John Bull currently has five products available for purchase – either country dance resource packs, or CDs for listening to. This page tells you more about all of these. Just click on 'Buy Products' to make a purchase or on any cover to view and hear tracks.
These two resource packs are aimed at schoolteachers, Guide leaders – or anyone else who wishes to teach country dancing, or just have a dance at home! There are two independent volumes, 'Country Dancing for the Unwary' and 'The Next Steps'.
They provide detailed instructions for a total of 22 dances, together with CDs (or cassettes if you prefer) of all the music. Each pack contains two versions of each dance - as music only OR music and calling by Eddie, our caller.
Feedback from many of the schools and clubs currently using 'Baskets and Bananaskins' indicates that not only do the teachers find the instructions clear and easy to follow, but also that the children love dancing to our upbeat folk-rock style of music provided on the CDs.
Teachers particularly like having the option of doing the 'calling' for themselves or using the alternative versions that include the call with the music, allowing them to concentrate on what the children are doing!
Click any cover to view and hear tracks
Our other three products are albums that are purely for listening pleasure. On all three, we wanted to present not only a selection of our favourite
dance tunes that we regularly perform 'on stage' at barn dances and ceilidhs, but also to provide a wider variety of material ranging from slow airs to heavy folk-rock. Many numbers reflect other influences on members of the band, such as
songs, ritual dance tunes and musical involvement in theatrical productions.
Our first album, 'John Bull His Owne Selfe', was released back in 1984. It contains a great mix of tunes plus two songs; all in all, 27 tunes/songs
presented on 16 tracks.
The second album, 'Nobody Expects….Folk Songs of the Spanish Inquisition', contains not one folk song concerning the Spanish Inquisition! – but DO expect another varied mix of mainly English, Manx, Dutch and American tunes! – 27 tunes and songs overall. This CD was first released in 1994, when, as you will be able to tell from the CD cover, track names and sleeve notes, we were going through a slightly zany period!
We are pleased to present our third and possibly finest album, 'Alive and Kicking', released in May 2004. The 26 tunes and songs on 17 tracks include eleven original compositions and four great songs. This album is definitely not background music – so turn up that volume control!
And what do others think of Alive and kicking? Well, Pete Massey in the Greenman Review in June 2004 said "I think anyone who is a fan of Fairport Convention or the early days of the Albion Country Band will lap it up. It has some fine material not heard before." So why not see if you agree? You can read the full review by clicking HERE.
