Category Archives: Will Duke

Upcoming visiting guests at the Unicorn session, Marden

The free tune and song evenings at The Unicorn, Marden start at 8pm on the last Sunday of the month and are open to everyone: just pull up a seat and listen or bring a song, a tune, a story, or a dance.

We say the agenda is ‘trad, old fashioned and entertaining’.

We always have visiting friends to bring something a little different to the entertainment, so here’s our schedule for winter and spring:

29th January: Pip Ives Tunes and songs from a widely admired melodeon and anglo concertina player. (You may also recognise him from his day job at Hobgoblin in Canterbury.)
26th February: Will Duke Will is a fabulous anglo concertina player and singer with an interesting repertoire drawn mainly from Sussex. He’s also an entertaining performer possessed of an excellent dry wit, so expect to be amused into the bargain…
26th March: Mike Hebbert Mike’s a Jeffries duet concertina maestro with a cheeky grin and an old fashioned and entertaining repertoire you might not expect — but which may remind you of the BBC Light Programme.
30th April: Ruairidh Greig It’s great to have Ruairidh back again — he’s a proper scholar of the songs of his home county of Lincolnshire, some collected by Ruairidh himself. Expect to hear material we don’t often come across in the South East of England.

Will Duke at the Frittenden session, 27th April

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Will Duke CD cover drawn by melodeon genius and Norfolk master cartoonist Tony Hall

Mighty singer and anglo concertinist Will Duke is our guest at the next Frittenden session at the Bell & Jorrocks pub on the 27th April from 8pm. (It’s also our last session night for the season – so don’t come along expecting something similar on the last Sunday in May!)

It will be a night not to miss. Here’s what Rod Stradling has said about Will’s performing:

‘Will is a superlative anglo concertina player, with an unusual repertoire drawn manily from the musicians of his home county of Sussex – and particularly from the playing of Scan Tester.

‘If Will’s consumate concertina playing isn’t enough for you… I think he’s one of the most accomplished of English revival singers, and possessed of a unique (or certainly, individual) style. He’s a quiet man with a lovely dry sense of humour’

These cracking sessions take place on the last Sunday (usually) in the month from September to April, from 8pm at the Bell & Jorrocks (TN17 2EJ).

What you get is an entertaining old fashioned and traditional pub evening with songs and tunes, and plenty of variety and good humour. If you’ve got a song, a tune, a stepdance or story, enjoy joining in with a chorus or just like listening in the bar, please come along. We go on until it’s time to close with Nellie Dean the old way – just as people used to before the telly and the computer.