Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television chef and writer. She frequently appeared on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with her fourth husband Major Johnnie Cradock who played the part of a slightly bumbling hen-pecked husband.

Early life
Cradock was born at her maternal grandparents' house, 33 Fairlop Road, Leytonstone, Essex. The birth was recorded in the registration district of West Ham.

As a child, Cradock lived with her family at Fairlop Road, with her maternal grandparents. A plaque (with her name misspelt) can be found at Fairwood Court, Fairlop Road, London E11: "Fanny Craddock 1909–1994. On this site until 1930 stood a house called Apthorp, birthplace of the famous TV cookery expert Fanny Craddock; born Phyllis Pechey."

Her birthplace was named after Apthorp Villa, in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, where her grandfather Charles Hancock had been born. Cradock's parents did not manage their money well; her mother, Bijou, spent extravagantly, and her father, Archibald, had sizeable gambling debts, many run up in Nice. In attempting to keep their creditors at bay, the family moved around the country, going to Herne Bay in Kent, then to Swanage in Dorset and on to Bournemouth in Hampshire, where Archibald's brother, Richard Francis Pechey (1872–1963), had become the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church in 1912. Whilst in Bournemouth the 15-year-old Fanny attended Bournemouth High School (now Talbot Heath School).

Archibald moved the family again to Wroxham in Norfolk, around 1927, where his creditors caught up with him and by 1930 he was appearing in Norfolk's bankruptcy court faced with debts of £3,500. Cradock began the next ten years of her life in London living in destitution, selling cleaning products door to door. She then worked in a dressmaking shop.

Culinary career
Cradock's fortunes began to change when she started work at various restaurants and was introduced to the works of Auguste Escoffier. She later wrote passionately about the change from service à la française to service à la russe and hailed Escoffier as a saviour of British cooking.

Fanny and Johnnie Cradock began writing a column under the pen name of "Bon Viveur" which appeared in The Daily Telegraph from 1950 to 1955. This sparked a theatre career, with the pair turning theatres into restaurants. Cradock would cook vast dishes that were served to the audience. They became known for their roast turkey, complete with stuffed head, tail feathers and wings. Complete with French accents, their act was one of a drunken hen-pecked husband and a domineering wife. At this time, they were known as Major and Mrs Cradock. She also wrote books under the names Frances Dale, Bon Viveur, Susan Leigh and Phyllis Cradock.

TV personality

In 1955 Cradock recorded a pilot for what became a very successful BBC television series on cookery. Each year the BBC published a booklet giving a detailed account of every recipe Fanny demonstrated, allowing her to frequently say in later years, "You'll find that recipe in the booklet, so I won't show you now." Fanny advocated bringing Escoffier-standard food into the British home and gave every recipe a French name. Her food looked extravagant, but was generally cost-effective, and Fanny seemed to care about her audience. Her catchphrases included "This won't break you", "This is perfectly economical", and "This won't stretch your purse". When presenting her Christmas cake recipe she once justified the cost of ingredients, saying "But on the other hand, we do want one piece of decent cake in the year."

As time went by, however, her food began to seem outdated, with her love of the piping bag and vegetable dyes. As she grew older, she applied more and more make-up and wore vast chiffon ballgowns on screen. Cradock had always included relatives and friends in her television shows. Johnnie suffered a minor heart attack in the early 1970s and was replaced with the daughter of a friend, Jayne. Another assistant was Sarah, and there was a series of young men who did not last long.

Throughout her television career, the Cradocks also worked for the British Gas Council, appearing at trade shows such as the Ideal Home Exhibition and making many "infomercials", instructing cooks, usually newlywed women, on how to use gas cookers for basic dishes. Despite the BBC's ban on advertising, Cradock used only gas stoves in her television shows and often stated that she "hated" electric stoves and ovens.

Her series Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas is the only one of several she made to have survived in the TV archives and to have been repeated in recent years, on the UK digital television channels BBC Four, Good Food and Food Network UK, usually in the run-up to Christmas. Good Food also occasionally broadcasts Fanny Cradock Invites You to a Cheese and Wine Party, one of a few surviving stand-alone episodes from other series.

Cradock appeared in twenty-four television series between 1955 and 1975.

Career decline
In 1976, Gwen Troake, a farmer's wife from Devon, won the Cook of the Realm competition, leading to the BBC selecting her for its TV series The Big Time, where talented amateurs were given the opportunity to take part in a spectacular professional event. Troake was to organise a three-course  Foyles' Literary Lunch at The Dorchester in honour of the former prime minister Edward Heath, with Earl Mountbatten of Burma and other dignitaries in attendance, and asked Cradock—by then a tax exile in Ireland—along with chef Eugene Kaufeler, actor and gourmet Robert Morley, nutritionist Magnus Pyke and many other experts Troake admired to advise her.

The result brought about the demise of Cradock's television career. Troake went through her menu of seafood cocktail, duckling with a lemon jelly-and-cornstarch fortified bramble sauce and coffee cream dessert with rum. Her idea was that with seafood, water fowl and rum, the meal had a nautical theme, which would appeal to Heath's love of sailing and also be an appropriate salute to the former Admiral Mountbatten. Cradock, grimacing and acting as if on the verge of gagging, told Troake that her menu was far too rich and she would "never in a million years" serve a seafood cocktail before duck. She appeared not to be familiar with the term "bramble", and when told it meant a blackberry, was horrified that it would be paired with a savoury duck, remonstrated that a sauce like that should be brushed on flan. She derisively declared that the jam in it was "too English" and that the English had never had a cuisine, erroneously claiming that "Yorkshire pudding came from Burgundy". While accepting that Troake's dessert was delicious, she insisted that it was not suitable, as it was "too sickly" served after the sweetly-sauced, rich duck, countering Troake's numerous objections with "Yes, dear, but now you're among professionals."

Cradock suggested that unless Troake were to serve salad and cheese afterward, as is done in France, then she should use small almond pastry barquettes filled with a palate-cleansing fruit sorbet with spun sugar sails, as this was equally suitable for the naval theme. Troake kept insisting that she liked her signature coffee pudding with "nautical" rum in it, while Cradock appealed to her to think of her diners' taste buds and stomachs, and try to achieve a balance in her menu. Unfortunately, the replacement dessert was not executed properly, and Morley said he felt that Troake's original coffee pudding was perfect.

The public were incensed at her eye-rolling rudeness and condescension, and felt that Cradock had ruined Troake's moment. The Daily Telegraph wrote "Not since 1940 can the people of England have risen in such unified wrath". Fanny wrote a letter of apology to Troake, but the BBC terminated her contract two weeks after the broadcast of the programme. She would never again present a cookery programme for the BBC. (Troake, by contrast, published A Country Cookbook of recipes the following year; it included the coffee cream dessert Cradock had vetoed.) Speaking about the incident on Room 101 in 1999, The Big Time producer Esther Rantzen described Cradock as "hell on wheels", and that she had "reduced this poor little lady [Troake] to nothing".

Final years
Fanny and Johnnie Cradock spent their final years living at Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. They became regulars on the chat show circuit, and also appeared on programmes such as The Generation Game and Blankety Blank. Fanny appeared alone on Wogan, Parkinson and TV-am. Her final BBC appearance and her final television appearance was in early 1988 on Windmill presented by Chris Serle.

Personal life
Cradock was legally married twice; two later marriages were bigamous and therefore void ab initio. First, she married Sidney A. Vernon Evans on 10 October 1926; she was 17 and he was 22. Cradock married as "Phyllis Nan Primrose Pechey"; "Primrose Pechey" was a form passed down her father's side. Sidney Evans died in a plane crash on 4 February 1927, leaving her pregnant with their son Peter Vernon Evans, who was raised by his paternal grandparents. Thanks to Johnnie Cradock, Peter later became a sous-chef at the Dorchester Hotel.

By July of the following year, Cradock had become pregnant again, and married the baby's father, Arthur William Chapman, on 23 July. For this marriage, Cradock gave her name as "Phyllis Nan Sortain Vernon Evans".

The couple had a son Christopher, but their marriage lasted less than a year before they separated. Cradock left her son Christopher and husband Arthur for a new life in central London. Christopher was brought up in Norfolk by his father, an aunt and grandmother, although he made contact with Fanny in his adult life. Arthur Chapman became a Catholic and so would not give Fanny the divorce she later requested, as it was against the teachings of the Catholic Church. He was given only a single line in Fanny's autobiography.

Cradock married again on 26 September 1939, as "Phyllis Nan Sortain Chapman"; her husband this time was Gregory Holden-Dye, a daredevil minor racing driver, driving Bentleys at Brooklands in Surrey. The marriage lasted only eight weeks, and produced no children, as she had soon met the love of her life, Johnnie Cradock. Gregory's mother had expressed a low opinion of Fanny, and ended up as a loathsome character in Fanny's first novel Scorpion's Suicide. Cradock later concluded that as Arthur Chapman had not granted her a divorce, her marriage to Gregory was not lawful, and so never publicised it.

John Whitby "Johnnie" Cradock was a major in the Royal Artillery who was already married with four children. He soon left his wife, Ethel, and children to be with Fanny. Unable to marry Johnnie, because of Arthur's refusal to get divorced, she changed her surname to Cradock by deed poll in 1942. When she was misinformed that Arthur had died, she married Johnnie on 7 May 1977. (Arthur actually lived until 1978.) For this marriage Cradock went with a pared-down version of her name ("Phyllis Chapman"), and the then-68-year-old recorded her age as 55 on the marriage certificate, even though she had a son who was nearly fifty. Johnnie died, in Basingstoke, Hampshire, on 30 January 1987.

Death
She died following a stroke, on 27 December 1994, at the Ersham House Nursing Home, Hailsham, East Sussex. The cause of death was given as 'cerebrovascular atherosclerosis'. Fanny was cremated at Langney Crematorium, Eastbourne, as was Johnnie when he died in 1987. There is a memorial plaque and a rosebush in the grounds of the crematorium for both of them.

Legacy
Fanny Cradock came to the attention of the public in the postwar-utility years, trying to inspire the average housewife with an exotic approach to cooking. She famously worked in various ball-gowns without the customary cook's apron, averring that women should feel cooking was easy and enjoyable, rather than messy and intimidating.

In her early anonymous role as a food critic, working with Major Cradock under the name of 'Bon Viveur', Fanny introduced the public to unusual dishes from France and Italy, popularising the pizza in the United Kingdom. She and Johnnie worked together on a touring cookery show, sponsored by the Gas Council, to show how gas could be used easily in the kitchen and, as their fame increased, Fanny's shows transferred to television, where she enjoyed 20 years of success.

Cradock has also been credited in the United Kingdom as the originator of the prawn cocktail. However, some have suggested that Cradock popularised her version of an established dish that was not well known until then in Britain. In their 1997 book The Prawn Cocktail Years, Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham note that the prawn cocktail has a "direct lineage to Escoffier".

In the course of her shows, Fanny made frequent concessions to the economic realities of the era, suggesting cheaper alternatives which would be within reach of the housewife's purse. The BBC published her recipes and suggestions for dinner-parties in a series of booklets, consolidating her reputation as the foremost celebrity chef of her day. Despite their extravagant appearance and eccentricity, her recipes were extremely widely used and her cookery books sold in record numbers.

