This week
has been full of meetings and Festival events.
A fine way for this officially sick bloke to be carrying on, and I have
to say that I’m beginning to pay for it.
I can safely say that by way of a change for such things
this week’s round of Meetings have been positive, and this Masher is really
excited about the potential for 2012 in respect of the Arts in Rotherham. There is just so many great things already on
the drawing board, and again, for a change I’m sure that most if not all will
become reality.
What I hope is that the Arts Community will give their
support and add another nail to the coffin of those who would view Rotherham as
some sort of cultural desert.
You’ll have to watch this space, as Rotherham MBC, ROMP,
Acoustic Rotherham, The Myke Barritt Music Trust and ROAR all of which I’m now involved with at one
level or another, get down to sorting out their various roles, structures and
programmes. And you can expect some big
surprises and some great opportunities for “Grass Roots” artists of all genres.
Some of you regular readers will know that I have been
monitoring and taking part in the discussions of the UKFCN, look up their
Facebook page if you want to find out what it is all about, a very short
synopsis would be to say that it’s overall objective is to build links and ties
between “Guest Booking” Folk Clubs in an attempt to build audiences so as to
make sure they survive. Having followed
the debate and discussions closely and taken a look at the Survey Results I
have to say that overall I’m not that impressed the thinking which seems so
“closed”.
There was in the Survey one outstanding statistic in my
view, that being that 70%+ of Festival attendees and even existing Club Members
would not be attracted to going to a Club or a different Club to test new
waters.
From my experience that is just about right. Perhaps even an understatement of the
problem.
So if we cannot grow or cross fertilize our audiences from
within, we of Folk Music must look without, especially if artists are to be
rewarded their worth.
The supposed audience problem within Folk Clubs, is shared
by every art genre. Since the
destruction of our traditional Pub base, the art of going out to be entertained
has been lost. Smokers don’t leave home
as the novelty of freezing to death in beer gardens or the street corner has
lost its glamour, (and like it or not this is by far the most singular reason
for the decline in our pubs), and we now compete not only with other events for
the shrinking audiences, but the glamour of 3D 60 inch Televisions, Computers
and of course Game Consuls.
I’m convinced more than ever that what we need to be doing
is joining with other Art genres to promote our talented people, and that
applies at all levels, and you can be sure this is the direction Acoustic
Rotherham and The MBMT will be going.
So watch out for News as it all starts coming together.
The Rotherham Open
Arts Festival
We enter the final week of events – Facebook folks will be
over joyed to know – Wednesday will see The Masher make his appearance,
hopefully with John Statter to my left so that the bottles have two targets to
home in on. Yes, I’ve been dragged
reluctantly to the stage, having been told that if all those artists who have
already done their bit in the Gallery freezer have been made to suffer, it is
more than due that the season ticket holders and sundry unsuspecting visitors
should also be made to suffer.
I do plan to sing just one song on Saturday as well, but
we’ll put that aside for now.
Joining me on Wednesday will be Cracktown all the way from
Hull. If you’ve not seen these lads take
it from me, it’s an experience that you will never forget.
Also appearing will be Pocketful of N’owt. They will be appearing either in their full
frontal glory, or as a cut down version due to Mike having made his Wife suffer
so much over the past month.
It’s a night of total madness and a fitting end I think to
the Wednesday Night Concert season.
On Friday. That’s the
25th November. We have
something very special, a rare live presentation of Hearts of Steel, which is a
reflection in song and verse on the production of Steel in Rotherham. The team, led by Ray Hearne, (for his sins
making a third appearance at the Festival) and including that man of song, Roy
Blackman will performing in the Gallery for Free. Might be a good idea to get in early for this
one. If you’ve not been or intend not to
come to any of our events, this is the one worth making an exception for. Copies of the DVD will be available at £9.99
at The Gallery Reception from Friday through to closure on 30th
November.
And then on Saturday we have the last of the Saturday Brunch
Concerts, and I can promise you a real treat.
Paul Newman the Bard of Sheffield will be entertaining us with his
brilliant stories and songs. One to
bring the Children to………. You won’t be disappointed. We have Roy Blackman singing songs from his
upcoming CD “Roy Blackman – Rotherham’s Man of Memories”, in full concert mode,
and not to be missed. The fabulous
vocals of Rachel Barley will be ringing out around the Gallery and the powerful
voice of singer song writer Will Padmore will be in residence for a rare performance. Ad as stated, The Masher will have the
perfect song for finishing the whole thing off.
I’m sure that we’ll also have contributions from the poets
of ROMP.
The remaining programme can be found in full HERE
We have to thank Christine from ROMP in particular who
has not only been a season ticket holding member of the audience but has filled
in brilliantly with her poems between the music, whenever I have asked, or when
some people have failed to show their face.
And the past week at
The Festival has been quite special.
