Loosely Woven

“The Loosely Woven phenonemon is rather unusual. In fact, there is really no such group as ‘Loosely Woven’ as such – it is merely the name given to whoever I am able to round up for a particular concert.” So explains founding member Wayne Richmond.

“It all began about 10 years ago. A few of us would get together every now and then to participate in a live-to-air concert on the local community radio station. After one of the more successful of these Judie suggested we put on a public concert. A couple of months later we did and having decided that we should give ourselves a name a friend who had recently heard a rock band called ‘Tightly Packed’ suggested ‘Loosely Woven’. Since that time Loosely Woven has performed three to four major concerts each year at various venues on Sydney's northern beaches. The group's main home, however, is St David's Church in Dee Why, a building with brilliant acoustics ideal for what we do. Mainly through word of mouth, Loosely Woven's reputation has grown over the years and now 150-200 people come along each concert, eager to lap up whatever it is that we have prepared for them.

“The nature of any particular concert is a direct reflection of the people who happen to be involved at the time. Invitations to participate are circulated followed by a planning meeting during which everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the program. A number of us then set about arranging the items and preparing the music for the first rehearsal a few weeks later. Into our Dawn came about last year as a result of us wanting to do a concert focusing on the fantastic original music of newcomers Harry and Tully Dingle. Consequently, it features a number of their songs together with other folk/rock classics ranging from Bob Dylan to Peter, Paul and Mary, Michael O’Rourke, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones with a bit of Tom Lehrer thrown in for fun!

“We enjoyed performing Into our Dawn so much that we decided last year to revive it in 2004 and, in particular, to put on a performance in Bathurst where Maria now lives. As Judie Eddington grew up in Cowra a performance there was also inevitable.

“One important characteristic of Loosely Woven concerts is that they are performed strictly acoustically. Apart from the keyboard amp (an unfortunate necessity) no other amplification is used. Not only does this mean that the audience has a rare opportunity to actually hear the sound of vocal chords and violin strings vibrating (instead of the usual speaker membrane!) it also finds itself on an equal footing with the performers when it comes to the many opportunities provided for joining in. Wait till you hear everyone ripping into Michael O’Rourke’s ‘The Poison Train’ – it sounds fantastic!