Callers

	Barry Goodman A writer of songs, dances and tunes, Barry is well known as a singer, compere, caller, musician and dancer. A member of Redbornstoke Morris and half of the folk song duo Life and Times, together with Graeme Meek, Barry is also a musician for Rockhopper Morris and The Outside Capering Crew, and plays and calls in his own English ceilidh band, Time of Your Life, as well as calling with a number of other well-known bands. Active in folk song and dance since the early 1970s, Barry runs folk song and melodeon workshops, promotes the English folk tradition in Education, and has been involved in the development of the New Roots competition, encouraging young folk talent in the Eastern counties.
	Cat Kelly Cat is equally confident calling for experienced ceilidh dancers or complete beginners. She has a lifetime's experience of folk dancing to draw from, and her confidence and infectious enthusiasm quickly entices people on to the dance floor. Cat calls with a variety of bands to suit all musical tastes and budgets! Ceilidh bands she has called with in the past include Hekety and The Committee Band, two of the best English ceilidh bands in the world EVER. Cat has called at the two major London ceilidh series, Knees Up Cecil Sharp, and Reeling in Ealing.
	Fee Lock As an up-and-coming ceilidh caller carving out a career in Hastings and the South of England, I combine the best of traditional English dance with influences from anywhere and everywhere. A co-organiser of the Hastings Jack in the Green Festival of Morris Dancing, I called the opening ceilidh in May 1999. A long-standing foreman (dance teacher) of two morris sides, I am now applying that experience to barn dances. Ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees) are also known as barn dances and social dances. No, not the dead-slow country dancing you had to do at school. Ceilidh dances are fast paced, easy to learn, great fun and addictive. Tantric, I think the word is. You have a band - that’s real musicians who learn traditional music and then bend it a bit, or write their own - and a caller (that’s me) telling you how to do it. Once you’ve got the basics, I shut up to leave you to do your own tha-a-ang and listen to the music.
	Barry Parkes All Blacked Up's resident caller, he was once referred to as our "ebullient front man" and of course the name has stuck. Baz began his calling career some twenty years ago when the Ironmen and Severn Gilders were dancing at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. Dance teams were taking turns calling for an impromptu ceilidh, and Dave Hunt had gone to the loo! His "national reputation" has led him to work with many other bands including Band of the Rising Sun, Bismarcks, Grand Union, Hekety, Peeping Tom and Steamchicken. All Blacked Up, however, remains his first love.
	Gordon Potts He is arguably the best-known ceilidh dance caller in the country and he is also still a member of the committee which organises the Knees Up Cecil Sharp Ceilidhs at Cecil Sharp House. Larger than life, Gordon is one of the three remaining members of the original Committee Band line-up. Responsible for much of the "jangly" guitar sound of the band, Gordon was with Diane a member of Wizzard Wheeze, and is a member of the Hammersmith Morris Men.
	Hugh Rippon Hugh Rippon is a leading light of the folk dance world. He has called ceilidh dances, danced, taught, and played music for morris, and championed folk dance for more than 40 years. He literally wrote the book (okay, two books) on English dance. He founded Hammersmith Morris Men and co-founded the University Morris Men, among several other morris teams. Almost singlehandedly he created the lively barn dance & ceilidh scene in England, where hundreds of people who didn't even know they liked to dance will pack dance floors for hours of fun.
	Nick Walden One of the country's top ceilidh callers, in demand for festivals and dances the length and breadth of Britain, Nick pulls the whole thing together into an event to remember. Whilst famed for his colourful shirts, most people's abiding memory is of Nick leaping around, punching the air and crying "one more time"! He is a member of the Hammersmith Morris Men and a member of the committee which organises the Knees Up Cecil Sharp Ceilidhs at Cecil Sharp House.

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