What a night! 'Doin different' at Elsing Church Saturday September 10

Doin different -job done. A pic by John MacLennan that says it all. 

The Breckland View - Paul Young interviews us in Elsing Church pre-show for the Norfolk radio station and website.* (*The Night Train To Dis? - hear it here)

More than a preview of Gamorra's last show, also a record of an amazing partnership. 

Plus Vanessa Wood-Davies gives the view from the harpist's chair. 

Songs from a book... Pics by Bhas Allan

 

and Maz Calway's view...

 Half God Half Nelson and the whole cast

Lovehearts & Redwine in full flight.

showing tonight!!! DOIN DIFFERENT DOIN THE DISSENT THING...

RESOURCES FOR THE DOIN DIFFERENT PROJECT  
(AUDIOS AND VIDEOS OF THE SONGS; HISTORICAL SUPPORT)

A church fundraising event with a difference comes to Elsing this Saturday 10 September.
Church of England listing for Doin different!

'Doin different' by Gareth Calway and featuring the author in performance with a galaxy of musical composers and collaborators tells the story of religious and political dissent in Norfolk from Boudicca to the present. Norfolk was at the forefront of both for much of this time.

There is a special emphasis on religious rebels like the Lollard heretic William Sawtrey of Lynn, the first man to be burned for his beliefs in England and on political radicals like Robert Kett of Wymondham and Tom Paine of Thetford. Their stories are told through an exciting collection of folk ballads and also through theatre and dramatic readings.

The thousand year struggle of the common man and woman for a voice in the spheres of politics and religion is traced: the Peasants' Revolt, the Reformation and the English Civil War are brought alive in 'Dissolution Row (The Ballad of Binham Priory)' and 'The Ballad of Freeborn John.'

Homage is also paid to heroes and heroines of the copybook headings like Lord Nelson of Burnham and Edith Cavell of Swardeston who actually 'did different' and broke ranks at least as much as their more obviously dissenting Norfolk compatriots.

'Doin different, 39 new ballads from the East of England' was published by Poppyland last year and the author has been successfully touring East Anglian festivals like the Ely Folk Festival, Folk in a Field and Lynn's Hanse Festival as well as theatres and heritage spaces with a rolling collective of musical collaborators since May.

This 20th - and penultimate - tour date features chief collaborating composer punk-folker Anto Morra, whose 2015 album 'Boudicca's Country' sets 12 lyrics from Calway's book and has received glowing reviews like Fatea magazine's "a collection of fine songs, all of which are capable of passing into folk tradition." 

Rockier notes are struck in Saturday's performance by Tim Chipping on electric guitar and more classical ones  by harpist Vanessa Wood-Davies and soprano Gill Sims-McLennan.

Tickets are £10 on 01362 637331 or on the door.

'Doin different' by Gareth Calway (Poppyland Publishing) is on sale at Jarrold's, Waterstones and via www.poppyland.co.uk It includes musical scores, historical information, pictures of performers and links to online resources about the characters. Full details of tour and book are on www.garethcalway.co.uk

or to put all that another way (Tim's preview) 

Doin’ Different: New ballads from the East of England.

Elsing, St Mary’s Church.

The Doin’ Different Tour comes to St Mary’s Church, Elsing, NR20 3EA on Saturday 10^th September 2016, 7.30pm.

Based upon the new Poppyland Publishing book of the same name, its author Gareth Calway is joined by his musical collaborators Vanessa Wood-Davies (Harp), Anto Morra (voice and guitar - as heard at the centenary memorial service of Edith Cavell’s execution broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Morning Worship programme from Norwich Cathedral), Tim Chipping (voice and guitar) and a guest spot for Gill Sims-MacLennan (classical soprano), to present a show spanning a thousand years of Norfolk history in ballad form.

Traversing the local landscape from Lynn to Yarmouth, Thetford to Wells and back to Norwich, each new ballad tells a “cracking story”; history, tragedy, murders, legends, outlaws, ghosts, love, man and woman against the odds, the exploits of a cast of the county’s famous, infamous and forgotten-about heroes and heroines. We meet Boudica, Queen of the Iceni defying the might of Rome, the ill-fated Fiddler of Fiddler’s Hill, Admiral Lord Nelson,  Margery Kempe, Robert Kett leader of the Peasant’s Revolt of 1549, Edith Cavell, Anne Boleyn, the Cod Fisherman of Lynn, Yarmouth and Wells, the ghost of  Susan Nobes of Sedgeford and Tom Paine, author of The Rights of Man.

