THE NEW ROPE STRING BAND

Once seen, never forgotten: an indefinable confusion of superb musicianship and side-splitting comic genius, the New Rope String Band were truly unique entertainers. Elements of circus, clowning, vaudeville, slapstick and sheer inspired silliness spliced with beautiful acoustic music from various world traditions, in precision-honed yet uproarious performances that delighted audiences from Borneo's Sarawak rainforest to the Shetland Folk Festival. Equally at home in tiny village halls or on major festival stages, these three maniac minstrels mixed up long-time favourite routines with ever-evolving new material. From musical gyrations to deconstructed nursery rhymes, Python-esque absurdism to pyrotechnics, dream sequences and live, interactive film, audiences had to expect the hilariously unexpected.

Finally, the New Rope String Band came to the end of their tether. The sheer strain of spreading joy around the world for more than 25 years as Old and New Rope has proved too much. Audiences' laughter muscles have been stretched and twanged and they, too, needed a rest.

Before these ageing folk-cabaret artistes went their separate ways, heading for new and exciting theatrical and musical horizons, they did a farewell lap of honour, a celebratory extravaganza of their finest routines with some specially-created final flourishes. Fish tanks, boiled eggs, fiddles, banjos, cardboard guitars, theremins, explosions, interactive films, drainpipes, mermaids, pink y-fronts, thrills, spills, tears and hilarity, all culminating in a final gig and party weekend on Halloween 2015.

And now, at last, the DVD of that final gig at The Tyne Theatre and Opera House on 31st October 2015 has been released.

Head over to the Casting Off page to buy a copy or three. £15 each, plus P&P at cost.