John Kirkpatrick has been dancing, singing, and playing his way around the English folk scene since he joined Hammersmith Morris Men in 1959 at the age of twelve. He displays a rare skill on a variety of push-pull squeezeboxes. A professional since 1970, including spells in Steeleye Span and The Albion Band, more recently replacing John Tams as the lead singer with folk-rock band Home Service, and now performing solo with a tour of ‘Victorian Farmer’s Year in Song’.

He is still an unrelentingly enthusiastic morris dancer and started one of England’s most influential teams – The Shropshire Bedlams. He still finds time to play for dancing, currently in a band with all his four sons – Kirkophany.

Out in the wide world John has contributed music, song, and dance to a great number of plays in the theatre, and to a lesser extent radio, television, and film. As a virtuoso session player his squeezeboxes can be heard on hundreds of recordings, and as a creator of new work in all these fields he has established an enviable reputation. But on his own live gigs you’re more likely to see him in his natural habitat pursuing his first love – traditional English music and song.