Harping on

The first photo above shows me playing my electric mandolin at a barn dance with Sarah Goss on fiddle. Sarah played fiddle in 'Kinderhook' from 1994 although in latter years she has only played as a dep when available because of her busy career as a solo harpist.
The second photo shows Sarah with the harp at a recent wedding where I was a guest. I'm in the photo with 3 month old grand-daughter Ava.
Sarah's harp playing added a wonderful atmosphere to the wedding reception with a variety of musical styles.
Anyone interested in booking Sarah can contact her at gosssarah@hotmail.com

Fiddles on the River

We'll play anywhere! Yesterday evening four of the Oxford Fiddle Group - Monica (viola), me (guitar), Tom (fiddle) and Jed (fiddle) performed on the Salters boat 'Goring' for a birthday celebration group travelling down the River Thames from Donnington Bridge, Oxford. The boat had been hired for the occasion and there was a buffet and a bar for guests and band. The cruise lasted 4 hours (7-11pm) so there was plenty of playing and some singing except when going through the locks - Iffley then Sandford. Apparently music isn't allowed in the locks.

The One String Phono Fiddle

The first photo shows me with my one string phono fiddle after a performance outside St Michael's Church in Oxford.
I have two one string phono fiddles believe or not! The one in the first two photos was my grandfather's and was handed down to me by my grandmother after his death. The second two photos are of my second phono fiddle which was saved by my father-in-law when helping an elderly neighbour clear 'rubbish' she no longer wanted out of her loft. The horn of the instrument was in rather a state but has been restored by Steve Harper, A tin whistle maker from Gawcott, Bucks.
Phono Fiddles were made by the English 'Stroh' company between 1910 and 1942 along with other strange instruments like the Stroh violin, 'cello, guitar and mandolin.
The design uses a pin bridge bearing on a diaphragm, the resulting sound being amplified by the horn. This is the same principle as used by the wind-up gramophone of the same era. Recording equipment of the early 20th century was primitive and required a loud output from the performer. Stroh believed that the louder sound of their instruments directed towards the microphone would improve recordings. It never really caught on!
The second photo above shows how to play the instrument. There are knee grips to hold the phono fiddle between knees. This phono fiddle is the 'Parlour' model. The other one is the 'Concert' model (see the 4th photo). It is slightly larger and louder.
I performed 'Danny Boy' on the phono fiddle in a Granada Television programme called 'Nice Time' hosted by Kenny Everett and Germaine Greer in 1969. They requested phono fiddle players to write in to appear on the show. My grandmother wrote in nominating me but unfortunately she died before I passed the audition and appeared on the show.
I've played the phono fiddle in various bands: Yogi's Ragtime Jug Stompers (1967-1969); Pond Street Grog Bottle Blowers & String Ensemble (1969-1972); Boodle-um Jug Stompers (1972-1982); Sunnyside Serenaders (1984-1988) and Ian English Boodlum Band (1992-present day).
The type of band name gives you a clue to the type of music suitable for the phono fiddle.
FiddleOn magazine ran an article on the phono fiddle and me in the Winter/Spring 2008 issue-
(http://www.fiddleon.co.uk/).

The Ian English Boodlum Band

The above shows the IAN ENGLISH BOODLUM BAND, currently on their GATEWAY TO OBLIVION Tour.

The band has been described as follows:
“The Ian English Boodlum Band’s show is packed with so much zany humour, offbeat music and parody that you definitely won't leave wanting more!”
“With their own brand of wacky songs and offbeat humour, these musicians are all soloists in their own right, and it’s only when they play together the trouble starts.”

The line-up is: Ian English (vocals/keyboard), Adrian Broadway (vocals/double bass/phonofiddle/mandolin/watering can), Trevor Toms (vocals/ukulele/guitar/banjo/jug) and Dave Reece (vocals/drums/washboard),

The band metamorphose into heavy-mental legends 'BAM!' for the final part of the act. BAM! finish off the evening, in every way, with tracks from their album ‘It’s So Easy To Rock And Roll’. Fans travel a long way when BAM! are gigging, although not always in the direction of the gig

The Ian English Boodlum Band are appearing at The Court Theatre, Pendley, Tring, Hertfordshire on Tuesday 24 June at 8.30pm Tickets are £8
See http://www.image-house.co.uk/CourtTheatre/Pages/shows/ianenglish08/ianenglish08.htm for more details.

