The Gigspanner Big Band are a unique force in British folk music….

Beginning life as a trio – with fiddle player Peter Knight being joined by percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack – the line-up has been expanded to form the Gigspanner Big Band, with acclaimed multi-instrumental duo Edgelarks (Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin – BBC Folk Awards ‘Best Duo’) and Bellowhead co-founder and melodeon player extraordinaire, John Spiers, joining the fray.

Simon Jones reviewed Gigspanner Big Band’s album Turnstone for Spiral Earth twelve months ago, awarding it a handsome 5 Stars.

“Turnstone is a serious piece of work – it will leave your head and critical conscience in a spin. With their confidence this high and their determination set to full, live shows will surely deliver pure magic. You have been duly warned…”

Turnstone as it turned out, became a Touchstone for the Band. Receiving a host of dazzling reviews and several ‘Best of 2025’ Awards, it became the gold standard by which the Band’s reputation for taking traditional music and turning it inside out has been measured. In the twelve months since its release, their live shows have certainly delivered the predicted pure magic, whilst simultaneously dispelling any doubts that their live performance could match the “almost messianic reviews that the album received”.

While Peter Knight, as part of Steeleye Span’s classic 1970s line-up, helped invent a brand of folk rock that is still influential today, John Spiers has had an equally profound impact on the landscape of traditional music over the last two decades. All of that experience, plus the sheer inventiveness, technically gifted individual playing and subtle collaborative interaction of its combined force, this coming together of several of the biggest names on the folk-roots scene combines a deep knowledge of roots traditions with a ceaselessly boundary pushing approach.

Don’t take our word for it though …. you can see them doing what they do best for yourselves during their run of live dates starting next month.

Summer Dates

July

07^th Oxford Playhouse

08^th Stroud Sub Rooms

09^th Hailsham Pavilion

10^th Deal Arts Festival at St. George’s Church

11^th Halesworth The Cut Arts Centre

12^th Ely Folk Festival

August

5^th Sidmouth Folk Week

“Magnificent….a feast of imaginative music”

5***** The Telegraph

For further details please visit:www.gigspanner.com