2015 with Leather’o

It’s been another great year with the band. We’ve continued to write new tunes and the gigs we’ve been doing have become more and more diverse, from festivals like Cleethorpes, Cornucopia and The Black Swan to a couple of support spots at Fibbers in York. We’ve also played at weddings, charity gigs for several different causes and the occasional band night out at an open mic or community event. Our regular pub gigs, both in York and further afield have continued to be an important part of our calendar

We’ve had great reviews and lovely feedback from audience members. We’ve also had great support from our fellow musicians around York.

Jack Woods has become an increasingly regular member of the band on mandolin and a few new instruments have appeared – the Alto Celtic whistle being the most prominent.

It was great to get some new photographs of the band in action in 2015 – thanks to Marc of Yellow Mustang for creating those for us.

Thanks to the promoters and landlords who have booked us to play and thanks to the audiences who have been great! We’re looking forward to 2016 – already confirmed to be playing at new venues and returning to favourite places we’ve played before.

In February we will be recording a new EP – the studio is booked, final rehearsals are in the diary and all we have to do is make the last minute decision which tunes to include. You’ll be able to listen and download in the spring.

Have a look on Facebook or our Forthcoming Gigs page for where to see us in 2016 – see you there!

Rough mixes and a new CD on the way…

Stop Press: we’ve confirmed our studio dates for February – the new EP’s on its way! After lunch on Christmas day we’ll be making the final decision on what tunes to record.

Leather’o were in the studio this week and we surprised ourselves by getting ten tracks recorded in just a few hours. We have been gigging most of them for several months!

We’ll be listening back to the rough mixes this week and getting a few friends to give us their view. Then we’ll decide which ones to go back and record properly for our new CD!

You can hear two rough tracks on our Listen page.

Leather’o back in the studio

This Autumn Leather’o will be back in the studio with recording engineer Isaac McInnes at Crooked Room to record some of our newer, edgier material. We’re starting with some rough recordings this month, which we will take away and have a critical listen to. We should be bringing a new CD out by the Spring.

York Calling

A lovely review of our gig on Saturday from York Calling:

“Straight in for a light hearted start to the evening, and fresh from the Cornucopia Festival that day, were incredibly exciting gypsy/Celtic folk rock/acoustic five-piece Leather’o. With full on fiddles and flutes, these guys and gals were high energy throughout. Far from flagging after a full day of performing, they were both brilliantly tight and incredibly vibrant, with their whistles, accordion and guitar.

They whisked you away to mountain tops, valleys (and ice caps?) with their eastern European violins in God Give Me Strength. The fantastic mandolin solo soaring you high above the clouds and down to little village squares full of dance and gossip. Calling us all to the floor then with frisky recorders came From The New Country. The room then in full swing, the accordion gave way to an extra Irish whistle for a magical Celtic lilt.”


Backstage at Cornucopia

We opened the World Music Stage in the Big Top at the Cornucopia Festival this weekend. What a lovely atmosphere and what a great crowd, so early in the afternoon! Here we are backstage just before we went on (Bob’s behind the iPhone and Angie is elsewhere, no doubt beating some sense into her accordion).

We’ve been promised some of the pictures from the official photographer, so we’ll add those when we get them.