Sheila was the joint leader of the Christian folk band The United Folk, who played together for over twenty years and released three albums. The United Folk were a collection of musicians and singers from the North East region of England. They performed in a wide variety of settings including concert halls, shopping centres, prisons and schools. The United Folk also had a successfull tour of Northern Ireland in the late 1980's. The Best Of United Folk includes sixteen of the group's favourite tracks from the three albums. This was released in October 1999.

 

 For information about how we came together as a group, please see below.

 

    

           United Folk - pictured leading worship at an event in the Newcastle Civic Centre.

 

         United Folk - pictured in a local newspaper (in the grounds of Tynemouth Priory).

Members of the United Folk included: Ron Bedford, Hazel Bell, Ann Caton, Anthony Frederiksen, Kathryn Frederiksen, Sheila Hamil, Muriel Heslewood, Carol Hirst, Jennie Magee, Angela Maughan, Rose Nixon, Gerry O'Hanlon, Avril Pease, Lynne Smith, Margaret Scott, Pete Scott, Margaret Storey, Zena Thompson.

Others to make a contribution to performances over the years are : Margaret Bell, Margi and Tony Buglass, Carol Cairns, Terry Patterson, Mary Thompson, Ken Hawker, Janet McLeod, Karin Flanagan, Pat Craighead, Liz Johnson, Chirs James, Judith Pearl

 

 

It all began with a request for singers at a local park for a Pentecost Picnic in 1974. Margaret Scott and Margaret Bell from the Roman Catholic church and myself (Church of England) knew each other and agreed to rehearse and come together  that day, Afterwards the three of us were invited to sing at a Salvation Army Celebration. At first we laughed and explained that we weren't from the same church, but then we thought ...why not?

 

The invitations kept coming, and so did people who were interested in singing with us. Next came a Methodist, then some from the Pentecostal church, and some folk from my own church at St Luke's Wallsend. Then more...a Baptist, then a highly gifted musician from Durham, Rose Nixon.

 

Rose could play a whole multitude of instruments, and certainly added to the quality of our music. Then a lad called Pete Scott joined us. Now you may have heard of Pete;, he's a well known singer in the North-East of England now...(Please see his website, he has written some fabulous songs, and his latest CD 'Why Sing Goodbye Songs' is excellent, and so very funny. He's a genius when it comes to writing songs.)

 

And so the Lord 'added to our number'.  Not only were we from different denominations, we were also of different styles of churchmanship..Traditional, Charismatic, Evangelical, Liberal...and it worked beautifully. We certainly did not agree on everything, we interpreted theBible in different ways, but we loved each other.  If there was ever a disagreement we learned a lesson from it rather than split. We moved on and grew. We were family! 

 

I wish we'd thought of the name 'DIVERSITY' first, for that's what we represented. We were all so very different, and that's the way God had made us.

 

We met every Wednesday evening in our front room, for twenty years, and we always had two or three bookings every month. Gifts of Dance, Drama and Song Writing and Compostion, Preaching and Teaching etc were abundant, and we just loved singing together.

 

I led the group, until I responded to the call to priesthood in 1992, then Margaret took over the reins.

 

The group came to a natural end in 1995, and many of us went on to different kinds of ministry...Catechitic training, Missionary work, Priestly ministry, Church choirs, Prison ministry etc

 

If you would like to hear a sample of the best of our music over the years, I'm sure you'll love it. You can click onto  the 'Music' link, on this site, then onto The Best of United Folk. You'll find lyrics, music scores and DVD's to download free. My solo albums are on there too.

 

I still get a buzz listening to all those beautiful United Folk songs, even after all these years...and we have all those lovely memories of a Golden Age inour lives and ministries, we were very privileged to have been drawn together by God in this way.

 

It's a time we all will never forget.