On
Wednesday and Saturday it’s been standing room only at various stages of the
events, which has been fantastic for both artists and the atmosphere – let’s
face it the more we squeeze in the warmer we’ll all be.
Tuesday there was an enthusiastic gathering of Poets and
Song Writers to explore memories of Saturday afternoons at Millmoor, led by Ray
Hearne.
It’s funny how we get all romantic about our football going
memories – of course mine were all based at Fratton Park, so it was with
interest that I listened to the memories of United supporters, and reflect upon
how similar the sights and sounds around a ground no matter where they are
placed were.
A lovely evening. For
those who came along and want to get work to Ray you’re find the links HERE and there is also a link for
anyone who wants to find out more about the overall project.
On Wednesday night we
were again treated to a fantastic, and thankfully up beat and warming
set from Storm Trees (Eskimo Kissed!).
My personal thanks to Julie and Richard who have been great supporters
of the Rotherham Open Arts Festival having made three appearances. They are a hard working musical couple, and
on the evidence of what I’ve seen this month will be heading onwards to much
better things in the years ahead. I
think they have made many new friends over the November who I hope will help
swell the audiences at their local appearances.
My considerable thanks also go to Mark Hearne who stood in
with only 48 hours’ notice for The Backyard Buskers who could not appear
because of illness to their lead singer Richard. We hope Richard is well on the road to
recovery.
What a great performance?
A mixture of songs from traditional to rock – and some brilliant musical
improvisations, showing off his rather dry sense of humour…………
So thanks Mark. And
what a pity we don’t see a lot more of you around the venues of Rotherham.
And someone managed to capture a picture of brotherly love
as the Hearne takeover of the Festival was completed.
Bringing up the rear, were the fantastic Troubadors. Steve and the Boys had feet a tapping as they
overcame a couple of technical difficulties to produce another fine
professional performance.
OK these guys come from Wakefield, but they have been great
supporters of live music in South Yorkshire.
The good news is that they are beginning to get the wider recognition
they deserve, and somehow I don’t think I’ll be able to book them for the huge
Fees I pay anytime soon. Their Diary is
looking full, but I’m sure for the right bribe they could have their arm
twisted into making more appearances in the area.
Big hugs and thank you to the Boys. And we all left the Gallery feeling pretty
warm.
And our thanks also go out to John Cawthorn for the poetry
contribution from ROMP
And onwards to Saturday where we had another feast of music
at the Saturday Brunch Concert.
Making many new friends was Rotherham’s young song writing
talent Phil Sinclar. A strong
performance of his songs had unusually early morning large audience hanging on
his every note.
Well done Phil. Once
again this a chap that really needs the support of the Arts Community to spread
the word about his work, and help boost his confidence. Phil deserves many more Gigs, and I hope they
will be coming his way.
If Phil was not enough evidence enough of the hidden talent
in Rotherham, then the vocal performance of Catherine Bindon, supported by
Rotherham trouper Andy Hoult on guitar certainly rammed the point home with a
huge swing of the hammer.
Complicated songs sung majestically, understates this fine
performance of a set hurriedly put together in the early hours of the morning,
because Catherine had to travel up from Bristol University to be with us.
I don’t think I saw one person leave the Gallery during her
performance, they were just captured by not only the delivery of the songs but
also the care taken with a programme of jazz, blues, pop, and traditional
songs.
Also producing a confident and wonderful set full of great
vocals was Heather Woodhead, and I have to say what a pity that so many left
during the interval and missed what was a superb performance. Again it was a full mixture of songs, from
the traditional to the contemporary side of Folk Music.
And yet another performer deserving of a
wider audience.
I was really impressed with Heather’s professionalism, and
dare I say that her confidence and her delivery of the songs has soured since I
last got to hear from her at an Acoustic Rotherham. A very important reminder that we must invite
her back again in the very near future if she can find room for us in her busy
Diary.
Following on from Heather came a set of yet more magical
vocals from the talented Karen Gilmore, who along with her Partner Nigel Smith
go under the name of Swansong Acoustic (when in duo mode and Swansong when in
quartet full rockin’ mode)
It was again a programme delivered so professionally in
difficult circumstances.
While I love their rockin’ sets, I have to say that I think
the full value of Karen’s singing versatility is best heard in acoustic
sets. In a day of outstanding vocal
performances from the start it was another brilliant performance.
Karen works really hard on the circuit, not only does she
join up with the full Band but she also performs as a solo performer in Club
Land – a show I still have to see, (so get yourself booked into The Rawmarsh
Trades and Labour Club) but like me, if you see her name of the Billing for
your Club go along and give her some support and someone to chat to during the
Bingo.
And the day’s extra surprise came from the really powerful
voice and amazing songs written by Andrew
Oxley.
OK you’re bored of me saying
it, but, again, Andrew is another undervalued talent that should be nurtured a
lot more by Promoters in the area.
