Fiddle
Saturday 9th May 2026, 8:00 pm: Feast of Fiddles
Joe Broughton is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and educator based in the Midlands, UK. As well as his own internationally renowned band The Urban Folk Quartet, Joe has played with everyone from Joss Stone to Fairport Convention. His compositions have been performed at The Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, and his workshops in performance and ensemble playing are legendary amongst the teaching community.
Joe was born in Macclesfield, England on May 28th 1976, his Dad was a guitar player and his Mother an artist.
At the age of four Joe took up the drums to accompany his older brother Ben who at the ripe old age of 9 was singing the blues and playing a mean guitar. This was the beginnings of a duo that is still ongoing 30 years later.
The violin captured Joe’s imagination in 1981 and he took an interest in folk, classical, blues and jazz music from the word go. His first performances were with Ben around the age of nine and he quickly went through the classical exams, gaining one of the highest ever marks in his grade 8. Joe also took up the mandolin, guitar and piano before reaching his 10th birthday.
Joe was obsessed with learning things when he was young and spent 6 years working with circus artists. He played the violin on a unicycle, juggled with fire, was a magicians apprentice and much more besides. This lead the BBC to make a short film about Joe and his diverse talents when he was 13 years old. After touring up and down the country either doing street theatre or in big tops Joe decided to focus on music but not before a small juggling role in the Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman film “Robin Hood”.
Alongside the music and being in the circus Joe was a keen young poet, winning awards for his poetry and being published in two books. Bringing his poetry and composition together in 1999 Joe wrote his own book simply called “a collection of fiddle pieces”.
Ben and Joe played many great venues including the Assembly Rooms at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Fylde Folk Festival by the time Joe was 14. They joined forces with folk scene favourite Keith Hancock in 1993 to form “Famous Last Words” who toured Europe extensively over the following few years. Although this band never recorded, Ben and Joe have to date made three duo albums: “the continuing adventures of…” (1996) “me and my brother” (1999) and “The Mortgage Years” (2006).
Website: https://www.joebroughton.com