1979 – 2010

1979

Sam and Simon in Cahoots. Jim in Ever After, then on a national tour with Nutshell.

1980

Sam and Simon in The Buskin’ Band. Jim moves to London, then Manchester.

1981

Ken’s work in The Nethrbow Restaurant leads him to buy a Tea Room in Rothbury Northumberland and becomes Egon Ronay Recommended in the ‘Just a Bite Guide’. He assists with the running of Linden Folk with Tony Welbrock, Rod Clements of Lindisfarne and Geoff Heslop of Black Crow records.

1982

Sam and Simon in ‘The Wilde Cigarillos’ and ‘The Fairly Solid Theatre Co.’

1983

Ken sets up ‘Pineapple Agogo’ carnival and dance band with Dodgy Clutch Theatre Co. www.dodgyclutch.com. Albums ‘Big in Winnipeg’ and ‘No Tripe Por Favor’ follow. Jim goes out to Harare, Zimbabwe, teaching English.

1984

Jim returns from Zimbabwe, settles down and gets a real job; discovers computers.

1986

Simon works on a youth project in Botswana and records an album in the Kalahari Desert with Duncan Senyatso and the Kgwape Band playing his own brand of highlife mandolin.

1987

Jim gives up the day job and forms Bernie Hot Hot with David Dunne and Pete Condor.

1988

Ken forms the Heaton People’s Band bringing the first steel pans set to the North East of England. The People soon choose to be called The 10th Avenue Band. www.tenthavenueband.co.uk.

1990

Jim forms Reel Funk Inc with Pete Condor and Shairon Rodgers.

1992

Kissing Spell shows an interest in releasing the 1978 album as a CD.

1993

Simon records ‘Private’ with Dave Heavenor as ‘The Night Visitors’. www.davidheavenor.com.

1994

Kissing Spell releases CD of ‘Caedmon’.

1996

Ken forms The Newcastle All Stars Steel Orchestra an 18 piece teenage band. www.newcastleallstars.org.uk

1998

Simon and Sam form Flaming Nora Ceilidh Band. www.flamingnora.org.uk

2000

Ken coordinates ‘Making Music On the Line’ with Folkworks, Channel 4 and Oxfam. A band of ten musicians from Shetland, Northumberland, Gascony, Catalonia and Burkina Faso perform on a year long project in each of their countries. (Catriona Macdonald, Alison , Sandra Kerr, David Oliver, Pierre Schidt and Les Sous Fifres, Cati Plana, Francina Turon, Salif Ouedrago and Mama Kouyate).

Jim forms the Jazzrascals with Peter Condor, a studio based band who publish their music on the web: www.jazzrascals.com

2001

Ken works with Richard Scott (Grand Union) in Rich Pickings and 4 Corners Music Network. 4cornersmusic.com. The network includes Yousuf Ali Khan, Gerry Hunt, Graham Raine, Cheng Yu and Zed Morgan.

2002

Kissing Spell releases a Caedmon Live CD.

Ken acts with Theatre Sans Frontieres in ‘Le Tour de France’ in a national tour. He starts a relationship with the company composing and music directing. www.tsf.org.uk

2003

Ken composes ‘Tyne Times’ for a Tyneside International Streetband Festival. A massed band of 100 musicians (Germany, France, Netherlands, UK and USA) plays the piece by the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead.

2004

Ken acts in ‘Round the World in 80 Minutes’ a further collaboration with TSF, filmed in Cameroon, Tunisia, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec for a multi media theatrical show.

Jim sets up the ‘James Bisset: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition’ project.

2006

Ken composes music for TSF’s ‘La Pelota Magica’.

2007

Ken composes music for TSF’s ‘Les Contes Dores”.

May 2008

Jim, Ken, Sam and Simon meet for 3 days of jamming to develop an album of new material in Weardale, England.

Oct 2008

Jim, Ken, Sam and Simon back to Weardale to record over two weekends in October, working up some of the material started in May

Nov 2008

Ken and Simon go to Walsall, England, and record Angela’s vocals on four tracks

Feb 2009

Jim, Sam and SImon work on the mix in Edinburgh, Scotland.

July 2009

The band meet in Weardale, jam and decide to record with a producer and released completed demos on this website only

November 2009

The band meet in Weardale to write / perfect 12 tracks for the future album

January 2010

The band meet in Weardale to write / perfect 12 tracks for the future album

March 2010

Whole band rehearses stage set in Weardale Primary School for weekend

25th April – 2nd May 2010

Jim, Ken, Sam and Simon record at Durisdeer with Steve Butler

7th & 8th May 2010

Two nights of Caedmon in concert at The Scottish Story Telling Centre Edinburgh
Angela records vocals for album in Simon’s attic.

July 2010

Jim, Ken, Sam and Simon record at Durisdeer with Steve Butler, Steve continues to mix over next few weeks.

Oct 2010

One day of final mixing with Simon, Ken and Steve.

Dec 2010

‘A Chicken to Hug’ is released on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and as a digipak CD.

March 12th, 2008 by Ken

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