What are the Bad Shepherds?
Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds play punk songs on folk instruments. Not as a gag, but because they really like the noise. They think the songs are better than people remember. They love folk instruments. It works. They do songs by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Jam, Sham 69, The Undertones, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, The Specials, Talking Heads, Squeeze and others, even Kraftwerk! Alright, they're not all punk, but they come from roughly the same era. They've mostly given the songs a kind of Celtic feel, and they've stuck in the odd reel and jig here and there. But occasionally they just thrash! They've always thought the excitement of a reel taking off is the nearest thing to the excitement of watching punk live in the 70's.
The Bad Shepherds are:
Adrian Edmondson (Vocals, ‘thrash mandolin’)
Ade Edmondson is best known as a comedian in The Young Ones, Bottom, and The Comic Strip Presents. Though he’s no stranger to the music world having played the Monsters of Rock and Reading Festivals with Bad News, the Hootenanny with Jools Holland, Hyde Park with The Who, and he’s toured with The Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band. He’s also had a No 1 single with Cliff Richard! And as a director he made lots of music videos in the 80’s for the likes of The Pogues, Squeeze, Elvis Costello and 10,000 Maniacs.
Troy Donockley (Uillean pipes, cittern, whistles, vocals)
Troy has built up a formidable reputation as both a composer/arranger/musician/performer and as a leading virtuoso of the Uilleann Pipes. He’s released three critically acclaimed solo albums, is a member of Iona, and also finds time to record and tour with the likes of Maddy Prior (he has co-produced four albums), Barbara Dickson (produced two albums) Maire Brennan (Clannad), Midge Ure, Nightwish, Lesley Garrett , Roy Harper, Status Quo, Alan Stivell, Del Amitri and many more.
Andy Dinan (Fiddle)
Andy won the All-Ireland Fiddle Championship… twice. He’s best known for playing with Toss the Feathers and Mike McGoldrick, but he’s also supported Dervish, Lunasa, Capercaillie and solo artists Martin Hayes and Liz Carroll. He recently performed at the Armagh Pipers club Festival with Mike and Ian Fletcher with a new project involving Portugese, Brazilian and Irish music.
How The Bad Shepherds came to be…
Adrian Edmondson was a teenager when punk arrived. The songs of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers were the soundtrack to his life through the late 70’s and early 80’s, and like a lot of people of his generation he was fond of playing these songs to himself at home on his acoustic guitar.
Cut forward to 2007: after a rather boozy pre-Christmas lunch in Soho, Adrian stumbled along Denmark Street, home of many alluring musical instrument shops, and whilst slightly inebriated, ‘accidentally’ bought a mandolin. Surprised to see it sitting there on his kitchen table the following morning he nevertheless picked it up, worked out a few chords, and started playing the same songs with a mandolin accompaniment – it sounded really interesting.
Adrian Edmondson was touring with the Bonzos at the time and he took his mandolin along, and with Neil Innes on acoustic guitar, they had a go at London Calling in the dressing room. It sounded good, but Neil said ‘What you need are some shit-hot folk musicians.’
Adrian had seen Troy Donockley playing and had fallen in love with the sound of his Uillean pipes. He scratched around and got hold of Troy’s number. It seemed a bit bold, but after a couple of days of being worried how Troy might react Adrian gave him a ring. ‘Hi, this is Ade Edmondson, I’ve got this idea for playing punk songs on folk instruments...’ Slight pause. ‘That’s a brilliant idea, I’m in,’ said Troy. They talked for over an hour.
They agreed to meet for a couple of days to mess about with the idea. If it didn’t work they could just walk away. But within the first hour they knew they were onto something. In the two days they drank numerous beers, ate 2 curries and arranged 8 songs - and the band was born. The band has been through a few line-up changes as Adrian and Troy sought the exact sound they were after, but Andy Dinan was a real find, and the three of them now form the core of the band with occasional guest musicians.
After a short tour in 2008 they made an album,‘Yan Tyan Tethera Methera!’ which was released in April 2009. It was a critical and a commercial success – the signing queue after their appearance at Cropredy in August 2009 was two hours long!
“...not just the hit of this festival [Leicester Big Session], but probably every other Festival this summer” - fRoots
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