The Full English

The Full English

The Full English is a folk group from England formed around a project sponsored by the English Folk Dance and Song Society. It brings together Rob Harbron, Fay Hield, Nancy Kerr, Seth Lakeman, Ben Nicholls, Martin Simpson and Sam Sweeney.

Project and repertoire

The group forms around a project that draws on early 20th-century folk song collections by Harry Albino, Lucy Broadwood, Clive Carey, Percy Grainger, Maud Karpeles, Frank Kidson, Thomas Fairman Ordish, Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Alfred Williams. The project creates a searchable database of British folk songs, tunes, dances and customs, described as the most comprehensive of its kind.

To launch the project, Fay Hield assembles the band and selects material from these historical collections. The group also records an album of songs drawn from the archives.

Members and musical background

Fay Hield is a singer and folk scholar. Seth Lakeman contributes fiddle and vocals and is known for bringing English folk into a wider mainstream through high-energy performances and a run of successful albums. Martin Simpson is a guitarist. Nancy Kerr is a fiddler and singer with a strong focus on English traditional material and associations with Eliza Carthy and James Fagan. Sam Sweeney plays fiddle and Rob Harbron plays concertina; both also appear in Fay Hield’s backing band The Hurricane Party and in Jon Boden’s Remnant Kings. Ben Nicholls plays double bass and also works with the Seth Lakeman Band, Martin Carthy and Jimmy Somerville.