Folk star Sam Sweeney helps Peterborough remember the Great War
Folk superstar Sam Sweeney, fiddler for Bellowhead, takes his audience on a moving journey as he recounts his discovery of an old violin in an instrument shop in Oxford
Although it looked new, after he’d bought it, he found a label inside dating it back to 1915 and indicating it had belonged to a Richard S Howard. Further investigation revealed that Richard had signed up in 1916 to the army at the age of 35 but was killed a year later during the battle of Messines in West Flanders. The violin, which he’d been in the process of making himself, was left unfinished and kept by his daughter Rose. It was only after her death, when the incomplete instrument was sold at auction, that it was finally completed and then acquired by Sam. The history of the fiddle inspired Sam to create a multimedia performance that tells its 100-year story, to mark the centenary of the war that claimed its maker. Naturally, he will be playing the actual fiddle itself.
Here’s a video of Sam playing the haunting ‘Bagpipes & Mount Hill’ as a taster for this event, a must-see for folk fans everywhere.
https://youtu.be/R_1it6t67Ck
Sam Sweeney’s Fiddle – Made in the Great War
Tickets cost £15 or £13.50 for concessions. To book, call 01733 207 239.
Tuesday, 16 September
Key Theatre, Embankment Road, Peterborough
