Berkshire Bedlam Morris
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Welcome to the Home Page of Berkshire Bedlam! |
BB - still rated amongst the top 99% of all Morris sides in the country..... |
Who are we ?
Berkshire
Bedlam,
a renowned men's Cotswold Morris dance team from Wokingham in Berkshire, were formed in
1977, and perform a wide range of dances. While some are based on the legendary
Leafield dances of Oxfordshire, the majority of today's repertoire is
original compositions put together in recent years. Whatever the dance, BB's aim is to perform
with gusto and spirit, and to present spectacular and original
performances. Do
we succeed? - come and see us to find out!
You can find out lots more about us through this site including
something of our history, and a guide to the dances in our past and
present repertoire. There are old and recent pictures of the side in our
gallery section, latest
news of events, a guide to our media appearances, and you
can even find out what happens at a Berkshire Bedlam Bunfight.
New dancers are always welcome at any of our weekly practices whether an
experienced dancer or a novice, and we can provide full tuition for anyone keen
to have a go - contact details at the bottom of the page!
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Recent and Future Happenings .... |
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Here's to 2019!
We're all looking forward to another full programme of events in 2019 (see future
events page). Come
and see us at one of them - or come along to one of our practice sessions
(details at foot of page) - we'd love to see you!
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2018 - another great year!  More excitement than Oblivion at Alton Towers - that was the Berkshire Bedlam programme for 2018! We enjoyed great days in the sun in Oxford and Brighton, chairing the Mayor in Abingdon, successful appearances at the Warwick Folk Festival, and more days away in London and Lewes among many others. The year was rounded off with a great Bunfight evening, and a ride on Santa's train in the Wokingham Winter Carnival. See our latest news page for a full round up! |
2018
Bunfight Ceilidh
 Another fantastic evening at the 2018 Bunfight in November with the theme 'On the Piste - an Alpine Adventure!'. We had the usual array of highly imaginative costumes on show, and The Diatonics had prepared some great dance tunes appropriate to the occasion. And who can forget the chirruping castanets of Los Flamencos de Berkshire? More pictures of the evening here - meanwhile we'll be doing it all again with The Diatonics on 23rd November 2019 - usual venue California Ratepayers Hall, RG40 3RL, theme 'Bunfight on Broadway', tickets on sale end September!! |
2017 - our 40th birthday year
 2017 was BB's 40 birthday year, and what a celebration we had! On the weekend of 22nd and 23rd July, we hosted a number of other superb teams at our 40th anniversary celebration, based at Tadley Rugby Club, themed 'Billy Bedlam's Holiday Camp'. On the Saturday we visited locations around West Berkshire, followed by a fantastic celebration evening including spots and musical interludes from us and our guests. Who there will ever forget Elvis Steptoe? On Sunday we all danced in the centre of Reading to round off a great weekend. Pictures of all our 2017 events in the 2017 gallery pages and full story of the year in latest news! |
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2017 Sidmouth - Will's jigs rocked!
 2017's John Gasson jig competition at Sidmouth proved to be the year of Will. A fantastic jig in Hammersmith colours with excellent accompaniment by Jim Sawyer saw them run away with first place in the solo jig competition - as well as John's Mum's special prize for the jig she enjoyed most. And shortly after that, dancing with Kynan Parker-Roth, and accompanied by our own Jerry, all in fetching bandanas, the 3 of them won the double jig competition. Go Will! |
Downton
Morris ... Anyone wonder who the mystery morris team was briefly featured in the BBC's 2012 Christmas Day's Downton Abbey?    Yes, it was some of BB who just happened to be in the Downton area on the day of filming, and stopped by to liven up the country fair using some borrowed togs. For added authenticity, some of the young chaps had a short back and sides first, which they thought was just spiffing... |
| Latest Media News !! |
Yes, you can now have a little BB at home with you by ordering one of our DVDs - see the MEDIA PAGE for details, and also links to our various media appearances in print, in pop videos, on TV, and on YouTube! |
Contact Us / Join Us / Book Us
CONTACT US NOW IF
YOU'D LIKE TO COME TO ONE OF OUR WEEKLY PRACTICES - ALL WELCOME!
We're always delighted to welcome
new members. We practise on Thursday evenings at the Scout Hut in Evendons Lane,
Wokingham, RG41 4DX (click
here for map) and dance out at festivals, pubs and
other events throughout the summer. If you would like to come to any of our
practice evenings to try it for yourself, you will be very welcome, especially
for our October practice evenings aimed at beginners and improvers (though maybe
phone or drop us an email first to check what we are doing!) - we may also run
occasional weekend practices for those who can't make a Thursday evening. If you would like to find out
more about us, or check if we may be available for a particular event, our
contact details are:
Main contact & Webmaster
- Malcolm Major - Tel 01189 771952 or 07715 294568, or e-mail malcolmmajor
at ntlworld dot com
You can also contact the following :
Foreman
- David Steptoe ( Foreman
- David Steptoe (
Squire
- Charles Allison (cmuisca1 at aol dot com)
Publicity -
Florent Crepineau (florentcrepineau at yahoo dot fr)
And finally, if you
would like to find out more about other Morris sides, or Morris dancing in
general, try these links :
Morris Side Finder : a UK wide
guide to find teams in all parts of the country
Wikipedia's
Morris Dance Page :
a good
explanation of the origins, history, terminology and different styles of morris
and remember ....
....it never rains on Berkshire Bedlam