“A single star is shining // Across the evening sky // Sending us a message // Then they're waving us goodbye // They are waving us a long, long goodbye // Thousands of light-years // Goodbye…”
Oysterband - “Granite Years” (from ‘Deserters’, 1992)

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From their earliest days as a noisy, politicised ceilidh band in the late Seventies, Oysterband have never stopped evolving or providing soundtrack to the changing times.

Initially meeting at Canterbury in Kent, at a time when pubs were alive with folk clubs and music sessions, the Oyster Ceilidh Band (as they were known then), were a band on a simple mission to get dancefloors bouncing. But with a chemistry between its members and music that made a profound connection with its audiences, greater things soon beckoned as the times became more complicated.

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Emerging in the early 80s from their ceilidh band days they infused both the traditional and their own songs with a passion and energy that was electrifyingly fresh for the time. Polkas, politics and a heaving dance floor somehow seemed perfectly 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 following both at home and internationally.

The band released what stands as their final album in 2022, the acclaimed ‘Read The Sky’, which found the band taking a political stand for their environmental beliefs. As true to their political roots as they ever were, the album was released to chime with the COP26 summit in Glasgow of that year. The album hit the Official Folk Album Chart No.1, a testament to their enduring popularity across the ages.

They’ve travelled the world but they still play with the fire of that dance band back in Kent.

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