That fine melodeon player, Martin Sucliffe, who joined us in March 06, has left the band. We have welcomed new Martyn Kember-Smith on fiddle.

Relig Oran plays traditional music from England, Ireland, Brittany, Scotland and elsewhere. They arrange the songs and tunes in innovative and interesting ways, creating a contemporary sound whilst remaining true to the tradition.

The band has a website (www.religoran.co.uk) and a growing mailing list.

Relig Oran is:

Andy Renshaw on kalimba, bodhrán, percussion and bass pedals. Andy has been a working musician for over twenty years, more recently being a key member of Jacob's Ladder and Camine (with Tim Edey). Andy brings a wealth of performing and management experience to the band, runs a promotion agency, Positive Arts, and is the main spokesperson for the band.

Andy is also a very fine artist. He made the masks, and the background image on this page (the blue one) is one of his paintings.

Gordon Jackson on mandolin, octave mandola, low whistle, djembe and vocals. Gordon started playing mandolin many years ago. His distinctive mandola sound, for example, on Urra Moor, arises in part from his use of standard tuning - somewhat non-standard these days.

Martyn Kember-Smith on fiddle, frame drum and bodhrán.Martyn - aka Komrade K - also has a Myspace all his own right here.

On most of their gigs Relig Oran is fortunate to have a fine sound engineer in Iain Spink. When he’s not twiddling RO’s knobs, Iain is one half of Grabham Spink. Check out them out.