Dave Levett (bass guitar, melodeon, banjo, mandolin)
Ben Paley (fiddle)
Bing Lyle (accordion)
Tina Smith (concertina)
Vic Smith (mandola, guitar, caller)
Listen to The Sussex Pistols
The Quaker (2 mins 43 secs), 3842Kb
The College Hornpipe (6 mins 05 secs) 8560kb
The Sussex Pistols also have a "My Space" site where six tracks of their playing can be heard. Click here to go to it.
To book the band or for more details, please e-mail Tina Smith
Ian Kearey was founder member and bass and sometime guitar player for The Oyster Band (as they were then known), appearing on their albums until 'Wide Blue Yonder'. He has worked as producer with Michelle Shocked and Sheffield band Boot Fare, while recording and playing live with, among others, John Fahey, Texas fiddler Erik Hokkanen, Billy Bragg and Leon Rosselson, Sandra Kerr, Ivor Cutler, Anne Lister and singer/songwriters Heidi Berry, Pete Astor and Caroline Trettine - not to mention street-corner busking in LA with Ry Cooder. As well as the Sussex Pistols, he also plays for country dancing with Used Notes alongside Dan Quinn, Chris Taylor and Jim Younger. He has been a constant on albums by Bristol poetry/rock legends The Blue Aeroplanes, and in 1987 released a guitar/vocal album, 'Siamese Boyfriends' with Aeroplanes leader Gerard Langley, which was described in the Melody Maker as 'joining up the dots between Martin Carthy and Ry Cooder - brilliantly'. A solo album, 'Preaching to the Convertible', received very good reviews on its release in 2001, and a new album of instrumentals is in production. Latest project is a piece for a concept album of a James Joyce set of poems.
Ian's repertoire includes traditional and self-penned guitar tunes, trad songs from the USA and UK, plus songs by himself and other people that he just feels like doing...
Dave Levett has worked with a great variety of country and folk rock, blues and rock bands over the years. As well as this band, he currently plays with a glam-rock band! He is a real multi-instrumentalist but with the Sussex Pistols, he is mainly heard playing bass guitar, although he also plays banjo, melodeon and whistle. He has had a long association with barn dance bands and has played with The Catsfield Steamers, Chequered Roots, Banjax and Maxwell's Demon.
Ben Paley has been playing the traditional music of Sweden, Ireland and the USA (as well as blues, jazz and rock of various kinds) since he was six, on the stages, screens and street corners of two continents. His book of Swedish traditional tunes is one of the classics of that music. As a fully professional musician, he has toured and recorded extensively with his famed father Tom, both as a duo and with Joe Locker as the New Deal String Band, the leading Old Timey band in Europe. He was a member of the prominent country/rock band, The Wild Turkey Brothers. In that band, he played alongside the guitarist, Tab Hunter, whom he still plays with regularly as a duo. He has been in considerable demand as a session musician and he has worked with Chris Wood, the Levellers, the Sawdoctors, Mandragora and Murray Lachlan Young, He has been called "The finest folk fiddler of his generation" by fROOTS magazine.
Bing Lyle is the powerhouse of the band with his mighty accordion playing. He started his musical career as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, which gave him a lasting love of modal music. His classical training studies derailed by exposure to Punk Rock and traditional music, he took up the accordion and busked for five years round Europe. Bing was musical director of the Brighton community arts organisation Same Sky from 1989-96 since when he has been working with all Ireland concertina champion Mandy Murray, singer-songwriter Pete Morton, singer and storyteller Pete Castle. He is a regular tutor for the folk arts project Trads and Herbie Flowers' Rockshop. In 1998 he joined the Travelling Light Theatre Company's production of Tir na n'og. touring the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA. Although he plays accordion, piano, flute and guitar, Bing is essentially a singer and composer; his original songs and tunes make up a large part of the Lyle/Paley repertoire.
Tina Smith plays English concertina. She has been involved with folk music
for over 30 years,
both as a musician and an organiser. She was co-resident and
organiser at two London folk clubs in the mid-sixties and at
clubs in Brighton, Isfield and Lewes from 1968 onwards. She was
one of the organisers of the popular Lewes Folk Days and has
been involved in many other Sussex folk events both as performer
and organiser. She was one of the residents at the Coppersongs
folk club in Peacehaven. Up until 1975 she was one of the
founding presenters of the BBC Radio Brighton folk music
programme, "Minstrels Gallery".
She has played in several bands, including The Creepy Crawley Concertina Combo,
The Dodgy Button Band, The Lewes Band and Four Piece Suite. She is one of the
resident performers at the Royal Oak Folk evenings in Lewes.
Vic Smith plays guitar and mandolo and is the band's caller.
He has been involved in folk music activities for more than
30 years as singer, folk dance band musician and caller, club,
festival and event organiser, broadcaster, journalist, critic
and writer and magazine editor Along with Tina, he has been
running folk clubs in Woolwich, Blackheath, Brighton, Isfield
and Lewes. The current very successful venture at the Royal Oak
has been running since 1992.
Again with Tina, he has played and called with a number of successful folk dance
bands.
Along with Jim Marshall, he organises and edits "The Sussex
Folk Diary" and has been doing so for over 30 years. Again
in partnership with Jim, he was presenter/producer of
"Minstrels Gallery" the weekly local radio programme
which catered for folk music enthusiasts in the south of England
for 25 years. He writes for a range of folk and traditional
music publications including "Musical Traditions" and "Folk
Roots".
