This year’s tour sees Maddy and friends returning to Birmingham Town Hall on Wednesday 19th December, and once again the public were invited to take part in workshops to sing in concert with Maddy and the Carnival Band at selected venues, imncludingh the Town Hall.

Tossed together in 1984 on a ‘let’s see what we come up with’ basis for a Yuletide Radio 2 broadcast, what began as a one-off session in a village hall in Cumbria has endured for over twenty years and has become something of a tradition in its own right.

Fortunately it shows little danger of fossilization as both parties keep coming up with new ideas. The 2001 collaboration and fifth album, of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh introduced a good deal of Arabic and African-influenced music into the equation. The next project explored the lives of eighteenth century female soldiers and the ballads they inspired.