Churchfitters

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Churchfitters
Origin	Essex/Belfast, United Kingdom
Genre(s)	Folk
Years active	1978–Present
Members
Rosie Short, Boris Lebret, Christopher Loudon, Chris Short
Former members
Anthony McCartan, Geoff Coombs, Chris Apps & others

The Churchfitters are a British folk group, and were founded in 1978 by singer/songwriter Anthony McCartan from Belfast and multi-instrumentalist Geoff Coombs from Essex, after a band with which they had previously toured collapsed. The band enjoyed limited success, frequently touring East Anglia, with more limited trips to Europe and even as far as Australia.

Rosie Short joined soon after the band's formation, having previously been playing in a London-based traditional Irish group. In the following years, the group frequently changed its line-up, having many guest performers including reed maker Chris Apps. The foreign tours were performed only by McCartan and Short.

In 1993 the duo decided to move to Brittany, France and was joined by Rosie's brother Chris who had been in London playing in World, Irish and Bluegrass groups.

In 1999, after nineteen years of touring, they recorded their first studio album Deep Sky Blue in Vern-sur-Seiche. This was followed by Strange News in 2001 and the live album This Fine Night in 2003 taking tracks from their recent tour of France.

From their base in Brittany they then toured as a trio throughout France and Europe until McCartan's death after a five-year battle against cancer on 4 September 2004.

Shortly afterwards Boris Lebret (double bass and percussion) and Christopher Loudon (vocals and guitar) joined the group & they have since produced two new albums. New Tales for Old (2005) & Amazing (2007)

The band are currently on a tour of France.