Events
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All events at Nailsea Tithe Barn Nailsea BS48 4NG unless stated otherwise.
Sunday 6th October
Afternoon: RNLI Fundraising event 2.30. Marking 200 years of the RNLI.
High and Dry Shanty Crew and local singers and musicians. FREE but in anticipation of donations!
At: 2nd Nailsea Scout HQ Hannah More Road BS48 4SA.
Evening: Suntou Susso 7.30 £14
Suntou is a multi-instrumentalist: kora player, percussionist, singer and composer from The Gambia. Beautiful at time very delicate music. Thei event mark Black History Month in North Somerset.
Sunday 3 Nov 7.30 Laurie Lee. Remembered in film and song with Johnny Coppin and David Parker. £12.
Reflections on love, landscape, writing, poetry, childhood, music and much more from the voice of one of the great English writers of the last century.
Sunday 17 Nov 7.30 Granny’s Attic £14 advance / £16 on the door
This concert is part of their anniversary tour to mark 15 years performing together! Exceptional musicianship and boundless energy from this young trio.
Saturday 30 Nov 7.30 Blair Dunlop plus Swithin £14
Blair is an award-winning singer songwriter and guitarist from Chesterfield. He has cemented his place and one of Britain’s most exciting talents.
Swithin are a local group which includes the wonderful Dee Jarlett and the very talented Martin Solomon.
Fri 20 Dec 7.30 Jackie Oates and John Spiers £16
Multi award-winning contemporary folk artists Jackie Oates and John Spiers meld together their shared love of English traditional folk tunes and songs with their fine voices and expertly played acoustic instruments. Audiences can look forward to a heart-warming evening celebrating the traditions of Christmas.
Sunday 3 Nov Laurie Lee. 7.30 Remembered in film and song with David Parker and Johnny Coppin. Tickets £12.
Following the success of the multimedia event we held in April we have put together an event to explore the life of Laurie Lee. Laurie, writer and poet, was born in Slad in Gloucestershire in 1914 and died in 1997. Most people remember him for Cider with Rosie, which captured his childhood memories and As I Walked out one Midsummers Morning when he left to travel to Sapin where he joined the Internal Brigade to fight in the Civil war.
Laurie Lee - The Lost Recordings An Illustrated talk by David Parker
Reflections on love, landscape, writing, poetry, childhood, music and much much more from the voice of one of the great English writers of the last century.
In 1994, the year of his 80th birthday, Laurie Lee shared his memories of an ‘eventful’ early life in a series of interviews with the film maker David Parker. It was quite a coup, Laurie did not ‘do’ television! In the recordings he talked with sublime eloquence about his life in the Slad Valley, and the influence of the landscapes and memories of his childhood on his subsequent writing. In this session David will introduce the recordings, and using extracts from them reveal what they tell us about one of England’s finest chroniclers of our times.
Johnny Coppin: Edge of the Day. The poems of Laurie Lee.
Johnny Coppin renown Gloucestershire singer, musician and composer recorded the Edge of Day album with Laurie - with Laurie reading and Johnny singing his settings of Laurie’s poems. He will sing these along with his other Cotswold compositions, some based on the poems of Frank Mansell Laurie’s close friend.
Sunday 17 Nov Granny’s Attic 7.30 £14 advance / £16 on the door
This concert is part of their anniversary tour to mark 15 years performing together!
With exceptional musicianship and boundless energy, Granny’s Attic are going from strength to strength. Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne (melodeon, anglo concertina, vocals), George Sansome (guitar, vocals) and Lewis Wood (violin, vocals) have honed their skills touring the UK and Europe since 2009. They are much loved by audiences up and down the country, with bookings everywhere from Cambridge Folk Festival to Cecil Sharp House.
The trio have been heralded for their lively performances and skilled delivery of traditional material, playing with verve, energy and their own inimitable style. Though grounded in tradition, they are keen to push new boundaries by exploring fresh approaches and writing their own compositions. In October 2021, they released their latest album, The Brickfields, an instrumental collection that sees them reach new heights both as performers and composers. Described by Folk Radio as “one of the most exciting and accomplished English folk acts on the scene right now”, this outstanding trio can hold audiences in the palm of their hand.
Saturday 30 Nov 7.30 Blair Dunlop plus Swithin Tickets £14
Swithin are a group of Bristol friends who have enjoyed playing together whenever they can for fun and for decades. With double bass, guitar, fiddle, viola and lush vocal harmonies they play many things you'll recognise but you're not quite sure where you heard them before... Dee Jarlett is ex-musical director of Gasworks Choir, Naked Voices, Sweet Soul Sisters. Martin Solomon and Dee were Orion, Martin was in the Pindrop Band.
Blair Dunlop
Blair Dunlop is an award-winning singer songwriter and guitarist from Chesterfield. He has now released 4 albums and 2 EPs and has toured around the globe. He has cemented his place and one of Britain’s most exciting talents. His musicianship is outstanding. He is thoroughly charming on stage. His song writing is varied and thoughtful, with catchy tunes reflecting on love and life.
Fri 20 Dec Jackie Oates and John Spiers £16
‘Oates & Spiers left the gaudy, commercialised crass-ness at home ... theirs is a Christmas for all’
‘There’s a sweetness and melancholy to Jackie’s voice that is like no other, and for which there is no known formula with which to replicate it.’
John performs ‘A blend of elegant, rhythmic and virtuoso playing and easy-going folk club banter. A quiet triumph’.
Multi award-winning contemporary folk artists Jackie Oates and John Spiers meld together their shared love of English traditional folk tunes and songs with their fine voices and expertly played acoustic instruments. Audiences can look forward to a fresh, uplifting and poignant evening.
Their festive concerts are a beautiful and heart-warming antidote to the materiality that can be a feature of the Christmas season. The duo perform captivating traditional Christmas carols and tunes from England and beyond.
Although followers of British folk music will be familiar with Jackie and John from their other high calibre bands, this collaboration began quite innocently and spontaneously when the pair first started playing together for fun during guest spots at Nettlebed Folk Club in Henley-on-Thames. Recognising the potential, they began working together on material from their native county of Oxfordshire