If you are hunting out the differences between a good Barn Dance band and a good English Ceilidh band, then the Bursledon Village Band (Bursledons, BVB) are a key. An excellently tight and upbeat 'Barn Dance Band'... .. so why are they not a English Ceilidh band? Mainly since the music is straight, with not a lot of influence from other styles - you could not see youself slipping into a bourrée or amusing yourself with a schottische to the tunes but excellent as a lively basis for traditional English dances.

(See the thumbnail sketch of the differences between Ceilidh and English Folk dance - the Bursledons do sit down when playing....)

Recordings

The Bursledon Village Band

The Bursledon Village Band, 1993, MFY014, Cassette only.

Side A

  • Bourton Six / Lancashire Tune
  • The Nipper / The Old Favourite
  • The Nevada / Ranting Ross
  • Hunting the Squirrel / Glory of the North
  • Tomigee Waltz / The Arran Boat
  • Piss upon the Grass / Shanes Fancy
  • Fells Hornpipe / The Dannish Waltz
  • Cumberland Reel / St George's Day

Side B

  • Bobtailed 'Oss / Whinham's Reel
  • Greenholm / Sunday Morning
  • MacGillycuddy's / Ballyhoura Mountain
  • Shepherds Waltz Alone / Newbridge Street
  • Bownhams / Chomping the Barley
  • Hot Punch / John of Paris
  • The Sweeps / The Redesdale
  • Farewell to Whisky / The Road to Boston

The South Wind

Bursledon Village Band, 1997, WildGoose Studios, WGS283

  • Gnevequilla Polka / Wednesday Night Polka
  • Burning Bridges / Whose Jig
  • The Double Quadrille
  • The French Assembly / The Bursledon Waltz
  • Roxburgh Castle / The Steamboat
  • The Primrose Polka
  • Margaret's Waltz
  • Love in a Village / The Unfortunate Tailor
  • The Kirkgate / Miss Thompson's Hornpipe
  • Man in the Moon / The South Wind
  • Steeple Claydon / Reel de Ti-Jean
  • Heslyside Reel / Fay's Hornpipe
  • The Swiss Girl / Grahaemsie Jig
  • I have a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue

Reviewed in Stirrings

Straight From the Fingers

Bursledon Village Band, 2001, WildGoose Studios, WGS301CD

  • Pete's Peerie Boat / The Piper's Poodle
  • Walter Bulwer's No. 3 / Fred Pigeon's
  • The Millenium Waltz / The Comet Waltz
  • Some say the Devil's dead / Hunting the Hare
  • Galopede / Little Polly / Grandfather's
  • Webbs Wonder's Polka
  • Sharon Eubank
  • Walter Bulwer's No. 1 / The Blue Eyed Stranger
  • The BVB March / The Rochdale Coconut Dance
  • The Kerry Polka
  • Jig by Greenlan / Mucklin' o' Geordie's Byre
  • The Rose Waltz
  • Reel des Accordeonistes

More information