John Fiddler – Medicine Head (POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS)

**UPDATE – GIG POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS – ALL TICKETS WILL REMAIN VAILD FOR THE NEW DATE, TO BE ANNOUNCED ASAP**

One half of one of the most original outfits of the time, John Fiddler co-founded Medicine Head back in 1968 and signed to John Peel’s Dandelion label. Medicine Head’s ‘One and One is One’ is one of those timeless songs that brought them to the attention of the masses and paved the way for an ongoing career dipping into the blues but consistent in its accomplishment.

John Fiddler and Medicine Head have a new album ‘Heartwork’ featuring ten brand new songs, a fresh and vibrant set of blues rock that once more centre the band’s founder John Fiddler and Medicine Head in the core of this wonderful tradition. ‘Heartwork’ follows the very well received ‘Warriors of Love’, album which was the first new album in a decade.

Medicine Head began life in 1968 when singer and guitarist John Fiddler and harmonica player Peter Hope-Evans began performing in the Midlands. They quickly came to the attention of John Peel and – at the insistence of John Lennon – the DJ signed the band to his own Dandelion Records label. Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend were also early cheerleaders. Peel declared the band’s debut 1968 single ‘His Guiding Hand’ to be one of the classics of all time – and a copy featured in his legendary Record Box.

Medicine Head released three albums via Dandelion Records, with Hope-Evans leaving and returning to the fold during that time. The first album, 1970’s ‘New Bottles, Old Medicine’ featured ‘His Guiding Hand’ and was recorded in a two-hour session and Medicine Head toured with the DJ at many of Peel’s shows. The band followed that with the single ‘(And The) Pictures In The Sky’ and then a second album in 1971, ‘Heavy On The Drum’; produced by the Yardbirds’ Keith Relf. After their 1972 album, ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ [yes, before Pink Floyd), the band signed to Polydor.

Medicine Head then released ‘One & One Is One’, the single charted at No.3 in the charts and the album of the same name garnered them more fans. The following album ‘Thru’ A Five’ gave them more hits with “Rising Sun” and ‘Slip and Slide’. Soon after that the band became a duo again, releasing the fittingly titled album ‘Two Man Band’ in 1976. The following year, Peter Hope-Evans left for the final time, although John Fiddler (with Peter’s blessing), continues to work, and record as Medicine Head – releasing two critically acclaimed albums in the last 3 years. “WARRIORS OF LOVE” and “HEARTWORK” 2024.

John Fiddler has retained his voice and his musical freedom: this is an artist and a band with pedigree and a story. ‘Heartwork’ is cut through with experience and integrity and sits well within that Medicine Head catalogue.

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.

Gordon Giltrap & John Etheridge

Gordon Giltrap and John Etheridge – two of the finest and most original guitarists in concert separately and together in the wonderfully intimate Old Malthouse.

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

🎫 Tickets available from Bookends and Harbour Records Emsworth in Emsworth village, and online here

Unreserved seating. Licensed Bar helps support WemsFest.
Please park with care and consideration for the neighbours

Max & Veronica

Passionate playing by this Italian duo who stunned everyone when they played The Old Malthouse in Chidham last year. Hip, cool, and highly entertaining, this duo enjoyed a hugely successful UK tour last year and are back for more! Country blues, and ragtime, hokum, jug band and rural music from the 1920s and 1930s and beyond.

“Good time blues is alive and well and residing in… Milan, Italy. A band with a mission” – Folk & Roots Magazine

Veronica Sbergia & Max De Bernardi passionately play country blues and ragtime, hokum, jug band and rural music from the 20’s and 30’s. They like to keep this precious musical heritage alive faithfully reproducing its original sound whilst playing it with a modern twist.

Using strictly acoustic instruments such ukulele, washboard, kazoo, resophonic guitars and doublebass their passion for this music is perfectly represented on their last CD “OLD STORIES FOR MODERN TIMES”, that also sees contributions by other leading musicians and friends, Sugar Blue (a legendary harmonica player in the past with the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Willie Dixon and Frank Zappa) and the world master of resophonic guitar, Bob Brozman.

The album is an overview of the American popular music from the early years of the last century with the Red Wine Serenaders reinterpreting great songs by artists like Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie, Jimmie Rodgers, Sidney Bechet, Lucille Bogan, Bo Carter, and the Delmore Brothers in their own unique style.

With their trio called ‘Veronica & The Red Wine Serenaders’ they won the European Blues Challenge 2013, an important international contest held in Toulouse in March. Thanks to this result they performed at the prestigious Notodden Blues Festival in Norway and Lucerne Blues Festival in Switzerland.

Veronica & Max regularly perform in the USA, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Norway, Spain, England, Italy and Poland. Veronica is also the first Italian artist ever invited to the Mustique Blues Festival (2012 and 2013), in the Caribbean.

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

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.

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

Blue Rose Code (SOLD OUT)

‘Ravishingly beautiful, a burnished blaze of Caledonian Soul, muted jazz, and poetic recitation’ This comment from Uncut magazine succinctly describes this much lauded musician who has the rare quality of making you feel that he’s performing just for you.

