Biggles have been around a long time and are undoubtedly the leading exponents of jug band music in the UK. Comedy is the order of the day with lots of corny gags, musical and otherwise.
On this page...
- Band members
- A previous incarnation of Biggles with the great Dick on Sousaphone
- Bands top 10 achievements
- Biggles Profiles
- Another previous incarnation of Biggles with Trevor
- A parable from Father Green
- Some extracts from our guest book
Band members
Biggles Wartime Band is (usually) a four-piece band.
Jok sings and plays kazoo, trombone, garden hose, tool box, zob stick and anything else that he can blow, bang or suck.
Dave sings and plays guitar and one man band.
Graham is the world banjo champion; he can throw a banjo further than anyone else!
Fiddle Castro plays the fiddle and has three times won the national bluegrass fiddle championship.
Biggles were formed way back in the heady flower power years of the late sixties and have been entertaining audiences in various ways and with different line-ups ever since. Three of the current line-up and most of the jokes have been with the band since the beginning.
Biggles have played at innumerable festivals to wide acclaim, most notably, three times at Glastonbury. There have been several TV and radio appearances but the band has never played at a Barmitzvah.
A previous incarnation of Biggles with the great Dick on Sousaphone:
Bands top 10 achievements
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1969. Telling the Oldham Tinkers to **** off.
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1974. Getting through customs at Rotterdam without passports.
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1974. Getting through customs (the return trip) at Harwich without being caught with a smuggled home-made mandolin.
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1976. The last band to play at ‘Sinatras’ before the fire. Band gear undamaged. Band members unscathed.
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1982. Banned from Cleveleys for playing on the sea front. Irate pensioners verbally and very gently attack the police. Biggle’s coach is escorted by the police from the borough to county boundary.
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1988. First band to set fire to a stage in Denton.
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1066. Defeat of Harold’s army at the battle of Hastings (Steve couldn’t do this one. Little Sam stood in).
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1999. Guinness Book of Records entry for ‘least number of people in an audience’. Middlewich Canal and Folk Festival Organizer’s Annual Bash.
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1998. Discovery of penicillin (in Jake’s Rucsack).
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1999. First band to play in a completely solar powered environment. Amplified, lit and auditorium lighting all solar powered (Glastonbury Festival)
Biggles Profile
If the band line up in the order that they stand on stage, and shine a light from the left onto a blank wall, making sure that Graham holds up his banjo and Jok keeps his tambourine at arm’s length, the shadow (or profile) they produce is a large fish with a hat on.
Member Profile
This is pretty similar throughout the band.
Another previous incarnation of Biggles with Trevor James:
Click the photos for a larger image
A parable from Father Green:
Some extracts from our guest book:
I really enjoyed watching them although I did not really understand most of it. I think they are very nice. I particularly liked the bit where they played music. I would definitely like to be taken to see them again. All the best, pp David Beckham (a football player).
What a wonderful night! If I had to pick a favourite, I would plump for the sousaphone player. He stood out as solid, upright, genuine and talented musician who is obviously a credit to the fatherland. We need more people like this to stamp out the insidious decline that is characterized by today’s popular music. Keep up the good work, yours etc. David Irvine.
Not bad, but I have seen all this before. Nostradamus AD1503 to 1566 (in uncharacteristically un-enigmatic style)
Their contribution to Women’s Week was invaluable. Thank you once again! But next year, please leave out the Knitting Competition for the Wives. Kissy kissy, G. Greer. MA Oxon. BrA.
OK. They are all right. I tell you. I enjoyed them. But that's not the point . The point is they are run by the establishment. I laugh, I’m off my guard. Anything could happen. All their stuff is written by MI6. Look. That bit about Auntie May. That wasn’t Auntie May! I have proof. It’s all in code. They mean Princess Di. It’s obvious. I got my people on them now. They won't be a trouble to me much longer. Mohammed Al Fayed.
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Some
of Life's Imponderables - with
Father Green
"Why is the word 'dyslexia' so hard to spell?"