The Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, are a folk rock band, originally brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings. Generally considered one of the most important groupings in the genre, it has contained or been associated with a large proportion of major English folk performers in its long and fluid history. The one constant in the band’s history has been the band leader Ashley Hutchings, founding member of arguably the two other pre-eminent English folk rock groupings Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span and it has been the home for most of the projects of his long and highly productive career, though in the 2011 incarnation of the band he has handed over the reins to his son Blair Dunlop.
While Hutchings continued to pursue other projects he revived the Albion Band in an acoustic format for seasonal tours in 2005, allowing them to play smaller venues which could usually be easily filled. Simon Care describes the formation. ‘Back in the late eighties, The Albion Band decided that a seasonal tour might be a good idea and we performed for three years over the Christmas period. It then took a back seat for a few years until 2001, when, after the Albion Band ceased, I suggested the idea of pulling together a Christmas show that included ex-members of the Albion Band. That line-up of Ashley Hutchings, Kellie While, Simon Nicol and myself have toured every year since, and are now described as the longest surviving ‘Albion’ line-up ever.‘
Described by The Guardian as “the perfect antidote to the corporate Christmas”, this is a night of Christmas fun like no other, marrying Christmas tradition with folk music from some of this country’s finest folk musicians. The results have been three further seasonal albums: An Albion Christmas (2005), Winter Songs (2006), and Snow on Snow (2008). A fourth album Traditional (2009) is a compilation of tracks from the preceding three which excludes spoken word recordings.
We were fortunate to see them perform at the Courthouse in Otley last December and can relate that it was a truly magical evening. The mixture of humour and seriousness was just right, the musicianship of the finest quality and we left feeling uplifted and joyful.
