Some of the leading lights of the folk firmament will be at mac, in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, tomorrow (Friday).

But the star of the show may well prove to be a long-dead Lincolnshire farm bailiff called Joseph Taylor.

“He was one of the earliest wax cylinder recording artists,” explains singer Fay Hield, who brought folk ensemble The Full English together.

“The wax cylinder player was like an old Singer sewing machine, in a hard-wood box about one and a half feet by one foot by one and a half feet high. You lift the case off, attach the trumpet and put the cylinder in.

“Joseph would stand over the trumpet and sing into it. The cylinder only lasted about two minutes, so you only get the first couple of verses.

“In the concert, we start off with Joseph singing Brigg Fair on a crackly old recording and the band joins in.”

The Full English, which includes former Mercury Prize nominee Seth Lakeman and 23-time BBC2 Folk Award nominee Martin Simpson, first came together for a one-off performance at the home of English folk music, Cecil Sharp House, in London, this summer.

The event was marking the launch of a remarkable new web database of the same name, which has brought together for the first time more than 58,000 songs, tunes, dances, correspondence and diaries collected by the likes of Sharp himself, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Lucy Broadwood in the years before the First World War.

“Early collectors went foraging when they thought folk music was dying out,” Hield explains.

The English Folk Dance And Song Society (EFDSS), who compiled the archive, wanted some music at the launch and approached Hield who, as well as being a leading folk performer, is a lecturer in ethnomusicology at Sheffield University.

The biggest “shot in the dark” was contacting former Mercury Prize nominee Lakeman, with whom she had not worked before.

“Seth was my most unrealistic idea,” she admits.

“I thought it would be most interesting to see what he would make of this material.

“I called to see if he would be interested and found that he was eager to get back to the roots of his music.

The first one-off show was swiftly followed by an album, and now they are setting out on tour. This tour is already close to being a sell-out.

There have been approaches about festival appearances next summer, and even tours to America and Portugal, but Hield admits that would be a logistical challenge.

“Having so many high-profile people, there’s a problem with availability,” explains Hield.

She admits she was a little “scared” before the first rehearsals, but adds: “It does feel like a band and I’m sure we will have a great time on the road.”

* Nov 1, mac, Cannon Hill Road, Birmingham, 8pm, £17, returns only. Tel: 0121 446 3232. www.macarts.co.uk