On Tuesday 5 April, the intimate Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell was host to a rare London show from The Old Dance School.

As part of the Pull Up The Roots regular nights at the Lamb, The Old Dance School were lucky to have 2 excellent bands in support to warm up the audience. The first, Twelfth Day, was a lovely duo accompanied by a fiddle and harp, played a selection of tunes and self-penned songs and even performed a version of Morrissey’s “you’re the one for me fatty”, which they originally recorded for Radio Manchester’s 40th birthday celebrations.

The second support, The David Wax Museum, hail from the USA and are in the UK promoting their new album. With a lead singer who sounds like a young Bob Dylan, they played a mixture of bluegrass, gospel and their take on traditional Mexican folk
songs on traditional Mexican instruments (including using a set of donkey jaw bones that make a noise like a whip-crack!).

After a short break for the musicians to swap over their instruments on the incredible tiny stage area it was time for the main band of the night, The Old Dance School.

From the opening bars of their first tune, Wire Over The River, it was clear that we were going to be in for a great performance.

We were treated to an almost complete run through of their 2010 album Forecast and, although the set list that was heavily weighted towards sets of tunes, the 2 songs they sang really gave the audience a chance to appreciate the fine vocal talents of Robin Beatty and Laura Carter.

As an encore the band performed their version of Andy Cutting’s Spaghetti Panic. It’s during tunes like this where the bonus of having 2 highly skilled fiddle players comes to the fore. Aided by Tom Chapman’s frenetic cajón beat, the fiddles dance around each other into a positive frenzy.

For those unfamiliar with The Old Dance School I would certainly recommend catching them live at one of their many festival dates over the summer.