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About

Skylarking is a 3-piece band based in central Suffolk; they are best known for their exciting blend of traditional music from Britain, France, Spain and Italy.

The band plays an unusual line-up of instruments. Those who expect to hear traditional dance played on fiddle and squeeze-box may be surprised to also hear bagpipes from France and Spain. All of these are backed by rhythm tracks created using computer software.

The resulting sound could loosely be called ‘Euro-folk’, an unusual, but increasingly popular, element of the music scene. The evening's dancing, however, is well within the capabilities of anyone who simply wants to have a good time with friends and strangers alike, because the dances are firmly rooted in the English tradition. Ceilidhs (the British equivalent of American Barn Dances') are a complete evening of lively entertainment, blending simple dances with infectious music.

Whether it is a village or PTA fund-raiser, a birthday party or a Wedding reception, you can be sure that you are booking one of East Anglia’s most exciting dance bands with its own inimitable style and a unique repertoire of tunes and dances when you book

Skylarking.

To hear a sample of their music click on a sample track below.

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European Folk and Dance Music

I have always felt proud of England’s heritage of music and dance, and I’m very pleased to be part of its continued exposure and development. So much so that I recently began to wonder whether I was betraying my ‘roots’ by not sticking to a consistently English repertoire when I play in Skylarking.

Having spent many years playing English tunes, I felt that I wanted to broaden my horizons – but not by listening to music so foreign to my ear that it made no sense or simply wasn’t enjoyable. Led by members of the bands, past and present, in which I have played, I came to appreciate folk music from further afield – most often France, Spain and Italy: it is different enough to make it exciting to play, familiar enough to make it comprehensible and comfortable to work with.

That is why, when listening to Skylarking performing, someone with a knowledge of English folk music might think ‘They’re playing a jig’ when, in fact we’re playing a Spanish muiniera, or it might be an Italian tarantella; they all share the same rhythm. ‘Is that an English reel?’ No, it’s more likely to be a French bourree or a Spanish Paso Doble. ‘This one’s in 3-time. A waltz?’ Sorry, no. It’s a jota from Spain! And so on.

So our music is familiar enough to the ear that it works as either a listening or a dancing experience, yet it is made up of elements that will be unfamiliar to most people in our (English) audiences and at our dances. I hope that you’ll enjoy the experience of dancing to Skylarking’s unusual, probably unique, Euro-folk repertoire.

And I still love English traditional music.

Steve Wiles

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 was a founder member of Suffolk band RSVP, and played in that band from the late ‘80s until 2010; he has been calling for ceilidhs for even longer, with that band and also others from the Essex/Suffolk border area. In this time, he has developed a repertoire of dances suitable for all ages and all levels of expertise, and is also able to include French dances if the occasion demands them.

His main instrumental contribution is on the melodeon, which he first picked up to provide dance music for Colchester Morris and children’s morris and clog sides. Having been a bass player prior to learning melodeon has influenced his box-playing style; his belief is that if a squeeze-box has buttons on both sides, you should use them all equally. His playing style acts like a rhythm guitar, sitting between the melody instruments and the comouter-generated bass/drums. Having used Hohners and Salterelles, he currently plays a 3-row Castagnari Mory, uniquely tuned to allow an even, flowing playing style.

For some Spanish tunes, Steve sometimes plays a Recording King acoustic guitar in Double Dropped D tuning; he has also occasionally played an Oakwood 10-string electric cittern.

His final contribution is the programming of percussion backing tracks used in live performances; all 3 band members are involved in the refining of these important elements of the band’s unique sound. He uses Cakewalk software to create the ‘kick-drum-and-hi-hat’ sound that is regularly heard in discos and clubs, but rarely backing 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

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 less important 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 while 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.

Using computer programs and sampling hardware, we have created our own rhythm section by selecting and combining elements that we feel enhance the melodies played by the 3 instrumentalists. These are recorded onto a Roland R-05 WAV/mp3 recorder.

As much thought goes into the backing tracks as to any other element of our arrangements; we hope these rhythms encourage you to get up, dance and have fun, while we enjoy playing the tunes, assisted and driven by the rhythm that Roland provides.

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