Fandango

Sun 15 Feb
Les Batons, Hollingbourne, Kent

We're all fandango fans now! Kerry leads Les Batons through the four parts of this Basque dance, with Chris on txistu.

Bourrée Grandes Poteries

Gérald and Corentin at Verton, May 08. Music by Drift.

Blowzabella @ Lewes

Sat 17 Nov
Lewes Corn Exchange
A cracking gig at the Corn Exchange (ie, Town Hall), a few seats round the sides but otherwise played for dancing, which is as it should be - it is dance music, after all. The poor acoustics towards the back of the hall meant that some dancers didn't get such a good deal. As is often the case, the closer, the better, as you can see from the Ladies in Black! Here's some Flickr pix, and their web-site and you can listen on their MySpace, and also buy their CD Octomento and their book of New Tunes for Dancing from Jo Freya.

Fest Noz à Ditchling

Sun 14 Oct
Ditchling

Mike James and Yves LeBlanc paid us their more or less annual visit - and gave us 3 hours of non-stop melodeon, clarinet and voices (not forgetting Mike's right-foot drum-beat), playing a wide range of popular Breton dances.

We've added this Andro, the Rond de Loudéac, and Madeleine onto the Dansez Français group on YouTube.

Dérobée de Guingamp

Saint Chartier
Sat 15 Jul

Just got this up on Video Micalet (YouTube). See also the Dansez Français group on YouTube. Lots more to come.

Rencontres de Saint Chartier

Sat 14 - Sun 15 Jul
Saint Chartier

My first go at the Saint Chartier experience - for many years the premier hurdy-gurdy and bagpipe festival in France. I'd heard it from all sides, and it's true - it's a festival of 2 worlds - festival events inside the grounds of the Château, more informal outside in the village. Unfortunately the village streets were taken over by folk who were more interested in drinking than music - not even drinking and music, which is a time-honoured pursuit after all. The 30 pipers in the photo were just about audible against the well of noise. The festival - and the village - has lived with this for several years now, and are looking at ways of securing it as an event for musicians and music lovers.

Inside was a different story - oodles of non-stop lovely music to listen and dance to, with a Scène Ouverte where some of the best things seemed to happen. The English band Red Dog Green Dog had the honour of closing the festival, and kept several hundred mostly French dancers going for 2 hours or more.

We'd stopped off there to see 2 bands - L'Ham de Foc from Valencia, and the French gypsy band Bratsch. L'Ham de Foc in particular were superb - even better live than on record.

Portesham

Sat 23-Sun 24 Jun

Portesham, Dorset

GIG CB and friends do French and English - a barn dance, in a barn. 

Alison and Jan give it some wellie.

See the rest on Flickr.

Dansez Français

Sat 26 May
Patcham Memorial Hall

Our monthly French & Breton Dance night - info. Chien Bizarre played, and everybody danced - plenty of new people, which was just as well because lots of regulars, including most of our musicians, had sidled off to Chippenham. Where I'm told it rained. And rained.

For starters as usual a set from Jeudi Matin (who meet on Wednesday mornings, of course).

Next session Sat 30 June - then break until September. Here's my Google Map.

Drift at the Oak

Fri 18 May
Royal Oak, Lewes

Ceilidh with Drift, playing a variety of English, French and Breton dances. Mel puts these small-scale evenings on once every 3 months or so - they are much appreciated, and the music is high-class!