Swanfest 2 Folk, Ale & Cider Festival

25 July from 1pm

The Swan Inn,

Ascott-Under-Wychwood

Oxon

OX7 6AY

BARBARA DICKSON headlines 2^ndSwanfest

Multi-million selling recording artiste Barbara Dickson, OBE, comes to play at the small Oxfordshire village of Ascott-under-Wychwood on Saturday 25^thJuly for the second Swanfest 2015, Folk, Ale & Cider Festival held in the garden of The Swan Inn.

Barbara will be accompanied by her keyboard player Nick Holland from Middle Barton, Oxfordshire.

In this special acoustic performance Barbara with her pianist Nick Holland explore her catalogue of songs at an intimate level. The pair let the words and melodies take ‘centre stage' as they perform a wonderful range of material drawing on Barbara's folk roots, her latest exploration of the songs of Gerry Rafferty, and some of her classic hit records.

Nick joined Barbara's touring band in the mid 2000's after working with Troy Donockley in the Maddy Prior Band and recording with Maddy on a couple of her seminal albums which Barbara knew and admired. He also sang on her ‘Full Circle' album, the first to feature the style of music she now performs.

Barbara and Nick recently started working as a ‘duo' where she plays guitar and piano, and Nick, keyboards - adding harmonies to Barbara's own wonderful vocals. They have performed this way in numerous venues including cathedrals, festivals and theatres and developed an intimate rapport with each other and the audience. They say that it's a different experience to working with the bigger band, but just as enjoyable and gives the music ‘breathing space'.

Barbara will be headlining the line-up which features 6 local performers as follows:

Chalice 2.00 - 2.45 pm.

'Mad Larry' Band 3.00 - 3.45 pm.

Linda Watkins Band 4.00 - 4.45 pm.

Blondes with Beards 5.00 - 5.45 pm.

Pete Joshua 6.00 - 6.30 pm.

The Skeptics 6.45 - 7.15 pm.

Barbara Dickson 8.00 - 9.15 pm.

with Nick Holland

The doors open and food will be served from 1.00 pm. The live music starts at 2pm.

Tickets for all day £22.50 available now from:-

• The Swan Inn - www.swanatascott.com 01993 832332

• Wychwood Folk Club - www.wychwoodfolkclub.com 01993 831427 / 07870563299

• www.wegottickets.com/wychwoodfolkclub

• Rapture Witney - Unit 12, Woolgate Centre, Witney, Oxon, 01993 700567

Tickets are limited and selling fast, so get them while you can.

ENDS

For more information, photographs and to arrange interviews please contact Sarah Airey, The Buzzworks, telephone 07855 086447 or emailsarah.airey@thebuzzworks.co.uk

About Barbara Dickson

Scotland's Best Selling Female Album Artist of All Time

‘Barbara began her singing career in folk clubs around her native Fife in Scotland in the sixties. In the early seventies, she sang at a Liverpool folk club, run by Willy Russell which led to her to performing live on stage in his musical ‘John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert'which became a smash hit.

Her single ‘Answer Me', become a top ten hit in 1976 which led to a guest residency on a TV series of ‘The Two Ronnies'-bringing her attention to some 10 million viewers each week. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, invited her to record ‘Another Suitcase in Another Hall' from their new musical ‘Evita', which became her second hit single in 1977. Other hits included ‘Caravan Song,' ‘January, February' and‘I Know Him So Well',a duet sung with Elaine Paige, became a huge hit worldwide and remained at the number one spot in the UK singles charts for many weeks.

In the 1990's, she appeared in acting roles for leading TV dramas ‘Taggart', ‘Band of Gold' and ‘The Missing Postman' She also starred in ‘Spend, Spend, Spend', for which she was awarded ‘Best Actress in a Musical' at the 2000 Laurence Olivier Awards.

As well as her acting career, Barbara continued to concentrate on her first love - music. In 2004 ‘Full Circle', marked a return to her folk roots, with ‘The Daily Telegraph' noting:‘it is no exaggeration to describe her as a great singer... without dismissing the work she has done in the other three decades of her career, this is Dickson at her most engaging.'She was conferred with an O.B.E. for her services to music and drama in the Queens' New Year's Honours in 2002.

Her long-awaited autobiography, ‘A Shirt Box Full of Songs' was published in 2009 and her CD release ‘Words Unspoken' (2011) built on the success of Full Circle- embracing her folk roots.

Her latest releases include a CD release of early recordings entitled‘B4 Seventy Four-‘The Folkclub Tapesproduced by Rab Noakes, and ‘Winter'her 2014 issue of tunes reflecting the season musically.

""Barbara Dickson is a very special talent" 

(Sir George Martin)

"You want to bottle her voice - it's perfect."

(Melvyn Bragg - The South Bank Show)

"I love Barbara Dickson. From the very first time I heard her, her voice just nailed me to the wall! Her voice has that kind of smoothness... she's just a one-off." (Billy Connolly)