Fosbrooks Swedish Trip

Fosbrooks managed to get maximum value for money for the Douglas Kennedy Memorial Fund when the trust fund allocated £250 to students Jamie Schofield, Nicola Lyons and Thomas Fairbairn to support their trip to Sweden in May this year.

Jamie (13) and Nicola (15) play in a successful duo together and wanted to take their act abroad to work. Thomas (18), a student on the Folk Music Degree Course at Newcastle University, went as an additional 'backline' musician, and as PA, stage management and recording person.

All three are great friends and also mainstays of Fosbrooks' The Frontline' performance group but on this occasion they were headlining' and giving practical support to the younger Fosbrook team's schools' tour. The trip consisted of a heavy itinery of concerts and sightseeing with a built in cultural exchange achieved through meeting other musicians and dancers in and around Stockholm. Highlights of the trip were evenings in Uplands Vasby learning Swedish music from Karen Tweed, Bert Eriksson, Ola Soderstrom, Lotta Andersson and Hanna Norlund as well as polskas and schottishes from the folk dancers they met . They also enjoyed performing at Skansen open air museum and visiting the Vasa Ship Exhibition. As well as widening their musical education the tour served as work experience' for all three of them. Thomas had been offically released from university to assist with the tour and proved indispensable. Nicola's trip was the second official week of a placement arranged by Fosbrooks having completed a week at the Sage, Gateshead previously. Nicola is a youth trainee for Fosbrooks' Youth Music 'Headstart' project so she had responsibility for planning a lot of the junior performance items as well as her own and Jamie's concerts. As Jamie is the main accompanist for Fosbrooks his job was working with the backline to hold the young band together.

Between them the trio have had a successful summer holiday performing or working at Sidmouth, Broadstairs and Whitby Festivals and they're now working towards two major events on Fosbrooks' calendar. Fifteen of them, including their inspiring fiddle teacher Pete Cooper, are off to China at the end of September thanks to an invitation which came via the EDFSS from a Chinese folk festival in Anhui Province. After that they're performing at the Royal Albert Hall in the Youth Proms in November.

Jamie, Nicola and Thomas would like to thank the Douglas Kennedy Memorial Fund, Fosbrook Folk Education Trust and their other sponsors for yet another year of wonderful opportunities.

Fosbrooks own account:

Our friends Phil (the bass player) and Jane met us there with Mattias from the Uppland Vasby folk group. Phil and Jane had flown in and were staying with Mattias and his family so they had opened the hostel and brought milk for us. The hostel was one end of a leisure centre. It was a huge room with an enormous kitchen, bedrooms, seating alcoves and dining tables. We shared the shower facilities with the leisure centre and there was a gym so we played ball games in there with the juniors in our spare time.

Our accommodation was next to a school and a playground so the younger children went out to play whenever possible. There were great big rocks at the back which looked really good to play on. The 'dads' supervised rock climbing, football games and 'frisbee' sessions. The local children joined in almost immediately. They were mainly immigrant refugees from the middle east. The children's mothers came to look for them on Sunday and came in for a cup of tea. They brought middle eastern date cookies they'd made and told us that it was 'Mother's Day' in Sweden. They wore scarves over their heads and long clothes and seemed delighted with their new homes in flats in Upplands Vasby after leaving war torn countries abroad. We exchanged addresses with our new friends and all promised to write.

There were no performances planned until Monday so on Sunday we went into Stockholm in the coach and got off at Stadshusbron - the City Hall ferry stage. This is at one end of an island called Kungsholmen where the King lives for part of the year. We travelled on a small steam ferry called the 'Prins Carl Philip' up Lake Malaren. We got off at Drottningholm which is a palace in beautiful grounds. We toured the palace and grounds. There is a maze in the gardens and lakes and fountains. There is a Chinese theatre and there are museums and shops too. We had three hours there and then went down to catch another ferry back. This was a bigger one called the 'Drottningholm'. When we got back into Stockholm we walked onto Gamla Stan island which is the oldest part of the city. There is another palace there and the parliament buildings. There are lovely old shops and pavement cafes. We split into groups to shop and go sightseeing. The shops sell Swedish souvenirs. Some of these are made by the Saami people who live in Lapland and some represent the culture of the communities further south.

On Sunday evening we had a big meal together at the hostel. Liza and Phil made home made macaroni cheese. The juniors thought it would be awful but they really liked it! It had onions, courgettes and bacon in it as these were things which could be brought from England where food is cheaper. We needed to take a lot of food as it was a bank holiday weekend in Sweden the same as in England and we hadn't been sure of whether we could shop. The children had fruit juice and the adults had wine so it was a lovely party. Later that evening the musicians came from the Upplands Vasby Folk Group and we learned to play some Swedish polskas (and how to dance a polska properly).

