Jenny Fox (piano, accordion, vocal harmony) A toddler, earwigging at the top of the stairs when I should have been in bed, it was Dad on violin dueting with Mum on piano that kindled a lifelong passion for music and led me to train as a classical pianist. In the mid-60's I fell in love with folk music and folk musician Malcolm Fox who ran the Barley Mow Folk Club in Sheffield. We married, and during the 70s played together in several bands including Keppel's Folly & Jiggery Polkary. In the 80's we became involved in the political music scene, playing in the Red G'Zunders Band with Jim & Georgina Boyes, and Moanin' Minnies with John Young and fellow band member Carmel O'Toole. Musical influences extend from old-time music and gospel songs my family used to sing and the popular music my sister and I crooned along to as teenagers, to the Carter Family, Bob Davenport & The Rakes, Christy Moore, and all the great Irish bands! 
Andrew Hoult (vocals, guitar, mouth organ, mandolin and banjo) I've been singing as long as I've been breathing, taking part in concerts at East Dene Baptist Church in Rotherham from the age of five until I became certain of my agnosticism, and flitted to a house that didn't have a church next door. I particularly annoyed my brother by joining in with his performances from the wings - a habit also irritating to members of the Rotherham Red Choir with whom I also sing. Guitar came along when I was about 16 at the time of the "Great Folk Revival" of the 60's and banjo when my dad inherited an unusual and incredibly heavy instrument made entirely of Britannia metal - apart from the skin and fingerboard! Biggest influences were my dad who never missed an opportunity for a singsong round the piano and my mum who had the voice of an angel. 
Bob Meakin (fiddle, mandolin, vocal harmony)I'm rarely successful where raffles are concerned, but I was lucky forty-odd years ago! My junior school teacher, Mr George, drew my name out of a hat, providing me and two others, one being a certain Ric Sanders, with the opportunity to begin violin lessons. I'm not sure my parents were ecstatic at the time and my early scratchings were confined to the garage. I played in school orchestras, but quickly decided it was cooler to try and emulate the sounds of fiddle players like Sugar Cane Harris and Dave Swarbrick and much blues jamming was done with like-minded sixth formers. College days saw me folk/rocking with a band called Kelly, our performance once meriting one line in the Melody Maker! The early 80's witnessed a slight change in direction, as I tasted the Yorkshire club scene with Central Reservation, before meeting Andy Hoult and Matt Hogarth to play fiddle again, as one third of the New Andy Hoult Band. 
Carmel O'Toole (vocals, whistle, recorder)My first musical memory was mum and Tessie O'Shea belting out 'Take me back to dear old Blighty' from an album of morale boosting war time songs. Later I'd stand in for all three Andrews Sisters to croon with Bing Crosby. There was always music somewhere in our house and I flitted happily from one style to the next, soaking it all up. I started singing in bands just about 20 years ago. I love jazz and lots of strong female singers from the thirties, forties and fifties from Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday to Judy Garland. Mix this with Roy Orbison, the Clancy Brothers, Dusty Springfield and Springsteen plus loads of current bands and you get the flavour of my cocktail approach to musical appreciation. I guess that's why I have such a good time in the band. We're always prepared to have a go at something new. Doesn't always work but its lovely when it does! |