I'm looking for recommendations of folk-rock in the style of The Levellers, The Waterboys and (I suppose) The Pogues, plus the folkier side of New Model Army. In other words, folk-rock from a post-punk, 80s/90s perspective rather than a pre-punk 60s/70s one (Fairport, Steeleye etc).

Other bands I know in this style were a local Kent band called The Original Fling, and a German band called The March, who were an interesting mix of Levellers and NMA.

I should also point out that while I don't mind a bit of Mumford & Sons, I find the current wave of hipster indie/folk largely unpalatable.

What ya got?

EDIT:

here's some examples:

The Levellers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rxC6_S1a1A&t=9s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hdTQr3Vxao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYcXjJXxqVM

The Waterboys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxtpRXGpWmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmyPHfu9c0c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfXGt2MtSs8

The Original Fling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1hJZldNdGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U-4sl_aY24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDV1nr6nBiY

The Skids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhIkgbSZTdg
Featuring... guess whom?

Volkolak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRQXwCnRaEY

Thanks. Afraid I didn't like The Skids, too glossy and over-produced for my liking. And to whom were you referring?

Volkolak were interesting. I wanted to steer clear of that whole pagan/viking/slavic thing, as that's usually a whole different thing, but I could actually hear a vague similarity to what I was looking for.

Keep them coming.

Someone I remember us talking about before, Mike Oldfield. (Yes, really!)

Really? I didn't know that. Still don't like the song though.

And your memory is superb!

Fair enough. I think it's really cool, perhaps precisely because the production is more polished than your average punk band's. I particularly like the drum sound.

I think you can easily detect Oldfield's style (he is of course playing the Fairlight synthesizer here) once you know he's on it, but it is indeed an unlikely place to be looking for him.


Well, when someone mentions liking Oldfield on a metal forum, or vice versa, you can bet that I'll remember that as it happens so rarely. I have some idea why that might be but I still find it weird because fans of either tend to branch out quite a lot.

Ha ha, I think he was umbilically attached to that bloody Fairlight at one point!

I've added some YouTube examples to the original post.

Fiddler's green perhaps http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj41xZHA5Eg they got a fair share of folk but a bit more rock than the examples.

That's great, thanks! That's pretty much exactly what I'm after. I'll look further into them later.

First two are really obvious, but you don't mention them:

The Alarm, the EP and first album are great:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUPbQi78WHI

The Men They Couldn't Hang:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUqpp-a9Tac

Les Rameneurs de Menhirs, recent band from Brittany:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6pJ4PriGzQ

Awesome, they're all great! I had heard of The Alarm and The Men They Couldn't Hang, but foolishly never checked them out. And I love Breton folk, so that last band is very interesting.

Cheers!