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Oysterband
Combine revved-up folk dance rhythms, well-phrased lyrics with pointed social commentary and insanely catchy melodies and you've got the Oysterband – one of the greatest British folk
ensembles of all time.
The group's history begins in the late 1970s when an English folk-rock ensemble called Fiddler's Dram enjoyed a freak pop hit with the nostalgia flavored "Day Trip to Bangor." Fiddler's Dram released two albums and called it a day, but several of the musicians were also in the Oyster Ceilidh Band, an adventurous outfit who weren't afraid to bring rock 'n' roll energy to melodeon- and fiddle-led dance tunes. The group soon dropped the Ceilidh from its name and became Oyster Band and, in the 1990s, Oysterband.
Ian Telfer (violin, concertina, vocal), John Jones (lead vocal, melodeon) and Alan Prosser (guitars, vocal) are Oysterband's core trio, joined by Chopper (bass, cello), who replaced Ian Kearey in 1987, and Lee Partis (drums), who replaced Russell Lax in 1992.
The Oyster's earliest recordings featured adaptations of traditional ballads and tunes along with a few stabs at band-written material. It wasn't so different from the O.C.B. days, though and every so often Alan Prosser would be freed from his usual rhythm position and get in a few sharp electric-guitar blasts and Ian Telfer, who mostly played violin, kicked in some edgy saxophone riffs on instrumentals like "Speed the Plough." The first phase of Oysterband's career culminated with Liberty Hall in 1985. Of the 11 tracks, six were original and showed that Telfer and John Jones had become a fine songwriting team, specializing in catchy melodies and thoughtful lyrics. But by 1986 the lads felt they'd done all they could do with the trad format and it was time for changes. Longtime Oyster fans were undoubtedly shocked when they heard the opening track of Step Outside, a punked-up version of the traditional standard "Hal-An-Tow" complete with machine-gun drumming. The traditional melody was intact but the spirit had definitely changed.
In 1990 Oyster Band took a slight departure from its rockier path to collaborate with vocalist June Tabor on Freedom and Rain. This project gave a higher profile to Tabor and her Oysterband colleagues, and as a combined group they toured extensively and received press coverage from mainstream publications like Rolling Stone, which rarely gave significant attention to roots music. Unfortunately that higher profile was merely temporary (at least in the United States). Still, the records kept coming at a steady clip. Deserters (1992) included some of the group's best original songs, including "All That Way For This," "Fiddle or a Gun" and "Granite Years." In 1994 came Holy Bandits, which included "When I'm Up I Can't Get Down," now a staple of the band's repertoire.
On December 12, 2003, Oysterband organized a 25th anniversary concert that was held at the Forum, Kentish Town, London. Among the guest performers were June Tabor, an acoustic version of Chumbawamba and James o' Grady (uilllean pipes, violin, whistles, vocal); the concert can be seen on DVD. Oysterband followed that up with The Big Session, which featured a number of English, Irish and American musicians including Tabor, Eliza Carthy, Show of Hands, Steve Knightley, Jim Moray and the Handsome Family. The CD was a collection of performances where the guest artists chose the songs they wanted to do and Oysterband backed them up. As an outgrowth of The Big Session Oysterband produced a three-day festival of the same name. The first one took place in June 2005 and plans are to have it be a yearly event. —Ken Roseman
Combine revved-up folk dance rhythms, well-phrased lyrics with pointed social commentary and insanely catchy melodies and you've got the Oysterband – one of the greatest British folk
ensembles of all time.
The group's history begins in the late 1970s when an English folk-rock ensemble called Fiddler's Dram enjoyed a freak pop hit with the nostalgia flavored "Day Trip to Bangor." Fiddler's Dram released two albums and called it a day, but several of the musicians were also in the Oyster Ceilidh Band, an adventurous outfit who weren't afraid to bring rock 'n' roll energy to melodeon- and fiddle-led dance tunes. The group soon dropped the Ceilidh from its name and became Oyster Band and, in the 1990s, Oysterband.
Ian Telfer (violin, concertina, vocal), John Jones (lead vocal, melodeon) and Alan Prosser (guitars, vocal) are Oysterband's core trio, joined by Chopper (bass, cello), who replaced Ian Kearey in 1987, and Lee Partis (drums), who replaced Russell Lax in 1992.
The Oyster's earliest recordings featured adaptations of traditional ballads and tunes along with a few stabs at band-written material. It wasn't so different from the O.C.B. days, though and every so often Alan Prosser would be freed from his usual rhythm position and get in a few sharp electric-guitar blasts and Ian Telfer, who mostly played violin, kicked in some edgy saxophone riffs on instrumentals like "Speed the Plough." The first phase of Oysterband's career culminated with Liberty Hall in 1985. Of the 11 tracks, six were original and showed that Telfer and John Jones had become a fine songwriting team, specializing in catchy melodies and thoughtful lyrics. But by 1986 the lads felt they'd done all they could do with the trad format and it was time for changes. Longtime Oyster fans were undoubtedly shocked when they heard the opening track of Step Outside, a punked-up version of the traditional standard "Hal-An-Tow" complete with machine-gun drumming. The traditional melody was intact but the spirit had definitely changed.
In 1990 Oyster Band took a slight departure from its rockier path to collaborate with vocalist June Tabor on Freedom and Rain. This project gave a higher profile to Tabor and her Oysterband colleagues, and as a combined group they toured extensively and received press coverage from mainstream publications like Rolling Stone, which rarely gave significant attention to roots music. Unfortunately that higher profile was merely temporary (at least in the United States). Still, the records kept coming at a steady clip. Deserters (1992) included some of the group's best original songs, including "All That Way For This," "Fiddle or a Gun" and "Granite Years." In 1994 came Holy Bandits, which included "When I'm Up I Can't Get Down," now a staple of the band's repertoire.
On December 12, 2003, Oysterband organized a 25th anniversary concert that was held at the Forum, Kentish Town, London. Among the guest performers were June Tabor, an acoustic version of Chumbawamba and James o' Grady (uilllean pipes, violin, whistles, vocal); the concert can be seen on DVD. Oysterband followed that up with The Big Session, which featured a number of English, Irish and American musicians including Tabor, Eliza Carthy, Show of Hands, Steve Knightley, Jim Moray and the Handsome Family. The CD was a collection of performances where the guest artists chose the songs they wanted to do and Oysterband backed them up. As an outgrowth of The Big Session Oysterband produced a three-day festival of the same name. The first one took place in June 2005 and plans are to have it be a yearly event. —Ken Roseman