It’s a very cool thing for the VFMF to present a band that’s pretty much as old as we are! “The Oyster Ceilidh Band” started out in 1978 as a dance band, but soon started experimenting with radical arrangements of traditional songs. At the time, their try-anything attitude was controversial, but they were determined that traditional music “should not be a branch of the heritage industry”. The band and this festival have that in common, too! Their fire-igniting sound caught on, to say the least. Rolling Stone called them, “tremendous, joyous, remarkable…… [they] play with an imagination and vigor that make them the cream of their genre.”
As Oysterband, they’ve played this festival a number of times over the years to the pure delight of our audiences, but it’s been a while since we’ve had the pleasure. So this year’s festival appearance is a much-anticipated special event. The group still includes 3 founder members in John Jones, Alan Prosser and Ian Telfer, and tomorrow, May 27, the Oysters release a double CD called This House Will Stand – the Best of Oysterband 1998 – 2015.
Hear the previously unreleased track, I Built This House from the album .