Blue Rose Code is a band led by Edinburgh-born songwriter Ross Wilson. At the edge of contemporary alt-folk, Wilson’s music evokes a meeting of Van Morrison and a young John Martyn, both shipwrecked with a bunch of Motown records.

In 2025, WemsFest adds The Havana, Chichester, 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.

Come see Blue Rose Code at WemsFest at The Havana on Thursday 17th July in Chichester. You won’t regret it.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Cindy Kalmenson & Florence Sommerville

California meets Essex in this special country-Americana tour, featuring California singer-songwriter Cindy Kalmenson along with fast-rising Essex-based rootsy country singer-songwriter Florence Sommerville.

Cindy Kalmenson, one of the finest singer-songwriters currently working the West Coast club circuit, undertakes her second UK tour this June in support of her long-awaited HOME AGAIN fourth album. Droll and spirited, this talented lady displays an inner toughness with a sense of humour as well as a sense of perspective.

She has won many prestigious songwriting awards including most recently, the Rocky Mountain Folks Songwriting Contest last summer. With new vitality as a solo artist and with her new Trio as she continues to pursue her love of songwriting and performing. On stage she is very personable and engaging, using her natural humour and banter to win over an audience and then knocking them over with her dynamic voice and vivid songs.

Florence Sommerville released her latest single, (I’ll Be Your) Best Broken Heart to widespread acclaim and extensive radio plays this past January. There’s a raw rootsy quality to Florence’s music that belies her youthfulness. She doesn’t arrive as the next ready-made country star beauty figure Barbie doll. There is an unquestionable realness about the way Florence makes sense of life through her music. But she exhibits a surety of mind beyond her years, to create music that connects and inspires, and that will inflame a growing fire. An assured performer, she takes total command of any stage from the outset and allows her crystalline vocals to shine on her well-crafted original songs.

Surtierra Touring Project – Quimantu with the WemsFest Community Choir – Portsmouth Performance

We are delighted to announce a new project, the Surtierra Touring Project, which WemsFest will be delivering locally in collaboration with London-based Anglo-Chilean band Quimantu in the first half of 2025!

The Surtierra Touring Project is a large-scale project, run by Quimantu and Musiko Musika (an artist-led music education and cultural organisation). The project will work with five community choirs to tour performances of Mauricio Venegas-Astorga‘s Misa de los Mineros (Miners’ Mass), in Hampshire, West Sussex, and Dorset, culminating with two large-scale performances in London as part of Refugee Week in June 2025, in which all singers/choirs that have been involved in the project will be invited to perform together.

Locally for WemsFest, this project will involve the creation of a collaborative community choir, bringing together locals from all walks of life, as well as deliberately involving refugees who live locally. We have two brilliant choir leaders, Emily Barden and Laura Blake, who will lead our choir. The WemsFest Choir will form to learn, rehearse, and perform the Misa de los Mineros, as well as other pieces chosen by the choir. The choir will perform three local performances of the Misa de los Mineros in Spring 2025, and will then travel to London for a special performance at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, in a grand finale for the project in June 2025. For some performances, the WemsFest choir will be joined by similar collaborative community choirs from Andover, Southampton, and Dorset.

WemsFest local performance dates are as follows:
Saturday 5th April, 7pm – St Paul’s Church, Chichester, PO19 6FT
Friday 9th May, 7pm – Park Community School, Leigh Park, Havant, PO9 4BU
Saturday 14th June, 7pm – Portsmouth Cathedral, Portsmouth, PO1 2HA

Tickets for these three local performances are available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

*Note tickets cost £12.50 general admission / £7.50 student/unwaged/Universal Credit

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.

As part of our celebrations of Refugee Week 2025, the WemsFest Choir will also perform in London, at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, WC2E 9ED:
Fri 20th June, 7.30pm
Details and ticket links will be available shortly.

Licensed bar at all performances

Finally, this project is being supported by a generous grant from Arts Council England, but we need to support the project with local fundraising – we have a target of raising £15,000 locally. This money will be used to deliver our arm of the project – paying for the hire of rehearsal spaces and performance venues, paying for the choir leaders who will teach the piece to the choir, paying for the choir’s transportation to and from London for the Finale Performance, etc. If you are interested to donate or to help us raise funds to deliver the Surtierra Touring Project, we’d be absolutely chuffed! You can click on the JustGiving logo below to make a donation to help us deliver this project. Alternatively, if you have fundraising ideas, please get in touch with Mark Ringwood at adwemsfest@gmail.com

Gasper Nali + Band (with special guest David Lughana)

Already dancing with anticipation! We’re thrilled to be bringing Gasper Nali back to our WemsFest stage at The Old Malthouse in Chidham Village Hall

Gasper Nali is a not-so-traditional babatoni player from the small town of Nkhata Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi. The babatoni is an African one-string home-made 3-metre long bass guitar, and with a stick and an empty beer bottle, together with a cow skin kick drum and catchy melodies, he creates the most amazing and danceable original AfroBeats possible!

