Jim Bainbridge is a singer and Melodeon player. He entered the traditional music scene as leader of Marsden Rattlers, one of the first dance bands to come out of the folk revival. The Marsden Inn club in South Shields was a source of inspiration. He received great encouragement from local musicians like the Elliotts of Birtley and John Doonan and guests such as Matt McGinn, Joe Heaney and Willie Scott.

Jim Bainbridge started playing the melodeon in 1964, after hearing the Irish in their London strongholds of Fulham, Holloway and Sutton, Surrey. The Rattlers played barn dances and folk clubs between Yorkshire and Fife, where he tuned in to the Scots tradition at Blairgowrie and Kinross (winning the melodeon competition at both), before becoming a judge. Festivals in Cambridge London and abroad followed, often in support of Bob Davenport. Bob introduced him to traditional southern musicians such as Scan Tester and Oscar Woods and singers like the Ling family of Suffolk and George Spicer from Sussex.

Members of the Rattlers went their separate ways in the early 70’s and after a short spell with the Trimdon Band from Durham, Jim drifted off the scene, preferring to play informally in the pubs of East Kent. At this stage Jim was a musician with a few songs, but moving to West Cork changed all that! In Schull and Ballydehob, the locals said “the music”s all very well, but could you sing a ...? No-one else was singing the old Irish songs, so he racked his brains and soon was singing all over West Cork in bars rather than clubs.

He began to tour again in 1991 and is now a regular visitor to clubs from Bodmin to Inverness, as well as being a guest at the National English Festival and the traditional Scottish festivals at Auchtermuchty and Kirriemuir. He has also become a regular reviewer and writer for Living Tradition magazine.

Tiring of the Irish weather(!) he moved south for some years to the Canary Islands where he played Irish music with a German guitarist, but has recently moved back to Glentrool in southwest Scotland and plays on many summer Saturdays at the “House o' Hill” in the Galloway Forest; where he launched his latest CD, Lights on the River.

Jim Bainbridge’s material is now more songs than music, often light and humorous, but sometimes thought provoking. He plays a Salterelle 2 row D/G melodeon, and his style is modelled on the older Irish and Scots tradition, but with much material, ancient and modern from his Tyneside roots. New material is by no means excluded — as the tradition continues and changes and Jim moves with it.

He always gives credit for the songs he sings and has many a story about them, including the tunes which come between the songs. His relaxed manner of performance and gentle good humour puts an audience immediately at it’s ease and has created many regular returns to pubs, clubs and festivals all over the UK.