Houghton Weavers


The Houghton Weavers are an English folk music band formed in 1975, in Westhoughton, Bolton, Lancashire, England. The current band members are David Littler, Steve Millington and Jim Berry.
David Littler is a founder member of the band, Steve Millington joined in 1996, and Jim Berry joined in 2017. Jim's brother Tony had been a founder member of the band but died in June 2019.
Previous members were Norman Prince, John Oliver, Denis Littler, Jeff Hill, and Tony Berry. Whilst never officially a member of the band, Alan Fawkes was a frequent guest - "he couldn't stand the drop in pay".
They sing mainly English folk music, much of it in Lancashire dialect, as well as folk versions of easy listening hits. The group demonstrate an eclectic range of song subjects including "The Blackpool Belle", “Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls” and “The Lion of Vienna” in accolade of footballer Nat Lofthouse.
They are best known for their BBC TV show Sit Thi Deawn. The programme ran for six series or seven years and was a mixture of easy listening music and comedy for a local audience. The group also starred in six of their own series for BBC Radio 2.

History

In 2014, lead singer Berry was unable to perform due to throat cancer and attended as a sound mixer. On 14 June 2019, it was reported that Tony Berry had died due to pancreatic cancer.

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