Baz is too modest to say so himself but of course he's been the caller for one of the archetypal and linch-pin E-Ceilidh bands, All Blacked Up, for more years than he probably cares to remember: and last time I looked Shropshire was definately North and West of greg's Cotswolds to Wash demarcation line. Resolutely North-Western bands like Plain Brown Wrapper and Albireo are also definately e-ceilidh in any but the most One-Hour's-Drive-From-London of definitions.

Les, good luck with the do at the Irish Centre, and this may be too late to organise for this Wednesday, but I'd suggest that you try splitting the numbers down into smaller bands if you really do get anything like 27 musicians.

It sounds like a statment from the Department of the Bleedin Obvious, but one of the most important things about playing any dance is that you're playing for the dancing; and you're going to need a very very strong, sensitive, and universally understood and accepted lead musician to keep that number playing anything like what will really work for dancing to.

Individuals may get less actual playing time in terms of sheer minutes and seconds, but they'll get a much better experience of what playing for dancing actually is all about - and if they're on the floor dancing in between their playing slots they'll get an even better idea of what does and doesn't work for playing for dancing!