Foster & Allen

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Foster & Allen is an Irish duo formed in 1975 by Tony Allen and Mick Foster, performing a blend of easy-listening and folk music. Their more than twenty albums include The Rambles of Spring, A Bunch of Thyme, Maggie and After All These Years. The band first toured the United Kingdom in 1983 and have later been to Canada, South Africa, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.

Guitarist and singer Tony Allen, born in 24 February 1952, in Mount Temple, Ireland, started his professional career in 1968.

Accordionist Mick Foster, born in December 1947 in the village of Ballymore Eustace in County Kildare, was three times the winner of the All Ireland Accordion Championships, the first time in 1964, at age 17.

[edit] Trivia

Foster and Allen have been mimicked by Irish comedy puppet duo Podge and Rodge. The characters are called "Fester and Ailin'" and have been seen on Irish television satirically arguing with Foster and Allen, with each claiming the other copied their act. Fester states: "Ailin' here came out of the womb with that accordion on him". Fester and Ailin' also claim that Foster and Allen's song "Bunch of Thyme" was in fact a stolen copy of their original work "Bunch of Lesbians". Fester and Ailin's other songs include "Tropical Diseases", "The Monkey Song" and "Doing the Wife's Sisters on the Sly" as well as the classic yuletide number "Dead Man Up The Chimney".[1]