Maggie Percy and Roger Wilkins playing at the Falconers Folk Dance Club Halsway Weekend in March 2017
Based in Bromyard, Herefordshire, The Falconers English Folk Dance Band was formed in 1975, initially to play for the fortnightly folk dance club that still meets in the town, but quickly playing to a wider audience, especially after appearances at the Sidmouth and other Folk Festivals, where an ability to 'have a go' at anything in the broad folk-dance repertoire made them much in demand.
The band is now usually a duo, with Roger Wilkins — founder — on accordion, and Maggie Percy on flute and whistle. Roger and Maggie have played together virtually from the inception of the band in 1975, and are the regular line-up for outside bookings. In recent years their commitments have included Chippenham, Whitby, Sidmouth and Bromyard festivals, plus occasional weekend dance events (including the club’s popular Halsway Manor visits) and, of course, dances over a wide area. Having other family commitments, they do not play every week, but that also probably explains why they still enjoy playing after so many years.
Whilst they have never pretended to be the most technically proficient musicians in the world, no-one tries harder to give dancers the "lift" which is so important. Whether that succeeds or not is for the dancers to judge!
The band is happy to play anything in the broad Anglo-American repertoire, including Playford, Contra, Patter, Singing Square, English Traditional, Welsh and, on an occasional basis, Scottish.
Roger continues to provide the resident music for the Falconers Folk Dance Club, until recently often accompanied by the late Ian Wrenn on fiddle for part of the evening. He loved dancing too — as do all the musicians listed here — an essential pre-requisite for a good dance musician. Roger's son David has occasionally also joined on piano. Former flautist Anna Beddows retired some time ago, three offspring rightly taking precedence, but remains a close friend.
DISCOGRAPHY
There are no recent recordings. Past recordings are as follows:
Playford Style — L.P. — Private Label — sold out.
Dances from Community Dances Manual 7 — L.P. — EFDSS - sold out (but see below)
Haphazard — Dances from Again, Let's Be Merry — L.P. — available from the band.
Most of the CDM tracks were re-issued on the EFDSS Archive Series Community Dances 4-CD set, now also sadly deleted.
To contact the band, e-mail band@falconers.org.uk