Hiya XXXX!
Guess what? FiddleBop is 20 years old!
Who’d a-thought it? And who knows where the time went? Anyway… break out the bubbly and light the candles on the cake… it’s time to CELEBRATE! Yaaaay!
But if you want to be more precise — I do, I’m like that — then we have to ask “When, exactly, did FiddleBop begin?”
Was it on 30 May 2005, when wet-behind-the-ears Jo and Dave first met up — in darkest Hook Norton, Oxfordshire — to make music with vastly experienced jazz double bass player, Roger Davis? (To whom we are eternally grateful, not least for his showing us how to end a tune with panache and style.)
Or was it before that, around July 2004, when Jo and Dave first tried playing some jazz outside their tent at Poppitt Sands, in west Wales? Or was it the near the end of 2005, when Jo first came up with the name “FiddleBop”?
Whichever it was (or even if it is none of these), FiddleBop is 20 years old! Two whole decades! More or less… Yaaaay!!!
For more pics of FiddleBop from deep in the mists of time, see our gallery page.
And FiddleBop is still going strong.
Since the last FiddleBop newsletter (no. 35) in September, we’ve done three gigs with the latest incarnation of FiddleBop. That’s the four of us: Jo, Graeme, Dave (me), and now we also have Paul the percussion patiently propelling us towards prominence with his repeatedly reliable, rugged, relishable, unremittingly robust rhythms...
The first of these three gigs was at the ever-popular Foundry venue in Brecon on the evening of Wednesday 17 September. And it was fun!
Actually this was more of a 'public rehearsal' than a proper gig, really, since we still had a few musical kinks to iron out of our live sets. But kinks or no, it was great to get our 'Gypsy jazz plus' up and running again in Dean’s excellent and thriving establishment. Thank you, everyone who came along to the Foundry. And especial thanks to Barry Hill for the wonderful photos. Ta Barry!
After a couple more in-our-front-room rehearsals to smooth away those musical kinks, the next outing for FiddleBop was on Saturday 25 October at the Red Lion: a smart, stylish, and busy eatery-pub in the village of Llangors, Powys. The village is not far from Llangors Lake, where there is definitely a crannog, reputedly an afanc, and even more reputedly, a lost city, drowned for its wickedness…
Anyway, back to the Red Lion. After a deft bit of furniture rearrangement, with the kind but probably essential assistance of Hari the landlady (and after an accidental ‘orrible pub-wide noise from our PA system) FiddleBop kicked off. And before too long, our 'Gypsy jazz plus' — lo and behold! — had ‘em up and dancing.
What a fun evening! Thanks, Hari: see you again in the summertime?
And then, all too soon, it was Saturday 22 November. A rather chilly night, but time for FiddleBop to head south to Caerphilly, to Geshmak Cafe - Bar – Bistro.
Owner Fran advertises Bishmak as “A great night out…” and that was certainly true when we were there.
A happy group ignored the November gloom and devoured their fair share (and more) of delicious-looking tapas, whilst washing their tapas down with their fair share (and more) of wine and other beverages. All the while, FiddleBop regaled the increasingly joyous clientele with the joyous sounds of 'Gypsy jazz plus'. Yup, a memorable night was had by all! Here's to the next time at Geshmak...
A little while back, I mentioned experimentation. Earlier in November our good friend Baze helped us with our live sound by hosting a just-us session in the Victoria Hall at Llanwrtyd Wells (“Britain’s smallest town”) so that we could set up our PA equipment there and twiddle all the knobs in a "What does this do?" spirit.
Being empty, there was no danger of deafening a whole pub's worth of people with 'orrible noises. Baze then applied his not-inconsiderable audio engineering skills to help us sort out our amplification problems. Thank you, Baze!
Which leads me to this newsletter’s Free Gift. A video — recorded on a phone, so the quality isn’t great — of Jo’s beautiful song “Still With Me”. Which was one of the songs and tunes which we worked on while in the Victoria Hall.
“Still With Me” was written by Jo, for her late mother Sonia. Enjoy!
In the last FiddleBop newsletter, I mentioned the plaque for Graeme’s brother, Martin Lamble, who was Fairport Convention’s drummer until he died in a car crash at the age of 19.
