Picture © Kevin Boyd

Due to our corrosive climate, and a depressing historical inclination of the nobility to demolish rather than preserve the past, Britain contains far more 18th century historic houses and museums than Tudor ones. We receive a steady stream of comments from curators and events organisers along the lines of "We'd love to book Diabolus, but you're just too early".

Pam and I were fully experienced at providing rumbustious outdoor performances for Lancaster's excellent Georgian Fair, but it was clear that something a little more refined was required for the ormolu-encrusted interiors of our nation's noblest piles.

There was, alas, a major problem. Baroque continuo normally requires a bass viol and a harpsichord or spinet. The logistics of transporting one of those delicate beasts, then tuning it on site, kept the idea on the "future projects" list.

A flash of inspiration came while I was creating a website for Jacqui Robertson-Wade (www.rondopublishing.co.uk). Jacqui is a superb viol player. Could we make an 18th century repertoire work without a keyboard? It was sometimes done that way historically. It would make everything cheaper, far more portable, and faster to set up.

We experimented, and it worked. We quickly located a huge repertoire of 18th century drawing-room music, and started rehearsing. Jacqui just happened to have a couple of stunning baroque dresses. I consulted my favourite costumier and tracked down a decent wig maker.

The result is visually and musically impressive. Our repertoire consists of sonatas by famous (and not so famous) composers active in 18th century England - Handel, John Loiellet, Pepusch, Andrew Parcham, Godfrey Finger, James Hook, and a host of others. We include some valuable imports, such as Telemann and Vivaldi, and occasionally descend to arrangements of contemporary dance music and folk songs. It's ideal for 18th century interiors, but we can even play in a marquee, provided the temperature and humidity are reasonable.

We're now in business and available for hire. Clients so far include Soho House in Birmingham, and the Geffrye Museum in London, who commissioned us to do a recording of music from 1695 for their Christmas exhibition.

Future plans - we'll be adding a harpsichord to the mix for clients who have a larger budget, more space, and can allocate tuning time. We're investigating theorbos. If you want more players, we'll locate them. Just tell us what you need.