Bob Fox & Stu Luckley 

will re-form for a very special 
tour in October 2008 to 
celebrate the  30th Anniversary
of the release  of their highly
innovative and  widely
acclaimed album:

"Nowt So Good'll Pass"

Bob and Stu have re-recorded both
"Nowt So Good'll Pass" and their second LP
"Wish We Never Had Parted"
for a unique "collector's item" boxed set
for sale on the tour........

 Click here for gig details.
 

PURCHASE BOB'S CD 
"THE BLAST"NOW...

"At last, the record we've been waiting 
for from Bob, it's the sound we hear in live performance, that astonishing guitar 
technique coupled with one of England's 
finest voices."
                                                Ralph McTell
 

Track List

One Miner's Life 
Still Growing 
All In A Day 
Taking On Men 
Trooper Cut Down 
Broomfield Wager 
Recruited Collier 
Diamond/Song Of The Whale 
Golden Vanity 
Only Remembered 

Voices:    BOB FOX
Guitar:     BOB FOX

Produced and recorded by JOHN TAMS

To purchase by cheque:
click here for printable 
mail order form

or to use your credit card: 

"Borrowed Moments"
is Bob's first album with TOPIC RECORDS and represents yet another major step in the long 
and illustrious career of one of Britain's most accomplished and well loved folk singers.

TRACK LIST

1    VIRGINNIA 
2    MY LOVE IS IN AMERICA 
3    THE WHITBY TAILOR 
4    LIFE IS NOT KIND TO THE DRINKING MAN 
5    DANCE TO YOUR DADDY 
6    SHOALS OF HERRING 
7    SHE WAITS AND WEEPS 
8    PEPPERS AND TOMATOES 
9    CHILD OF M INE 
10  THE LAST OF THE WIDOWS 
11  BONNY AT MORN 

 BOB FOX main vocal, 
                                    backing vocals,
                                    Fylde Falstaff guitar,
                                    Fylde bouzouki,
                                    Kurtz Weill piano.
 with

 annA rydeR                backing vocals,
                                      piano accordion,
                                      muted trumpet.
 Norman Holmes        whistles &flutes.
 Chuck Fleming           viola.
 Neil Harland              double bass.

To purchase by cheque:
click here for printable 
mail order form

or  to use your credit card:

Clickto purchase/view 
                     previous recordings by Bob Fox
" 
 
 
 

Colin Randall reviews the
Cambridge Folk Festival 2003:

Much of the extraordinary success of the Cambridge Folk Festival over the past
39 years is based on its attachment to the 
most liberal outlook on what can be passed 
off as folk music. 

Appearances in recent years by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, Joe Strummer and 
Chumbawamba, and at the weekend by 
the Saw Doctors, may enrage the purists. 
But the variety appeals hugely to thousands 
of festival-goers, who sit poised each May 
to fire off their ticket applications before the 
Sold Out notices go up.

Few will easily forget the energy and 
excitement of two of this year's triumphs:

Eliza Carthy juggling fiddle and vocals to 
glorious effect, and Quebec's 
La Bottine Souriante racing through a 
muscular, brassy set that owed no less to jazz, rock and salsa than to the dance tunes of the Old World settlers. The Canadians also caused the liveliest  debate of the weekend, sharply dividing  onlookers on whether Sandy Silva's percussive dance gyrations presented a new, even more electrifying element or a slightly tacky distraction. 
The route to approval, I felt, involved looking beyond the frequent costume changes and 
flailing limbs to see what she was doing with her feet.
In their disparate ways, Silva and Carthy 
helped to illustrate the growing female 
dominance of these events. Women have 
always seemed to have the edge as singers, 
if only because men were allowed to get away 
with mediocre-to-rotten voices provided they 
were brilliant musicians or raconteurs.
But folk is now awash with accomplished 
female fiddlers, squeezebox players and 
rounded entertainers.
Throughout the festival site women were 
making the running. The Waifs, sassy 
Australians fronted by the Simpson sisters, 
Vikki and Donna, were instant crowd-pleasers, while Danu capped a rousing traditional Irish 
romp with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh's searing 
delivery of Richard Thompson's Farewell,Farewell. 
Even the instrumental mastery of John McCusker and Phil Cunningham was briefly overshadowed by McCusker's wife, Kate Rusby. 
Once a TV soap extra, Rusby was handed a walk-on part and stunned a tentful of people 
with a solitary ballad, The Bold Privateer.
From the bittersweet tale of two comebacks 
came Cambridge's other talking point. 
Rosanne Cash celebrated a strong recovery
from the temporary loss of her voice after childbirth, while poor Linda Thompson was 
forced to withdraw altogether by a recurrence 
of a different medical condition that previously silenced her for almost 20 years.

