Shuffle Aces: Adrian Edmonson and the Bad Shepherds – Anarchy in the UK

This is a fun one if only because of the personnel involved. Adrian Edmonson is obviously well known for his role as Vyvyan in The Young Ones back in the early ‘80s, so it’s cool to see him again. His band are a folk/cover setup that plays punk songs with traditional folk instruments. It isn’t an original concept as there are a heap of bands that are doing genre-shifts with songs (like The Hellbenders!) but they do it very well!

It all started after Edmonson bought a mandolin and taught himself to play a few punk songs on it. After playing together with Troy Donockley, a skilled uilleann pipes player and multi-instrumentalist, for two days they had arranged eight songs. They recruited Andy Dinan, a winner of the All-Ireland Fiddle Championships the band began to perform. Basically a folk band, they play punk and new wave hits from the ’79-’85 era.

And of course you have to watch some old Young Ones footage at this point too!

Official Website: http://www.thebadshepherds.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thebadshepherds
Twitter: @AdrianEdmondson

You can find all the Shuffle Ace tracks – although I’m afraid not this one as it’s not available on Spotify – on a Spotify playlist here.

Shuffle Aces is a series of posts that highlights a song of the week that “shuffling” has brought forth. With all the streaming services it’s not just an iPod on shuffle mode that we use to discover new stuff, but the principle remains the same: hit play and wait to see what gems come forth.