Fantastic fiddlers thrill a near full house at The Apex

REVIEW

Feast of Fiddles, The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, Monday, April 1

Fabulous, fantastic fiddlers thrilled their followers with a flambouyant and flourishing set of tunes as part of their Silver Jubilee Tour.

It was a feast of toe-tapping music from 11 wonderful musicians which had a near sell out crowd lapping up the band’s full genre of arrangements.

From “Pretty Nancy From Yarmouth” to “Bring The Lassie Home” and from the “Magnificent Several” (a nod to some classics film music) to Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is was a thrilling two-hour plus show with a host of ballads, reels and jigs rolled into the session.

There were many highlights as the six violists all had their time in the spotlight.

Peter Knight, Chris Leslie, Brian McNeill, Ian Cutler, Tom Leary and Garry Blakeley added their unique styles with Peter’s rendition of his composition “E Flat English” totally mesmerising the audience.

Fronted by Hugh Crabtree on accordian the band displayed a superb range of fiddle playing styles to the rock back-line of guitars, keyboards, sax and accordion – all held together by legendary drummer Dave Mattacks.

Born in the Oxfordshire village of Nettlebed on Valentine’s Day 1994 as a one-off special concert, Feast of Fiddles has done 25 Spring tours, 24 festivals and has seven CDs to its name.

And they contributed to a wonderful evening of entertainment from their catalogue of songs.