The band has played in every kind of venue,- from windswept fields and dusty barns, to zoos, faded hydro hotels and elaborate marquees- and for every occasion, including birthday and wedding parties, PTA and works outings, street parties and charity fund-raising events. They have also played at the Crawley and Tenterden folk festivals and the Brighton Fringe festival.
As caller, Vic can get anyone up to dance, and the band's infectious rhythms and lively attitude guarantee a successful occasion. The band owns its own PA system.
A demo CD of their playing is available:-
Here are some unsolicited comments written by people after they have booked us:-
Hi Tina
First of all, so sorry that it has taken me so long to send this email!
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the Sussex Pistols, on behalf of Matt and myself, for the amazing set you played at our wedding!! Our guests are still commenting on how much they enjoyed it. It was so lovely to see all our friends and family, young and old, having such a fantastic time. The calling and playing were equally brilliant. I have been to a few barndances in my time and that was absolutely the best!!
Thank you once again.
Best wishes
Megan
September 2008 Hi Tina
Thanks very much to you and the band for helping to make our party so memorable.
Your sound is excellent and you actually seem to enjoy making music!
Chris
Ps I’ll always recommend you in future
August 2008 Hi Tina!
I just wanted to say everyone really enjoyed the Sussex Pistols at Hove Rugby Club, and it was great for you to get everyone up and dancing!
I will definately be using you for future events.
Kind regards
Rebecca
August 2008 Can I say how pleased we were that we chose your band to play at our wedding. You were brilliant and to have got the French out of their seats was a real achievement! Everyone that has been in contact with my parents since the wedding have praised you really highly.
August 2008 Thank you for playing for series of the weekly ceilidhs for the Open University Summer Schools. we would like you to know that in our surveys, we got nothing but positive feedback for your events. We hope that you will be able to play for us again next summer.
July 2008 Just wanted to say a huge big 'thank you' for making our party go so well. I have had so many phone calls today saying thank you and how brill you were. You certainly made it a success.
With best wishes
February 2008 Dear Tina,
Just wanted to drop you a line and say a very big thank you for last night. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were very complimentary about the band. It was great to look around and see so many laughing, smiling faces! Ellie especially had a great time and felt her birthday was brilliantly celebrated.
Please pass on our thanks to the rest of the band,
With best wishes,
Claire & Brian
January 2007 Hello Tina, May I take this opportunity to thank you and the band for making our Burns night such a success. Everyone really enjoyed your music. It was wonderful to see so many happy faces dancing the night away. We have had so many positive comments about the evening, so on behalf of Brighton College Family society- Well done!
October 2006
"Dear Tina and the rest of the band
Just wanted to do a quick note to thank you so much for the barn dance last week.
Those that came had a fantastic time and said it was so much fun! You were all brill.
We loved the music. Thanks again. We'll be in contact again - no doubt."
September 2006
"Dear Sussex Pistols,
Thank you so much for playing at my 60th birthday party - you were wonderful! Did I pay
you enough? - you worked so hard, it didn't seem much."
September 2006
"Dear Tina & the band,
Thank you for the wonderful barn dance last weekend. Everyone has been telling us how
much they enjoyed both the music and the dancing."
May 2006 "Can you please thank the band for playing at our wedding reception. We had a wonderful time, as did all our guests. You really made the reception the party we wanted! Thank you."
"Dear Tina,
We would like to thank you and the rest of the Sussex Pistols for playing at our
wedding last Saturday at Walton's Oak Barn. The music was great and played with huge
enthusiasm and energy throughout. The caller was wonderful and made it very easy to
follow even unfamiliar dances."
May 2005 "Festival ceilidh was the perfect send-off for this year's festival….Vic Smith and The Sussex Pistols talked everyone through the simple moves before each dance began so no-one needed to know the moves beforehand. It was wonderful to see whole families, often spanning three generations, laughing and enjoying the same thing." (extract from the Brighton Argus)
September 2003 "Thank you so much for playing at our wedding. Everyone there said how great you were and we thought your playing was wonderful! If we ever have another big party I'd love to have you play again."
July 2002 "Thank you so much for playing at our wedding. The video we have of the barn dance makes hilarious watching, and it really stands out that everyone is happy and had such a great time. Please pass our thanks on to the caller who did a great job coaxing reluctant guests."
October 2001 "We have been reliving the happiness of a week ago! what a super evening. Thanks to your excellent group - wonderful musicians who entered into the spirit of the occasion and gave us such a brilliant time."
February 1999 "We would like to thank The Sussex Pistols very much for playing at our wedding reception. We thoroughly enjoyed the music and the dancing, and so did our guests. Thank you once again"
July 1993 "This is to say a huge thank you to you and the rest of the band for all you efforts last Saturday. Everyone I have spoken to had a really great time. This was mostly due to the quality of your music and the wonderful calling.
May 1993 "I would like to thank The Sussex Pistols for providing such a lively entertainment during the evening. We have received many compliments on the success of the evening and this was largely due to such an excellent band and caller."
March, 1992 " It was the best evening we've had for ages and we've had lots of appreciative letters. The band was great and really exciting and uplifting. Many, many thanks."
For bookings or other information, phone Tina on 01273 478124
Or
Email her
To book Vic & Tina for a song event, Email them.
To book Bing & Ben for a song event, Email them.
Go to Royal Oak Folk Club Home Page
Go to Sussex Folk Guide
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since 5th November 2000
