We’re delighted to announce that chart-topping singer songwriter Leo Sayer will be at Wickham next year on Saturday 2nd August 2025.  Songwriter, singer and performer – Leo Sayer excels at all three. Throughout his long and successful career Leo has resisted being forced down one avenue at the expense of the other two, determined to develop his career to encompass his many talents.

Gerard Hugh Sayer was born in May 1948 in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England. After studying graphic design at Art College he began his working life as an illustrator in London, playing blues harmonica by night in folk clubs. During this period (the year is now 1968) he began to write songs and in 1972 met David Courtney, an ex-drummer for 60’s pop star Adam Faith.

David and Leo started co-writing and shortly afterwards Leo Sayer signed a management contract with Adam Faith. The trio did not have to wait long for success and this came in 1973 when Roger Daltrey, Lead singer with The Who recorded Leo and David’s Giving It All Away for his debut solo album. The singer reached number 5 in the UK and hit the Top 10 in the states. Leo Sayer had arrived. He had been brought to public attention on both sides of the Atlantic and the subsequent release of his first album, Silver Bird, on Chrysalis, proved a major 1973 release.

Leo’s single, The Show Must Go On, hit number 2 in Britain, while Three Dog Night, the American group, released a version which went to number 5 in the US. Chart success was followed by concert appearances supporting Roxy Music where he frequently stole the show with his now famous white face and Pierrot costume. The Leo frenzy continued to grow and spilled over into the States where his headline tour drew rave reviews from the critics and public alike in New York and Los Angeles.

A two-month headlining tour of the US was followed by the release of Leo’s second album, Just A Boy, from which the singles, One-Man Band, Train and Long Tall Glasses were huge international hits. A series of concerts followed in Australia where Leo (by now the clown image had been discarded) became a favourite with fans – a mutual affection which endures and goes from strength to strength.

In 1975 Leo was back in the UK with Moonlighting to the top of the charts (taken from the album Another Year), co-writing by Leo and Frank Farrell, Leo’s bass player at the time. The release of Here in 1979 and World Radio in 1981 saw Leo once again collaborating with David Courtney.

A major turning point in Leo Sayer’s career came in 1976 when he began working in Los Angeles with producer Richard Perry. Perry was originally more impressed with Leo’s own composition, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, became his first US number 1 hit and won, in 1977, a Grammy Award for the best R & B song. Endless Flight turned out to be Leo’s most successful album to date, particularly in the States with When I Need You a second number 1, and How Much Love also hitting the US top 40.

The US success had positive reverberations around the world resulting in When I Need You becoming number 1 in almost every major territory and the BBC in England offering Leo his own series. This project was so successful that it was extended into the eighties with two further Leo Sayer TV series.

Two more albums with Richard Perry followed, Thunder In My Heart in 1977 and Leo Sayer in 1978. Leo was at this time resident in Los Angeles, and on a constant touring schedule in the US as one of the major headline acts in the country.

Leo returned to Britain in 1980, recording his first album in the UK for five years with Alan Tarney co-writing and producing Living in A Fantasy. His version of More Than I Can Say went to number 2 both in the UK and US charts.

In 1981 Leo embarked on highly successful world tour, taking in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Hawaii, the US and Canada. Somehow he found time to record his ninth album World Radio with Arif Mardin, the celebrated New York producer. Have You Ever Been In Love from the album was yet another international hit single?

In 1983 the critically acclaimed Orchard Road was conceived by Leo and Alan Tarney, and was one of the major hits from that year’s Have You Ever Been In Love album.

In 1989 Leo Sayer returned to the studio to record the album Cool Touch. Leo and Alan Tarney had got together yet again and in a remarkable 28 days recorded ten new songs, the album proving especially popular in Germany and Japan.

In 1990 Leo had a unique opportunity to play two concerts in Moscow to capacity audiences at the Olympic Hall. It was a long overdue visit judging by the reaction of the Muscovites, who were very familiar with his hit songs. This was followed in 1991 by a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

In 1992, Leo made his final record for Chrysalis, All The Best, the definitive compilation of his greatest hits, which included cover design and liner notes from the man himself. The album became a big success back home in the UK.

