Oysterband started a ‘Long Goodbye’ earlier this year, basically announcing they are bringing the band as a touring act to an end, but with plenty of opportunities for fans to catch them one more time live. A nice way of doing I think for those bands that are able to, for those attending The Sidmouth Folk Festival, there were actually two opportunities to catch them. They started as The Oyster Ceilidh band and that was brought back for one night only.

Sidnouth has an arena at the top of the hill, The Bulverton, where you generally get two bands playing, followed by a ceilidh until the early hours. The Tuesday of the festival saw Oyster Ceilidh Band take this role with Gordon and Nancy Potts as callers, the latter seemed particularly taken by being able to call for such a distinguished band. This is the same line up as the normal band, with Simon Care an added guest too. They had the place on their feet all night. The atmosphere of these dances is always electric and the band seemed to be feeding off the crowd energy too.

What has become the more familiar Oysterband played the other arena at the bottom of the hill next to the sea, The Ham, the following evening. It was packed to the rafters with a not a spare seat to be had, though I don’t think they are quite used to finishing at 2am anymore the night before, not that this had any impact on the performance. They said they first played this festival in 1978, staying in a flat with a broken toilet for a free ticket, and things haven’t changed since.

John Jones is an engaging front man, often trying to get the crowd involved with varying success. But it was clear everyone was enjoying every minute of it, especially the band, they have been regular visitors so it must have been quite an emotional farewell. As you’d expect it was a greatest hit set including ‘I Built This House’, ‘A River Runs’ and All This Way for This’, the latter of which they now lost their running joke for since the election. Not sure we want Truss back, just for a punchline though.

The band were very thankful for everyone coming out, and you really felt they meant it. This may be a long goodbye, but based on our experience this week, they are still very much worth checking out and very much suggest you do while you still can. The final announced UK date is at Celtic Connections next January, with the very last one showing at the moment being April in Germany, though I am not sure if this has been officially announced as the very end yet. Either way act soon as options are definitely running out.