3 Daft Monkeys

10th Sep 2021 7:30pm

3 Daft Monkeys will be celebrating an unbelievable 21 years of musical adventures and would love to celebrate with you.

With a fiery helter-skelter blend of influences from East and West, 3 Daft Monkeys inject a unique wildness into their music, producing a symphonious cacophony of styles. Silvery vocal melodies soar above percussive global beats and rhythms, while passionate fiddle-driven tunes weave around animated guitar and bass, all presented with outstanding musicianship in their famously theatrical live performances.

This multi-award-winning live act continues to deliver dynamic, rampageous, powerful performances of their completely original songs with an endless energy and enthusiasm! With years of International festival experience in hand, 3 Daft Monkeys certainly know how to work a festival crowd, and are guaranteed to whip an audience into a frenzy of emotions with every performance.

The band will be touring in 2021 with their ultimate ‘best of’ set list, voted for by their dedicated fans, covering all their most popular songs both new and old, with an accompanying brand new ‘live’ album and merchandise.

3 Daft Monkeys have been personally invited to play live sessions on both the Bob Harris, and Mark Radcliffe BBC Radio 2 shows, with Mark Radcliffe hailing their live show as one of his “Highlights of Glastonbury

Varied and stirring acoustic styles...outstanding fiddle work” (The Guardian)

From wildly frenetic observation and reflective narrative to faintly macabre revelations” (Folkworks)

One of my favourite festival moments ever” (Mike Harding BBC2)

“One of the hardest-working, best lyric-writing, most joyful, danceable bands known to the universe!” (Green Gathering)

“Joyously life-affirming” (West Briton)

“A quality balance of spaced-out dizziness, dance-ability and sophisticated folk music” (Bearded Theory Festival)

“The musicianship - the virtuosity, the song craft, the arrangement is simply astonishing” (Spiral Earth)

BEST ALBUM - Spiral Earth (Readers Poll)
BEST LIVE ACT - Spiral Earth (Readers Poll) + Hancock Awards BEST LIVE ACT - Green Gathering

Review by Jenni Balow

3 Daft Monkeys, well four actually, created a hubbadillia of a musical hullabaloo when their fairground-like sounds and visions shook off any remaining Covid cobwebs at the Minack.

From the get-go, Athene Roberts's tantalising fiddle playing, Tim Ashton's jangling 12-string acoustic guitar, and the driving rhythms of gloved percussionist Rich Mulryne and Jamie Graham on bass, filled the air with a cacophony of sound..

The Cornwall based band kicked off in front of a full house with One Fine Day, setting everyone jig-jiggling in their seats  - how we longed to get up and dance, something that just isn't feasible when you're perched on the side of a cliff.

An excited Athene described it as the "best theatre in the world", and they have played in some pretty impressive festival arenas throughout Europe, including Glastonbury and Eden, in the 21 years since they first performed in tiny pubs and clubs in Falmouth.

She was dressed in a funky new 'octopus dress' designed and made with a friend in support of Ocean Rebellion, which notably staged an artistic protest for G7 delegates at Carbis Bay, this summer. 

Athene and Tim from St Day, told the audience it was a "dream come true" to win star billing at the Minack, so it was fitting to sing Delighted to be Invited.

For years they have played as The Levellers support band, but they have recorded several of their own albums. The Year of the Clown is the latest.

The spooky title song features pipes and whistles and the sound was used again, in combination with Rich's cymbals, for the bewitching Astral Eyes.

The band kept in touch during Lockdown, with a series of Cyber Busks, and they dedicated the song Roses to their many live-feed fans. The link took in Rich in Mullion and Jamie in Hayle.

The introduction of Revolution, a song dedicated to the upcoming generation, was the cue for the band's kids to run on to the stage with hulahoops, staying to perform cartwheels during this entertaining helter-skelter of folk, Celtic and many other musical influences.

They write their own material, and told us that their Hubbadillia describes a loud, raucous, party atmosphere. It was that and more, in the best possible way, and it made us all happy.