WELCOME TO THE HOMEPAGE OF

PETE WILLOW
  • FOLK MUSICIAN
  • SINGER/SONGWRITER
  • FOLK MUSIC JOURNALIST
  • CLUB, CONCERT AND FESTIVAL ORGANISER
  • MUMMER
  • MUSIC PROMOTER AND ALL ROUND GOOD EGG

(figuratively speaking, but let's not talk about his figure!)

Incorporating the OFFICIAL Sites for

 

The folk tradition is alive and thrashing in Coventry and Warwickshire. Trust me, I'm up to my eyes in it!

Local surfers may know me as the guy who writes the weekly folk column in the Coventry Evening Telegraph (and has been doing so since 1981!). Or the bloke who used to present the folk programme on BBC CWR. Or the chap who can be seen demonstrating his mastery of the E minor chord when he's out on the craic with Irish trad. Band The Oddsods. Or the Squire of Coventry Mummers. Or any of a number of unsavoury connections with what is loosely termed as folk entertainment in the area.

Now I'm faced with the choice of organise or be overwhelmed. And the World Wide Web offers the perfect means of pulling all these threads together.

So.. (with thanks to my good friends Stevie and Bob for designing this and dealing with the technology) ...welcome to my website.

Take your pick from this selection of fascinating corners of cyberspace

Warwickshire's newest folk club.
Superb acts and waiter service too.
The monthly folk club that knows how to look after its audience

Music for a rare old time!
We play 'thrash' Irish traditional songs and tunes
Don't miss out on this truly cultural experience!

The official website. Britain's most (in) famous Mummers Side.
We perform traditional plays complete with heroes, villains, much tom-foolery and blood curdling fight scenes


Check this out for the latest on concerts, festivals, including Brinklow Folk weekend, and other ventures

Bookmark this page first then have a look at some other sites which are well worth a visit.


Messages and feedback welcome. I can take it!

Of course I wasn't always a Folkie. As a young lad I had aspirations to become another Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, but destiny had other ideas. My first guitar was acoustic (we couldn't afford the electricity bills and at least it was better than miming to my John Mayall albums with a tennis racquet). And later when i went to Watford Tech, I was asked to run the college folk club - because I had an acoustic guitar and therefore must know something about folk music.

It was here that I met people like Derek Brimstone, Gerry Lockran, Mick Softley and Mike Absalom (whatever happened to him?). I was hooked. It wasn't preserving the tradition in aspic that mattered to me - it was having a good time.

Which is really what folk entertainment is all about.

Ironically now, I can often be spotted belting out high energy arrangements of songs and tunes with The Oddsods while Clapton has become (relatively) schmaltzy. And if Hendrix were alive today, he'd probably be releasing the balls on the National Lottery Show or singing duets with Des O'Connor!! 

 

 

 

Pete Willow with daughter Kirsty demonstrating that music does run through the blood - although the former's taste for Christy Moore and The Pogues doesn't quite match the latter's taste for the Spice Girls and All Saints. (At least both of us share a strong indifference to Sham Rock!)

 

 

 

 

 

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