To bring a living legend from Donegal on a tour of South East England was an amazing coup for Kentish website KentFolk. As a special event for Fiddlers Various 2007 master Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples played 5 concerts and held 2 fiddle workshops, in Wales, London, Lewes near Brighton, in Littlebourne near Canterbury, as well as in Gillingham on the Medway.

At the London Irish Centre in Camden (Friday 8th June), Tommy Peoples played to a capacity crowd of 120, as part of the run-up to the Return To Camden Town festival. A very knowledgeable audience, they greeted Tommy's performance with great enthusiasm. Tommy was unexpectedly accompanied on the guitar by an old friend from Co. Clare, Mary McGannon who just happened to be down from Scotland at the time. Fiddler Danny Meehan (a fellow Donegal man who has been resident in London for many years) joined Tommy on stage for a few spirited numbers. Karen Ryan of The London Lasses writes: " ... it was fantastic to hear Tommy's playing up close again."

Tommy started the workshop by working on his piece "Julia Devine" - complex, in I think 4 parts, with 2 of the parts having 2 different endings. By mid-afternoon most of the workshop students were exhausted. The final part of the workshop was nominally on ornamentation, but mostly ended up as an interview of Tommy by the students.

Ben Paley - Appalachian and Swedish fiddle - who was at both the fiddle workshop and the concert, wrote : "Thank you so much for organising Tommy's tour. It really was one of the most inspiring things I've heard ever, ..."
Valmai Goodyear also writes of the Lewes Arms workshop and concert : "Many thanks ... above all for bringing Tommy to Lewes. It was unforgettable. I think the workshops were a spiritual experience for all concerned."

On Sunday 10th June Tommy Peoples drove to the Littlebourne Thatched Barn, in Kent, and gave an afternoon workshop in the gentle afternoon sunshine, to 15 students, including Eoghan Neff, (all-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil and Pan-Celtic winner) currently undertaking doctoral research at Cardiff University. Eoghan writes "My research is based on a history of the Irish fiddle, mainly examining issues of ergonomics and improvisation."

There were just over 150 people at Tommy Peoples' evening concert. Tommy was visibly shaken by the experience of playing in the wonderful barn, but gave a remarkable performance. The quality of the slow airs was exquisite, the ornamentation and detail inspired and faultless, particularly impressive in the jigs and reels.

Multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor is a man of few words, but wrote : " ... there are many good fiddle players in Kent [and I 've had the privilege of playing gigs with most of them] but last night was a real revelation, or rather a reminder of the power of solo traditional fiddling ... " In the second half three of the workshop students joined Tommy for a set. Near the end of the concert Eoghan Neff was invited onto the stage by Tommy, and they played two remarkable duets.

© Vic Smith of Brighton, 2007.