We had such a wonderful time dancing together under your amusing calling and wonderfully talented family of musicians! Thank you so much. Can we book you for next year please?
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bringing you the pick of the crop
Ally Craigan’s violin skills have graced many Midlands groups, from Dempsey’s Lot and the Tony Burt Band to Bromyard panto. Her full on fiddling is equally at home with sizzling Irish sets or syncopated gypsy jazz. Singer guitarist Mike brings a Bo Diddley beat and souped-up chords to home grown and international material. His penchant for cheesy country is cheerfully frowned on by the rest of the band! Graham Foord’s silky mandolin evokes mysterious Moroccan souks – and the run down porches of Louisiana swamp folk. Driving them all along is a one-man Heath Robinson percussion section, tapped, scraped, kicked and generally abused by Ian (whose singing generates quite a bit of abuse too!). Ian is also Caller for the band's barn dance / ceilidh gigs. An accomplished and much-in-demand leader of the dance, Ian works all over the Midlands with different bands. He really enjoys a challenge! |
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Streets across the Midlands have been blocked by enraptured passers-by.
Let the Orchard Band serve you some of their best –
hot or chilled, it’s always spicy!
"It was a real pleasure. You have made our Burns gathering the highlight of the year. People were coming up to me on the night and saying, 'We will do this again, won’t we?' "
The Birch and Stock Folk Club
The Orchard Band finished off a night of great music at this excellent new club in Kidderminster - to quote their FB post, "a great show and The Orchard Band finished the night off and raised the roof with great songs, fabulous fiddle & mandolin tunes and an infectious sense of humour which deserved the applause and a well deserved encore."
The Orchard Band finished off a night of great music at this excellent new club in Kidderminster - to quote their FB post, "a great show and The Orchard Band finished the night off and raised the roof with great songs, fabulous fiddle & mandolin tunes and an infectious sense of humour which deserved the applause and a well deserved encore."
The Folk Show with Kevin O
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The Orchard Band guest on Radio Winchcombe folk hour
It was a great pleasure to squeeze into the 'cosy' studio with Kevin and Simon and share stories, songs and tunes along with some leftover Xmas biscuits and a bottle of wine. If you click on the link you'll listen to the whole hour long show which features three numbers by us plus lots of other goodies and some high class banter too! |
Kind words
Clients have been kind enough to say some nice things about us...
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Many, many thanks to you all for your superb musicianship and fantastic ability to get everyone on their feet! It was wonderful to see all ages dancing and having fun on Saturday evening. You really have a wonderful gift of helping people to enjoy themselves. " " Dear Ian,
Your ceilidh for us on Saturday evening was absolutely terrific - and everybody said so! They all really enjoyed it and loved the way you got pretty well everyone on the floor and involved- it really helped to bring everyone together in celebration of B and N and their life together. So a huge thank you for your musicianship and fantastic leadership of proceedings! It was a memorable day throughout but everyone has particularly mentioned the ceilidh as the supreme highlight! Thank you all for your contribution to a wonderful wedding day!" |
Planning the perfect ceilidh
Over the years we have learned a lot of important dos and don'ts which we like to pass on to clients to help their event go well. Click the icon below to download a PDF file full of Orchard Band apples of wisdom!
| 01_planning_the_perfect_ceilidh.doc |
We take our resposibilities seriously. Here you can also download a copy of our current Public Liability Insurance:
| membership_certificate_may_25-26.pdf |
