A BAND which formed in a Great Yarmouth folk club in the 1970s were shocked to find that last week one of their vinyl records was sold on ebay for more than �600!

The group, Stone Angel, formed as a five-piece in 1974 in their home village of Filby, toured throughout Norfolk, accumulating their “acid folk” genre label with an eclectic mix of instruments played.

The band name Stone Angel comes from an angel-shaped gravestone in Trowse which Ken Saul, 61, retired, one of the band’s original member, used to admire on his lunch-breaks from his job in printing at city hall in Norwich.

Ken said: “We never got signed, but just enjoyed playing all different venues. But by 1975 we had a good number of fans, and they started saying ‘why don’t you make a record?’, so we did.”

Just 350 LPs were produced, with the sketched artwork cover by Mel Harris finding its way onto the walls of the Royal Academy, giving the band national acknowledgment.

Forty years later, the group line-up has changed in parts, but Ken and his wife Joan, the band’s singer, and working at Caister library, are still enthusiastic about the band, playing low-key events, including at the Assembly Rooms in Norwich.

But their status changed last week when they went for dinner in Norwich, and were told by a friend that an LP was being fought over online, and after 10 bids was sold for �622.

Ken said said: “We ended up with 90 spare copies of the album stuffed under our bed for years, and Joan was always threatening to throw them away because they were cluttering the house, so we gave some to friends and family, and sold the rest for �3.50 per LP.”

When the couple found out that a folk music enthusiast had made 200 times the amount from their record, Ken said: “To be honest, we are flattered and bemused by the situation, and really don’t feel bitter at all. Good luck to them,”

As well as the huge surge in popularity online, Stone Angel have found their way onto two pages of a folk book called “Seasons They Change”, and have received letters from fans in America wanting to know when they are touring the States.

Geoff Hurrell, the bass player in the contemporary band, said: “Both Ken and Joan are very well known and lovely and interesting people.”

Ken, now also a moth enthusiast, said: “We can’t get our heads around it really. We are just a local band, that’s all we ever were.”

The band will continue to play around six gigs a year, but are still struggling to explain what Ken called: “Our newly acquired cult status.”