And to which thrusting young upstart 
did we turn for some male response to 
this female ascendancy? 

To the bulky form of Bob Fox, a grizzled

north-easterner with a wonderful, rich voice
and the stamina not only to work his socks 
off with the Hush, solo and at a harmony
workshop - but to spend most of his off-stage moments drooling over his new

grand-daughter,  Ellie Rose Fox.
 
 
 
 

       
           Stu Luckley                                    Bob Fox
 

Two of the 2006 Radio Ballads win
prestigious SONY MUSIC AWARDS.

"The Song of Steel" and "Thirty Years of Conflict" won Gold and Bronze awards at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2007.
Congratulations to all involved in the productions especially John Tams and John Leonard.
Bob was involved in the project singing many songs on five of the new ballads.

Bob Fox performs at Celtic Connections 2007

I was delighted to be asked to sing and
play in a live performance of the New 
Radio Ballads at Glasgow's Celtic 
Connections Festival on Monday 22nd January.

The New Radio Ballads were first broadcast 
on BBC Radio 2 last year. In Glasgow, selected 
highlights from the shows were performed on 
stage by the musicians and singers involved in 
the original recordings.
The instrumentalists included myself(guitar), 
John McCusker(fiddle,whistle,cittern), 
Andy Cutting(accordion),
Andy Seward(double bass), 
Barry Coope(piano,percussion),
Jez Lowe(guitar,bazouki,mandolin) 
and John Tams (harmonica). 
The singers were Kate Rusby,Karine Polwart, 
John Tams,Barry Coope,Jez Lowe,Chris While,Julie Mathews and me!

Getting so many artists together for the show was an achievement in itself. 
Musical director John Tams and producer John Leonard oversaw development of the musical 
and vocal arrangements during an intensive two days of rehearsal before the performance.
Last year's broadcast sessions for The Radio Ballads were recorded over a number of months with most of the musicians contributing without the others present. 
This made the job of turning the material into a cohesive live show even more daunting but everyone involved made a massive effort and on the night it was a lot more than alright!

The show was staged in the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall and the first set was a selection of songs from five of the Radio Ballads:
Song of Steel,The Enemy Within,The Horn of the Hunter,Swings and Roundabouts and Thirty Years of Conflict. 
After the interval The Ballad of the Big Ships concerning shipbuilding on the Tyne and the Clyde was performed in it's entirety and included many of the interviews with ship-builders recorded for the broadcasts expertly interleaved with the songs by Max Leonard. 
Another feature of the show was a 'big screen' projection of shipbuilding pictures collected and collated by Brian Ledgard. 
Former shipyard worker Brian Whittingham also appeared on stage to read his own poems.

The Royal Concert Hall audience gave The Radio Ballads show a standing ovation. It was a true folk spectacular and one I dearly hope will be repeated.

All of the Radio Ballads CDs are
now available for purchase by
clicking here.

Full details and a chance 
to listen again click here!
 
 

Billy Mitchell & Bob Fox

The LIVE CD is now available.
"5 Star B & B" was recorded during the
Autumn 2006 Tour and features new live versions of their classic songs. 
See below for track list

 

Track List

Rocking Chair
Bonny Gateshead Lass
Dance To Your Daddy
Collier Laddies Wife
Born At The Right Time
Big River
Pitman And the Blacking
Galway Shawl
Where My Heart Lives
Sally Wheatley
Devil's Ground
Rambling Rover
Meet Me On The Corner
Monday Monday

Delivery due Early December 2006.
£13  UK and Europe
£14  Rest of the World

To order the "Live" CD and pay by cheque:
click here for printable 
mail order form

To order the "Live" CD and pay by 
credit card UK/Europe only:

Bob Fox & Billy Mitchell – The Maltings, Farnham (18.10.06)

I’ve just witnessed my favourite gig this year and who would doubt me when I say that the protagonists are those likely lads Bob Fox & Billy Mitchell.

