When I was a nipper they used to have a programme on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ called Workers' Playtime.
Basically the Beeb used to send an outside broadcast van round to the canteen of
various factories at dinner time and broadcast a half hour variety show
presented for the workers while they were munching on their corned beef
and salad cream barm cakes.
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I always reckon that just as you remember where you were when was assassinated (OK some of you were still DNA - get over it) and when died, you always remember where you were the first time you saw .
For me it was a small, smoky folk club in a pub called The Old House At ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ
in Lower Crumpsall/Blackley, Manchester way back in the late 60s.
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It was way back in the mists of time when I heard for the first time.
The track was Love Like A Rock from the CD Footsteps and Heartbeats and I was amazed and delighted by the fire and the musicianship. Gypsy music, Blues, Mariachi music, English Music Hall - everything seemed to be there and it all seemed to work beautifully.
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There aren't many classical musicians who can also play other forms of music with any degree of conviction.
Without naming names I can think of one famous flute player who tried to play Irish tin whistle and failed completely.
The notes were sort of in the right order but there was none of the lift and lilt you need when you're playing Irish music.
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It's a strange thing but there have been musicians that were so good that - in past ages people assumed that they had been consorting with the devil.
was one such, he could play the fiddle so fast and yet so accurately that murmurs about him having met with old Nick somewhere along the way were legion. , the great blues man is said to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads; in return the devil made him the greatest bluesman that has ever lived.
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Do you find yourself going back to listen to CDs over and over again because they are just so good?
There are many albums I could list that I play on my mp3 player and in the car because they have that special soul, vibe, call it what you will.
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writes:
During the Darwin Song House week, the first things that came to mind each morning were honey and slippers.
Honey on bread was usually the first meal of the day. It provided an early boost to the energy required by a heavy days songwriting. I was under strict instruction from Debs ( my wife and musical partner in folk duo ) to eat well, and I did not want to disappoint. Additionally, I was under the impression that certain honeys could provide anti-biotic protection against any cold & flu viruses brought into the house by our Scottish and American comrades. This was a fallacy, as my dribbling nose proves....after this breakfast snack we usually all settled down, put on our slippers and started to craft away at our Darwin inspired works of art.
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writes:
You could argue there's something slightly incongruous (and a wee bit symbolic) about piling eight folkies into a big house for seven days to create songs inspired by a man for whom time was everything.
Especially so, you might think, for writers inspired by music that's evolved through centuries and generations of tinkering and forgetting, not a single craftsman's hand.Â
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writes:
Deeya Twennty Won in tha hoooose.
Really lovely to meet Mark and Krista and get that American voice into the mix. The density of their writing is impressive and their attention to detail in both lyric and melodic phrasing is something to behold. The mix of age and experience was what made the week for me. Neil had it just about right in his choice of 'inmates', and hearing the women's voices in three and four part harmony was a rare treat.
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writes:
"I've been enjoying the looks on people's faces on telling them I've just spent a week in a 16th Century farmhouse in rural Shropshire writing songs about
Charles Darwin! I must admit, in the run up to the project I was beginning to wonder what I'd let myself in for. I knew very little about Charles Darwin or science and I'd be living and working with a bunch of people I didn't know.
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