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The main part of the evening continued with excellent guitar player Adrian Burns joining the legendary Tommy Peoples on stage.
The near capacity crowd were highly (and noisily) appreciative of these two
fine musicians.
P1050401 Tommy Peoples + Adrian Burns
P1050408 Tommy Peoples fingers
P1050415 Tommy Peoples singing
Tommy concluded the evening with one of his remarkable a capella songs.
The quality of Tommy's performance is particularly remarkable given that his fiddle of many years standing was stolen in the early hours before the concert, forcing him to play at all three concerts on borrowed fiddles.
Tommy Peoples taught the workshop students two excellent - and tricky / multi-part - pieces : "The Twins", and "My Love is Fair and Handsome", also known as "Kit O'Connor's".
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David Rea took good opportunity of his position to have some good chats with Tommy.
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There was detailed probing from the workshop students on the subject of ornamentation, which helped Tommy give insights into how he created his magical effects.
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Chris Hamblin was particularly inventive and successful in his questioning.
Folk Club : This opened with a number of excellent musicians - many of them fiddlers - giving short floor-spots.
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Annie Mason played a number of enjoyable pieces.
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Valmai Goodyear and Bryan Creer, who run the Lewes Saturday Folk Club.
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Ben Paley & Mandy Murray played a French piece - Mandy leads the Monday Session, Foundry St., Brighton, BN1 4AT.
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Bryan Creer did a great job of compeering the evening.
The audience at the folk club kept bring Tommy back for encores, until he was nearly exhausted.
An example comment the next day :
Dear Valmai,
Thank you both/all for organising such an amazing gig last night. Literally took my breath away a few times. Real traditional music, taking us to some other place. I drove home without putting any other music on and had his playing going on in my head till I went to sleep around 2.30 am. On a par with hearing Paddy Canny in Miltown 1995.
best wishes,
Neil.
P1050498 TommyPeoples workshop LittlebourneBarn
P1050505 Dylan Woolf photographs Tommy
Professional photographer Dylan Woolf, who has done many fine portraits of Kentish musicians, came to the barn and captured some excellent photographs of Tommy to take back to the studio.
P1050510 TommyPeoples LittlebourneBarn
P1050524 TommyPeoples+audience+Giant LittlebourneBarn
P1050530 TommyPeoples+students LittlebourneBarn
P1050534 TommyPeoples LittlebourneBarn
P1050539 Littlebourne Giant watches Tommy
P1050554 TommyPeoples from LittlebourneGiant
P1050561 TommyPeoples a capella
Tommy even sang one of his rare a capella songs as part of the encore.
A remarkable evening.
P1050562 TommyPeoples drawn by SarahAllsop
An as yet incomplete drawing of Tommy Peoples by local Artist Sarah Allsop, who specialises in capturing musicians during
the heat of the performance.
Yet again an example comment :
Beau, just a thank you for organising such a great concert by Tommy Peoples.
We had seen him play just a few weeks before in Bantry House, Co. Cork, so it was an unexpected treat to see him play again in such a different setting.
.......
Thanks again.
Regards
Michael
Valmai and I have had suggestions sent to us that we should organise a whip-round to raise money to help Tommy to replace the fiddle that was stolen during this tour -
Given that there were a couple of hundred people in all at the three concerts and two workshops, this could make a significant dent in the costs to Tommy
- OK, we have had a number of positive replies, so ....
An online donation was set up, which raised £343.78 for Tommy towards a new fiddle.
Oh and if you know of any good acoustic fiddles in need of a good home, do let me or Valmai know and we will tell Tommy,
cheers,
Dr. Beau Webber
Beau@KentFolk.com
