Eastbourne —
the friendly festival
the friendly festival
| About the Festival | Performers | Contact us | Tickets and prices | Programme | How to find the festival | Where to stay | |
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Eastbourne — the friendly festival |
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2010 Performers |
Stick the Fiddle |
| Stick The Fiddle is a versatile Tiverton-based band that started to specialise in playing for dances in 2007. Their lively & musical playing quickly made them great favourites with local dance clubs and in great demand for weddings and other events, as shown by numerous bookings throughout the year. At their Sidmouth debut in 2008 (with line-up of 2 fiddles, guitar & bass, they played for Playford, Contra, English and Irish set workshops & dances, & received enthusiastic response from both dancers & callers. The line-up for Eastbourne will again include Sue (fiddle) & Bruce (guitar), together with Andrew joining them on keyboard |
 photo: Stick the Fiddle |
| Sue Rivett, the “Fiddle”, has been playing & teaching fiddle & violin in schools around Tiverton since 1995. In 2008 she took a year out & studied with Catriona MacDonald, Robin Dunn & Stewart Hardy at Newcastle University, and returned with her own individual folk style and full of enthusiasm for teaching & playing. She particularly enjoys exploring new styles, & has encouraged the band to focus on Scottish, Irish, & then Norwegian repertoire appropriate at three recent wedding ceilidhs. She, with Bruce, formed the Stick Youth Band in January 2009, thereby providing her liveliest pupils plus several parents the opportunity to share in the delights of playing for dancing! Bruce Thomas’ active interest in folk led him & a friend to resurrect the folk club at the Welcome Inn, Halberton in 1984, which they ran together for about four years hosting a number of top performers including the Albion Band, Show of Hands and Martin Carthy. In the 1990’s Bruce took lessons in classical guitar and began performing as accompanist and soloist with the mid-Devon choral group, Oriana. In recent years he has continued performances of this type with the choral group Conspirito. With Stick, Bruce is basically the rhythm guitarist. His personal style of accompaniment, enriched by classical, flamenco & blues techniques, is an essential ingredient of the Stick sound. Between gigs Bruce works as a freelance civil engineer, quantity surveyor or computer programmer. He is also chief researcher via the internet of the latest styles requested by the “Fiddle”, and frequently comes up with his own ideas! Andrew Curtis was introduced to Folk Music at the age of 14 when he became dance-class pianist for the late Kate (Kit) Coombes. It was under her 'watchful eye' and tuition that his knowledge and love of the music developed. He attended regular folk music classes at Dartington led by Peter Kennedy, which were always practical & fun and led to many community events in the area. After 26 happy years of full-time music teaching, Andrew currently works as a Devon County supply teacher, giving him more time to work with choral & operatic societies, orchestral & ensemble groups, & to learn new folk techniques for when he plays with Stick the Fiddle. |
| Listen to Stick the Fiddle |
| Fair Jenny (560kb) Barnes arr Stick the Fiddle |
| Three around Three (580kb) trad arr Stick the Fiddle |