THE NEW SCORPION BAND
"The New Scorpion Band"
New Scorpion Band Records NSB01 CD (57:17)
Tim Laycock, 7 St Rumbold's Road, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8NE
On the cover the band pose, in costume, with their instruments at the top of Shaftesbury's Gold Hill. Tim Laycock on vocals and concertina is one of the best known folk musicians Dorset has yet to produce: other members include Brian Gulland, once of medieval folk-rockers Gryphon. The original Scorpion Band formed shortly after the end of the Napoleonic War, using instruments demobbed from the fray.
Track one fairly bursts from the speakers, boisterous and full of swagger. It leads into a varied set which ranges from the gentle 'Blow The Candles Out' to the instrumental 'Scan Tester's Polkas' to an unaccompanied 'John Barleycorn', male voices in harmony. 'Heaven's A Bar' draws on Laycock's spell with the National Theatre, and the closest musical reference to this album is the Albion Band, also associated with that company down the years. A satisfying set which shows how varied an all acoustic British folk band can be, with the emphasis very much on the word 'band'.
Brian Hinton, Folk on Tap 80 (Summer 1999).