The Albion Band
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The Albion Band
The Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, were a British folk rock band, originally brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings. Generally considered one of the most important groupings in the genre, it has contained or been associated with a large proportion of major English folk performers in its long and fluid history. The one constant in the band's history has been the band leader Ashley Hutchings, founding member of two other English folk rock groupings Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, and it has been the home for most of the projects of his long career, though in the 2011 incarnation of the band he has handed over the reins to his son Blair Dunlop. History Origins Initially Hutchings formed the band in April 1971 to accompany his then wife the singer Shirley Collins on her ''No Roses'' album. Dave Mattacks, Richard Thompson (musician), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol (from Fairport Con ...
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Holland House
Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was an early Jacobean country house in Kensington, London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ..., situated in a country estate that is now Holland Park. It was built in 1605 by the diplomat Walter Cope, Sir Walter Cope. The building later passed by marriage to Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, Henry Rich, 1st Baron Kensington, 1st Earl of Holland, and by descent through the Rich family, then became the property of the Fox family (English aristocracy), Fox family, during which time it became a noted gathering-place for Whiggism, Whigs in the 19th century. The house was largely destroyed by German firebombing during the Blitz in 1940 and today only the east wing and some ruins of the ground floor and south facade remain, al ...
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The Watersons
The Watersons were an English folk group from Hull, Yorkshire. They performed mainly traditional songs with little or no accompaniment. Their distinctive sound came from their closely woven harmonies. They have been called the "most famous family in English folk music". Style Their style is a unique blend of originality and tradition. The Watersons never learned to read music. They began by singing hunting songs, hymns and carols with their grandmother, ones that she probably sang with her parents. One family member would sing the melody, and the rest would join in, choosing a harmony note if the melody was out of their range. Their style can be compared to the Copper Family of Sussex, a dynasty of traditional singers who sing in harmony, which was extremely unusual in traditional English music. Career The band's original members were Norma, Mike, and Elaine known as Lal Waterson, with their cousin John Harrison from Kingston High School. They had a skiffle band in the ear ...
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Early Music
Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical music. Terminology Interpretations of historical scope of "early music" vary. The original Academy of Ancient Music formed in 1726 defined "Ancient" music as works written by composers who lived before the end of the 16th century. Johannes Brahms and his contemporaries would have understood Early music to range from the High Renaissance and Baroque, while some scholars consider that Early music should include the music of ancient Greece or Rome before 500 AD (a period that is generally covered by the term Ancient music). Music critic Michael Kennedy excludes Baroque, defining Early music as "musical compositions from heearliest times up to and including music of heRenaissance period". Musicologist Thomas Forrest Kelly considers that the ...
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Gryphon (band)
Gryphon are an English progressive and medieval folk rock band formed in London in 1972. They are known for their medieval and Renaissance style of music. The band briefly flourished in the progressive rock heyday of the early 1970s, and then retired to other musical activities before reforming for a one-off reunion in 2009. Subsequently, Gryphon played some gigs in 2015, featured at the Cropredy Festival in 2016, and in 2017, an invitation to a ProgRock festival in Portugal, and in the UK, the NewDay Festival near Canterbury. The first new Gryphon record for 41 years was released in 2018. History Formation Gryphon formed in early 1972 as a four-piece band by English musicians Graeme Taylor, Richard Harvey, Dave Oberlé, and Brian Gulland. Harvey and Gulland were graduates of the Royal College of Music in London who started an acoustic band, using their classically trained backgrounds to perform a mixture of English folk music, contemporary rock, medieval and Renaissance m ...
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Graeme Taylor
Graeme Taylor (born 2 February 1954 in Stockwell, South-West London) is a British guitarist. Taylor played lead guitar with 1970s medieval/rock band Gryphon, and leading folk rock bands including the Albion Band and Home Service. With Gryphon he had 4 best-selling LPs, and toured the US, supporting Yes at Madison Square Gardens, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the Houston Astrodome. In 1975, he played on Steve Howe's debut solo album ''Beginnings'', with two other members of Gryphon, Malcolm Bennett and Dave Oberlé. Taylor played a major role in the creation and performance of the music for ''The Mysteries'' at the National Theatre in 1977 a production - to a text adapted by the poet Tony Harrison - that was revived in 1999, with Taylor in the role of musical director, arranger and composer of additional music. Having spent many years playing guitars in the pit orchestras of many West End musicals, Taylor became a member of the touring bands for both John Tams and Rolf Ha ...
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Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on the progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France (known as Vertigo France until 2014). Current key people include Island US president Darcus Beese, OBE and MD Jon Turner. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels. Artists who have signed to Island Records include Bob Marley, Nick Drake, Queen, Jethro Tull, Grace Jones, Steve Winwood, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Brian Eno, Demi Lo ...
