Welcome to  the home of 3 Bucket Jones

‘You can emerge at  any age, its all about what comes out of the speakers.’ …Tom Robinson

‘ 3 Bucket Jones – I think you did it in the right order‘ …Peter Gabriel

We are delighted to be embarking on the next exciting stage of our journey..3 Albums in we are now rehearsing with our new member Ali Orbaum and are getting ready for the festival season 2019. And they are not really upside down..honest! 

 

Spot Ali singing at our 2016 gig! Little did we know then …

The evolution of  3 Bucket Jones started at a song writing retreat at Monnow Valley Studio in Sept 2013. The first song of the  first album was written  on the first day they met. Gitika Partington, Andy McCrorie-Shand and Garry Hughes . They decided  then and there to make an album.  THREE albums down the line,  the first 2 written recorded and  produced by  Andy, Garry and Gitika – mixed by Liam Ross, the newest Gitika, and Andy with help from Liam- the collective is continually evolving .  Andy and Gitika have taken  the Buckets on the road with the help of  glorious guitarist  Bruce Knapp, a multitude of singers and  5 members of the Tredegar Town Band to form the 3 Bucket Jones  supergroup -the next chapter in the collective’s story.  The music,  lately described as Bjork, Kate Bush meets Sgt Pepper – acoustic folk, smart pop –  with radio tracks segued  next to Dave Gilmore, Kate Bush and Antony and the Johnsons, can be heard here, on the website, Bandcamp, Soundcloud , Spotify, iTunes etc. They also  have  videos to watch.  Their  first UK tour  in 2016 with the help of guitarist Bruce Knapp, 5 members of the world class Tredegar Town Band  and  over 300 singers from across the land. Their second album “Take These Ghosts” was released on 8th July 2016, and have release 12 singles- one a month since March 2017 which was released as album number three on 25th May 2018.

The collective continues to change… the core members being – 

Gitika Partington  – Singer-songwriter, producer, arranger,  community choir leader composer and vocalist. She made her first record at the age of 6 with the ‘Partington Family Singers’ Mum, Dad, Brother ( who is now a member of the Roaring Tromen..cool sea shanty group) and Sister and has been making music full-time ever since – too many bad  bands to mention, too many rejections to be reminded of. SO many glorious moments when she said  ‘take me now! life can’t get any better than this!’  Poverty and  Richness of spirit run deep in the  family DNA – as does emphysema and PTSD  ( both her granddads died at the age she is now – Coal Miners and WW1 survivors and her Dad, a magnificent singer had TB and spent his first 10 years in a sanatorium keeping all the other kid’s spirits up). Gitika leads 3 large  non-audition community choirs in London,  an inner city primary school choir and writes and  arranges  music for voice and instrumental ensembles. Gitika  has 4 acapella books published by OUP and Novello and has acapella arrangements on new website choircommunity.net  She has twice taught the whole audience of the Royal Albert Hall a song, and has taught over 3000 kids music in Inner London Schools. She believes, as do Radio 2 folk awards, that it is never ever too late to shine brightly over the horizon. She is a massive Count Arthur Strong fan . Her personal gitikapartington youtube channel  of videos of her community choirs and videos for kids has had over half  a million hits. She has never had any laurels to sit on and has been on the coal face of the music world all her life. She  is a single handedly responsible for the websites, the designs, the distribution, the videos, the social media and often the recording  and is obviously really bossy ! ( how to spot a misogynist)

Andy McCrorie-Shand  – Multi instrumentalist, arranger,

producer and composer of music for film and tv – particularly for children,  including the music for Rosie & Jim, The Twirlywoos and The Teletubbies – a national treasure – no less. Andy has a  collection of things with 4 strings. He was a founder member of the Prog-Rock band, Druid, (produced by Whispering Bob Harris), and worked with all sorts of musicians including Curved Air, Steve Howe, Leo Sayer & Sarah Brightman. He  spent several years helping emerging artists get a first foot on the ladder such as Jack Garratt and The Staves,
when life was a bit more fruitful and there were apples to spare –  Now we are back to recording in the bedrooms and basements …..Great places to be.  Don’t let anyone tell you that size is everything.  Great music can happen in very small spaces too.

Ali Orbaum –

Ali  is an amazing vocalist, harmoniser and percussionist  who we are so happy to have join our Merry Band. She has  been in many bands and a couple of successful acapella groups and also has been running popular singing workshops and community choirs across the UK for the past twenty years. She directs Bristol’s huge and lovely Gasworks Choir (founded with Dee Jarlett in 1997) and is MD for Sing for Water West and Handfuls of Harmony. She also runs Sing Your Socks Off holidays and teaches at Unicorn Voice Camps and the Bristol Community Choir Convention.

Previously co-director of the award winning acappella group Naked Voices. She loves helping people discover that nothing really bad will happen if you lift up your voice. and join in.

Other  musicians who have joined us on our journey..

Bruce Knapp –  joined us for our 2016 tour –Guitarist, Ukulele, Dobro Mandoline. Full -time professional musician. Bruce has over 30 years of  experience playing around Britain and the rest of the world.   He have played with numerous Jazz, Blues, Soul, Funk, Folk and ‘World’ music bands. Bruce has been a key player in the 3 Bucket Jones live journey and can wash-up under pressure ( a pre-requisite)

The Tredegar Town Band members joined 3 Bucket Jones on their second album and on their  2016 tour
and will hopefully  be spending more time playing with them both recording and live in the future.

Singers in Every Town
– so far members of  community choirs from London, Bristol, Brighton  and Sheffield have sung backing vocals with the 3 Bucket Jones live shows. There were over 300 singers on this  tour from many choirs including- The Bishopsgate Singers, The Tubthumping Chorus (London) The Gasworks Choir ( Bristol) Outaloud ( Sheffield) Hullaballo ( Brighton).

Listen to us on BBC6 or on the podcast thanks to the championing work of Mr Tom Robinson LISTEN HERE