His 2006 album ‘Freedom Fields’ sold over 120,000 copies in the UK alone and helped Seth build on his traditional cult following, finding a whole new audience for his rhythmic, captivating brand of indie-folk song writing. Seth was named Folk Singer of the Year and album Freedom Fields was awarded Album of the Year at the prestigious Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2007. He released his most recent studio album Hearts & Minds in July 2010. The follow up to 2008’s Top 10 critically acclaimed Poor Man’s Heaven, Hearts & Minds encompasses traditional and modern themes of love, loss and human struggle.

This tour will see Seth playing songs from his four hit albums plus brand new tracks. Expect an enthralling and energetic live performance from award-winning Lakeman and the superbly talented multi-instrumentalists Benji Kirkpatrick and Cormac Byrne.

Tickets £15 advance or £18 on the door.

For tickets visit Gloucester Guildhall’s Box Office, call 01452 503050 or book online at www.gloucesterguildhall.co.uk. Tickets are also available from the Tourist Information Centre on Southgate Street in Gloucester.

Once described as what would happen if you gave ‘every member of Belle & Sebastian a dangerous dose of Sherbet Dip and Red Bull’, Los Campesinos! are a Welsh band without any Welsh band members. They got together at Cardiff University (all seven members of the band eventually left with a degree) and proceeded to gig around the area and post their music on the internet until they were enthusiastically picked up by Bethan Elfyn and Huw Stephens and featured on their Radio 1 Wales show. The band’s reputation continued to grow and in August 2006 they landed a support slot with Broken Social Scene. A few months later they signed to Wichita Recordings and by February 2007 they had released their first single, double A-side We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives/Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s). In October that year they embarked on their first full UK tour.

Debut album, Hold On Now, Youngster, was released in February 2008 to glowing praise from critics. Lauded as a ‘giddy, tuneful love note to individuality, pathos, silliness and everything else indie-pop built its name on’, it features crescendos, hooks and clever turns of phrase in all the right places to perfectly complement the emotional vividness of the poetic lyrics. In August that year the band released another record entitled We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, proclaiming that there were not going to be any singles released from it and there would be limited distribution. Though many consider it to be an album due to its length, the band have always referred to it as an extended EP, citing ‘artistic reasons’.

With the band’s songwriting skills on a steady upwards trajectory, the second official album, Romance Is Boring, was released in February 2010, and they recently announced the launch of their quarterly fanzine, Heat Rash, which is intended to ‘allow us to act in the moment, to talk about what we want to, as a platform for other mediums of ‘art’, and to write and release songs in a more spontaneous way. This will hopefully allow a less formal, more fluid, DIY vein of work to develop alongside, and outside, of our album releases.’

Colourful and energetic, this is a show not to be missed!

http://www.gloucesterguildhall.co.uk/

Acts include The Big Blues Tribe, a nine piece blues band in the style of BB King and Ray Charles. With a full five piece brass section, from trumpet to baritone sax, and five excellent voices, the Big Blues Tribe brings good-time big band blues to life.

The Bex Marshall Band is described as an explosion of blue hot acoustic slide roots/rock, poker twisted with a whippin’ of Bluegrass, a versatile guitarist with a unique earthy melting pot of a voice – not to be missed!

Rollo Markee & the Tailshakers formed in the spring of 1998 with a vision to create a Blues-Swing band with an authentic 1950s/60s sound. A decade on, their dedication to blues and their attention to detail have produced a confident, stylish, highly entertaining act. They use vintage instruments, amplifiers and microphones to deliver swings that jump and move and ballads with a warmth of toe that is reminiscent of the Chess recordings.

Chris Gibbons has over 30 years experience as a professional musician, writer and an accomplished session guitarist, his music features his own unique blend of blues, funk and world styles.

The programme will also include a series of short performances between the bands from Dave Reeves, a performer poet and freereed player. He has variously been described as a folk poet, a ranter, a socio-political punk poet, and as making people choke on their beer with laughter.

