Exec 2008/09
President - Tom Radford
Tom is quite simply one of the nicest men you could ever hope to meet. Although his sanity is somewhat questionable he is generous, loyal and intelligent. He has been active in the society now for the fourth consecutive year, and has held office as secretary for one year and as president for two.
Tom has been instrumental in the dramatic increase in society activity and membership during his time in office, and has been a king pin not only in the running of the society, but musically and socially as well. He has also kept up a truly remarkable amount of involvement in and work for the society during the final years of a very challenging degree. Truly he is an asset to the society, a skilled musician, and a fast friend; he will be sorely missed when he leaves us at the end of this year.
Secretary - Kieran Thorpe
Seven years ago in a small rural village in the south of France there was a disturbance amongst the villagers. A rumour was spreading that a crazily deformed little half-wit boy, who had been locked away from society in a basement, had escaped. A plot was hatched to recapture the undomesticated cretin. An obsolete table tennis table was hauled into service and converted into a giant mouse trap. The plan almost worked but, due to pure luck, the fortunate imbecile escaped and fled to England.
Today we have come to know him as Kieran and since these hapless beginnings he has accredited a number of achievements to his name; some of these include, managing to stuff five Wotsits up one nostril and contributing to Warwick Folk with the establishment of the folk club. At Warwick Folk we continue to nurture this challenging chap and help tame his feral tendencies. Unfortunately once a week his schizophrenic alter ego emerges and we all get a newsletter from Mrs Peacock herself.
Treasurer - Luke Allinson
Luke 'The Hippy' Allinson is the dreaded treasurer of this year's Warwick Folk exec. His vibrantly extravagant exterior reveals a lively inner essence of jovial fun, cheery enthusiasm and action adventure, cunningly concealed beneath a simple shield of sullen sobriety.
Skilled in the playing of the mandolin, and unwavering in the generosity of his time and sense of duty. This bright volunteer lends his numerical and organisational skills and his determined knowledge of the Student Union’s financial rules and procedures to correctly arrange all of our acquisitioned gold in the right pots.
Publicity Officer - Adam Reeve
Adam is an extremely hard working member of the exec team. It is because of his bright and shiny posters dotted around campus that everyone knows about all our ceilidhs and regular events! He enjoys attending and helping with tech transportation for the weekly dance club, as well as dancing at the monthly ceilidhs. Despite not being an instrumentalist, Adam is sometimes even to be found at band practice...
The folk society mascot, Don the Elephant is also currently resident at Adam's house! This is an honour only entrusted to the most dedicated and trustworthy society members.
Band Leader - Nicola McConkey
Her name is Nicky and she's the band leader. She has one of these smiles which you can't rub off. You scratch, you scrape, you fiddle with it but it just doesn't go away. The worse thing is that the more her smile itches, the more she smiles. Well. She's just a smiley person. And itchy.
Nicky is a fine fiddler too, as fine as a fiddle and as fit as a fiddle but, without being fiddly, it's clear she plays a second fiddle. Yes. There are rumours. Rumours that she might be on the fiddle, exposing her second belly button in a club in Coventry. I wouldn't know where of course, I've never been. Hehe. Anyway, she's everyone's second fiddle so I'll stop fiddling away; I wouldn't want to fiddle while Rome burns.
Liaison Officer - Abi Johnson
The Lesser Spotted Abi, Abi residus in chesterus, may be absent in body but contactable via the etheric medium of e-mail. She has forayed into the realms of the bodhrán and the fiddle, with limited success, so is normally found with a pint of real ale listening (or dancing) to those who do posses some musical talent.
She also really, really likes sheep. You couldn't make it up.
Rapper Instructor - Victor Smith
This is the tale of Vic. Vic came to Warwick with a vision, to change the world into a bright vision of folky goodness, or at least tinge the area with a bit of folky mood lighting. So Vic left only with the shirt on his back, his trusty squeezebox, a pda phone and the hat on his head, and thus he arrived.
Vic proceeded to further his quest with vigour, being an active member in the society, playing his squeezebox and generally being a folky kinda guy. But, as all people know, an adventurer cannot go questing forever, so Vic turned his hand at leading a Dance Club to pass on his folky lore to the next band of folky adventurers. Being an accomplished caller and dab hand at music it was an excellent decision. But the story isn't over yet, and whilst he is not trimming his beard with rapper swords you can often find Vic passing on his expertise on reels.
Webmaster - Anthony Dudson
Meet Ant, our whisky swilling, shanty singing Webmaster. Even though he's no long a student at the University, Ant is still selflessly immersed in the society helping with all areas ranging from website construction and maintenance, member of the rapper team, Warwick Folk Band member playing both the concertina and ukulele as well as helping with the running of our ceilidhs.