C o n c e r t s - 2024
December 11th - Tim Edey's Celtic Christmas
Wrea Green Institute, Station Road,
Wrea Green, Preston, PR4 2PH
Tim’s Celtic Christmas concerts present seasonal music from a range of traditions and features music of passion, rare beauty, musical fun and a couple of surprises, all linked by a festive theme and infused with the spirit of Tim’s incredible virtuosity and boundless enthusiasm. Tim has toured the world and recorded with most of the major names in Celtic/Contemporary roots music including; The Chieftains, Christy Moore, Sharon Shannon, Altan and Natalie MacMaster to name but a few...
Now a name on the world stage in his own right after seventeen years of hard work, Tim is rated by many to be one of the world's finest ever Melodeon and Guitar players in the folk & contemporary scene today!
His live solo shows are a stunning mix of world music inspired instrumental virtuosity and passion with a strong Celtic theme. Tim's closing concert at the 2023 Towersey folk festival received no less than two standing ovations… Watch that stunning clip here!
Tim is also a double BBC Musician of the year - BBC ALBA/Scotland Best Traditional musician 2020 and BBC Radio Two Musician of the year 2012 (BBC R2 FOLK AWARDS)
“My favourite guitarist in the whole world.” Natalie MacMaster
“A ferocious passion and a beautiful tenderness, sensitivity, respect, understanding & love perpetually shines out through the music of virtuoso musician Tim Edey.” Sharon Shannon
“Tim Edey plays a host of different instruments to a standard us mere mortals can only dream of. Listen and weep.” Jim Byrne, The Living Tradition
Entrance £12 Doors 7:15 pm, start 8 pm
Support from Mary Hassett
January 15th 2025 - Douglas & Moss
Wrea Green Institute, Station Road,
Wrea Green, Preston, PR4 2PH
Rebecca Clare Douglas and Richard Moss are two musicians of high calibre performing with uncommon passion, grace and sensitivity.
Clare is an accomplished violin player with a background in classical music combined with a love of traditional music, having performed with Scottish dance band The Pictish Players and the Giggleswick Temperance Band. In 2020 she released The Fiddler from the Mountain of Fire, a collection of self-penned tunes inspired by the landscape, history and folklore of the Ingleborough area.
Richard is a powerful guitar player and a fine singer from Blackburn equally at ease with folk, ragtime, blues and contempory fingerstyle.
His driving percussive and rhythmic guitar skills are blended with subtle fingerstyle playing making him in high demand as a soloist and as a skilled accompanist for singers and traditional melody players. He has a keen interest in the traditional music of the Northwest of England singing songs by the Blackburn poets of the 19th century and the 'Lancashire Burns' Edwin Waugh. He is well known in the northern folk scene performing at clubs and festivals both solo and as part of Drop the Floor.
A distinctive thread weaves through the music of Douglas and Moss: it is a sound that is deeply rooted in their home in North West England - the atmospheric hills, industrial towns and evocative coastlines - alchemised with echoes of their musical experiences in Ireland, Scotland and further distant lands.
Entrance £12 Doors 7:15 pm, start 8 pm
February 19th 2025 - Calum Gilligan
Wrea Green Institute, Station Road,
Wrea Green, Preston, PR4 2PH
Born in rural Galloway in Scotland, and now residing in the beating heart of British music, Liverpool, Calum has made large strides in the British Folk Scene in recent years. From supporting the likes of Kitty McFarlane, Martin Carthy and Martin Simpson, releasing an EP (BBC Radio Merseyside FolkScene’s EP of 2019) to launching a well-received Debut Album in 2022, this artist, described as ‘gifted’ by Folk Radio, is only growing in reputation and confidence with every step he takes. With two national tours under his belt, filling venues from London to Liverpool and Bristol to York, and with new music due for release he is well worth coming to see live.
His self-penned songs often reflect a longing for the wild beauty of his childhood home, as well as taking us with him on his journey through parenthood, life, love and loss. Emotionally charged and earnestly delivered, there is rarely a dry eye at one of his live shows.
When not touring Calum is usually at home in Liverpool with his wife Nuala and their young daughters Esmé and Poppy and can be found wandering the parks and green spaces of Merseyside searching for a piece of that green, leafy peace that he dreams of...
Entrance £12 Doors 7:15 pm, start 8 pm
Photo: Carl Southworth
March 19th 2025 - The Brothers Gillespie
Wrea Green Institute, Station Road,
Wrea Green, Preston, PR4 2PH
Described by Folk Radio UK as ‘weaving an especially compelling magic’, and 'showing British acoustic music in its best possible light’, Northumbrian duo The Brothers Gillespie make music that is animated by lyrical songwriting, fine fingerstyle guitar playing, multi-instrumental musicianship and ‘the glorious tones of their blood harmony’ (Sam Lee).
Their music comes to them most strongly when walking in the borderlands with their packs and instruments which remains a regular practice for them. This spirit is channeled into their live performances which have a rare and intimate energy.
They have played at Cambridge and Sidmouth Folk Festivals and opened for Lankum and Sam Lee. In 2021 they featured in the English Heritage ‘Songs of England’ recording series that appeared on BBC Radio 4.
“Anyone who has seen the brothers live will surely attest that it is an experience that will stay with you. There is a feeling of warmth that exudes from them and affects everyone in the room” - Folk London
“The stars of the show were The Brother's Gillespie - more than an hour of fantastic musicianship. Imagine the guitar work of the early Nic Jones, the close harmony work of the Dransfields and the commitment and honesty of Bob Davenport rolled into two brothers and you'll get some idea.” - Mike Harding
Entrance £14 Doors 7:15 pm, start 8 pm