Jug Band Music revisited

In 1967, I was one of a group of boys at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, Bucks who formed a Jug Band and performed in concerts at school and for other local organisations such as Youth Clubs, The British Legion, Women's Institute, Folk Clubs, Charity Groups etc.

Jug Band Music, for those who don't know, was American Music played in the twenties and revived in the sixties. It's a mixture of blues, ragtime and jazz played using some improvised instuments like a jug, washboard, washtub bass as well as easily obtainable instruments like guitar banjo, harmonica and kazoo.

School friend Trevor Toms was in the jug band and I've played in bands with him ever since.

A chance meeing with Roger Martin-Fagg, another 1967 jug band member in August 2010 has caused us to get together to play and record some of those old tunes. Below is a publicity photo of the jug band taken in December 1967. Trevor is on the extreme left reading a book, Roger is in the centre with his hand up and I'm next to him with the double bass.

Roger has a recording studio in the loft of his garage so yesterday we had our first session and put down four tracks - Jug Band Music, Boodle-Um Stomp, Take Your Fingers Off It, and San Fransisco Bay Blues.

In the recording studio
The instrumentation is Roger - keyboards, Trevor - guitar, banjo, ukulele, jug, backing vocals and me - double bass, mandolin, phono fiddle, swannee whistle, watering can and lead vocals.

The afternoon can only be described as tremendous fun bordering on schoolboy hysteria!

Trevor and Roger
Two more recording sessions are planned to complete a CD. Watch this space!

Roger with me, reunited musically for the first time in 41 years! Trevor trying to relive his talents on the jug!

Oxford Fiddle Group in Leiden, Netherlands

Leiden, Netherlands is twinned with Oxford and the Oxford Fiddle Group went to Leiden 26-30 August 2010 primarily to take perform in the Rapenburg Festival. However, we did seven performances in four days ranging from bars and music venues to a performance for a group of Special Needs youngsters.

We stayed at the picturesque Stochemhoeve Campsite in the Cronesteyn Park on the edge of the city. Individuals in the group had varying levels of accommodation at the site - staying in the house, a chalet, trekking hut, tent etc. Mine was definitely the lowest level and can be seen next to the trekking hut below where group members are getting ready for breakfast. It's the orange dot under the gazebo needed for rain protection.

We played in three bars in various parts of the city as performances or sessions including The North End English Bar.

On the Friday evening we performed at the Q-bus Music Venue. The photo above and the two below show the performance.

We played twice on the streets around the Leiden canals. The two photos above show us playing outside the Town Hall.

The highlight of the weekend was taking part in the Rapenburg Festival - playing on a huge stage on a barge on the canal. The audience was made up of people on either side of the canal and people in various boats. There was even a wedding reception boat listening! Although there was plenty of rain during our stay, the sun came out for our Rapenburg Concert performance and there were even people dancing on the canal side.

Our hosts from Leiden Twinning Association gave us a wonderful time and the people of Leiden were friendly and welcoming. Our fiddle music from The British Isles and North America went down really well wherever we played and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves despite the weather and my tent!

Cuddington Fete July 2010 - always a special day

Cuddington Village in Buckinghamshire always goes "to town" with its fete. There's always a theme and all the village gets involved. This year's theme was medieval and unlike many villages, the fete starts with a procession from the Village Green to the village hall. In Cuddington's case the hall in question is The Bernard Hall, made famous in numerous episodes of the television series "Midsommer Murders."

This year was no exception and the photos show this year's band 'Balance the Straw' of Matt (whistle) Penny (fiddle) me (bouzouki) and Tim (some sort of homemade instrument!) Some of us managed more of a medieval theme in our costume than others but it was a great day and our traditional music played on these instruments seemed to be appreciated.

I have been involved in providing the music for the fete for a number of years in various forms - playing for dancing from the Appalachian Dance team The Haddenham Hoofers, playing in the procession and entertaining the visitors taking cream teas at Tirringham Hall.

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere leading the procession through the village

Towersey Morris Christmas 09

There was a packed programme over the Christmas period for Towersey Morris and for me playing my most recent instrument aquisition - the English Concertina. On 20 December we performed at Cecil Sharp House's Festival of Christmas Carols and Customs in London.
Boxing Day saw us at our local - The Three Horseshoes, Towersey with a large crowd in the sunshine.

Boxing Day at the Three Horseshoes

Boxing Day

New Year's Day found us in very cold but sunny conditions at The Mayflower, Hazlemere, Bucks as guests of North West Morris side Taeppa's Tump from Maidenhead. I was under some pressure as I was the only musician apart from a guitar accompaniment. My 9 months since taking up the concertina was fully tested!

New Year's Day at the Mayflower

The following day, our final performance of the Christmas period was at the Haddenham Village Ceilidh.