Biography
Drawing from a broad spectrum of Celtic traditions, the British ensemble the House Band anchors its music in folk roots while pulling material from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Bulgaria, and even Africa. Along with a wealth of traditional folk songs and instrumentals, the group has also taken on pieces by modern songwriters that stretch from Archie Fisher and Richard Thompson to Elvis Costello and jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand).
The quartet that launched the House Band consisted of Ged Foley on vocals, guitar, and Northumbrian pipes, Chris Parkinson handling accordion, harmonica, melodeon, and keyboards, Iain MacLeod on ten-string mandolin, guitar, and vocals, plus Jimmy Young on smallpipes, flute, and whistle. The original lineup stayed intact for slightly more than a year and cut the self-titled debut album.
Foley, who grew up in County Durham, England, had already worked the British folk scene before entering the Battlefield Band in the early 1980s. Grandson of a piano player, he received his first guitar at age 14 or 15; after witnessing a performance on Northumbrian pipes—the bellows-blown, scaled-down counterpart to the Highland pipes—he obtained an instrument and learned it on his own.
Parkinson, born in Yorkshire, England, started on harmonica at three or four and later gave lessons on the instrument. As a teenager he acquired his first melodeon; at 21 a sister’s interest in folk dancing introduced him to the music. In 1976 he bought a piano accordion and developed a self-taught French Canadian or French-inflected approach he called Lancashire Cajun. An active session musician in the early 1980s, he also belonged to the tradition-rooted band Yorkshire Relish.
MacLeod and Young departed in 1986, after which John Skelton on flute, bombarde, whistle, and bodhran and vocalist Brian Brooks came aboard following the breakup of their London-based group Shegui (she-gwee). Skelton, raised in Somerset, England, played tin whistle for dances as a child; while studying near London he rediscovered Irish music and began making annual summer trips to Ireland. He took up the flute after hearing Mikey Cronin of Bally Desmond, County Kerry. As a member of Shegui he honed his craft through six-night-a-week pub performances plus Sunday mornings, and in 1973 he acquired a bombarde by trading Irish-music lessons for instruction on the instrument.
After Brooks exited two years later, the House Band carried on briefly as a trio. Guitarist, fiddler, and vocalist Roger Wilson joined shortly before the recording of the band’s seventh album, Rockall, in 1996.
Material from the House Band’s first two albums, The House Band and Pacific, appeared in the United States in 1993 under the title Groundwork. ~ Craig Harris
The quartet that launched the House Band consisted of Ged Foley on vocals, guitar, and Northumbrian pipes, Chris Parkinson handling accordion, harmonica, melodeon, and keyboards, Iain MacLeod on ten-string mandolin, guitar, and vocals, plus Jimmy Young on smallpipes, flute, and whistle. The original lineup stayed intact for slightly more than a year and cut the self-titled debut album.
Foley, who grew up in County Durham, England, had already worked the British folk scene before entering the Battlefield Band in the early 1980s. Grandson of a piano player, he received his first guitar at age 14 or 15; after witnessing a performance on Northumbrian pipes—the bellows-blown, scaled-down counterpart to the Highland pipes—he obtained an instrument and learned it on his own.
Parkinson, born in Yorkshire, England, started on harmonica at three or four and later gave lessons on the instrument. As a teenager he acquired his first melodeon; at 21 a sister’s interest in folk dancing introduced him to the music. In 1976 he bought a piano accordion and developed a self-taught French Canadian or French-inflected approach he called Lancashire Cajun. An active session musician in the early 1980s, he also belonged to the tradition-rooted band Yorkshire Relish.
MacLeod and Young departed in 1986, after which John Skelton on flute, bombarde, whistle, and bodhran and vocalist Brian Brooks came aboard following the breakup of their London-based group Shegui (she-gwee). Skelton, raised in Somerset, England, played tin whistle for dances as a child; while studying near London he rediscovered Irish music and began making annual summer trips to Ireland. He took up the flute after hearing Mikey Cronin of Bally Desmond, County Kerry. As a member of Shegui he honed his craft through six-night-a-week pub performances plus Sunday mornings, and in 1973 he acquired a bombarde by trading Irish-music lessons for instruction on the instrument.
After Brooks exited two years later, the House Band carried on briefly as a trio. Guitarist, fiddler, and vocalist Roger Wilson joined shortly before the recording of the band’s seventh album, Rockall, in 1996.
Material from the House Band’s first two albums, The House Band and Pacific, appeared in the United States in 1993 under the title Groundwork. ~ Craig Harris
Albums