The power of his playing is so evident by the fact that our
decibel counter was closing in on the red on his own, even out doing the
Troubadors. The breaking of a string was
also a bit of a giveaway to. He tells me
that it’s third time in as many gigs that has happened, so perhaps he needs to
invest in a backup guitar, something he will only be able to afford if we get
out there and book him.
Well done Andrew, and I’m only sorry so few were there to
actually enjoy your performance. We’ll
put that right at Acoustic Rotherham 14.
And the reason Andrew was a surprise inclusion is that he
was due to have taken part in The Festival Within a Festival – that which did
not happen. So I was more than happy to
have Andrew come and play at the Festival venue.
We’ll deal with some of the negatives in next week’s summing
up Festival Blog.
And I should also add that this Saturday did not follow the
pattern of the previous two Concerts, where audiences grew over the day,
instead, the audience crammed in for the morning bit of the Brunch concert and
then sort of gradually evaporated in an unexplained way…………… so my thanks to the those on in the
afternoon for being so professional and producing such outstanding
performances.
Thanks to Christine for the poetical interludes between the
music, as said before they were much appreciated.
All the pictures can be found HERE
Unfortunately I was not able to get to either of the Dance
events at Magna this weekend, under instructions from she who must be obeyed to
rest.
However, I was very pleased to read that both events were
simply fantastic spectacles, especially the Retina Dance Company production on
Sunday which from those who saw it I learn was a really uplifting
experience.
Dancing with the Retina Company were a dozen Rotherham
Dancers who I’m told excelled, and demonstrated the Dance talent we have in
Rotherham. It’s worth noting that they
had only five days to learn the Dance making their achievements even more
notable.
My congratulations to all those involved.
The Web Site is currently going from strength to
strength. I’m not going to make any
false claims on the usage of the Site as some clearly do, (I recently saw one
local site claiming 250,000 hits, when checked, it’s possible that they added
three zeroes to actual hits as the World ranking was a 20,000,000 away from
Acoustic Rotherham).
Our World Ranking is the highest it has ever been at 529,000
according to Alexia. Our National
ranking is 22,000. We normally trundle along at 560,000 and 26,000
respectively.
Even our Blog Rankings have significantly improved, reaching
the level of eight months ago when Myspace blacked us out when they changed all
their RSS links without telling anyone.
The improvements seem to be working and in December I’ll try
and get the reconstruction finished so that the site has a uniform look to
it.
The figures do show that we are one of the most read music
sites, especially in the Folk / Acoustic genre in the UK, the notable exception
being Spiral Earth.
We will be seeking to strengthen our Resource Page early in
2012 – and widening the scope of the Arts that we feature on our pages. Keen readers will have already noted that the
visual Arts are already being featured on the Diary pages.
This week Philip Cockerham’s latest CD has been added to the
David Kidman Review Page HERE – the final
Art work for Roy Blackman’s CD is on display on the Roy Blackman Page HERE – and of course all the pictures
from the Festival and Busking Day are up.
And don’t forget there is an open invitation to have your
music on our Demo page. All you have to
do is forward the Tracks or send me a CD and we’ll make sure that it is featured. You can check out the great packages already
on the site HERE
I’ve updated our Facebook profile photograph with a picture
taken by John Rosling a young Photographer and Film maker from Rotherham. Check out his fantastic work.
Westgate Chambers, the
new home of ROAR is nearing completion. Volunteers
are still wanted to finish off the painting and next weekend play at being Mr
Shifter Men. If you have some spare time
that you can give please contact Katherine on 07834341468.
The Opening will be taking place on 7th December,
starting at 5:00pm.
I got to meet Matt this past week, who is to be ROAR’s
Development Officer. His Official start
date is 5th December, but will be out and about talking and
listening to people before then, he will also be available for discussions
about raising Funds and writing claims.
Rotherham Trade Unions will be on the March in Support of
the Public Service Pensions Strike on 30th November. There is a possibility that The Masher and
other Rotherham Working Class artists will do short spots in All Saints Square
between 10:40 and 11:20 am.
I’m still hoping that we’ll have the Roy Blackman CD out
before Christmas……….. it’s going to be
touch and go, but the Art Work is currently being proof read by David Kidman
and then it’s all systems go to the duplicators. Advanced Orders can be made HERE
Finally, besides all the great things going on in the last
ten days of the Rotherham Open Arts Festival, and if you’ve not been to the
Gallery yet, get down there, the art work is just stunning, and it comes from
our own Rotherham Artists, there are some other great events going off, head
off to the November Diary page HERE
for all the details.
I hope we’ll see you at one or another of the events over
the next week. And if you’re a Facebook
friend and we’ve not met then come up and say a few words.
Whatever you are doing this week, have fun, support local
musicians and KEEP IT LIVE. (see you at the Gallery on Wednesday)
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