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26 Nov 2011:  MORRIS DANCING ON THE RADIO!
On Monday December 12th there will be a one hour feature about Morris Dancing on Radio 2, as part of the network's dance season. The producer is Julian May, who I first met when he was one of the team on Radio 4's general arts programme "Kaleidoscope". Julian is a great ally within the corporation, and has recently joined a morris team himself, so you can expect an enthusiatic and genuinely appreciative assessment of the art.

Mine is one of the many voices you will hear making a contribution, and the programme will be presented by comedian Stewart Hall, who had a morris team dance at his wedding and a rapper team opening for him on his recent tour of comedy venues.

Radio 2, Monday December 12th, 10.00 p.m.
21 Nov 2011:  THE COMPLEAT DANCING MASTER - Soon to be no more.
Fledg'ling Records have announced that they are deleting "The Compleat Dancing Master" from their catalogue.

Ashley Hutchings and I made the original LP in 1973, with a cast of thousands helping out in a romp through several centuries of Country Dance Music. Sales of the CD re-issue have slowed to a trickle, and now that its place on the warehouse shelves is empty, no more copies will be pressed.

We have just three copies in our Shop, and once they have been sold we shall remove the CD from our list.

Last chance!
12 Oct 2011:  ANGLO CONCERTINA WEEKEND AT GLEANINGS
Following the grand success of this year's weekend for Anglo concertina players at Gleanings, in Shropshire, the decision has been made to do it all again next year. This will not be a course suitable for absolute beginners, but if you've been playing for a while, and have an Anglo with, preferably, 30 buttons or more, then come along and discover what chords you can muster, and what to do with them once you've found them.

August 31st - September 2nd 2012.
Details on FORTHCOMING GIGS.

If you feel that a Shropshire weekend for beginners would be a good idea, please send me a message via this website, and if there are enough takers we'll see if we can find a suitable time.
7 Sep 2011:  BRITISH BUTTON BOX WORKSHOP WEEKEND
May 25th - 27th 2012 - Halsway Manor, Somerset.
After years of prevaricating, I am finally leading a weekend of workshops on the very peculiar and particular kind of button accordion that I play - with three melodeon rows on the right hand, in B, C, and C#, and regular "Stradella" accordion basses on the left hand. This will be very instrument specific, and will not be suitable for ordinary melodeons or for players in the two-row Irish style. But we will be looking at the accordion left hand, so some of these sessions will be relevant for players of other types of accordion.

We'll be starting from a very firm base in the kind of Traditional English Folk Music that I play, so the style and approach will be very different from the Scottish Country Dance repertoire made famous by the great Jimmy Shand and his followers. As well as the expected Morris Tunes, Country Dance Tunes, and Folk Songs, we'll be exploring the complexities of playing in all the different keys on this supremely compact instrument, and looking at swathes of repertoire not normally associated with the poor old push-pull squeeze-box.

See the Forthcoming Gig List for details and links - May 25th - 27th 2012.
 
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