Hekety: a 5-piece ceilidh band from Sheffield that's very much easier to listen to than spell if you've only heard the name spoken. They've been active since 1997, but came to my attention just two days before this event brought them to Leeds's increasingly musical Woodhouse district. Information was via The Chemic pub - nowadays well and truly alive again with a heart that beats to different musical rhythms seven days a week; and the ceilidh organisers were Leeds University Traditional Music Society. A plentiful crowd was in front of the very adequate stage in the Liberal Club function room for a well-run end of term special, in a more capacious and relaxing venue than for the usual Wednesday meet at the Packhorse near the University.
In the early stages of the evening Hekety were even easier to listen to than they'd intended because of an inadvertent muting of Richard Arrowsmith's melodeon. With its amplification came the wallop and pace the band's output thrives on. For those first numbers no one on the dance floor felt sold short, the effect of the slower thinner sound being to warm up the fifty strong dancing audience and store up their power for the later stage of what was very nearly a three-hour session.
The music is centred in coordinated working of the melodeon with Jess Arrowsmith's fiddle and a hard-working and very significant clarinet (an instrument deserving a far greater folk music presence generally) in the hands of Jo Veal. Rhythm section is the electric bass guitar of Nigel Holmes plus acoustic guitar usually and cittern sometimes of Gavin Davenport. The satisfying effect is a vigorous and smoothly blended fullness. A remark I heard and agreed with is that a hurdy-gurdy tone was generated at times - a genuine physical effect and not a ghost of any previous line-up, though oboe and a second rhythm guitar have been former presences. Three of tonight's musicians (Richard, Jess and Gavin) also operate in the well regarded Sheffield outfit 'Crucible'.
Someone in the small non-dancing clientele spoke of hearing Hekety in concert rather than for dancing at Sidmouth Festival a year or two ago. It is clear though from the bookings on their website that ceilidh dancing takes place all up and down the country in response to this band's well-practised ability to give the punters what they want, and with a variety of callers depending perhaps on region. Tonight the clear and enjoyable voice of Jenny Langridge (also from Sheffield) did that part of the work, adding to the performance as well as governing the dance moves with authority and warmth. She, as well as the players, will have done plenty to further Hekety's prospects in the new Best Dance Band category of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
In the early stages of the evening Hekety were even easier to listen to than they'd intended because of an inadvertent muting of Richard Arrowsmith's melodeon. With its amplification came the wallop and pace the band's output thrives on. For those first numbers no one on the dance floor felt sold short, the effect of the slower thinner sound being to warm up the fifty strong dancing audience and store up their power for the later stage of what was very nearly a three-hour session.
The music is centred in coordinated working of the melodeon with Jess Arrowsmith's fiddle and a hard-working and very significant clarinet (an instrument deserving a far greater folk music presence generally) in the hands of Jo Veal. Rhythm section is the electric bass guitar of Nigel Holmes plus acoustic guitar usually and cittern sometimes of Gavin Davenport. The satisfying effect is a vigorous and smoothly blended fullness. A remark I heard and agreed with is that a hurdy-gurdy tone was generated at times - a genuine physical effect and not a ghost of any previous line-up, though oboe and a second rhythm guitar have been former presences. Three of tonight's musicians (Richard, Jess and Gavin) also operate in the well regarded Sheffield outfit 'Crucible'.
Someone in the small non-dancing clientele spoke of hearing Hekety in concert rather than for dancing at Sidmouth Festival a year or two ago. It is clear though from the bookings on their website that ceilidh dancing takes place all up and down the country in response to this band's well-practised ability to give the punters what they want, and with a variety of callers depending perhaps on region. Tonight the clear and enjoyable voice of Jenny Langridge (also from Sheffield) did that part of the work, adding to the performance as well as governing the dance moves with authority and warmth. She, as well as the players, will have done plenty to further Hekety's prospects in the new Best Dance Band category of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