In late 2004 Leo was preparing to fulfil a lifetime ambition, leaving England to live in Australia, when he received a request from a U.K. based DJ to remix his 1977 classic “Thunder In My Heart”. Beautifully re-worked as Thunder In My Heart Again by DJ Meck (and Bimbo Jones) this became a monster dance hit all over the world, so in 2005, having just settled in Australia, Leo had achieved his second official No.1. in the U.K.

In June 2016, Leo had teamed up with Scottish legend, Lulu, for a tour of Australia and New Zealand. With both of them being the same vintage and with two strong voices that matched superbly, the tour was judged a great success. It was the first time Lulu had performed down under. The year ended up with Leo performing in Sydney for ‘Carols In The Domain’, a massively popular free concert which annually heralded Christmas into sunny Sydney. 

In 2022, Leo had reached a milestone in his career, as it had been 50 years since that first single by Patches, the recording of his Silverbird album and Roger Daltrey’s recording sessions, singing his and David Courtney’s early songs. To celebrate this, Leo with his British band performed a 32-date tour across the UK from September to November, also finding time revisit the postponed dates he’d missed in Ireland the previous year.

By popular request, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican will be back at Wickham on Saturday 2nd August 2025.

Put on yer finest knitted gladrags, style your barnet, put on your dancing shoes and bring your finest singing voices, as we cordially invite you to witness the Greatest Show On Earth (in tank-tops).

Hailing from Barnsley Rock City in t’North, Yorkshire’s hardest working comedy band, The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, are on a mission! Determined to follow in their spiritual father’s immortal footsteps and keep his legacy alive, they have a talent for Bar-Stewardizing other famous people’s songs with new comedy lyrics, on acoustic geetar, ukulele, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, accordion, keyboard and kazoo. To complete their squeaky-clean image, estranged brothers Scott, Björn and Alan have become instantly recognisable for their immaculate hair and their stylish choice of knitwear.
​
The Bar-Steward Sons have, in their 11 year history played over 850 side-splitting shows and have brought smiles and belly-laughs to audiences across the UK; from Barnsley to Barnstaple, from Glasgow to Glastonbury.

They continue to wow audiences with a fine selection of their greatest hits, including the likes of “Jump Ararnd”, “Tarnlife”, “The Lady In Greggs”, “Nandos”, “Fight For Your Pint”, “Bono Bloody Bono”, “Since You’ve Been Ron”, “She’s From Dodworth”, “Walking In Manpiss” and “If I Could Punch A Face… It’d Be Justin Bieber’s”.

The excellent Reg Meuross and his quartet featuring Phil Beer, Marion Fleetwood & Geraint Watkins will be bringing their Fire & Dust / Woody Guthrie story to Wickham on Sunday 3rd August 2025.

Reg’s clever and imaginative lyrics have earned him the title of  “Master Storyteller” (PennyBlack Music) and led Mike Harding (Mike Harding Folk Show) to introduce him onto the stage of The Royal Albert Hall as  “one of the finest singer-songwriters this country has produced”. Whether it’s a village hall or the Albert Hall, Reg brings to the stage a collection of extremely beautiful songs, performed with humour and depth, and sung with the voice of an angel. Reg has that rare gift of being able to touch people, through his songs and performance, on a really human level. His words and music paint pictures that remain with the listener long after the song has been sung.

“When you have 2000 people singing along, you’re doing something right.”
Great British Folk Festival

“A mighty songwriter and an equally fine singer”
Martin Carthy

“One of the most talented storytellers of our generation”
Pennyblack Music

“Powerful and moving songwriting”
Martin Chilton, The Telegraph

A deep well of compassion and insight into the human heart and spirit.”
Mike Davies, Folk Radio UK

Having appeared at Wickham in 2018, we’re delighted to welcome back Flook who will be appearing on Friday 1st August.

