Tim Hughes gets into the Christmas spirit for the annual outing by folk supergroup St Agnes Fountain

It’s as traditional a part of the build-up to Christmas as supermarket queues, scrambling for car parking and avoiding mistletoe in dodgy pubs.

It’s the St Agnes Fountain festive knees-up, and it attracts folk fans from around the county.

Like Christmas itself, the show by the seasonal supergroup of Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie, guitarist and songwriter David Hughes and multi-instrumentalists Chris While and Julie Matthews, comes but once a year – the result of an intensive series of rehearsals at a mountain hideaway in the Lake District.

It takes place in the twinkling surroundings of a suitably-decked out at St Mary’s Church, in Banbury.

For fiddle player Chris Leslie, who lives in Adderbury, the ‘Aggies’ concert is practically a hometown show. He said: “This is our 15th year together and we’re looking forward to it as much as ever.

“It’s a very special time for us and it’s wonderful that so many people see their St Agnes Fountain gig as the official start of Christmas.”

Music includes arrangements of carols and traditional Christmas music – the best ones to ukulele – peppered with jokes and banter. It will include tracks from the band’s newly-released Best Of – Volume 2 album.

Each member of the group has also chosen a reading with an evocative, seasonal connection.

The project was begun by David and Chris, with the release of an EP of six tracks called Acoustic Christmas on guitar and mandolin in 1998.

Demand was so high that it sold out in three months and they decided to cut an album, signing up Chris While and Julie Matthews – named best duo in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Their eponymous debut came out in 2001, and was followed by a December tour – a tradition which has continued ever since.

The concert sees Chris on violin, mandolin, American Indian flute, oud and ukulele; David playing guitar and ukulele; Julie on piano, guitar, piano accordion and ukulele; and Chris While on guitar, bodhran, percussion and ukulele. They all sing.

For the rest of the year they concentrate on their own individual projects – Chris Leslie, most notably with Fairport and their annual Cropredy festival. But, he says, they look forward to their winter reunions.

“We lock ourselves away for three days in a gorgeous space at the house of some friends in Cumbria,” he says. “At the end of that time we perform a house-gig for them through which they raise money for charity.

“We’ve got some super new numbers to play this year.

“David has set another traditional carol to the music of a chart track and Chris and Julie have written some brilliant new songs.”

And he is proud of the role the concerts play in heralding the start of Yuletide in the heart of the north Oxfordshire folk-rock belt. “The concerts stand the test of time,” he says. “We never foresaw St Agnes Fountain would go on so long,” he said. “It’s the only time we really see each other all year and lots of energy goes into it. We love it as much as our audiences do.”

GO ALONG 
St Agnes Fountain play St Mary’s Church, Banbury on Tuesday. For tickets call 01295 253329.