Fay Hield, who hails from Keighley, is a traditional English folk singer and a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield. She was part of The Witches of Elswick, who were an a cappella folk quartet comprising Becky Stockwell, Gillian Tolfrey, Bryony Griffith and Hield Much of their material came from traditional music of the British Isles. They also performed more contemporary folk material, such as Once Lived In Service (Peter Bellamy). The Witches took their name from Elswick, Tyne and Wear, where they shared a flat, and is a play on the movie The Witches of Eastwick.
As an academic, Hield is a lecturer in ethnomusicology and music management at the University of Sheffield. Hield completed her PhD thesis “English Folk Singing and the Construction of Community” in 2010 at Sheffield. She began lecturing at Sheffield in spring 2012. She is also a consultant for the AHRC-funded ‘Music Communities’ research project conducted at the University of Manchester. Hield also guest lectures at other educational establishments, including the Leeds College of Music.
Looking Glass, released September 2010, was Hield’s debut solo album. The material consists mainly of traditional songs and ballads. She started gigging her new album as the Fay Hield Trio, made up of Rob Harbron (English Acoustic Collective) and Sam Sweeney (Bellowhead). Hield was nominated for the Horizon Award at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
Hield runs events as well. Along with her partner Jon Boden she runs two folk clubs – Royal Traditions (Dungworth) and helps to run Bright Phoebus (Sheffield). She also established a community music organisation in 2010, and ran the first Soundpost Singing Weekend in 2011. Orfeo, released May 2012, is Hield’s second album, and sees the launch of a new line-up, Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party (Jon Boden, Rob Harbron, Sam Sweeney & Andy Cutting).
In 2013 Hield in conjunction with the Englidh Folk Dance and Song Society put together The Full English Band to promote the launch of the society’s on-line publication of their archive search engine. The band issued an eponymous album and toured providing a showcase for both the band and the archive.
After a couple of years working on a research project into how artists and audiences communicate, Fay is now back in the performing arena with the launch of a new solo album, Wrackline. Looking at traditional stories involving the otherworld of fairies, ghosts and the animal kingdom, the new work explores our emotional responses to the space between their realm and our own. Working through the imagination to make things real.
