Well, what else is there to oyez about? Congratulations must go to our Devizes Town Crier, Charlotte Howard-Macdonald, again today, as Brian Mathew MP tabled a motion in the House of Commons celebrating her achievement of winning the 73rd National Town Crier Championship in Rye, only two months after taking up the role…
Recognised as our first woman to serve as Town Crier for Devizes, Charlotte said, “this is a first; a speechless Town Crier! Thank you so much, Brian, for this wonderful and completely unexpected recognition, and to the MPs who have added their support. Seeing my name in a parliamentary motion is quite surreal!”
But whoa there, all this talk of female town criers, isn’t there any room to celebrate the guys too?! Charlotte’s husband Moray MacDonald is an outstanding producer of electronic music who creates the most wonderful soundscapes under the pseudonym Cephid. I first met the Lavington-based couple upon reviewing Cephid’s album Sparks in the Darkness three years ago.
Moray cut his teeth touring with progressive rock and metal artists such as That Joe Payne, Godsticks, Kim Seviour and Ghost Community, more recently he remixed for OMD. Of Sparks in the Darkness I said at the time, “gorgeous complex structures and intense electronic textures,” making comparisons to everything from the Doctor Who theme, through to Kraftwerk, The Art of Noise, Yello and American electro outfit Newcleus, explaining “Cephid encompasses these, yet is ultra-modern, uses tech as orchestral, and is as fresh as the Buxton spring; like Jean Michel Jarre came after dubstep, as if 808 State created Tubular Bells!”
Forward wind to February last year, Moray finally staged the album at Bath’s Rondo Theatre, and I had to make a beeline. It was a breathtaking show, to see the album played out live added to the magnificence of this achievement and made it all seem real. The added bonus was to see the laser harp Moray created at seventeen, but had never used publicly until that gig. And after this monumental occasion, the audience were invited to try the homemade electronic instrument themselves.
The gig caused me to contemplate the progression of electronics in music, and how we take it for granted. Though Devizes is a blues town, of conventional analogue instruments, Moray informed me of the town’s little known influence on the development of electronic music by the way of Daphne Oram, a pioneer of electronic sound who was born in the town. On her centenary I ran a series of articles about Daphne’s life, focusing on her largely unrecorded early years in Devizes.
Why am I reminding you of all this now, you might ask?! Well, there’s the thing. Tickets have just gone on sale, for Cephid is coming to St Mary’s Devizes, for a one off electronic concert on 28th November, and yes, he will bring his laser harp. Moray is supported by Richard Anthony Bean, an electronic music composer and producer from Exeter; be there!
With Devizes’ historic connection and affliction to the blues, it can be a challenge to introduce other genres of music to our town, although there is an audience here accepting diversity, of people who worship the eighties electronic scenes from hip hop to synth-based new romantic and new wave to gothic, and the ravers which followed, and from here stems the concept that technology is so commonplace in music we no longer see the seams.
These are the people I need to entice, because please, oh hear ye! Believe me when I tell you this show is incredible, and unlike anything else you’ve seen in Devizes before!
Tickets are HERE, or at Devizes Books.