What began in 1995 as a ground-breaking union of musicians and instruments, has continued as a unique musical offering through one live album, four studio albums and countless outstanding performances. A new recording, Sanju, is due for release in March 2025. After 30 years Flook show no sign of letting-up in their brilliance, their dynamism, or their inventive flair.

The band early on evolved an inimitable trademark sound and hold fast to their rightful reputation as exceptional musical innovators; the whistles and flutes of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen, the guitar of Ed Boyd and the bodhran of John Joe Kelly weaving and spinning tunes rooted in tradition over precise acoustic grooves, with a rare blend of fiery technical brilliance, delicate ensemble interaction and a bold, adventurous musical imagination.

There is an ever present abundance of individual virtuosity amongst Flook’s four members, but there is also something wholly unique when this iconic Anglo-Irish band step on stage together, their playing always an intuitive, almost symbiotic, exchange between the various flutes, whistles, frets and skins. An evening and a celebration you don’t want to miss out on.

‘An absolute powerhouse, a flute and whistle-led, eight-legged jig machine. Jigs, reels and waltzes whirl by. Each as glorious as the last, the musicianship as extraordinary, the mood never any less than euphoric’
FATEA Live Review, November 2023

‘Nothing short of transcendent… No other band sound like Flook and the new material has pushed them to new, exhilarating heights’
Songlines, July 2019

‘Never have I seen so many people so completely and utterly spellbound…the most magical of experiences’
The Irish Post

The wonderful Kate Rusby, Mercury Prize Winner & 6-times BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner, will be appearing on Sunday 3rd August 2025. Forever proud to call herself a folk singer, Kate Rusby’s vocals never fail to connect the heart of a song to that of her audience.

As early as 1999, aged just 26, Kate was named as one of the Top Ten Folk Voices of the Century. Everything she has done since has confirmed that honour. From being a 1999 Mercury Prize Winner – almost unheard of for a folk singer both then and now – to her latest albums ‘Light Years’, ’30 Happy Returns’ and ‘Hand Me Done’ Kate has stayed true to her folk and acoustic roots.

Named as one of the Top Ten Folk Voices of the Century, a Mercury Prize Winner, 6-times BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner and a warm, Yorkshire sense of humour to boot, Rusby has achieved an unprecedented cross-over appeal. Despite stepping into a more contemporary production on her last few albums, she has stayed true to her roots. Her cover of Manic Monday (Hand Me Down 2020) featured on the BBC Radio 2 playlist. The guests on 2022 album 30 : Happy Returns is testament to Rusby’s wide appeal and include the likes of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, KT Tunstall, and Beth Nielson Chapman.

Kate’s Yorkshire roots contribute to her wonderful and warm sense of humour whilst also providing the rich vein of South Yorkshire carols which together, with the passion she has for Christmas, adds the magic to her annual and hugely popular Christmas tour hailed as ‘The Start of Christmas’ for many people.

Hailing from the Isle of Skye, the legendary Scottish trailblazers have created a glorious mixture of traditional sounds and dance-floor grooves that have been embraced worldwide. Drawing upon a dazzling myriad of influences from jigs and reels through Dance Music, Jazz, African, and more, they bring the sound of Scotland fresh-faced and breathless to the new audiences around the world.

From the moment they take to the stage, the mood is set for a no-nonsense feel-good atmosphere, each number sounding like an encore itself. The traditional styles that influence the musicians are still to be heard and when an unexpected drop-down to those glorious core melodies sneaks in the result is spine-chilling! In short, it rocks, and the audience becomes part of the experience.

2025 sees the Peatbog Faeries 34th year as a band.. with new materiel and a new enthusiasm. I see a world is the first new studio album from the Peatbog Faeries since 2015’s critically acclaimed ‘Blackhouse’.

Click here to listen to and buy their new alsbum, I see a world.

