OLD GLORY
Molly Dancers and Musicians

"Possibly the strangest experience I’ve ever had in my life.” - John Peel, BBC Radio 1 (November 2003).

"Dance macabre: Suffolk troupe revives rural tradition of the menacing Molly. Looking sinister is essential. Not for nothing are they called ‘Morris dancers with menace’.” - The Guardian

“What passes before me in the narrow lane is an extraordinary vision, one that wouldn’t be out of place in a hand-printed penny dreadful. A silent, unsmiling procession bearing flaming torches, dim lanterns and instruments, the sound of their hobnailed boots punctuated by the irregular thump of a drum and seven black-robed women their heads wreathed in huge garlands of ivy….” Melissa Harrison - The Times

“I felt like I’d gone back a century or so. The look was vacant, starey, an unpretentious gem of performance art. The dancing is a seemingly effortless mix of metronomic hobnail-clomping, bent arm swings, stopping-and-turning, knee raising, face-to-face shoulder clutching, clasping arms in rings, and last-minute, swift-footed dodging. All this with an accurate accompaniment on melodeon, recorder, drum and tea-chest bass…” - David Bartlett, extract from article in Bury Free Press, February 2024.

"You bring the late C19 Plough gangs starkly to life and provide a valuable "missing link" between history and progressive reinterpretation of Plough-tide traditions.” - Kevin Corcoran, at Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival 2019

“They have been described as morris dancers with menace. You can forget jingling bells and white handkerchiefs. These guys look as if they could use a pitchfork or handle a draught horse if asked.” - Jonno, Plough Monday 2011