It All Comes Out In The Wash by Bardonthewire ( solo album released)

Press Release

This is my arty arty solo album - poems set to Norfolk soundscapes,  including an epic musical account of the 1819 Thunderstorm in Sedgeford (performed in Sedgeford on its bicentenary last July); some vistas of Norfolk autumn; a Greek Choral Ode; comic songs; some elegies; my long delayed Welsh Rock Symphony (all four moments and a coda!!!!)  and a charmingly set Sedgeford Christmas poem and a charmingly set satirical one. 

By the end, we're a long way from the Wash in my Welsh/West country boyhood but by then it should be clear 'Wash' is a metaphor as well.

This digital album is available online only on this link - https://bardonthewire.bandcamp.com/album/it-all-comes-out-in-the-wash-album

Sleevenotes below.

Very congenial listening at this time of the year (autumn into winter/Christmas) I've let myself go wherever the words took me, boldly going into soundscapes and scores and whatever else is needed to bring the poems alive for the listener as an audio experience. Lots of experimental sound poem things including the finally realised ambition of a full blown rock symphony (tracks 13-16).

The title is fairly geographical for the first 'side' (tracks 1-11, though beginning to wander across Norfolk from the Wash by the end) celebrating and enjoying the country of Norfolk where I've lived for the past 40 years but broadens after that to include all the stuff pumping out from deeper levels of memory and experience. And in general to indicate the wash of an artist's palate, splashing about all over the shop. 

Cover pic by Bhas Allan 

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