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fiddle
folk
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justice
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ocrastra
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» member profile:
blaki mcgandy
» genre:
Acoustic >
Acoustic Folk
» location:
Gerry McGandy
» label: unsigned
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The Ocrastra
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Wee War
The Ocrastra; a musicians' collective set up by Seamus Gavin to record the album Justice. The core of the live band is myself, mandolin; Seamus, guitar vox and harmonica and his son James on fiddle.
We have been playing the north London folk scene, on the bill with Andy Irvine in Letchworth and we recently played the May Fair at Wivenhoe.
We have been playing the north London folk scene, on the bill with Andy Irvine in Letchworth and we recently played the May Fair at Wivenhoe.
Why this name?
It's a play on words.
The number and diversity of the musicians who worked on the firrst album, Justice would have made a tidy orchestra
Irish Gaelic
Ocras = Hungry
Tra = Beach
The Hungry Beach
Echoes of hard times.
The number and diversity of the musicians who worked on the firrst album, Justice would have made a tidy orchestra
Irish Gaelic
Ocras = Hungry
Tra = Beach
The Hungry Beach
Echoes of hard times.
Do you play live?
We gig as a trio at present; folk clubs, pubs, concerts, festivals.
We backed up Andy Irvine at Letchworth Folk Club.
Wivenhoe May Fair was good.
We backed up Andy Irvine at Letchworth Folk Club.
Wivenhoe May Fair was good.
How, do you think, does the internet (or mp3) change the music industry?
Accessibility.
Would you sign a record contract with a major label?
Who knows?
Band History:
The Ocrastra; a curious combination. Where it comes from is a rain-lashed Ballyshannon festival with Donal Lunny on mixer, bikers on whiskey, hippies on the bridge and poitin on the roof of Sweeney’s bar. It was there at dawn on Easter Sunday on Topped mountain where our pagan ashes welcomed the Salvation Army to serenade their mangod with with their backs to the east for fear they’d see the sun dance. Some of it was flemenco guitar cutting the sound of the sirens in squattie London dives. It comes with a lament for a flute now silent and a bodhran unbeaten. And the soundtrack was Horslips and Woody and Crazy Horse, fast fiddlers and loose pipers, electric guitars and bog oak mandolins. We were neither wise nor given to lies and deceit, but we did go on ahead.
Your influences?
Planxty, Neil Young, Horslips, Roy Harpur
Favorite spot?
Mersea Island