These Are The Times Ep 1/2

Saturday 26 July
2.30-4.00pm BBC RADIO 4

Jonathan Pryce plays Tom Paine in Trevor Griffiths's two-part drama.
Adapted for radio from the screenplay, the drama tells the epic story of
Paine's personal and public life.

The first part begins in 1774 with Paine's arrival in America as a
penniless immigrant who, within the year, writes the founding document
of the American struggle for independence.

George Washington has Paine's words read to his soldiers before the
Battle of Trenton. Paine's ideas and writings take him to the very
centre of these momentous events and bring him the friendship of
Franklin and Jefferson.

The narrative, which moves from America to Europe and back again over
the course of 35 years, is interwoven with music by John Tams.

I did promise myself and everyone else that I wouldn't return to the subject
of Rachel Unthank & The Winterset's rise to popularity - but the news that
they have been nominated as the annual token folkies for this year's Mercury
award is just too much.

I accept that I am the one marching out of step.

But please, honestly, tell me, what am I missing?

What am I completely failing to hear?

I really am, truthfully, asking, what is it that 'The Bairns' has, that
makes it better than the CDs by Eliza Carthy, Spiers & Boden, Kate Rusby,
Benji Kirkpatrick, Martin Simpson, Seth Lakeman, Faustus [flipping heck
what, in the year gone by, is more glorious than passages of the new Faustus
CD], and many others I've either temporarily forgotten or just not had the
opportunity to hear?

What?

Anyone?

WADEBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL 2008

Following the great success of the last-minute Wadebridge Folk Weekend in
2007, The Wadebridge Folk Festival will take place over the August bank
holiday in 2008. The festival, which has been organised by Hobgoblin Music
will feature some of the South West's best and most popular artists and
bands, with a few great acts from the rest of Britain stirred into the mix!

Four days of concerts, ceilidhs, sessions, workshops, dances and singarounds
will begin on Friday 22nd August with a concert by the ever popular Show of
Hands, followed by a Ceilidh led by Hobgoblin Music founders Pete and Mannie
McClelland.

As well as concerts, workshops and ceilidhs at the Town Hall, there are many
other events taking place around Wadebridge during the festival. There will
be free gigs, sessions and singarounds at three other venues around the
town: The Bridge on Wool, The Ship Inn and the Molesworth Arms Hotel. There
will also be street entertainment in Wadebridge town centre throughout the
weekend, and a craft fair at the St John's Ambulance Hall in Wadebridge.

While working on the Pirates of the Carribean films, director Gore
Verbinski and his star Johnny Depp became fascinated with the lore and
fable of the pirates and sailors who ran the high seas before the days
of upright tray-tables and airsick bags. Not too far behind was Hal
Willner, who quickly joined into the mix, dragging a very impressive
list of musicians to create what we now know as Rogue’s Gallery:
Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys.

What most people don’t know yet is that London, Dublin and Gateshead
will be the venues for these songs to be performed live for the first
time, as they will take us on a trip like no other, exploring the
hardships, the horrors, the lusts and lurid depths, and the crystal
beauty that led men to the sea in ships for hundreds of years. Artists
such as Lou Reed, Pete Doherty, Robyn Hitchcock and Tim Robbins, among
dozens of others, will help bring these tales to life. Complete line-
up after the break…

The dates:

July 18 - Analog Festival, Dublin
July 24 -The Sage, Gateshead
July 28 - Barbican, London

The evening concert (Bella Hardy, Martin Simpson, and Bellowhead) can be
seen again on the BBC iPlayer at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00cp2gx

until next Sunday (27th July) - and very good it was/is too!

Woke in the night with a half-remembered rhyme running through my
head! I heard it only once at a Cheddar Folk Day longer ago than I
care to admit, and in order to convey I've had to make up the bits in
brackets (at least).

Question: Who wrote it, I have a name something like John
Alders(l)edge lurking in the mists, and how did the original go?

(This spot marks the grave of) Signwriter Joe
(Whose departure) could not have been sadder
(For he hurtled headlong) through a lettering O
When he slipped and fell off his ladder
...
...
... that he went the same way he came,
By slipping through a hole in a letter!

Anybody see this on BBC4 last night? I recorded it but it over-ran so
I missed the end.

Bella Hardy with Chris Sherburn and Corrina Hewatt
Martin Simpson
Bellowhead

All three were good in different ways, though with Bella and
Bellowhead, I got the feeling that it would have been better to be
there. Martin was brilliant anyway and finished with a great Chris
Wood song I'd not heard before ("Come Down Jehovah").

A couple of sound-byte interviews included the inevitable "what is
folk" question, usually provoking glances between interviewees and
"er, do you want to answer that first?"

Shame that the Royal Albert Hall seemed less than full.

I caught a little of the start of it - Bella Hardy? Not impressed, I
thought it rather dreary and felt she didn't carry off the singing while
playing violin thing particularly well (OK - I compare such things to
Nancy Kerr, so my standards are quite high but if you are going to do
it, then you have to do it well, IMHO).

I switched back to the Great Escape for a while, then tried again and
caught Martin Simpson. As ever he is a great guitarist, but I find his
voice only works well with some material - I'd like to hear him
accompanying a good singer again some time. Not engaging enough to hold
my attention, so I watched the Top Gear team "cocking about" instead.

Switched back in time to get about 4 numbers from Bellowhead who were,
as ever, amazing. I don't always like what they do, but they always
do it well and are both exciting and inventive. They also have oodles
of "presence".

My feeling was that if the organisers weren't "preaching to the
converted" but trying to bring the music to a new audience, then they'd
ot achieved a great hit-rate - I class myself as something of a "folkie"
but I couldn't take Bella Hardy or even Martin Simpson in that context.

The following From Hamish Birchall

In a surprise move, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee today announced
its own public inquiry into the effects of the Licensing Act 2003 (see full
announcement below). Note that this is NOT the 'full public consultation'
promised by the government on new exemptions within the Act for 'low risk
music events'. That has yet to be launched by the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport (DCMS).

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee acts independently of the government
and DCMS. Their announcement today suggests that there is serious doubt that
the Act has delivered the many benefits claimed by the government. These of
course included ministers' claims that it would be easier and cheaper to
stage live music, and that there would be 'an explosion' of live music as a
result.

The inquiry remit includes the impact on the performance of live music, and
whether or not the Act has reduced costs and red tape.

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