Although always respectful to this long list of characters, Doin’ Different has a rumbustious edge to its mix of drama, song, spoken word and music and, whilst humour and a playful use of language are an integral part to the performance, you will also find yourself moved to ponder the “human condition” and man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Doin’ Different is therefore a celebration in music of the rich history of this region, a tapestry of tales woven not only to entertain but to inform and enthuse its audience to find out more about these people who did indeed do different.

Tickets £10, advance booking from Tim on 01362 637331 (includes glass of wine and canapes).

All profits will go towards repair of the north side gargoyles of Elsing church.

Go on, get out from in front of the telly.....................Support live local music and theatre!

(P.S. Thanks if you've already booked , look on this as a reminder..............yes, we've had folks buy tickets in the past and forget to come!)

See you there.

DOIN DIFFERENT - AUDIO, VIDEO AND HISTORICAL RESOURCES

Margery Kempe In Our Time

Room at the Hanse Theatre Company after their performance of 'Hanseatic Characters' at the 2016 Hanse Festival, which included a performance of The Ballad of Margery Kempe (the 4 involved on that song are, from l to r - Melanie Calway, vocal; Vanessa Wood-Davies, harp; Father William Sawtrey aka Gareth Calway, lyrics; Anto Morra music, guitar, production)

This Thursday morning, June 2 2016, six centuries after,  BBC Radio 4's flagship culture  programme 'In Our Time' considers the contribution made by a Lynn housewife to the history of ideas.

'Do different' is Norfolk's motto.  Margery Kempe (1373-1438) is not the first Lynner to have thought different. Her parish priest William Sawtrey, a Lollard heretic, was the first man burned for his beliefs in England (in 1401) and has even been identified as the 'morning star' - the pioneer (for good or ill) - of the English Reformation. Lynn-raised Fanny Burney changed the course of the English novel. There is even 'compelling evidence' that the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer, was born in Lynn. It is only Norfolk's self- deprecation that stops us trumpeting all this as other regions might.

But Margery is surely the most unusual pioneer of them all.  Illiterate, she 'wrote' (by dictation) the first autobiography in English, 'The Book of Margery Kempe'. And an extraordinary book it is.

She includes details of the mediaeval world she lived in - the thriving Hanseatic waterfront of that premier league port Bishop's Lynn - and of her life in it as a Lynn burgess's wife and mother of 14 children. A recent letter to her by her son found in Danzig (now Gdansk) corroborates her book's historical accuracy. She also mentions that she was the daughter of John Brunham, the town's leading merchant, MP, mayor, benefactor, royal agent , a major player in the precarious European trade politics of the time.

But none of this interests her much. Her Book is mostly about the visions she received - first of devils, then of a beautiful loving Jesus - after her first traumatic labour. From that point on, her life was fraught with danger.

As a mediaeval woman, she was supposed to serve her husband and, as a lay person, to defer to the church. Her claims to divine visions of Jesus, of a loving God; a virgin Mary and a robin redbreast singing merrily in her right ear (which she believed was the holy ghost) - defied all conventions.

To the authorities she was either a would-be saint - which her married status prohibited and her not being a virgin called into question - or possessed of the devil. She was accused of, and tried for, the Lollard heresy, for which her parish priest was burnt in 1401, by powerful enemies like the Archbishop of York - whose steward she accused of sexual assault - and the Mayor of Leicester. Some believe it was only her position as the daughter of Lynn's rich and powerful mayor that saved her.

But other holy voices, like Mother Julian of Norwich (whom she met) and minor clerics like the Vicar of Sedgeford and Alan of Lynn, supported her claims. One of these minor clerics helped her record her visions as her scribe, which established herself as part of the mystical tradition of the fifteenth century. And a figure of increasing interest - in our time.

The lyric of The Ballad of Margery Kempe is on sale in Waterstones, Jarrold's, True's Yard Museum, Hanse House and via the publisher in 'Doin different, new ballads from the east of England', (Poppyland publishing, 2015) 

Links:

How The Lynn News covered this story - here

Portal to The Wife of Lynn's Tale (2015 Lynn Festival Fringe production) and a wealth of support material -  - here

Margery Kempe ballad in the book 'Doin different - new ballads from the east of England' (scroll down to Margery in the list of ballads and in the list of historical support  (published features etc) - here 

Hanseatic Characters at the Hanse Festival - script and pictures

DOIN DIFFERENT - AUDIO, VIDEO AND HISTORICAL RESOURCES
Watch a film of the live show here

Guitar plays. Brunham dances and speaks.