See www.tauruscrafts.co.uk for more details.

Friday night headliners The Zydeco Diamonds, led by ex-ZFunk accordian player Gavin Lewery, who is widely considered to be the best Cajun/Zydeco accordian player in the UK, will be joined for this tour only by Harold Guillory, one of the biggest names in the genre today. A direct descendant of Zydeco founder Amade Ardoin and grandson of the great Boisec Ardoin, Harold will also be running his infamous dance workshops on the Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday afternoon The Whiskey River Zydeco Twisters will be making a welcome return to the festival, after they blew the roof off last year. They’ll certainly get you warmed up for a real treat on Saturday night in the form of The Flatville Aces, who are renowned as one of the best Cajun bands in the UK.

The final day of the festival features the brilliant Cajun Dawgs, who combine traditional Louisiana Cajun and Zydeco with swamp Blues, Country and early rock’n'roll, all served up with an earthy authentic sound resonating back to the 1940s and 1950s, and Sunday headliners The Bayou Brothers. All the way from San Diego, their unique blend of intricate harmonies and rocking Zydeco blues, combined with trademark dazzling showmanship and a lot of dancing, will be a riotous end to what proves to be a fantastic festival.

Delivering an unrivalled mix of music and dance rooted in the traditions of America’s Deep South, Gloucester’s Cajun & Zydeco Festival is hot and steamy entertainment for a miserable January.

Weekend tickets £55, Friday tickets £20, Saturday tickets £25, Sunday tickets £25

For tickets visit Gloucester Guildhall’s Box Office, call 01452 503050 or book online at www.gloucesterguildhall.co.uk

Tickets are also available from the Tourist Information Centre on Southgate Street.

An exciting and unusual evening combining the awesome talents of international guitarist Rick Payne with the relevant and irreverent verse of the star of the roaring boy world of performance poetry, Peter Wyton.

Slide guitar maestro Rick Payne’s performances have taken him to prime time TV, to festivals and theatres throughout UK and on tour to Europe, USA, Scandinavia and the Greek Islands.

Reviewers have described his sound as: heart wrenching and passionate, delicate and scorching, seriously brilliant, totally absorbing and spellbindingly evocative with raw and fiery vocals to match.

Peter Wyton has twice been nominated for the Forward Book Of Poetry, appearing in it in 1997 alongside Seamus Heaney, U. A. Fanthorpe and Ruth Padel. He has appeared at events as diverse as Cheltenham Literature Festival and Glastonbury, Radio 4 and Oxford TV delighting everyone from formalists to the avant-garde. Reviewed as; ready with irony, riddled with word play, acute with enquiry and a real writer with something to say; often something uniquely skewed. He writes with economy and wit.

Each is widely known as a solo artist. As the duo Rhythm And Muse they mix their solo work with collaborations of both arts. The music encompasses Celtic, traditional American folk, mediaeval, Spanish and of course blues and ragtime. The poetry ranges from the reflective to the hilariously funny and always has a cutting edge.

‘Just brilliant – nicely put together, lots of laughter with honest and well thought out perceptions of life intertwined with some great music. This partnership is destined for much higher things. ‘The Lowdown’

http://www.rickpayne.co.uk/

www.myspace.com/peterwytonpoet

Tickets available from the Three Choirs Festival Office – 0845 652 1823

Some of the events will be free to enter at any time; others will be by ticket only. The suggested starting point for your Discover Creative Campden Weekend is the exhibition of works by members in the Upper Town Hall. Here you will get a glimpse of the creativity which exists in Chipping Campden. But this is just a taster; to really appreciate both the weekend and the creativity visit the open studios and other events and to be announced in a creative trail around Chipping Campden. On Saturday you can enjoy teas, coffees and light lunches, together with some crafts in action by Chipping Campden’s Country Markets, in the Lower Town Hall.

Events include Abstract Art is Rubbish, Creative Cows, Chocolate Workshop, Made in Campden, Throw Your Own Pot, Painting in Action, and many more.