TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

https://www.facebook.com/oysterband1/videos/241889328965823/


I'm booked to see their Decades tour but this is sad news but think they are being realistic due to age and travel etc.

Just saw. Gutted but much love and respect to them!

Sad news!

Yes, very sad. But they've said it will be a long goodbye!

I'm sure this will be followed by similarly aged bands long goodbye tours. (Previous announcements / tours that spring to mind are Elton John and Fish.)

It makes more money that way.

A rather special May Day ceilidh in Canterbury on May 3rd.

Join us for a very special May Day ceilidh! Original Oysterband members Ian Telfer, John Jones and Alan Prosser will play for a one-off event, along with some very special guests including Ian Kearey, Chris Taylor, Chris Wood, and Ray Sprawson. Your caller for the evening will be the supreme MC and ceilidh caller Chris Rose. Special guest performance from the legendary Great Western Morris from Exeter.
Expect incredible tunes, your favourite dances and a truly magical night. This event comes at the very end of the Oysterband's farewell tour after five decades in the business, so this is your last chance to dance to their legendary music.
The original Whitstable Oyster Ceilidh Band came out of Duke's Folk, the trailblazing folk club at the Duke of Cumberland, and were at the vanguard of the emerging English ceilidh dance scene. At their first gig they had 17 in the band! It settled down to about 7 and they toured up and down the country and to festivals spreading joy to feet and hearts across the land! This ceilidh brings together many of those original members – it's going to be a one in a million ceilidh and utterly awesome!!
The bar will be open with Kentish cider and ales, and the ceilidh takes place in the beautiful Westgate Hall in the centre of Canterbury.
The ceilidh is part of the Whitstable Jack-in-the-Green May Day Celebrations. We're celebrating the 50th consecutive year of Jack-in-the-Green in 2025, and going all-out on a lavish party! Come and help us celebrate, and then join us in Whitstable on Monday for the big day itself.
TICKETS AVAILABLE SOON!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1264556694599985/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22home%22%7D%2C%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22attachment%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The Oysterband is dead, long live the (mini) Oysterband, well, sort of...

I'm intrigued at the internal politics (and/or economics?) of all this (mainly because I'm a nosey bugger).

https://www.johnjonestrio.org/

This was predicted to me by someone at Shrewsbury FF. Still a bit surprised, though.

Well I guess they've done the Oysters 3 in the past, with JJ, Alan and Ian, so this is a bit different.

Well, it's a different three.

I don't think there is anything controversial in the way of internal politics. They sort of addressed it at the Q&A at Shrewsbury where they all gave their thoughts on retirement. The clearest reason seemed to be that Ian Telfer in particular had reached a point of exhaustion with all the travelling. He is, I believe, 76 after all. JJ was always the one who was most likely to want to continue to perform so this doesn't surprise me. I am only surprised that he hasn't revived the Reluctant Ramblers to do so.

Ian's wife has been on the road of recovery from a stroke, he told me that whilst waiting for a late night train at Stratford Station.  ;)


I also was wondering about the RR revival but with shorter walks!  :D ;D

And this group will be playing some of JJ's and of Chopper's solo stuff as well as Oysters material.

If this happened to a band I like, I think I would be really peeved to have gone through all the 'final concert' stuff, only to find them reincarnating in a different form. Maybe just me.

Nope, not just you.

Dishonesty springs to mind, might have been a good idea to call it a day anyway as I didn't think they were very good when I saw them in January.

The cello player spent most of the night yawning?

I doubt that was 'Chopper' (Ray) and this isn't Oysterband reforming, JJ has said songs rarely aired from the Oysterband catalogue plus Chopper's songwriting....

It isn't that at all. Chopper has not been a member of the band for more than a decade. Al Scott has never officially been a member of the band though he has played with them consistently since Chopper left. JJ has toured and recorded under his own name previously with the involvement of both musicians and the emphasis of this new incarnation is on his songwriting which excludes a vast amount of Oysterband material. Why should he be denied an outlet for his work and the joy of doing the thing he loves just because the rest of the band wants to stop?

