The Trials of Cato

The Trials of Cato are a Welsh/English folk band that originally consisted of Tomos Williams, Will Addison and Robin Jones. Their 2018 debut album Hide and Hair won Best Album in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2019. In 2020, Will Addison left the group, and was replaced by Polly Bolton, a mandolin player and vocalist known for her work with The Magpies and Stillhouse.

The original trio formed the band in Beirut while working there as English teachers after graduating university. After moving to Beirut, the band stayed with a friend named Cato, who was bothered by the incessant noise of the band practising, hence the name 'The Trials of Cato'.

Their second album titled Gog Magog, after the giant of Arthurian legend and the Cambridgeshire hilltop, was released on 25 November 2022.