Next Up: Heigh Ho Holiday and TCM on the Radio!

Rehearsals are underway for our Heigh Ho Holiday concert at Saint John's Smith Square! Congratulations to Jackie Jones, winner of our Facebook competition and recipient of two free tickets to the concert and a copy of our new recording. Tickets to the show are selling quickly - get yours here!

Don't forget to tune into BBC Radio 3 tomorrow at 17:00 to catch us on an episode of 'In Tune.'  We'll be performing live in the studio!

Rehearsing a piece for 'Heigh Ho Holiday' at Saint John's Smith Square

Rehearsing a piece for 'Heigh Ho Holiday' at Saint John's Smith Square

Praise from Early Music America for 'The Topping Tooters of the Town'

We are thrilled to receive a glowing album review by Early Music America for 'Topping Tooters'! Here are some highlights:


'CITY  MUSICK TRIUMPHS TOASTING TOPPING TOOTERS' - CD Review by Mike Telin:

'Why these are the city waits, who play every winter’s night through the streets to rouse each lazy drone to family duty. These are the topping tooters of the town, and have gowns, silver chains, and salaries, for playing “Lilliburlero” to my Lord Mayor’s horse through the city. — Ned Ward, The London Spy, 1709

'Thus begin the liner notes for The Topping Tooters of the Town: Music of the London Waits 1580-1650, the latest CD from William Lyons and his top-notch, London-based Renaissance band, The City Musick, which takes its title from Ward’s flight of alliteration...'

Read more

New Recording!

The Topping Tooters of the Town: 
Music of the London Waits 1580-1650

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'Performing on period instruments constructed to Renaissance specifications, the group furnishes the perfect musical time-travel, and it will have you drumming along on your steering wheel or desk in no time.'

-WRCB Classical Radio Boston, 'CD Pick of the Week'


Our new album is a celebration of the music of the ‘waits’ – town musicians who were famed in London for their artistry and skill on a par with those at the court.  The London Waits were highly skilled and valued musicians in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. They were an aural emblem of the city, employed for civic ceremonies and public events, the theatre and dances, and in liturgical services. The Topping Tooters of the Town celebrates the diversity and glorious sound of a Waits band at its best.

LISTEN/PURCHASE