House concert & Livestream – The Grand Assembly & Foxton

This is a house concert taking place in Cullercoats, which will be livestreamed on Zoom. After your ticket purchase, we will send you an email containing either the address or the zoom meeting details. The recording will be made available for 7 days after the event.

The Grand Assembly

Grand Music from Northern England
The Grand Assembly celebrate the living traditions of our regional music. Iain, Trish and Rachael are all experienced soloists in their own right, as well as having separate backgrounds performing in bands playing at festivals and folk clubs, (Lowp, Horseplay), for dancing (The Blue Hat Ceilidh Band), and in many years of making music socially in pub sessions across the North East.

The trio first played together for two community ceilidhs. Brought together in a spirit of constructive creative chaos engendered by their clients, the under 5s and a dementia positive project, they found common ground in their shared affinity with the traditional music of the North of England, and began exploring it.

Expect old and new tunes such as lively 17th and 18th century dance tunes, beautiful slow airs, stately marches, jigs and rants as well as new tunes written within the tradition, all played with passion and precision.

The Grand Assembly is:
Iain Gelston (Half Long bagpipes, Northumbrian smallpipes, bouzouki, whistle)
Rachael Hales (viola, fiddle)
Trish Winter (wooden flute, whistles, shruti box)

Foxton

Foxton – original compositions in the folk tradition from Marina Dodgson, Maurice Condie and Rachael Hales

Foxton grew out of a shared passion to create new music and for playing in harmony. Utilising the full range of harmonic possibilities offered by differing combinations of violin, viola and octave violin, accompanied by Maurice’s magical guitar playing, the trio have great fun arranging and performing their own compositions, which range from sumptuous slow airs to lively jigs and reels, with a few surprises thrown in.