2024 -

December -

Another fantastic evening playing in Kendal Parish Hall for the annual Christmas ceilidh organised by Crook Morris. Unlike last year,
when snow disrupted travel, the Big Band were out in force. Once again, Ben Farmer was our sound engineer.
We always like to start the evening with a song that segues into Deck the Halls as an opening polka. This years song was written
by Les our drummer and caller, and the photo below shows Rose, Les, Fiona, and Hugh singing it, with Claire, Debbie, Steve, and
Mark waiting to join in on the polka. The song being sung in rehearsal can be heard here

October -

We've just been informed that the Christmas ceilidh has now sold out.

July -
The band had a great time playing at the Furness Tradition Festival ceilidh on the Saturday evening. Interspersed with concert spots
from the other performers, including the Newcastle Kingsmen rapper sword side, it's always a great evening.
Thanks to Steve Cleave, the festival photogapher, and to Mark for the following photos.

The band having set up, and awaiting their sound check

The horns awaiting the sound check.

In between the ceilidh dances, there were concert appearances from all the booked performers.

June -

Rehearsals are well underway on new arrangements for the Furness Tradition ceilidh on July 13. As well as playing for the ceilidh,
some of the band will be hosting a music session on the Saturday afternoon. See here for full details

2023 -

December -
With very unfortunate timing, the Christmas ceilidh coincided with the worst snowfall in years, resulting in three of the eight band
members not making it. Les was stuck in Ulverston, whilst Rose and Claire were stuck in Staveley and Bowston. Fortunately
Fiona could make it, so she ended up calling the whole evening, whilst Debbie was the sole representative of the brass section,
so had many soloes. Thanks Fi and Debs.
As well as the band being short in numbers, both Crook Morris and the Revellers were impacted, but both managed to put
on good performances. The reduced number of dancers, whilst not good for door sales, enabled those dancers who could make
it too spread out. All in all, a memorable evening.

Crook Morris said afterwards - Thank you to all who turned out last night for our Christmas Ceilidh in a very snowy Kendal. We
had a slightly quieter event than normal. Unfortunately, numerous people could understandably not make it, including several
members of Tumbling Tom. Despite this, the band still put on an amazing show with reduced numbers and kept everyone
entertained. Well done to Fiona for having to do all the calling at short notice!

Below shows the band minus the three members who were stuck in the snow.

October -
Preparations are well underway for the Christmas ceilidh in December, and the poster is now out. Tickets are selling fast, so if you want to attend please contact Martyn.

July -
The Furness Tradition Festival started in1998, and in 1999 they invited the Tumbling Tom Band to play the Saturday evening ceilidh in Ulverston. Since then we have played there many times, and this year they invited us back to help them celebrate their 25th anniversary. Always a great night, it's unique in having three stages in the Coronation hall, the main one for the band, and two smaller ones for the series of concert spots thru' the evening.

Below shows Les our caller calling the start of a dance. He'll join the band and continue to call where needed, after twice thru the dance. He'll be joined by the brass section to create irresistible dance rhythms.

2022 -

December -

The annual Christmas ceilidh for Crook Morris returned to a refurbished Kendal Parish Hall, the home of the event for many years prior to the Town Hall. Another great evening playing with the Big Band. Thanks as usual to Ben Farmer, our sound man on the night.

Crook Morris said afterwards - The Tumbling Tom Big Band were quickly on fine form with a full dance floor and a hall full of happy smiling faces.
And some comments from people attending -
* Enjoyed the Ceilidh, the venue, the entertainment, the brilliant band
* The band is very good

It was however tinged with sadness, as Fiona and Tony are both retiring from the band after being part of it since 1997. Thanks to both for their playing and company over those years. How can we manage without them: it will be difficult but we'll re-structure somehow.

