Tudor Folk Club
Chesham, Bucks, England

Archive July 2000 to December 2000

3 July 2000: Vin Garbutt.

Other sites for Vin: Acorn Entertainments (his agents), and a review in Folktalk from Sept 1st 1999.

There's a long interview with Vin in the Spring issue of Folk on Tap (Summer issue, 1999) There's a review of "Word of Mouth", in fROOTS, July  1999: "This CD of brand new recordings, released to mark 30 years on the road for this highly individual performer, demonstrates why Vin's still such a big draw on the folk club circuit. It's not the complete Garbutt experience, though. There's none of that wonderful side-splitting patter that just occasionally threatens to take over, so now you're able to concentrate fully on the songs... What songs, though! ...a compelling, satisfying and essential disc"

17 July 2000: Brian O hEadhra

(pronounced Bree-an Ohara), from Dublin, comes from a musical background - both his parents are folk singers. He is interested in various musical forms including jazz/blues, folk, rock and classical. Between the ages two and seven Brian lived in Newfoundland, Canada, which is where he first experienced traditional Irish music, song and dance.

Brian has been writing his own songs for well over ten years. He has sung both traditional and his own original songs to audiences around the world with the Edinburgh based Celtic band Anam, which he co-founded in Dublin six years ago.

Brian has a degree in Folklore and English, plays guitar, bodhran, harmonica, and often gives workshops on his instruments and his music.

In Brian's solo concerts audiences hear contemporary songs of love and loneliness, hope and despair with observations of our culture - past, present and future.

Also, click here for a Tudor exclusive picture of Brian (102kb).

31 July 2000: Alan Burton and Steve Hunt.

I don't know what's happened to their web site: it seems to have disappeared off the face of hyper-space...?

The duo of Alan and Steve was founded in the almost legendary Irish traditional music sessions at the Herschel Arms in Slough in 1998. Recognizing each other as kindred sprits by their disturbingly similar haircuts, spectacles, dietary habits and footwear, they quickly established a musical rapport.

Since then they have been steadily building a reputation in pubs, folk clubs and festivals including Redditch, Ely and Wadebridge. Support gigs at Art Centers to the likes of Oige, Flook! and Craobh Rua have won them many more admirers, and a determination to make their music wholly accessible to concert audiences.

Alan Burton started playing the Uilleann pipes in his native Cornwall more than a decade ago, developing a wild traveling style which has been compared with Paddy Keenan and Johnny Doran, but is nonetheless uniquely his own.

Steve Hunt is a well known face on the folk scene having served time as a club, gig and festival organizer, performer, songwriter, agent, reviewer, dancer, roadie, MC and scrounger...... His ability to engage an audience has bought him numerous club and festival bookings and support gigs with many well known names including Dick Gaughan, Robin Williamson and Show of Hands.....

4 September 2000: Eileen McGann.

"One of folk music's most breathtaking voices... her songs range from Celtic and traditional to very contemporary and topical....A gifted lyric poet and musical composer whose gorgeous vocals make her a must-see performer!" - Songstreet Productions, Boston.

"Calgary-based Eileen McGann is rapidly becoming Canada's folk music voice to the world. She is one of this country's best folk songwriters, an exceptional singer and one of the finest interpreters of traditional music to be found on the music scene today." - Regina Folk Festival.

18 September 2000: Enda Kenny.

Here's an extract of a review by David Jones of his gig at Denbigh Folk Club on 3rd June 1998 & his CD "Six of One" in Folk North West, Autumn 1998 edition:

...and here's his own biog:

2nd October: Suntrap.

I heard Suntrap on Mike Harding's folk music show on Radio 2 on the 7th June: and I'm looking forward to their visit. The track from their current CD was full of energy: they sound like a band with attitude: but faithful to the tradition. Good voices, good playing (guitar, melodeon and fiddle). They played the Cambridge festival last summer, too.

See their entry in Guestlist. Also, here's a link to Mad Nanny's site for a picture and short blurb; and there's also a short blurb on the Stortfolk site.

...also: Phil Hugill, in Folk on Tap Issue 83 - Spring 2000, says of the CD:

30 October 2000: Shave the Monkey

Being the first of a couple of mega-gigs we're hosting, Shave the Monkey play songs and tunes on instruments spanning nine centuries. They have played at many of Europe's major festivals including Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival.

Shave the Monkey’s influences come from traditional, rock, classical and early music sources, as is evident with their unique style.

Their command of over twenty five instruments coupled with superbly crafted songs makes for what can only be called an electric performance.

The vibrant energetic performance of Shave the Monkey must not be missed

also see the following...

Ram review
Fareham festival
Folking.com's review of their current album
Folking.com's review of a recent gig where I also stole the picture from. There's a good version of it - and others - there. Go and see for yourself. It's a jolly good site, in fact.

13 November 2000: John Wright Band.

Links: Westhoughton Folk Club have a page. And a pretty good fan site by Roy Hunter. (Also, here's a Dutch site (written in English) which is also pretty good.)

Here's an album review of Pages Turning (Greentrax CDTRAX 177) by Bob Walton, from Folk Roots, December, 1999:

There's a long review of 'Pages Turning' launch gig at Hawick on 20th July by David Jones in Folk North West. Here's a brief extract:

27 November 2000: Johnny Silvo

I've only got his publicity blurb to hand:

There's some more pictures available at Dartford Folk Club's site.

11 December 2000: Mike Silver

One of Tudor's all-time favourites. We just can't say enough good things about his voice, songs, and general bonhomie.

The first part of the Mike Silver story over four pages of the current (Autumn 2000) issue of Folk on Tap - brilliant insight into his formative years. Simon Brown also reviews the new "Ku Sema" in the same issue:

Les von Hedsett (surely a pen-name?) says in Issue 75, Summer 1998 of Folk on Tap of "Heartland":

Also, see the previous entry for Mike in the archive.