EIGHTEENTH DAY OF MAY, THE - The Eighteenth Day Of May

"The Eighteenth Day of May were a six-piece, London based group. Originally formed as an acoustic trio consisting of American Alison Brice (vocals, flute), Swede Richard Olson (acoustic guitar, harmonica, sitar), and Ben Phillipson (guitar, mandolin), they combined elements of traditional and contemporary folk with a psychedelic jangle. They spent the summer and autumn of 2003 bonding over Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Sandy Denny, and Trees all blending in with the psychedelic music they already loved which was feeding into their home demo recordings. In early 2004 they went electric adding the rhythm section of Mark Nicholas (bass), and Karl Sabino (drums, autoharp) and then lastly ex-Saloon player Alison Cotton (viola). It was after appearing on a cover mount disc for the much missed It Comes With A Smile Magazine that Andy Childs (Head of Hannibal Records/RYKO) fell in love with the band and continued the path of fellow legendary Hannibal head Joe