CALAN reschedule UK tour dates + confirm Beardy Folk Festival headline slot for next week to celebrate new single release

Fast-rising Welsh folk band Calan might well be returning to their Celtic roots next week when they visit Cleobury Mortimer in Shropshire to headline the Saturday night of this year’s Beardy Folk Festival, in celebration of the release of their new single ’Jail Caerdydd’ (out 20^th September 2020).

One might not associate Shropshire as being the ‘land of song,’ but back in the county’s ancient past there existed a Celtic kingdom where tribes might have spoken an old version of Welsh.  Band member Bethan Rhiannon has fond memories of playing Shropshire; ‘The people are very welcoming’ she says, ‘And we have played Shrewsbury Folk Festival on two occasions which is always fun. And according to historians being Welsh means I can apparently claim part Shropshire ancestry’.

Shropshire is generally regarded as being the ancient seat of the kings of Powys where there was a Brythonic Celtic settlement known as Pengwern.  However, historians are uncertain of its exact location. The entire area of modern Shropshire was included within the territory of the Celtic Cornovii tribe, whose capital was the Wrekin hill fort. However, when the two peoples and cultures became separated things did not go well (just like a band who split up over artistic differences).  During the 14^th & 15^th centuries, Shropshire was mostly concerned by constant incursions and depredations of the Welsh from across the border. The relationship between the two areas became so perilous that laws were created to keep out the Welsh. In 1379, Welshmen were forbidden to purchase land in the county save on certain conditions.

This time the Welsh visit on far friendlier terms as Calan headline the Saturday night of this year’s Beardy Folk Festival. But watch out – events might develop just as raucously as in those ancient times… As Bethan Rhiannon says, ‘It will be our first performance since lockdown in March and there will be a lot of pent up energy due for release’.  I can see the old laws being re-enforced.

A truly independent band (in all sense of the word), Calan promise a cracker of a night with music, dance, traditional Welsh bagpipes, fiddles, and step dancing.  One recent reviewer credited Calan with mixing up a heady brew of folk, rap and pagan harmonies, ‘beating it into unfamiliar shapes’ (just to clarify, these days that’s just the music being beaten, not the people)!

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Tickets are also on-sale now (and selling fast) for the band’s newly-rescheduled UK tour – dates are as follows;

19/09/2020     Cleobury Mortimer    Beardy Folk Festival

18/12/2020     Bradford upon Avon Wiltshire Music Centre

19/12/2020     Newton Abbot           Abbotsbury Church

30/01/2021     Wolverhampton         Newhampton Arts Centre

16/04/2021     Bristol                         Folk House

17/04/2021     Swansea                      Taliesin Arts Centre

24/04/2021     Cardiff                         The Gate

28/04/2021     Brecon                        Theatr Brycheiniog

30/04/202       Southampton             Chapel Sessions

07/05/2021     Kinross                        Backstage at Green Hotel

29/08/2021     Shrewsbury                Folk Festival (with Pendevig)

12/09/2021     Bromyard                   Folk Festival

16/09/2021     Sheffield                     The Greystones

18/09/2021     Caernarfon                 Galeri Caernarfon

12/12/2021     Cardiff                         Acapela Studio

Calan’s new single ‘Jail Caerdydd’ is released 20^th September 2020 – available on CD via Amazon plus digitally via Spotify and all streaming services.