Monster Ceilidh Band

ARTIST: Monster Ceilidh Band

COUNTRY: UK

GENRE: Céilidh: cheerful and high-energy, happy non-stop danceable Gaelic Folk/Roots/World music for social dance parties

MORE ABOUT: Outrageously foot-stomping tunes from this Newcastle based four-piece who mix quirky tunes with beats and attitude. Elegant traditional playing versus raucous rave-like rhythms reveals arrangements to ignite the dance floor.

The Monster Ceilidh Band is a fresh, new Newcastle-based ceilidh band fusing the traditional with the modern. The Monsters are starting a revolution everywhere they play. Beginning as a humble ceilidh band, they used their collected knowledge of different styles and genres to form new ways of playing traditional and contemporary music. The Monsters decided to organize monthly ceilidhs in Newcastle to bring folk music to a wider audience. As each ceilidh grew in attendance the Monsters grew from strength to strength. Now the band is formidable – spending more and more time arranging and composing new music that demands attention! Drawing on a wealth of combined knowledge they excite, uplift and entertain masterfully. Having played alongside each other in an array of different line-ups, the monsters create a lively stage show which they skillfully translate to the dance floor.

The journey from ceilidh to club has taken many directions for the Monsters. These new directions have seen many opportunities for the Monsters to flex their creative muscles. Exploring the world of electronic composition has been a large part of it. Working together with local legendary Drum and Bass producer Joseph Truswell aka ‘the touch’ is producing some truly unique listening experiences. Listen to the first collaboration on Stomach Steinway Remix on the MySpace player. The crucible is hot and the monsters are tempering their new darker electronic side. They’ll be premiering their new 100% Electric sound over the summer so keep an ear to the ground. Or just turn on your radio because the Monsters have already been rocking all over the UK on the BBC, Folk Alley over in America and stations in Europe as well. The Monsters have even gone mobile with the collaboration with the iherd application on iphone. Are the Monsters the first ceilidh band to use a Beatboxer? Do a ceilidh only lit by UV cannons? Take inspiration directly from bands such as Megadeth and the Ganja Crew? Be involved with composition for computer games? Who knows…. but make sure you stay tuned to find out what the next innovations are going to be. We will also keep the avid music listener keenly rocketing through uncharted aural atmospheres.

The Monsters are trying to open up the possibilities of the word ‘ceilidh’ it’s original meaning having been lost. A ‘ceilidh’ was a word used to describe a social gathering like a ‘knees up’ , a get together, a party (it still is in Scotland) – there’d probably be music, talking, drinking, smoking, courting and dancing. Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll! It’s ‘a dance as old as time’ as Jez Lowe says on the Monster’s “Make Me A Dancer” album. When the Monsters play they may be calling dances, they may not be – one thing’s for sure there’s going to be a monster party, or ceilidh, if you will. And there’s only one band for a monster ceilidh – The Monster Ceilidh Band!

Carly Blain plays fiddle, border fiddlers dont get much better than this! Carly rips out tunes which make feet stamp and hearts pound. Carly also plays with Harris Playfair’s Junction Pool, The House Sisters and Scottish Border Young Fiddlers.

Amy Thatcher brings elegance, sophistication and class to the Monsters – Amy plays accordion like Jekyll and Hyde; sometimes flourishing and decorous, at others hard and fast. You may have seen Amy recently playing in the Kathryn Tickell Band and The Shee.

Dave De La Haye is a demonic bass player/composer who stands out in Newcastle as one of the leading lights in contemporary music. Dave is firmly ‘in the pocket’ and has one monstrous groove. Dave also tours with Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies.

Kieran Szifris on mandocello/octave mandolin brings raucous rhythm and harmony which drives and underpins the band. His quirky riffs resonate through the Monsters sound. Kieran also plays out with the mighty Hundred Man Orchestra.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY:

- “Make Me A Dancer” (2009)

SELECTED PRESS REVIEWS AND QUOTES:

Monster Ceilidh Band were nominated for best instrumental album of 2009 by Spiral Earth

Monster Ceilidh Band received Time Out Magazine’s ‘Critics’ Choice’ for their concert at Kings Place on 7th November 2009, as part of the London International Festival of Exploratory Music (LIFEM)

Monster Ceilidh Band were included in the British Music at WOMEX 2009 official CD, organised by the Arts Council England, Association of Independent Music and UK Trade & Investment

“One of the best folk dance crossovers yet to be put on the market” (Jonathon Muirhead, www.whatismusic.com)

“An energetic first album from Monster Ceilidh Band, a talented four piece from the Borders… Combining traditional and very good modern tunes the album crackles along very merrily indeed” (Martin Pain, Bright Young Folk)

“The coolest ceilidh band around” (Kathryn Tickell)

“A Godzilla of a band with talent as deep as loch ness!” (Jez Lowe)

“The Monsters really stepped up the energy when they played the National Forest Folk Festival with two outrageously foot stomping sets. The hit of the whole festival without a shadow of a doubt” (Mike Scott – National Forest Folk Festival)

“Outrageously foot stomping sounds” (Off the Tracks Festival)

“An album of twists and turns and infectious charm, anarchic ceilidh for a riotous generation” (Aidan O’Rourke, LAU)

“So grab your dancing shoes (and glowsticks) and look out for the next monster ceilidh near you” (Emily Portman, fRoots)

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