Marguerite Patten has described Fanny Cradock as the saviour of British cooking after the war. Brian Turner has said that he respects Fanny's career, and Delia Smith has attributed her own career to early inspirations taken from the Cradocks' television programmes. In a 2008 interview with The Daily Star, singer Amy Winehouse said that she discovered a love of cookery after reading Cradock's books. Others are less complimentary. The BBC series The Way We Cooked featured an episode dedicated to Cradock, in which Graham Kerr, Keith Floyd and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, amongst others, disparaged her methods and cooking skills. In the third series of The F Word, Gordon Ramsay held a series-long search for a new Fanny Cradock.

Media portrayals
Fanny Cradock's husky voice and theatrical style was ripe for mimicry, such as Betty Marsden's 'Fanny Haddock' in two BBC Radio comedy shows, Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964) and Round the Horne (1964–1968). Fanny and Johnnie were also parodied by The Two Ronnies and on Benny Hill, with Benny as Fanny and Bob Todd as an invariably drunk Johnnie.

Cradock's life has also been the subject of the plays Doughnuts Like Fanny's by Julia Darling and Fear of Fanny by Brian Fillis. After a successful run by the Leeds Library Theatre Company, touring the United Kingdom in October and November 2003, Fear of Fanny was turned into a television drama starring Mark Gatiss and Julia Davis and featuring Hayley Atwell. The production broadcast in October 2006 on BBC Four as one of a series of culinary-themed dramas.

Sucking Shrimp by Stephanie Theobald has Fanny Cradock as one of its central characters. To provincial Cornish heroine Rosa Barge, Cradock represents glamour, sophistication and the life she aspires to in her concoctions of a Taj Mahal out of Italian meringue and duchesse potato dyed vivid green.

In 2019, the cabaret group 'Duckie' staged Duckie Loves Fanny as part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest's programme of events marking the locale's year-long status as London Borough of Culture. Members of the cabaret group described their performance as a "very queer mashup of postwar pop culture, style, food and gender politics in honour of the fearsome TV cook in her home area of Leytonstone".

On the 2022 mystery programme Sister Boniface Mysteries, season 1, episode 8, titled "Queen of the Kitchen", the characters of Prunella Gladwell and Major James Gladwell (portrayed by Sylvestra Le Touzel and Adam Morris, respectively) - are clearly modelled on Fanny and Johnnie Cradock.

References

External links

1909 births
1994 deaths
English food writers
British restaurant critics
British gastronomes
English women novelists
English television chefs
People educated at Talbot Heath School
People from Leytonstone
Women food writers
Women cookbook writers
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English non-fiction writers
People from Bexhill-on-Sea
English women non-fiction writers

Fanny Cradock


Raymond O'Brien (born January 18, 1944) is a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and a professor of law at the Columbus School of Law in the Catholic University of America. O'Brien has published numerous books on domestic relations, and has also written on the legal consequences of the AIDS epidemic.

O'Brien received a B.A. from La Salle University in 1966 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1969. After serving as a captain in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971, O'Brien became an adjunct professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law. At the same time, he pursued a master's degree in Church Administration at the Catholic University of America, receiving the degree in 1975, and following it with a Doctor of Ministry from the same institution in 1985.

External links
 Catholic University of America biography of Raymond O'Brien

1944 births
Living people
American Roman Catholic priests
Legal educators
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
La Salle University alumni
Columbus School of Law faculty

Raymond O'Brien


You Shoot, I Shoot (買兇拍人) is a 2001 Hong Kong black comedy film produced, written and directed by Pang Ho-cheung and starring Eric Kot and Cheung Tat-ming.

Plot
Bart (Eric Kot), a professional contract killer, is requested by his clients to film his killings. He hires aspiring film director Lee Tung-chuen (Cheung Tat-ming) for the filming.

Cast and roles
 Eric Kot as Bart
 Cheung Tat-ming as Lee Tung-chuen
 Chan Fai-hung as Hung
 Michael Chan as Bill
 Jim Chim as Double Gun Tai Hung / Kwok Wai-bun
 Audrey Fang as Ling, Bart's wife
 Miu Fei-lam as Mrs. Ma
 Asuka Higuchi as Michiko
 Vincent Kok as Camera / X-rated VCD shop owner
 Ken Wong as Ray
 Nancy Lan as Mrs. Nina Nam
 Lam Suet as Fatty
 Tats Lau as James
 Spencer Lam - Mr. Tse
 Hyper BB as Mahjong girl at restaurant
 Frankie Ng as Brother B
 Angela Tong as Mrs. Tong
 Matt Chow as Porno director
 Henry Fong as Foul-mouthed Wah
 Yu Ming-hin as Bart's first victim
 Chan Yun-ping as Boutique staff
 Pang Sau-wai as Girl massaging porno director
 Eric Chan as Jackie
 Poon An-ying as Tea lady on porno set
 Anthony Ng as Bill's thug at restaurant
 Tin Kai-man as Junkie Derek
 Wong Man-chung as Traffic policeman
 Joe Cheng as Mrs. Ma's mahjong friend
 Henry Yu as Mr. Tai
 Siu Yam-yam as Mrs. Tai
 Billy Chung as Bart's MTV victim
 Andy Tsang as Bart's MTV victim
 Wilson Yip as Bart's MTV victim
 Lam Chiu-wing as Bart's MTV victim
 James Tse as Bart's MTV victim
 Wenders Li as Bart's MTV victim
 Roy Szeto as Bart's MTV victim
 Peter Kam as Bart's MTV victim
 Wu Ka-lok as Bart's MTV victim
 Kenneth Bi as Bart's MTV victim
 Clarence Cheung as Bart's MTV victim
 Ho Chi-moon as Mr. Cheung
 Lee To-yue as Brother Chun
 Berg Ng as Curry Samosa
 Chiu Wan-kit as Brother B's thug
 Ricky Fan as Brother B's thug
 Christy Cheung as Wing
 So Wai-nam as Horny muscle man at Bill's office
 Chow Siu-lun as Doggie
 Siu Hung as Restaurant worker
 Terence Tsui as Bill's bare body thug
 Luk Kwong-choi as Old man
 Roderick Lam as Policeman
 Lee Shiu-cheung as Policeman
 Chan Kin-yung as Policeman
 Wai Ping-chung as Policeman
 Pang Ho-cheung as Director
 Tam Kon-chung as Brother B's thug
 Pierre Tremblay as voice of Alain Delon (uncredited)

Accolades

External links

 HK cinemagic entry

2001 films
2001 black comedy films
Hong Kong black comedy films
Hong Kong slapstick comedy films
2000s Cantonese-language films
Golden Harvest films
Films directed by Pang Ho-cheung
Films about film directors and producers
Films about contract killing
Films set in Hong Kong
Films shot in Hong Kong
2001 comedy films
2000s Hong Kong films

You Shoot, I Shoot


Old Salem is a historic district of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, which was originally settled by the Moravian community in 1766. It features a living-history museum which interprets the restored Moravian community. The non-profit organization began its work in 1950, although some private residents had restored buildings earlier. As the Old Salem Historic District, it was declared a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1966, and expanded fifty years later. The district showcases the culture of the Moravian settlement in the Province of North Carolina during the 18th century and (post-statehood) 19th centuries, communal buildings, churches, houses and shops.

Two buildings are individually designated as NHLs: the Salem Tavern and the Single Brothers' House. Additional buildings and properties have been added to the National Register to expand the historic area (see St. Philips Moravian Church below, Single Brothers Industrial Complex Site and West Salem Historic District). Ownership of the buildings and land is divided among Old Salem, Inc., Wachovia Historical Society, private owners, Salem College, Salem Academy and Salem Congregation (the successor to the Salem Congregational Council, to whom all ownership of Church properties was transferred).

Historic Salem

Salem was originally settled by members of the Moravian Church, a Protestant denomination that first began in 1457, out of the followers of Jan Hus (1369–1415) in the Kingdom of Bohemia and Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. In 1722, the German-speaking exiles finally found protection on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, a Saxon nobleman, where he allowed them to create the village of Herrnhut as their home. First settling in North America in Savannah, Province of Georgia, in 1735, they moved to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1740, where they founded several communities (Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz). Because of development pressures, they looked for more space to create their church communities. Purchasing just over  from John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, one of the British Lords Proprietor, in the Piedmont of the Province of North Carolina in 1753, they sent groups from Bethlehem, to begin construction. They founded the transitional settlement of Bethabara (translated as "House of Passage," the first planned Moravian community in North Carolina in 1753, in Bethania), in 1759.

Salem was to be the central town of a  tract named Wachovia. Construction began in 1766 to build the central economic, religious and administrative center of the Wachovia tract. The outlying communities, eventually five in all (Bethabara, Bethania, Friedberg, Friedland and Hope), were more rural and agriculture focused. Salem and most of the other communities were controlled by the church, which owned all property and only leased land for construction. The worldwide Moravian Church initially owned the property, but Salem Congregation purchased the  town lot outright in 1826. All people in the communities had to be members of the church and could be expelled from the town if they acted contrary to the community's regulations. The several governing bodies all kept meticulous records; copies were sent to the Bethlehem and Herrnhut archives. Most of this information has been translated and published in the "Records of the Moravians in North Carolina" by the North Carolina State Archives, now comprising thirteen volumes. This detailed information is part of the documentation used for the accurate restoration and interpretation of Old Salem and many original documents are still housed in the Moravian archives.

 In 1849, Forsyth County was created, but Salem was unwilling to be the county seat and sold property directly to the north to become the new courthouse town. This town became Winston, which quickly grew into a thriving industrial center.
 In 1857, the church divested control of the town and allowed the residents to purchase their property. Salem then became a legal municipality. The town expanded twice, in 1889 and 1907.
 Salem merged with adjacent Winston in 1913, becoming known as Winston-Salem.

A local architectural review district was created in 1948 (the first in North Carolina and probably the fifth in the country) to protect the historic remains of what had become a depressed area from encroaching development. In 1950, Old Salem Inc. (a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation) was formed to protect threatened buildings, restore the town and operate portions of it as a museum.

Old Salem museums and gardens

The town's restored and reconstructed buildings, staffed by living-history interpreters, present visitors with a view of Moravian life in the 18th and 19th centuries. The features include skilled interpreters such as tinsmiths, blacksmiths, cobblers, gunsmiths, bakers and carpenters, practicing their trades while interacting with visitors. Approximately 70% of the buildings in the historic district are original.

Points of interest
The village is centered around Salem Square, which is bounded by Academy Street to the north, Church Street to the east, West Street to the south and Main Street to the west. Salem College overlooks the square from Church Street.

