The New Scorpion Band was formed in 1993. The name is taken from the original Scorpion Band, a quartet who performed with clarinet, trombone, cornopean and bass drum in the Dorchester area during the years around 1830. The New Scorpion Band was created and is led by the distinguished Dorset folk singer Tim Laycock, who has devoted a lifetime to the music and traditions of the South West of England. The group brings together the talents of five musicians with very wide experience in many different styles of music - the English, Scots and Irish traditions, early, baroque and classical music, opera, jazz, brass bands and theatre, television and film music.

In 2001, the band’s violinist Colin Thompson decided to leave, no longer wanting the constant travelling of the gigging musician's life. He was replaced by Sharon Lindo, who has brought to the band a surprising range of instrumental skills (she also plays guitar, mandolin and trombone) and has greatly extended its harmony vocals with her strong soprano voice.

The band has played at a long list of music, arts, historical and folk festivals in Britain and overseas. Their last international trip was to the Shanty Festival at Workum in Friesland, and they have recently been invited to the Malta Festival, to play at the historical British Fort Rinella. They have made three British Council-sponsored tours of Colombia, playing venues from the main concert hall in Bogota, to audiences of young people in disadvantaged parts of the city and villagers living in the heart of the civil war.

In Britain, they have appeared at Towersey, Sidmouth, Warwick and other major folk festivals, Liverpool, Lancaster and Bristol Maritime Festivals, Portsmouth International Festival of the Sea and many other locally and historically themed events. They are regular visitors to the principal Arts Centres and other concert venues in the UK - The Purcell Room, Nottingham Lakeside, Taunton Brewhouse, The Sage, Fareham Ashcroft Theatre, Halifax Square Chapel and many others. They performed as the village band in Alan Ayckbourn’s “House and Garden” at the National Theatre, London, and also featured in ITV’s film of Thomas Hardy’s “The Mayor of Casterbridge”.

The New Scorpion Band is well known for its themed programmes of words and music, on subjects including Christmas (The Holly and the Ivy), Halloween and the supernatural (Cold Blows the Wind), the life of Lord Nelson (Bold Nelson’s Praise) and more (see our Words & Music page for further details).

The group's skills with words and music have led to various commissions – in 2010 they were invited to create That Noble Fellow Collingwood by The Sage, Gateshead for the bicentenary of the famous admiral’s death, and in 2007 they received a commission from Lancaster Cathedral for Sound The Jubilee, marking the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807, which has been performed at Sidmouth and other festivals, and features the actor Tas Emiabata.

In 2006, the members of the New Scorpion Band modelled the playing of various instruments for the sculptor Paul Fletcher, who was creating a new set of musical angels for Bath Abbey. The angels, carved in limewood by Laurence Beckford, can be seen above the Abbey’s choir stalls, playing the violin, concertina, Irish pipes, tuba, theorbo and flute.

In 2010 the band was invited by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra to join in a shared Christmas concert, “Wassail !”. The programme featured contributions from the band, the orchestra and both playing together, along with vocal support from the Purbeck Village Quire. It was premiered with great success at the Lighthouse in Poole, and will be repeated there in 2011, as well as visiting the Portsmouth Guildhall and the Colston Hall, Bristol.