The Punch House Band, a rather good folk band from Norwich.
The Punch House Band is a five piece acoustic folk act based in Norwich. They play an energetic mixture of folk standards and original material with a focus on songs and stories from Norfolk and the Eastern Region which they call Songs from the Big Sky. Their set is characterized by quality musicianship, strong vocal harmonies and commitment to putting on a show.
Named after the now long gone Norwich pub of the same name the original core of the Punch House Band, Leighton Williams (vocal & guitar), Richard Brook (banjo & vocal) and Tim Lane (guitar & vocal), got together when they were the cast of much loved Norwich theatre group Crude Apache’s touring show “Singing The Postman”. The play, which told the story of Allan Smethurst, the Singing Postman, featured the three of them playing the roles of Smethurst impersonators and had them performing his songs to highly appreciative audiences. Once the show was over they decided to continue as band.
All three had previously been involved in the company’s earlier production of Peter Bellamy’s “The Transports”, Williams and Brook as performers, Lane as musical director, and were keen to use some Bellamy’s songs in the band. Lane, in particular, has a background in folk music and has written an number of songs which fitted the overall mission statement.
Having invited Jason Thompson (percussion) and George McKay (double bass) to join the band made its debut at the 2016 Norwich Beer Festival and has since gone on to play the Milkmaid Folk Club twice along with a number of pub gigs. The combination of the theatre background and the diverse musical histories of the band, (Thompson’s background being rock and thrash metal, McKay’s being Modern Jazz), means the band sound is hard-hitting, meticulously arranged and highly entertaining and this is borne out by the testimonials from those who have already booked them.