From: oysterband [oysters_at_oysterband_dot_co_dot_uk]

Sent: 17 September 2014 13:10

Subject: oYSTERNEWS - SEPTEMBER 2014

 

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IN THIS ISSUE

Upcoming dates in UK and Germany, including

"Big-Session-on Sea" and "Kulturflut"

JJ's 2nd solo album

The matter of Scotland

Hi all

 

It's been a peculiarly rewarding summer for Oysterband - not in the sense of playing more shows or earning more money (ha!), but because at the start of the year it felt like we had a mountain to climb to rebuild the band after Chopper's departure to pursue his solo career.

 

It feels now, after a string of festivals, that the effort has been spectacularly well worth it. In place of one musician, we've treated ourselves to two: that way, we have the bass end pinned down rock-solid at all times, without ever losing the rich voice of the cello, which we think is a vital part of the Oyster sound.

 

And Al Scott and Adrian Oxaal both sing, a bonus. The joke, though, is that we now have THREE great guitar players on stage, but only one of them currently gets to play guitar. That may have to lead to further developments?

 

Anyway, we've enjoyed ourselves, both playing and hanging out with other musos (an alarming number of them Canadian). Respect to Alan Doyle and Bruce Guthro and their cohorts for mixing it up with us live at T?nder Festival - not every well-known performer is happy to go on stage without "proper" rehearsals!

So here goes for the end of summer, the start of autumn/fall. With lots of songs from our recent Diamonds On The Water, of course:

 

UK

Thu 25 September??? RUNCORN??THE BRINDLEY THEATRE???0151 907 8360???www.thebrindley.org.uk 
doors 19:30??????18

Fri 26 September???? MATLOCK BATH??GRAND PAVILION???www.wegottickets.com/event/260946
doors 19:30??????18 / ?20

Sat 27 September??BEXHILL-ON-SEA??DE LA WARR PAVILION
"The Big Session-On-Sea" with special guests June Tabor and Sam Carter. Our only UK show with June for the foreseeable future, plus the super-talented guitarist and songwriter Sam. For one night only!???01424 229 111???
www.dlwp.com/event/oysterband-big-session-on-sea
doors 19:00????18

Sun 28 September???BOGNOR REGIS??ALEXANDRA THEATRE???Southdowns Folk Festival???01243 861 010
www.southdownsfolkfest.co.uk???doors 19:00??????19

Sat 25 October?????? LICHFIELD???LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL???Lichfield Festival of Folk???01543 262 223
www.lichfieldarts.org.uk/event/the-lichfield-festival-of-folk???doors 19:30??????19.50

A last chance to see us in GERMANY for this year (and probably for quite some time after that):

 

Thu 02 October??????D?SSELDORF???ZAKK???www.zakk.de???www.eventim.de???doors 20:00??????24

Fri 03 October???????64625 BENSHEIM???MUSIKTHEATER REX???www.musiktheater-rex.de
www.adticket.de/Oysterband.html???doors 20:30??????23 / ?25

Sat 04 October?????HAMBURG???21129 Finkenwerder???KULTURFLUT FESTIVAL
www.kulturflut.info/#!tickets/c1lb2???doors 20:00??????20

John Jones is currently working on his second solo album, with contributions from Rowan Godel, Tim Cotterell, Lindsey Oliver and others, and Al Scott producing. The intended release date is March 2015. It will include many of the songs John has been performing live with the Ramblers on his walking tours, plus completely new material.

Full details of our TOUR OF DENMARK in November and the
4 BIG PRE-CHRISTMAS SHOWS in UK in December (Norwich, Leeds, Canterbury and Salisbury) in our next newsletter.

 

Now over to our fiddler and co-writer Ian Telfer (born in Falkirk, raised in Aberdeen) for a few words on a subject close to his heart and attention!

"Scotland votes on IndyRef tomorrow, and by Friday could be negotiating the terms of its separation from the UK. It's hard to describe how extraordinary it is to write that sentence: within my adult lifetime the independence project has gone from a comedy tartan rabbit to a wholly serious political tiger. The gent who's rumoured to have bet ?800,000 on a No vote must be sweating blood.

I find myself, like a lot of people, in a conflicted position: I would vote Yes, if I had a vote?but of course I (quite correctly) don't have a vote, because I don't live in Scotland at present?and since moving back and paying tax there is not a practicable option for me, I really have no right to advise anyone else to vote Yes.  All the same: Scottish independence feels like Mrs Thatcher's last dreadful gift to the UK, the Law of Unintended Consequences come back to bite the ankles of Westminster, and it's hard not to take a certain gleeful satisfaction in that. It's a bit like Spike Milligan's tombstone: "I told you I was ill". Or in this case, very very alienated.

What's exciting is the evident birth in Scotland of high-volume participatory democracy. How do you get 90% voter turn-out? By people realising that for once, no two ways about it, their vote counts. There may be bitterness and recrimination after a close result; we can only hope the spirit lives on of the line I once admired and stole for a song from the Scots writer and painter Alasdair Gray (who then cheerfully admitted he had stolen it too, from the Canadian poet Dennis Lee!) - "work as if you were living in the early days of a better nation".

Amen to that."  (IT)

All the best

 

John,  Alan,  Ian,  Dil,  Al  Adrian  x

 

OYSTERBAND

c/o Running Man, PO Box 12018, Coggeshall CO6 1ZJ, UK

 

email:    oysters_at_oysterband_dot_co_dot_uk

URL:      www.oysterband.co.uk

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