Tumbling Tom - Ceilidh Band

2019 - December - The final ceilidh of the year, and the one that we all look forward to playing at, was the annual Crook Morris Christmas ceilidh in Kendal Town Hall, where the Tumbling Tom Big Band was up to full strength. Our 11th visit, the ceilidh just goes from strength to strength. Apart from some new dances written by Fiona and Les, the new traditional dances introduced this year included a Playford dance from the C17 'Upon a summers day' played and danced in a 'zesty' style, and the trance like Breton dance 'Gavotte de l'Aven'. Some excellent singing from the Revellers, who just seem to go on improving, and some energetic dancing from Crook Morris rounded off a great night.



November - The first of three ceilidhs this month saw the band travel over to Barrow for the birthday party of George (ina). Some story telling by Ian Douglas, and performances by a local Samba Band and others made for a great evening. Happy birthday George.
	George and Gary in a left hand star Below: the Samba Band


The Kendal Mountain Festival is the largest of its kind in the UK, and the band were pleased to be asked to play again this year following our succesful playing last year. A sell out event from 10 - midnight, it was another great ceilidh with the dance floor filled all night with enthusiastic dancers. After the ceilidh, Zoe Wilkinson, the Community and Guest Manager said - As always the Ceilidh went down a storm. Please book us in for next year: the date will be Sat 21st Nov. See you next year!
	Fiona on keyboards, Dan our caller for the evening, Hugh on melodeon, our dep drummer John, with Steve and Tony off to the right.
John on drums, Steve on rhythm and lead guitar, and Tony on bass.

Below is a photo taken at last years festival, and used to promote this years event.


The final ceilidh of the busy month was to help Denise and Ian celebrate their joint 60th birthdays and 40th wedding anniversary. The Town Hall is a lovely venue, and Denise and Ian created a wonderful atmoshere which everyone seemed to enjoy. Happy birthdays and anniversaries Denise and Ian. After the event, Denise said - Thanks for a brilliant performance! I was really happy that so many got up and danced because it will have been very unfamiliar territory for many. Great calling and great musicianship. Below shows the ceilidh in full swing.


October - A new venue for the band was Ulverston Parish Church, where we played for the joint 60th birthdays of Sue, Carolyn, and Kirsten. The converted aisle in the church made for a lovely dancable space. Happy birthday to you all.
Dancing Double Gloucester
	The three birthday girls with their cake.

September - The band are now starting to plan for the annual Christmas ceilidh, held in Kendal Town Hall. The Big Band have a new opening song planned, plus new tunes and dances. Its always a great evening and usually sold out, so make sure you contact Martyn to buy your tickets.
August - With the festival season well underway, band members visited many festivals including WOMAD, Sidmouth, Whitby, and Shrewsbury, but we still managed to squeeze in a ceilidh for Bill and Elaine Thomson's golden wedding anniversary. It was held in the Shakespeare Centre in Kendal, a new venue for us with a tight entrance through the archway. It was a lovely evening, and interesting to talk with Bill and Elaine about when we played for their silver wedding anniversary in the Brewery Arts Centre 25 years ago. Also special for the evening was to be reunited with Dave Rochell, our original caller all those years ago - see Blog/Early Days.
The band playing their opening tune set
	Our caller Dave Rochell strutting his stuff
Looks like the Gay Gordon's dance
July - Les, our drummer and one of our two callers, is a committee member of Furness Tradition who promote folk arts in the community. Each July they hold a weekend festival, and once again the big band were asked to play the Saturday evening ceilidh. For this event we were a six piece band, with Fiona and Debbie elsewhere. Some great dancing and lots of positive comments about the band made for an excellent evening. Thanks to Furness Tradition for booking us again, and to Pete Ord for the excellent sound mixing.



February - It's great that the band has built up a loyal band of supporters over the years. Stephen Coleman is one such as he's been to countless of our gigs, and so it was lovely that he asked us to play for his special birthday celebrations in St Thomas' church in Kendal. He really likes our brass section and asked for it specifically, so it was another outing for the Tumbling Tom Big Band. The band have played there a few times, and its a great venue, with a decent size stage and lots of room for dancing. Fiona had other engagements and so couldn't make it, so Les called and Iain drummed. Thanks to Stephen for a lovely evening, with great food and dancing. Happy birthday!
	Stephen making his speech of thanks
All ready to start!
	Dancing the Circle Schottische
The view from the balcony
January - Poynton is a fair drive from our home base in South Lakes, but the ceilidhs are such a delight to play for that we looked forward to our third visit to their series of monthly dances. The great crowd of near capacity were on the floor the whole time. Starting with our version of Jon Harvisons song 'Turning of the Year', the evening was non-stop dancing. Thanks to Steve and his team. Steve said afterwards - Thanks for playing at Poynton again. I thought it was a really good night. I had to leave soon after the interval, but reports are that it continued being a really good night!
	The band, with Les hidden.
Dancing 'The Witches Reel'.

Band Blog - 2019

Tumbling Tom Band 'the ceilidh roots dance band for people out there'