Pedigree Chums

Subject: Pedigree Chums
From: GUEST,Graham Dixon
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 05:28 AM

The PEDIGREE CHUMS - Gregson Lane Folk Club -10th November.

The PEDIGREE CHUMS consist of Paul Reade (Husband of Singer/songwriter Kath), Stephanie Emmett, and husband & wife Will & Chris Lingard.

We booked the 'CHUMS' after a storming floor-spot got a very positive audience reaction at one of our singers nights back in 2004. So imagine my concern when they turned up in October - a whole month before they were scheduled to play. I was actually singing when they walked in and I immediately panicked thinking that I'd given them the wrong date. I hadn't, they had just turned up to give our audience a taster (kind of a 'live - in person flyer') of what to expect.

I couldn't make my mind up as to whether this was a good idea or not and I suspected that it would possibly de-value the coming event. I needn't have worried! On the 'Big night' the audience arrived early and in large numbers expecting to be thoroughly entertained and they certainly were.

The 'Chums' have a vast repertoire of songs (+ a couple of tunes) all of which beg the audience to sing along or tap their feet. They adopt a simple but very effective format with half the songs being performed unaccompanied and the rest being performed with the support of Will on guitar and Chris on accordion - with Will or Steph giving us the 'sensible' introductions and Paul making us all chuckle with his amusing descriptions of some of the songs on which he takes the lead* (*good sentence to use in a review of a band thus named).

The older members of the audience were all in agreement that it was like being in some sort of time warp and that we had all been transported back to an era when audiences instinctively joined in on every chorus on every song and the feedback from our younger members (who I initially felt may not appreciate this style) was very positive indeed - it may have taken them a song or three to get into the spirit of things but by the end of the night they were joining in with everything.

As for the songs they sang - too many to list (And I'm sure that the 'Chums' have another couple of hours-worth that they could pull out of the bag if needed) my favourites were:- The Holmfirth Anthem, Shallow Brown, Pleasant & Delightful, Raglan Road, Shennandoah & Salvation Band.

Chris, Will and Paul are from Burnley and Stephanie is from Skipton - the band use Skipton Folk Club as their base - this definitely Yorkshire's Gain & Lancashire's Loss - I hope that we see a lot more of them over here in the Red Rose county.Check out their website http://www.pedigreechums.co.uk

The evening was hosted by our very own John Poulton who despite being 'High as A Kite on Strepsils & Vocal Zones managed to keep his voice long enough to do two short but amazingly entertaining spots.

Graham Dixon