It’s been a very enjoyably busy festive season for us and it’s no where near over yet! Firstly we’d like to remind you that the documentary we have been working on recently was broadcast on the 28th December 2014 and, if you didn’t manage to catch it first time around, it will be available on “Listen Again” for the next four weeks. The documentary is an hour long and details the life of Frank Kidson and the significant contribution that he made to the world of folk music. It also follows the process of researching and recording “The Search for Five Finger Frank” album that we released back in April 2014. You can find the full programme here:

The Search for Five Finger Frank BBC Leeds Radio Documentary

There is another chance to hear some of the highlights from our album launch concert that took place at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax. This is also available on “Listen Again” on the BBC Radio Leeds website:

Highlights from “The Search for Five Finger Frank” CD Launch Concert

We featured in the 2014 BBC Radio Leeds Christmas Service recorded at The Halifax Minster in December singing a couple of folk-y carols if you missed it this too is available on the BBC Leeds website:

“Carols from Halifax” BBC Leeds Radio Christmas Service

On Sunday 28th December The Mike Harding Folk Show podcast featured a selection of tracks from his top 20 albums of 2014. We were proper chuffed to find out that he played a track from The Search for Five Finger Frank CD! The podcast (#105) is available to listen to on his website.

If you’re interested in finding out even more about Frank Kidson and our quest to celebrate and commemorate his incredible legacy then you can read the interview we did with the fabulous Tim Chipping of fRoots magazine. The article features in the latest issue Jan/Feb #379/380 and you can purchase your copy here or you can sign up and subscribe to future issues too!

Photo by Judith Burrows

And finally… We’ll be sweeping away the old year and bringing in the new one over the next week with The Long Company Mummers in various locations throughout Calderdale and the Ryburn Valley. Dates and locations (pubs) as follows:

2nd January The Hinchliffe Arms, Cragg Vale, HX7 5TA (01422 883256)

3rd January The Navigation, Sowerby Bridge, HX6 3LF (01422 316073)

5th January The Alma, Cottonstones, HX6 4NS (01422 823334)

6th January The Old Bridge Inn, Ripponden, HX6 4DF (01422 822595)

The performances start at 8pm prompt and we always begin with the singing of our Wassail Song inside the pub before the massed band then lead the audience outside to watch the mummers play. The whole night is then rounded off with a night of singing, playing and dancing in the pub. Hooray! Come and join us – it certainly is a sight to behold!!

In case you wanted a sneaky practise of The Wassail Song have a look at this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

And in case you just wanted a laugh have a look at this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whilst reseraching the material for “The Search For Five Finger Frank” Album and Show we have drawn extensively on contributions from one of Frank Kidson’s key collaborators: Mr Charles Lolley. He first established contact in response to a series of articles by Kidson in the Leeds Mercury 1886-87 entitled “Notes on Old Tunes”.  They began to correspond regularly on the subject of folk song and folk song collecting.

Charles and Jane Lolley

Charles Lolley 1857-1935 was born in Hemingbrough, East Yorkshire. He was a fine fiddle player and a bricklayer by trade, later becaming a Builder’s Foreman for a building company in Leeds. Like Kidson, Charles Lolley also took inspiration from his own mother’s singing and collected a number of songs from her. Indeed, the sheer quantity of material submitted by Charles Lolley strongly indicates that he too, was a folk song collector in his own right. It appears that they struck up a firm friendship and there are many fine songs and tunes from Charles Lolley contained within the Kidson collection.

We feature many songs collected from Charles Lolley in our CD and Show: “The Search For Five Finger Frank”. Many of these songs still hold a prominent place in the folk repertoire of today: “Young Banker”, “Outward Bound” and “The Sprig of Thyme” are all examples of this. However, a number of the songs contributed by Charles Lolley also offer most unusual versions of popular classics, sometimes differing substantially from what later became the more commonly established melodies. “The Bonny Bunch of Roses”, “Captain Glen” and “My True Love Once He Courted Me” are all distinctive for their haunting melodic twists and turns.

At our CD Launch event on Sunday 13th April 2014, we were very honoured to have descendants of Charles Lolley in the audience;

Jessie Hall (Lolley’s grand-daughter), Ruth Trousdale (Jessie’s daughter and Lolley’s great grand-daughter) and Edna Lolley (Lolley’s grand-daughter)

From L to R: Pete Coe, Jessie Hall, Ruth Trousdale, Edna Lolley, Alice Jones

It was an absolute privilage to sing the songs that Frank Kidson collected from Charles Lolley to members of his own family. We would like to say a huge thank-you to them for coming and also to genealogist Gill Baldwin for all her time and energy spent on tracing Charles Lolley’s relations and for researching Frank Kidson and the other contributors to his collection.

“The Search for Five Finger Frank” by Pete Coe and Alice Jones!

THE SEARCH FOR FIVE FINGER FRANK

illustration by John Crane

CD & SHOW

There will be a full performance of the show and official CD launch held at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax, on the 13th April 2014. Tickets are still available at £13 (£11 concs).

The CD Launch event at Square Chapel will be recorded by BBC Radio Leeds.