Denis Steve  Al

Al Harris has been involved in folk music from the early 70's, playing bass with bands such as Widdershins, the Excelsior Band with John Tams, and Umps and Dumps with John Kirkpatrick. He was also part of Six Hands in Tempo, a guitar and vocal trio, with Steve Bailey and Dave Proctor and then Five Go Off In a Caravan and, most recently, Jigabit. He has played festivals and recorded with most of the above bands and anyone else who would have him. The most recent outing has been back to playing bass in traditional jazz, something he was persuaded into by Steve too many years ago to remember.....................more details to follow

Steve Bailey My 1st public performance that I recall was in a very large hall in Halifax (Victoria Hall) at the age of six in the finals of the local 'Eisteddfod' singing a little song 'Fisherman, Fisherman, if I may ask it, what have you got stored away in your basket'....   As a child, we used to have lots of family sing-songs around the piano with my mother, father and father's relatives, bashing through everything from Victoriana style Scottish folk songs through light opera to Jazz and Swing, accompanied sometimes by violin, clarinet and even bagpipes   I started playing guitar at the age of 11 upon discovering that lots of pop songs could be played with A, D and E chords only. (this was after several earlier attempts with Bert Weedon's 'Play in a Day')   After going through the Everly Bros' & Buddy Holly repertoire (etc.) with my elder brother Martin, we discovered 'Folk' of the Bob Dylan and P, P & M variety; I was always given the top harmony! Shortly, I started playing along with my Dad who played almost anything on the piano as long as it was in Bb; this certainly helped me develop my chord skills! At 13 I helped form a pop group which we called The Dominoes, playing Pop, Soul and Rock & Roll in youth clubs, church halls, rugby clubs and working men's clubs around West Yorkshire. This carried on (with enforced gaps for studying) until leaving for Nottingham at 18   ..............to be continued!

Denis Sabey Born in Howarth and grew up there and in Queensbury, near Bradford. Got into folk music by accident in the late 50's when he bumped into a crowd from the Topic Folk Club, returning from a weekend's camping in Kettlewell. The crowd included Alan Emmett of the Heritage Singers and Jacqui Richmond who had been at school with Val MacCase, Denis' girlfriend at the time. Denis was  a committee member, then secretary, resident singer and MC at the Topic through the 60's when he also started the Bradshaw Tavern Folk Club in 1967 with Alasdair  Cameron. Other regulars at the club included Christy Moore (who moved to live locally), Other regulars at Bradshaw included Jim Boyes (who 1st sang with Denis as a duo, and then as a trio with Frank Toward), Roger Sutcliffe and Dave & Heather Brady (with whom Denis had just started rehearsals for an a cappella group when he got a job in Sheffield and so left the area) Jim then joined Dave & Heather, and so Swan Arcade was born and the rest is history. Another young singer at Bradshaw and the Topic was Steve Bailey who sang with his brother, Martin, and was still at school at the time... to be continued..