You know you’re guaranteed a good night out if you’re lucky enough to see either as a solo performer but working as a duo, they bounce off each other as if they’d been playing together for years.

The surprise is that the two genial Geordies have only completed five days of a 19 date tour and, although originally intending to join each other for the last twenty minutes of the show they are both on stage most of the evening. Utilising their towering vocals and accompanying themselves with astonishing skill on a variety of stringed instruments (guitars, bouzouki and mandolin) they could hold a master class in the art of ‘live’ entertainment. Instrumental expertise aside, the songs come thick and fast with standards such as “The Galway Shawl” and “Sally Wheatley” rubbing shoulders with Mitchell’s own self-penned “The Devil’s Ground”.

Talking of North-East songs, it’s interesting to note that the power of a good TV campaign can influence a much wider audience especially the recent Young’s Seafood advert featuring the emotive “When the Boat Comes In” performed (in this case) with such eloquence by Fox.

The banter between the two may at times have been unrehearsed but at no point did the audience feel excluded from the joke and in a room that was particularly difficult to utilise a PA Ben (the engineer) did a sterling job.

Bob & Billy are planning to tour in April of next year and by that time they hope to have a live recording. If you’re looking for a fun night out with amazing musicianship and vocals make sure you don't miss them.

Pete Fyfe

The duo concerts and Bob's solo gigs 
are listed and regularly updated
on the gigs page. Click here.

For more information about Billy Mitchell visit
www.billymitchell.co.uk

BColin Randall reviews the Cambridge Folk Festival 

at Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds
 

Much of the extraordinary success of the Cambridge Folk Festival 
over the past 39 years is based on its attachment to the most
liberal outlook on what can be passed off as folk music.
 

Appearances in recent years by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, 
Joe Strummer and Chumbawamba, and at the weekend by the Saw Doctors, 
may enrage the purists. But the variety appeals hugely to thousands
of festival-goers, who sit poised each May to fire off their ticket 
applications before the Sold Out notices go up.

Every so often, the studied eclecticism threatens to backfire, 
as on Saturday when the broadest of minds were challenged by the 
charmless presence of Julian Cope, an oddball relic of the 
Teardrop Explodes, marauding around the stage with glittering guitars, 
dirge-like songs and Taliban-strength beard.

But the festival's cavalier approach scores many more hits than misses.
Cambridge has a strong tradition of producing performing gems that 
linger in the memory for months. Few will easily forget the energy 
and excitement of two of this year's triumphs: Eliza Carthy juggling 
fiddle and vocals to glorious effect, and Quebec's 
La Bottine Souriante racing through a muscular, brassy set that
owed no less to jazz, rock and salsa than to the dance tunes of the 
Old World settlers.

The Canadians also caused the liveliest debate of the weekend, 
sharply dividing onlookers on whether Sandy Silva's percussive 
dance gyrations presented a new, even more electrifying element 
or a slightly tacky distraction. The route to approval, I felt, 
involved looking beyond the frequent costume changes and
flailing limbs to see what she was doing with her feet.

In their disparate ways, Silva and Carthy helped to illustrate the 
growing female dominance of these events. Women have always seemed 
to have the edge as singers, if only because men were allowed to get 
away with mediocre-to-rotten voices provided they were brilliant 
musicians or raconteurs. But folk is now awash with accomplished 
female fiddlers, squeezebox players and rounded entertainers.

Carthy overcame early sound wobbles to move explosively from a
whimsical acoustic introduction into more raucous territory, adding 
drums and bass to offer a taste of the splendid Anglicana album, 
with which she has at last matched her mother Norma Waterson's 
achievement, a Mercury Music prize nomination.

Throughout the festival site women were making the running. 
The Waifs, sassy Australians fronted by the Simpson sisters, 
Vikki and Donna, were instant crowd-pleasers, while Danu capped a 
rousing traditional Irish romp with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh's searing 
delivery of Richard Thompson's Farewell, Farewell. 
Even the instrumental mastery of John McCusker and Phil Cunningham 
was briefly overshadowed by McCusker's wife, Kate Rusby. Once a 
TV soap extra, Rusby was handed a walk-on part and stunned a tentful 
of people with a solitary ballad, The Bold Privateer.