Since 1996, the Peatbog Faeries have pushed the boundaries of Scottish music.. combining traditional tunes with everything from Drum and Bass to Malian guitar, creating a sound that’s uniquely their own. Guest artists include the truly beautiful voices of Heather Macleod and Gina Rae, the incredible horns of Helena Kay, the Uilleann Pipes from Ireland’s finest, Ryan Murphy, and the talents of master percussionist Krishna Kishor all the way from Chennai in India.

The band is made up of Peter Morrison on pipes and whistles, Ross Couper on fiddle, Innes Watson on fiddle, vocals and acoustic guitar, Tom Salter on guitar, Norman Willmore on keyboards and sax, Innes Hutton on bass and Stuart Brown on drums.

Invariably the band travel with their own sound engineer, as well as a lighting engineer to ensure their famous shows become a truly memorable experience on every level for their audiences.

Peatbog Faeries have become firm favourites at festivals and venues across the UK and have toured the world with their inventive and unique brand of music never failing to fill the floor and delight crowds.

“Nothing prepares you for the high octane music of the Peatbog Faeries. Powerful melodies are dextrously pumped out with a smart degree of techno attitude, while cross-rhythms ricochet over a heavy bass that hits you forcefully like a massive heart beat.”
The Scotsman

Fisherman’s Friends are a male singing group from Port Isaac, Cornwall, who sing sea shanties. They have been performing locally since 1995, and signed a record deal with Universal Music in March 2010. Whilst essentially an a cappella group, their studio recordings now often include traditional simple instrumentation.

Bound together by lifelong friendship and shared experience for more than 25 years the Fisherman’s Friends have met on the Platt (harbour) in their native Port Isaac to raise money for charity, singing the traditional songs of the sea handed down to them by their forefathers.

In 2010 they signed a major record deal and their album “Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends” went Gold as they became the first traditional folk act to land a UK top ten album. Since then they’ve been the subject of an ITV documentary, released the hit albums One and All (2013), Proper Job (2015) & Sole Mates (2018) and played to hundreds of thousands of fans at home and abroad.

They sang for HM The Queen at her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012, they were selected to sing for Prince Charles & Camilla during their 2016 tour of Cornwall and were honoured with the Good Tradition Award at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2011. 2019 saw the release of ‘Fisherman’s Friends’ a movie based on the group’s discovery and signing to a major record label. The film was an immediate hit, taking nearly 10 million at the box office. And this year sees the release of the second movie ‘Fisherman’s Friends One And All’ this autumn.

Other standout performances include the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, Twickenham Stadium during half-time of England v Australia (an intimate crowd of 81,275!!), Cambridge Folk Festival, Beautiful Days, Sidmouth Folk Week, Looe Music Festival, Costa del Folk in Portugal and the BBC Proms in the Park.

Oysterband have always been a huge success when they’ve performed at Wickham and we are delighted to announce they will be extending their Long, Long Goodbye Tour to appear at Wickham Festival on Sunday, 3rd August 2025. Having travelled the country this will be your final chance to enjoy these veterans of British folk rock and folk punk.

“We’re hanging up our travelling shoes, but we’re taking a year or so to say goodbye to our lovely live audience.And we mean to enjoy every minute!”

In the words of our own song Granite Years, we’re waving you a long, long goodbye…..come help us celebrate!”

From their earliest days as a noisy, politicised ceilidh band in the late Seventies, Oysterband have never stopped evolving or providing soundtrack to the changing times.

Initially meeting at Canterbury in Kent, at a time when pubs were alive with folk clubs and music sessions, the Oyster Ceilidh Band (as they were known then), were a band on a simple mission to get dancefloors bouncing. But with a chemistry between its members and music that made a profound connection with its audiences, greater things soon beckoned as the times became more complicated.

Emerging in the early 80s from their ceilidh band days they infused both the traditional and their own songs with a passion and energy that was electrifyingly fresh for the time. Polkas, politics and a heaving dance floor somehow seemed perfectly right for Thatcher’s Britain. Signing to new roots label Cooking Vinyl, headlining English Roots Against Apartheid, playing Glastonbury and the Fleadh several times each, touring with The Pogues in Europe and Billy Bragg in North America, hosting the Big Session Festival. All gained them a large and loyal following both at home and internationally.