On Monday we went to Skansen on an island called Djurgarden. This is an open air museum of Swedish life. It was started by a man called Arthur Hazelius who wanted to show the Nordic lifestyle in settings. Old buildings were brought to the island and Skansen was created. Nowadays there are many farmsteads, cottages, churches, shops and workshops with all the trappings of life in the past inside and around them. There are characters in costume to explain it all to the visitors and there is a small train to get around, a zoo with Nordic animals and market stalls selling refreshments and gifts. There are also several performance stages. The older Fosbrooks have performed on the main stage there but on this occasion it was given over to a big choir event for churches in Sweden so there was hymn singing all day. We performed at the Tingsvallen stage in the centre and had to do a 'sound check', an 'overture' and a dance display. Skansen was our first performance in Sweden and we were very satisfied with our own performance and the junior part of this too. We had a good crowd of Swedish families and foreign visitors to watch us and lots of people came up afterwards to ask questions. During the afternoon we toured the site. Our group went to the Town Quarter first and saw the glass blowers, silver smiths and gold smiths. They had sugar buns from the baker's shop before moving on to see the farmsteads and cottages elsewhere on the site. The most exciting part of the tour was when the group went into a tiny cottage with a low door where a 'wise woman' (witch) was making potions. She seemed to know that Jessica had been bad and wanted to make a spell for her. She said it was bad luck to say 'thank you' but we said it anyway (we are always polite). Jessica banged her head on the way out so we think the spell turned to a curse! The Swedish people have lots of superstitions and festivals connected with these.

On the way home we went shopping to a huge supermarket with a MacDonalds so we had a meal there while the adults went shopping for food.

Later that day we had lots of visitors at the hostel. Liza had booked more music teachers to come from the locality and also from Upsalla. We had workshops for accordion, fiddle and flute. Karen Tweed who often came to teach us in England lives in Sweden now and she came to teach accordion. Two Swedish music students called Hanna and Lotta came to teach us Swedish tunes and there were two mandolin players too called Ola and Bert who helped with the teaching. After the juniors went to get ready for bed Karen taught us and the Swedish students some really tricky tunes and there was a tune swapping session with the British and Swedish students and the tutors. We are most grateful to the Douglas Kenndy Fun for helping fund our travel so that we would have these experience. Hanna and Lotta will be coming to England next year to teach at our Easter school.

On Tuesday we went to perform at a Kindergarten called Ringblommen. It was near a lake in a lovely area on the outskirts of Upplands Vasby. Mattias's mother had asked us to go. This was the loveliest nursery school we had ever seen. Inside the door were racks for the childrens' shoes and wellingtons so they could play outside at building and gardening. The hall was octagonal and the equipment all looked new and very expensive. The tiny children were very well behaved and seemed to enjoy the short performance we did. We took Cadbury's chocolate for the children and post cards of Stockport.Teachers from the school where Ola the mandolin player teaches came in to watch us too. They are all interested in how the British children learn folk music for performance.

After that we went to Sollentuna to Rosjoskolan which is Ann-Charlotte Markman's school. It is by the forest and near a lake. Although this sounds very rural there are high rise flats nearby and the community consists of Swedish and immigrant families. Once again there are many refugees from the middle east and war torn areas in Africa. Some of them have terrible tales to tell of their past and are happy to make a new life in Sweden where refugees are made very welcome. It is a big country with a small population. There are as many people in Sweden as we have in London - and it is much bigger. We did three performances there and had a school lunch in their canteen. Each English child went with a Swedish child for lunch and then out to play afterwards. Their school meals are very sensible. Everone has the same and no-one is allowed to take sandwiches or junk food. We had mashed potatoes, salad and sausages with a drink of milk or water. There were no puddings served and sweet and salty tastes are discouraged so that children get a liking for plain nourishing food.

In the afternoon we went into Stockholm to the Vasa Ship Exhibition. The Vasa was built as the pride of the Swedish navy. Embarrassingly it sunk on its maiden voyage in 1628 in Stockholm harbour and lay there for hundreds of years until it was raised in 1961. The visit was a wonderful experience as the ship is unbelievably huge. The museum has 7 galleries so that the visitors can view the Vasa Ship as closely as possible. There are several extra exhibitions about life on board too. Liza bought some books and some models for the juniors. She read them one Vasa story that evening. The juniors went to bed a bit earlier as they were tired because we'd all been to meet the Upplands Vasby Folk Dancers at their rehearsal hall at tea time. The juniors learned Swedish dances and spent time making new friends. We met up with their musicians and learned some more Swedish tunes. There were sandwiches and cake with fruit juice and coffee so it was a bit of a party for us and them.

