Picture of Sackful of Sovereigns Mark 4


• Latest News •
Updated 1st January 2008

AND THEN THEY WERE SIX AGAIN
Typical you wait around for the best part of a year and then
two new musicians come along at once!

Welcome to the band to Heather Mennion who has joined us on concertina, flute, whistle and recorder. Heather has a wealth of experience playing with Ceilidh bands and brings a vast amount of tunes with her. Pictures to follow

And our second new member is actually a face from the past. Back in 2000 Ian Spittal left the band as our bass player and moved to Ireland. Well he's moving back and will be joining us in a couple of months on keyboards, an instrument he is no stranger to having played keyboards on "Bound for the Promised Land", Matty Groves and many others. Pictures to follow

So it's all hands to the rehearsals, new tunes, new arrangements, more gigs and, hopefully, a new CD.

We've been working on a project in the second half of 2007 that's connected to "Bound for the Promised Land" and we'll give you more news on that shortly

ALL THE BEST TO BEN
2007 started with a bit of a downer. After 3 years with the band Ben is leaving us to move back to London and we wish him all the best for his new life in the city. This means we are in need of a replacement. Ideally we'd like to carry on with the fiddle as we have just completed our new album (see below) but will consider any instrumentalist/vocalist who'd like to join us. Contact us if you are interested or know of anybody.

"THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN" NOW AVAILABLE
To coincide with the 10th Anniversary Gig we completed our new CD "The Other Side of the Coin". Featuring Ben on the Fiddle the track listing is as follows:

"Fiddle-In"
(Osborne)

"Tom, Dick, Harry and Me"
(Sackful of Sovereigns)

"Drowsy Maggie"
(trad. arr. - Sackful of Sovereigns)

"At the Break of the Day"
(Sackful of Sovereigns
countermelody - D. Harrison)

"The Fairground Lovers"
(Sackful of Sovereigns)

"Buttermilk Hill"
(trad. arr. D. Harrison, Osborne)

"Follow Me Down to Carlow"
(trad. arr. Sackful of Sovereigns)

"Lord Arlen"
(Sackful of Sovereigns)

"The Riddling Knight"
(tune - Sackful of Sovereigns
lyric trad. arr. - Sackful of Sovereigns)

"Surfing the Locks”
(tune - Sackful of Sovereigns
lyric - Sawyer)

Cost of the CD is £8.00 or £9.00 mail order.

10TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR AND CONCERT
Well would you believe it! Sackful of Sovereigns was 10 years old last year. We played the first gig on the 21st June 1996 to an invited audience in the Melksham Labour Club.

To celebrate we got in touch with ALL the band members who have played with us during that time and everybody played a special concert at the Labour Club on the 8th July 2006.

SPECIAL "PROMISED LAND" CONCERT
Another special event for 2006 was on the 14th May when
we played a special concert for Iza and Carol Goroff,
family and friends from the USA.

Carol Goroff's grandmother was Frederick Goodwin's sister and first cousin to his wife Augusta. Carol got in touch with us via the internet about our song "Bound for the Promised Land" and we sent a copy to her in Wisconsin in the states. She visited other relatives of the family and also stayed in the house where they were living before they boarded the Titanic for America.

They took us all out to lunch (3 course) at the Kings Arms Hotel in Melksham and we then played the concert in the Rachel Fowler Centre.

To"In for a Penny", is
available at the gigs or by mail order.

Cost of the CD is £5.00 or £6.00 mail order.
Select this link for more details

Don't forget the MP3 files on "Tapes and CD's". There's one from "Up to the Hilt" and the live version of "Blackleg Miner". Also just added is a live rehearsal track "In for a Penny" with Ben.

As we've said before we have started a mailing list for latest news as well as the website and can mail by snail or e-mail. To be included e-mail us at:

sackfulmailing@chdesign.co.uk