The Magpie Arc

The Magpie Arc is a cross-Border band out of Sheffield and Scotland featuring the multi-award-winning talents and wide musical influences of Nancy Kerr, Findlay Napier, Tom Wright, Alex Hunter and Martin Simpson (on electric guitar!).

Formed from the idea of bringing together a group of established folk musicians who would mix their song-writing styles and musicianship in a full-on electric band to create exciting new music and update the classic 60’s and 70’s British folk/rock sound, the possibilities of The Magpie Arc being something special and unique on today’s folk scene became obvious very quickly.

Having three strong writers the focus has naturally been on new material, however they’ve also tackled some great covers plus their own re-workings of traditional songs. There’s folk and rock, some country and even blues, but whatever the genre the band are already proving to be a musical mix of everything you could expect from such a line-up, with excellent songs, lush harmonies, powerful electric guitars, gorgeous fiddle lines and rock solid bass and drums.

With twelve songs recorded just before “you know what” hit, the band released a trio of four track EP’s on their own label in late 2020/early 2021 and in November 2022 they released their first full length album, Glamour In the Grey, to rave reviews, an entry in the Official UK Folk Album Chart at number 9 and album reviews which referenced to “Led Zeppelin riffage” and “just the right amount of Black Sabbath for folk/rock”.

The buzz about seeing the band live and the anticipation among those in the know all became clear in 2022 as they hit festival stages during the summer (including a main stage/stage two double appearance at Cambridge) and at various venues around the UK to ecstatic audiences and superb reviews.