The Assembly Players
Nicolas Broadbridge (Accordion/Leader)
Aidan Broadbridge (Violin)
Brian Prentice (Piano/Keyboard, Sound & Recording Engineer)
Nell Broadbridge (Caller)
The Assembly Players started as a Scottish Ceilidh Dance Band in 1989 (after the demise of The Gallivanters Ceilidh Band), playing mostly for Scottish ceilidh dances until the issue of their first CD in 1994. By this time, the original keyboard player, Dick Burger, had gradually given up playing with the Band, and his place had been taken by keyboard player and pianist extraordinary Brian Prentice. Brian’s arrival enabled Nicolas to steer the band further towards his first and abiding passion, English Country Dance.
With the subsequent issue of one, and sometimes two, recordings annually since 1994 The Assembly Players’ reputation as an English Country Dance Band steadily grew, so that they were invited to play at many dances and Balls, workshops and folk festivals both in England and abroad.
The Assembly Players did not play as a band as often as many others, but despite this restriction and being based in Scotland, the band has played for dances or Balls at Cecil Sharp House, Eastbourne, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Oxford, Darlington, Norwich, Gloucester, Leamington, and abroad in Holland and the USA.
The Assembly Players announced their retirement after playing for the Pat Shaw Centennial dance at Cecil Sharp House on September 24th, 2017 and ‘A Fallibroome Ball’ is the last of their 21 recordings, which started with ‘A Walsh Ball’, recorded and published in 1994. The series includes one recording of Scottish Ceilidh Dances, and two recordings made at his behest for the late John Wood. The rest are all recordings of English Country Dances of our choosing, comprising dances old and new, from Britain, Europe and the USA. Many of the recordings are of ball programmes from the annual balls of The Assembly, two dance groups run by Nicolas and Nell in Glasgow and Edinburgh since 1982. The 36th and final Ball was held in 2019. For the early balls there was a large band, but from 1994 Aidan and Brian played as a duo ‘A & B’ at all but three balls, gaining a reputation as two of the best English Country Dance musicians. Their telepathy and gifts for improvisation without losing the tune were really only apparent to dancers present; but tracks on the recordings where the two of them play on their own demonstrate this, bearing in mind that it is all spontaneous and unarranged, while playing from a bare melody line with chord symbols.
The Assembly Players Ceilidh Band
As a Scottish Ceilidh dance band, we provided strong rhythmic music with exciting variations; and for Ceilidh dancing we had a dedicated Caller, Nell, whose job was to keep events running smoothly, make sure all on the floor are au fait with the dances, and to introduce a wide range of suitable dances in addition to the usual half dozen!
We have issued to considerable acclaim a Ceilidh CD, ‘Doon the Brae’ available to buy online here. This contains all the usual favourite dances with full instructions in the CD booklet.
B & B
Nicolas Broadbridge (Accordion)
Aidan Broadbridge (Violin)
2001 saw the debut of this father and son duo at Eastbourne International Folk Festival, followed by Broadstairs Folk Week. In 2002 they played to considerable acclaim at Chippenham Folk Festival for Fried Herman, Alan Davies, John Meechan and Barrie Bullimore. Later in the summer they were at Pinewoods (Mass.) playing for English Country Dancing, then in Berea (Kentucky) playing as the Scottish element of the Artevida International Festival! Later still at Whitby Folk Festival they played for Hilary Herbert and ran a very successful series of combined workshops for musicians and dancers, in which Aidan coached the musicians, while Nicolas tried to persuade the dancers to listen to and dance to the the music!