Releasing music with relative prolificacy, from their debut as Oyster Ceilidh Band ‘Jack’s Alive’ in 1980; through classics like ‘Step Outside’ (1986), ‘Wide Blue Yonder’ (1987), ‘Ride’ (1989) (as Oyster Band); to mid-period Oysterband wonders like ‘Deserters’ (1992), ‘Holy Bandits’ (1993), ‘Trawler’ (1994), and latter period gems like ‘Rise Above’ (2002) or ‘Diamonds On The Water’ (2014)’; Oysterband have been a constant and uplifting presence in music throughout the decades and have ratcheted-up dozens of studio releases throughout their career.

Their collaboration with June Tabor in 1990 produced the cult favourite album ‘Freedom & Rain’, and it was renewed 21 years later for ‘Ragged Kingdom’, one of the best-selling folk-rock albums of the new millennium.

Winners of several BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including Best Band twice, Oysterband’s song-writing has never stood still, and hits such as “The Oxford Girl”, “When I’m Up I Can’t Get Down” (Best Song at the Canadian East Coast Music Awards, performed by Great Big Sea), “Everywhere I Go and Put Out The Lights” are now renowned staples of the folk canon.

The band released what stands as their final album in 2022, the acclaimed ‘Read The Sky’, which found the band taking a political stand for their environmental beliefs. As true to their political roots as they ever were, the album was released to chime with the COP26 summit in Glasgow of that year. The album hit the Official Folk Album Chart No.1, a testament to their enduring popularity across the ages.

The creative heart of Oysterband is still here after 45 years:John Jones (vocals, melodeon), Alan Prosser (guitars) and Ian Telfer (violin), with Al Scott, their longtime producer, on bass, Adrian Oxaal (cello and guitar) and newest member Sean Randle on drums.

Most recently, Oysterband undertook an extensive tour of Europe, plus a special “Decades” tour across the UK where they explored their back catalogue in greater depth. Announcing a series of shows with June Tabor in 2024, Oysterband will be going out on a high as they bid “A Long Long Goodbye” to fans and friends with a series of unmissable shows.

They’ve travelled the world but they still play with the fire of that dance band back in Kent.

“A single star is shining // Across the evening sky // Sending us a message // Then they’re waving us goodbye // They are waving us a long, long goodbye // Thousands of light-years // Goodbye…”
Oysterband – “Granite Years” (from ‘Deserters’, 1992)

Having entertained us last in in 2018, Tom Robinson returns to Wickham on Saturday 2nd August.  He shot to fame with the top 10 hit 2-4-6-8 Motorway and Glad To Be Gay.

Born in Cambridge in 1950, Tom Robinson first became known in the late 1970s as a musician and LGBT activist with the Tom Robinson Band (TRB) who were early supporters of Rock Against Racism and Amnesty International. In 1977 their Top 5 debut release 2-4-6-8 Motorway became one of the landmark singles of the UK punk era. Other hits included Glad To Be Gay, Up Against The Wall and the band’s debut album Power In The Darkness which went gold in the UK and Japan.

As a solo artist Tom had further solo hits in 1983 with War Baby and Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio, and co-wrote songs with Peter Gabriel, Elton John and Dan Hartman. In 2015 he released Only The Now – made with award winning producer Gerry Diver – with many guests including Billy Bragg, John Grant, Martin Carthy and Ian McKellen. It can be heard in full on Spotify, YouTube and Bandcamp.

Only The Now is Tom’s first new album in two decades can be heard in full on Spotify, YouTube and Bandcamp and is available on CD, Vinyl and download from their own webstore.

As a radio broadcaster Tom hosts two shows a week on BBC Radio 6 Music. He has won two Sony Radio Academy awards and served as a member of the Ivor Novello Awards committee for 15 years. In 2016 he was awarded a fellowship of LIPA for his support of new music through hosting BBC Music’s Introducing Mixtape podcast and his Fresh On The Net music blog.