Oysterband

After 45 years on the road, Oysterband have decided to take the tour bus out for its last ride.

“We’re hanging up our travelling shoes, but we’re taking a year or so to say goodbye to our lovely live audience. And we mean to enjoy every minute!” Emerging in the early 80s from their folk club and ceilidh band days, Oysterband infused both the tradition and their own songs with a passion and energy that was electrifying for the time. Polkas, politics and a heaving dance floor seemed just right for Thatcher’s Britain. Signing to new roots label Cooking Vinyl, headlining English Roots Against Apartheid, playing Glastonbury and the Fleadh several times each, touring with The Pogues in Europe and Billy Bragg in North America, hosting the Big Session Festival….. all gained them a large and loyal international following. Their collaboration with June Tabor in 1990 produced the cult-classic album Freedom & Rain, and it was renewed 21 years later for Ragged Kingdom, one of the best-selling folk-rock albums of the new millennium. Winners of several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including Best Band twice, Oysterband’s song-writing has never stood still, and classics such as The Oxford Girl, When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Everywhere I Go and Put Out The Lights have entered the folk canon. “It’s been a long, tough, joyful journey, but the time has come. In the words of our own song Granite Years, we’re waving you a long, long goodbye…..come help us celebrate!”