Was anybody saying (for example) that Jon Boden should not have toured with ex members of Bellowhead when that band called it a day? Or Richard Thompson should not have toured with Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg or Dave Mattacks during the years when Fairport was inactive?

The John Jones Trio is clearly and emphatically not going to be Oysterband but I shouldn't be surprised by any of this as this forum has always had a downer on the Oysters for some inexplicable reason.

I know nothing about them and have no strong views on them specifically, I was just aware there had been a big thing about their ‘final’ concert.

If people believe it is their last chance to hear the music and had made choices to prioritise their hard-earned cash to attend for that reason, all I was thinking is I would feel peeved in the same circumstances.

Fully get that this sort of thing does happen all the time, but it just seems s bit quick after the ‘final’ appearance.

As far as I can see, the reaction from most Oysterband fans has been happiness and relief that at least one of the core members of the band will be continuing to perform in some form as they will be massively missed. They had said before their final concerts that they would be announcing future plans soon afterwards and although there is no sign of any full Oysterband activity (and I doubt there will be any) they have only ever announced that they are retiring as a touring band. There really is no comparison between them and what JJ is offering. Oysterband were a high energy electric band with a full rhythm section right to the end. What JJ has announced is a three piece, close harmony  acoustic unit with no drums/percussion.

There's a really strange take from several on here imho.  An entirely new outfit forming from the ashes of another really isn't a big deal.

Totally agree.  If they'd announced the Oysters3 would be going out again, I'd understand it a bit.  But not this. It's as if people were complaining that Steve and Phil were touring again separately after Show of Hands split.

I’m with Al on this one. You could say the timing is questionable but the Oysterband were never a top money-making band, and announcing some dates for your next venture 5 months down the road doesn’t seem all that shocking to me the way the industry has shifted and booking dates far in advance. And let’s face it, even an acoustic trio is not going to be raking it in, so it really is about the music and the camaraderie of musical friends. They do need to update Ray’s bio-he joined sometime before Ride, which means more like 1988 I think!

To very slightly argue against myself, I do think they've been rather disingenuous with the messaging and marketing.  It was launched as The John Jones Trio.  And by the time the tour posters are out 3 days later, it's "Oysterband's John Jones, Ray Cooper and Al Scott".

Well 'John Jones' isn't exactly an uncommon name, and they want, no doubt, to attract as many people as they can, so I'm not surprised.

As has been pointed out, plenty of bands of broken up, reformed, partially reformed or have one (or fewer) original members in their touring lineup.

There's also acts like "Jethro Tull's Martin Barre Band" or even "Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson & Band" which use the former act as a reference point. IA has of course now decided to record and tour with his band as Jethro Tull, which is stretching it a bit, for me.

Another example was Jon Boden, but of course, his involvement, touring with John Spiers and also with the Remnant Kings goes back many years before Bellowhead split, to be followed by his not greatly successful solo outings (as I recall, open to correction).

Show Of Hands are of course another example of people quoting the previous band when promoting Phil and Steve.

It all boils down to l'argent. If more tickets sell as "Graham Gouldman's 10CC", then I guess why not. How many versions of Lindisfarne and Wishbone Ash have there been, simultaeneously touring?

It's down to the timing, in this case, IMHO. I'm a cynical old sod and find it somewhat disingenuous to wave a tearful goodbye one week and a "we're back (sort of)" the next.

It's all just opinions though, equally valid.  

I agree with my sane and rational friend Andy. I mean how many times has Iain Matthews announced his last tour, and yet here this year come 'Plainsong Lite'...

With the "last gig or is it ?" theory in mind, what are the odds on Steve 'n Phil giving Show Of Hands another outing in 2026 or 2027 having had a few years' break from it ?

While they're still willing and able.

Wasn't it Maart who said "there's brass in reunions" or words to that effect ?

They certainly said there wouldn't necessarily be no more SoH gigs in the future, but theat they both had things they wanted to do apart, so who knows.  Phil hasn't brought out the Box set vol 2 yet, which was surely one of his aims.