What I’m fondly referring to as the mad season has started. Ahead lies six exciting weeks of music and activities.
Saturday was the kick off day when in the company of his fantastic Roadies, Sue and Barrie Sutherland, without whom the Masher would not be able to take to the road, and his new Wing Man John Statter and his good Wife Yvonne, we headed off to play a series of sets upon the Keighley and Worth Railway, to celebrate their Beer Festival.
A real fantasy Gig this, for small boys like us. Steam Trains, loads of real ale, and best of all a captive audience, although I think one or two people came close to jumping off the train while it was moving.
And of course introducing a new Masher Wing Man, John (Masher) Statter, and what a performance he produced and without any formal rehearsal as well, adding fiddly bits and Mashing along as if born to the role.
It might have been the fantastic ale, or the quantity sunk, but the audiences certainly made the most of joining in on songs that they had never heard before as for three hours we rode up down the length of the track from Keighley to Oxenhope for near on four hours. Four hours I should say that seemed like ten minutes to us, but probably endless to our fellow travellers.
What’s more I have nothing but praise for the hospitality, and care shown to the performers by the Organisers of this Festival. From the moment we checked in we were shown nothing but courtesy and attention, even to the point of being shown the performance area and how the PA worked etc.. It all went to making the experience special and a stand out event.
To my fellow artists I say, if you get an invitation to play at this event, take it with both hands it’s an experience you will not forget or regret.
So NEXT SATURDAY it’s the Busking Day in central Rotherham. It’s going to be one of those suck it and see events. We’ve got some fantastic acts that have pre-registered from Operatic Quartets to dare I say, Pocketful of N’owt.
But the call is still out there for Bands, soloists, Poets, Theatrical groups, in fact any artist that can do it in the street, and Registration is OPEN on and throughout the day. All you have to do is come to the Registration Office at the Imperial Building, open from around 10:00 am, and someone will tell you exactly where you can go…………… if you know what I mean. More details with a map of where you’ll find the artists can be found HERE
There is a link that has and will be appearing on Facebook daily, please share this link daily with your friends – and if you’re not a friend to the Rawmarsh Mashers get signed up and get all the News from the Mashers / The Myke Barritt Music Trust and Acoustic Rotherham and all it’s activities as they happen.
And of course you’ll also find that all the Concerts are now listed on Facebook Events. If you’re one of the acts then find yours and keep sharing it. We’ll be featuring the week’s Concerts each day as we move along through what promises to be a super season of Concerts throughout the Month of the Rotherham Open Arts Festival. It all kicks off on Tuesday 1st November with Toein’ In The Dark and Ray Hearne playing the Opening of the Gallery, and on Wednesday the 2nd November it’s Paul & Liz Davenport, Philip Cockerham, and Tina McKevitt and Matt Hegarty for a brilliant night of Trad – Contemporary Celtic music. All the details are HERE
But that’s not all. Next Sunday at The Crown in Rawmarsh we celebrate the Third Birthday of Acoustic Rotherham. We have a really super line up of stars from the Folk and Acoustic music scene from around the Region. It promises to be special, so come along and support some great and creative local musicians at work. The fun starts at 1:00pm, it’s completely FREE, so well worth every penny, and the full line up can be found HERE
The Myke Barritt Music Trust sponsored CD from Rotherham’s Man of Memories, Roy Blackman, is still taking shape. All the recording is done, and I’m bashing together the insert ready for someone to do some magic and make it all into a CD. I think we’re still on target for that mid-December release date. But just to tickle your fancy I’ve uploaded another of the songs that will not be on the CD, “Alison’s Not Well Today”. You can find it HERE on the Roy Blackman page.
We’re sorry about all the confusion caused last week concerning the Wandering Minstrels visit to NoSmoke at The Commercial. There is a plan to make this happen on the 4th November. I’m awaiting instructions. Apparently this was all Roy’s fault…………………. Naughty boy!! But at 76 I think we can forgive him the odd slip.
One of the great supporters of Acoustic Rotherham and The Myke Barritt Music Trust has, after much arm twisting I believe, published one of her Novels on the Internet as a download that can be read in most formats including Kindle. Linda Gamston, has some great artistic creativity, and this Novel, “Italian Love Lessons” and published under her writers name of Linda Trevanion is outstanding. You can down load from our Amazon Store HERE at the very reasonable price of £1.75.
OK another bit of admin…………………….. just to keep my life a bit saner. Deadlines for the stuff I send out are
Weekly Blog - Normally Sunday Morning around 10:00 am
Monday News Letter - Monday morning around 10:00 am
Thursday News Letter – Thursday morning around 10:00 am
And obviously the earlier you inform me of an event the more exposure it will get on the Diary listing page, 10:00 am on the day of the event is hardly going to touch the sides. Yes, really.
We reach around 600 – 1,000 people on our Diary page weekly, and our News Letters reach over 5000 weekly. So it’s worth the effort. One Email to acousticrotherham@jmucreate.com or complete the form HERE
Almost coming full circle, it’s Folk train week , Fourth Tuesday so it has to be Hillsborough Folk at Burton Street, and of course at the end of the week good things at the Princess Royal. Wednesday it’s Open Mic Jazz at The Bridge, and Thursday a Phillip Hartley in Concert Gig in Sheffield, and that’s all before the Big Weekend in Rotherham. Full details of everything going off this week can be found on the October Diary Page HERE
And that my friends is this week’s Blog.
Busy times ahead – so get involved, HAVE FUN AND KEEP IT LIVE.
Good stuff as ever. Just to mention, that in addition to everything else this weekend, Friday night will see another of the Bar Steward Sons Of Val Doonican's "Cabaret Thawleys" Open Mic Nights in Thawleys Bar in Wombwell. Always a relaxed and fun packed evening, and Pocketful O'Nowt (note where the apostrophe goes - like and Irish surname) will be along to try out some stuff as well. Be good to see any new faces along, performers or witnesses.
ReplyDelete