Wheeler Street
Young Man’s Wish / Finglish
Mist Covered Mountains / Barton Road
My Son John
Debut album ‘Roodumdah’ released 23rd February 2009
‘Like the Pogues without the punk…[Wheeler Street] plays with every bit of the authenticity mustered by the likes of Fairport Convention.’ Q, Feb ‘09
‘Even the gloomy stuff sounds unbeat.
You can’t listen to this album and not end up smiling.’ fRoots, Feb ‘09
‘Maidstone’s teenage folkies…. [an] invigorating debut.’ The Independent, Mar ‘09
‘This is one of the most exciting albums I’ve heard for sometime.’ Folk Diary April ‘09
‘[Wheeler Street] know where their music comes from but they have a freshness and originality that’s all their won’ ****Rock ‘n’ Reel, May/June ‘09
‘Barely 18 months out of the starting blocks, Wheeler Street have made one hell of an impact…deservedly [they] have been playing at festivals the length and breadth of the land this summer.’ fRoots
Wheeler Street, based in Maidstone in Kent, are all aged between 16 and 20 and have a passion for folk music which is clear to anyone who meets them and produces an explosion of energy when performing that leaves audiences clamouring for more.
All seven have played music from an early age, acquiring instrumental skills that belie their ages and covering a breadth of instruments that include fiddle, guitar, bass, melodeon, whistle, mandolin, concertina, drums, bouzouki and voice, with a particular skill for close harmony. Though together in their current line up only since 2007, some band members have known each other and played music together for up to a decade. Others come from families where folk music is part of their everyday lives, and some have performed in family folk bands for several years. Some discovered folk music when the several of them first visited Cambridge Folk Festival together in 2003. Not all are locally born. Ben, for example, comes from Newcastle and is of Irish parentage and Sophy was born in Australia. It all goes into the mix along with ideas brought in from all the music you’d expect to find on any teenager’s ipod.
The result is something undeniably youthful with an energy which is utterly infectious yet is rooted in some of the oldest songs of Britain all blended with their own punkish self-confidence and fearless arena-rock abandon, and make it their own.
Since summer 2007 the band have had a growing following and as a result of the buzz developing on the band were booked for a host of major festival for Summer 2008 including a prestigious showcase at Cambridge Folk Festival and a performance at Sidmouth Folk Week.
‘These [other] bands, though, I felt were eclipsed by Wheeler Street…The enthusiasm they put into their set was contagious.’ eFestivals review of Sidmouth ‘08
Wheeler Street released their debut album ‘Roodumdah’ in 2009. The album was recorded at Barewires Studio in Kent and was produced and mixed by Jim Moray. They have since performed at Glastonbury Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival among others.
In 2011 they will release a new live album.
