Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet

Super excited for this gig featuring one of the greatest voices on the planet PLUS Emsworth’s own Biff Roxby on trombone!

🎶 Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet 🎵
🗓️ Friday 20th November
📍 Westbourne Community Hall (AKA Westbourne Club), River Street, Westbourne, West Sussex, PO10 8TG
🕗 Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm show, unreserved seating
🍷 Licensed bar serving Langham Brewery 🍻

🎫 Tickets on sale now at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth village, at The Westbourne Cafe in Westbourne Village, & online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

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Rioghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet move with ease and confidence between swampy jazz, raucous brass, fractured funk, blues balladry, and gorgeous folkloric textures.  Connolly’s powerhouse vocals lead the charge, blending mischief, protest and vulnerability into something fiercely human and utterly live. Honeyfeet holds all of this together with a groove and a commitment to musical freedom. The lineup consists of Lorien Garth Edwards on bass, Ellis Davies on guitar, John Ellis on keyboards, Biff Roxby on brass, and Phill Howley on drums, forming a fluid and fearless musical unit.

At the heart of Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet is the indomitable Ríoghnach Connolly, whose voice is equal parts fierce, tender and fearless, connecting ancestral song traditions with contemporary storytelling. She has won the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award for Best Folk Singer and BBC Radio 2’s Folk Singer of the Year. In early 2025, she joined Annie Lennox on stage at the Royal Albert Hall for “Sisters: Annie Lennox and Friends,” a landmark concert that raised funds for The Circle, Lennox’s global feminist organisation. Sharing the bill with artists including Celeste and Nadine Shah, Connolly brought her singular presence to a night that celebrated the transformative power of music and collective voice.

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As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, & soft drinks

WemsFest is an entirely volunteer-run community interest company. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested into our local community, delivering musical workshops in local schools each October in celebration of Black History Month

This year our charity bucket on the bar is supporting relationships & sex education in local schools, delivered by Options Chichester – please do help us support this important work

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance at adwesmfest@gmail.com or 07802 500 050 and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Fairport Convention

A welcome return to our friends who have pushed the term ‘folk-rock’ to the edge of the universe over several decades – too many to mention.

Expect consummate musicianship, and a liberal amount of corny jokes, and you won’t be disappointed !

Whether you are a long-time fan, a dedicated Cropredy festivalgoer, or a newcomer to their music, an evening with Fairport Convention is sure to surprise and delight you 🎶❤️🎵

As usual we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious Langham Brewery beer🍻 , alongside wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks.

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start
Unreserved seating

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Barry ‘The Fish’ Melton & his band

Founding member of legendary Californian psychedelic rock band Country Joe & The Fish – Barry ‘The Fish’ Melton on lead vocals and guitar, plus Rob Beckinsale on keyboard and vocals, Canadian guitarist Natalie Martel on rhythm guitar, Steve Browning on bass, Parisian Stephane Missri on guitar and vocals, and Bernie Fox on drums.

A rare opportunity to savour some of the music of one of the finest psychedelic rock bands in the world, in an incredibly intimate venue in the heart of Chichester !

Over fifty years ago, during the “Summer of Love” – 1967 – Barry “The Fish” Melton celebrated his 20th birthday in June 1967. A few days later, he and his band, “Country Joe and the Fish,” were rocketed onto the world stage at the Monterey Pop Festival with such luminaries as the Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas and the Papas, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, Simon and Garfunkel, The Who and a relatively unknown guitarist named Jimi Hendrix. And fifty years ago, in 1969, Barry appeared at the historic festival in Woodstock, New York and also appeared in the movie bearing the same name: “Woodstock.”

Barry began the 1970’s with an album for Columbia Records produced by legendary guitarist Michael Bloomfield, Barry took up part-time residence in the United Kingdom and recorded two albums at Rockfield Studios in Wales; and he toured extensively in the U.K., France and the Netherlands; Barry and ultimately returned home to San Francisco to record his fifth album of the decade.

In the 1980’s, Barry put together San Francisco’s historic supergroup, “Dinosaurs,” featuring Barry and John Cipollina (Quicksilver Messenger Service, guitar), Spencer Dryden (Jefferson Airplane, drums), Peter Albin (Big Brother and the Holding Company, bass), and Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead songwriter, guitar). Other members of the band later included Merl Saunders and Papa John Creech. “Dinosaurs” recorded its debut album and opened for Tony Bennett at the 50th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge celebration in 1987.

In 2025, WemsFest adds The Havana to its quiver of venues. The Havana is an atmospheric subterranean venue in the heart of Chichester. Easily accessible by public transport, come enjoy an evening out in Chichester’s premier grassroots music venue. The Havana’s licensed bar and cosy (unreserved) seating will ensure you are comfortable. Apologies however that this venue is not wheelchair-accessible.

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start

Tickets available at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth village, and online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest 

 

Le Vent du Nord

Le Vent du Nord are firm friends of WemsFest, and their local audience continues to grow despite the likelihood that many listeners won’t understand a word that’s being sung – it doesn’t matter! If you’ve seen them before, you know. If you haven’t, take a chance on something different – you will not regret it!

The multi-award-winning and highly acclaimed Le Vent du Nord is a leading force in Québec’s progressive francophone folk movement.  The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while enhancing its hard-driving soulful music with a broad range of global influences.

