An Evening with The Magpie Arc

About

The Magpie Arc is a cross-Border band out of Sheffield and Scotland featuring the multi-award-winning talents and wide musical influences of Nancy Kerr, Findlay Napier, Tom Wright, Alex Hunter and Martin Simpson (on electric guitar!).

Formed from the idea of bringing together a group of established folk musicians who would mix their song-writing styles and musicianship in a full-on electric band to create exciting new music and update the classic 60’s and 70’s British folk/rock sound, the possibilities of The Magpie Arc being something special and unique on today’s folk scene became obvious very quickly.

Having three strong writers the focus has naturally been on new material, however they’ve also tackled some great covers plus their own re-workings of traditional songs. There’s folk and rock, a bit of country and rock and even blues with rock, but whatever the genre the band are already proving to be a musical mix of everything you could expect from such a line-up, with excellent songs, lush harmonies, scything electric guitars, gorgeous fiddle lines and rock solid bass and drums.

With twelve songs recorded just before “you know what” hit, the band released a trio of four track EP's on their own label in late 2020/early 2021 and in November 2022 they released their first full length album, Glamour In the Grey, which immediately entered the UK Official Folk Chart at number 9.

The buzz about seeing the band live and the anticipation among those in the know all became clear as they hit festival stages during the summer of 2022 and at various venues around the UK in autumn to superb reviews, and tonight will be their full “Evening with….” show which includes first half solo sections from Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and Findlay Napier followed by a full band second set.