Wednesday was the last day in Sweden. We went to a school called Smedbyskolan in the morning and did one performance. This school is near to a Viking Village called Gunnes Gard so we got changed and went to see the village. There are several huts like the Vikings would have lived in and there were people dressed up as Vikings and animals there too. We liked the pigs and the sheep. We met a lady called Gun who has been writing to Liza. She showed us how to make a whistle from a lamb bone. She also explained how to make a waterproof bag for flint and tinder out of a sheep's scrotum and a helmet from the same part of a moose! We enjoyed hearing her play her mouth harp and sing in Swedish. After a snack on the hill next to the Viking Village the juniors played on the playground equipment outside the school and were surprised to meet their friends from near the hostel who obviously go to school there. While we waited for lunch we talked to the children and tried to find out about their timetable. They go to school earlier in the morning than us and have longer breaks. They learn English, Swedish and Maths as well as Science and other subjects like PE, needlework, metalwork and woodwork. We did not find out whether they do history and geography. We had a school lunch there. We had mashed potatoes, grated cabbage and carrots with fromage frais on and meatballs. Once again there was water or milk and no pudding. The adults went to the staff room for coffee. This was a beautiful room with a ceramic stove and frilly curtains. There was a patio outside too. English teachers would have been very envious as it was more like someone's home than a staff room! The schools have very well designed furniture eg. Chairs which hang off tables so that it is easy to clean underneath and full size height desks so that teachers don't have to bend down. There was another performance in the afternoon for the older children. One of the Iraqi children was there. We brought her out to the front and gave her a CD because she had been an excellent ambassador for Sweden. She had shown us round and tried hard to tell us all about the school day. The head teacher Gunilla gave us a 'rune stone' as a gift. There are huge stones with runes on all over Sweden. The runes are ancient writing and tell stories.

After we had finished at Smedbyskolan we drove to Sigtuna in a different bus. A Swedish driver called Christer took us out so that our driver could sleep as we had to drive through the night that evening. Christer's bus was lovely. It had leather seats and settees with tables so we were very comfortable on the way to Sigtuna. This is one of the oldest towns in Sweden and it has many ancient buildings so it is quaint and gets many visitors. Like most Swedish towns Sigtuna has a water front on a lake. We went to a café in a courtyard and had coffee, soft drinks and cinnamon buns. Next we did a 'Jamie and Nicola Big Band' concert at the private school in Sigtuna without the juniors and then most people went shopping for gifts to take home. We did not go as we had to dismantle the PA. We've both been before and know what it is like. The main street is very interesting with very old buildings and an ancient Town Hall. There are exhibitions and a museum too but most of the juniors just went into the shops to get gifts as they only had an hour.

Our last evening was spent at Rosjoskolan where the year 5 parents were hosting a Swedish meal for us. They brought all the delicacies that are eaten at parties in Sweden. This included meat balls made from chicken, lamb and moose. Liza was told that the moose meat balls were actually from a moose shot by one of the parents on a hunting trip up north. There was also smoked salmon, caviar, fish mouse, prawns, crayfish, noodles, many salads, sauces and sweets. We did a performance for them and their children did a presentation about Sweden. After the meal the Swedish children took their new friends out into the play areas and the forest while the adults talked. We went on the playground too. We have quite enjoyed being young again!

Later we packed our coach amidst a haze of mosquitos and drove off onto the motorway on the first leg of our journey home. We drove and dozed and the night was magically light with a huge full moon hanging over the forests. We took two short stops before arriving back in Gothenberg in the early hours of the morning. This gave us time to drive round the city searching for the older quarters near the waterfront. We saw a clipper with sails, many ocean going ships, great bridges spanning the estuary, trams, the botanical gardens and a maze of varied housing before arriving alongside our Princess of Scandanavia for the voyage home.

We were 'old hands' on the ship the second time and made our home base in the comfort of the Columbus Club. We knew the layout much better and could find the pool, the cinema, our cabins and the restaurants much more easily. The adults were more relaxed on the second voyage and apart from supervising meals, deck walks and the pool, let the children wander around in groups inside the ferry. Pulling into Kristiansand was a delight once more and many of us turned out on deck to take photographs or just enjoy the views. Later on the Pirate Club provided some entertainment for the junniors and the band, dancers and some unusually entertaining characters on the dance floor did the rest. Tiredness made an earlier night necessary and the junior children were all in bed asleep at a reasonable hour. The adults ended up in the bar listening to a solo country singer playing guitar and fiddle. Thomas joined him and they played jazz together for a while and then the adults drifted off to bed too, quite exhausted by their travels.

On the final morning the boat was busy with breakfasting seafarers and 'duty free' shoppers. The information desk was flooded with travellers changing Swedish Krona to English currency and the halls began to fill with passengers getting ready to disembark. We stayed in the Columbus Bar until the latest possible time and then assembled in the back hallway to avoid a crush leaving the boat. England had been in view since breakfast time so by the time we were ready to get off we'd seen Whitley Bay and a lot of Tyneside passing. We walked off, showed our passports, climbed on our coach and set off for Newcastle Centre to find a café.

Parking a bus proved impossible so we dropped Thomas at his home in Gateshead and carried on past the Angel of the North onto the A1 and the M1 travelling south. We had one stop for a meal and arrived back at school at 3.45pm.

As you will see from their account it was a great cultural experience as well as being very sound musically in that they learned a lot of new material. It also gave Nicola and Jamie the opportunity to do an international tour with the safety net of a community group and gave Thomas the opportunity to stage manage a tour. They all learned a lot about managing their own emotions and being accommodating for other people when tired. All in all an excellent trip.