The poster for Big Deal’s 40th anniversary charity concerts. Picture: taken last summer outside the barn where the band first performed in 1986
THE Big Deal Band will be at their biggest ever – 16 musicians in all – when they mark their 40th anniversary with a brace of reunion Barn Dance, Buffet & Musical Extravaganzas in York on Friday and Saturday.
The 7pm and 11pm charity fundraisers will be held at the De Grey Rooms, St Leonard’s Place, York, 30 years exactly since the country/folk collective celebrated their tenth anniversary there, when founder Richard Hunt first lived in York.
“We couldn’t have known it at the time, but soon after that splendid night we split up into several ‘mini–Big Deals’ in far-flung locales, including New Zealand, Mexico and Chicago,” says Richard, band founder, leader and fiddle and mandolin player – and software company owner to boot – who returned to York with his family in 2015 after spending 20 years in Chicago.
“We’ve hunted down 16 past band members from around Britain, America and New Zealand and successfully bribed them with new straw hats to reunite and play on Friday and Saturday. Now we’re encouraging you, our friends and faithful foot-tapping audience, to turn the evenings into huge celebratory flings.”
The Saturday shindig, in aid of York-based medical charity Outreach EMR, has sold out, with dozens on the waiting list, but tickets are still available at £30 for Friday’s gig for the Two Ridings Community Foundation, marking the foundation’s 25th anniversary. To book, go to: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/tworidingscommunityfoundation/1933063.
Each night will include buffet catering provided by Florencia Clifford and Hugo Hildyard’s Brancusi and Partisan, in Micklegate, plus a bar and raffle, to complement hoedown dancing to Gaelic, American, and Cajun tunes. Rest assured, newcomers, that absolutely no barn-dance experience is needed as caller Jo Howard leads barn dancers through the steps to the stomping hillbilly band.
“It’s definitely NOT black tie. Dress casual, dress down, dress gingham style,” says Richard, who will be meeting up with some players for the first time in 25 years.
Forty years ago, he formed the band with university friends Dave Williams, Adrian Hollis, Mike Evans and Mike’s girlfriend (now wife) Claire, performing their first folk-flavoured gig in the barn at the Warwickshire house of Richard’s parents.
They went on to support Hank Wangford and play the college and university circuit, and although they never made the big time, music-making continued as a hobby.
Now comes the concert reunion weekend for two charities with roots in the York area, one supporting the welfare of people globally, the other supporting hundreds of York, North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire charities.
Set up by retired GP Peter Smith and led by retired York-area doctors, Outreach EMR supports 23 medical clinics in some of the poorest countries in the world, designing and building desperately needed Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software packages for laptop computers that enable staff in remote clinics to keep a record of patients’ medical histories.
These are being installed and supported for free in Africa and many other places around the world, including Haiti, Nicaragua and the Philippines, where medical workers are forced to rely on outmoded paper records.
Outreach EMR’s work is saving the lives of thousands of children and other vulnerable people every year. A suggested donation of £20 per head can be made at https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/donation-form/dig-deals-push-for-electronic-medical-records. Food, entertainment and venue costs have all been underwritten by Big Deal so that 100 per cent of your gift can reach the charity.
The Two Ridings Community Foundation provides grants to charities and community groups throughout York and North and East Yorkshire. Last year alone it awarded 509 grants totalling £2.4 million.
All money raised from Friday’s ticket sales, bar and raffle will be match funded and go directly to Two Ridings’ 25th Anniversary Appeal with a target of £10,000 on the night. In addition, donations to the Barn Dance Fundraiser 25th Anniversary Appeal can be made for match-funding on the night.
Already, Big Deal band members Tim Crusher, Dave Williams, Drew Crawford and Richard Hunt have busked in the King’s Square rain in York city centre on January 17 for Two Ridings. The full band will be out in York on Saturday busking for Outreach EMR.
Assembling for the two concerts will be Adrian Hollis, from Muscat, Oman, on guitar; Mike Zecchino, from Tucson, USA, on guitar; Richard Hunt, on violin and mandolin; Jo Howard, Richard’s sister, on barn-dance caller duty; Andy Howard, on washboard; Mike Evans, on mandolin, guitar and violin; Claire Evans, on double bass; David Webster, on guitar and banjo; Kate Hunt, Richard’s sister, on percussion.
So too will Chris Aston, from New York City, on guitar and bass; Alasdair Baxter, from Auckland, New Zealand, on vocals, banjo and guitar; Tim Crusher, from Whitby, on accordion; David Williams, from Sheffield, on double bass, guitar and mandolin; Jez Fish and Nigel Peet, on saxophone, and Nigel Holmes, on electric bass.
“We have 16 members returning for the two concerts this week,” says Richard. “I’ve not seen Alasdair Baxter and Mike Zechinno for over 25 years. In the audience, we’ll have a dozen people who were there 40 years ago for the start and many who were there at the De Grey Rooms 30 years ago. A couple of friends, Dawn and Bill, are coming from Pittsburgh specially for the gig.”
The Big Deal Band: back story
Big Deal founder Richard Hunt, of Tadcaster Road, York
“I STARTED busking in 1982 while at Huddersfield University to help supplement my grant, along with my good friend Mike Evans,” recalls Big Deal founder Richard Hunt. “We got an early train every Saturday morning, at 6am, to get the most coveted busking spot in Leeds, outside C&A.
