Әнші Қазандықтар: Шотландиялық халық музыкасы және балалар ойын-сауығы

The Singing Kettle (also known as Artie's Singing Kettle) are a folk music and entertainment group from Scotland who perform traditional children's songs, along with live theatre performances. Originally from the village of Kingskettle in Fife, they were formed by established folk singers Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise, eventually being joined by musician Gary Coupland. In 2012, founding member Fisher retired from performing with the group, and Trezise not wanting to, did the same. Three years later in 2015 the group performed their last live shows as a collective. Trezise who has since split with Fisher, returned in 2019 touring with solo shows. The group were awarded a BAFTA for best children's TV programme and Fisher, Trezise and Coupland were made MBEs for their services to the entertainment industry.

Husband and wife Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise started touring as a folk singing duo in the mid 1970s. The group name "The Singing Kettle" came about in 1982. Their first venture under this title was a children's album, featuring everything from traditional Scottish rhymes to songs learned on their folk tour of the US. A group of children contributed backing vocals for certain tracks, including their daughter Jane, creating the first set of "Kettle Kids". The idea came of turning "The Singing Kettle" album into a show, as they were unimpressed by other, few, children's theatre shows at the time. The show toured to primary schools, with the idea of clues for songs found inside kettles, and for this they recruited their friend, musician Gary Coupland. The touring show eventually developed into a more plot led piece of musical theatre and they began performing in large scale theatres across the country. Over the years the Singing Kettle have presented their own specially written shows including The Boogie Woogie Zoo, The Time Machine, Pirates, Wild West Show, Medieval Madness, World Tour, Funny Farm, and Homemade Band. Additionally some of their shows have raised awareness of important topics, notably road safety (Busy Road Show), good dental hygiene (Tooth Happy Songs) and pollution (one of the Adventures in Kettleland episodes). They were joined for a time by Cilla and Artie's daughter, Jane, who left to be in the electro band Motormark, replaced by Kevin McLeod – the former company stage manager. In 2003 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released The Singing Kettle: Singalong Songs from Scotland, the group's first recording to be widely distributed outside the United Kingdom. Alongside the being performers, Cilla sang while the rest composed the theme song to a children's cartoon series, Meeow!, which ran from 2000 to 2002 on Children's ITV. Meeow! was latterly shown on wknd@stv in 2009. Aside from their several albums of traditional children's music, The Singing Kettle has also released several DVDs and made five television series with BBC Scotland and two television series with ITV. They toured regularly throughout the United Kingdom, performing their highly successful stage show. They have performed command performances before both Prince Charles and Jordan's royal family. The three founding members of The Singing Kettle (Fisher, Trezise, and Coupland) have each been honoured with the MBE. There was a Singing Kettle Shop in Kingskettle which sold all sorts of different merchandise, as well as being home to the company offices. The group announced in October 2012 that they were auditioning for a new permanent member. Later that month they announced that Fisher and Trezise were retiring from performing and would continue to work on writing and behind the scenes. Coupland and McLeod were joined by Anya Scott Rodgers. In September 2014, the group announced that the 'Big Christmas Party' show would be their final tour, and that they would be breaking up in February 2015 after 32 years. The group performed their last show in Aberdeen on 15 February 2015. McLeod, Coupland and Anya are continuing to work together in a group called Funbox. This came to an end in 2022. In 2018, Artie returned to touring with a show called 'Artie's Tartan Tales' performing songs from the kettle and telling stories. In 2017, he was accompanied on festival dates with musical performer Ryan Moir. The following year he announced he would be bringing back 'the kettles'. He started touring once again with his live show 'Artie's Singing Kettle Show'. He later toured with a new show called 'Artie's Singing Kettle Sing along. In October 2019 he toured with his Halloween show called 'Artie's Singing Kettle Holloween Show. A Christmas show followed in December. In early 2020, he set up a new YouTube channel featuring videos of him singing songs from the shows and his postponed tour; along with a different coloured kettle. The videos were recorded from home in order to comply with pandemic restrictions.

Gary Coupland was the musician for the group. He joined "Cilla & Artie" for a tour of Scotland, which started The Singing Kettle. He received an MBE in 1999.

Jane Fisher (born c. 1973) is daughter to Cilla and Artie. She had worked as a backing vocalist on some of The Singing Kettle's LP's and albums before joining the group as a front in 1995. She left the band after the "Winter Wonderland Tour" in 2002 to join Motormark and is now in FANGS.

Kevin Macleod (born 9 March 1969) worked as The Singing Kettle's stage manager for years before joining the group. McLeod first appeared in the 2001 Christmas tour 'Winter Wonderland' and can be heard on the cassette. This was a cross over show, that also featured Jane prior to her departure. This was the only time there were 5 members in the show at once. He later joined the group for their "Jungle Party Tour" in 2002 and was in the group until 2015. McLeod also played the characters of Bonzo, Henry and Jock during the shows.

Anya Scott Rodgers (born 7 October 1987) joined the group upon the retirement of Fisher and Trezise as performers in the show. Anya was auditioned from hundreds of applicants from all over the world and became the new face of the Singing Kettle.

Willie and Maw (played by Trezise and Fisher) started during the late 1980s in "cutaway" scenes from the group on their stage and TV shows. Willie and Maw were highlights of The Singing Kettle's tours until the 2002 line up change, when Willie's "long lost brother" Henry (played by MacLeod) arrived and Maw was dropped from the show. Willie and Henry last appeared on the "Christmas Pyjama Party Tour" in the 2009/10 Christmas season show.

Bonzo the Dog (played by Macleod) is the "pet" of the group who first appeared in "The Homemade Band Show" as an angry next door neighbour. After the success of The Homemade Band Show and the interest in the character of Bonzo, he returned for "The Jungle Party" and went on to appear in all following shows. Bonzo has become a favourite with The Singing Kettle's fans. He was made into a toy and it was a bestseller in the group's merchandise. A collection of Bonzo's appearances on the tours, along with special recordings was released on DVD in 2005. The character of Bonzo continued to appear in Coupland, McLeod and Anya's show, Funbox.

Jock and Jeremy (also played by Trezise and MacLeod) replaced Willie and Henry for the "Boogie Woogie Zoo" tour (and onwards) as two chefs. Following Trezise's retirement as a performer, Macleod continued to play Jock until the final tour in 2015.

The television series was commissioned by BBC Scotland after visiting the group performing in Dunfermline in 1988. When Liz Scott, the director of the series showed Anna Home BBC Head of Children's programmes she did not believe it would transfer well to other parts of the UK. She thought it was "too couthie and very Scottish". BBC produced five series of The Singing Kettle between 1989 and 1993, which featured the original band members, Fisher, Trezise and Coupland. These series were later repeated on the BBC Schools programming thread from 1994 to 1996. In 1995, the group starred in The Singing Kettle News for ITV's Scottish Television channel which was followed by The Singing Kettle Show in 2000. These two series also featured Jane, in addition to the original three members. In 2016, the series began airing on STV Glasgow and STV Edinburgh as part of their 'Wean's World' children's programming strand.