THE HOUGHTON WEAVERS play MIDDLETON – St Michael’s Church on Friday 23rd December 2022.
By Steve Cooke
The Houghton Weavers have been entertaining folk for 47 years with their unique blend of popular folk music, humour, and audience participation. On their current tour of the UK, we have a chance to catch them when Middleton Band present the Weavers at St Michael’s Church, Bamford on Friday 23rd December.
To coincide with their UK Tour, they released their brand-new single, ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’ on Friday 7th October, taken from their album ‘New World in the Morning’.
“To us, this traditional Scottish Folk Song depicts the love that Queen Elizabeth II had for the beautiful Scottish Highlands. It could almost be a signature to her love and time spent north of the border. It’s such a poignant and beautiful traditional song and it seems a perfect track as our tribute to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Having been working on the album for almost 2 years, through Covid and into the summer of 2022, It’s a mixture of self-penned and traditional songs as well as some very well-known folk covers. We have used various session musicians including Ken Nichol of Steeleye Span and the wonderful country folk guitarist Pete Frampton. The album has that Weavers comedy element but is brought back down to earth with some beautifully poignant trad folk songs.
The Houghton Weavers are dedicating this album to Tony Berry who sadly passed away in 2019.
In their time together, the band have performed thousands of concerts, recorded over 30 albums, and starred in several of their own highly successful BBC radio and TV series and made countless appearances on other programmes. They guarantee a wonderful evening of entertainment and their experience – together with their style and professionalism – ensures that, as their motto says, they always “Keep Folk Smiling”.
At St Michael’s we can look forward to Steve Millington, David Littler and Jim Berry entertaining us in a show of charming fun, humorous jokes, and anecdotes, together with plenty of music, varying from raucous traditional and popular Folk Songs to sing-along favourites, with beautiful ballads and original pieces included throughout. Their wide and varied repertoire, alongside their unique and well-known style ensures that no two shows in the company of The Houghton Weavers are ever the same.
A Festive Concert with the fabulous Middleton Band.
Friday 23rd 7.30pm
St Michaels Church. Townley Street, Middleton. M30 7LP
£12, concessions £10 tickets are available from any band member, call 0161 3751876 or book online https://www.middletonband.com/