About The Band

2024 UPDATE

After some debilitating health issues rendering us unable to perform live as a full band since November 2022, we want to thank you for your messages of concern, support and compassion as we get back on our feet. 

Despite this, we are working hard behind the scenes on multiple projects and also have some new band material in progress. 

The latest news is that Carol and Steve both performed acoustic harp on ‘Easy’, a slow bossa nova love song from Thomas Hingley's (ex-Inspiral Carpets) brand new album The Grand Mal.

Easy also features the pitter-patter of Pete Marshall (Paul Heaton Band) on drums and Gary Hadfield (Elbow) on bass; Tom elevates this moving song with a delicately relaxed and sultry vocal.

The Grand Mal has been pre-released on Bandcamp, where the digital album is on sale for streaming and high quality download on mp3, FLAC and more formats. 

Limited edition physical formats – vinyl, CD and lyric booklets – can be pre-ordered ahead of the September 2024 formal album launch! 

Tom's full band will soon be announcing new dates for live shows too! We saw them recently in Birmingham and know that these upcoming shows will be similarly packed with power, emotion and audience interaction!

 

Band Biography, by Ed Brown

String-based duo/trio/quartet hailing from Hertford, UK. The first time that Steve, Carol and I all performed live as a trio was May 2012 at the Hertford Corn Exchange.

Until then I had been running a local open mic night and one night Steve turned up with his harp and the two of us jammed out Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses. It went down very well with the audience and as we both really liked the sound of a harp and an acoustic guitar we decided to meet up on a more regular basis and learn some new tunes - a mixture of covers and originals. We were asked to play at the Corn Exchange for a half hour slot so we needed a name. We settled on "The 28 String Orchestra" (22 strings on Steve's harp and 6 on my guitar).

By this time Carol had purchased a harp and taught herself some tunes so she guested with us for "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum. Having two harps in our line-up really added to the sound and gave us what we believed to be a totally unique line-up. We now had more than 28 strings in the band so a new name was needed! We settled on Schrödinger's Strings with reference to the Austrian physicist's theory about the uncertainty regarding the wellbeing of a cat. How does that relate to us? Well - we never knew how many strings we would have on stage at any one time!

We started rehearsing on a regular basis and the set started to grow, along with our reputation. We found attending open mic nights to be a great way of getting our act out to new people and found our brief slots turning into featured slots then full gigs. Since 2012, we have played many festivals including Hertford's Rock at the Castle, Camp Bestival, Bestival, Strawberry Fair, and supported Ade Edmonson at the Milton Keynes I.F. festival.

We also found various radio stations keen to interview us so performed live on BBC 3 Counties, Tropical FM, SG-1 and on a Minster FM roadshow in York. In November 2014, we also were honoured to beat 100s of other entrants to win a competition run by Jack FM to play in front of 30,000 people at Oxfordshire's annual firework display.

2014 saw us record our first album at Headline Studios in Cambridge. In 2015 this was remastered by renowned producer Jonathan Miller and is available from us directly on CD and also avaialble to stream or download online (Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play).

One of the highlights of 2015 was our invite to perform at a celebrity function at the beautiful home of the late Robin Gibb CBE in September. We also came runner-up in the UK Songwriting Contest with Kesso Sonata, written by Steve on the beautiful island of Alderney several years ago. In 2016, we were crowned "Best Acoustic Act" in the Cambridge Band Competition, which secured us a fab slot at Cambridge's own Strawberry Fair and also a slot at the amazing Camp Bestival in Dorset. In 2017 we went on to delight the crowds at the even bigger event Bestival.

We were booked every weekend from April 2016 until mid-October 2016 and had a great year, playing lots of new (and old!) venues and getting our music out into the world. In 2016 we were Finalists in the UK Songwriting Contest with our soothing instrumental "The Stream". At the same time, we also recorded our second album "Making Waves", which was formally released in February 2017.

Also in 2016 we relocated to Norfolk and the move, in practical and emotional spects, and subsequent resettling has been a major focus for us in 2017. Despite this, we've enjoyed finding new live music venues, building up a local following and meeting great new friends on the West Norfolk music scene. We also managed to secure a contract to write and record a library album of instrumental music which is now available via JW Media for commercial use.

In January 2018, we were delighted to have got through to the semi-finals of the Festival Too / KLFM Battle of the Bands 2018.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped and encouraged us on our journey so far and are looking forward to meeting friends both old and new as we continue to hit the road.

In 2018 we acquired a mandolin player called Peter, who has guested with us on several gigs so far! So in the true spirit of our very own bandname, you really don't know how many strings are going to be on stage until you turn up for the gig! :)

Ed Brown