StickY-B's next gig is at Kentisbeare Village Hall on Friday 20 November 2009 at 7pm.  This is a CEILIDH in support of Kentisbeare Children's Orchestra.  Several StickY-B players are also members of Kentisbeare Children's Orchestra.  The caller is Jane Thomas who is a great-fun caller.

For more information and a super poster please click HERE.

Stick the Fiddle often play for local Folk Dance Clubs.  Last summer, a couple of Club organisers asked if we could persuade some of Sue’s violin pupils to come and play with Stick The Fiddle, so they could experience the fun of playing fast, energetic music for dancing, and maybe encourage other young people to come along and dance.

We all felt that this would be a great thing for young players to do. Practising has a lot more meaning if you’ve got something to aim for and playing live for dancing is inspirational. You can see the dancers respond to changes in the way you play. We borrowed a multi-track recorder and made a CD of easy dance tunes with melody, harmony, guitar chords and bass, and with the tunes at slow and dance speeds.  We produced a booklet containing the music with chords, and set about inviting players we knew were interested in folk. Sue initially asked ten very interested pupils, Bruce began to coach three young guitarists who hang around when we’re playing at Gittisham, and Hilary Boxer, cello teacher from Kentisbeare, provided a couple of enthusiastic cellists.

The new band, StickY-B (Stick Youth Band), had its debut at Willand Folk Dance Club on Thursday 8 January. There were twelve students aged 10-16, plus a dad, Hilary and Stick the Fiddle, making seventeen in all.  The guitarists were not quite ready but are practising hard and we hope they’ll be able to join us next time.

It was a superb evening with a big crowd of folk dance regulars, newcomers from the village, and family and friends of the young players. The caller, Jane Thomas, had devised a set of dances to suit newcomers and StickY-B played with Stick the Fiddle to produce a professional ceilidh band sound! It was impossible not to dance to such exciting music and everyone had a great time.

Subject to the agreement of the players and their parents, we will be on the look out for more playing opportunities for StickY-B, which could include helping us run dance and musician workshops for young people, and playing for school events, as well as at local folk dance clubs, and maybe at folk festivals.  We hope that by building on the achievements of StickY-B we may also find some sources of funding.  For more information or to email us, see the StickTheFiddle.co.uk website, or call Bruce on 01884 243295.