The Carnival Band is an English early music group. Their broad repertoire focuses on popular music from the 16th and 17th centuries, and traditional music from around the world. Presentation is informal and humorous, and in the spirit of medieval and renaissance Carnival. The band was founded by Andy Watts (principal bassoon in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and Giles Lewin (Dufay Collective) while they were members of the Medieval Players touring theatre company in the 1980s. They have had a long association with Maddy Prior.
The band was founded in 1983 by Andy Watts and Giles Lewin, together with Bill Badley, after Watts had been the musical director of an open-air Medieval Players production of Rabelais' Gargantua . The show featured actors, giant carnival characters, puppets, acrobatics, juggling and 16th-century music. The three founding members were musicians with the Medieval Players. Together with percussionist Charles Fullbrook the quartet made their debut on the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool canal at the Burnley Canalside Festival in 1984. Andrew 'Jub' Davis joined the band for a New Years' concert in 1985 and, according to the band's website [1] "this date marks the band's real birthday." There have been four lineup changes since then:
Bill Bradley and Raph Mizraki both continue to make occasional guest appearances with the band.
Maddy Prior's collaboration with the band began near the start of their existence in 1984 for a BBC radio programme of Christmas carols. [2] Since then, Maddy has featured on most Carnival Band albums. They have co-written material. For example, they wrote and toured a song cycle based on the life of Worcester-born heroine Hannah Snell. [3] Maddy toured with them again in 2007 for their "Music for Tavern and Chapel" tour.
Other performers have appeared on their CDs. For example, Rose Kemp sang on Carols at Christmas and Terry Jones appeared on Ringing the Changes.
Blackmore's Night is a British-American neo-medieval folk rock band formed in 1997, consisting mainly of Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night. Their lineup has seen many changes over the years; Blackmore and Night have been the only two constant members. They have released eleven studio albums. Their early releases were mostly acoustic and imitated early music, but eventually Blackmore's Night started using more electric guitars and other modern instruments, as well as performing folk-rearranged cover versions of pop and rock songs.
Madelaine Edith Prior MBE is an English folk rock singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police drama Z-Cars. She was married to Steeleye bass guitarist Rick Kemp, and their daughter, Rose Kemp, is also a singer. Their son, Alex Kemp, is, like his father, a guitarist and has deputised for his father playing bass guitar for Steeleye Span. She was part of the singing duo 'Mac & Maddy', with Mac MacLeod. She then performed with Tim Hart and recorded two albums with him, before they helped to found the group Steeleye Span, in 1969. She left Steeleye Span in 1997, but returned in 2002, and has toured with them since. With June Tabor she was the singing duo Silly Sisters. She toured with the Carnival Band, in 2007, and with Giles Lewin and Hannah James, in 2012 and 2013. She has released singles and albums as a solo artist, with these bands and in several collaborations. She runs an Arts Centre called Stones Barn, in Bewcastle, in Cumbria, which offers residential courses.
Below the Salt is the fourth studio album by Steeleye Span and their first after they joined the Chrysalis label. The album takes medieval influence and combines it with the band's British folk rock style. The lineup on the album includes Bob Johnson and Rick Kemp making their debuts in the band. By this point, Ashley Hutchings had left the band, leaving Tim Hart and Maddy Prior as the only remaining founding members.
Ten Man Mop or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again is the third album by Steeleye Span, recorded in September 1971. It was issued on the short-lived Pegasus label, and then the Mooncrest label, also in 1971. It was not initially issued in the US until Chrysalis acquired the group's first three albums in 1975, when it reissued all three in the UK and US. Tracks like "Four Nights Drunk", "Marrowbones", and "Wee Weaver" are essentially pure folk. It was the last album to feature founding member Ashley Hutchings; he left the band in November 1971, just after its completion, partly because he felt that the album had moved too far toward Irish music and away from English music. The band was also considering touring America, and Hutchings was reluctant to make the trip.
The Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, is a British folk rock band, originally brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings. An important grouping in the genre, it has contained or been associated with a large proportion of major English folk performers in its long and fluid history.
Jack the Lad were a British folk rock group from North East England formed in 1973 by three former members of the most successful band of the period from the region, Lindisfarne. They moved from the progressive folk rock of Lindisfarne into much more traditional territory and were in the mid-1970s something of a northern counterpart to bands like Fairport Convention. They have also been seen as part of an important roots movement, rediscovering traditional Northumbrian music.
Rose Kemp is an English singer and guitarist who performs in a variety of musical genres. She is the daughter of Maddy Prior and Rick Kemp of the folk-rock band Steeleye Span.
Over the Next Hill is a 2004 album by the band Fairport Convention. The band have released over 30 albums since their debut, Fairport Convention, in 1968.
Giles Lewin is a British violinist and bagpiper. Currently a member of The Carnival Band, he was also a founding member of the folk band, Bellowhead.
Hang Up Sorrow and Care is an album by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. Released in 1995, it is a loose concept album, with renditions of songs that were written hundreds of years ago.
A Tapestry of Carols is an album by Maddy Prior. It is a collection of ancient carols from across Europe, played by The Carnival Band on replicas of medieval instruments. It was recorded at The Quaker Meeting House, Frenchay, near Bristol and released in 1987.
An Evening of Carols and Capers is an album by Maddy Prior with The Carnival Band.
Tito & Tarantula is an American chicano rock/blues rock band formed in Hollywood, California, in 1992 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tito Larriva.
Fruitcake is the fourth studio album of the Filipino band Eraserheads, released in December 6, 1996, by BMG Records (Pilipinas), Inc. It is also the official Christmas album and was accompanied by a separate storybook, also called Fruitcake. It can be categorized as a musical itself and to date, there has only been one theater musical adaptation of it - the Eraserheads' Fruitcake Musical 2010. Unlike the band's other albums which feature either English or Tagalog lyrics, Fruitcake is 100% English.
Sing Lustily And With Good Courage is an album by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. It was recorded at Valley Recordings in March 1990 and released as a CD on the Saydisc label.
Bobby Valentino is a British musician, violinist and singer.
Farewell, Farewell is a live Fairport Convention album recorded on the band's farewell tour in 1979. It is the last Fairport album to feature fiddler/mandolinist Dave Swarbrick. Tracks are drawn from three performances of the Farewell Tour during Spring 1979: at Birmingham University, Southampton University and at Derby Assembly Rooms. Most of the songs are performances of already familiar tracks from previous studio albums. In 1997 to mark the 30th anniversary of Fairport Convention, the album was remastered, repackaged and re-released as "Encore Encore". This version included the 1980 studio single "Rubber Band" plus three additional tracks recorded on the 1979 tour: "The Hens March Through the Midden/Four Poster Bed", "Flatback Caper" and "Dirty Linen".
Parcel of Rogues is the fifth studio album by English folk rock group Steeleye Span. It was released in 1973 by Chrysalis Records. The album was their most successful album thus far, breaking into the Top 30.
Live at Shepherds Bush Empire is a live DVD by folk band Bellowhead, recorded in 2007 on the Burlesque tour and released in 2009.