McGoldrick, McCusker, & Doyle

Does Folk Music arguably get better than when these 3 luminaries get together onstage ?
Michael McGoldrick – the English master of flutes, whistles, and Uillean pipes – is joined by his mates the renowned Scottish fiddler John McCusker and exceptional Irish guitarist/vocalist John Doyle to play blistering tunes, tear-jerking slow airs, and they add a liberal dose of humour – 3 mates on stage with awesome empathy in a room perfect for their music. They may look sombre but their music certainly isn’t !

🎶  McGoldrick, McCusker, & Doyle   🎵
🗓️ Thursday 4th March
📍 Chichester Assembly Rooms, The Council House, North Street, Chichester, PO19 1LQ
🕗 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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“Traditional music at it’s most graceful, ingenious and jaw dropping” – The Guardian

McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle are one of the most important and sought-after collaborations in contemporary Celtic music … a true folk supergroup whose influence reaches far beyond the tradition.

Individually, they are world-renowned artists; together, they form a trio whose instinctive interplay, decades-deep friendship and effortless command of their craft have made them a benchmark for modern folk musicianship.

Between them, Michael McGoldrick (flute, uilleann pipes, whistles), John McCusker (fiddle, whistles, harmonium) and John Doyle (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, mandola) have helped shape the sound of the genre for more than three decades. Their collective CV tells its own story: founding members of era-defining bands, vital members of the Transatlantic Sessions house band, BBC Folk Award winners, composers, producers, and solo artists whose fingerprints can be found across the most influential traditional and roots recordings of the last generation.

What elevates the trio even further is the extraordinary regard they command from their peers. As a collective, they are highly sought after for guest appearances and studio collaborations, bringing their unmistakable musical intelligence to projects across genres.  Their playing features on work by artists such as Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Paul Weller, Steve Martin, Joan Baez, David Gilmour, Eddi Reader, Julie Folwis to name but a few – testament to the respect they hold at the highest levels of the music world. When McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle appear on a record, it signals authenticity, mastery, and a deep-rooted connection to the heart of the tradition.

Their own trio work is equally acclaimed. From the instinctive brilliance of their first studio album The Wishing Tree to the electrifying spontaneity of their live concerts, they create music that feels both timeless and urgently alive. Sets unfold like conversations … tunes and songs passed back and forth with ease, humour, precision and playfulness … the kind of musical telepathy that can only come from growing up, travelling and playing together for most of their lives.

Bridging the Irish and Scottish traditions with grace and innovation, McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle have become a defining ensemble of their generation. Their performances are celebrated as masterclasses in ensemble playing, rich in tradition yet always forward-looking. Audiences and critics alike praise their shows as moments of musical alchemy: spontaneous, moving, and thrillingly alive.

As individuals they are exceptional; as a trio, they are iconic.

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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 adwemsfest@gmail.com or 07802 500 050 and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Flook – celebrating their 30th anniversary!

Anglo-Irish cutting edge folk music doesn’t get much better that this !

Flook are returning to WemsFest, to celebrate their 30th anniversary!
Weds 26th Nov 8pm
St James Church, Emsworth, PO10 7BY

🎫 Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

FLOOK : CELEBRATING 30 YEARS IN 2025!

What began in 1995 as a ground-breaking union of musicians and instruments, has continued as a unique musical offering through one live album, four studio albums and countless outstanding performances.

A new recording is due for release in early 2025. After 30 years Flook show no sign of letting-up in their brilliance, their dynamism, or their inventive flair.

The band early on evolved an inimitable trademark sound and hold fast to their rightful reputation as exceptional musical innovators; the whistles and flutes of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen, the guitar of Ed Boyd and the bodhran of John Joe Kelly weaving and spinning tunes rooted in tradition over precise acoustic grooves, with a rare blend of fiery technical brilliance, delicate ensemble interaction and a bold, adventurous musical imagination.

There is an ever present abundance of individual virtuosity amongst Flook’s four members, but there is also something wholly unique when this iconic Anglo-Irish band step on stage together, their playing always an intuitive, almost symbiotic, exchange between the various flutes, whistles, frets and skins. An evening and a celebration you don’t want to miss out on.

‘An absolute powerhouse, a flute and whistle-led, eight-legged jig machine. Jigs, reels and waltzes whirl by. Each as glorious as the last, the musicianship as extraordinary, the mood never any less than euphoric’ – Fatea Magazine Live Review, November 2023

‘Nothing short of transcendent… No other band sound like Flook and the new material has pushed them to new, exhilarating heights’ – Songlines Magazine , July 2019

‘Never have I seen so many people so completely and utterly spellbound…the most magical of experiences’ – The Irish Post

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show
Unreserved seating

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

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

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.

