Tickled Pink are celebrating their 21st birthday this year, so it seems quite
apt to write a brief potted history of the band for Shreds and Patches.
I had been working with The Albion Band and the Albion Dance Band during the mid
eighties and was quite disillusioned by the lack of decent, punchy, ceilidh bands
with the obvious exceptions being Old Swan, Flowers and Frolics etc etc. So I
decided to put together a band that would kick some of the “blue knicker” brigade
into touch. The brief was to put together a “Marmite” band, a love us or hate us
band!!!!!!
The first line-up of Tickled Pink included Gerald Claridge, Guy Fletcher, Jane
Ellison, Matt Parkin and John Shepherd.......Matt Parkin went on to join Indie
rockers Sisters of Mercy and The Mission.....and John Shepherd returned to teaching
after a stint in the Albion Band.
We performed at Sidmouth in our first year and were very pleased with the audience
reaction to our loud, take no prisoners approach to English Ceilidh, working with
the likes of Taffy Thomas, Eddie Upton and Hugh Rippon. Shortly after Sidmouth we
replaced Matt with our current Bassist Trevor Landen , who had previously worked with
experimental morris side, The Great Northern Eclectics......Anyone remember them?
John Shepherd departed fairly quickly and it was during an Albion Band gig in Bradford
that I spotted our current keyboard player Rob Kay aka Prof. Who was, at that time,
one of Jez Lowes Bad Pennies.......after a few beers and a mutual appreciation session
he was conscripted into the ranks.
This proved to be the steady line-up that recorded our first Album, cleverly titled
Tickled Pink. It was nearly 15 years before we augmented the band with Mark Jolley on
fiddle and Rainbowchaser Mark Hutchinson on electric guitar to record our second album,
Terpsichore Polyhymnia.
During our 21 year history we have played almost every festival in the UK and have
kept true to our original brief. Coining the phrase “if it’s too loud your too old”.
Even our publicity states we are “the loudest ceilidh band in the universe”. I don’t
think it can be construed as arrogance, just knowing what we want to be and going for it.
To celebrate our 21st year, we have made a visit to Rooksmere Studios in Northampton
to record “Tickled Pink – Ceilidh” , a collection of our favourite English dance tunes.
Recorded totally live in the studio with no trickery or overdubs, we are calling this
our first album. Well, if it’s good enough for Star Wars to record the prequel third
then its good enough for us!!!!
This year we will be playing at Moulton, Sidmouth, Shrewsbury and Swanage
Festivals.....so we hope to catch you there.....Please come and say hi
Cheers