Friday 6th June 8pm
The Old Malthouse
AKA Chidham Village Hall
Chidham
West Sussex
PO18 8TP

Gasper’s unique style of Kwela music, sung in Chichewa, Malawi’s national language, has received an extraordinary amount of online attention after a video of him playing by the lake shore went viral with over 20 million views. He has been featured by CNN and in the documentary ‘Deep Roots Malawi’, jammed with Joss Stone, appeared on Wired for Sound – Malawi, remixed by Aroop Roy for Sol Power Sounds and been played by Iggy Pop on BBC 6!

His debut album, Abale Ndikuwuzeni, roughly translates to ‘People, I want to tell you’. It is a fitting title as Gasper’s songs, all sung in the Malawi national language of Chichewa, talk about life and strife in the country, often including social issues such as the rich and the poor, child marriages etc.

Gasper has toured the UK and Europe several times since his breakthrough video, playing in all environments from seated arts centre spaces to major festival stages. This year, Gasper will be transforming his customary one-man-band show and perform with a 3-piece band for the very first time in the UK. Along for the ride is Malawi born songsmith and cultural proponent Luhangah on additional vocals and percussion, as well as Gasper’s long-time producer and collaborator Mattias Stålnacke on guitars. Gasper will also release his new record “Chule Chule Iwe” to coincide with a UK tour in May/June of 2025.

“His music is simple but joyous, and totally infectious” – Songlines Magazine

“His songs are moving to hear and a spectacle to watch” – Simon Broughton, Evening Standard

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

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.

The East Pointers (with special guests Saije)

JUNO Award-winners, The East Pointers, are redefining the ever-evolving genre – modern folk – with dancefloor-shaking, ceiling-rattling, electro-trad breakdowns, and a glorious combination of folk, pop, and dance music. Already internationally acknowledged as musical trailblazers, their latest EPs House Of Dreams and Safe In Sound capture the furious energy of their live shows and push the boundaries of East Coast folk while lighting a path for a new generation of music lovers.

Fans of The East Pointers have Koady Chaisson to thank for being the kinetic force behind the JUNO-Award winning indie-folk trio since the group formed in 2014. The dancefloor-shaking, electro-trad glorious combination of folk/pop has brought so much joy to audiences around the world. And now, even posthumously, Koady’s energetic fire continues to blaze the musical trail onward.

It was on January 6, 2022 that Koady Chaisson of The East Pointers passed away from an unexpected heart aneurysm at 37. Those who were lucky to have been influenced by his creative and generous soul felt like a black hole had suddenly formed where the supernova of Koady’s light had been.

But before his passing, Koady, Tim Chaisson, and Jake Charron, had recorded most of the tracks for two new EPs. Unlike any of the The East Pointers’ material to date, these precious songs are shiny and melodic, nostalgia-flared, folk experimental pop but with the same driving trad hooks for which the band has become known and revered.

The first EP, House of Dreams, was released in September 2022 and was nominated for a JUNO Award in 2023. The second EP, Safe In Sound, was released in November 2023.

The East Pointers have toured extensively in the UK, USA, Japan, and Australia, in addition to their native Canada, and have become firm festival favourites around the globe. Their debut album Secret Victory won the 2017 JUNO Award for ‘Traditional Album of the Year’, their 2017 album What We Leave Behind and their 2022 EP House Of Dreams were nominated for JUNO Awards, and they have developed loyal fanbases in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Europe, Mexico, the USA, and Canada.

Our WemsFest audience were lucky to experience one of the last concerts The East Pointers played as a trio, in November 2021. We are delighted to welcome Tim and Jake back to our stage for the last date of The East Pointers’ UK Spring 2025 tour.

For this show only, The East Pointers will have support from special guests Saije!

Saije is an award-winning, indie-folk duo whose soulful harmonies, dynamic guitar-lines and percussive breakdowns breathe life into heartfelt stories. Their songwriting is crafted from the depths; stirring melodies bound together with graceful lyricism, and through multitasking techniques, the pair create a full-bodied sound enriched by flavours from their travels around the globe.

After being awarded Folk Alliance Australia’s ‘Young Artist of the Year 2019-2021’, Saije has toured extensively in Australia, throughout Canada in 2020 and most recently two 50-plus-date Europe and UK tours in 2023 and 2024, playing a plethora of sold-out performances and festival appearances, including at Woodford Folk Festival (AUS), Galway Folk Festival (IRE), Surfana Festival (NL), Magpies Nest (UK) and a Folk Alliance International Official Showcase (US). Saije have supported some of Australia’s most renowned singer songwriters such as Ziggy Alberts, Kim Churchill and Steph Strings. They continue to uplift both national and international audiences through their unifying performances and a warmth that fills small halls and overflows from large festival stages.

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

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.

The Barleycorn Tavern, which is a stone’s throw from the Village Hall, are very kindly offering ticket holders 2 for 1 meals before the concert. You’ll need to call them and book at least 3 days before the event, and will need to show either your ticket or your WeGotTickets.com email.