The Rough Island Band

st agnes, isles of scilly.  49°53′N, 06°21′W. population 80.

a tiny scrap of wind-carved rock, gorsey downland and fine sand, dropped 28 miles from mainland cornwall.

a vibrant working community, encompassed (and occasionally engulfed) by the atlantic ocean.

the rough island band sprouted from this precarious speck of soil when an island piper whistled in the wind for three young singer-songwriters in love with the place and its people.

our songs reflect the feeling that a community’s history and stories should be set and celebrated in music.  unusually for a celtic outpost, st agnes has no surviving indigenous music.  stories of shipwreck and rescue, tunes for dancing, and evocations of landscape have been written by us in response to an extraordinary place, or borrowed and adapted from traditional cornish music.

our first album, ‘sou’wester sessions’ was arranged, rehearsed, recorded, mixed and mastered on st agnes during a week of the most enjoyable music-making imaginable, with minimal technical trickery and maximum spontenaity.

‘where to?’, the rough island band’s second album follows a similar musical blueprint and sees a return to our temporary island studio, tucked away down barnaby lane on the edge of the magnificent, atlantic-swept wingletang downs. the songs themselves demonstrate a more intimate, heartfelt approach to our experiences of st agnes.


please visit our website: www.roughislandband.com