TRIBUTES have been paid to a pioneer of English folk music who has died aged 68.

Pete Shutler was the accordion player with Dorset folk band the Yetties, the band which played the theme tune for the Sunday omnibus edition of The Archers.

Born in Mudford, near Yeovil, Somerset, in 1945, Mr Shutler’s family soon moved over into Dorset to Ryme Intrinseca and he went to school in the neighbouring village of Yetminster.

It was there, in St Andrew’s scout troop, that he met the other three members of the group – Bonny Sartin, Mac McCulloch and Bob Common, who left the band in 1979.

The band was one of the most popular English folk music groups from the 1960s through to the present day and announced their retirement in 2011.

Through their career they recorded 49 LPs and several DVDs and performed at folk festivals and concerts across the UK and the world. Mr Shutler played at the Wessex Folk Festival in Weymouth this year with his post-Yetties venture O’Dalaigh’s Ceili Band.

Band mate Bonny Sartin said his friend was a great musician who would be very much missed.

He told the Echo that across the 45 years the group had been performing together they travelled around the world. They worked with the British Council as part of a project to send different aspects of British culture around the world, including travelling to Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives.

Mr Sartin said: “I’ll remember him for his musicianship. No matter what he played, he played it really well. His accompaniment was superb. He was a very clever man.”

Mr Sartin added that one of Mr Shutler’s legacies would be those he had taught to play the accordion. He said you knew when an accordion player had been taught by Mr Shutler, adding: “They have the life and lift he had.”

Bob Fox, from Dorchester, former manager of Lewisham Concert Hall, where the Yetties played, said: “Pete was a very accomplished musician, playing several instruments in addition to his beloved accordian, and he had a great sense of humour which came through on all the Yetties dates.”

He added: “He was so well known in Sherborne and will be sadly missed – a lovely bloke.”