A DUO who opened for folk music legends Fairport Convention are coming to Keighley.

Winter Wilson will return to the town’s renowned Baccapipes Folk Club on Friday, June 22.

The pair, Kip Winter and Dave Wilson, are both multi-instrumentalists and fine singers, interspersing hard-hitting songs and harmonies with humorous stories of life on the road.

Winter Wilson could be said to be living the dream, but it could all have been so different.

Both with successful full-time careers, in international marketing and social services, the duo had for many years fit part-time touring into holidays and weekends.

Then, in 2012, the aftermath of the financial crash left both Kip and Dave facing redundancy, and they decided to take a chance on full-time musical careers.

Kip said: “We gave ourselves a year to see how things would turn out, and six years later we’re still getting away with it. It’s not easy, but playing music professionally sure beats working for a living!” 

Dave said: “We knew we had enough money from our redundancy pay-outs to buy a van and get by for a little while, so I’m glad we said goodbye to the daily grind and put ourselves out there.”

Since then, Tallullah their trusty VW camper has seen a lot of use, and critical acclaim has followed Winter Wilson’s every move.

They even made one of the Daily Telegraph’s ‘Top Ten Folk Albums’ of summer 2014 with the redundancy-inspired ‘Cutting Free’.

Kip and Dave have repeatedly toured the length and breadth of the UK, plus Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Early 2017 saw their first tour of Australia and New Zealand, so successful that a return trip is already in the pipeline for 2019.

Winter Wilson, were invited to join folk-rock legends Fairport Convention on their recent UK Winter Tour, playing 29 gigs across the country in just days.

Kip said: “The whole tour was a complete blast. We covered a lot of miles, and had only three nights off in almost five weeks, what a thrill to play on stage with such amazing musicians!”

Winter Wilson last played the Baccapipes in 2015.

Dave said: “Since then there have teen two more albums, we’ve played to some much bigger audiences around the world, and we’ve made a lot of new friends.

“But we still love playing folk clubs - that’s where it all started for both of us, and British folk club audiences are still the greatest thing ever.”

Although existing since the late 1960s under various names, the Baccapipes Folk Club has been meeting at 8.30pm every Friday since 2002 in the downstairs room of the Ukrainian Club at 9 Henry Street, of Cavendish Street, Keighley .