Kinderhook

My regular band for barn dance bookings is ‘Kinderhook.’ The band has been going since 1982 and the first photo above shows the Kinderhook 25th reunion at Killingworth Castle Inn, Wootten-near-Woodstock, Oxfordshire in May 2007. There have been a number of personnel changes and the photo shows some of the musicians who have played in the band over the years.
Kinderhook is a four piece band and the current line up is listed below with the year they joined and instruments played:
Adrian Broadway (pictured above) 1982 – bass guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, calling; Trevor Toms (pictured above) 1983 – guitar, banjo, drum tracks; and two from the following four: Sarah Gates 1991 – flute, piccolo, recorder; Sali Toms 1999 – flute; Matt Morton (pictured above) 2003 – whistles, soprano sax; Lorna Morton (pictured above) 2003 – fiddle.
Barn Dances are still popular in England as a social event and most of our bookings are for private functions such as weddings, silver and ruby wedding anniversaries, birthday parties (18th -80th!) Village and School Associations. We take bookings mainly in the Buckinghamshire/ Oxfordshire/Hertfordshire area.
Kinderhook can be contacted at adrianbroadway@googlemail.com

Searching for Folk Tunes

If you are trying to find the 'dots' for folk tunes, here are some web sites and information that maybe helpful.
For English, Irish, Scottish and American tunes try http://www.thesession.org/ You can search for the name of the tune. If you find the tune and would like to print it out or send it to someone else, I suggest the following:
click ABC, Highlight all the text & copy
Go to http://www.concertina.net/
click Tune-a-Tron
click ABC Convert-A-Matic
paste, submit, PDF sheet music
You can save it as a PDF file to print off or send to someone else.
Another site for Irish tunes is www.ceilidhsoc.org/music.html

http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_1/ has nice versions of a whole lot of Irish standard tunes to listen to played at sensible but not patronising speeds.
There's a lot of other nice stuff on the Comhaltas site too. In particular some excellent videos.
If you've not come across it before Comhaltas is the main Irish traditional music organisation - Full name - Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Association of Irish Musicians)
This pronounced something like Kool-tas Kool-tori air-ann
There's a pronunciation guide with sound samples as well so one can find out how to say "Buíon Cheoil Fheadóg Mhór" properly!

Please let me know via a comment if you have found this useful.

Many thanks to Tom Bell-Richards (Oxford Fiddle Group and Mizen Ramblers) Matt Morton (Kinderhook) and Tony Blay (Haddenham Irish Session) for some of the above information.

Oxford Fiddle Group Concert

It's been a busy year for the Oxford Fiddle Group. There have been many bookings and listed below are some that were particularly special.

In October 2007, we played in concerts and a barn dance in Bonn, Germany. The first photo above shows us performing at an open air concert in the city centre. I'm playing my Dean 5 string acoustic/electric bass guitar.

In April 2008 we performed on the main stage at the Oxford Folk Festival. This took place in the Oxford Town Hall and the second photo shows the performance. I'm playing my double bass.

We are playing at our second concert in six months at the Jacqueline Du Pre Building, St Hilda's College, Oxford OX1 4DY on 1st June 2008 starting at 8pm.

Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions) and are available from Tickets Oxford, The Oxford Playhouse, Beaumont Street, OXFORD, OX1 2LW or
online: www.ticketsoxford.com • email: ticketsoxford@oxfordplayhouse.com • phone: 01865 305305

We are working on our second CD which should be available from early Autumn 2008.

The Oxford Fiddle Group meets every Tuesday 8-10.30pm in Headington Quarry Village Hall, Oxford to play folk tunes from the British Isles, Europe and the USA. About 20 fiddles plus accompaniament from guitar, double bass, concertina and celtic harp make up the group.

More details can be found on the Oxford Fiddle Group website: http://www.oxfordfiddle.co.uk/

Haddenham Hoofers in Antwerp

The Haddenham Hoofers (Appalachian Step Dance Group) travelled to Antwerp on the weekend of May 9-11 May to take part in a folk dance festival. I played banjo for the dancing which included very hot open air performances in the square in Antwerp on Saturday and concert performances on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Other groups performing were Les Joyeux Vendéens from France and De Kegelaar, the host group from Belgium.

Haddenham Hoofers meet every Thursday evening in St Mary's Church Hall, Haddenham, Buckinhamshire to rehearse Appalachian Step Dancing to live music. They perform mainly in the Summer months locally at festivals, fetes and other events. They also perform at National Folk Festivals. In 2008, performances include: The Straw Bear Festival of Dance, Whittlesea, Sidmouth Folk Festival and Towersey Village Festival.

For more information: https://sites.google.com/site/haddenhamhoofers/