Nigel Eaton

Nigel Eaton is an English hurdy-gurdy player. He originally played the piano and cello but switched to the hurdy-gurdy in 1981 when his father, Christopher Eaton, began making them. He was in the bands, Whirling Pope Joan with Julie Murphy and The Duellists with Cliff Stapleton and Chris Walshaw. He released an album with the melodeon player Andy Cutting, Panic at the Cafe (1993). He has released two solo albums - The Music of the Hurdy-Gurdy (1987) and Pandemonium (2002) and has been featured on other recordings by artists including Jimmy Page and Robert Plant with whom he toured throughout 1994 and early 1995 as a member of the page plant tour band(No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded), Heidi Berry, Gary Kemp, Carl Davies, with whom he performed Abel Gances' Napoleon, Blue Aeroplanes, Moya Brennan, Afro Celt Sound System's "Release" (a current edexcel Music GCSE curriculum piece) and many works by Loreena McKennitt. Eaton's film work has included Robin Hood, The Shipping News, Kingdom of Heaven, Aliens, Mansfield Park, "Tulip Fever", "Darkest Hour", and "On chesil Beach"
Nigel Eaton is now a maker of built-in furniture in South London and still plays regularly as a member of The Firestarters of Leiden, a trio with Dave Shepherd of Blowzabella and Simon Gielen a Belgian Diatonic Accordion player.
Nigel's tune "The Halsway Carol" and "Halsway Schottische" has attracted 180 versions and counting, see YouTube.

• Music of The Hurdy-Gurdy (1987)
• Spin (1994) - Whirling Pope Joan, with Julie Murphy
• No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded - Page and Plant (1994)
• English Hurdy-Gurdy Music - The Duellists (1997)
• Panic at the Cafe - with Andy Cutting (1993)
• Les Saisons Amusantes - with the Palladian Ensemble (1997)
• Volume Three : Further In Time with The Afro Celt Sound System (2001)
• Pandemonium (2002)