Stornoway

Stornoway's music has always had that sense of instant nostalgia to it, ever since they burst onto the scene with 2009's Zorbing, a record so dreamily catchy that you feel after one listen like you've known it all your life. With the release of their second album, Tales from Terra Firma, whilst their arrangements have expanded, that essential wistfulness and soaring folk sound have remained as endearing as ever.

Formed after a chance meeting at Freshers' Week in Oxford, the band rose to fame as the first unsigned act ever to play on Later... with Jools Holland, following that appearance with their debut album Beachcombers Windowsill and an appearance on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage.

Unfortunate to often be thrown in with a great many rather dull, sub-Mumford & Sons folk-pop troubadours, Brian Briggs and co are clearly talented and innovative musicians, displaying their multi-instrumentalist creativity at every live show, which often feature an expanded line-up beyond the original four.

As their career has gone on, Briggs has developed a pleasingly unorthodox lyrical style that reinforces their stature as a band of authentic substance, occasionally in danger of being lost in the mediocre noise of a great many sound-alike imitations. A mini-album follow up to Terra Firma, featuring outtakes from the second LP, paved the way for them to announce plans for a third (slated for release shortly before this gig), and such is their enduring popularity they doubled their fundraising target in just four days. Promising signs indeed for the continued rise of a group of the country's finest folk newcomers of recent years.