If you needed reminding, we were blown into the week by high
winds, and plunging temperatures. However those self same chilly blew a small party of Rotherham Folk up
the A1 to Bishop Auckland.
The purpose of this little outing or carefully planned mission was to start the serious Promotional
work for the Roy Blackman CD, “Roy Blackman-Rotherham’s Man of Memories”, and
of course it being a Masher outing, if anything could go wrong, it did!
Full details of the CD can be found HERE
But first huge thanks to our companions of the day, Jane
(MBMT Secretary) who was the Driver of the day, and our friend Linda who I
think was on standby in case Roy needed the kiss of life at any stage. In such dreadful driving conditions this was
a trip very much beyond the call of duty.
Roy himself was suffering from the most horrendous cold
making it near impossible for him to sing, so the trip for him was hardly
comfortable nor for everyone else who were trying to avoid the germs….. lol
Thankfully for a Monday the A1 was quite clear on both the
outward and homeward journeys and we made excellent time, which of course may
have had something to do with the high winds of course.
So, windswept, we eventually found where BishopFM had hidden
themselves, since The Masher made his last visit to these foreign parts.
It was good though to renew acquaintance with Terry
Ferdinand, who in my view, through his Folk Programme on BishopFM, has done so
much for “unsigned” artists working in the Folk genre.
Unfortunately, we had chosen the day when the Station was
suffering from a complete Internet Streaming failure because their service
provider had major sever problems, which was a little frustrating as we would
not be broadcasting live to the full potential audience.
Roy beguiled us all though, by kicking off with a near
perfect rendition of “Collapse of Family Firm” and while Terry played tracks
from off the CD, Roy would provide an insight into his thinking when writing
the songs.
And when asked about his time on “Hughie Green’s, The Skies
The Limit”, he recited the whole of the Uruguayan 1930 World Cup winning team
complete with footnotes like their Centre Forward only had one arm. A fact that will now be firmly fixed in my
brain.
The interest from the FM listening folks was good to see
though, although poor Terry was having to field pages of Emails from Internet
listeners wondering why they could not see or hear us.
The Masher added a bit of live music with a couple of songs,
The Martians have Landed in Rawmarsh and was joined by the mass choirs of the
outing in a thundering rendition of May Day.
As I write I’m still waiting to hear if all the backup
systems worked and that a copy of the programme can be made available on the
Acoustic Rotherham Web Site. Fingers
crossed.
And so a very tired Masher made it to his duvet at around
1:45am Tuesday, another reason for again expressing thanks to Jane for her
magnificent driving feats.
Roy was again out and about promoting his CD on Thursday. This time it was more local, this time with
the normal Masher road crew of Sue and Barrie making sure that he got to the
right place at the right time.
While the Masher whiled away his evening Roy was entertaining
the members of the Conisborough and Denaby Main Heritage Group, at the Ivanhoe Centre
with a couple of poems and songs and winning over a few folks ready for when
the CD hits the market in January.
I’m told that Roy was a great success, making many new
friends.
Attended an interesting Meeting at the Arts Centre on
Friday, where Arts Groups in Rotherham came together to discuss the development
of an Event in Rose Hill Park, Rawmarsh during the Summer of 2012.
For me it was another of those steep learning curb Meetings,
and a bit of an eye opener was
astonished by the huge amount of work that has already been done in Rawmarsh,
and essentially directed by young people.
The essential difference this time around will be that there will be a
positive move towards Ethnic Fusion in the creativity. There will be more on this as the outline for
the Event begins to take shape.
Then on Saturday we all put on Myke Barritt Music Trust hats
on, well, the MBMT Committee put their hats on and headed for the Papa Legbas
Bash at The Bridge.
Papa Legbas had very kindly dedicated the evening to the
MBMT and allowed us to both publicise the work the Trust is currently engaged
on and explain to a non-Folk audience why the MBMT was formed. Given that this was the first time that the
Committee had ventured outside the comfort zone of Folk Clubs I think that the
evening was a success, in as far as a few quid was made for the funds via the
raffle and new friends made for the Trust.
There is an argument to be made for doing more of this sort
of Promotion in Grass Roots Music Events outside of the genres that the Trust
is by default associated with.
Mid-January is now the clear date for the release of the Roy
Blackman CD, as this week has seen major progress and the final product signed
off to the duplicator.
The limited edition first 150 copies, signed by Roy are
beginning to sell via the Roy Blackman page of the Acoustic Rotherham Web Site,
so if you want to be sure of reserving your copy then now is the time to sign
up, and of course you get instant access to the two FREE Down Load Packages
with eleven additional tracks not on the CD. All details HERE
Christmas has again crept up on me almost without me
noticing. OK the Rotherham Street
Christmas lights are on and the Lions Christmas Sleigh is doing the rounds, but
is it really Christmas next weekend?
Well apparently so. No Sunday
papers on Christmas Eve and it seems half the World is already on the Christmas
holidays. What eventually gave it away
was The Boss digging out the Christmas Tree yesterday along with certain other
Christmas decorations that we can only just afford to light.
Perhaps reflecting the general mood of the Nation, I’ve noticed
that there are fewer houses this year lit up like the Blackpool illuminations
around the dormitories of Rotherham, or maybe I’m simply not getting out
enough.
In any event there’s two seasonal Poems from our ROMP
friends, Christine and Carol on the Poets Corner page, and I’ll just remind you
that if you have Poem for which you’d like a wider audience then please send it
in to acousticrotherham@jmucreate.com
Poets Corner HERE
So what are the good things happening that will be taking us
into Christmas?
From what I understand all the regular Clubs will be
meeting. If you’re travelling to Clubs
it might be worth checking it all out in advance of your trip. However I can say with certainty that on
Monday Barnsley Folk and Acoustic will be having their Christmas Party to which
everyone is invited.
Tuesday The Handsworth Club Christmas Special at the Cross Keys
will feature Tina McKevitt and Matt Hegarty who will be performing their
Workhouse Folk Musical, and it’s well worth getting along to if you can make
it.
On Friday Swansong Acoustic will be doing their very best to be heard at Vasco in Wickersley from about 9:00pm.
You can find it all HERE where you can also find the Special
inbetweeney Club Meetings and Sessions should you be feeling a need to escape
the Turkey and Christmas pudding.
This week’s other additions to the Web Site has been a Review
of Savant’s Album “Scrapbook” on the David Kidman Page HERE, and there are additional links on the Resource Page,
including one to FOLK21, the new name being given to the UKFCN HERE
The re-branding of the UKFCN to Folk21 is one of the
developments to have come out the recent Meeting in Birmingham to discuss
building a series of Regional Presentation Days.
More details as they come in about this development for primarily
Guest Booking Folk Clubs.
While on CD news, watch out very soon for the much
anticipated CD from Papa Legbas. I’m
told that some of the Tracks are very special indeed.
There you go………………. Flying
into Christmas, and dare I say, if you start to get bored with the Brandy and
minced pies why not check out the fantastic music made by local musicians that’s
available either via their Reverbnation page which you can find our Friends
page HERE or check out their exclusive
Demonstration packages HERE on the
Free Down Load page.
Whatever you’re doing this week, have great fun, support LIVE MUSIC and KEEP IT LIVE.
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