Peter Knight’s Gigspanner Big Band is playing in Margate next month.
A unique force in British folk music, their high-energy, virtuosic performances appeal equally to traditionalists and to those looking for something more experimental.
Beginning life as a trio – with former Steeleye Span fiddle player Knight being joined by percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack – the live line-up was soon expanded to form the Gigspanner Big Band, with acclaimed multi-instrumental duo Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin (BBC Folk Awards ‘Best Duo’) joining the fray.
Characterised by riotous inventiveness, technically gifted individual playing and subtle collaborative interaction, their first tour together was captured wonderfully on their 2017 album Live, and saw them ‘taking folk music down new and enthralling paths.’
Now, after a fortuitous meeting at the FolkEast Festival, Knight has enlisted the talents of melodeon and concertina player John Spiers, something of a folk superstar in his own right. Knight said: “John is an extraordinary musician… a great and sensitive player.”
While Knight, as part of Steeleye Span’s classic 1970s line-up, helped invent a brand of folk rock that is still influential today, Spiers, a founder-member of Bellowhead, has had an equally profound impact on the landscape of traditional music over the last two decades.
The gig is on Friday, December 3 at Margate’s Theatre Royal.
Doors open at 7.30pm and tickets are £23.
Call the Box Office on 01843 292795 or book at Margate Live here