joe and co return to lichfield

Really great to see that the Birmingham Conservatoire Folk Ensemble is making a return to Lichfield this Saturday. This really is wonderful stuff. I know that they performed at the 2007 Fuse Festival, but one of their first non-Birmingham outings was back in 2005, when I booked them to replace an artist that had pulled out of a lunchtime slot when I was only a month into the job.
Joe Broughton, the director of the Ensemble, and I had been discussing trying to give his group a gig anyway, and things fell into place.

Special guests Gordon Giltrap and Kevin Dempsey joined the enormous group of young musicians for one of the most uplifting, generous and good time events we've really ever had here in Lichfield.
This was also the first time we did a lunchtime gig in the cathedral during our Saturday market, and there was a free performance outdoors before the gig proper. Some of the ensemble even hung around afterwards to play in amongst the market.

Many from this ensemble have gone on to form other groups, including, among many others, The Old Dance School and The Destroyers.

Photos are by Tom Allwood, the 2005 Festival's archive photographer.