From the bittersweet tale of two comebacks came Cambridge's other 
talking point. Rosanne Cash celebrated a strong recovery from the 
temporary loss of her voice after childbirth, while poor Linda Thompson 
was forced to withdraw altogether by a recurrence of a different 
medical condition that previously silenced her for almost 20 years.

And to which thrusting young upstart did we turn for some male response 
to this female ascendancy? 
To the bulky form of Bob Fox, a grizzled north-easterner with a 
wonderful, rich voice and the stamina not only to work his socks off 
with the Hush, solo and at a harmony workshop - but to spend most of 
his off-stage moments drooling over his new granddaughter.
at Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds
 

Much of the extraordinary success of the Cambridge Folk Festival 
over the past 39 years is based on its attachment to the most
liberal outlook on what can be passed off as folk music.
 

Appearances in recent years by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, 
Joe Strummer and Chumbawamba, and at the weekend by the Saw Doctors, 
may enrage the purists. But the variety appeals hugely to thousands 
of festival-goers, who sit poised each May to fire off their ticket 
applications before the Sold Out notices go up.

Every so often, the studied eclecticism threatens to backfire, 
as on Saturday when the broadest of minds were challenged by the 
charmless presence of Julian Cope, an oddball relic of the 
Teardrop Explodes, marauding around the stage with glittering guitars, 
dirge-like songs and Taliban-strength beard.

But the festival's cavalier approach scores many more hits than misses.
Cambridge has a strong tradition of producing performing gems that 
linger in the memory for months. Few will easily forget the energy
and excitement of two of this year's triumphs: Eliza Carthy juggling 
fiddle and vocals to glorious effect, and Quebec's 
La Bottine Souriante racing through a muscular, brassy set that 
owed no less to jazz, rock and salsa than to the dance tunes of the 
Old World settlers.

The Canadians also caused the liveliest debate of the weekend, 
sharply dividing onlookers on whether Sandy Silva's percussive 
dance gyrations presented a new, even more electrifying element 
or a slightly tacky distraction. The route to approval, I felt, 
involved looking beyond the frequent costume changes and 
flailing limbs to see what she was doing with her feet.

In their disparate ways, Silva and Carthy helped to illustrate the 
growing female dominance of these events. Women have always seemed 
to have the edge as singers, if only because men were allowed to get 
away with mediocre-to-rotten voices provided they were brilliant 
musicians or raconteurs. But folk is now awash with accomplished 
female fiddlers, squeezebox players and rounded entertainers.

Carthy overcame early sound wobbles to move explosively from a 
whimsical acoustic introduction into more raucous territory, adding 
drums and bass to offer a taste of the splendid Anglicana album, 
with which she has at last matched her mother Norma Waterson's 
achievement, a Mercury Music prize nomination.

Throughout the festival site women were making the running. 
The Waifs, sassy Australians fronted by the Simpson sisters, 
Vikki and Donna, were instant crowd-pleasers, while Danu capped a 
rousing traditional Irish romp with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh's searing 
delivery of Richard Thompson's Farewell, Farewell. 
Even the instrumental mastery of John McCusker and Phil Cunningham 
was briefly overshadowed by McCusker's wife, Kate Rusby. Once a 
TV soap extra, Rusby was handed a walk-on part and stunned a tentful 
of people with a solitary ballad, The Bold Privateer.

From the bittersweet tale of two comebacks came Cambridge's other 
talking point. Rosanne Cash celebrated a strong recovery from the 
temporary loss of her voice after childbirth, while poor Linda Thompson 
was forced to withdraw altogether by a recurrence of a different 
medical condition that previously silenced her for almost 20 years.

And to which thrusting young upstart did we turn for some male response 
to this female ascendancy? 
To the bulky form of Bob Fox, a grizzled north-easterner with a 
wonderful, rich voice and the stamina not only to work his socks off 
with the Hush, solo and at a harmony workshop - but to spend most of 
his off-stage moments drooling over his new granddaughter.
Colin Randall reviews the Cambridge Folk Festival 
at Cherry Hinton Hall Grounds
 

Much of the extraordinary success of the Cambridge Folk Festival 
over the past 39 years is based on its attachment to the most
liberal outlook on what can be passed off as folk music.
 

