News

20th May 2008

WOW - sorry for the year gap between updates.... as you all know we have been busy people in terms of Education and other projects.

We have got two new gigs for this summer more info here - still taking bookings for more!

I have just found the wRants forum again (it was started in 2005, but got lost when I created a new website for the band) so you can have a post/read here.

The on-line shop is still running - we have had several happy customers from it so don't be shy!

Hope to see some of you at our gigs,

Thanks, Olly (and the rest of the band)

30th May 2007

A BIG thank you to everyone who came to the mill on the 27th. We had a great time and it looked like you did too! I have put up some pictures of the Recording and from the mill here.

Hope to see you all soon,

2nd May 2007

Hello all, sorry for the lack of news up-dating about the recording, various personal issues have come in the way. Any way, some of the new recording can be herd on the downloads page. We will be going back to the studio for a day or two - to record one or two more tracks. I will upload some pictures very soon so check back and Don't forget to bookmark us!

17th Febuary 2007

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry it has been a while since a news update, although it isn’t my fault or anyone’s that we have created this false, busy way of life that we all live in....

Any way, We have got some good gigs (on the gigs page) coming up so we hope to see you there. We are booked into Woodworm Studios in April for 5 days for some more recording - more info on that coming in a couple of weeks.

On a sad note, we are now down to 'Eight, Edible and Enthusiastic Individuals'. Anna was forced to leave just after christmas because of a busy student life as well as looking after her horse!

24th August

Me Grant and Jack, went to Cropredy on the Wednesday at about 11Am. got our back stage tickets and neck tags. and set up our tents. after the necessary was done we all went and had a walk around the main field, watching all the stalls being set up. Then went and sat in front of the stage watching it being built. After about an hour we went down to the Cropredy shop and bought some 'supplies' mainly consisting of Hook Norton beer and root beer!

I arrived back stage on the Thursday at 10AM. I started getting a bit worried at 11 because no one from the band had turned up, and the sound check was at 12. But I got a phone call shortly after 11 with grant saying 'where are you?'. it turned out the whole band had met at grants house and were planning on travelling in convoy to the field (you learn when you have 10 members in a band it is difficult getting everyone together in the same place at the same time, or getting them to all know something by a deadline....). Anyway they all turned up, we handed the T-Shirts and CDs over to the stall people. And then the roadies took everything out of our cars for us and carried them up onto the stage. This was it I started thinking, walking up onto the stage for the sound check, (I went to my first Cropredy when I was just under a month old in a carry cot. My earliest memory is at what must have been 4 years old sitting on Dads shoulders at the front screaming 'it is too loud'. Little did I know that in 13 years time I would be standing on the stage asking the sound man to turn me up!). The sound check was great! The whole stage and PA to my self! Playing the Bodhran to a huge empty field feeling the bass. After the entire band had done a check we all went for a walk around the stalls. At 3:30 we all met up at the 'Green room' at the back of the stage. We all had a tune up. And signed each-others programs! We got called up to the stage at about 5 to four. We were all gathered at behind the black backdrop on the stage. The band grouped into a circle and everyone put their hands in and we said 'To Cropredy!'. Then Anna said to us.....'urmmmmm who is going to walk out first?' everyone turned to me and agreed that it should be me because it meant so much to me to play there. Then we heard through the curtain 'Here are the wRants'. I didn't feel nervous or anything really. I just wanted to play the music, someone pulled back the backdrop revealing the crowd-thousands of people cheering and shouting at us, friends, family and complete strangers. Picked up the mandolin and then played the first note of 'Hoe Down' (1,2,3,4) stop. Then I got to say the 2 words I have wanted to say, in that place, on that stage for as long as I can remember. 'HELLO CROPREDY!'. Most of the set went as good as it has ever been (with a couple of exceptions). I can’t really remember what happened after we played and walked off. The next thing was sitting in the CD tent signing CDs and T-Shirts. Strangers, people I didn't know had bought our stuff and wanted it signed, it was unexplainably surreal. After that still full of adrenaline and feeling on top of the world, we all went to the bar!  I can't really remember the rest of that night.

It was a great weekend and I would like to say from the rest of the band and I a huge thank you to everyone that made it possible. Made it possible for us to play and for such a great festival. A hello to everyone I met (that I can remember and that I can't!!) and I will see you all next year.

