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Nominated 'BEST LIVE ACT' BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2010 NEWS:
GONE SHEPERDIN'... Well, what a tour that was... big sold out crowds (including the eerily beautiful Union Chapel), broke my foot on the third gig, beer, booze, bollocks etc... Really enjoyed the new songs in the set, my favourite being 'What A Waste'. We've done exactly 225 gigs over the last three years and we've decided to take a year away from the band. I'm resurrecting The Idiot Bastard Band and making another series of Ade In Britain, Troy's off on a year long world stadium tour with Nightwish (I'm going to see them in Iceland!), and Andy's started a new band with Ian Fletcher. Might see you all in 2013...
'FIRST FAREWELL TOUR' ANNOUNCED We're very proud to announce our first farewell tour:
Full details on the gigs page. Obviously, it's a bit of a gag calling it 'The First Farewell Tour', but we're all doing different things throughout the whole of 2012, and though we have a vague plan to get together again in 2013 - who knows? So this might be the last one... THE LATE LATE SHOW We were on The Late Late Show last night (our bit starts at 1.03.12), doing publicity for the Irish leg of our tour which starts next week. It was the first time the three of us had performed since before Christmas, and I loved it. It didn't feel like we'd been away at all. My new octave mandola was a pleasure to play, and to listen to - thankyou Paul Hathway - can't wait to use it on the road. LINKS TO YOU TUBE VIDEOS Whole Wide World, Rise, London Calling, No More Heroes 'BEAUTIFUL DAYS' ANNOUNCED The Levellers festival in Ottery St. Mary has just been announced. We're playing on the Saturday. WHITSTABLE SOLD OUT Our gig at the East Quay in Whitstable has sold out. "ANOTHER KNOCKOUT ALBUM FROM THE BAD SHEPHERDS" Got a bit behind in my reading and just found this 4 star review of 'By Hook Or By Crook' in R2... which is all the more amazing considering that I've just found out that Sean McGee, the editor of R2, was actually in Psycho Faction! (see below). There's actually a nice article about us in the Jan/Feb edition of the mag as well.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF TROY'S PUNK PAST!
To quote Troy - "I was briefly a member of Cumbrian Punk Mongs 'Psycho Faction' and this is us haplessly 'rehearsing' for our big support tour (1 gig) with Crass, Discharge and Gen X. I had completely forgot/erased this episode." Troy is back left with hair that is frankly too long and would result in an early split with the aforesaid mongs. NEW GIG DATES UP Dates for April & May are now up on the gigs page... the plan for 2011 is to do festivals over the summer and a UK tour in late October/November. Most of the tour is already booked and dates will be published very soon. THE NEW ALBUM IS OUT...
The new album is here! It's taken a while but we're very, very pleased with it. It's called 'By Hook Or By Crook' and the track listing is as follows:
SOCIAL NETWORKING LINKS: Bad Shepherds on Myspace Bad Shepherds on Facebook and follow Ade on Twitter: @AdrianEdmondson
Photo by David Angel OUR DEBUT ALBUM CAME OUT APRIL 2009:
'An inspired choice and approach that fuses the best of both musical traditions' Rock'n'Reel 'If The Bad Shepherds new treatment of Down In The Tube Station At Midnight isn't up for a Folk Award next year, there's no justice.' fRoots Full album reviews here. Buy the album here. Live reviews here.
Played By:
WHAT ARE THE BAD SHEPHERDS? The Bad Shepherds play punk songs on folk instruments. Not as a gag, but because we really like the noise. We think the songs are better than people remember. We love folk instruments. It works. We do songs by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Jam, Sham 69, The Undertones, The Buzzcocks, The Ramones, The Specials, Talking Heads, Squeeze and others, even Kraftwerk! Alright, they're not all punk, but they come from roughly the same era. We've mostly given the songs a kind of Celtic feel, and we've stuck in the odd reel and jig here and there. But occassionally we just thrash! I've always thought the excitement of a reel taking off is the nearest thing to the excitement of watching punk live in the 70's. I love the songs of 76 - 82. I was 19 in 76 when punk arrived. Those songs were the soundtrack to my life as I went through Uni and started pretending to be a comedian. I loved the noise, the faces and the attitude. I love making music. Got my first guitar when I was 13 and along the way I've picked up ten other guitars, a banjo, a ukelele, two trumpets, a banjolele, a mandolin, an autoharp, a charanga, two pianos, a tenor guitar, a triangle and even made myself some Coconuts (strangely enough - from a coconut). I also love folk music, I love the noise - at its live best its the most exciting music to be in the same room with. It occured to me that punk was the folk music of its day. I decided to form a band to reflect all of the above. It would be great if you came along for the ride. Cheers, Adrian
Photo by David Angel If you still don't know what The Bad Shepherds are about, here's me yakking on about it in an interview with the BBC back in October 2008. And here's a video clip of us performing at The International Folkwoods Festival near Eindhoven in Holland during August 2009. (You have to select the clip from the list on the right). And here's a pic of one of my ancestors (probably):
'The Bad Shepherd' by Pieter Brueghel the younger.
OUR INSTRUMENTS We get a few enquiries about our instruments and who makes them: ADE'S MANDOLINS: Paul Hathway www.paulhathway.com ADE'S OCTAVE MANDOLA: Paul Hathway www.paulhathway.com TROY'S BOUZOUKI: Fylde Guitars www.fyldeguitars.com TROY'S UILLEANN PIPES: Dave Williams R.I.P. www.troydonockley.co.uk/instruments.htm. TROY'S WHISTLES: Bernard Overton R.I.P.www.troydonockley.co.uk/instruments.htm ANDY'S FIDDLES: Bridge Violins www.bridgeinstruments.co.uk FLIGHT CASES: Scott Dixon www.scottdixoninc.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
