The Urban Folk Quartet are unlike any folk band you have ever heard.

“UFQ show a great deal of inspiration and innovation” the Guardian

“Absolutely terrific” Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 2

Just as English country dance meet the big band Jazz, their approach is to embrace every influence that makes sense of their time and place with their music.

From funk grooves to middle-eastern melodies, afrobeat to north Indian rhythms this is fiddle-led music that draws heavily from celtic dance forms and traditional song but from there on in it is unlike any folk band you have ever heard.

UFQ is a truly international band. Foreign touring and globally- influenced music have been at the heart of what they do since day one, have appeared at concerts and festivals across the world.

The first of those phenomenal fiddlers is Galician Paloma Trigás (Fiddle, Vocals), who has shared stages and recorded with with the likes of The Chieftains, Sharon Shannon and Altan, during her tenure touring the stadiums of the world with Spain’s biggest folk star, Carlos Nuñez.

 

Joe Broughton (Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin ) (Albion Band, Bellowhead, Joss Stone) long established on the folk scene as the fieriest English fiddler and showman of his generation. Also an exceptional guitarist and mandolin player, in UFQ Joe deftly shares multi-instrumentalist duties (often mid-song)

 

 

Dan Walsh (Banjo, Guitar, Vocals ), whose Grandparents live here, is touted as one of the finest banjo players in the country as well as a gifted singer and guitarist, Dan (Seth Lakeman Band, The Levellers, Walsh & Pound) joined UFQ in 2014, Banjo player/vocalist/guitarist.

'The real deal, a demon picker' - UNCUT MAGAZINE

 

 

 

The lineup is completed by Tom Chapman,( Cajón, Percussion, Vocals) widely considered to be the most accomplished and innovative cajonero the UK has to offer. Tom took inspiration from the cajoneros of the world to become one of the first UK musicians to adopt the cajón as a serious first instrument.

 

Images & text courtesy of https://theufq.com/home

 

Tickets & More Information

 Adult £12, (Under 18 £6) available from Burway Books, John Thomas Florist, Church Stretton Town Council Office and on line

For more information please contact Mike Walker here.

 

In 1942 the United States War Department distributed a booklet to American Servicemen on the peculiarities of the ‘British, their country, and their ways’. With roots in the Edinburgh Fringe and based on the genuine handbook called ‘Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain’,  Fol Espoi and the sketch-comedy trio of the Real MacGuffins created this fabulously funny show.

 

The Handbook - A Snapshot of England

“We know about this small book only because a curator in the Bodleian Library rediscovered it in 2005 and it was then republished. The director, John Walton, stumbled across it in a bookshop and thought it was such an “endearing snapshot” of England that it deserved to be made into a show, roping in the Fringe-tastic comedy trio the Real MacGuffins.” - Ann Treneman, The Times

 

Yankee Horde 1942

A horde of Yankee servicemen arrived in England where the locals speak a strange dialect, boil all their food, and talk endlessly about the weather. So they see the Brits as a strange race. Judge for yourself in a night of joyous laughter and downright silliness because a crack team of experts, the Real MacGuffins, explain the rules of British Life through humour. The comedy highlights the differences in English language, pronunciation and the absurdities of the English currency whilst it builds upon the audience’s almost hysterical guffaws and groans in this comedy of British Manners.

 

 “They skillfully carry off asides and interjections, and with much disparaging of both American and English sides, it never seems like an unfair attack on either.” Sophie Adnitt, Off West End

“increasingly over-the-top but gloriously hilarious.” Chris Omaweng, London Theatre Reviews

“It’s sub-Dad’s Army crossed with Monty Python” Ann Treneman, The Times

Tickets & More Information

 Adult £12, (Under 18 £6) available from Burway Books, John Thomas Florist, Church Stretton Town Council Office and on line

For more information please contact Mike Walker here.

Roving Crows music is full of passion. They push the boundaries of their Celtic Folk roots with vibrancy and energy, their music melding vocals with exciting fiddle, electric and acoustic guitars. Bass and percussion rhythms generate exciting, foot-tapping and dance. They are a must-see act.

“an adventurous and inspired heady cocktail of Celtic and World music with  a social conscience and a beating heart” Mike Davies, Folking.com,

"Great party music...I love that band" Paul O'Grady, BBC

“Really individual Celtic folk rock group” Mike Harding, BBC

 “The next folk super group in waiting”, Nancy Dunham, folking.com

"they’re a band .... delivering a uniquely inspiring style." - Duncan Haskell - Songwriting Magazine

 

Tickets:  Adult £12, available from Burway Books, John Thomas Florist, Church Stretton Town Council Office and on line

For more information please contact Mike Walker here.