modern folk song in the style of a sea shanty, written and performed by Canadian musician Stan Rogers, having been inspired after a song session with the Friends of Fiddler's Green at the Northern Lights Festival Boréal in Sudbury, Ontario. The song describes a 1778 summer privateering journey to the Caribbean on a decrepit sloop, the Antelope, captained by Elcid Barrett; when it engages in a failed raid on a larger American ship, the Antelope sinks and all the crew is killed except the singer, who returns six years later "a broken man." Although Barrett, the Antelope and other specific instances mentioned in the song are fictional, "Barrett's Privateers" is full of many authentic details of privateering in the late 18th century.
Chris Wood is an English songwriter and composer who plays fiddle, viola and guitar, and sings. He is a practitioner of traditional English dance music, including Morris and other rituals and ceremonies, but his repertoire also includes much French folk music and traditional Québécois material. He worked for many years in a duo with button accordion/melodeon player Andy Cutting: Wood & Cutting were one of the most influential acts on the English folk music scene. Q Magazine gave their "Live at Sidmouth" album four stars and put the duo "at the forefront of the latest wave of British music acts". One of his first recordings was playing bass and percussion on "Jack's Alive" (1980) the first album by the Oysterband.
Andy Cutting is an English folk musician and composer. He plays melodeon and is best known for writing and performing traditional English folk and his own original compositions which combine English and French traditions with wider influences. He is three times winner of the Folk Musician of the Year award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and has appeared on around 50 albums, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians. He was born in Harrow, London and is married with three children.
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and influences. The band included percussion and a four-piece brass section. Bellowhead's bandmembers played more than 20 instruments among them, whilst all performers provided vocals.
Jim Moray is an English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Roy Bailey, was an English sociologist and folk singer. Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represented "the very soul of folk's working class ideals... a triumphal homage to the grass roots folk scene as a radical alternative to the mainstream music industry."
Kerfuffle were a four-piece English folk band, originally formed in 2001 around the East Midlands and South Yorkshire regions of the UK, initially comprising Hannah James, Sam Sweeney, Chris Thornton-Smith (guitar) and Tom Sweeney. Thornton-Smith was replaced by Jamie Roberts in 2007. Kerfuffle disbanded in August 2010.
Last Orders is a four-piece folk band originating from Newcastle upon Tyne and Cumbria. The four members of the band met when they were all members of Folkestra, a youth folk ensemble at the Sage Gateshead.
The Ian Campbell Folk Group were one of the most popular and respected folk groups of the British folk revival of the 1960s. The group made many appearances on radio, television, and at national and international venues and festivals. They performed a mixture of British traditional folk music and new material, including compositions by Campbell. Much of their popularity flowed from the variety of their performance which included a mixture of solos, group vocals and instrumentals.
David Gibb is a children's musician, songwriter and author from Belper, Derbyshire. He was a finalist of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2011, as well as winning the 'Highly Commended' prize at the Young Storyteller of the Year Awards the same year. Since 2014 he has focused on making music for children and families, as well as writing stories for children including Too Many Bubbles, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2020.
Pilgrims’ Way are an English folk band, formed in 2010. In 2011, they were nominated for the New Horizons award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012.
Roving Crows are a four-piece Irish folk rock band, based in Worcestershire, England. Since forming in 2009, they have released three albums and received a number of awards.
The Fair Rain is an English seven-piece contemporary folk band. Until 13 October 2015, the band operated under the name The Old Dance School, under which they released three studio albums and a live album.
Will Varley is an English singer-songwriter, musician and visual artist. He is one of the founding members of the arts collective Smugglers Records. Since self releasing his debut album Advert Soundtracks in 2011 he has toured extensively across the world as a headline act and opened for the likes of Billy Bragg, Valerie June, The Dead South and The Proclaimers. He has headlined venues including Union Chapel and Shepherd's Bush Empire. Will’s songs have been covered by acts as diverse as The Pretty Things and Frank Turner. In recent years Will has co-written songs with numerous artists including Skin of Skunk Anansie and Shae Dupuy. His sixth studio album The Hole Around My Head was released in 2021.
Blackhouse is the seventh studio album by Scottish celtic fusion band Peatbog Faeries, released in May 2015 by the band's label Peatbog Records. After recording their acclaimed album Dust (2011), the band played live for the following few years, during which time fiddler Peter Tickell left the band, to be replaced by Ross Couper. As the band had not recorded an album for some years, they returned to record Blackhouse mainly in a cottage in Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan during 2014, although recording continued into 2015. Their first album with Touper, and their first without a brass section since Welcome to Dun Vegas (2003), Blackhouse was produced by Calum MacLean and displays a very eclectic array of genres, fusing the band's Scottish celtic roots with genres such as jazz, funk, reggae, dance and house.
Paul Sartin was an English singer, instrumentalist, composer and arranger, specialising in oboe and violin. He was best known for his work with the folk band Bellowhead, but also played with three-piece Faustus and the folk/comedy duo Belshazzar's Feast.
Camus are a traditional folk band from Cambridge, England, named after a village in Co. Galway, Ireland. They perform as a fourpiece: Greg Smith on fiddle, Andrew Burn on melodeon, vocals and Northumbrian smallpipes, David Somerville on keyboards and Northumbrian smallpipes, and Brian Cleary on vocals, guitar and bouzouki. Their repertoire fuses influences from Northumbrian, Shetland and Irish music, as well as their own song and tune compositions drawing on Cleary and Burn’s backgrounds in Ireland and North East England respectively.