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Battle Of The Field
''Battle of the Field'' is a folk rock album by the Albion Country Band, recorded in summer 1973 immediately prior to the band's breakup and only released in 1976 following public demand. The album was produced and engineered by John Wood, and was recorded at Sound Techniques Studio, Chelsea, London and Island Studio, St Peter's Square, London. The album cover was designed by Ian Logan Associates with photographs by Keith Morris, and the original LP sleeve notes were by Rod McShane. Track listing All tracks traditional, arranged by Carthy, Harris, Hutchings, Kirkpartrick, Nicol and Swallow except "Albion Sunrise" and "New St. George" composed by Richard Thompson Side 1 #"Albion Sunrise" - 2:54 #Morris Medley: "Mouresque" / "London Pride" / "So Selfish Runs The Hare" (song) / "Maid of the Mill" / "Sheriff's Ride" - 7:14 #"I Was a Young Man" (Roud 1572) - 4:03 #"New St. George" - 2:37 #"La Rotta" - 1:37 Side 2 #"Gallant Poacher" - 4:26 #"Cheshire Rounds" / "The Old Lancas ...
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Roger Swallow
Roger Swallow (born 23 February 1946 in Northampton, England) is an English producer, musician and songwriter. He was a member of The Albion Band and worked with many artistes in the late 1960s/early 1970s as a session and touring drummer/percussionist. Early career Starting his music career in rock and roll and rhythm and blues in Northampton, his early music projects brought him to London where he worked in children's television for the BBC and toured England playing for theatrical companies, before working for the Beatles' Apple Publishing on Baker Street in the late 1960s and forming Smile with Denis Couldry (also featuring musicians Chris Spedding and Mark Griffiths), recording for Decca Records. Session and touring musician As a session and touring drummer/percussionist in the late 1960s/early 1970s Swallow worked with such bands & artists as Harsh Reality, Plainsong and Matthews Southern Comfort (both with Iain Matthews), Al Stewart, Neil Innes, Principal Edwards Magic ...
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Sue Harris
Sue Harris is an English musician classically trained as an oboeist, but best known for her folk music performances with the hammered dulcimer. Biography Harris is fluent in reading and writing music and switched from her original instrument, the oboe, to the dulcimer in the mid-1970s. In making that switch, she became one of the foremost performers on that folk instrument, though at the time it seemed just a matter of expediency. She was married to John Kirkpatrick, a prominent melodeon virtuoso in England, was pregnant with their first son, and found herself unable to maintain the breath control needed to play the oboe. She performed on both instruments with the Albion Country Band on their debut album ''Battle of the Field'' (1976), and also recorded and performed as one half of a duet with Kirkpatrick. Harris has also performed with Richard and Linda Thompson, and has been a composer for the BBC on various broadcast plays, as well as for live theatre. She is also a singer ...
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Martin Carthy
Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such as Richard Thompson, since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s. Early life He was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England, and grew up in Hampstead, North West London. His mother was an active socialist and his father, from a family of Thames lightermen, went to grammar school and became a trade unionist and a councillor for Stepney at the age of 21. Martin's father had played fiddle and guitar as a young man but Martin was unaware of this connection to his folk music heritage until much later in life. His vocal and musical training began when he became a chorister at the Queen's Chapel of The Savoy. He picked up his father's old guitar for the first time after hearing ...
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Sue Draheim
Sue Draheim ( ; August 17, 1949 – April 11, 2013) was an American fiddler, boasting a more than forty year musical career in the US and the UK. Growing up in North Oakland, Draheim began her first private violin lessons at age eleven, having started public school violin instruction at age eight while attending North Oakland's Peralta Elementary School. She also attended Claremont Jr. High, and graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1967. Originally trained as a classical violinist, Draheim became involved in many other genres and recorded albums with groups representing Cajun, Old Time, country, Zydeco, folk jazz, Irish and British folk music. Early on in her career, Celtic fiddle became Draheim's major focus. While Draheim was primarily a fiddler, she never lost touch with her classical training, and was a member of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic as well as UC Berkeley's University Chamber Chorus; Draheim, along with fiddler K ...
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John Kirkpatrick (musician)
John Michael Kirkpatrick (born 8 August 1947) is an English player of free reed instruments. In London John Kirkpatrick was born in Chiswick, London, England. As a child he sang in the choir and played piano. In 1959, he joined the Hammersmith Morris Men, in the second week of their existence, beginning a career-long love of folk music. In 1970, he became a regular at a folk club in the Roebuck pub in Tottenham Court Road and led the resident group, Dingle's Chillybom Band. The club hosted a film show of Morris dancing and Ashley Hutchings turned up. It was the beginning of a long musical relationship. In 1972 he teamed up with Ashley and others on the album ''Morris On''. In 1972, Kirkpatrick recorded his first solo album ''Jump at the Sun'' which included Richard Thompson on acoustic guitar. In Shropshire In 1973, Kirkpatrick moved to Shropshire and married Sue Harris. After seeing a dance team called Gloucestershire Old Spot Morris Dancers, he formed Shropshire Bedlam ...
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