The Family Band

Barn Dance & Ceilidh Band

Contents

Who are The Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh Band?

Contact Information - e-mail and telephone numbers

Information Page - The Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh Band and it's members

Photographs & Video - see The Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh Band

Music – MP3 all recorded live

Map - to be added , the band usually travel about an hours drive of Chester

Barn Dance, Ceilidh, what are they?

Is a barn dance or ceilidh suitable for a wedding, anniversary or other special occasion?

References

Useful Links – organising ceilidhs & wedding assistance

Who are we?

The Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh band is a barn dance band in the Chester, North Wales, Cheshire, Wirral and Merseyside area. We play for barn dances and ceilidhs for all occasions including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and parties, and don’t mind being in any hall, barn, marquee or even outside. The Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh band is an "all night" band, providing complete entertainment for your evening, you get the band and a caller. We are quite happy to play with discos if you are having one. We are a very flexible barn dance and ceilidh band.

Back to top

Contact Information

e-mail familyband@ceilidhchester.co.uk and book the band

Main web address http://www.familyband.co.uk/

Telephone numbers 01244 348473 or 07803741391 mobile

Back to top

Biographical Information

Information Page

Back to top

Barn Dance and Ceilidh explained

Barn dance and ceilidh are used to mean the same thing these days but have in years gone by been a little different. The origin of the barn dance was in England, being traditional dances that men, women and children did at parties and local special occasions. When the Pilgrim Fathers left for America they took many of these dances with them. Over years these dances changed their form a little, and became American square dances and barn dances. Back in England many of these dances had died out and were re-introduced from America.

A barn dance is like a schottische (a Scottish polka) and ceilidh is a word borrowed from the Gaelic, meaning a Scottish dance. Ceilidh was used by the English folk revivalists of the 1960's to describe the "new" folk dance evenings. This has become and interchangeable term with that of barn dance.

Back to top

Barn dances & ceilidhs are suitable for a weddings, anniversaries and other special occasions.

Barn dances and ceilidhs are very social occasions, intended for men, women and children to take part. You don't have to worry that you have no previous experience of this type of dancing, or even that you may not get it right (we don't), we have a caller who will walk and talk you through the dance before you do it to music, and will guide you while you try the dance. Barn dances and ceilidh dances are fun and should not be taken too seriously, just enjoy yourselves. The band will play quite a lot of traditional English, American, Scottish and Irish tunes for the dances (but with an up-tempo feel). There are many types of barn dances from very simple (we usually start with these) to progressive more complicated, which we move onto when you have tried a few dances.

You only have to book Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh Band and we will do the rest. We supply the music, the caller and the public address system. All we need is an area for the band and a suitable 240ac power point.

If you would like some advice on organising a barn dance or ceilidh then please contact us, we will be happy to assist.

Back to top

The Family Band Barn Dance and Ceilidh Band familiyband@ceilidhchester.co.uk

Back to top

Photographs

To be added St Patricks 2001 A hoedown 2008 St Patricks – Oddfellows Chester 2009

Back to top

Video’s

Click on the icon to view, downloading will be very fast if you have broad band but may take about 5 minutes for dial up connections. The files should load from Netscape and Internet Explorer, try both if there are any problems.

Burns Royden Park Royden Park In a real barn

Night 2002 Wirral 2004 Wirral 2004 Daresbury 2006

Files optimised for broadband, they are large files with good quality video which can be viewed full screen.

You will need to use the latest Windows Media Player download the latest version for best results.

Back to top

Music in Mp3 format (CD quality), for broad band users this is very quick, but it may take 3 to 4 minutes to download for dial up users.

If you want to download and listen to the tracks later, right click the mouse and choose “save target as” and save to a location you remember.

All tracks recorded live during 2003 - copyright The FamilyBand and MFR studios

Gay Gordons (with caller)

Waves of Tory (Dingles Regatta) with caller

Winster Gallop

Yankie Doodle (tune of the same name +Bobby Shaftoe & Young Collins) with caller

Strip the Willow (Athol Highlanders) with caller

An end of the evening waltz (Mandy Linn)

Balydon Races (tune of the same name with variations) with caller

Road to the Aisle – a good one for weddings with a story with caller, interesting instructions for the ladies!!

Listen carefully to the end of the tune, would Mendelssohn have approved?

A nice tune and good dance with guest caller Reg Battle

Back to top

Useful Links

Ceilidhs and Barn Dances at weddings

How to organise a ceilidh or barn dance

Back to top

e-mail familyband@ceilidhchester.co.uk for more information