Banter

Banter are: Simon Care on melodeon, Nina Zella on keyboards & vocals, Tim Walker on drums, percussion, brass, vocals & dance calling and Mark Jolley on bass, fiddle, guitar & vocals. Four fine musicians who?s roots are firmly in the traditional English genre, but who enjoy stretching the limits. Formed in 2015, they realised that a common love for the living traditions of English song and dance music was at their core and began to pursue it?s evolution, bringing in flavours from a wider palette of musical influences. They have gained a reputation for being powerfully unique in the English traditional music genre. Their popularity grew rapidly, placing them in great demand to perform at many of the UK?s largest festivals including: Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk Festival, Broadstairs Folk Week, Sidmouth Folk Festival, Whitby Folk Week, Folk East, Oxford Folk Week, Wickham Festival, Gate To Southwell Festival and Towersey Festival as well as internationally at European festivals. With the release of their first two albums, YES and DARE, between 2017 and 2019, they received rave plaudits in the music press including 4 and 5 star reviews in FATEA, Songlines and RnR Magazines and performed a Valentine?s Day live session on Mark Radcliffe?s BBC Radio 2 Folk Show. Now firmly established as one of the UK?s top bands, their third studio album THREE, explores and reimagines a selection of well loved traditional songs as well as their usual hearty take on some romping dance tunes. John Spiers and Phil Beer appear as guest musicians on two of the tracks. Although just four people, they create a huge sound and have been described as the world?s smallest big band. Support is from a regular to The Unicorn Theatre, Adam Cooney. Doors at 7pm, music at 7:15pm.