Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies & Vin Garbutt 25th / 26th Dec 2020

Join Auntie Liz on Christmas Day at 10pm and on Boxing Day at 4pm for two special concerts the first from The 2014 Glenfarg Folk Feast with Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies and the 2015 Festival with Vin Garbutt

Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies have been playing their songs and music of Northern England for a decade and a half around the folk festivals, clubs and concert stages of the world. “Acoustic simplicity coupled with electric vitality” was how they were described in their early days, and with half a dozen albums to their credit, along with solo albums by Jez and by other members of the group, their following has continued to increase. In 2006 alone they have played in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Belgium and of course all over the UK and Ireland. Strong vocals, backed by outstanding instrumental back-up on guitar, cittern, fiddle, fretless bass, keyboards and Northumbrian Pipes, have made them one of Britain’s top attractions on the folk/acoustic/celtic circuit.    
Their current line up is
Kate Bramley
Late Bramley  joined The Bad Pennies in November of 2000 as fiddle player and vocalist. Kate also tours with U.S based band Sweetgrass, also several sola albums. When not following her music career i, Kate has a career as a theatre writer and director, running her own Badapple Theatre, as well as freelance work for the world-renowned Hull Truck Theatre Company
Andy May
Andy May joined the band in 2002. bringing a whole new dimension to the band, with his accordion, Northumbrian smallpipes, and whistles, this multi-instrumentalist has quickly expanded from being a sought-after session player for the likes of Kathryn Tickell, to a valued member of a live performance band. This award winning musician has two solo albums available on Fellside Records. Andy also tours with the band ‘Baltic Crossing’.
David de la Haye
David de la Haye joined the Bad Pennies briefly back in the summer of 2006 .Dave hails originally from Jersey but is now based permanently in Newcastle. He played bass with  fiddler Shona Mooney as well as the  Monster Ceilidh Band.  David is also works as Studio Technician at Newcastle University.

Previous band members included the wonderful singer Judy Dinning  who sadly passed away in 2013 who was with the band from 1997- 2002. Judy appears on  ‘The Parish Notices’ , ‘Live at The Davy Lamp’ and Honesty Box’. As well as The Bad Pennies Judy was a member of Real Time,The Lucky Bags , many other projects and recordings and was a sad loss to the folk scene.

Vin Garbutt –The Teesside Troubadour
(1947– 2017)

A Teesside legend – The one and only Vin Garbutt – From Glenfarg Folk Feast 2015

Vin Garbutt was one of English folk music’s most respected “non-stars” of the late 20th century and the early 21st. Born Vincent Paul Garbutt in Southbank, Middlesbrough, of mixed Anglo-Irish parentage, he became a folk music enthusiast while in his early teens and began frequenting clubs while still at school in the early ’60s. He pursued the music part-time as a performer, focusing in part on the sounds relevant to the Irish side of his ancestry. Turning professional at age 21, within a couple of years he was ready to record, cutting his first album, The Valley of Tees, in 1972 for Bill Leader’s Trailer label. He established himself in the ’70s as one of England’s foremost topical songwriters, with a special emphasis on environmental subjects long before that concern was a major political focus in Europe’s politics.

There are few subjects that he didn’t address in his songs, including workers’ rights, fetal experimentation, a strong anti-abortion stance, and other matters usually left to the news pages, and part of the secret of his success was his ability to meld such serious repertory with a very visible smattering of overtly fun material. His unwillingness to compromise his sensibilities or his songs cut him off from access to the major record labels, a situation that seemed to suit Garbutt just fine — he became a “star” act by denying the media exposure, the trappings, or even the rudimentary image associated with stardom, and made albums that were impressive without being expensive to make.

After The Valley of Tees, Vin released a steady stream of albums, latterly on his own label, Home Roots, the most recent being Synthetic Hues in 2014. Two of his albums, When the Tide Turns (1989, re-released 1998) and The By-Pass Syndrome (1991) were produced by Alan Whetton of Dexy’s Midnight Runners, a dedicated fan. Several albums captured Vin in live performance, although accommodating his long introductions was always a challenge. In 2011, local film-maker Craig Hornby made an affectionate documentary, Teesside Troubadour, which played to packed houses in Middlesbrough’s Cineworld.

This recording is from famous Glenfarg Folk Feast  2015 a fantastic concert by a most excellent singer songwriter, a true gentleman and a wonderful performer

My thanks to John Weatherby and Kris Korn from SoundSense for helping me in recording the gigs
And the Glenfarg Folk Feast and their volunteers for putting on a most excellent festival – Now in it 43 year