Appearances in recent years by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, 
Joe Strummer and Chumbawamba, and at the weekend by the Saw Doctors, 
may enrage the purists. But the variety appeals hugely to thousands 
of festival-goers, who sit poised each May to fire off their ticket 
applications before the Sold Out notices go up.

Every so often, the studied eclecticism threatens to backfire, 
as on Saturday when the broadest of minds were challenged by the 
charmless presence of Julian Cope, an oddball relic of the 
Teardrop Explodes, marauding around the stage with glittering guitars, 
dirge-like songs and Taliban-strength beard.

But the festival's cavalier approach scores many more hits than misses.
Cambridge has a strong tradition of producing performing gems that
linger in the memory for months. Few will easily forget the energy 
and excitement of two of this year's triumphs: Eliza Carthy juggling 
fiddle and vocals to glorious effect, and Quebec's 
La Bottine Souriante racing through a muscular, brassy set that 
owed no less to jazz, rock and salsa than to the dance tunes of the 
Old World settlers.

The Canadians also caused the liveliest debate of the weekend, 
sharply dividing onlookers on whether Sandy Silva's percussive 
dance gyrations presented a new, even more electrifying element 
or a slightly tacky distraction. The route to approval, I felt, 
involved looking beyond the frequent costume changes and 
flailing limbs to see what she was doing with her feet.

In their disparate ways, Silva and Carthy helped to illustrate the 
growing female dominance of these events. Women have always seemed 
to have the edge as singers, if only because men were allowed to get
away with mediocre-to-rotten voices provided they were brilliant 
musicians or raconteurs. But folk is now awash with accomplished 
female fiddlers, squeezebox players and rounded entertainers.

Carthy overcame early sound wobbles to move explosively from a 
whimsical acoustic introduction into more raucous territory, adding 
drums and bass to offer a taste of the splendid Anglicana album, 
with which she has at last matched her mother Norma Waterson's 
achievement, a Mercury Music prize nomination.

Throughout the festival site women were making the running. 
The Waifs, sassy Australians fronted by the Simpson sisters, 
Vikki and Donna, were instant crowd-pleasers, while Danu capped a 
rousing traditional Irish romp with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh's searing 
delivery of Richard Thompson's Farewell, Farewell. 
Even the instrumental mastery of John McCusker and Phil Cunningham 
was briefly overshadowed by McCusker's wife, Kate Rusby. Once a 
TV soap extra, Rusby was handed a walk-on part and stunned a tentful 
of people with a solitary ballad, The Bold Privateer.

From the bittersweet tale of two comebacks came Cambridge's other 
talking point. Rosanne Cash celebrated a strong recovery from the 
temporary loss of her voice after childbirth, while poor Linda Thompson 
was forced to withdraw altogether by a recurrence of a different 
medical condition that previously silenced her for almost 20 years.

And to which thrusting young upstart did we turn for some male response 
to this female ascendancy? 
To the bulky form of Bob Fox, a grizzled north-easterner with a 
wonderful, rich voice and the stamina not only to work his socks off 
with the Hush, solo and at a harmony workshop - but to spend most of
his off-stage moments drooling over his new granddaughter.
IDOWS 2.22
11 BONNY AT M ORN 2.22
BOB FOX
main vocal,backing vocals,
Fylde Falstaff guitar,
Fylde bouzouki,Kurtz Weill piano
with
annA rydeR backing vocals,
piano accordion,muted trumpet
Norman Holmes whistles &flutes
Chuck Fleming violas &fiddle
Neil Harland double bassMY LOVE IS IN AMERICA 2.22
3 THE WHITBY TAILOR 2.22
4 LIFE IS NOT KIND 2.22
TO THE DRINKING MAN 2.22
5 DANCE TO YOUR DADDY 2.22
6 SHOALS OF HERRING 2.22
7 SHE WAITS AND WEEPS 2.22
8 PEPPERS AND TOMATOES 2.22
9 CHILD OF M INE 2.22
10 THE LAST OF THE WIDOWS 2.22
11 BONNY AT M ORN 2.22
BOB FOX
main vocal,backing vocals,
Fylde Falstaff guitar,
Fylde bouzouki,Kurtz Weill piano
with
annA rydeR backing vocals,
piano accordion,muted trumpet
Norman Holmes whistles &flutes
Chuck Fleming violas &fiddle
Neil Harland double bass