Oysterband

Welcome to Oysterband's official website

End of the show: Tønder Festival, Denmark, 30th August 2025
Photo: Mandie Porter

NB - Our blind auction of Oysterband mementoes to raise a little money for Medical Aid for Palestine
via "Big Trek 4 Palestine" is ended and winners have been notified. Thanks to all the bidders
for your generosity. We're very happy to say Ruth Herbert's astonishing walk from Cumbria to Istanbul is now safely completed, bears and dogs notwithstanding.
She has raised over £50k so far and worn out 3 pairs of boots, and
Donation is still open!

OYSTERBAND HAVE RETIRED AS A TOURING ACT
(some thoughts about that below)

However...

JJ writes:

When the band decided to finish, I knew immediately I would go on. I love singing and performing too much to give up now. It’s what I do!

I also knew who I would want with me and luckily they said yes.

Ray (Chopper) and Al are both great musicians and such good people to have around in the studio or on the road. With my own songs, together with Oyster songs I have co-written, some of which the band rarely performed live, with Ray Cooper songs and songs from the Tradition, we have a rich supply of material. I know the harmonies from the three of us will be a strong feature.

We are really pleased to have Midnight Mango and Rich Quarterman as our new agents.

I have said and written recently that Oysterband gave me a voice and an identity. Now another challenge opens up. I hope you can join us.

Our tour dates will be posted here: www.johnjonestrio.org

Oysterband have retired as a touring act.

We know now what David Bowie meant, near the end of his life, when he was quoted as saying "It was all good. Even the bad bits were good."

The Long Long Goodbye Tour turned out to be the best possible way to sign off - whatever memories any of us was carrying of disappointments, disagreements, years when we barely made ends meet, became part of a bigger, deeper story.

To stand on stages and hear a crowd of sometimes thousands sing back to us songs we'd     written is a very powerful experience; it felt like a validation of *everything* that went into them. Yes, they really did mean a lot to a lot of people, and it felt - feels - as if we have many more friends out there than we could ever get round to meeting in person.

Oysterband have not gone away. We'll keep you posted from time to time on our news, and you have many ways to keep in touch with us. We look forward to that.

If you're not already signed up to our occasional newsletter, you can do it at Email List (above left).

Our thanks go to everyone who played and sang with us over the years; everyone who worked on our career and on our recordings and live shows; and to our significant others, who put up with all the craziness.

And most of all to you. It turns out we had the most valuable of all the qualities a band can have. We were lucky.

Alan, John, Ian xx

Our latest album READ THE SKY is available as CD from the usual places, including Proper Music.

DOWNLOADS are available from iTunes, Amazon etc.

______________________________________________________________________

We're pleased to say the LYRICS section of this website is up and running. Our thanks to Giolla Decair and Caz White, who did most of the work. At 150+ songs it was no small task. Now we can resolve those arguments about "How did that one go??" Though maybe not the ones about which key it was in.

_____________________________________________________________________

(Another version of) Oysterband in 2015 at Bow Lake AB, Canada. Happy days...
Photo: Ben Malone

THE LATEST OYSTERBAND STUDIO ALBUM

READ THE SKY

"...they tackle their task with rare urgency and valour, John Jones' voice still magnificent, and the tough arrangements and musical barrage around him delivered with blistering gusto."
- Mojo ****

"A soundtrack for our times."

- Folk London

And here's a track from it -

_________________________________________

UPCOMING TOUR DATES:

......and that's all, folks