Region’s fiddlers prepare for toe-tapping festival gig
Tyneside Fiddle Alliance offers a feast of folk
They enter singly or in small groups, some announcing their arrival with cheery greetings and others quietly self-absorbed, but most carrying fiddle-shaped packages.
All are members of the Tyneside Fiddle Alliance and the presence of a few interloper cellists demonstrates its accommodating nature.
Anyone might walk in, says Hugh Firth at the table which has been positioned near the door.
“We’re a drop-in group,” he explains.
“We’ve been going since 2011 and for a long time were based in St Mary’s Church, Gateshead (next to The Glasshouse international centre for music, although not part of it).
“Then, with Covid and local authority cutbacks, St Mary’s was closed and we had to find another venue. We looked at a lot of places and fixed on here. We’d had concerts in St George’s Church before.”
We’re in St George’s Church Hall, bordering the green beside Jesmond’s Osborne Road, and on the first and third Thursday of every month it becomes a magnet for fiddle players, or those aspiring to be so.
It’s £8 per session (under 18s free and with reduced fee options available) and you come as you please.
“No,” says Hugh simply, asked if there’s an ability threshold.
Clearly you’d be bonkers to turn up not knowing how to play a note but Hugh says he only started playing fiddle at 62, his only previous musical experience having been childhood piano lessons.
He attended his first Tyneside Fiddle Alliance session a few years later, in 2013.
“At first I could only play the simplest tunes. I basically sat at the back and played what bits I could, but everybody here’s very kind.
“We see ourselves as a community folk fiddle group, playing music from the North East, the Shetlands, Scandinavia… all over.
“Now, I’ve got to concentrate.”
Concentration is what it’s all about but for now Hugh’s taking payment from the new arrivals, his violin still packed away beside his music stand.
On this particular evening, the fiddlers (and cellists) are preparing for an appearance at the 57th Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering and for the May concert which is part of the Jesmond Community Festival.
It’s billed as an Open Evening of Fiddles In Harmony, which sounds ambitious.
Warming up at the front of the hall are three of the session leaders.
Stewart Hardy is an internationally known performer, composer and teacher based in Seaton Sluice.
He set up the Tyneside Fiddle Alliance with Chloe and David Jones, fellow members of the Bottle Bank Band, a fiddle quartet whose name honours legendary Tyneside fiddler James Hill whose physical memorial stands on Gateshead’s Bottle Bank near the Hilton Hotel.
David is also getting ready to help lead the session tonight – as is Ali Say who helps Stewart to run the North East Fiddle School which he established in 2018 to provide high quality fiddle tuition.
Ali lives just north of Hexham. Scanning the room as it slowly fills, she spots other regulars from County Durham and Allendale.
She, clearly, is in her element, as is Stewart whose charisma can be felt some distance away.
“I’ve always been a musician and have played lots of different instruments,” says Ali.
She never went through the classical grades system at school, making her way in the folk music tradition she loves.
“At university I wanted to get involved in sessions. I played the recorder as my main folk instrument at that time but it was hard to chat while you were playing it.
“I’d always loved the sound of the fiddle in folk and it’s good to have a new challenge so thought I’d give it a try.
“My husband, who’s a very good concertina and pipes player, was starting a university ceilidh society and there was a beginners’ session so I thought that was a good opportunity.
“But I’m largely self-taught. I’ve played folk fiddle now for maybe 15 years and I’ve always loved it but I did get to a point where I felt my technique was holding me back.
“At that point I went to Stewart and got lessons as an adult. He’s a fantastic teacher. I work with him now because I loved the courses and workshops he runs so much that I just wanted to help out.”
“It's the admin side that’s the pain in the neck. To let him carry on with the teaching and the composing and the creative side, I help out with the admin. But it’s lovely to be here and play alongside Stewart and lead the group.”
During lockdown, says Ali, the North East Fiddle School was forced onto Zoom.
The result was that people from all over the country started to ‘attend’ and that has continued, with some of the online sessions led by a fiddle teacher in Glossop.
“Being able to reach more people was one of the good things that came out of lockdown,” says Ali.
“But Tyneside Fiddle Alliance sessions are about arranging tunes and playing them together.
“People travel considerable distances and everyone’s very welcoming and lovely here. You can come and take part or maybe have a listen first and then come and play the next time.
“During lockdown you didn’t get the sound of all the fiddles playing together and that’s really what it’s all about.”
The session’s about to start. I sit at the back to listen as Stewart urges the group into a long sequence of jolly folk numbers, including a particularly sprightly jig.
You can sense the concentration in the room but the music sounds really good, foot-tappingly so.
After the final note there’s a sort of collective collapse, an almost audible exhalation of breath. The bowing arms relax and the instruments – the violins, at least – are lowered.
“Straight out of the blocks,” enthuses a smiling Stewart, standing at the front. “That’s good stuff.”
“Well played everyone,” adds Ali. “Really well played.”
But of course, there’s just one thing… can the transitions be just a little bit nippier?
Deep breaths all round, violins tucked back under chins and it begins again.
By Thursday, May 29, at 6.30pm it will be perfect… without any doubt.
That’s when the Open Evening of Fiddles in Harmony begins in St George’s Church Hall. It’s a free concert, everyone’s welcome and refreshments will be available in the interval.