Latest Blackbeard’s Tea Party tour dates announced
Playing together since the summer of 2009, Blackbeard’s Tea Party have become firm favourites on the English folk scene.
An independent band with four albums to their name, Blackbeard’s Tea Party have also completed a number of successful UK headline tours.
Their latest album ‘Reprobates’ was produced by Dave Boothroyd at Reel Recording Studios. Barn-storming folk tunes rub shoulders with narrative folk songs, telling dark tales of wicked and nefarious characters. The title ‘Reprobates’ doesn’t just give their latest album its theme. It’s also a nod to the band’s reputation for musical mischief, frequently breaking folk-rock’s conventions. The album shows off the band’s imaginative arrangements, accomplished musicianship and dark sense of humour. ‘Reprobates’ follows the 2009 mini-album ‘Heavens to Betsy’; the band’s first full-length album, 2011’s ‘Tomorrow We’ll Be Sober’; and 2013’s ‘Whip Jamboree’ which R2 magazine called “the best party going on five inches of plastic.”
Blackbeard’s Tea Party combine fiddle, melodeon and voice with the interlocking grooves of two hand percussionists, a distorted electric guitar, and funk-inflected bass patterns. Though their music often takes traditional tunes and songs as the starting point, it’s clear that Blackbeard’s Tea Party is not for folk purists. Theirs is a gutsy take on folk which aims to renounce the trendy twee of bands like Mumford and Sons in favour of folk’s darker and more primitive origins, all by way of classic rock, funk and dance music. The resulting arrangements are often quirky and boisterous. This playfulness – along with their anarchic and ebullient stage show – has won Blackbeard’s Tea Party a small legion of fans.
Reception for the band has been phenomenal over the last two years: the Huffington Post called Blackbeard’s Tea Party the ‘THE band to see at Glastonbury 2014’ and, after they played to their biggest ever crowd at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, they were overwhelmingly voted the best band of the festival by Fairport Convention fans. This year sees the band on another UK headline tour in support of ‘Reprobates’, with new dates announced for September, October, November and December 2016.
2017 Latest Tour Dates
June 2017
Wed 14. The Greystones Greystones Rd, Sheffield, Sth Yorks S11 7BS
Tel: 0114 266 5599 Tickets £12.00 — Doors 8:00 p.m.
Sat 17. The Stables, Stockwell Ln, Wavendon, Milton Keynes, MK17 8LU
Tel: 01908 280 800 Tickets £16.50 — Doors 7:30 p.m.
Sun 18. The Water Rats 328 Grays Inn Rd, Kings Cross, London, WC1X 8BZ
Tel. 020 7833 3312 Tickets £14.30 — From 7:30 p.m.
Fri 30. Sark Folk Festival Isle of Sark, Channel Islands
See website for tickets and full information
August 2017
Fri 11. Lakeside Festival, Eastnor Deer Park, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1EN
Tel: 07789 965 373 See website for details.
Fri 18. The Barbican Beer Festival
York Barbican Paragon St, York, Nth Yorkshire YO10 4AH
Tel. 0844 854 2757 Tickets £6.72 — From 6:00 p.m.
Fri 25. Cottingham Folk Festival The Civic Hall, Market Green, Cottingham, E. Yorks HU16 5QG
Tel: 01482 221113 Tickets £25.00 — Doors 7:30 P.M. (With Red Hot Chilli Pipers)
Sat 26 – Sun 27. Towersey Folk Festival Thame Showground, Kingsey Rd, Thame, Oxfordshire OX9 3JL
See website for details
September 2017
Sat 2. Ulpha Music The Browfoot Room, Ulpha, Broughton In Furness, Cumbria LA20 6DZ
Tel: 019467 23277 Tickets £12.00 — Doors 7:30 p.m.
Sat 23. Rye Arts Festival
Tel: 01797 224442 See website for details