Our dep bass player Mark Robinson recorded much of the evening for us on video, and these all give a flavour of the night -
- a short compilation
- the opening song and polka to Deck the Halls
- Brilliant Pebbles, played for the dance Twelve Meet
- Kit Whites Square Eight and Swaledale Lasses, for Cornish Six Hand Reel
- Lemonville Jig and Pantheon Cotillon for the Bromyard Square dance
- Boston Tea Party dance to the tunes Roman Wall and Spirit of the Dance
- a dance written by Fiona called Aitch, to the tune Mary's Boy Child

The photo below from Jen Wilson shows the band opening the evening by singing Steve's song Season of the Year, prior to playing Deck the Halls for the opening polka.

As usual, Crook morris were in fine form, showing their impressive age range of members.

And not to be out done, the Revellers showed yet again what a great sound they produce. Their Shepherds Rejoice is excellent.
Here it on FaceBook

October -

After a long summer of visiting festivals, the band drove along to Burneside for their first ceilidh playing in the Bryce Institute:
an excellent venue. We brought out the big band to help Chris Loynes celebrate his 70th birthday: and an excellent night it was
too.
We'll now be working on new material for the annual Christmas ceilidh in Kendal Parish Hall on December 3rd.

2021 -

November -

A week earlier than usual due to town hall booking problems, the final ceilidh of the year was the long anticipated Crook
Morris Christmas ceilidh in Kendal Town Hall. With missing last year due to lockdown, the big band were really keen to
get out there and play. Unfortunately, after much practicing and rehearsing, our tenor sax player Debbie succumbed to
Covid and so had to isolate. Hence the brass section was reduced to Rose on trumpet and Claire on alto sax.
With Covid still around, the decision was taken to reduce the numbers in the hall,which had the benefit of allowing more
room for dancing.

Tumbling Tom were celebrating 40 years of playing - see our early history here - and to mark the occasion the band
started the evening singing a song called Rubydoo written by Les. Also to celebrate their 40 years, Fiona wrote a 40 bar
dance called The Rubicon, and the band played their version of the 40 bar tune Bowzabella.

With two singing spots from the Revellers, and one from Crook Morris, also celebrating 40 years, it was another excellent
evening.

Crook Morris said afterwards - We had a fantastic Christmas ceilidh on Saturday evening celebrating 40 years of Crook Morris as well as 40 years of the brilliant Tumbling Tom Big Band

Below are the band getting the evening underway with Les's song Rubydoo.

October -

The Castle Green Hotel is a venue that we've played in many times, and this time was to help Becky and Ben celebrate their wedding. A very enthusiastic crowd, there were no problems in filling the dance floor.

Some very creative dancing to one of Fiona's dances can be seen here

Afterwards, Becky said - It was absolutely fantastic, you were wonderful. Everyone has been raving to me about how much fun they had dancing! Thank you for such a marvellous evening. Warm regards, Becky.

September -

The band are really looking forward to playing at the Christmas ceilidh, and below is the poster that Martyn has sent out. It's the bands 40th year of playing, so it should be quite a celebration with lots of 40 related tunes, dances, and songs. Get your ticket soon as it could be a sell out with all the pent-up demand.

We made a return visit to Leighton Hall to help Nina and her husband celebrate their wedding anniversary. As Steve couldn't make it, we had our good friend Norman Bell along to deputise. It was great to be playing again after the pandemic interlude, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Thanks Nina.
Nina said afterwards - You guys made the night Hugh! The Ceilidh was the best bit. Lots of our guests said they thoroughly enjoyed the dancing.

The photo on the right shows Nina and her husband lining up in the centre of a set.
Below left is Les the drummer's view of the dancing, and below right Fiona walking a set through a circle dance.

June -

We're now into June, and starting to accept new bookings at last, mainly weddings. We're starting to look forward to the Christmas ceilidh which this year will be slightly earlier than usual on November 27th. Will it go ahead? Will people feel confident enough? Only time will tell.
Music sessions continue in a mixture of Zoom and small get togethers outside, and we're all looking forward to playing socially inside soon.
Hugh played with four other musicians on the Radio 3 breakfast show on July 12. The program came live from Aysgarth Falls in Wensleydale, and featured us playing three local tunes. Bob Ellis also provided background information on the tunes based on his book - There was none of this lazy dancing