Brunham:

pics by Bhas Allan

Now I sit in my seemly sale,

I trot and tremle in my true throne;

As a hawk I hop in my hende hale;

King, knight and kaiser to me maken moan.

Oh God ne of good man give I never tale.

As a liking lord I leyke here alone.

Whoso brawl any boast, by down or by dale,

Those gadlings shall be ghasted and grisly groan iwis.

Whoso to the World will draw

Of God ne of good man giveth he not a hawe

Such a man by lands law

          Shall sitten on my dais.

Allow me to introduce myself.  John Brunham. The Merchant of Lynn. Mayor. 5 times. MP. twice, JP, royal agent, alderman, merchant-prince, benefactor, the uncrowned king of Bishop's Lynn-

That speech I started with is the way I would have spoken to you at the end of the fourteenth century.

I died in 1421.  Unlike my fellow parishioners William Sawtrey, my parish priest, and Margery Kempe, my daughter, I never got to heaven because I never really believed in it. 

(Harp plays whenever heaven is evoked,fades whenever the world is emphasised)

Margery Kempe was the opposite. Even on earth she was always seeing and believing heavenly things. A loving God, a beautiful Jesus, a Virgin Mary, a robin Redbreast singing merrily in her right ear which she thought was the Holy Ghost.  To my ear, the angels she heard singing were the lawless trade winds beating in the sail of my ships down there on the frantic Hanseatic quay. We are all at sea in this world. Anchorless  - and quite alone. Love is like our relationship with the Hanse - sometimes we're trading partners, sometimes we're trading rivals, occasionally we're enemies in an all out trade war. But we need each other. Grain out, herring in. Lynners living and working in Lubeck and Danzig; Germans living and working here in Lynn.  One of my greatest political achievements was helping the king sign a peace treaty after which the Germans established a permanent trading post in Lynn that they ran for 400 years. 6 centuries later, it's still standing, the only remaining Hanseatic building in England. And still good for business. Margery's side of the business was the pilgrims sailing in from all over the British isles and all over Christendom to visit Walsingham. Richeldis had an authorised vision of the Holy Virgin there in 1061. A pity none of Margery's visions was authorised because then the pilgrims would have stayed here instead and that would have been even better for business. What did they see as they sailed in? 5 dreaming friaries on the skyline and a giant harbourside cross, reassuring them that this was the official point of embarkation for Walsingham pilgrims. But they weren't the first to be drawn to Lynn's magical confluence of sky, lowland and water.  The Celts held water sacred and it is their word for water, or pool, that still names the town. Lynn. Imagine then if you will a mediaeval Liverpool on a marina twice the size of the modern Wash and with an airport for Margery's angels. In the good old age of Faith when everybody sang from the same hymn sheet. Give or take a legion of burned heretics like Smouldering Bill Sawtrey late of St Margaret's pulpit. Even in the flames of an earthly hell he followed the music of his soul here to heaven. More of him in a moment. First let's hear a bit more about Margery, some of which she doesn't emphasise or even mention in her Book.  (indicate Book)

She was born in 1373. She grew up through the economic downturn of the 1390s. She wrote the first autobiography in English-

Enter Geoffrey Chaucer, flustered, late.

Chaucer: Sorry.

Brunham: First time in Lynn?

Chaucer:  Second.  I was born here.  The name's Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer.

Brunham: Ah! The Father of English Poetry. I hear you’re up here researching a Merchant’s Tale?

Chaucer: A Magistrate. "Of Northfolk was this reeve of which I telle/Byside a toun men callen Baldeswelle".

Brunham: ‘Of Northfolk was this merchant whom you should sing/ In a port that men call Bishop’s Lynn.’ Take a pew.

Chaucer sits.

Brunham …in the generation after Geoffrey Chaucer was also born here. It's a town of pioneers. Margery married Lynn burgess John Kempe and had 14 children in 20 years, not counting those she lost in childbirth.  She tells us in her Book that after the first, a very difficult pregancy and labour, she started seeing things that other people couldn't. Which is why, even though she's standing here now smiling down at you from heaven, you can't see her.  -  Fortunately, owing to my position stranded  somewhere between heaven and Lynn, I can bring you an embodiment of the Flesh she tried all her life  to deny and an angel. (indicates harp) And the music of her Soul. And together they can sing you - the Ballad of Margery Kempe.

