Tim Healey cittern/recorders/voice Charles Spicer bagpipes/shawm/pipe and tabor/flute/voice Caroline Butler baroque violin/voice Edward Fitzgibbon lute/orpharion/voice Ian Giles hurdy gurdy/percussion/voice

17th century costume band presenting concerts in music and spoken word. The tumultuous era of the Civil War and Restoration recreated through street ballads, Playford dances, airs and rounds as well as droll readings from diarists and poets. The Oxford Waits have performed both at early music festivals (including Leicester and Beaminster) and at folk festivals (including Sidmouth and Towersey) as well as a wealth of arts centres, historic houses and churches (including Aust and Shakespeare’s Church at Stratford-upon-Avon). Available for public concerts and private functions, whether as full five-piece band or in smaller combinations of musicians.

‘Vibrant entertainment ... what an explosion of vitality’ The Oxford Times

Sample Programme:

Rakes, Rogues and Bouncing Doxies - Court scandals, diarists’ gossip, popular dance tunes and bawdy street ballads all contribute to a rich panorama of 17th century social life, with material drawn from Playford, D’Urfey, Ravenscroft and Purcell, and readings from Pepys and Anthony Wood.

Education:

Songs and Tunes of the English Civil War (4-5 piece for schools); A 17th-century Christmas (4-5 piece for schools); Popular music traditions in The Beggar’s Opera (2 piece for 6th form colleges)

Recordings:

Switter Swatter Beautiful Jo Records (BEJOCD-44) www.bejo.co.uk

Performances:

15 Dec 06 Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick
23 Dec 06 Holywell Music Room, Oxford
15 Mar 07 The Guildhall, Guildford

Contact:

Tim Healey, 86 Marlborough Road,
Oxford OX1 4LS

Tel: 01865 249194
Fax: 01865 792765

Email: tim@bejo.co.uk
Website: www.costumebands.co.uk