The number of people playing with us has grown a lot in the course of the last year, so now we have 8 people we can call on when we need a band. And that’s not even including the barn dance callers!
The band has settled down so that it’s always four people playing – fiddle, clarinet, accordion and bass. It’s just that we have spares!
So in the course of the last year, we have had the following people playing:
Fiddle: Judy Mapledoram, Rob Veale, Laura Mapledoram or Ruth Gasperini
Accordion: Judy Mapledoram or Andrew “Rocky” Rock
Clarinet: Robin Watson
Bass: Antony Moggridge, Ryan Mapledoram and Laura Mapledoram
Callers: Simon Maplesden, Steve Cunio, Bridget Flett, Richard Gracie, or Judy Mapledoram
Ryan also played the mandolin on one gig (the Swimbridge one) and the guitar on a couple of others!
The advantage of having so many permutations of the band is that we can take a booking for a barn dance months or even a year ahead, and be confident that when it comes to the crunch we will have a band available. This reduces our stress levels considerably and means that even in the summer when lots of people are on holiday, we can still rustle up a band for a ceilidh.
So here they are, the band members!
The other new things to happen this year is that Judy has begun calling for barn dances as well. The decision to do this was precipitated by the difficulty of finding a caller at short notice, and for those occasions where something happens to the caller en route (ie their car breaks down, they go to the wrong place or even just forget!!!). Here is Judy calling (and dancing) at the recent dance in the Lysacht Club at Old Cleeve.
Barnbuskers 