Church Street

 African Moravian Log Church
 Anna Johanna Vogler House
 Dr. Samuel Vierling House and Barn (The Doctor's House)
 Home Moravian Church
 Moravian Church Archives
 Philip Reich House
 Philip Reich Shop
 Salem College
 Single Sisters' House Museum
 St. Philip's Heritage Center
 St. Philip's Moravian Church

Academy Street

 Boys' School
 Inspectors' House
 Single Brothers' Workshop

Main Street

 Augustus T. Zevely Inn
 Bank of Cape Fear
 Beitel-Van Vleck House
 Blum House
 Butner House
 C. Winkler Bakery
 Charles A. Copper House
 Charles A. Copper Shop
 Christoph Vogler House
 Community Store
 Dr. John Francis Shaffner House
 Eberhardt House and Shop
 Ebert-Reich House
 Fifth House
 First House
 Fourth House
 Gottlieb Schroeter House and Wash-Bake House
 Hall House
 Herbst House
 Jacob Siewers House
 John Siewers House
 John Vogler House
 Kuehln House
 Leinbach House, Granary and Stable
 Levering House
 Market-Fire Engine House
 Miksch Tobacco Shop
 Nathaniel Shober Siewers House
 Salem Tavern
 Salem Tavern Museum
 Shultz House and Shop
 Shultz Shoemaker Shop
 Single Brothers' House
 Tavern Meadow
 The Butner Shop
 Theophilus Vierling House
 Third House
 Timothy Vogler Gunsmith Shop
 Timothy Vogler House
 Traugott Bagge Merchant
 Traugott Leinbach House and Leinbach Wash-Bake House
 Volz House
 Vorsteher's House

West Street

 Anna Catherina House
 Traugott Bagge House

Salt Street

 Christman House
 Denke House
 Family Gardens
 Fruit Orchard
 Hagen House
 Jacob Christman House
 Lick-Boner House
 Miksch Gardens
 Salt-Flax House
 Solomon Lick House
 Christian Triebel Lot Garden

Highlights of the town include the Salem Tavern, where George Washington spent two nights (May 31 and June 1, 1791), while passing through North Carolina during his "Southern Tour"; the Single Brothers' House; Boys' School; Winkler Bakery; and a host of restored homes and shops and several stores including T. Bagge Merchant and the Moravian Book and Gift Shop.

Of note is the St. Philip's Moravian Church complex. Site of an 18th-century graveyard, the (now reconstructed) 1823 'Negro Church' was built following a congregational vote to segregate worship in accordance with North Carolina state law in 1816. Before that the African-Americans who joined the Moravian church attended Home Moravian Church. In 1861, St. Philip's Church was constructed. Now restored, the church was originally built by the Salem congregation for the enslaved and free African-Americans of the community. Completed just before the Civil War in 1861, it is the oldest surviving African-American church built for that purpose in North Carolina. The Emancipation Proclamation was read there to the congregation in 1865 by the chaplain of the 10th Ohio Regiment. The church continued to grow and was expanded in the 1890s. The congregation moved to a new location in 1952 then a third location on Bon Aire Avenue, before returning to hold services in the brick Church in 2019. The building stood vacant from 1952 until its restoration. St. Philip's Church is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Partially in the Old Salem historic district is the campus of Salem College and Academy, with Main Hall, the Single Sisters' House, the Inspectors House (with the president's office and the college book store) on the Square and Gramley Library just down Church Street.

Home Moravian Church, while not a part of the official Old Salem tour per se, this functioning congregation opens its sanctuary to visitors on a regular schedule. Still owned by the Salem Congregation, Salem Square, in the center of the district, hosts many special events throughout the year.

In Salem, the "Easter City," the traditional Moravian Easter sunrise service has been held annually since 1772 by the Salem Congregation, and draws several thousand people to the Salem Square and Moravian graveyard. The first two weeks of December play host to the Candle Tea, an annual fundraiser for local charities held by the Home Moravian Church Women's Fellowship in the Single Brothers' House.

The Market-Fire Engine House was constructed in 1803 (reconstructed in 1955). Half of it was used as a marketplace for fresh meat, and the other half was used to store fire fighting equipment. The town had been using this equipment since 1785, when the Salem Tavern was destroyed by fire. The fire company is thought to be the first of its kind in North Carolina.

At the north end of the historic district is a large Coffee Pot which is a former tin-shop sign, moved when Interstate 40 was built just to the north.

Visitor Center

Old Salem's Visitor Center was built in 2003 and is the main location where museum visitors purchase tickets. The building features a large concourse along a serpentine glass wall with interpretive panels about the history of Wachovia and Salem. The preliminary design was developed by Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, with local firm Calloway, Johnson, Moore and West completing the project. The building also houses a food service, gift shops and the James A. Gray Jr. Auditorium. The Gray Auditorium is home to the 1800 Tannenberg Organ.

The former 1964 visitor center and parking lot were demolished to allow partial reconstruction of the 18th-century Single Brothers' Garden.

Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts
A part of Old Salem Museums & Gardens and located in a modern building in the historic district, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) is dedicated to exhibiting and researching the regional decorative arts of the early South. MESDA opened to the public on January 5, 1965. MESDA was founded by Frank L. Horton and his mother Theodosia "Theo" L. Taliaferro, antiques dealers and collectors who spent most of their lives raising awareness of and appreciating domestic objects made in the south. In its galleries, MESDA showcases the architecture, needlework, furniture, paintings, textiles, ceramics, silver and other metalwares made and used in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee through the early 19th century. The majority of the MESDA collection is accessible online.

Notable people

 Gottfried Aust, potter
 Rudolph Christ, potter
 Johann Gottlob Krause, stonemason
 Elisabeth Oesterlein, educator
 Melchior Rasp, stonemason
 Christian Triebl, carpenter
 Christian Winkler, baker

Hidden Town Project
Starting in December 2016, substantial historical and archaeological research has focused on Salem's historical African-American population. Moravians educated enslaved members of their community, teaching literacy skills and some professional trades. Holistic studies directed toward understanding ethnicity and cultural identity of African-Americans in Salem have resulted in significant additions to the historical interpretation presented at Old Salem. These additions include newly identified slave dwellings and the updated number of slaves who lived in Salem from 1790-1860.

The goals of this project are to:

 To locate the sites of dwelling places of enslaved people throughout the entire historic district
 To archaeologically investigate the sites.
 To fully integrate the narrative of the enslaved into the visitor experience.
 To connect with descendants of the Salem enslaved population and form an Advisory Committee to help direct future efforts at Old Salem.
 To interpret through contemporary art forms, salon discussions and public gatherings.

See also
List of National Historic Landmarks in North Carolina
National Register of Historic Places listings in Forsyth County, North Carolina

References

Further reading
 Old Salem: An Adventure in Historic Preservation, rev. ed. Frances Griffin. Old Salem Inc.: Winston-Salem, NC, 1985.
 Old Salem: Official Guidebook. Hunter James & Frances Griffin. Old Salem, Inc.: Winston-Salem, NC 1977-1994.
 Old Salem: The Official Guidebook. Penelope Niven & Cornelia Wright. Old Salem Inc.: Winston-Salem, NC, 2000.
 Images of Old Salem: Then & Now. David Bergstone. Old Salem Museums & Gardens, and John F. Blair, Publisher: Winston-Salem, NC, 2010.

External links

 Old Salem Museums and Gardens
 Visit Historic Bethania, First Planned Moravian Settlement in North Carolina, c. 1759
 Local Historic Landmark Program - City of Winston-Salem
 Salem Pathways – a map of Old Salem's attractions

Museums in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
National Historic Landmarks in North Carolina
Settlements in the America (South) Province of the Moravian Church
Living museums in North Carolina
Open-air museums in North Carolina
Gardens in North Carolina
Decorative arts museums in the United States
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Moravian settlement in North Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Houses in Forsyth County, North Carolina

Old Salem


is a Japanese drama produced by Fuji Television starring actress Maki Horikita.  The producer, director, and screenwriter for the series consists of the same team that created the successful 2007 drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.  The series ran from Tuesday, April 14 to June 23, 2009, in the 9:00 PM time slot.

Plot summary
Chisato Mineta (Maki Horikita), a 20-year-old homeless girl who moves about from parks to net cafes.
Her mother died of illness, and when her father disappears after earning an incredible 100 million Yen debt, she is chased out of her home. Chisato spends her life running from debt collectors living as a homeless person. One day she gets caught by debt-collectors to force her to pay the 100 million Yen debt her father left behind. Where then a president of a huge toy company (Okura Shinzo) comes and rescues her by paying off the debt but then tricks her into marrying him. She then finds out that he only has one month to live and is in need of a "wife" to take care of him. If she stays married to him then she does not have to pay back the debt but if she leaves then all the money has to be returned immediately in cash.

A month later, she finds out that the president actually has more conditions than just being his wife. She must also live in the Trick Heart Castle with his six sons, all adopted to be successors of the company, and act as their mother for three months in order for the debt to be fully paid. However, each son has hidden himself away from the rest of the family and treat each other as mere strangers that live in the same household. Will Chisato be able to open up their hearts and turn these strangers into a loving family?

Cast

Audience Rating

References

External links
 Fuji TV Official Site - Atashinchi no Danshi

2009 Japanese television series debuts
2009 Japanese television series endings
Japanese drama television series
Fuji TV dramas

Atashinchi no Danshi


The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican are a British comedy folk and parody band from Barnsley, South Yorkshire.  Formed in 2006, they claim to be the hardest working comedy band in the UK, having played over 1250 shows throughout the UK. They are best known on the UK's festival scene, having played at major festivals including Glastonbury Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Beautiful Days, Bearded Theory, Rebellion Festival, Wychwood Festival, Kate Rusby's Underneath The Stars Festival, Towersey Festival, Wickham Festival, Shrewsbury Folk Festival and to an audience of 20,000 at Fairport's Cropredy Convention in August 2018, for their 900th show and again in 2022. Playing mainly acoustic folk instruments, they take popular songs and replace the lyrics with their own comedy reworkings, often on themes completely unrelated to the original song.
They have independently released eleven studio albums (containing over 125 song parodies in total), and a large number of live albums.
Presenting themselves as the long-lost children of Irish entertainer Val Doonican, and claiming to be "on a mission to keep their late, great spiritual father's legacy alive", the various members of the band have adopted the singer's surname for their shows, and wear brightly coloured hand-knitted tank-tops in tribute to Doonican's traditional knitwear.

History

Line-Up Mk.1 - Scott Doonican, Danny Doonican & Alan Doonican #1: June 2006 – March 2011
The band started out as an acoustic harmony duo consisting of Scott Doonican (vocals, acoustic guitar/banjo/mandolin/kazoo) and Danny Doonican (vocals, acoustic guitar), mainly covering quirky song choices by such disparate acts as Sparks, Queen, Judas Priest and Vera Lynn on folk instruments with Everly Brothers-styled harmonies.

