Chris Wheeler and Ged Corben started playing a few tunes together towards the end of 2000. They were doing a gig one day in February 2001 when Tony Pyrzakowski introduced himself and offered his fiddle services. It was a serendipitous meeting and the beginning of a fine partnership. The trio had a productive and stimulating three years together, learning to put their own stamp on traditional material from the celtic regions of the world, writing some material together (including the song that won the Musicoz folk award in 2003, ‘Woomera’), recording a cd, and performing at all kinds of venues. Our first paid performance together involved dodging the arrows launched by some well-watered guests at a wine promotion (we figured the organisers might have done better to have archery before lunch – and wine – rather than after).

When we came to put the cd together in early 2003 we looked around for a bass player and percussionist to give the cd more depth and interest. Enter Luke Robinson and Michael Couvret, whose playing made such a difference to the cd and they even seemed to quite like our music. They launched the cd with us in mid-2003 and for a while there we all got hooked on the big band sound. I’ve never known a percussionist to travel with so many instruments as Luke, but the more puzzling thing for me is that he knows how to play all of them. Luke is the kind of drummer you can’t do without once you’ve found him, he doesn’t just play the drums and threaten to sing, he works the audience – beware the stream of consciousness when he’s in the mood.

Big changes to the band in mid-2004 with the departure of Tony and Michael. Tony’s virtuosic fiddle playing was in many ways the signature of the band, and his optimism for what we could achieve was inspirational. We wish him 100 percent success in his new musical ventures. Michael’s other commitments got too much for him around the same time and he felt obliged to pull out. Fortunately, he still answers the phone occasionally and will come and play with us once in a while if we don’t make him practice first.

Luckily for us Mike Kerin seemed to think he could do with another distraction in his diverse musical palette. Ged and Chris met Mike in November 2003 when looking for a fiddle player to join them for a performance at the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup. Little did the event organisers know when looking for an Irish band for the gig some months beforehand that the semi-finalists would be England and France. For some reason English rugby supporters are not all that keen to hear ‘Fields of Athenry’. To make the outdoors concert even more interesting there was a major storm with thunder, lightning and strong winds during the afternoon, which became a test of audience loyalty and bets were laid about who on stage would get electrocuted first. We all moved inside eventually, and England won the match.

In August 2004, we needed a bass player for a gig for one of our favourite clients, Historic Houses Trust. Jack Mundey was to do the birthday speech, and we wanted to impress. Michael Vidale turned up, cautiously eyed off Luke's trademark metal garbage bin, but then the music was on for all. So, once again we've become five (or four, or three, or even two as required).