BorderBox at the Alnwick International Music Festival, 7 Aug 2008

THE BAND

For seven years, BorderBox, from its base in Alnwick, operated as a band for young musicians from Northumberland and the Borders who like to play traditional music. The basis of the band was the classic combination of fiddle and accordion, although we did include a small number of other instruments such as whistle or Northumbrian pipes (with a concert G chanter). Whenever possible we also included rhythm instruments such as piano, bass and drums.

Over those few years BorderBox won the band competitions at all the local traditional music festivals in Alnwick, Morpeth and Rothbury. We played in concerts all over Northumberland, at the Sage Gateshead and even at the Royal Show in Warwickshire.

Having started in 2001, the summer of 2008 marked the end of the band . With more and more of the older members leaving for college or school elsewhere, this was the right time to close down the band and to look back with satisfaction on seven great years of learning, of playing and of fun. 2008 was also the time when we were able to release our CD, "Up The Berwick Road" which showed a good selection of the band's repertoire.

We hope that people enjoy the music and that it might help to encourage other young people to take up traditional music .

OUR CD

"Up The Berwick Road" QB0801

Our CD is no longer available to buy but you can download all the tracks as listed below.

Under each track you'll see MP3, WAV and PDF.

The PDF links will take you to the "dots", i.e. the score for each tune.
The MP3 and WAV links will take you to the tracks from the CD.
The MP3 links take you to compressed versions of the tracks, i.e. smaller files which will be quicker to download.
The WAV links take you to uncompressed, higher-quality versions of the original recordings.

You can recreate the original CD by downloading this Global Image file (BBX-UTBR.gi - 614MB) which you can then burn to a blank CD using Roxio or other software. You can also download the CD disc artwork and the CD cover notes - 2 pages or CD cover notes - 6 pages.

The Tracks

1: THE DURIES’ VERDICT

The Duries’ Verdict *
The Banjo Breakdown (Trad.)

2: HIGHLAND CATHEDRAL

Highland Cathedral
(M Korb & U Roever)

3: BLOW THE WIND SOUTHERLY

Blow The Wind Southerly (Trad.)
The Twempie Two-step *
The Lads of Lindisfarne *

4: RISTY GULLEY

Risty Gulley (Trad.)
The Lads of Alnwick (Trad.)

5: THE THREE VALLEYS SET

The Stars at Netherton *
Harbottle Crag *
Whittingham Tower *

6: HARVEST HOME

Harvest Home (Trad.)
The Trumpet Hornpipe (Trad.)

7: THE DARK ISLAND

The Dark Island (Iain MacLachlan)
Up The Berwick Road *
The Spittal March *

8: THE KING OF THE FAIRIES

Linhope House *
The King of The Fairies (Trad.)

9: GLENDALE

Glendale *
Seahouses Fret *
The Chantry Scholars *

10: BUTTERED PEAS

Buttered Peas (Trad.)
The Branton Rant *
Belford Lightning *

11: WHITTINGHAM GREEN LANE

Whittingham Green Lane (Trad.)
The Lads of North Tyne (Trad.)
The Old Duchess’s School *
Hexham Races (Trad.)

12: THE ASHOKAN FAREWELL

The Ashokan Farewell (Jay Ungar)
Oliver Smith of Morpeth *

13: THE CLOGGING SET

The Banks of the Tyne (T Murray)
Sally Graham’s Clogs *

14: THE GAY GORDONS SET

Scotland the Brave (Trad.)
Teribus (Trad.)
The Cock of the North (Trad.)

* Except where noted otherwise, all tunes are (Colin Bradford - PRS/MCPS).

What people Say

Alistair Anderson
(Concertina and Northumbrian Smallpipes - Instigator-in-Chief for Folkworks, The Sage Gateshead and the Newcastle University Folk Music degree)

"BorderBox are a very skilled group of young musicians who obviously enjoy making music together."

Joey Oliver
(Whistle and caller - 422 stalwart)

"This is the tradition that the Shepherds (Will Atkinson, Joe Hutton and Willy Taylor ) came from."

David Oliver
(Accordion - Folk Music educator)

"When I was a young and inexperienced piano accordionist in the 1970s, Colin Bradford gave me generous helpings of support, advice, encouragement, opportunity and inspiration. It’s wonderful that he has been doing the same now with so many fine young players from Northumberland, carrying on the proud and beautiful tradition of playing the region’s music on the classic instrumental combination of box and fiddle, and I’m delighted to salute BorderBox’s CD, "Up The Berwick Road".

As befits the ever-evolving tradition, this collection includes both established favourites and some brand new melodies, composed specifically to promote the progressive development of playing skill and a real feel for Northumbrian style. By giving young people both a sound instrumental technique and a firm grounding in the traditional repertoire, BorderBox has laid the foundations for a lifetime’s love of music making by a whole new generation of players. Warmest congratulations to everyone involved in the creation of this splendid album."

Stewart Hardy
(Fiddle - Virtuoso exponent and teacher)

"What a joyful experience it was to listen to this cracking CD. The young performers play not only with the technical accomplishment that has come to be expected from the North East of England, but also with a seemingly effortless understanding of their musical tradition. The material is very well chosen to show the band in the best possible light. From Colin Bradford's beautiful and seemingly tailor-made melodies to the long established favourites, and including new classics absorbed into the tradition from further afield, the music is always arranged with sensitivity and played with a wonderful sense of fun."

REPERTOIRE

Most of the arrangements we play are designed to accommodate a broad range of abilities. The sheet music for the latest versions of the sets and tunes we play can be downloaded from this website as pdf files. Go to tunes.

Companion tunes

To encourage the participation of young players at varying levels of experience and development, the band arrangements have always included the use of second or even third harmony lines. This eventually led to the concept of "companion tunes", i.e. different tunes which can be played either individually or in harmony with each other. Some examples of companion tunes on our CD include "Harbottle Crag" and "Whittingham Tower", "Linhope House" and "The King of The Fairies", "Up The Berwick Road" and "The Spittal March".

PHOTOGRAPHS

BorderBox at the Alnwick Northumbrian Gathering, 11 Nov 2006

SUPPORT

The band is very grateful for financial support from:

The Clore Duffield Foundation
Awards for All

MORE INFO

For more information contact
Colin Bradford
Tel:        01 665 - 606 788
Mob:      07 710 - 305 407
Email:    to minimise spam we have had to remove email addresses from the website.   If you want to email the band, replace "AT" in the following with the @ symbol - csbATnorthumbrian.info.

Thanks to Gemma Telfer for this photograph.