(Review By Olly)

Cropredy was the last gig for the lovely Holly Mumford she had to leave the band due to other commitments, she will be missed by all of us. Pictures of Cropredy can be found here

9th August

The wRants album will is being released at Cropredy. 7 Tracks, great music, amazing album art!
The 4 studio tracks are from the EP plus 3 recorded straight off the desk at Cornbury music festival 06.
Hot off the press today especially for cropredy. Only 100 Printed - sure to become a collectors item, so get it while you can!
All for the super value of ten english pounds

10th June - Somerton

Well, What can I say… This has to be one of the weirdest gigs we have played so far. Mainly because up until 9PM nobody had turned up (when the doors opened at 8PM)! So we stood around outside enjoying the lovely warm evening and the beautiful countryside that surrounded us. After one of us shouting ‘Shall we start or what?!’ We did and what a start it was… Ho Down rocked the place (almost literally!!) We had all the doors and windows open and suddenly the village woke up. Heads looked in through the door. Shortly followed by bodies coming in!
I don’t think the villagers of Somerton had heard anything like it before but no sooner had a few of them realised that it was music that HAD to be danced to! There was no stopping them.
The evening went from great to brilliant. We had to play some things two or three times because they wouldn’t let us stop, in fact we were encouraged to start at the beginning and do the whole set again! Unfortunately time wasn’t on our side, as we had to be finished by 11PM.
Many thanks to the lovely ladies and one or two rather unlucky men who got dragged into it, for getting the place shaking by their excellent dance moves. This is one gig that we won’t forget in a hurry but for all the right reasons. Thank you Somerton for a great night and for all your support.

Review by Lucy Nicklin

1st May

May Day at the Mill saw many young and talented bands in aid of Woodcroft Folk. The wRants performed in the main auditorium in the evening and came as a refreshing change from the other bands, going down a storm with their audience. The wRants opened with ‘Hoe down’ – an interesting and exciting, classical tune arranged by the wRants into an original, folk/reggae tune. ‘Hoe down’ has already been aired on BBC Radio and it is small wonder; this ‘trademark’ tune sets the wRants apart from traditional folk music, highlighting them as a modern and talented folk rock group.

The atmosphere was crammed full with energy from the crowd; many were dancing, cheering and clapping throughout the performance. The audience cheered particularly at Grant Fox’s guitar solo in ‘Kilival Jig’ and the wide variety of instruments from Oliver Newman, including a bodhran, mandolin, washboard and guitar ‘made’ from a cereal box! Jack Layer and Jessica Looke gave a stunning performance on fiddle, as did vocalists Holly Mumford, Lucy Nicklin and Anna Teare. Joe Nicklin and Josh Bennett gave depth to the performance as percussionists with Matt Teare on bass guitar.

The wRants breathed new life into many songs, setting their stamp of originality on old favourites; in particular, ‘By The Time It Gets Dark’ (faster-paced and livelier than the original version). The performance flowed perfectly, with the wRants almost as one musician feeding off the crowd’s excitement and energy, to produce a slick and professional performance.

Review by Maddie Allcock
http://www.m-allcock.co.uk

4th April

We have just got back from the BBC radio Oxford (95.2FM) studio. We had an interview and played 2 songs. The interview and music are going to be played on the Download (Saturday from 6pm) and some of the music is going to be played on the Danny Cox show (Friday 10:00 - 13:00)as a run up to us playing at oxford folk festival that night. If you can't wait, the interview can be heard here.

19th March

wRants get a place in 'MySpace'

The new flash site is coming on well and should be finished in the next couple of weeks, keep coming back to look for updates!

10th February

First gig10th February First gig of the year coming up! it is at the Port Mahon pub in Oxford on the Saturday 25th February starts at 8PM. it is going to be a night of music, we are playing for 45-50 minutes and followed by ' Ambers Tate'. Hope to see some of you there.

5th January

The Shop is now live!

29th December

Hope you all had a great Christmas, And we all wish you a great new year. I have been hard at work today preparing the wRants on-line shop. You will be able to buy/download our full recordings, and in the future there might even be t-shirts for sale. The shop should be up and running in the next couple of weeks, so please come back and check it out!

26/27 November

We spent the weekend in Bluemoon studio recording our 4 track EP. It was a new experience for us all and it was the first outing for Olly's Harp in the 'Maid of Culmore' ! we should be seeing more of it when the wRants are out and about. Months of preparation paid off! Have a look at the pictures of the weekend here.

There are some 30 second samples of the tracks we recorded on the downloads page.

15th October 05

We were invited to play at Fariports Cropredy Convention! and of course we said YES!!! More infomation on the gigs page

Banbury folk and canal day 7-8-9 October 2005 On the friday night we played upstairs again in the Millers bar.and on the Sunday we played outside, next to the general foods sports and social club. Thanks to everyone that came and watched and made them both such good and memorabal gigs.

18/9/05

Played a lunchtime gig in the Brasenose pub garden in Cropredy. It was chilly but the rain held off. Everybody seemed to have a good time. A photographer and reporter from the Banbury Guardian came there and took photos for the 6th of october edition.

01/9/05

wRants make the front cover of 'Shire folk' Magazine