The band's name and subsequent image was the idea of Scott's partner and long-standing co-lyricist Amanda White, inspired after they both saw a poster in a music shop in Temple Bar for the San Diego band The Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, whilst on a weekend break to Dublin. Over several drinks in Sinnotts Bar on King Street South, they took Scott's original suggestion that they should take the tough sounding 'The Bastard Sons of' and add someone who ironically wasn't seen as a macho character. They continued to list different crooners or musicians renowned for covering other people's music in an attempt to find something ironically humorous. The shortlist included Bert Weedon, Matt Monro and Perry Como, however the 'Bastard' was soon softened to 'Bar-Steward' under Amanda's suggestion that it would only result in the band getting limited bookings because of the harshness of the name. Eventually Amanda suggested and then settled on Val Doonican and the band's uniform of knitted tank tops was born, a deliberate tribute to the Irish singer's loud jumpers as worn on his British TV show from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

They played their first show at Thawleys Pub in Wombwell, Barnsley on Saturday 17 June 2006. The pub is now a local convenience store.  After their debut show, which was originally intended to be a one-off appearance, they decided to continue, and soon expanded to a three piece with the addition of Alan Doonican #1 on piano accordion, later self-releasing two albums of folky cover versions of classic rock songs (For Those About To Rock, Gently) and 1980s Number Ones (Back To The Day Job) on their independent Moon-On-A-Stick Records label, on which they continue to release albums to this day.

From 2008, the original line-up began to change direction to become a comedy/parody band by replacing the lyrics of popular songs with comedic alternatives of their own and performing in their native Yorkshire accent and dialect, the first being "Tarnlife", a re-working of Blur's "Parklife" with lyrics about the inhabitants of their home town of Barnsley. The spoken parts of the song, originally performed by Phil Daniels, were performed in 2008 by Scott's late father-in-law, Michael White, under the moniker of 'Barnsley Mick'. The band often make reference to the word 'Tarn' in their lyrics and in titles of songs and albums, which isn't a reference to mountain lakes formed by glaciation, but a local pronunciation of 'town'. As a local slang word, it is, however, given a capital letter, because it is often used as a proper noun by many local inhabitants, who affectionately call Barnsley 'Tarn'.

The song Tarnlife was later added to Cpl Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn, their first full album as a comedy band, released in 2010. Its cover artwork mirrored that of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, with 56 Barnsley celebrities gracing its front cover. The album was also notable for featuring the first of the band's several collaborations with guitarist Graham Oliver, founding member of heavy metal band Saxon.

Shortly after its release, Danny Doonican left the band, leaving Scott to complete the recording of 2011's The Dark Side Of The Tarn largely on his own. Unlike, Cpl. Kipper (which was a concept album of songs with links to their hometown of Barnsley), from their second album onwards, the focus of the band's songwriting became more universal.

Due to the significant number of line-up changes between 2010 and 2014, in 2017 Scott Doonican created a retrospective family tree for the band's website, showing the many incarnations of the band, which itself is a parody in the style of Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees. Each band member, past and present also has their own stage persona and their own individual elaborate backstory.

Line-Up Mk.2 - Scott Doonican, Alan Doonican #1 and Andy Doonican: April 2011 – Oct 2014
Danny Doonican was succeeded by Andy Doonican in 2011, and the line-up of Scott, Alan #1 and Andy recorded three further albums of parody songs between 2012 and 2014 ('EY UP! LET'S GO!, Sat'day Neet Fever and Talk Of The Tarn).

In August 2012, the band were booked to play the Levellers' Beautiful Days Festival. It was their busking performances around the festival site and their appearance on their two Band Stand slots that enabled the band to springboard on to the UK's festival circuit. In 2013, the band were rebooked for Beautiful Days, along with debut appearances at Bearded Theory and Watchet Music Festival.

On 22 June 2013 the band played on the roof of the former Blah Bar in Barnsley to open the 'Live In Barnsley' music festival, in an attempt to draw attention to their official set in the venue half an hour later. The band dressed as deceased rock stars, Freddie Mercury (Scott Doonican), Phil Lynott (Andy Doonican) and Elvis Presley (Alan Doonican). Scott Doonican was then invited in 2014 to organise the festival's finale with a band made up of The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican alongside session musicians and guest singers from other local acts performing anthemic cover versions. This happened again in 2015 and 2016.

By April 2014, in a period of less than 24 hours, the band saw three new Doonican brothers deputising at shows in North Yorkshire, for the increasingly absent Andy Doonican, due to work and family commitments. Scott Doonican refers to this period of change in his book, Songs In The Key of Tarn as the band's 'Lost Weekend'. At an indoor festival at Harefield Hall, Pateley Bridge, on 19 April, Delmar Doonican joined Scott and Alan #1, on 5-string banjo, and the following afternoon, Duck Doonican (played by Simon Friend from Levellers) joined them on mandolin.
Swedish-born Björn Doonicansson  then joined Scott and Alan #1 on the evening of 20 April 2014 for his first show (at The Blues Bar in Harrogate), originally as a part-time member on tenor banjo. Within two months he joined as a full-time member, expanding his duties to mandolin, fiddle and bouzouki too, and the band expanded to a somewhat flexible three or four-piece line-up.
Alan Doonican #1 unexpectedly left the band in September 2014, after the first night of a UK tour.
This prompted Scott Doonican to have to place an advert on Facebook for a new accordionist, which read, "We are looking for someone that can play the accordion well, that is a nice bloke, with a GSOH, preferably called Alan". The call was answered within 36 hours, by Alan Doonican #2, whom, according to the band's website in an elaborate back-story, was Alan Doonican #1's twin brother from the second of a pair of IVF petri dishes. It goes on to claim that Alan Doonican #2's petri dish had been frozen for ten years, "whilst any underlying defects were ironed out".

Line-Up Mk.3 - Scott Doonican, Björn Doonicansson and Alan Doonican #2: Oct 2014 – December 2023
Since Oct 2014, the core trio remained stable until 2023, with a line-up of Scott Doonican (vocals, guitar, synthesiser ukulele, banjulele, kazoo) being joined by Björn Doonicansson (violin, tenor banjo, mandolin, vocals) and Alan Doonican #2 (piano accordion, keyboards, keytar, ukulele, vocals). From October 2014, the core trio played most shows, however, during the ensuing two year period, Andy Doonican continued to play much more sporadic shows with the band as an expanded four-piece (on 12-string guitar and bass), until retiring in June 2016, after the band's 10th birthday show.

During this period, the band recorded The Tarn Machine (2015) and T'South 0 – Tarn 4 (2016) as a four piece, while 2017's 'Ave It : Bold As Brass was recorded by the current trio of Scott, Björn and Alan #2.
The band refer to this consecutive trio of studio albums on their website as their Tarnetto Trilogy, itself a parody of the 'Cornetto Trilogy', likening them to the trilogy of films created by Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, in which each have their own significant colours (red, blue and green) and individual characteristics, but contain common themes throughout. The cover of The Tarn Machine mirrors the blood red colour of Shaun of the Dead, the cover of T'South 0 - Tarn 4 mirrors the alien green colour of The World's End, and the cover of 'Ave It : Bold As Brass mirrors the police force blue colour of Hot Fuzz.

In early 2018, the band re-recorded a collection of 21 of their most-loved songs for their ninth studio album, a ten-year retrospective of their comedy years, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican/2008–2018. The album was independently crowdfunded and released on CD, double disc coloured vinyl and limited edition cassette.

In December 2018, the band released two charity Christmas singles via iTunes. The first single was their final annual collaboration with Maartin Allcock, who had died four months before, only weeks after performing with the band at Fairport's Cropredy Convention. The track, a prog-rock/traditional folk crossover rendition of Greg Lake's I Believe In Father Christmas, entered the iTunes chart, peaking at Number 33, and gaining a Number 80 position on the UK Official Charts for both downloads and sales on 21 December 2018. The second single, The Gasman Cometh, entered the iTunes chart reaching Number 55, and the iTunes comedy chart at Number 2. In the same week The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican/2008–2018 reached Number 2 in the iTunes comedy chart.  On 26 January 2019, spurred on by BBC Radio 6 ignoring an unprecedented barrage of fan requests for the song How Deep Is Your Glove? on social media, during a feature on Stuart Maconie's show called 'Sunday Glove Songs', the band defiantly released the track as a charity single for Prostate Cancer UK, and it entered the UK iTunes Comedy chart at Number 1.

Their tenth studio album, entitled Place Of Spades was crowdfunded in early 2019, and all pre-orders, came with a packet of 'Doonicans Magic Seeds', which at the time of their arrival at fans' homes, were of an unknown variety. In late April, fans were encouraged, on social media, to post photos of their plants, as they grew. Several months later, on 20 September, Scott Doonican finally admitted via the band's Facebook group, that they were actually cleome seeds, chosen because, when they grow, the leaves look remarkably similar to that of the cannabis plant. Scott, coming clean in his status post, stated, "I thought it would be a proper good laugh to try and get so many people to attempt to grow them, not knowing what they were growing. It worked, as over the past six months, I have had countless private messages from slightly worried fans (one of which lives next door to their local police station!)". The Place Of Spades album was released and launched on Sunday 30 June 2019 at Glastonbury Festival when the band played the Avalon Stage. A Glastonbury live album, Avalon Calling was recorded during the show, and was given a limited edition CD release, which, on its announcement, sold out overnight, before being made available via digital download, a second press with different packaging and later a double pink vinyl release.

In June 2019, Scott Doonican announced via social media and the band's website that he was setting up a crowdfunding project for a special release under the title of 'Leap of Faith'.
Fans were told that for taking a 'leap of faith' and by pledging just ten pounds, they would definitely get a CD album on time for Christmas 2019, but that this would be expanded to a second album for the same price, if enough people backed the project. By August, it was announced that then unnamed CDs would be expanded to a triple disc release containing 44-tracks. When posted out to pledgers in December 2019, it was revealed that the three albums were actually re-recorded and re-mastered versions of the 'Three Flavours Tarnetto Trilogy' (The Tarn Machine, T'South 0 - Tarn 4, Ave It : Bold As Brass) created by the 2014-present trio line-up of Scott, Björn and Alan #2, and produced by Joel Howe, who had mixed and mastered The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican/2008-2018 and Place Of Spades. On its release, Scott claimed on social media that the aim of the project was to demonstrate that "when a lot of people work collectively together, paying a little bit of money into the pot each, much bigger and better things can be achieved. I'm hoping that people can see now from my small-scale 'experiment', that socialism can work in the real world".

The band hosted their own music and comedy festival at The Old School House Venue in Barnsley in October 2019. The aptly titled Doonifest sold out over a year in advance, with a line-up including Oliver/Dawson Saxon, Hobo Jones & The Junkyard Dogs, The Sweetchunks Band and many other comedy and musical acts from the UK's festival circuit. It was the venue's fastest sell-out, with all tickets going within 56 seconds, before a single act was announced. The festival also saw, original founding member, Danny Doonican, returning for one final show, as the original duo of Scott and Danny opened the festival with a set composed of early Doonicans cover versions and songs from the band's first album.

On 25 October 2019, the band played their 1000th show at the Palace Theatre in Redditch. The show was a sell-out and was filmed and recorded for a DVD and CD live album.

