A UNIQUE force in British folk music will be performing at St Germans Priory on Friday, April 17.

The priory will be welcoming back, The Gigspanner Big Band, who were recently nominated as finalists for the 'Folk Album of the Year 2025' with their new album 'Turnstone'.

The band’s high-energy, virtuosic performances appeal equally to traditionalists and to those looking for something more experimental, and they have garnered praise from many publications, where they were described as ‘melodically folk-rooted yet open and innovative beyond the constraints of genre’.

Beginning life as a trio - with legendary Steeleye Span fiddle player Peter Knight being joined by percussionist Sacha Trochet and guitarist Roger Flack - the line-up has been expanded to form The Gigspanner Big Band, with acclaimed multi-instrumental duo Edgelarks and Bellowhead co-founder and melodeon player extraordinaire, John Spiers, joining the fray.

While Knight helped invent a brand of folk rock that is still influential today, Spiers has had an equally profound impact on the landscape of traditional music over the last two decades.

2025 has been a highlight year for the band, marked by the release of their album Turnstone, which has been nominated for Folk Album of the Year 2025, and has featured in several ‘Album of the Year’ lists.

Characterised by riotous inventiveness, technically gifted individual playing and subtle collaborative interaction, this coming together of several big names on the folk-roots scene, combines a deep knowledge of roots traditions with a ceaselessly boundary pushing approach.

A group of musicians intent on making some of the most exhilarating art ever to sit under the banner of folk music. Together producing a startlingly new musical form with few, if any, antecedents even within the hallowed worlds of prog and folk-rock.

To book tickets, visit: www.southeastcornwallarts.co.uk/what-s-on