Stornoway
19th Jun 2010@ 20:00 Indoor Main Stage
Stornoway hail from Oxford, consisting of two groups of brothers and another non-related member. First forming in a snow encrusted garage in early 2006, Brian Briggs (vocals/acoustic guitar), Jonathan Ouin (keys/banjo/electric guitar/cello) Rob Steadman
(drums), Oliver Steadman (bass/electric guitar) and Adam Briggs (trumpet), write melodic folktinged pop.
They started to record demo's in bedrooms, recording all parts themselves, and making drumkits out of what was around (e.g. desks and water bottles). For bass they downtuned an acoustic guitar. This kind of approach has since continued in later recordings, e.g. buying all the crockery in Age Concern and recording its mass destruction for a song called Beachcomber's Windowsill; recording carrots being chopped + Rob's footsteps + sawing wood for the drums & percussion on Here Comes the Blackout; etc.
The band started to play gigs regularly in Oxford. They had no experience and were absolutely petrified, and in the summer of 2006 they played 7 gigs in Oxford within two weeks, and unsurprisingly attendances were awful. On the last gig of the series the other bands didn't turn up
and they played to an audience of two people, one of whom turned out to be Tim Bearder of BBC Oxford. Somehow the experience didn't put him off and shortly afterwards he devoted an entire hour of his breakfast show to Stornoway demos and interviews. He barricaded himself into the BBC Oxford studio and got suspended for two days as a consequence!
They were first played on Radio 1 by Colin Murray during a gig at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, via texts to the audience. The latest regular addition to live performances has been violinist Rahul Satija, who has also led the Oxford University Orchestra. They met Rahul at a private gig at Balliol College where he asked if he could join in on one of the songs (Unfaithful), and they were all blown away by his ability.
The band use quite a lot of instruments onstage - especially Jon, who plays (amongst other things) Banjo, Cello, Keyboards, Lead guitar, and backing vocals. They usually record at home on an 8-track digital recorder, using the recording process as a creative opportunity to try different
instruments and arrangements, generally preferring to working at their own (snails) pace, rather than
with a producer in a studio.
This year, Stornoway have headlined the BBC Introducing Stage at Radio One's Big Weekend. They won a place for Glastonbury Festival 09 via an Emerging Bands competition and were subsequently been booked to play an unprecedented four different stages at the event. The
debut single 'Zorbing', released in June 2009, is a joyful brass-driven pop song which refersmetaphorically to the New Zealand extreme sport and has received airtime on BBC Radio 1, 2,and 6. At press Stornoway have received accolades from The Telegraph, Independent, Q
Magazine and the Guardian has officially named them their new favourite band.
Stornoway have already gained a reputation for being slightly more educated than your average band; one of their number has a PhD in Duck ecology, another is a real doctor, and another holds a masters degree in Russian literature. Their extracurricular interests include hiking trips, tandem cycling, power-kiting, nature-watching and something called hackisack (rolling down the countryside in a big ball!).
