Mrs Casey Music (MCM) was formed in 1974 by Steve Heap in response to many requests for assistance with the presentation of Folk music and dance. MCM commenced work as an agency, providing Folk dance bands to the PTA circuit, Morris dancers to village fetes, and singers to folk clubs, festivals and charity concerts. We soon developed into Festival organisation, taking over the running of Towersey Village Festival in 1975 (11th year), from its founder Denis Manners (still active as the Festival's Honorary President).
Towersey Village Festival
The Towersey Village Festival, in it's 44th year (2008), is principally a community arts Festival with a Folk/Roots flavour, attracting approximately 10,000 people into a village of 400 residents on the edge of Thame in Oxfordshire over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
The Festival has a Folk/Roots music theme, through an open door policy to other branches of the arts. It attracts a mixed audience of youth, singles and family groups, some for 5 full days, for which the Festival provides camp sites, and has other visitors, mainly local people for 1 day.
The Friends of Towersey Festival is a registered charity whose purpose is to support people in their education in music, dance and song, theatre, arts and crafts.
Mrs Casey Music continued its work through the 1970s and 1980s as an agent and promoter and developed a reputation for event organisation, working on community arts Festivals for Hampshire County Council, City of London and Oxfordshire County Council. The company also organised or assisted with events in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Devon and Cornwall.
Into London
On invitation from the Barbican Centre in London, Mrs Casey Music organised Folk/Roots music events including two American Music Festivals. These lead on to a Folk Festival weekend and a new project known as Evolving Tradition encouraging young musicians and singers. They were staged at the Barbican Centre in support of a record release on the Mrs Casey Records label.
Mrs Casey Music also has a long standing releationship with the South Bank Centre (London) and successfully ran a concert series for over 15 years latterly known as Folk in the Fall. We are now planning with the South Bank Centre programmers for Folk events throughout the year.
Mrs Casey Music also organised Festivals for the Rank Organisation through their Butlins Holiday Centres over various weekends throughout the year. This contract lasted over 10 years through the 1980s and succesfully brought Folk music, dance and song to a much wider audience.
In 1986, the English Folk Dance and Song Society decided to pull out of the running of Festivals and in particular, the Sidmouth International Folklore Festival. Mrs Casey Music formed a partnership, bought the rights to the Festival, re-titled it Sidmouth International Festival and ran it successfully for 18 years until 2004 (Golden Jubilee) attracting over 65,000 visitors each year. Having re-established the event we left it to the new west country organisers and went on to focus on FolkArts England.
Mrs Casey Records
A record label (MCR) to support in particular new young players in the Folk/Roots field was formed in 1993. Our list includes Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr, Evolving Tradition Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4 and most recently, rising star Ruth Notman. We also released a three volume video tutor pack How to Play English Melodeon by the master of squeeze John Kirkpatrick, which has now been re-released as one DVD. Our latest DVD is Alistair Russell's Celtic Session Guitar Tutorial.
And Into Retail
Music, Tickets, Merchandise
The Folk Store is our record-retailing branch, providing mail order CD sales and specialist stalls at Festivals across the country. The one-stop shop for the very best in Folk/Roots and Acoustic music has been a key aim of Mrs Casey Music since the early days. We hope that through our various branches and events we can raise the profile of the UK's Folk/Roots, Traditional and Acoustic music, dance and song scene and proudly involve more people in these island's musical heritage.
Mrs Casey Music Director and Founder, Steve Heap is also active in the wider arts & events industry. He formed The Events Industry Forum (EIF) in 2004 and represents Folk music at the Musicians Union Folk, Roots and Traditional Music Section. He also speaks for Folk with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Folk Arts, Voluntary Arts Network, National Campaign for the Arts, National Music Council, PRS / MCPS Alliance and wherever the opportunity arises to raise the profile of this genre. Mrs Casey Music has its roots in the Folk music of England and is proud to be one of its representatives in the arts world.