As part of Lowender Peran‘s 2020 celebrations the festival hosted a virtual banjo band as a tribute to the Goonhavern Banjo Band who had a
The Goonhavern Banjo Band
large following in Cornwall during the 1950s and 60s (See Tony Mansell’s article on the ‘Goonhavern Banjo Band . ) Lowender Peran’s project was headed up by Penzance-based John Dowling, a professional banjo player and tutor. John won first place at the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2000 with his band the Black Cat Theory, and went on to become the first European ever to win first place at the USA bluegrass banjo championship held at Winfield, Kansas, in 2002. In 2007, he was featured as a master class tutor in a BBC1 reality series “Play It Again” along with Mark Knopfler, Jools Holland and Courtney Pine.
The project brought together 31 banjo players from around the world and as well as a range of five string “G” banjos, four string tenor and 
Irish short neck Banjos, the band included a banjoline, a cello banjo and a bass banjo. The project was premiered on 31st October 2020 as part of the Lowender Peran celebrations and had 7,600 views
Project Co-ordinator Jowdy Davey:
“We hoped we would have participants from various different locations but never expected to be receiving contributions from as far as Kazakhstan! The reach of the video has also exceeded our expectations, with a reach of 13,800, engagements of 2,325 and 7,600 views at the time of writing. Working with John Dowling – who already had various worldwide banjo player contacts – certainly helped to give the project a bump start.
We were pleased to be able to share Cornish music with people who may not have come across it before – through a common interest in a particular instrument – rather than neccessarily hosting a specific ‘Cornish music’ event. This has inspired us to look at other innovative ways we can be reaching new audiences in the future.”
The tune chosen for the project was the Boscastle Breakdown which had been a popular tune played for Cornish step dancing on a banjo in the earl 20th century
John Dowling’s guide track for the project:
G Banjo Tablature:
Boscastle Breakdown Banjo Tablature
Chords
Music Score
Boscastle Breakdown as played for solo step dance by Tan Ha Dowr
The Goonhavern Banjo Band disbanded in 1972. Confirmed by Tony Mansell article. I am not sure that Fred Eplett returned from USA to form the band, I thought it was South Africa, as some of his relatives lived there and his home was built on the style of South African homesteads.
Thank you for the feedback Derek. It may well be family lore rather than history that Fred Eplett returned from USA. We had an uncle and an aunt who were long term members of the band and mother played with them for a couple of years so that they were a topic of family conversation. So many friends and relatives travelled out and back from the Cornish Diaspora that it would be easy to mix the two up.