SIMON Mayor and Hilary James will show an audience at Huntingdon Hall just how varied their musical talents are when they perform at the venue on Thursday, April 3.

The pair combine their array of talents in an entertaining show which combines music, humour and audience participation.

They slide easily from a beautifully evocative Irish ballad into a mandolin and guitar version of Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and then have the audience singing along to one of their notorious comic songs.

Hilary James has recorded three albums, including one of English, Scottish and Irish folksongs with pianist Beryl Marriot.

She easily crosses the musical divides and accompanies Simon Mayor on a huge range of instruments, from giant mandobass to slimline semi-acoustic double bass and guitar with the occasional step-dancing thrown in for good measure.

Simon Mayor started out as a self-made musician on fiddle and guitar but is now one of the world's foremost mandolinists and mandolin composers.

He has been invited to play and teach at numerous festivals throughout the world, including the Goderich Celtic Festival in Ontario, Canada, and the Classic Mandolin Society of America.

He even found himself at number nine in the UK Classical Artist Chart in May 2000.

Tickets for the show, which starts at 8pm, are priced at £8.50, £7.50 concessions, and are available from the box office on 01905 611427.