Bully Wee Band
19th January 2023 - 8pm
A classically trained violinist from the age of 7, by the age of 18 Ian was a member of the Irish style folk band Hockett. Around 1972 they were asked to provide the music for the now cult movie 'The Wicker Man'. Ian can be seen in several scenes and even though his scrapings do accompany Brit Ekland's naked gyrations, much to his youthful disappointment he wasn't actually present during the shooting.
He joined the Bully Wee Band in 1975 and appears on all five of their albums.
He is a member of the Kent based band the Hot Rats and once a year tours alongside such notables as Peter Knight (Steeleye Span), Phil Beer (Show Of Hands), Brian McNeill (Battlefield Band) and many others of the country's top fiddle players as The Feast Of Fiddles.
In recent months he has been involved in collaborations with legendary leader of the Strawbs Dave Cousins, and features on his new solo album 'The Boy In The Sailor Suit', due for release in June 2007.
Ian's has appeared on all seven Bully Wee Band albums, his discography apart from that is:
1976 - 'Son of Morris On' with Ashley Hutchings
1983 - 'Face To Face' with Colin Reece
1990 to '03 - Three albums with the Hot Rats
2000 - 'Slaughterhouse' Ian Cutler solo album
2001 to '06 - Four albums with the Feast of Fiddles
2003 - 'Slaughterhouse Live' with the Slaughterhouse Band
2013 - 'Wizard's Walk' with Doug Hudson
Being a teenager during the early sixties, Colin's only ambition was to be involved somehow in music.
In 1963 he met up with brothers Jim and John Yardley, and together they formed a typical guitar based group of the time called the Spectrum. No great waves were made but the group was an excellent vehicle for forging the powerful harmonies which were to become the trade mark of the very early Bully Wee Band.
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From their earliest days Jim and his brother John had made an impression around the Fife area of Scotland with their close harmony singing as the Yardley Brothers with the Bill Owen Dance Band.
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In 1963 the two brothers moved from their home town of Dunfermline to London, where they met up with Colin Reece and formed a typical sixties guitar based band called the Spectrum. No great waves were made but the group was an excellent vehicle for forging the powerful harmonies which were to become the trade mark of the very early Bully Wee Band.
Around 1965 Jim left London to move back to Scotland where he gained a rapid interest in traditional music at the Dunfermline Folk Club with school friend Barbara Dixon.
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In 1969 he returned to London where he once again teamed up with his brother John and Colin Reece to form the Bully Wee Band.
In 1981 Jim left the Bully Wee Band to move to Norway where he has carved a successful career on the Norwegian Folk circuit with bands such as the Folks Next Door, Tara and his current band the Cornerboys with ex-New Celeste Ronnie Gerrard.
Jim has appeared on all seven of the Bully Wee Band albums. His discography apart from that is:
1989 - The Folks Next Door
1991 - Tara
2004 - The Cornerboys Live
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Fergus moved to London from Dundalk, County Louth in Ireland in 1975 and replaced Frank Simon in the Bully Wee Band in 1976.
After the band split in 1983 he spent a few years with the Cajun/rock outfit La Rue, before moving back to his native Ireland to follow a long career with top Irish songstress Dolores Keane.
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In recent years he has been touring as accompanist to singer songwriter Sean Tyrrell. And it was on one of these such tours in 2003 that Ian and Colin dropped in to surprise him at Faversham Folk Club, which finally resulted in the reformation of the Bully Wee Band.
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He appears on five of the band's albums. Silvermines, Madmen of Gotham, 50 Channels - Live, for which he wrote the title track, The Vintage Years and Like The Snow.
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By 1969 Colin, having become fascinated with the Dylan/Donovan/S & G etc folk revival, had teamed up with London based traditional singer Jo Vincent. Jo and her husband Bill taught Colin pretty much everything one needed to know about the early seventies folk club circuit, but in 1971 he split to reunite with Jim and John Yardley and form the Bully Wee Band.
