NEWS:

ROCK WITH LAUGHTER

We're doing 'Rock With Laughter' at the Birmingham LG Arena this Christmas, it's a kind of live Hootenanny with LENNY HENRY, ALAN CARR, ED BYRNE, JO BRAND, BEVERLEY KNIGHT, ROLF HARRIS, BJȪRN AGAIN, SLADE and us.

The new album isn't finished yet. Half the songs we recorded were from the live set. We recorded them first because they were obviously the easiest to do. Then we recorded a lot of new songs, including 'Anarchy in the UK' by The Sex Pistols and 'Panic' by the Smiths.... and they were just so much better than the stuff we recorded first. We decided there was a better album to be had, so we've got to find some more time to get into the recording studio and we don't know quite when this will happen. But we'll be playing the new stuff on tour and a great revamped version of The Ramones medley that we used to do.

'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:

1. 

   The Mike Harding Show BBC Radio 2

2. 

   The Radcliffe & Maconie Show BBC Radio 2

3. 

   The Arts Show with Claudia Winkleman BBC Radio 2

4. 

   Liz Kershaw BBC 6 Music

5. 

   Tiompan BBC Radio nan Gaidheal

6. 

   The Chris Evans Breakfast Show BBC Radio 2

7. 

   Collins and Herring BBC 6 Music

8. 

   Caithream Ciùil BBC Radio nan Gaidheal

9. 

   Chris Hawkins BBC 6 Music

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.

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.