Folk in Hull is run by seven trustees, all of whom have long-standing links with the folk and heritage in Hull. Here’s a little bit more about them…

Andy Buckton

Andy first discovered the Hull folk scene in September 2014 at the Hull Folk & Maritime Festival’s Minerva welcome session. He soon began attending and photographing various live music events and became a regular performer at both the Minerva and Sailmakers Sunday sessions. In 2015, Andy became a member/volunteer of the Hull Folk & Maritime Festival organising committee as well as joining Spare Hands. In 2017, after successfully organising the Whittington & Cat pub as a singaround venue for the festival, Andy decided, in partnership with landlady Gill Ralph, to start a fortnightly Saturday afternoon singaround. Each session was hosted by a different guest host and they have been successful and well attended since the start. In 2019, Andy joined Mick McGarry and Lloyd Dobbs as a regular weekly host of the Minerva Sessions, and became a trustee of the Folk in Hull. In this capacity he has organised as well as performed at (solo and with Spare Hands) several live fundraising events, concerts, festivals and local radio interviews, to help promote the charity’s aims.

Louise Cramond

Louise currently works as an engagement and development officer for East Riding Council on the Active Withernsea project. She has more than 20 years’ experience of working with communities and young people across the UK, with a large section of that in Hull and East Yorkshire. She also has more than 25 years’ teaching/training experience, having worked for Hull and Lincoln universities, and multiple colleges and adult education providers. In the past eight years she’s been running her own business, HEY Workshops, which delivers award-winning training and creative workshops independently and for organisations such as English Heritage and Hull City Council. She’s studying a MA in creative practice and her current work is based around collective public art installations. For more information, www.facebook.com/heyworkshops and find HEY Workshops on most other social media platforms.

Lloyd Dobbs

Lloyd is a musician and has played in local bands for more than 20 years, including the Paddingtons and Hillbilly Troupe. Lloyd has been part of Folk in Hull since 2012, and alongside the original members transitioned the organisation from a loose community of interest into a formal charity. For the the most part, Lloyd acts as the booking agent for the flagship festival and supports partnership building and securing funds. Lloyd works in the voluntary sector for the local charity Goodwin Development Trust, with a focus on alternative education, youth work and youth training. He also is involved with political activism and is a founder member of the Engage for Change festival. He thinks Neil Young is better than Bob Dylan… just. 

Chris Jordan

Chris, aka the Bard of Holderness, has been involved with the Hull music scene for more than 40 years. An inveterate busker, he is also a member of the Hull Folk Collective, who have staged numerous shows celebrating folk and heritage – including Keep Your Gansey Dry, Sea Shanties at Ferens Art Gallery (for Hull City of Culture), From Sayers Creek to St Andrews Dock, Hullabaloo Belay! and A Country Life for Me. They also researched, wrote and performed the Folk and History Trail around Hull’s old town in 2018. He’s worked as an auditor and in senior management for numerous firms including McCain Foods, and he’s a bit football-mad, too. A Hull City fan for his sins, he was chairman of Thorngumbald Boys Football Club from 1997-2010 and ran tournaments for 10 years in the village, attracting about 60 teams. He also ran two teams himself as manager, trainer, physio, referee, pitch marker, chief cook and bottle washer… which led to him winning the Thorngumbald village Silver Salver for services to the community. From 2013-2018 he studied music performance at Hull College, and came out with a first-class BA Hons and a distinction in the Creative Practice MA.

Steve Gardham

Steve is the chairman of Folk in Hull and has been a singer/musician/organiser on the Hull folk scene for more than 50 years. He was a committee member of Folk Union One from 1967 helping organise concerts, festivals, folk shows, etc, and also started collecting folk songs in the East Riding from this time. His recordings are held in the British Library Sound Archive. He ran the Green Ginger Ceilidh Band for 30 years as musician then caller, and, in 2006, he founded the Yorkshire Garland Group as chairman. He’s edited five books of folk songs (with another in the pipeline) and has written numerous articles for magazines, journals and online. See www.mustrad.org.uk. Steve has been a member of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) since 1968 and has been involved with them in cataloguing and online indexes. Since around 2000 he has been the northern chairman of the Traditional Song Forum. He’s also the secretary of Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society, and a singer/musician/songwriter with Spare Hands. He plays anglo concertina and melodeon.

Sam Hawcroft

Sam has been a journalist for more than 20 years, beginning her career as a sub-editor on the Hull Daily Mail and later working for the Press Association in various editorial and management roles. Since 2011 she’s run her own business, Hawk Editorial, which publishes H&E naturist magazine (yup, that’s naked people, not the birds and bees) and offers proofreading, editing and design services. She is also the editor of the weekly Holderness Gazette, lead writer for BusinessWorks magazine and Hull City columnist for The Hull Story. Her musical alter-ego is Sam Martyn, and she performs solo (singing and playing Irish whistles, piano and harmonium) and with Beggar’s Bridge, Fiddlers Elbow and the White Horse Ceilidh Band.

Ellie Pollard

Ellie is a singer/songwriter and Hull-based events co-ordinator. Most commonly, she hosts as part of Off The Road Ltd, and their subsequent venue, the OTR Live Lounge, (246-248 Spring Bank West). She is also passionate about working with and creating opportunities for young people, having worked as an activities co-ordinator, volunteered in youth workshops, and appeared at multiple charity events for the Charlie Hook Appeal, KIDS, and the Goodwin Trust.