In December 2019, Scott announced via the band website, a second 'Leap Of Faith' crowdfunding project, which eventually saw them release a 10th Anniversary version of their Cpl. Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn album, in October 2020. The album, re-recorded by Scott Doonican, Björn Doonicansson and Alan Doonican, and released in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, in October 2020, also featured a host of special guests including Eliza Carthy, Dave Burland, Kate Rusby, Mike Harding, Graham Oliver, Hugh Whitaker, Kathryn Roberts, Ian McMillan, Barnsley blues-folk troubadour, Richard Kitson, and founder member Danny Doonican amongst others. The new version of the 'Barnsley Concept Album' was accompanied by a 120 page book written by Scott Doonican, entitled The Essential Listener's Guide To Cpl. Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn, which contained the lyrics to the songs, and told the stories behind them and of the album's recording process.

In January 2020, the band's 10th studio album, Place Of Spades was the winner of a 'Jezzie Award' from Radio Bicester's 'Tarka Blowpig Music Show' after coming in at Number 1 and receiving the accolade of 'Studio Album of the Year - 2019', in a chart that featured The Who, Stormzy, Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson. Later in the same month, it was announced that the band would be supporting Levellers for their 2020 tour dates at Sheffield Leadmill, Holmfirth Picturedrome, Lancaster Town Hall and Nottingham Rock City. These shows were postponed until 2021 and 2022 due to a global pandemic of Coronavirus.

Spring 2020 – Winter 2021: The Coronavirus Pandemic and Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN
The 2020-2021 Global Coronavirus Pandemic caused the band to have to postpone their post-March 2020 tour dates, and as a result, Scott Doonican and his partner Amanda White, performed a series of weekly online shows, streamed on YouTube, under the title Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN. The streamed gig was only meant to run for one show, but was very quickly established as a weekly staple of the pandemic, running for an initial 69 weeks in total on YouTube (the shows went out live but have been archived on YouTube). After a break, following a return to live shows, the online shows have continued on a more sporadic basis.

The shows featured Scott performing live from home in his music room, interspersed with some previously recorded video footage of the full band, new music videos and collaborations between Scott and special guests, including Kathryn Roberts, Eliza Carthy, both Jeremy Cunningham and Simon Friend from the Levellers, 3 Daft Monkeys and Frank Turner amongst many others.

The show also featured regular appearances from several puppet characters, each with their own individual catchphrases, voiced by Amanda including Morris the alien pub landlord quizmaster and his assistant Little Morris, Gloria McGlumpher the roving reporter, Gloria's super-hero obsessed nephew Gordon (The Crochet Kid), Gervais the Stylist, Percy the Puppet Rangler, the cowboy ranger Ilkley Moor Bart Hat, Grandpa McGlumpher (Gloria's father) and Wallace the Scottish Yeti amongst many others. Scott contributed the voice of Barnsley Bob Ross, a finger puppet character based on American artist Bob Ross with a Barnsley accent and dialect.

Beginning in March 2020, BIG NEET IN clocked up 41 weekly shows up until a New Year Hootenanny, and then continued on a weekly basis into 2021, up to show number 66 in June, which featured a four-part interview with Gloria McGlumpher and a guest collaboration between Frank Turner and the band for its weekly basis 'finale'. Along with Scott, Björn and Alan, Frank Turner performed a version of his own song The Road, which combined the song's original lyrics and the parody lyrics Scott Doonican wrote for the band's 1000th show. The 66th episode of BIG NEET IN was also the 1100th Doonicans show. Shows 67 and 68 were compilation shows hosted by Gloria Glumpher, whilst show 69 was recorded in front of a virtual audience via conferencing platform Zoom. The show has continued into 2023 and beyond with more sporadic episodes after 2021's Episode 66 'finale' which actually marked the band's return to live performances.

During the pandemic lockdowns, Scott and Amanda converted their garage into a pub, which was named The Pint & Puppet after their Saturday night exploits. A regular extension to their 2-3 hour livestream shows, would be an 'After-Show Party' in The Pint & Puppet, where Scott would play some covers of other artists, which would be broadcast via Facebook Live.

The fourth episode of Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN on 18 April 2020 raised  over £3000 for a local appeal to help to pay for material to make scrubs for Barnsley's NHS workers, due to the government's shortage of Personal Protective Equipment. After Amanda's mother passed away in Barnsley Hospital in November, after contracting the virus whilst in the hospital, the show that followed on 7th Nov 2020 (Show 33) raised over £2000 for the hospital ward she had been in at the time.

Although the band were announced to be playing at Bearded Theory, Fairport's Cropredy Convention, Beautiful Days Festival, Camper Calling, Underneath The Stars Festival, Wickham Festival, Costa Del Folk, Watchet Festival and several others in 2020, due to the pandemic, the festivals were postponed to 2021 or 2022 or cancelled.

On 1 May 2020, Scott Doonican announced via social media and a YouTube video promo, that the band would be hoping to release their 11th studio album, Rugh & Ryf in 2021. The artwork was revealed too, a pastiche of Fairport Convention's' 1969 classic album Leige & Lief, which Scott revealed had been approved by the remaining members of the Fairport Convention line-up that played on the original album. Former Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks and current bassist Dave Pegg both contributed parts to the opening track of the album. The title of the original album Leige & Lief means 'Loyal & Ready' in Middle English. Rugh & Ryf is Middle English for 'Rough & Ready'. Despite this, due to the global pandemic, the decision was made to shelf the new album until 2022.

Also during the coronavirus lockdown, Scott Doonican made a guest appearance on a version of Fairport Convention's Meet On The Ledge, featuring the members of Fairport Convention, Clannad, Turin Brakes, Ralph McTell, Martyn Joseph and many more. The song was released as a charity single to raise money for people in the music industry affected by the pandemic.

In March 2021, the band successfully crowd-funded a double live vinyl release of their 2019 Glastonbury Festival performance Avalon Calling, which was released in August 2021 on time for the band's second Sunday Service show at Beautiful Days Festival in Devon. The show saw the band take to the stage with a number of guests, with bassist Mojo Doonican returning to join the band for the set, and Keith Moonican on drums.

In November 2021, Scott Doonican and his partner Amanda White performed Scott Doonican's Big Neet Out at a sold out Lantern Theatre in Sheffield, a live stage version of their long-running lockdown show, which included all of Amanda's puppet characters taking part in the show from a home-made Punch & Judy tent located to the left of Scott on the stage. The show was recorded and filmed for a live release.

Mk. 3 lineup's post-pandemic return to live shows: Nov 2021 - Dec 2023
In late November 2021, the whole band commenced their first tour in two years due to the pandemic. The tour, which featured theatre-show dates in Salford, Ulpha, Banbury, Canterbury, Knutsford, Preston, York, Matlock Bath and Barnsley, also included three dates supporting the Levellers at Sheffield Leadmill, Morecambe Winter Gardens and Nottingham Rock City.

The band played sporadic shows in Spring 2022, including a performance at Whitby Steampunk Festival at Whitby Pavilion Theatre, a double bill with Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq. In April, Thomas Benjamin Wild was invited by Scott Doonican to be a special guest on BIG NEET IN #78 and they collaborated on a rendition of an unabridged version of Bat Out Of Hell by Meat Loaf.

The band did a three night residency at Holmfirth Picturedrome in West Yorkshire, supporting the Levellers between 12 and 14 May 2022.

As well as band shows in Spring, Scott Doonican performed a series of intimate shows testing all of the new material from the band's forthcoming studio album. Live recordings were made at shows in Stourbridge, Sheffield and Trowbridge, and the Sheffield show was given an official release as a solo live album, Your Evening Of Folk Has Been Cancelled, released simultaneously with the band's new studio album as a bonus album to those who pre-ordered it.

In May 2022, the band released their eleventh studio album, Rugh & Ryf, after shelving it for two years due to coronavirus lock downs as a result of the global pandemic. The album was crowd-funded and was given the official launch date of 29 May when the band made their main stage debut supporting The Flaming Lips at Bearded Theory Festival in Derbyshire. Fans who pre-ordered the physical album received it on 1 May on time for a listening party organised by the band on social media.

Over the summer of 2022 the band played a series of notable UK music festivals including Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby's Underneath The Stars Festival, Wickham Festival, Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival, the Levellers' Beautiful Days Festival and Watchet Festival in Somerset on the same weekend bill as Belinda Carlisle, The Fratellis and Level 42.

In September the band released a limited edition live double CD of their two shows (in 2018 and 2022) at Fairport's Cropredy Convention. The album cover featured original artwork by the American artist Paine Proffitt and depicted the three members of the band jumping in the air. A time-lapse video of Proffitt creating the artwork was uploaded to the band's YouTube account.

On 8 October 2022 Scott Doonican and his partner Amanda hosted THE BIG DAY OUT, an indoor music festival featuring 12 acts at Barnsley's Birdwell Venue. The festival had sold out earlier in the year, and was compered by the puppets from Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN via video screens in the venue. The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican performed with the same extended 'Big Band' line-up that performed at Beautiful Days Festival in August 2022, which included Lewis Ryan on bass guitar and Brazilian drummer Dalgas Klein, both from Barnsley-based alternative band The Rolling Down Hills.

On 5 November 2022 Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN #81 saw Gloria McGlumpher interviewing folk musician Eliza Carthy and a new music video, produced by Scott Doonican, was premiered on the show for Carthy's cover of Good Morning Mr Walker by The Mighty Sparrow, taken from her album Queen of the Whirl, recorded to celebrate her 30th anniversary in the music industry. The song and video featured Eliza Carthy and a host of special musical guests including Scott Doonican and the show's puppet cast.

The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican's 2022 'Winter Woollies Tour', which started in early November until mid December, was preceded by two sold out nights at The Lantern Theatre in Sheffield. The first night saw Scott Doonican and Björn Doonicansson performing their Desert Island Discs live, whilst being interviewed by puppet hostess Gloria McGlumpher (voiced by Amanda White), and the second night saw Scott and Amanda performing the sequel to their 'Scott Doonican's BIG NEET OUT' show, featuring Scott performing songs and sketches alongside the puppet cast of the couple's online lockdown show. A live album and film was recorded on the second night and was crowdfunded and released independently to fans.
The trio of Scott, Björn and Alan undertook the remaining sold out dates in Whimple in Devon, Bridgwater, Preston, Knutsford, two nights in Banbury, York and Matlock Bath. The band's last show of 2022 was in their home town of Barnsley, where they performed in their annual Christmas Rock & Roll Circus which also included the pantomime 'The Doonicans Vs. The Fly'. Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN returned for online shows on Christmas Eve and a New Year's Eve 'Hootenanny'.

