'For the good folk of Prestwood and beyond'
Originally formed in 1995 to play for the famous Lighthouse end of week barn dance, The Wick Trimmers play a variety of music for both listening and dancing. Mixing traditional Irish, English and
Scots music with our own self penned pieces, and foot stomping jigs and reels with evocative slower airs.
The band consists of Gerard Hallows on accordions, mandolin, banjo and mouth organ and Colin Veysey on guitar and mandolin; John Stevens on bass and Philippa Wallin on flute and whistles. We do miss Pauline Hallows who passed in
2023, both as a great friend
and our bodhran player. We are
always very pleased to welcome Peter and Linda Cross on mandolin and ukulele who often play with us at Chequers Folk.
After changes to the Chequers Inn in Prestwood the folk club moved for a short time to the Polecat Inn in Prestwood - a lovely but (shall we say) intimate venue and quickly outgrew it. However, during that time a piece was written to celebrate the Polecat (the only pub in Britain with that name!). The Polecat Polka - later, after moving to the beautiful Cherry Tree Barn in Great Kingshill, we were asked to record the piece for previous owners of the Polecat - and here is the result!.
One recent outing was to play at the home of Lloyd's Wines - Upper Warren Farm, Hampden Road near Prestwood. We had the use of a beautiful, huge barn and shared the music with David Bekaert and Peter Lennon. There was an optional wine tasting and the event raised money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Here is a taster of the event. Thanks to Karen who did the filming!
Here's a little taster of the kind of humour (?) and music we write and play
(recorded on Zoom during lockdown April 2020)
Back from not playing together for 4 months, The Wick Trimmers gathered for the first time in a windy back garden on Sunday 5 July to do some socially-distanced playing. Here are a couple of first takes... of Hot Asphalt - one of the band's favourite pieces and of Loch Leven and The Maze (written by Philippa).
Here's a piece - Lockdown Lilt, written by Colin to express some of the emotions of going through the time of lockdown. Thanks to Peter and Linda Cross (mandolin, uke and video edit).
Philippa has arranged and recorded a beautiful tune called Splendid Isolation written by Irish fiddler, Brendon McGlinchey (1941-2020). Going into lockdown this seemed an aptly named tune.