Here's a picture of the plaque. It is next to 'Jonah's Oak', a tree at the site of Fairport's annual Cropredy Festival. Jonah's Oak commemorates members of Fairport, and Fairport fans, who are no longer with us.
And what of future FiddleBop gigs? As usual, at the end of this newsletter there is a list (up-to-date at the time of writing) of all our forthcoming gigs, and an always-up-to-date list on our website.
But I can't resist mentioning a couple here.
First, FiddleBop and Friends will be appearing at Brecon Jazz Club (The Muse, Glamorgan Street, Brecon, Powys LD3 7DW) from 8 pm on Tuesday 9 December 2025.
Sadly, we will have to do this one without Paul the Percussion, since he is in Slovenia at the moment with his partner Monika (have a good time, you two!). But to make up for Paul's absence, we have a dazzling array of guests who will be joining us to make some 'Gypsy jazz plus' with us. And here they are!
Yaaaaay!!! This will be a bundle of pre-Xmas fun! We can't wait! Tickets are available here: £14 advance / £16 door / PWYC and Young Persons £8.
The other FiddleBop "gig" that I'd like to mention isn't a gig at all!
FiddleBop (all four of us, this time) will also be appearing — is that the correct word? — in a "live" radio broadcast on the Dan James Folk Show on BGfm Wales (BGfm stands for 'Blaenau Gwent for music'. I didn't know that, either).
You'll be able to listen on 97.3 FM between 6-7 pm on Tuesday 13 January 2026, or listen online after that. (But don't wait too long: recordings of shows are removed after a couple of weeks or so.)
FiddleBop has appeared on Dan's BGfm show before, and we had a great time. Almost a party! (Except that Dan kept telling us — quite rightly — to avoid 'dead air': those moments of silence when we've finished one song or tune, and are wondering what to say about the next one. Which means that, this time, we will bring along a big store of inane remarks to fill in the silence.)
Anyway, Dan plays all kinds of music on his 'folk' show. Celtic, traditional, instrumental, local, world, singer-songwriter, and folk-fusion. As Dan says "Many things can be 'folk' and all styles are welcome here." Which is how FiddleBop have slipped in, I guess 
Finally then, here is a currently-correct list of FiddleBop's future gigs. Now that we are up and running again (yippeeee!) we're adding more gigs all the time. So take a look here since this list is always up to date. We'd love to see you at one — or more — of these gigs!
All the best!
From Dave, Jo, Graeme, and Paul M... the FiddleBoppers
PS I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. And I also need to check that you wish to continue to receive FiddleBop newsletters like this one. If you don't, then click here to unsubscribe, or send an unsubscribe-request email to info@fiddlebop.org. If you don’t do either of these things then I’ll assume that you are happy to receive future FiddleBop newsletters.
This list of gigs is correct at the time of writing, but the list on our website is always up to date.
| The gig! | When/where is FiddleBop playing? | Venue, occasion, whatever... | Contact details |
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Admission £14 advance / £16 door / PWYC and Young Persons £8 |
From 8 pm |
FiddleBop and Friends |
Brecon Jazz Club  brecon info jazz brecon |
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A "live" radio broadcast |
The Dan James Folk Show |
BGfm Wales |
BGfm Wales |
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Admission free! |
From 9 pm |
The Golden Cross Inn |
The Golden Cross Inn |
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Free entry! |
From 7.30 pm TBC |
The Foundry |
The Foundry |
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"We encourage you to contribute at least £5 per head to the L.O.S.T. bucket, the whole contents of which go to the band" |
Fri |
Live at the Old Street Tavern (LOST) |
Old Street Tavern |
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Admission TBA |
Time TBA |
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The Market Theatre |
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Admission TBA |
Fri |
Magic Lantern Cinema |
Magic Lantern Cinema |
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Free admission! |
From 5 pm |
The Six Bells, Bishop's Castle |
The Six Bells |
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Free entry! |
Time TBC TBC |
The Foundry |
The Foundry |
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Admission £15 |
From 7.30 pm |
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Under the Edge Arts Centre |
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Tickets TBA |
From 7 pm |
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Bill’s Kitchen |
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info@fiddlebop.org
01982 560726
07968 950870
FiddleBop
@FiddleBop@fiddlebop
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