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TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE! |
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Send us your review:
Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Venue: The Bridge
Music: English folk
Location: Ripponden, West Yorkshire
Tel: 01422 822 595
Reviewer: Trevor Hyett
Pub sessions for me are where it's at - a genuine social music.
 As well as being the ultimate musical challenge there is a kind of musical democracy about it. You'll soon know whether the pub regulars like the way you strut your stuff in their local.
In a small part of West Yorkshire, centred around the village of Ripponden, much good music has been made for nearly 30 years. It's not unique in that, but what is distinctive is the quality and calibre of the music and the musicians.
These days they gather every Monday evening at 'The Bridge' - a 14th century classic - in the centre of the village and the players include major league folk 'acts' like Pete Coe (singer, melodeon, banjo, percussion) freshly returned from a tour of the US and New Zealand; like Chris Coe (singer, hammer dulcimer) who has just completed a 6-month stint with the National Theatre; like John Adams (fiddle), an academic at Salford University and founder, with fellow fiddler Chris Partington, (another session player) of the Village Music project - dedicated to the greater awareness of English music.
And that's what distinguishes these sessions: their dedication to specifically English music. That's what they play. Mostly traditional, but also new songs in traditional style.
In addition, there are more squeezeboxes, mouth organs and step dancing. Pete's wife Sue turns up with a metre-square board, and step dances…tap to trad, as it were. One of her young protégés, Alice, also treads the boards, often in a dramatic dance duet.
For me, the energy and enthusiasm of these players, plus their keenness to involve all musicians, makes this a fine evening out. Anyone and everyone is actively encouraged to join in (I even sang an Everly Brothers song, others will play Irish tunes, whatever. No exclusivity here).
The beer's good too….another strong, heady Yorkshire brew: Timothy Taylor's Landlord bitter. Can't go wrong.
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