Named after the the child-murdering villain from the classic ballad, Lankum are a four-piece traditional folk group from Dublin, Ireland, who combine distinctive four-part vocal harmonies with arrangements of uilleann pipes, concertina, Russian accordion, fiddle and guitar. Their repertoire spans humorous Dublin music-hall ditties and street-songs, classic ballads from the Traveller tradition, traditional Irish and American dance tunes, and their own original material.
They will be joined by special guests, Trad Gathering; a project jointly commissioned in 2008 by the BBC Proms and Return to Camden Town Festival, that brought together 60 of the most talented and accomplished young traditional Irish musicians from across London, St Alban’s, Luton, Cambridge and further afield. In 2018, the 58-strong group have been rehearsing music from the repertoire from the McCarthy Family (from County Clare) who were stalwarts of the London Irish music scene since the 1950s.