Wednesday 27 May 2009

Press Release from English Folk Dance and Song Society

Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, Camden Town, London NW1 7AY

Take 6 Concert

Saturday 27 June 2009

Performance: 3 - 5pm

Tickets: £8

Ticket office: 020 7485 2206 / www.wegottickets.com

www.efdss.org

Over the past 18 months the English Folk Dance and Song Society has undertaken a mammoth project to make available on the Web six song collections from its Vaughan Williams Memorial Library archive, and run schools and community projects in Hampshire, Lancashire and London using these materials.

On Saturday 27 June we celebrate this project and the collections that inspired it with a concert featuring Andy Turner, Tim Laycock, Craig Morgan Robson, The Askew Sisters and the Addebury Village Morris Men and narrated by Shirley Collins and Tim Laycock.

The six collectors featured are Janet Blunt, George Butterworth, Frank Collinson, George Gardiner, Anne Gilchrist and The Hammond Brothers, and the concert will include well-known and well-loved standards of the English repertoire performed alongside some of the hidden gems gleaned from the thousands of items in the archive.

A pre-concert talk on George Gardiner by Bob Askew (1pm) and the launch of The Axford Project CD by Craig Morgan Robson and The Askew Sisters will also take place on the day.

Ends

P.T.O

For further information please contact Jon Garlick at EFDSS Marketing Department on 020 7485 2206 ext. 22 or marketing_at_efdss.org

NOTES TO EDITORS:

§         For nearly a century the English Folk Dance and Song Society have been preserving and disseminating our folk heritage. The Society aims to promote the best of folk arts through a range of mediums including dance, music, song, film, exhibitions, publications and our library collections; engage new generations with the folk arts through workshops, classes and study, and to ensure that the folk arts are a fundamental part of the cultural life of the UK. The EFDSS is a charity registered in England and Wales, No. 305999

§         Shirley Collins is a pivotal figure in the English folk song revival of the last forty years. While maintaining her love of traditional song, she has also been an influential innovator: folk-jazz collaborations with Davy Graham, combining early and folk music on the ‘Anthems in Eden' album, and using electric instruments with the Albion Dance Band. Her contribution has been recognised with the EFDSS Gold Badge in 2004, an MBE in 2007 and, in February 2008, the ‘Good Tradition Award' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The English Folk Dance and Song Society were proud to name her President of the Society in November 2008.

§         Andy Turner has been singing traditional songs and playing the anglo-concertina for over twenty five years. In the 1980’s he was an occasional member of the Oyster Band and also forged a musical partnership with Chris Wood. He is currently a member of the dance band Geckoes and performs in Oxford-based concert band Magpie Lane.

§         Tim Laycock is a folk singer and concertina player. For over twenty five years he has played and sung at folk clubs and festivals. His repertoire is drawn from the collections of traditional folk songs, sea shanties, ballads and music hall songs.

§         Craig; Morgan; Robson are an a-capella harmony trio. Rich in repertoire and musical experience, Moira Craig, Sarah Morgan and Carolyn Robson have been captivating audiences in the UK and America since 2003.

§         The Askew Sisters (Emily and Hazel Askew) are a young duo making waves on the folk scene with their energetic brand of English folk music. Using fiddle and melodeon, they play and sing a mixture of rhythmic foot stomping tunes to powerful interpretations of songs and ballads.

§         Bob Askew presents a talk on George Gardiner, the folksong collector from Hampshire, as he revisits the scenes and traces the descendants of the original source singers.