Goblin Band

Goblin Band are a four-piece English traditional folk band based in London. The band formed in the wake of the pandemic from small sessions organised by young, queer, folk obsessive friends looking to forge their own way into traditional music. This gave rise to a band of multi-instrumentalists firmly rooted in the music of England, concerned with representing a perspective that confronts the nation’s social and political history of class struggle, industrialisation and colonialism. Through a fusion of harmony singing, fiddle, squeezeboxes, hurdy gurdy and more, Goblin Band deliver a charismatic and unruly alternative expression of English traditional music both riotously joyful and deeply sincere.

Goblin Band formed from sessions of the same name run out of the HobGoblin Music shop in central London, organised by a collection of young queer folk obsessive friends and shop employees looking to forge their own way into folk music.

This gave rise to a band of multi-instrumentalists firmly rooted in the folk music of Britain, interpreted via the leftist tradition concerned with folk’s relationship to the history of the working classes, capitalism, and colonialism. Through a fusion of harmony singing, fiddle, squeezebox, hurdy gurdy, recorders and more, Goblin Band deliver a charismatic alternative expression of English traditional culture in a way which is at once riotously joyful and deeply sincere.

Goblin Band have already received a Quietus Feature and Guardian’s Folk Album of the Month. The band and its members are also integral cogs in London’s blossoming new folk movement, centred around the Broadside Hacks Folk Club and their regularly sold-out events at Hackney’s Moth Club.

Often organising their own seasonal events around London, Goblin Band themselves have played alongside many musicians forming the new folk-vanguard in the UK – Daisy Rickman, Shovel Dance Collective, Milkweed, Junior Brother – as well as some of the genre’s living legends – Peggy Seeger, Martin Carthy and Martin Simpson.

“They can play and they can sing and they’re fearless… the band we’ve been waiting for “ – Martin Carthy

“One of the most magnificent things this listener has heard in a long, long time.” – MOOF Mag

“…stunning… a blissful reminder of the preciousness of our natural world. […] says something powerful, and says it well.” – The Guardian