“After university, we formed a band, Big Deal, and the first concert was 40 years ago at my parents’ soon-to-be- converted barn in the Warwickshire countryside at Beausale. Publicity photos were taken in the barn behind.”
The conversion never went ahead. “We used exactly same location for our re-union photo shoot in August last summer, but we had to take out a 40-year build-up of nettles, brambles and old machinery,” says Richard.
For Big Deal’s first proper concert, a few months after their barn debut, they supported Hank Wangford, playing to an audience of 1,000 at Birmingham University. “We combined our own compositions and songs interspersed with barn dancing,” recalls Richard.
“For ten years we were predominately on the college tour, including playing all the May Balls in Oxford and Cambridge, occasionally three in a night! We shared line-ups, stages and sometimes dressing rooms with bands such as The Commitments, The The, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, The Farm, Aswad, Desmond Decker, Bad Manners and Voice Of The Beehive.
“In June 1991 we went on stage just after the Manic Steet Preachers had played only four songs,” says Richard. “They then proceeded to smash their instruments and throw them around the hall at Downing College, Cambridge: a publicity stunt, with journalists at the ready to record.
“For the record, Big Deal never intentionally smashed instruments, but we once dropped the miked-up double bass in a bad hand-off, making a spectacular bang.”
Richard was known to play and dance. “I’ve fallen off the stage a few times, once breaking my violin scroll in two and one time my bow,” he says. “I had to have knee surgery two years ago, which I’m pretty sure was caused by these antics.
Big Deal Chicago band members Elaine Moore, Tim Crusher, centre, and Richard Hunt in 2011
“Our most famous barn-dancer at one of our gigs was Stephen Hawking, who did a fine job of a do-si-do in his wheelchair.”
Big Deal failed to make the big break through. “There was no Irish band part in the Titanic film for us, but we did have our share of disasters. Once we were on the John Peel Road Show, when, after performing, I asked John what he thought. He told me not to give up my day job. I told him I hadn’t got one!
“We also auditioned for Opportunity Knocks, singing one our original songs, Cowboy In The Wild West Midlands, at the Birmingham Ballroom. Everything went spectacularly wrong during the performance. Then the two bales of straw we’d brought in as props fell apart onto the thick, red shag carpet as we were trying to make quick exit.”
Guitarist Dave Williams has a framed rejection letter from presenter Huey Green. “I did, however, make a Super 8 film of the song that was used as part of the highlight reel, which included filmmaker Derek Jarman, for the Leicester Super 8 festival and UK tour in 1986,” says Richard.
Big Deal performed to 2,000 mostly screaming Barry Manilow Fan Club members at the Birmingham NEC. “At the time, we had Charlie, a band member with a striking similarity to Barry Manilow. We almost brought the house down.”
Accordion player Tim Crusher and Richard formed a new Big Deal band with Elaine Moore as their first American recruit in Chicago. “Elaine is the reason for me meeting my wife/her best friend Laura, but that’s another story!” says Richard.
“The authorities once stopped our set. We were on the first floor of a huge Irish pub, Fados, where hundreds of people were jumping up and down together in time with the music with the potential for the floor to collapse.”
In 1998, on St Patrick’s Day, the American Big Deal band played at the Rainbow Room, 30 Rockefeller Plaza (30 Rock), New York. “We shared the venue with The Chieftains, together with Michael Flattery and all the Lord of the Dance ensemble, who were celebrating the end of their tour,” says Richard.
“After our set, we gatecrashed their private party next door. A memorable night of dancing ensued with the full dance troupe, Riverdance style, with the band returning to the hotel at 7am.”
Later that year, Richard travelled with a monitor and mixing deck in a large suitcase from Chicago to Buenos Aires, Argentina. “Tim [Crusher] had recently moved from Mexico City to Argentina’s capital and the two of us had been booked for the first four opening nights of Guinness’s first pub in the country,” he recalls.
“Our set lasted from 12 midnight to 6am, at which time many of the wild punters headed directly to work! I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much Guinness being drunk by such stylish people.”
Big Deal assembled for a tenth anniversary gig at the De Grey Rooms on February 6 1996. “After that, we split up, heading in different directions. Of the York-based band members, Tim Crusher, had already left to go to Mexico; banjo player Alastair Baxter went to Auckland, New Zealand, and I departed for Chicago, USA,” says Richard. “Only Nigel Holmes, the bass player, stayed in York.
Big Deal member Chris Aston plays bass in Brooklyn-based Fugue State Fair, whose concept album The Coming War Between the States imagines an alternative reality where America is at war with itself, again. Across 14 original songs, it tells stories of those involved in all aspects of this contemporary conflict, through its genesis, escalation and ultimate armistice.
After Alasdair Baxter emigrated to Auckland in the 1990s, he began playing his banjo and guitar in Irish pub bands before writing and performing as part of indie-folk band Hoop, who host the Ministry of Folk events in Auckland. Latest album Wrap Me Up In Winter was released to rave reviews.
Tim Crusher and David Williams are members of Rudolf Rocker, formed by very tall brothers Mark and Steve Goodall. Other members include the League Of Gentlemen writer Jeremy Dyson.
Elaine Moore is a professional guitar player in Chicago, where she teaches at the Old Town Folk School.