Since its inception in August 2002, Le Vent du Nord has enjoyed meteoric success, performing well over 2,500 concerts over 4 continents and racking up several prestigious awards, including a SONGLINES MUSIC AWARD -Americas (UK, 2023) Grand Prix du Disque Charles Cros (France), two Junos (Canada’s Grammys), three FÉLIX at ADISQ (Québec), a Canadian Folk Music Award, and been awarded Artist of the Year at the Folk Alliance annual gala.

The group exhibits great finesse and flexibility, appearing regularly on Canadian, American, French, and UK television and radio, and participating in a wide variety of special musical projects. They’ve collaborated and performed with a diverse range of artists including: Väsen, Sharon Shannon, Harry Manx, singer Julie Fowlis, Dervish, The Chieftains, Yann-Fañch Kemener, Québécois roots legend and master storyteller Michel Faubert, Apiary fiddle band, Breabach and many more. Not content with standard approaches to tradition, Le Vent du Nord has also created since 2007 a symphonic concert that, according to Voir Montreal, “puts all traditional folk naysayers to shame.”

As an amazing live performance quintet, Le Vent du Nord continues to explore new sounds with stunning vocal arrangements. On stage these 5 friends create intense, joyful and dynamic live performances that expand the bounds of tradition in striking directions.

THE BAND
Nicolas Boulerice – vocals, electro acoustic hurdy-gurdy, piano
André Brunet – fiddle, foot-tapping, vocals
Réjean Brunet – basses, diatonic accordion, jaw harp, piano, vocals
Olivier Demers – fiddle, guitar, foot-tapping, mandolin, vocals
André Gagné – vocals, bouzouki, guitar

On stage these 5 musicians create intense, joyful and dynamic live performances that expand the bounds of tradition in striking global directions. This is the modern sound of tradition, a music of the here and now.

Unreserved seating
Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show
Licensed Bar helps support WemsFest – As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Feast of Fiddles (note early start time 7.30pm)

The clue is in the name !

Born in Nettlebed on Valentine’s Day 1994 as a one-off special concert, Feast of Fiddles has done 29 spring tours, 26 festivals and has 7 CDs to its name. Not bad for a bunch of old folk-rockers!

This is a band of friends that puts on a show of huge dynamic range performed with passion, joy and a liberal dose of fun. Fiddlers Garry Blakeley (Band of Two), Ian Cutler (Bully Wee), Marion Fleetwood (Trad Arr, Sandy Denny Project), Tom Leary (Joe Brown), Brian McNeill (Battlefield Band), and Simon Swarbrick (Merry Hell) bring a large range of fiddle playing styles to the rock back-line – all held together by legendary drummer Dave Mattacks, Martin Vincent on guitar, Dave Harding on bass, and genial host Hugh Crabtree on accordion.  This is a live music entertainment like no other on the circuit which is guaranteed to be enjoyed by even the most doubting of friends dragged along!

“Absolutely awesome!” – Sue Marchant, BBC East

“Britain’s fiddling supergroup” – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

“The best fiddle players of a generation” – Ian A Anderson

** NOTE EARLY START!!** Doors open 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

Licensed Bar helps support WemsFest – As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks.  All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Please don’t try to park on Church Path or the other small local roads – there is plenty of free car parking in local car parks.

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Oysterband – A Long, Long Goodbye Tour! (SOLD OUT)

 

Going out on a high!

Since they started as a noisy, politicised ceilidh band in the late Seventies, Oysterband have remained true to their beliefs and never wavered as they’ve worn their hearts on their sleeves whilst delivering a plethora of acclaimed albums, winning multiple awards, and travelling the world.  Now they’re taking the tour bus out for it’s last ride – and stopping in Emsworth on the way!

John Jones (vocals & melodeon), Alan Prosser (guitar), and Ian Telfer (violin) are joined by longtime producer Al Scott (bass), Adrian Oxaal (cello & guitar) and Sean Randle (drums)

Let’s give them the send-off they deserve !

“We’re hanging up our travelling shoes, but we’re taking a year or so to say goodbye to our lovely live audience.  And we mean to enjoy every minute!”

Emerging in the early 80s from their folk club and ceilidh band days, Oysterband infused both the tradition and their own songs with a passion and energy that was electrifying for the time. Polkas, politics and a heaving dance floor seemed just right for Thatcher’s Britain. Signing to new roots label Cooking Vinyl, headlining English Roots Against Apartheid, playing Glastonbury and the Fleadh several times each, touring with The Pogues in Europe and Billy Bragg in North America, hosting the Big Session Festival….. all gained them a large and loyal international following.

Their collaboration with June Tabor in 1990 produced the cult-classic album Freedom & Rain, and it was renewed 21 years later for Ragged Kingdom, one of the best-selling folk-rock albums of the new millennium.

Winners of several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including Best Band twice, Oysterband’s song-writing has never stood still, and classics such as The Oxford Girl, When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Everywhere I Go and Put Out The Lights have entered the folk canon.

“It’s been a long, tough, joyful journey, but the time has come.  In the words of our own song Granite Years, we’re waving you a long, long goodbye…..come help us celebrate!”

Licensed bar helps support WemsFest – As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks.  All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now (well – there are about 5 left at the time of posting!) at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start

Please don’t try to park on Church Path or other local roads – there is plenty of free car parking in local car parks.  Better yet, take the bus or train!  St James Church is less than 5 minutes’ walk from either.

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.