Grayshott Folk Club Welcomes Back Blackbeard's Tea Party!

If you are looking for a quiet night out with soothing, melodic Folk music, then you'd best avoid this gig! Blackbeard's Tea Party are a big Festival band who like to get their audiences on their feet and joining in. Their bold and riotous modern folk rock is built for late nights and big stages. Hold on to your tricorn hats and be prepared to stamp your wooden legs – Blackbeard’s Tea Party are back in town.

Some of you may remember their last visit to Grayshott on 19th June 2015 and their signature song, the incredibly infectious "Chicken On A Raft": m.youtube.com/watch?v=zRI2vUTNBwc It'll give you some idea of how this band sounds and where they are coming from.

Formed in 2009 and based in York, BTP are lead by Stuart Giddens, a failed Morris dancer and sometime Melodeon player. Be sure to do what he asks though, or you might find yourself walking the plank...

Stuart is ably assisted by classically-trained Laura Boston-Barber who had a Fiddle thrust in her hands before she could walk or talk. Once she heard the "twangling" of her Stepdad's old-time Banjo, she was lost to the fun of Folk...

Dave Boston is a percussionist, whose international musical studies have taken him from York to Guinea, to Havana. This boy's got rhythm. However, you can never have enough rhythm in any band so Liam Hardy fills in the blanks. He opted for Drums over Economics, although he says the two are not mutually-exclusive.

Paddy Lester-Rourke started learning the Fiddle from the age of seven, changed to Viola, then migrated to Bass; like you do. His dalliance with an experimental band called "Punch The Sky" ended the night they supported BTP and he jumped ship and became a fully paid-up member of BTP.

The final piece of the BTP jigsaw is Benjamin Trott; heavily-influenced as a child by his Dad's musical taste in Folk, Ben tried (but failed) with the Piano. One day he picked up his brother's abandoned Electric Guitar and that eventually led to tours of Europe, Australia and America with The Tim Edey Trio and The Albion Band, amongst others.

These guys take their music seriously enough but their sole aim is always to give their audiences a good time.

Check out:
"John's Gone to Hilo": www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP75gGAB85E
and
"The Diamond": www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY7liVBmofY&t=3s

During ‘Lockdown’ the band began writing material remotely via Asana for their fourth album and as things began to return to normality, they were very excited to get into the studio with their new line up to record these tracks. The result is ‘Kick The Curb’, their first album in 5 years which will be released in September 2022 and BTP can’t wait to get out on the road to play them to you live !!

‘Contemporary folk rock at its most infectious’ R2

‘York’s answer to The Pogues, but with cleaner fingernails’ The Telegraph

‘Blackbeard's Tea Party restored my faith in foot-tapping, fun, energy-packed music recently. In short: they make shanties chic’

Roger Crow, Huffington Post ‘Gloriously wild, gamely OTT and sharp. This is convincing and essential’ fRoots

‘Barnstorming buccaneers belting our riff-tastic folk rock’ Songlines

Pirate wear, strongly encouraged.