Flesh, Angel and Soul perform The Ballad of Margery Kempe.

William in prison near a bonfire with guy of William on it.

William: I am William Sawtrey, a Lollard of Lynn;

Priest of this Parish, in Death’s Door Nailed;

The Bishop Dispenser has bruised me in Limb

And broken my Spirit for two days in gaol:

(resisting) I don’t believe in Signs, Rites, Blessings;

In Prayers by the Hour, Priests, Pilgrims, Grails;

Saint-Adoration; Idolatrous bread; leprous blind Latin;

Fat church Patriarchs piling on the shillings;

In Confessions, Crusades: that ‘what Christ was the Cross is.’

Enter Bishop Dispenser, furious.

William: I do believe that what we’re for

Is Apostling and preaching and teaching the poor;

In Scripture and Christ above Roman Church Lore;

In plain English speech for our priestly office!

Bishop Dispenser: You no longer have an office. By the Statute of Heresies, 1400. (strips off William’s priestly rank) (vestments, tonsure etc)

William: Through seven steps of degradation

Reduced from magic priest to bare doorman.

(new hope) Did Christ not come this Way? Would Christ not also say:

The peasants got Word, their simple souls sang

‘When Adam delved and Eve span,

Who was then the gentleman?’

They call peasants (Bishop with him) ‘revolting’. Christ’s blessed I say!

Bishop Dispenser: Tell that to the flames. (sarcastic) Have a nice Pray! (diabolical laugh, exit)

William prays. Flesh appears with drum (fearful heartbeat).

William: (looking at bonfire, tries to pray) Oh God-

Flesh: Never mind God. You should listen to your Body, son.

(sings with drum)     (Hear it here)

I bide as a broad bursten-gut aboven on these towers,

Everybody is the better that to mine bidding is bent.

I am Mankind’s fair Flesch, flourished in flowers.

My life is with lusts and liking i-lent.

With tapets of taffeta I timber my towers.

In mirth and in melody my mende is i-ment.

Though I be clay and clod, clapped under clowrys,

Yet would I that my will the world went,

Full true I you behight

I love well my ease

In lusts me to please:

Though sin my soul seize,

I give not a mite.

(like a bad angel, spoken) Recant, William, and enjoy!

William is about to recant when-

William: I want to recant but the music of my soul won't let me.

Soul plays harp.… Devil lights the candle. As harp plays-

William: If by this act, I can light a flame,

Feed the wax of flesh to burn love's name

In the unlettered lives of Jesu's people,

The ground down to earth, the poor, the meek, the faithful,

The pain of flesh passing is well worth the candle.

It's a heaven to die for.

A musical struggle

Flesh:  drowns out the harp.

              William you’re a Lynn boy

Where’s your Norfolk grit?

Your Mind’s like a frightened girl,

You make me blooming spit.

This is Boudicca’s country,

Stand your ground:

The battered woman

Who would not lie down!

Where’s your knuckle?

Your Biblical kicks

Against the odds,

Against the pricks!?

Flex neck! I’ve got the nerve,

Meat balls! I’m gonna put you down!

Flesh pecs! I got the guts, 

Pump blood! I’ll blow you out of town! 

Soul: Flesh be quiet. Listen to your Soul!

She plays her harp. Flesh quietens. Devil with fork and Bishop circle and repeat 'toast' after William.

William:     They told me that the bread became

Christ's Body not his ghost

I said a priest’s no sorcerer.

That did it: I was toast.

They tortured me, ‘recant

Your reasoning, or roast!’ 

I said a I cannot bear your cross.

That did it: I was toast.

They told me Latin prayer and Mass

Would keep me in my post.

I said ‘an English sermon’s best.’

That did it: I was toast.

'Our sacraments are spirit gold,

The brassy bishops boast’

I - ‘all that gilders isn’t God!’

That did it: I was toast.

They Credo-bashed and then defrocked

My body to their post.

I answered them with balaam's ass.

That did it: I was toast.

They told me that the bread became

The hostage not the host

I said ‘Man needs the bread as well.’

That did it: I was toast.

They burn me like a fallen Eve,

A holy without smoke,

The musical scream. Harp and bodhran contend. Bishop mimes flames. Devil exults. 

Soul: Flesh be quiet!

William:    

I climb up like a morning star

Of love and faith and hope.

William in crucifixion pose looks at audience.

End