Oysterband: 'A Long Long Goodbye'

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Oysterband are playing two gigs at Ludlow Assembly Rooms on 7 & 8 May 2025 (Part 1 and Part 2).  Tickets are £28 per gig but if both nights are purchased in the same transaction the cost will automatically be reduced to £52 at checkout
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‘A LONG LONG GOODBYE’ –

“A single star is shining // Across the evening sky //
Sending us a message // Then they're waving us goodbye // They are waving us a
long, long goodbye // Thousands of light-years // Goodbye…”

Oysterband – “Granite Years” (from ‘Deserters’, 1992)

From their earliest days as a noisy, politicised ceilidh
band in the late Seventies, Oysterband have never stopped evolving or providing
soundtrack to the changing times.

After 45 years on the road, Oysterband have decided to take
the tour bus out for its last ride.

“We’re hanging up our travelling shoes, but we’re taking a
year or so to say goodbye to our lovely live audience.And we mean to enjoy every minute!”

Emerging in the early 80s from their folk club and ceilidh
band days, Oysterband infused both the tradition and their own songs with a
passion and energy that was electrifying for the time. Polkas, politics and a
heaving dance floor seemed just right for Thatcher’s Britain. Signing to new
roots label Cooking Vinyl, headlining English Roots Against Apartheid, playing
Glastonbury and the Fleadh several times each, touring with The Pogues in
Europe and Billy Bragg in North America, hosting the Big Session Festival…..
all gained them a large and loyal international following.

Their collaboration with June Tabor in 1990 produced the
cult-classic album Freedom & Rain, and it was renewed 21 years later for
Ragged Kingdom, one of the best-selling folk-rock albums of the new millennium.

Winners of several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including Best
Band twice, Oysterband’s song-writing has never stood still, and classics such
as The Oxford Girl, When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down), Everywhere I Go and Put Out
The Lights have entered the folk canon.

“It’s been a long, tough, joyful journey, but the time
has come. In the words of our own song Granite Years, we’re waving you a long,
long goodbye…..come help us celebrate!"