Barrel House Vipers

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Barrel House Vipers

The Barrel House Vipers, comprised of some of the best players on the UK Jazz and Swing scene. They have toured Europe, America and extensively across the UK specialising in early jazz and blues from the 1920’s to the 1940’s.

The band have a unique offering of rich vocal harmony, original arrangements and repertoire drawing from: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong as well as lesser known hidden gems.

They are perfect for your wedding, function, swing dance, glamorous party or stage! With extensive experience playing their vintage jazz everywhere from weddings, venues and festival stages as well as tours all across Europe and the UK, you know they will tailor a perfect set for your special event.

Playing a range of music, but specialising in 1920’s/30’s Jazz, providing that unique and popular vintage sound, designed to add style and sophistication to any occasion; they adapt their set to provide clients with exactly the music and atmosphere they need.

The Barrel House Vipers are versatile and can offer:

A duo/trio/quartet or more depending on your needs with access to a wide range of instrumentalists.

Sound equipment

Acoustic or semi-acoustic performances

PA available

The band are a collective comprising of a trio up to a big band and at its core consists of: Rachel Lawrence (vocals/washboard/accordion), Bill Frampton (double bass/harmonica) and Gus Dolding (tenor banjo/clarinet/guitar). As multi-instrumentalists, the sound is diverse and varied throughout a typical set.

They are joined by various dynamic soloists they have met on their travels and feature a mix of; trumpet, trombone, saxophone, clarinet, violin.

The musicians met in Bristol and have played together in various projects such as Henry’s Hot Six, The Gin Bowlers, The Kitchen Syncopaters and Around About Dusk. They have played with this and their sister projects in Ferrara Buskers Festival, Glastonbury Festival, New Orleans and European venues and swing dances and events.

Having extensively toured, they are happy to play for dancers, parties, events, festivals, weddings and more.

Please feel free to get in touch to discuss your event and to receive a quotation.

 

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We booked Barrel House Vipers for a birthday party as we had a theme of glamourous and wanted music that would fit that theme. They were perfect and everyone kept asking us who they were! I expect we’ll see them again soon as i’ve no doubts they’ll be booked for other events by our friends now! They were brilliant musicians, polite and friendly and were very professional, setting up and packing down quickly and respectfully for what was going on during the party. Maria falton (Party)
They were the perfect band for our wedding. They sounded amazing and made our day feel so special. I would 10/10 recommend this band. Katie Reeves (Wedding)
We’ve seen Barrel House Vipers quite a few times in Bristol so were really keen to book them for a swing dance event with 90 dancers. Needless to say they were awesome. They’re a fantastic band with hugely talented musicians who catered for a range of speeds for lindy hop, bal, blues and shag. We’d really love to have them back again and couldn’t recommend highly enough! Jess Stevenson (Swing dance)
Barrel House Vipers were great! It was the perfect addition to our wedding. They sounded amazing live and all the guests loved them. They had everyone dancing and created the perfect atmosphere for drinks and chat as well. Very professional and so easy to plan and organise with. Thank you so much! Kelsey McCartney (Wedding)
These guys were excellent – an absolute pleasure to have shared part of the day with them and their music was perfect for the event – thank you so, so much! Tom Leech (40th Birthday)
We booked this band for a charity event.From first contact they were very positive and understanding of the type of evening we wanted, and they delivered exactly as promised.They play a lovely mix of music and are obviously very talented musicians.They offer a sophisticated repertoire of swing era music and we would highly recommend them for this type of occasion.They are also a very nice group of people. Liz George (Mayor of Cowbridge)

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