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 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.

 

McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle

If you somehow still don’t know that these guys are worth buying your ticket for now…. 🤷‍♀️  could you just please take our word for it and get yourself that seat at The Lens for March 4th.

They’ve been called ‘the legendary triumvirate‘.

They’ve been founding, former, and current members of bands such as Solas, The Battlefield Band, Flook, Lunasa & Capercaillie.

They’ve worked with musical pioneers including Joan Baez, Linda Thompson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mark Knopfler, Bob Dylan, Paul Weller, Eddi Reader, Heidi Talbot, Kris Drever & John Cale.

You like The Transatlantic Sessions?  Then you’ve seen these guys already!

Michael McGoldrick, John McCusker & John Doyle are simply brilliant at what they do!  All three musicians have won global acclaim for being the absolute top shelf of trad Celtic music.  This will be their 7th WemsFest appearance (including several special online shows during the pandemic) and we are thrilled to have them back!

Michael McGoldrick – (Manchester) flute, whistles, Uileann pipes, bodhran, clarinet, conga

John McCusker – (Glasgow) fiddle, whistles, harmonium

John Doyle – (Dublin) vocals, guitar, bouzouki, mandola

“The Wishing Tree is exceptional and has to be a front-runner for album of the year” – Folk Radio

“A sparklingly tight programme… an excellent sound balance… never tiresome” – The Scotsman

“It takes a lifetime of playing to sound as effortless as these guys” – The Herald

“What an absolute pleasure to share in their warmth, intimacy and richly talented company” – Folking.com

Doors 7.30 for an 8pm show

Tickets available directly from Portsmouth Guildhall at the link here.

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas have been performing together for 20 years and we have finally got them booked for our WemsFest stage!

Known as “the Michael Jordan of Scottish fiddling”, Alasdair’s musical partnership with Californian cellist Natalie is a true delight for all listeners.

The musical partnership between consummate performer Alasdair Fraser, “the Michael Jordan of Scottish fiddling”, and brilliant Californian cellist Natalie Haas spans the full spectrum between intimate chamber music and ecstatic dance energy. Over the last 20 years of creating a buzz at festivals and concert halls across the world, they have truly set the standard for fiddle and cello in traditional music. They continue to thrill audiences internationally with their virtuosic playing, their near-telepathic understanding and the joyful spontaneity and sheer physical presence of their music.

Fraser has a concert and recording career spanning over 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, radio and television credits, and feature performances on top movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans, Titanic, etc.). In 2011, he was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.  Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, is one of the most sought after cellists in traditional music today.  She has performed and recorded with a who’s who of the fiddle world including Mark O’Connor, Natalie MacMaster, Irish supergroups Solas and Altan, Liz Carroll, Dirk Powell, Brittany Haas, Darol Anger, Jeremy Kittel, Hanneke Cassel, Laura Cortese, and many more.

This seemingly unlikely pairing of fiddle and cello is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser. His search eventually led him to find a cellist who could help return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music, where it stood for hundreds of years before being relegated to the orchestra.  The duo’s debut recording, Fire & Grace, won the coveted the Scots Trad Music “Album of the Year” award, the Scottish equivalent of a Grammy. Since its release, the two have gone on to record five more critically acclaimed albums that blend a profound understanding of the Scottish tradition with cutting-edge string explorations. In additional to performing, they both have motivated generations of string players through their teaching at fiddle camps across the globe.

‘You would think they’d been playing together for centuries. While his fiddle dances, her cello throbs darkly or plucks puckishly. Then Haas opens her cello’s throat, joining Fraser in soaring sustains, windswept refrains, and sudden, jazzy explosions. Their sound is as urbane as a Manhattan midnight, and as wild as a Clackmannan winter!’ – Boston Globe

‘As many gigs as they must have played together over the past decade or so, there remains a striking spontaneity about Fraser and Haas’s music-making. He has tonal variation and attack to spare, but what makes them so consistently absorbing is the responsiveness each shows to the other. Haas is more than a cellist: she’s the rhythm section who uses the percussive chip’n’chop of her bowing and the double bass-like pulse of her pizzicato playing to great effect. The accompanist’s role moves so fluently between them, building tension all the while, and then they’ll slip into unison and it’s like floodgates opening.’ – The Herald

‘Fraser, one of the most respected of all exponents of the Scots fiddle, would look long and hard to find a more appropriate cellist as a partner…A positive joy.’ – The Scotsman

 

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 (and selling fast already!!) 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.