2024 – The Year of The Magpie (Arc): News

By Mike Ainscoe on 2nd January 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Not content with being a constant presence in the Folk Album charts of 2023, The Magpie Arc start 2024 with a bang.

With the West Coast Folk Festival, Love Folk at the Atkinson and Celtic Connections providing early New Year folk festivalling opportunities, The Magpie Arc bring their own festival to the party.

After a trip to Scotland’s land of Celtic Connections at the end of January they headline their very one-day festival. The Indoor Festival Of Folk, at Cecil Sharp House in London is on the 3rd February and features Tom Robinson, The Trials Of Cato, The Rosie Hood Band, Janice Burns and Jon Doran and The Magpie Arc of course.

There’s also a very special interview session hosted by BBC broadcaster Matthew Bannister with two legends of British folk/rock, Joe Boyd and John Wood, the manager/producers behind Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Fotheringay, Richard and Linda Thompson, John Martyn, Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band plus lots of others.

As the band say: “Many of us have lived our lives with the music that Joe and John helped bring in to the world and now is the chance to hear them talk about the who, what, where, why and when behind the artists and their albums.”

Full details / tickets here

And there’s more…with a full February tour to follow- dates are…

30th January – Oran Mor, Glasgow (support Katherine Priddy)
2nd February – Memorial Hall, Sevenoaks
3rd February – Indoor Festival of Folk 2024, Cecil Sharp House, London
9th February – The Atkinson, Southport (support Frankie Archer)
10th February – Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon
11th February – Phoenix, Exeter
16th February – The Cast, Doncaster
18th February – The Fire Station, Sunderland
22nd February – Junction, Goole
24th February – The Met, Bury
25th February – The Musician, Leicester

On all dates except Glasgow and Southport, the billing is ‘An Evening with The Magpie Arc’ so you get a bit of Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and Findlay Napier playing solo as a very tasty amuse bouche, as well as with the band.

It’s enough reason to take note of the usual musician’s mantra at the moment: sadly, if you intend to come along to one of the gigs, please buy your tickets sooner rather than later. Given the current economic situation promoters and venues are very concerned about the sustainability of putting on live music and buying early helps calm everyone’s nerves!

By way of reminder, here’s one of the picks from Glamour In The Grey: