Elephant Sessions
Saturday #PVFF21
WINNERS 2017 BBC SCOTS TRAD AWARDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR WINNERS 2018 BBC SCOTS TRAD LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR
FINALISTS 2018 BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS – BEST BAND
“The versatility of Elephant Sessions is its strength. Passionate about their culture and their origins, these Scots are using their instruments like weapons to destroy clichés…We love them” – Rolling Stone Magazine
“Absolutely superb…” – Chris Hawkins (BBC Radio 6)
Elephant Sessions transcend boundaries and shake the very foundations of expectation.
Exploding onto the indie folk scene to unparalleled effect with their last album “All We Have Is Now”, the band have since appeared at some of the world’s most notable venues and festivals with audiences crowd surfing their way through the summer and marquee floors breaking under the weight of bouncing fans.
The Mercury nominated Alt-J, along with BBC Radio 6, found themselves converted to the band’s unique brand of indie folk. Reviews from Rolling Stone Magazine sat alongside folk magazine coverage. Radio features accompanied documentaries and highlights shows on television stations.
Charting in the French download charts and selling bucket loads across Europe, ‘All We Have Is Now’ firmly established this band as completely unique.
2018 saw awards in abundance. Opening the year as winners of Album of the Year at the BBC Scotland Trad Awards, they went on to be finalists as Best Group at the BBC Radio 2 awards. In May, Belhaven Brewery got together with the band to award the first ever Belhaven Bursary for innovation in music. The bursary amount matches the Mercury Music prize and was awarded in recognition of their unique and outstanding sound. It was accompanied by the bands own beer ‘Elephant Sessions Ale’, which was launched in May 2018.They closed the year by picking up the coveted BBC Scots Trad Award as Live Band of the Year.
May 2019 saw the release of third album ‘What Makes You’, once again to great acclaim. A UK tour was followed by a summer of festivals across Europe, including Glastonbury, Boomtown Fair, Tønder Festival, Wickham Festival, Belladrum, Towersey, Skye Live and the opening ceremony of the Solheim Cup. Closing the year with sold out shows in both their home towns of Glasgow and Inverness, the band have notched up over 1.5 million spotify streams and charted in digital charts across Europe and Australia. The band spent Hogmanay/ New Year’s Eve by magically managing a simultaneous appearance in both Scotland and Australia! An appearance on BBC Scotland’s Hogmanay show kept fans at home happy, whilst a live concert at The Woodford Festival in Australia officially opened year- long activities for the Year of Scotland in Australia 2020.
Returning from a tour of Australia in January and a quick appearance at Folk Alliance international in New Orleans, the band planned to again head out on the road to perform a few dates across the UK. Then came lockdown.
It takes more than a worldwide pandemic to stop this band though! As soon as they were able to get together, in a Covid safe, socially distanced way of course, they started making plans to film a unique live performance in their home of the Scottish Highlands. As well as providing exclusive performance footage for fans, the stream ensured that their regular touring crew and wider teams, as well as their favourite local venue would all benefit from the stream.
With help from Creative Scotland, Elephant Sessions filmed their Lockdown Special in late 2020 in Ironworks in Inverness. This went on to be one of the most viewed events of the Celtic Connections 2021 online festival. Following huge demand from those that were not able to see this stream the band have partnered with Active Folk By the Oak, Head for the Hills Festival and myplayer.uk for an exclusive stream of this show on 10th April 2021.
With all their UK shows now scheduled for December 2021, the band are adding in more dates, heading to Australia again in March 2022 and have begun working on their next album due for release in Spring 2022.
Watch out for this band – they have transformed traditional music!
