Following the success of the Megson concert last year as our Opening Night of the 2024 Royston Arts Festival we decided to stage a repeat in 2025 this time with not one great act but two. Also, being in control of the finances we decided to significantly reduce the ticket prices to an absolute bargain basement ‘early bird’ price of £12 for two such good acts.
Tin Giants came together as a band in 2019 and played one of their very first concerts for Creative Royston in association with Royston MusicFest in July 2019 as a pre-festival event for that year. The following year, Covid stricken 2020, they were commissioned to produce a video for the online-only version of that year’s arts festival which they did despite the difficulties of bringing the sound together from a number of different locations where band members were isolating. You can watch the concert video with Kazsak & Afifi in support HERE on the Royston MusicFest website and I apologise in advance for the old geezer introducing the concert – and I’m not talking about Martin Kaszak! More recently you can listen to tracks from Tin Giants’ album ‘The Lighthouse’ HERE on Filby’s Folk podcasts – Shows 63, 64, 65, 69, 87 & 99.
Drawing from many year’s experience in a number of other bands often with similar or overlapping lineups including the brilliant Shave The Monkey, Tin Giants have gone from strength to strength as their musical virtuosity has become increasingly recognised by the folk music industry and fans alike, resulting in them being in high demand for festivals in 2025.
Below are some links to Tin Giants songs on YouTube and you can find more information about the band on their website HERE We are very pleased they were able to fit the arts festival into their busy schedule.
We also feel very lucky to have Bird In The Belly as the other act in in our Opening Night Concert.
The band formed in 2018 and had established themselves with two acclaimed albums and were all set to go on a tour to Ireland in 2020 when Covid struck. The resultant lockdown at least provided the opportunity for the detailed research which went into the creation of the backstory for their third album which you can find reviewed on the Unicorn Folk website.
The band are characterised by their remarkable vocal harmonies and songwriting skills and unusually are easily capable of performing without any amplification as I witnessed personally last year in a wonderfully intimate concert in St Neots. After their third album, After The City, was lauded by both The Guardian and The Observer I thought it would only be a matter of time before they broke big on the folk scene. I still think that so this concert is a great opportunity to catch them whilst they are still going a bit ‘under the radar’ of the folk music industry, though perhaps not for long so grab this opportunity to see them whilst you can! Carl Filby
Below are some links to Bird In The Belly songs on You Tube and you can listen to tracks from Bird In The Belly albums HERE on Filby’s Folk podcasts – Shows 4, 5, 39, 44, 47, 49 & 99.
Date: Friday 19th September 2025 Time: Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm
Venue: St John the Baptist, Parish Church, Melbourn St, Royston
Tickets: £13 (inc booking fee), £15 on the door.
Tickets from TicketSource: click HERE