Flook Live on stage
for all enquiries regarding bookings for gigs etc. please contact

Flook
33 Lemsford Road,
St. Albans, Herts, AL1 3PP, UK
Tel/ Fax: +44 1727 861209
“A sensational live act.... in the front rank of the innovators”

The Rough Guide to Irish Music, April 2001
“You need a cold shower to fully wake up to the phenomenal potential of this music”

Irish Music Magazine
“Probably many people’s choice as band of the year...little short of miraculous. Their last album ‘Flatfish’ was excellent, but even that cannot prepare you for the rapport that exists between these four musicians on stage. Flook has to be an essential live experience.”

Bristol Venue Magazine
“Sheer musical magic...Stunning technique, impossibly agile rhythm work and virtuoso flights of jazzy improvisation add up to one of the most enthralling sounds around.”

The Scotsman
“Multi-layered, rhythmically sophisticated and meltingly beautiful.”

Glasgow Sunday Herald
“They looked for all the world like four people - until they started playing when they became as tight as one while producing a sound as rich as ten”

The Shetland Times
"There's a remarkable empathy and sheer exuberance, a marvellous array of wind-generated tones and textures underpinned by sensitive strings and percussion. Yes - ex-Barely Works and Big Jig Allen and her mates are pretty damn special."

Manchester City Life
"The irrepressible Boyd is proving a great front man, aside from his huge talent, the interactive playing between Allen and Finnegan is a joy to watch, while that stomping finale sees Kelly giving the number, The Dub, a breathtaking bodhran solo of outstanding rhythmic drive...brilliant."

Yorkshire Evening Press
FLOOK - HAMMERSMITH IRISH CENTRE, LONDON, February 6, 1999

Four of the most inventive musicians on the circuit, Flook are more than your average trad group. The Anglo-Irish quartet have been selling out to audiences everywhere and The Hammersmith Irish Centre was filled to the brim last Saturday with the most genuine of fans.

Never have I seen so many people so completely and utterly spellbound as flutes, whistles and pipes were skilfully blended with bodhran, accordion and guitar to create the most magical of experiences. You could have heard a pin drop.

Trad with a youthful and modern twist, each group member is in their twenties and all are supremely accomplished musicians. Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan take care of the wind instruments while Ed Boyd and John Joe Kelly provide an enviable rhythmical foundation with guitar and bodhran respectively.

 In the more than capable hands of the latter, Allen and Finnegan are free to weave their intoxicating melodies with such dexterity and intuition that at times it is impossible to distinguish one from the other. They move between instruments with an unconscious ease but their most impressive quality is their commitment, which is as refreshing as it is exciting. The introductions to the songs are a reminder of traditional music's origins in oral culture and Flook's set bears marked witness to extensive European influences. There are songs gathered from France, Hungary and West Cork to name but a few but all are subsequently given the Flook flourish. Liberties are never taken with interpretation and improvisation is governed by the group's acute sensitivity to a composition's original form. A perfect blend of toe-tappers, reflective ballads and crowd-whoopers, the music ultimately speaks for itself and is executed with mesmerising talent.

Clare Byrne,  The Irish Post, London February 20, 1999