A feast of folk at The Apex

There’s a great line up of folk acts at The Apex, in Bury St Edmunds, next week.

First up is the Gigspanner Big Band (pictured above).

It began life as the Gigspanner trio, with legendary Steeleye Span fiddle player Peter Knight, percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack.

The line-up has since been expanded to form the Gigspanner Big Band, with BBC Folk Awards “Best Duo”, Edgelarks and Bellowhead co-founder and melodeon player John Spiers.

Peter Knight, as part of Steeleye Span’s classic 1970s line-up, helped invent a brand of folk rock that is still influential today, and with Bellowhead, John Spiers has had an equally profound impact on the landscape of traditional music over the last two decades.

This coming together of several big names on the folk-roots scene is characterised by gifted individual playing and collaborative inventiveness, with self-penned material alongside traditional tunes.

Their high-energy, virtuosic performances appeal equally to traditionalists and to those looking for something more experimental.

They are followed by Feast of Fiddles who are a celebrated collective that combines the talents of some of Britain’s top players.

Fiddlers Garry Blakeley (from Band of Two), Ian Cutler (Bully Wee), Marion Fleetwood (Trad Arr, Sandy Denny Project), Tom Leary (Joe Brown), Brian McNeill (Battlefield Band) and Simon Swarbrick (Merry Hell), each bring their own individual style, and together visit many musical genres in a flourish of fretwork

Added to the large range of fiddle playing styles is the rock back-line held together by drummer Dave Mattacks, who has played with Fairport, Steeleye and Richard Thompson as well as the likes of Paul McCartney, Elton John and Chris Rea.

Gigspanner Big Band is at The Apex on Tuesday, April 15, at 7.30pm and Feast of Fiddles on Thursday, April 17, at 7.30pm.

See www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000 for more information, or to book tickets.