25 f
“W
e did seem to be treading two dif- ferent worlds at one point… which were getting fur-
ther and further apart. It was always going to be a difficult call musically, sit- ting astride these two things. To be pulled in different directions always gives you that frisson, that edge.” But, with the benefit of hindsight, John reflects, “…in those early days, if I were to look back, it felt awkward. Certainly in the way that we looked and behaved, we were maybe trying too hard. Maybe we were being dragged too fast. Maybe we were expect- ing people to go with us too quickly. I’m not sure now.”
However, the long-term benefits of that intensive touring experience in the ’80s are still resonating. Not just in terms of the fine-honing of the Oyster machine but also in consciousness-raising. Interna- tional markets for Oysterband have waxed and waned over the decades but a signifi- cant period of global jet-setting in the late ’80s, courtesy of “the unsung benefactors of the British folk scene” The British Coun- cil, left a long-term legacy for the band. Their tours in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Morocco “really blew our minds,” reflects Telfer. “The Council’s remit is not only to export British culture to foreigners, but includes exposing British artists to the influence of the big wide world; which makes it a powerful weapon against insu- larity. Hooray!”
Insular they are not. Musically, they have moved to different beats down the years. There have been some personnel changes – though amazingly few given their longevity. Kearey exited stage left
to be replaced by Chopper in the late ’80s, who brought with him the experi- ence of other musical genres, having played in African bands and as an integral part of Szegerely’s finest, 3 Mustaphas 3. Lee Partis joined as drummer in the early ’90s, retiring into a career in prison coun- selling in 2008, with Dil Davies slipping into the drum stool.
With those passing years come passing trends. Some of the full-on rock school histrionics sit uncomfortably from a pre- sent day perspective. Ian hisses through gritted teeth. “I can’t believe now what horrible violin sounds I committed to record, especially in the ’80s. They just make my teeth fall out now. It’s not what I want to sound like now. There is an arc in most musicians’ careers whereby you spend the first few years buying all the extra gizmos and the wah-wah pedals that you can afford. You get fed up with toting them through airports and gradually you send them all to e-Bay and end up with just your instrument and a microphone!”
At the other end of the plectrum, John recalls the relative low profile of their album Ride, not tough enough to sit comfortably in the musical climate of the day. Ian suspects that the album would have found an easier home in a different decade. “Simpler, more acoustic music has come back so strongly in recent years, that would have seemed much more natural.”
Back in the rollercoaster years, and to some extent now, Oysterband seemed to become subsumed into a ‘Celtic’ music melting pot that took in everyone – some- what illogically – from The Levellers to The Waterboys. I wondered whether theystill saw themselves as an English roots band. The answer is multi-faceted. They are rec- onciled to the labelling, seeing it as a spin-
off of taking on different identities in dif- ferent countries: a ‘Celtic’ band in Ger- many, a ‘fiesta band’ in Spain…
John expands: “I think ‘fiesta’ is a good word. It means that your music is very emotional – you wring tears out of people. You can play dance music or slow ballads. It’s very natural music, very street music. We’ve always liked that idea.”
The ‘Celtic’ branding helped to dis- tance them from Englishness abroad. John continues: “Apart from the fact that I was born in Wales and Ian was born in Scot- land… those are the ironies… I sing in a very English way. We’ve been very proud to be an English band but we wanted to be a British band above all. There are cer- tain things that are musically very difficult to export. Englishness is one of them. Maybe to do with an imperialist past, I don’t know. People find it easier to be pan-European or world music or the Celtic music label… because it’s not identified with any one country or one country’s his- tory. Wherever we went people thought we were Scottish and Irish anyway. You kind of go with it. You go with the flow of things in order to make your music accessi- ble. We still sing about England. We sing about a love of your country but being strangers within it. Politically and emo- tionally. Believe us, people get that the whole world over.”
A high-percentage of the band’s recorded output has been rooted in tradi- tional material but contributing their own commentary on the current political cli- mate has always been important. Alan recalls how they started writing political song early on. “John wrote one that was called Steal For Joy which was about car- jacking – nicking cars and the misery it caused. There were a lot of songs like that
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