Ramskyte Revived! Ramskyte were Portsmouth’s premier Folk Group around the Millennium, producing 4 albums between 1996 and 2003, and are now revived by original members, as good now as they were then!
Ramskyte were active as a 4-piece Harmony Group for several years around the millennium; originally a 4 piece Harmony Group. The band members first got to know each other because of all being members of the (in) famous Victory Morris in Portsmouth.
John Bartlett started out as a professional actor before moving into Drama Teaching. After joining Victory Morris in the early ’80s he first amassed a collection of lesser known traditional songs which became the basis for the first Ramskyte album ‘A Country Chorus’ , and then started a most prolific career as a song-writer - he's still at it!
John Thornton is a talented Concertina player, and the only member of the group with any real musical training, hence if a song sounds as if it's actually been arranged, it was probably him! He provides the Bass lines.
Pete Luscombe started singing in folk clubs in the mid-’70s, and was asked to join the Portsmouth Shantymen in the early ’80s. They are still going strong. He's the one that John Thornton was always getting to sing ridiculously high in his arrangements!
The late Brian Ingham was a teacher and well known singer in the local area over many years. He was also a founder member of the Portsmouth Shantymen. His distinctive tones filled out the middle of the sound. Sadly he became ill just as the group seemed about to take off in a big way, and passed away a couple of years later.
Ramskyte first sang together as a group to support productions staged by John Bartlett's students - among them ‘Lark Rise’ at the Theatre Royal Portsmouth, a production based on the Medieval Mystery Plays and also one of John’s own plays ‘Lumley Mill’.
Having then got together to record ‘A Country Chorus’, they found themselves with a master tape, but no money to pay for any copies, so decided they needed to do some some gigs! This turned out to be so much fun that they just carried on.
Another 3 Albums later, and on the verge of wider success in the folk world, Brian became ill, and that could have been that.
However, Pete & John decided to carry on as a duo ‘Wholehearted’ – they made an album; ‘Ripe and Bearded’, and have continued to perform as other commitments allowed over the last several years.
Ramskyte never entirely stopped performing – the surviving members have sung together ad hoc at Christmas when out with the ‘Broadside Mummers’ and have done the odd booking at Portsmouth’s Victorian Festival of Christmas and workshops for the FASH organisation on Winter and Christmas Songs. When John Thornton wanted to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Hambledon Folk Club he decided to try to bring back acts who had performed in the first year of the club’s existence - Ramskyte actually sang there twice in that year, so they were booked for that. They had a great evening there, but that was only a 20 minute spot. Next though they were contacted to do the ‘Bobbing Barn’ Festival in Kent, a full evening, so they had to do some serious song learning and re-learning - and since then they haven't looked back!
