News and Features
Alex Bartholomew
Alex started playing the violin aged 7, is classically trained and played in local youth Chamber/Symphony orchestras. Alex has had her current violin for over 20 years. It's believed to have been made in Markneukirchen, Saxony - a town famous for making instruments for over 300 years and is thought to be just under 250 years old.
Steve Wiles
Steve is the band’s caller, with a repertoire of dances suitable for all ages and all levels of expertise. His main instrument is the melodeon, which he first picked up to provide music for Morris. His playing style acts like a rhythm guitar, sitting between the melody instruments and the bass/drums. Having gone through Hohners and Salterelles, he currently plays a Castagnari Mori, unconventionally tuned. Steve plays a Recording King acoustic guitar in Double Dropped-D tuning, and very occasionally an Epiphone SG in cittern tuning or a conventionally tuned Fender Strat. He uses Cakewalk software to create the percussion backing tracks, which are then refined by the other band members. This results in a sound that is regularly heard in discos and clubs, but rarely at ceilidhs, backing melodeon, fiddle and bagpipes.
Sarah Holmes
Sarah is a classically trained oboist who plays the wind instruments in the band. During a visit to the annual music festival at St Chartier, Central France, she bought a beautiful set of French bag-pipes and so began playing the Musette with the band. She has recently extended the instrument collection and now also has a Gaita (Spanish bagpipe) and a saxophone as well.
Roland, the mysterious fourth member of Skylarking
Why does Skylarking use a machine as its fourth member?
Rhythm is an integral part of the human experience from birth onwards: from our heartbeats when we’re born to the cycle of day and night, rhythm makes the world work.
Despite this, in most cultures of the Western World, it seems that melody and harmony have always been regarded as the pure, spiritual elements of music, with rhythm and dance being the meaningless or unimportant aspects.
Elsewhere, however, rhythm and movement have always symbolised and strengthened the bonds between people; which is why, in some societies, people affirm their unity by dancing together and in others, dance music is regarded by many as mindless pap.
Based on the rhythms of Africa, Blues was the genesis of the modern musical age, as much for its groove as anything else. From jazz, through Swing and Rock ‘n’ Roll, into pop and contemporary ‘dance’ music, it is the rhythm of the music that makes people tap their feet, clap their hands or get up and dance: not the melody.
English dance music has traditionally had a strong, identifiable melodic bias – to such an extent that, in some bands, all instruments are engaged with the tune. Skylarking believes - very strongly - that you don’t get people dancing with an interesting tune: you need a groove. However, in a small 3-piece band such as ours, having one person playing percussion takes something away from the interplay of melody instruments which is a feature of our style – unless we resort to modern technology.
Booking Enquiry
Please read the booking terms and conditions which we hope you will find helpful. It also contains some information about the venue requirements.
The document is attached here, click on this link to view or download.