At the outset of 2023 Scott Doonican undertook a series of solo shows in Ipswich, Canterbury and Stourbridge, before the band played their first show of the year at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. This show marked the point at which Alan Doonican #2 surpassed the 3024 days spent in the band by his predecessor Alan Doonican #1. Also in the same month Scott Doonican announced that a third 'Leap of Faith' project would take place during 2023 in which fans would pledge an amount of money for an undisclosed CD and vinyl crowdfunded release.
Festival dates were announced for Underneath The Stars Festival, Bearded Theory, Beautiful Days, Ely Folk Festival, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Lindisfarne Festival and a second BIG DAY OUT festival, after the success of the 2022 event.
Scott Doonican continued the run of 2023 solo dates as part of his 'One Man Show' tour with shows at Barnsley Trades Club, The Lantern Theatre in Sheffield, The White Horse in St Neots, Victoria Hall in Bourton-on-the-Water, The Village Pump in Trowbridge, the historic Square Tower in Portsmouth, Porthcawl Grand Pavilion, Woolton Village Club in Liverpool and The Little Theatre in Cleadon, Sunderland.
The band celebrated their 17th Anniversary at two sold out shows in Devon and Somerset in June.
On 17 July 2023, Scott Doonican unveiled the third Leap of Faith Project to be a double live album recorded in Stourbridge earlier in the year. The solo live album SOUP was released on CD and double disc green coloured vinyl featuring artwork themed in the style of Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup can screen prints. In the 40 days preceding the album's release, he posted a picture of different Campbell's soup varieties on social media every morning, leading to fans speculating what it could signify. The vinyl version of the album featured a soup cookery book too.

July, August and September 2023 saw the band performing at Ely Folk Festival, Underneath The Stars Festival, Cropredy Fringe Festival, Beautiful Days Festival, Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Lindisfarne Festival.
Following their appearance at Beautiful Days Festival in August 2023, Björn Doonicansson announced via social media that he was leaving the band, but would be performing all of the band's already sold out Winter Woollies Tour dates that would take place between October and December.
The following week Scott Doonican announced a 13 date solo tour to promote SOUP would take place during Spring 2024. Shortly after these dates were announced, he also revealed, in a promo video that parodied the famous line-up scene from The Usual Suspects, that three new Doonican brothers would be revealed for the first time to the public on stage at the band's first show of 2024, at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham.

Influences
Scott Doonican, in an interview with Farmer Phil's Festival in 2016, named his musical comedy influences as Mike Harding, Jasper Carrott and Richard Digance.  On the band's website, Scott also claims to have formed the band, "to fuse the theatrical stage antics of Freddie Mercury with the comedy of Mike Harding, in order to form the world's greatest folk-band in knitwear".
From January to April 2015, the band released a series of  Doonican Desert Island Discs Podcasts via Bandcamp, where each month, different members were interviewed by Scott Doonican's partner Amanda White (who performed in a mock Scottish accent to emulate Kirsty Young who was the presenter of the real Desert Island Discs at that time). The band members had to choose their favourite eight songs, a book and a luxury item. Scott Doonican's selections included Eliza Carthy, Mike Harding, Rory Gallagher, Half Man Half Biscuit and Queen. Björn Doonicansson's selections included AC/DC, The Dubliners and Swedish rock band Europe. Alan Doonican's selections included American Zydeco accordion player Clifton Chenier, Deep Purple and Fairport Convention. Notably, all three of the band members each chose a different Levellers song.

Live shows
The band have played over 1,250 shows to date, and proclaim on their website that they are "The hardest-working comedy band in the UK".
The band's live shows range from full band shows, to solo acoustic shows by Scott Doonican. The band are regulars on the UK festival scene, and have also supported a number of diverse acts including Levellers, Chas & Dave, Roy Wood, John Otway, Fairport Convention, Eliza Carthy, Tony Christie, The Flaming Lips and The Darkness.

Band shows are often enhanced by audience participation and various set-pieces, such as the addition of occasional guest appearances from 6 ft 9in tall Tom Large dressed as The Devil for their version of "The Devil Went Darn To Barnsley"; Mark Wilkinson dressed as Dooni-Goat (or a Replacement Goat Service volunteer from the audience given horns and a lyrics sign) for the band's Ghostbusters parody Goat Yoga; or Scott crowd surfing to the bar and back to get and bring back a pint of beer; at several large festival shows, including Fairport's Cropredy Convention, Glastonbury Festival, Beautiful Days and Bearded Theory, Scott has used a rubber dinghy for this part of the show (and, on one noteworthy occasion, an inflatable crocodile).

Scott Doonican's solo shows (often billed in more recent years as Scott Doonican - One Man Show) feature many of the band's parodies, occasionally including retrospective songs not often performed by the band from the period 2006-2014 that preceded the Mk.3 lineup, on an acoustic guitar, ukulele or Suzuki Omnichord. In between songs he often tells the origin stories about what inspired their creation.

The band regularly invite other musicians to play with them. At Fairport's Cropredy Convention in August 2018, former Fairport Convention multi-instrumentalist Maartin Allcock, complete with Doonican-style tank-top, joined them for the finale on bass guitar, at Beautiful Days 2017 they were joined by Eliza Carthy, and at Whitwell Festival of Music in 2015, they were joined by Graham Oliver guitarist and founding member of Yorkshire heavy metal band Saxon. Scott also joined Oliver/Dawson Saxon on stage that same evening, brandishing a banjulele for Saxon song Wheels Of Steel (which the Doonicans covered as a hidden track on their 2017 album, '''Ave It : Bold As Brass), and again at the band's own 'Doonifest' in October 2019.

In February 2019, the band announced the date for their 1000th show, to take place at The Palace Theatre in Redditch, Worcestershire on 25 October 2019, which was a sell-out. The band later announced and successfully crowdfunded a project to film and record a live DVD and double album on the night of the show.

In August 2019, the band were invited to host their first 'Sunday Service' show at The Big Top stage at Beautiful Days, where the band performed a full set of their comedy parodies with guest collaborations from other acts on the festival circuit, including fellow Barnsley folk musician Kathryn Roberts who performed The Lady In Greggs as a piano duet. Kathryn duetted with Scott during his 15th online 'BIG NEET IN' show, which was broadcast on YouTube during the worldwide coronavirus pandemic of 2020. They performed a parody of the Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes song, Up Where We Belong about Barnsley sculptor, Graham Ibbeson's statue located in Barnsley, of the cricketing umpire Dickie Bird. The following week, folk singer Eliza Carthy duetted with Scott on the song Prince Ali from the Disney animated movie Aladdin, whilst she was dressed as the Genie from the movie. In Feb 2021, Jeremy Cunningham from the Levellers contributed a live video recording of an art mural painted on the wall of the band's Brighton studio, The Metway, for Big Neet In #48, which was set to the sound of the band's hit single What A Beautiful Day as performed by Scott Doonican. Simon Friend from Levellers collaborated with Scott Doonican on the show, performing War Pigs by Black Sabbath, and acoustic-punk troubadour Frank Turner recorded a version of his own song The Road alongside the band, with additional parody lyrics from Scott Doonican which aired on the show in June 2021, before being added to the band's 11th studio album Rugh & Ryf.

Reception
Jeff Robson, reviewing their 11 August 2018 show at Fairport's Cropredy Convention for the Independent, said "... The Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican were the highlights of a rainy Saturday afternoon, swearily lampooning a genre that sometimes takes itself too seriously.", whilst another review of the same show said "... complete with fluorescent tank tops and dodgy wigs [they] were an absolute highlight."

Talking about the same appearance in a 4 December interview with Radio Bicester on the Tarka Blowpig Show, Fairport Convention's Dave Pegg, said that the band were "the best... the highlight of the weekend".

Reviewing the band's support act to the Levellers at Leamington Assembly in 2015, What's On West Midlands said "the Barnsley Boys left the audience in stitches with their exquisitely crafted parodies ... there was nevertheless some surprisingly excellent musicianship."

John Atkin, reviewing 'Ave It: Bold As Brass in RnR Magazine, said "Bristles with proper belly-laugh moments... a LOL-a-minute through a variety of perfect pastiches. If there is any justice, the Doonicans deserve to be all over your Saturday night telly."

In a review of Bearded Theory Festival 2016, UK Festival Guides said "I couldn't fail to mention a gig by The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican that left even them speechless at the sheer size, volume and enthusiasm of the audience, the impact these boys have wherever they go is utterly phenomenal", whilst at the same festival two years later, the reviewer noted "Rapidly becoming the must-have, must-see festival band, the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican played to an over-capacity Woodland Stage arena as hundreds queued for a chance at catching their much-anticipated antics". A review of a smaller venue show said "They simply take all the songs you cannot get out of your head – everything from The Police to Kings of Leon – and twist the lyrics beyond recognition while wearing gloriously outrageous multi-coloured tank tops."

In July 2017, comedian Jason Manford described their performance at Underneath The Stars Festival as "great fun" on his Twitter account, whilst eFestivals described their performance at Off The Tracks festival the same year with "Like a modern-day version of the Barron Knights, they take popular songs, amend the words and twist them into hilarious folk parodies."
Manford saw the band again at Underneath The Stars Festival on Sat 30 July 2022, and via Instagram said that "when the North goes independent I'm suggesting this is our national anthem" with an attached video of the band performing their ode to 'real gravy', 'Too Good To Be Jus'.

In the foreword of Scott Doonican's book of the band's lyrics Songs In The Key Of Tarn, folk musician Eliza Carthy describes the band as "a ridiculous family of genius, hilarious, irresistible music makers, currently crowd surfing to the bar all over the great county of Yorkshire and beyond, into the venues and music festivals of the UK".

Folk musician and comedian Mike Harding said on his "Folk Show" podcast #177 in 2016 that "The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican are very, very funny... one of the hardest working bands on the planet". In the broadcast of his 273rd Folk Show podcast in Sept 2019 he described the band as "some of the funniest men on the planet... I would call them parodists extraordinaire".  On 12 April 2019, the Staffordshire Sentinel published a headline about the band's appearance at Leek Arts Festival, describing them to be "like The Barron Knights - on speed", going on to say "Their hilarious parodies of popular songs will leave you crying tears of laughter".

Mike Scialom, writing for the Cambridge Independent, said that the band's headline set at Cambridge Folk Festival's Club Stage was "another festival highlight". It went on to say that the "irreverent, madcap trio, insisting they were quite posh really, included defence of their home town, Barnsley: 'In most cities people smoke spice, but in Barnsley everyone smokes basil... they buy the Radio Times when it's not even Christmas, that's how posh it is'."

During their appearance at Kate Rusby's Underneath The Stars Festival in August 2019, in a review by Louder Than War journalist Gareth Allen wrote, "The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican's reputation preceded them and they didn't disappoint, resplendent in the most garish of tank tops imaginable... without doubt these guys can really play. Led by the inimitable Scott Doonican, everyone is jumping, as metal-head culture joins folk and hip-hop in an intoxicating mix". The Yorkshire Evening Post described the band at the same show as "hilarious".

RnR Magazine, reviewing Place Of Spades in September 2019, described the album as "the summit of musical comedy. Scott Doonican's attention to detail is what sets the Doonicans ahead of all the contenders in this genre. These are lovingly crafted pastiches with tonnes of subtle layers". They went on to say that it was "the strongest Doonicans album yet".

During a Lives In Music interview with Robin Valk, in March 2020, Fairport Convention bassist Dave Pegg said, "one band I really love, are a bit of a comedy act, and an act that you will wanna go and see over and over again, called The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican... a great name, but absolutely hilarious."

On 6 July 2020, via her Underneath The Stars Festival social media, folk singer Kate Rusby said, "The 8th wonder of the world is actually in Yorkshire... a wonderful Yorkshire genius collective known as The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican. To see them is to know true magnificence and we love em to bits!"

