.....where we are gearing up for our imminent tour in Canada, and still charmed by the use of our song When I'm Up I Can't Get Down in the victory ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver on 26 February.  Wish we could have sent them some snow too, though.

Meanwhile we have more or less recovered  from the fROOTS 30th birthday party at the Roundhouse in Camden, London. Our short set with June Tabor was very well received, but in fact the whole "brave, unexpectedly slick" evening (The Guardian, giving it a 5-star review), was something of a triumph, and the live web stream of the show, with dozens of artists, was watched around the world.

"The most powerful performances were the least expected. The celebrated  traditional singer June Tabor came on in a leather jacket, joined by the electric guitars, accordion and violin of Oysterband, with whom she recorded the Freedom and Rain album 20 years ago. Now they mixed folk songs with Lou Reed and an intense treatment of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart, with Tabor sounding like an English Patti Smith." (Guardian)

Mmm, we do like a bit of intensity sometimes...

fROOTS Magazine has put a fine photo-gallery of the event by Judith Burrows on YouTube here and film of June and Oysters here  A couple of shots of June with Oysterband are in our Photo Gallery.

A late addition to our calendar is a very rare outing for OYSTER CEILIDH BAND (with our friends Al Scott & Ian Kearey) at the FOLK AGAINST FASCISM Mayday Fête at Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London on May 2nd.
We will be playing for dancing  -  free  -  in the QEH foyer between about 2 and 4 in the afternoon, taking over from The Old Swan Band. But there's lots more happening too, including Club Peripherique (featuring music of those who came and stayed  -  "travellers, Turks, tradition carriers...") and an evening singaround concert with Chumbawamba, Bellowhead and Show Of Hands. (There is a charge for the concerts.)

We recommend you support this event if you're around London on May 2nd. We can't see why enjoying and taking pride in your own culture should involve disrespecting anyone else's. Don't let the extreme right appropriate and rewrite the history of ordinary people!

Meanwhile, we wish you a happy and fruitful 2010, notwithstanding the strange weather and icy ecenomic conditions. Stay warm, stay strong, stay in control....

By popular demand this CD is now on release in UK, via Proper Music Distribution. We're a bit surprised ourselves - we'd planned to sell it only on shows and by mail-order, but the response was such that we felt we really should take the next step. (Of course, it'll continue to be available through our online shop too.).

It's NOT a "Best Of...", and it's NOT a systematic retrospective. It's a set of all-new acoustic recordings to mark Oysterband's 30th anniversary: 14 classic songs from all periods of the band's history, re-imagined and re-arranged for now. There are some real surprises in there.......and some informative notes about the songs.

“..great tunes, superb voices, clever lyrics and a big dollop of the stuff that turns a band into a Great British Institution.
**** ” (R2)

Titles are: The Early Days Of A Better Nation; When I'm Up I Can't Get Down; By Northern Light; Blood-Red Roses; The Soul's Electric; The Oxford Girl; Little Brother; What Wondrous Love Is This?; Angels Of The River; After Rain; Shouting About Jerusalem; The Lakes Of Cool Flynn; The False Knight On The Road; Put Out The Lights.

Now on release is John Jones' solo album Rising Road (Westpark 87179). With seven traditional songs, four written by John, and one from the Oyster vaults, it also features Seth Lakeman (tenor guitar, fiddle, vocal), Benji Kirkpatrick (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, piano, vocal), former Oysterman Ian Kearey (banjo-dulcimer), Rowan Godel (vocal), Sophie Walsh (harp) and Francois Deville (pedal steel) as well as homeboys Dil Davies (drums), Alan Prosser (guitars) and producer Al Scott.

Is it anything like Oysterband? You be the judge!

Meanwhile John has won a Spiral for "Walking Through Ithonside" in the Best Original Song category in the Spiral Awards (Spiral Earth's answer to the BBC Folk Awards). Thanks to everyone who voted for it. You can hear the song at www.MySpace.com/johnjonesoyster  Check out www.spiralearth.co.uk for more details of the Awards.

“...Jones' voice is right out there at the front of the mix giving it a boldly vulnerable quality, but....it carries an unexpected urgency, with some eye-popping arrangements and production values. ... Jones shows his true worth as a subtly emotive singer. ... [t]he healing qualities of landscape and the sense of home, space and spiritual identity at the heart of the album is perfectly encapsulated by the expansive, almost epic Walking Through Ithonside. ” Colin Irwin, fRoots

Titles are: Let Me Fall; Polly On The Shore; Walking Through Ithonside; Rocks Of Bawn; Litten Tree; Searching For Lambs; One Morning In The Spring; Henry Martin; Fire Marengo; One Night As I Lay On My Bed; Boy In The Window; Newlyn Town.

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