Barn dance bands, ceilidh bands, hoe down bands UK
ABOUT ALAN HARRIS
Al Harris first picked up a guitar in the late 1960s and despite friends'
pleas, he absolutely refused to put it down.
He began performing at Worksop
Folk Club, a centre of tolerance, and formed the group Widdershins, featuring
Clive Heenan, 6 foot 8 inches tall and with a voice to match. This was
followed by Six Hands in Tempo, with Steve Bailey and Dave Proctor, playing
songs from the 30s and 40s, together with such immortal creations as the
Western Medley and Songs from Science Fiction TV Programmes.
Amazingly, with a repertoire like that, Six Hands played at Folk Clubs and Festivals all over the UK and in Europe and Canada, appeared on radio and TV, and made three albums. They also played at some spectacularly unsuitable venues, the true stories of which will be told in the fullness of time…
Photograph by David Walston - see www.pr-photography.org
At the same time, Al was learning bass, having joined the Ken Eatch Jazzmen
in Nottingham when their bass player moved on, selling his bass to Al as
he left. Al also took up double bass and recorded albums with Tufty Swift,
the Excelsior Band (with John Tams), Judy Dunlop and Umps and Dumps, with
John Kirkpatrick, Sue Harris, Tufty Swift and Derek Pearce.
He played with Umps and Dumps for some years and then occasionally with
the John Kirkpatrick Bumper Ceilidh Band (or whatever it was called on the
night!) One of the bands Al played in more recently, Five Go Off In A Caravan,
has changed seamlessly from a comedy group doing Glenn Miller medleys on
kazoo to an ear-bruising folk-rock band gigging regularly in the Midlands
and now known as simply Five Go Off.
Since then, Al has depped with anyone who has 'phoned needing a bass player,
including This Way Up and All Blacked Up and he occasionally plays in Cwm
Dancing with Paul Hutchinson and Flos Headford.
Now he has settled very happily into the life of Jigabit, and lives with
Fiona and a zillion cats.
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