During the final interview of Scott Doonican's BIG NEET IN (lead by puppet anchor-lady Gloria McGlumpher - voiced by Scott Doonican's partner Amanda White along with Scott during show #66), guest collaborator and interviewee Frank Turner described his experience as "the best interview I have ever done".

At Bearded Theory Festival in Derbyshire on Sunday 29 May 2022, Wayne Coyne from headline act The Flaming Lips said to Scott Doonican on seeing the band's stage wear, "Oh man! You guys look even crazier than us!".

In the July/August 2022 edition of RnR Magazine, the band's 11th studio album, Rugh & Ryf, was described as the band's "masterpiece... with lyrics full of pith and vinegar, wrapped in dubious DayGlo knitwear... that will have the folkies quaking to the depths of their Trad. Arr. souls".

Jarvis Cocker from Sheffield band, Pulp, has been widely quoted to have described the band as "The best thing to come out of Barnsley, since the A61 to Sheffield".

 Notable instruments

 Scott Doonican
Scott Doonican has been an official endorsee of Tanglewood Guitars since 2018, but has had a preference for them for live shows since the band's conception. According to their website his main live acoustic guitar, a "battered old 1995 Tanglewood TW55, dubbed 'The Workhorse' (is) believed to have done well over a thousand shows to date" (since this was written, the guitar definitely has). The guitar was bought in 1999 from Scott's uncle, former Showaddywaddy bassist, Billy Norman.
Scott also plays a 'chess board synthesiser ukulele', custom-built by North Yorkshire luthier, Robert Hinchcliffe, during She's From Dodworth, and occasionally he plays a 1981 Suzuki Omnichord OM-27 during solo shows.
He also sometimes plays an Ozark banjulele, a GDAD tuned Irish bouzouki, and the 'Kazoobie Wazoogle', an extra-loud kazoo with a bell-shaped horn on top and a trumpet-styled opening at the front.
On studio albums between 2015 and 2020, Scott recorded his acoustic guitar parts using a Gibson J200 and since 2020 records using a George Lowden O23C, which he often uses for his online BIG NEET IN broadcasts too.

 Björn Doonicansson

Björn Doonicansson plays a Gold Tone TS-250A Tenor Archtop Banjo (and a Deering Goodtime 2 Leader as his back-up tenor banjo), a Bridge Aquila violin made by Sleaford violin-maker, Paul Bridgewater, and an electric Fender MandoStrat mandolin.

 Alan Doonican
Alan Doonican plays Gallini and Chanson accordions, a Roland V-Combo VR-09 keyboard (dubbed "Alan's Massive Throbbing Organ" on the side of his keyboard stand), a 1987 Yamaha SHS-10 keytar, and a ukulele of ill repute.

 Discography

This is an abridged list of albums; the band have also released over 40 live shows on CD or in download format, via their own independent label, Moon-On-A-Stick Records. All of the artwork for the front covers of the band's studio albums, and a significant number of their live albums are pastiches of classic album covers.

Studio albums
 For Those About To Rock... But Gently (2007)
 Back To The Day Job (2009)
 Cpl Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn (2010)
 The Dark Side Of The Tarn (2011)
 EY UP! LET'S GO! (2012)
 Sat'day Neet Fever (2013)
 Talk Of The Tarn (2014)
 The Tarn Machine (2015 - re-recorded & re-released 2019)
 T'South 0 – Tarn 4 (2016 - re-recorded & re-released 2019)
 Ave It: Bold As Brass (2017)
 The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican/2008-2018 (2018)
 Place Of Spades (2019)
 Cpl. Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn - 10th Anniversary Edition (2020)
 Rugh & Ryf (2022)

Live albums
The band have released countless live albums since their conception, all self-released. Some have been given a physical release and there are many more released digitally as part of the band's regularly expanding 'Official Bar-Steward Bootlegs Series'.
Physical releases with the current line-up include:
 Get Yer Ha-Ha's Art (2016) Recorded live at The Lantern Theatre, Sheffield.
 School's Art (2017) Recorded live at The Old School House Venue, Barnsley.
 Avalon Calling (2019) Recorded live at Glastonbury Festival. The album was given a vinyl release in 2021.
 The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican Live At The Palace Theatre (2019) Recorded live at the Palace Theatre, Redditch on 25 October 2019, the night of the band's 1000th show.
 The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican Live At Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2018 & 2022 (2022) Recorded live at Fairport's Cropredy Convention in 2018 and 2022.
 SOUP (2023) Scott Doonican recorded live at Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge. This album was released on both CD and vinyl.

Other media
DVDsThe Tarn Machine Live (2015)Live & Lairy at Fairport's Cropredy Convention (2018)
 The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican Live At The Palace Theatre (2019) Filmed live at the Palace Theatre, Redditch on 25 October 2019, the night of the band's 1000th show.

Books
 Songs In The Key Of Tarn (2015) A book of the band's lyrics and the stories behind them, written by Scott Doonican, with a foreword written by Eliza Carthy MBE. The book was revised for a significantly extended 2nd edition in 2017.
 The Essential Listener's Guide To Cpl. Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn (2020) A book to accompany the 10th Anniversary version of Cpl. Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn, containing the lyrics and stories behind the songs along with commentary on the recording process, written by Scott Doonican, with a foreword written by Ringo Starr MBE

Members

 Current members

Scott Doonican
Lead vocals, acoustic guitar, banjulele, electric synthesiser ukulele, Suzuki Omnichord OM-27, kazoo, dinghy (17 June 2006 – present)

Scott has been the only constant member throughout the band's history. He has played at every single Bar-Steward Sons show, except show #513 at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham on 18 October 2014.

He has written or co-written the lyrics to over 100 of the band's parodies. Despite his best efforts he still doesn't have an Ivor Novello Award.

Alan Doonican #2
Piano accordion, keyboards, keytar, ukulele, vocals.
(25 October 2014 – present)

Alan played for the first time with the band at Harefield Hall in Pateley Bridge at show #514 on 25 October 2014, at Halloween-themed festival, 'Scarefest'. The festival appearance doubled-up as a 'live audition', after Alan Doonican #1 had quit the band unexpectedly the previous month. At first, the rest of the band couldn't spot him amongst the rest of the festival crowd, as everybody in attendance was in Halloween fancy dress.

Since joining the band, Alan has written or co-written over fourteen of the band's best-known parodies, including The Ornithologist Waltz, Walking In Manpiss and Too Good To Be Jus.

He became the third-longest serving member of the band on 4 February 2023 at a sold out show at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, after surpassing the 3024 days served in the band by his predecessor Alan Doonican #1.

Björn Doonicansson
Mandolin, tenor banjo, violin, bouzouki, guitar, vocals (20 April 2014 – present)

Hailing from a small goat-herding village close to Gothenburg, Sweden, Björn is the youngest member of the band's '2014–present' line-up. He played for the first time with the band at The Blues Bar in Harrogate at show #426 in April 2014, aged only 16 at the time.
Björn Doonicansson announced in late August 2023 that he will be leaving the band at the end of the band's sold out Winter Woollies Tour.

 Former members
 Danny Doonican – vocals, acoustic guitar (17 June 2006 – 17 March 2011)
 Alan Doonican #1 – piano accordion (24 June 2006 – 4 October 2014)
 Andy Doonican – 12-string acoustic guitar, bass guitar, ukulele (8 April 2011 – 17 June 2016)
 Björn Doonicansson - mandolin, tenor banjo, violin, vocals (20 April 2014 – 19 December 2023)

Collaborators, honorary members and notable guests
According to the band's website there are a number of 'Significant Others' that have performed as honorary Doonicans, being inducted into what Scott Doonican claims to be the 'Doonicans Hall of Fame'. Several of these collaborators are included here.
 Amanda White - co-writer of a significant percentage of the band's parodies, alongside Scott Doonican, regular band photographer and in charge of band merchandise at live shows since 2006. Amanda was also responsible for giving the band its name and subsequent unique image. Scott has long described her as 'The Fourth Doonican', even during the period where the band expanded to become a quartet between 2014 and 2016. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic the band were forced to cancel live shows, and Scott Doonican presented a weekly BIG NEET IN livestream show on YouTube. Amanda co-presented the show using and voicing a range of puppet characters, including Gloria McGlumpher the Big Neet In Roving Reporter (who interviewed band members, various special guests, and people close to the band), Gordon McGlumpher (Gloria's young nephew), Morris the Quizmaster (an alien with three eyes, who is alleged to run Scott Doonican's home-built pub 'The Pint & Puppet') and Gervaise (the band's stylist and hairdresser) amongst others.
 Maart Doonican (Maartin Allcock) – producer and multi-instrumentalist on several studio tracks including annual Christmas singles (2015-2017). Maartin was given Scott's EY UP! LET'S GO! tank-top and made an "honorary Doonican" for his only live performance with the band at Fairport's Cropredy Convention on 11 August 2018. He died, just 35 days later after a short battle with liver cancer.
 Duck Doonican (Simon Friend from Levellers) – played mandolin on the live album It'll Be Reight (2014) and has made two live appearances to date.
 Mojo Doonican - made his debut on bass guitar and tambourine with the band at The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican's Sunday Service at Beautiful Days Festival 2019. Sporting an afro, sunglasses and silvery flares, Mojo remained mute for the duration of the show, communicating by coolly staring at his brothers. He is alleged to come from Coolville, Ohio. He also guested on bass on Big Coffee Brand and Frisky In The Jar from the 2019 reissue of The Tarn Machine and on Dead Right Hand from Rugh & Ryf in 2022. He has made occasional appearances with the band since 2019.
 Keith Moonican - played drums as part of the Doonicans' Sunday Service Gospel Orchestra (consisting of just himself and Mojo Doonican on bass) at the second incarnation of The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican's Sunday Service at Beautiful Days Festival in August 2021, and made occasional appearances since 2021.
 Delmar Doonican – played 5-string banjo on the live album It'll Be Reight (2014) and as a guest on the tracks Whole Lotta Rosé from Talk Of The Tarn (2014) and Place Of Spades from the album of the same name (2019).
 Foxy Doonican – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, banjo (made four live appearances between 31 May 2014 and 18 October 2014)
 Bobby Doonegan – occasional appearances on tea-chest bass (25 May 2014 – present). Bobby has been described on the band's website as a distant cousin and the son of lesser-known skiffle star, Lenny Doonegan.
 Sarah Doonican – occasional British Sign Language interpreter at live shows (21 May 2015 – present) has performed several times alongside the band at Bearded Theory Festival and at a handful of other shows in Derbyshire, inclusively translating the band's comedy lyrics for deaf festival or gig-goers. In the similar way to how the core band members refer to each other as "brothers from other mothers", they refer to Sarah as their "sister from the same mister".
 Joel Howe (music producer) - often described by Scott Doonican as 'The Fifth Doonican' (a subtle reference to Beatles producer George Martin), he has mixed and mastered a number of the band's albums since 2017, including studio albums Ave It : Bold As Brass (2017), The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican/2008-2018 (2018), Place Of Spades (2019), and the reissued versions of The Tarn Machine and T' South 0 - Tarn 4 (2019), Cpl. Kipper's Barnsley Trades Club Turn (2020), Rugh & Ryf (2022), as well as live albums, Live & Lairy at Fairport's Cropredy Convention (2018), Avalon Calling - Live At Glastonbury Festival (2019) and The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican Live At The Palace Theatre (2019).
 Tom Large – occasional appearances as the band's nemesis The Devil (or Tom DeVille) at live shows during The Devil Went Darn To Barnsley (since show #555 on 21 May 2015)
 Mark Wilkinson - occasional appearances as the band's mascot 'The Doonigoat' at live shows (since show #1171 on 8 July 2022) during Goat Yoga. On occasions where Mark hasn't been at a show the band have put on a 'Replacement Goat Service' (usually a volunteer from the audience made to wear a t-shirt bearing the slogan "This is my costume. I'm a goat").
 Lewis Ryan - played bass in 2022 and 2023 with the band's extended 'Sunday Service Big Band' at both Beautiful Days Festival in Devon and THE BIG DAY OUT Festival in Barnsley in 2022 and 2023. Also a fine artist, Ryan  created the inner gatefold artwork for The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican/2008-2018''.
 Mushroom Doonican - played bass in Oct 2023 for the band's appearance at THE BIG DAY OUT v2.0 Festival in Barnsley.
 Dalgas Klein/Dalgas Doonican - played drums in 2022 and 2023 with the band's extended 'Sunday Service Big Band' at both Beautiful Days Festival in Devon and THE BIG DAY OUT Festival in Barnsley in 2022 and 2023. Both Klein and Lewis Ryan perform regularly with Barnsley alt-grunge band The Rolling Down Hills. Dalgas performed as Dalgas Doonican in Oct 2023 for the band's appearance at THE BIG DAY OUT v2.0 Festival in Barnsley. He was inducted into the 'Doonican Hall of Fame' shortly after.

