Camus was founded by Greg in the 1980s, and named after a village in County Galway, Ireland. We play an exciting mix of traditional folk music and our own songs and tunes, with particular influences from England, Shetland, Northumberland and Ireland. We’re noted for beautiful harmonies, inventive arrangements, moving songs and unusual compositions, and have entertained audiences in clubs, concerts, ceilidhs and festivals. We’ve also operated as a ceilidh band under the name of The Great Eastern Ceilidh Company.
Greg is a virtuoso fiddler, having lent his skills to a number of bands, including the Cambridge Crofters, Cobblers Last, Camus, The Great Eastern Ceilidh Company, the Radio Cowboys, and the New Essex Bluegrass Band, who headlined at festivals around Europe. He taught for many years at the Rothbury small-piping course set up by Joe Hutton. He spent some time learning Shetland music with the great Tom Anderson, and started a music workshop in Cambridgeshire with Hazel Smith, now running as Burwell Bash, with Andy Cutting, Brian Finnegan and others. Greg has also taught violin at the Duxford Saturday Workshop since its inception.
David is a musician of long and varied experience, having played bass, whistle, flute, keyboards and pipes in a succession of bands, from Cobblers Last and the Great Eastern Ceilidh Company to the current line-up of Camus. He is an accomplished Northumbrian piper, having won the prestigious Open championship at the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society competitions in 2018 and 2019, as well as the Open at the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival, and the duet class at both competitions, with Andrew. Most recently we won the piping duet class at the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society competitions 2020, judged by Andy May.
Andrew is an experienced musician, singer, and composer of songs and tunes. He has played with David and Greg for many years, in Cobblers Last, Camus, and The Great Eastern Ceilidh Company. He plays melodeons and Northumbrian small pipes in Camus, and has written songs and tunes in their repertoire, drawing on his family’s roots in Tyneside and Teesside. These include prizewinning tunes at the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival and the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society competitions. He has led a workshop in Northumbrian piping at the Cambridge Folk Festival for the last ten years, with David and a group of fellow pipers from Northumberland, London and Cambridge.
Brian is a gifted exponent of guitar and bouzouki across a range of genres, especially the traditional music of his native Ireland, which he plays with passion and drive. He’s also a talented song-writer, in the traditional manner. He has played with David, Andrew and Greg in an earlier lineup of Camus, and in the Great Eastern Ceilidh Company. Other acts he has featured in over the years include the gypsy jazz combo The Usual Suspects and a duo with the mandolinist and tenor banjo player Hugh Boyde.
A set of Shetland tunes from the Cold Fen album
For bookings: camusmusic8@gmail.com
Phone: 07778900445
CAMUS 