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LATEST NEWS

 

13 Jul 2007:  "PLAIN CAPERS" - IT'S OUT!
Free Reed Records have finally re-issued their 1976 LP of Cotswold Morris Dance Music, played by an acoustic band consisting of Fi Fraser, Sue Harris, Martin Carthy, Martin Brinsford, and JK. It was available as a CD on the Topic label for a few years, but has been out of print for some time now.

As well as the original fifteen tracks, there are two bonus items. One is my contribution to the 1999 EFDSS CD "Absolutely Classic - The Music of William Kimber" (EFDSS CD 03). This is the Headington Quarry tune "Laudnum Bunches" treated as a total squeezebox fest, starting on the solo Anglo concertina and ending piled up with just about everything I play.

The other bonus is a DVD version of the film made by Jon Cousins about the cover photo of The Gloucestershire Old Spot Morris Dancers, with a bit about their history and what everyone's done since, and a re-staging of exactly the same photo, in exactly the same place, with most of the same people, many years later.

Plain Capers will probably not appear on the merchandising pages of this website for a little while, but it is fully available NOW for the fabulous bargain price of £8.00 plus £1.00 p & p.

FREE REED RECORDS - FRRR 01.


5 Jul 2007:  SULTANS FLOODED OUT - PARKY SAILS ON SOLO!
On the way to Nettlebed Folk Club on June 25th, in full readiness for a gig with The Sultans of Squeeze, my car was overwhelmed by flood water on the road near Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire. It was one of many casualties in that area, and eventually we had to be towed back to a garage, a journey we only just managed to complete even with the extra height of a huge breakdown vehicle. By then it was far too late to make it back to Nettlebed, and poor old Mr Parkinson, who had had the good sense to go down to the vicinity the day before, ended up having to do the evening solo.

Congratulations to Parky on managing to complete his first solo gig for over ten years! And apologies to the few remaining JK fans in that part of the world who may well be feeling a little disgruntled at my feeble behaviour.

My car's been written off, and on the first trip out in the car I had to hire the next day I had a puncture, and was delayed by about two hours while I sorted it out. Cars, eh?

21 Jun 2007:  JOHN KIRKPATRICK & FRIENDS AT SIDMOUTH
On Wednesday, August 8th, I shall be seeing my whole life pass before me at a special evening concert in The Ham Marquee as part of Sidmouth Folk Week. I had innocently agreed to this idea quite a while before I realised it would coincide with my sixtieth birthday. Please keep that to yourself, as I am not very keen on public birthday celebrations of this kind, and the last thing I would want to look forward to would be a tentfull of messengers bearing gifts!

Specially for the occasion, we shall be re-uniting The John Kirkpatrick Band - the concert band I toured with in the mid-1990s - featuring Dave Berry, Paul Burgess, Michael Gregory, and Graeme Taylor. We shall be doing the whole of the second half of the concert, with a selection of folk rock classics and a bewildering variety of other stuff. Sadly, the two albums we made for Fledg'ling Records are both now unavailable, but it is hoped that eventually they will be re-released as a two-for-one package.

With any luck, there will some gorgeous ladies joining us on backing vocals on a few songs.

The first half will consist of solo numbers, supported by appearances from Martin Carthy, in non-Brass Monkey mode, my fellow Sultan of Squeeze, Chris Parkinson, and a re-union of some of Umps & Dumps from the 1970s, with John Tams and Derek Pearce. Messrs Tams & Pearce will also be jumping up for a song in Part Two, along with Barry Coope.

25 May 2007:  JK FLOODS AIR WAVES!
Next Tuesday, May 29th, I shall be making a brief appearance on Radio 4's "Making History" programme at 3.00 p.m. I shall be cunningly disguised an an expert on the concertina and its use on board sailing ships in the good old days. This is following on from a previous item where they trotted out the myth, largely inspired by the stories of Captain Pugwash, that no sailor would leave shore without a concertina in his kit-bag to accompany his shanties and what-not. An irate listener wrote in saying this wasn't so, and I am the sage being wheeled out to back up their views.

History will be made in more ways than one, as I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've had to talk and play the concertina with the phone rammed into my neck. Watch out for next season's smash hit - "The Concertinist Contortionist".

Obviously an essential listen for all enthusiasts of the concertina, or of shanties, or of pirates, or just people who like their entertainment in joined up sentences! It will be available on Listen Again, in case you can't believe what you're hearing the first time.