References

External links
 Official website
 Official Bandcamp

British parodists
English folk musical groups
British comedy musical groups
Parody musicians
Musical groups established in 2006
Musicians from Barnsley

The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican


Nuno Judice (Mexilhoeira Grande, Algarve, 29 April 1949) is a Portuguese essayist, poet, writer, novelist and professor.

Poet and fiction writer, his literary debut was with the Concept of Poem in 1972. He graduated in Romance Philology from the University of Lisbon and obtained the degree of Doctor from the New University of Lisbon (Universidade Nova), where he is a full professor, presenting in 1989 a thesis on Medieval Literature. He published anthologies, critical editions of literary studies and maintains as a regular contributor in the press. He received Spain's Queen Sofia Ibero-American Poetry Prize in 2013, awarded by the Spanish National Heritage and the University of Salamanca, in the amount of 42,100 euros. He was a member of the editorial of the magazine Time and Mode between 1969 and 1974. He was the commissioner for the area of Literature "Portugal as a country-theme" in the 49th Frankfurt Book Fair. Popularizer of Portuguese literature of the twentieth century, launched in 1993, "Voyage dans un siècle de la Littérature Portugaise". He also organized the European Week of Poetry, under the "Lisbon'94 - European Capital of Culture". In 1996, he released the literary magazine Tobacconist, edited by "Casa Fernando Pessoa". In 1997, he was appointed Cultural Counselor of the Embassy of Portugal and Director of the Camões Institute in Paris. In 2009, he assumed the direction of Colóquio Letras published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He has works translated in Spain, Italy, Venezuela, England and France, where he published Un chant dans l'épaisseur du temps in the Collection Poésie chez Éditions Gallimard. He still works for theater and translated authors such as Molière, Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. His name was assigned to the Poetry Prize of the City Council Aveiro, Portugal. He is curator for the cultural area José Saramago Foundation, created in 2008. He received the degree of "Oficial da Ordem de Santiago e Espada" (Officer of the Order of Santiago and Sword), in Portugal, and in France, the Officier degree of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officer of Arts and Letters).

Published works

Poetry

The Concept of Poem A Noção de Poema (1972)
The Audible Peacock O Pavão Sonoro (1972)
Critique of Domestic parallelepiped Crítica Doméstica dos Paralelepípedos (1973)
The Countless Waters As Inumeráveis Águas (1974)
The Mechanism of Fragmentation Romantic O Mecanismo Romântico da Fragmentação (1975)
In the Arms of a tiny Light Nos Braços da Exígua Luz (1976)
The Cutting in Emphasis O Corte na Ênfase (1978)
The Flight of Igitur in glass data O Voo de Igitur num Copo de Dados (1981)
The Sharing of Myths A Partilha Dos Mitos (1982)
Lyre of Lichen Lira de Líquen (1985 Prize Pen Club Portuguese)
The Condescension of Being A Condescendência do Ser (1988)
Enumeration of Shadows Enumeração de Sombras (1989)
The Rules of Perspective As Regras da Perspectiva (1990) D. Dinis Prize (1990)
A Straight from October Uma Sequência de Outubro - Commissioner for Europália (1991)
Poetical Works 1972-1985 Obra Poética 1972-1985 (1991)
A Corner in the thickness of Time Um Canto na Espessura do Tempo (1992)
Meditation on Ruins Meditação sobre Ruínas (1994), Grand Prix of Poetry of the Portuguese Association of Writers, 1995, finalist of the European Prize for Literature Aristeion)
The Movement of the World O Movimento do Mundo (1996)
Poems Aloud Poemas em Voz Alta- with CD of poems spoken by Natalia Luiza (1996)
The Fountain of life A Fonte da Vida (1997)
Kidnappings / Enlévements (1998, selected poems, with illustrations by Jorge Martins)
General Theory of Feeling Teoria Geral do Sentimento (1999)
Collected Poems 1967-2000 Poesia Reunida 1967-2000
Water Lines (2000)
Peter Remembering Agnes Pedro lembrando Inês (2001)
Rhymes and Accounts (2001), recognized with the Award Review 2000, by the Portuguese Center of the International Association of Literary Critics (AICL)
Mapping Emotions Cartografia de Emoções (2002)
The State of the Field O Estado dos Campos (2003)
Variable Geometry Geometria variável (2005)
Geography of Chaos (photo Duarte Belo) (2005)
The Simplest Things As coisas mais simples (2006)
The Matter of the Poem A Matéria do Poema (2008)
The Brief of Everlasting Feeling O Breve Sentimento do Eterno (2008)
Basic Concepts Guide Guia de Conceitos Básicos (2010)
Random browsing Navegação de Acaso (2013)

Essays

The Age's «Orpheus» A Era de «Orpheu» (1986)
The Space in Text Medieval Tale O Espaço do Conto no Texto Medieval (1991)
The Poetic Process O Processo Poético (1992)
Portugal, Language and Culture Portugal, Língua e Cultura - Commissioner for Seville Exhibition (1992)
Voyage dans un Siècle de Littérature Portugaise (1993)
Journey through a century of Portuguese literature Viagem por um século de literatura portuguesa (1997)
The Masks of the Poem As Máscaras do Poema (1998)
B.I. Little Red Riding Hood B.I. do Capuchinho Vermelho (2003)
The journey of words: Study of Poetry A viagem das palavras: estudo sobre poesia (2005)
The Phenomenon Narrative: from the Popular Tale to Contemporary Fiction O fenómeno narrativo: do conto popular à ficção contemporânea (2005)
The Certificate of Stories A certidão das histórias (2006)
the abecedarian of critical O ABC da Crítica (2010)

Fiction
Last word: "Yes Última Palavra: «Sim» (1977)
Plankton Plâncton (1981)
Religious Shroud Manta Religiosa (1982)
The Treasure of the Queen of Sheba  Postmodern Tale, O Tesouro da Rainha de Sabá (1984)
Adage Adágio (1984)
The Rosebush of Thorn A Roseira de Espinho (1994)
The Scarlet Woman, briefer A Mulher Escarlate, Brevíssima (1997)
Eve of Shadows Vésperas de Sombra (1998)
For All Ages Por Todos os Séculos (1999)
The Tree of Miracles A Árvore dos Milagres(2000)
The Idea of Love and Other Tales A Ideia do Amor e Outros contos(2003)
The Angel of the Storm O anjo da tempestade (2004)
The Enigma of Salome O Enigma de Salomé (2007)
The Stations of the Cross Os Passos da Cruz (2009)
Two Dialogues between a priest and a dying Dois Diálogos entre um padre e um moribundo (2010)
The Complex of Sagittarius, O Complexo de Sagitário (2011)

Awards

Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, (1975), O Mecanismo Romântico da Fragmentação (The Mechanism of Fragmentation Romantic);
Pen Club, (1985), Lira de Líquen (Lyre of Lichen);
D. Dinis Prize from Mateus Foundation (1990), As Regras da Perspectiva (The Rules of Perspective);
Portuguese Association of Writers, (1994), Meditação sobre Ruínas (Meditation on Ruins);
Prize of the Portuguese Association of Writers, (1995),
Eça de Queiroz Prize for Literature of the Municipality of Lisbon, (1995), Meditação sobre Ruínas (Meditation on Ruins);
Award Bordalo of the House of Press, (1999), Por Todos os Séculos (For All Ages)
Award Review 2000 by the Portuguese Center of the International Association of Literary Critics AICL (2000), Rimas e Contas (Rhymes and Accounts)
Ana Hatherly Prize from Chamber of Funchal, (2003), O Estado dos Campos (The State of the Field);
Fernando Namora Prize (2004), O Anjo da Tempestade (The Angel of the Storm);
Spain's Queen Sofia Ibero-American Poetry Prize (2013).

External links

 Algarve Notable citizens
 gulbenkian Foundation
 Interview with Nuno Judice
 As tormentas Poetry site

 queen-sofia Award 2013

1949 births
Portuguese male writers
Living people
Portuguese people of Italian descent

Nuno Júdice


Ferrier is a surname of European origin.

People named Ferrier
Notable people with this family name include:

 Arnaud du Ferrièr (c.1508–1585), French lawyer and diplomat
 David Ferrier (1843–1924), Scottish medical scientist
 James Ferrier (1800–1888), merchant and politician
 James Frederick Ferrier (1808–1864), Scottish metaphysical writer
 Jim Ferrier (1915–1986), Australian golfer
 Johan Ferrier (1910–2010), Surinamese politician (first President)
 John Ferrier (c.1759–1836), Royal Navy officer
 John Todd Ferrier (1855–1943), former Congregational pastor in Macclesfield, England, left the church in 1903 to found the Order of the Cross
 Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953), English contralto
 Kathleen Ferrier (politician) (born 1957), Dutch politician (daughter of Johan)
 Margaret Ferrier (born 1960), Scottish Member of Parliament
 Paul Ferrier (1843–1928), French dramatist
 Scott Ferrier (born 1974), Australian decathlete
 Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (1782–1854), Scottish novelist
 Walter Frederick Ferrier (1865–1950), Canadian geologist

English-language surnames

Ferrier (surname)