Kathryn Tickell

Biography

Kathryn Tickell, OBE, DL (born 8 June 1967) is an English musician, noted for playing the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle.

Early life

Kathryn Tickell was born in Walsall, to parents who originated from Northumberland and who moved back there from Staffordshire with the family when Kathryn was seven. Her paternal grandfather played accordion, fiddle, and organ. Her father, Mike Tickell, sings and her mother played the concertina. Her first instrument was piano when she was six. A year later, she picked up a set of Northumbrian smallpipes brought home by her father, who intended them for someone else. Frustrated by fiddle and piano, she learned that the pipes rewarded her effort. She was inspired by older musicians such as Willy Taylor, Will Atkinson, Joe Hutton, and Billy Pigg.

Performing and recording

At thirteen, she had gained a reputation from performing in festivals and winning pipe contests. When she was seventeen, she released her first album, On Kielder Side×On Kielder Side1984 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Joan's Jig / Cut the File3:332Sweet Hesleyside / Hesleyside Reel4:263The Skate / Beeswing3:304Ronell's Reel / Bob Thompson's2:515Crooked Bawbee / J.B. Milne / Carrick Hornpipe4:406The Peacock Followed the Hen4:277Da Slockit Light2:478Kielder Jock / Matt's / The Stage4:419Jean's Reel2:4410Johnny Cope / Tipsy Sailor5:4511Border Spirit / A.B. Hornpipe / Billy Pigg's Hornpipe5:10 (Saydisc, 1984), which she recorded at her parents' house. During the same year, she was named Official Piper to the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, an office that had been vacant for 13 years, since George Atkinson's appointment for a single year in 1971. She formed the Kathryn Tickell Band, with Karen Tweed on accordion, bass, and Ian Carr on guitar, and released the band's first album in 1991 on Black Crow Records. Later, the band comprised Peter Tickell on fiddle, Julian Sutton on melodeon, and Joss Clapp on guitar. In 2001, the Kathryn Tickell Band performed in a Proms in the Park concert in Gateshead that was linked up to the Last Night of the Proms, the first time traditional folk music had been featured at that event.
She recorded with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, led by Simon Jeffes. She met Jeffes while she was in her teens, and he wrote the song "Organum" for her. Over a decade after Jeffes's death, she played with Penguin Cafe, run by his son, Arthur.
Tickell has also recorded with The Chieftains, The Boys of the Lough, Jon Lord, Jimmy Nail, Linda Thompson, Alan Parsons, and Andy Sheppard. She has performed live with Sting, and has recorded with him on his albums The Soul Cages (1991), Ten Summoner's Tales (1993), Mercury Falling (1996), Brand New Day, (1999), If on a Winter's Night... (2009), and The Last Ship (2013).
Two ex-members of the North East England traditional music group The High Level Ranters have appeared on her albums: Tom Gilfellon on On Kielder Side and Alistair Anderson on Borderlands×Borderlands1988 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Mary the Maid / Claudio's Polka2:302David's Hornpipe / Tents Hornpipe / Walker Street Reel3:543Sidlaw Hills / Lord Gordon's Reel / Robson Reel4:374Rothbury Hills / Holey Ha' Penny3:515Brafferton Village / Grey Bull Hornpipe / Grey Bull Waltz6:126Stellgreen / Roly Gentle / Stellgreen5:447Loch Rannoch / Troy's Wedding5:098Gypsy's Lullaby / The Tartar Frigate2:599Alston Flower Show / Wark Football Team2:3310The Flowers of the Forest3:54 (1986). The latter album included to a tribute to the Wark football team. Several other pipers have appeared on her albums: Troy Donockley on Debatable Lands, Patrick Molard on The Gathering×The Gathering1997 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Raincheck2:592Lads of Alnwick / Sunderland Lasses / Peacocks March5:423Redesdale3:164La bettaille dans la pétit abre / Acharavi Waltz5:595The Gathering3:266Kates House1:447Real Blues Reel3:268St. Kilda Wedding / Pjotr4:229Green Brechans O'Branton / I Saw My Love Come Passing by Me3:4410Tune for Matt Robson / Kathleen7:2811Mr. Nelson's Birthday Waltz3:43 and Martyn Bennett on Borderlands. Debatable Lands included "Our Kate", a composition by Kathryn Tickell dedicated to Catherine Cookson.
In 2011, she took part in the Sunderland A.F.C. charity Foundation of Light event.
She formed Kathryn Tickell and the Side, with Ruth Wall on Celtic harp, Louisa Tuck on cello, and Amy Thatcher on accordion. The group plays a mixture of traditional and classical music. They released an eponymous album in 2014.
In 2018 Tickell established a new band, Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening, with whom she released the album Hollowbone in 2019. This project signals a different approach, with new material. There is a semi-imaginary incursion into the prehistory of Northumbrian music in the track "Nemesis" based on Roman-era texts and a melody by Emperor Hadrian’s court musician Mesomedes. There is a foray into a world of ancestral shamanism in "O-u-t Spells Out". The album was greeted with critical acclaim, with four-star reviews in The Observer and the Financial Times, as were the band's various national tours in its first two years of existence.

Other projects

In 1987, the early part of her career was chronicled in The Long Tradition, a TV documentary. Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria, another documentary, appeared in 2006. In 1997, Tickell founded the Young Musicians Fund of the Tyne and Wear Foundation to provide money to young people in northeastern England who wanted to learn music. She founded the Festival of the North East and from 2009 to 2013 was the artistic director of Folkworks.
She is also a regular presenter for BBC Radio 3's weekly world music programme Music Planet.

Awards and honours

Official Piper for the Lord Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1984
Musician of the Year, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, 2004, 2013
The Queen's Medal for Music, 2009
Best Traditional Album, Spiral Earth Awards, Northumbrian Voices×Northumbrian Voices2012 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 31 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11Recorded Voices1:152The Fiddle6:083Intro2:484Learning to Play7:395Intro1:406Shining Pool/Tumblers2:087Walking to Dances5:348Canny Shepherd Laddies3:389Will Atkinson Words1:5110Will Atkinson2:4511Hard Times13:4512Small Coals2:40Disc 21Redesmouth Road/27 Miles3:442The Quadbike3:093Intro1:574Your Cheating Heart1:515The Feisty Gamecock3:176Intro1:537Grey Bull/ Wark Football Team2:238Wildflowers and Grass5:259Allery Burn2:1010Intro1:5411Carrick Hornpipe1:4712Intro2:2513Song for the North Tyne2:4614Childhood4:1215Intro0:5616Willie Taylor Set5:3417Encore Intro0:3918The Company Makes the Feast3:1519Northumbrian Voices11:20
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) Civil Division, 2015
Honorary Degree, Open University, 2015
Deputy Lieutenant (DL) for the County of Northumberland, 2015
Honorary Degree (M.Mus), Durham University, 2017
Honorary Degree (D.Mus), Newcastle University, 2019