Meets at Radio City, Kilbirnie, Wednesdays 7pm - 9pm

History

The group was formed in 2001 by Graham Irvine, a button box player from Dunoon, who was then studying at Paisley University Campus in Ayr. The group met at the Valley Arts Resource Centre in Glengarnock. There were originally seven members, wielding an array of fiddles, accordions, concertina, guitar, banjo, mandolin and vocals.

Initially there was a junior section but over the years they left to attend college, etc. and now only visit during the holidays.

The Valley ARC moved shortly afterwards to a building in the grounds of Garnock Academy and the Valley ARC Traditional Music Group moved with them. We spent five years there and the group built up steadily from the original seven or eight to around 13 players. We moved to Radio City in Kilbirnie in 2007, when the group became formally constituted as The Garnock Valley Traditional Music Group.

Now

The group is about playing and promoting traditional music in the Garnock Valley area of Ayrshire, Scotland. Our members are relatively local to the area, and play a variety of instruments, as can be seen on the Gallery page, and some sing (although that's not very obvious in the photos). A flavour of the music we play can obtained from the Playlist page.
We have continued to add to our numbers (now 25+), and 14-16 players is an average attendance at our weekly meetings.

We welcome new members, experienced or beginners, who want to play or sing traditional music.

We meet in Radio City, Kilbirnie, on Wednesdays from 7pm to 9pm.

The group can also respond to invitations to play at local venues, especially for senior citizens who enjoy an hour of foot-tapping music and a sing-a-long. We played about a dozen gigs for community groups in 2009, and five so far in 2010.

Organisation

The GVTMG is run by a committee consisting of a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and three ordinary members. The current committee is:

Chairman:	John Hodgart (fiddle, mandolin, whistle)
Secretary:	Bill Young (button accordion)
Treasurer:	John Crook (fiddle)
Member:	James Dippie (guitar, vocals)
Member:	Tam Givens (mandolin, guitar, banjo, etc.)
Member:	Janet Martin (fiddle)

To contact the Garnock Valley Traditional Music Group, email: info@gvtmg.org.uk
or phone: 01475 672190 (reasonable hours only! and not Wednesday evenings)