Following the plane crash which killed his friends, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, along with the Big Bopper, just a year prior to his own tragic death, rebellious rocker Eddie Cochran was said, by his friends and family, to be emotionally disturbed by the incident, and had an unsettled premonition that he would also die young.
On 16th April 1960, on route to London to catch a flight after a show at the Bristol Hippodrome from an extended tour, his taxi crashed into a lamppost on Rowden Hill in Chippenham, a plaque there marks the disaster. The other rock n roller touring, Gene Vincent met with a broken leg which would see him walk with a limp. Other passengers, American singer Sharon Sheeley and theatrical agent Patrick Tompkins suffered minor injuries. But Eddie was thrown from the car, sustaining a major head injury, and died, aged just 21, in Bath RUH in the early hours of the following morning.
The taxi driver, George Martin, was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50, disqualified from driving for 15 years, and sent to prison for six months. The taxi and other items from the crash were impounded by local police waiting for a coroner’s inquest. David Harman, a police cadet at the station, who would later become known as Dave Dee of the band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, taught himself to play guitar on Cochran’s impounded Gretsch. The band’s success was slight, but the world had lost a rock n roll legend.
Eddie Cochran may never have played a gig in the town, but Chippenham has become a shrine to the legend, and many rock n roll-styled celebrations have taken place in his memory. 2020 sees the sixty-year anniversary of this tragic event, and the Neeld Hall will mark the occasion aptly: Geoff Endacott Presents: A Tribute to Eddie Cochran Featuring The Bluejays on Thursday 9th April.
They tell that “The Bluejays will be keeping his memory and his music alive with this special evening of music. The show will celebrate the music of Eddie Cochran and many other 1950s Rock ‘n’ Roll stars.”
The Bluejays formed in 2013, after years of performing together in West End rock ‘n’ roll theatre shows such as Buddy; The Buddy Holly Story, Million Dollar Quartet and Dreamboats & Petticoats and have since toured all over the world. The band created the show Rock and Roll Revolution which is touring UK theatres throughout 2019. In 2017, The Bluejays were invited out to Lubbock, Texas to play for Buddy Holly’s family. They were joined on stage by Buddy’s wife María Elena Holly who sang backing vocals during a cover of Not Fade Away. Other ‘Part-time Bluejays’ include Brian May of Queen who joined the band for a cover of Johnny B. Goode when they played at his daughter’s wedding.
There it goes again, that blasted TV Anchor butter advert. Why, oh why have they used the theme from the classic sitcom Desmond’s? I swear, every time I hear it, I swish around with excitement that rather than the cliché reruns they’ve decided to air Desmond’s again, but it is not to be, just a butter advert. Far from Anchor’s bane of my life, considering they made me redundant when the Swindon plant closed in 2000, where I worked in the cheese hall for five interminable years. People thought I was some kind of expert of cheese production working there, firing all kinds of technicalities at me such as the separation of curd and whey, when all I did was prep and pack the stuff!
I could ask Calne’s Real Cheesemakers the same annoying question, if I wanted to, but I suspect the name derives from cheese’s informal definition; the eminence of being too apparently mawkish. Their debut album, Grated Hits edges this with West Country hilarity. If my hope for a chance rerun of Desmond’s doesn’t qualify me for interest its unsubtle and cringeworthy eighties cultural references, perhaps only the sound of a ZX Spectrum loading would.
Late on the off with this, the album released in November last year, it’s been a monumental twenty-seven years in the making. Twenty-seven years wasted; they’d have got less for murdering a politician. For our local music scene though, it’s a tongue-in-cheek awakening and worthy of your attention. It does to heavy metal-ish banality what The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band did to jazzy psychedelic sixties pop.
Apt that the band cite the Bonzo Dog Band in their bio, as they “formed in 1992 as a duo following the discovery of said band’s records in founding member, Egg’s mum’s record collection.” They continue to explain, “The Real Cheesemakers spent years creating top-quality nonsense and walloping the finest of cods.” They finally played to “an actual audience for the first time,” in 2011, “to some acclaim, and have since performed across the south of England, and added two new members who actually know how to play musical instruments.”
Nonsensically avant-garde from the start, said eighties cultural references from John Craven to Rick Moranis and Marathon’s name change to Margaret Thatcher’s milk snatching, get slammed in “Unicorns of the 1980s.” The blurb explains it as “the now infamous rejected Eurovision Song Contest entry, United by Cheese, and the collaboration with the Godfather of chap-hop and steampunk legend, Professor Elemental.” From here it’s a good guess this album isn’t going to take itself too seriously, and for that, it’s bloody brilliant.
Through a cascade of local refences too, from Cheddar George to the Roundabouts of Swindon, they bash out seventeen songs of confessed love for He-Man and dinosaurs, a dedication to eggs, bacon, chips and beans, pre-assumed affection for cheese, fear of psychopathic tortoises and annoyance of supermarket queuing, with a Pink Floyd-esque ballad to the weasel and a plodding brass explanation for airborne trousers. Like a snail on a lettuce leaf, I’m only teetering the edge of this odd iceberg here, I’d suggest, if you love your nonsense humour and surrealism you steam headlong into it like a Titanic crew comprising of Spike Milligan and the Monty Python team.
Because of its decades-spanning production period, the band explain Grated Hits gives “each song a slightly different feel, but offers high-end production value without overly contaminating the group’s purity and no-fi roots.”
The release topped off a huge year for the “Cheesers,” playing to a sold out Neeld Hall crowd with Professor Elemental and support slots with fellow Chap-Hop pioneer, Mr B Gentleman Rhymer. Most recently, they played with Creed Bratton from the US version of Ricky Gervais’ sitcom, The Office on a few dates of his UK tour to huge acclaim, before supporting Goldie Lookin Chain at their Xmas bash in Bristol. I’ve noted listing them at our trusty Southgate, after hearing this I’m making a beeline for their next local gig, you would too, if you’re the kind of chap who wears a kipper tie and wellington boot on your head, or not, or just when driven to on occasional weekdays.
The album is available to purchase on CD and digital download from Therealcheesemakers.bandcamp.com. The physical copy features and exclusive track, Cheesemaker Blues (live recording), that is not available on the digital version.
Marc singing off the same song sheet as me, when he explains he encourages original material from the performers at his Sunday sessions at the White Bear in Devizes, yet covers which the artist “make their own” are always crowd pleasers. Who could be more apt than George Wilding?
Yeah, car troubles caused his slight delay, but the fireplace was warming, the denizen atmosphere matched. Convivial and geniality are prevalent at this earliest of Devizes inns, still going strong; I do like the White Bear. Last time I was here, George Wilding coincidently blessed the alcove, while others such as Wade Merrit, Andrew Bazeley, Vince Bell, Jon Walsh, Ian O’Regan, and Cutsmith have all graced the sessions, to name but a few; I’ve just been a bit rubbish in attending. Though our man Andy has been there to review most, I see why. It’s a comfortable and welcoming central pub.
Andy was there, to breath a sigh of relief upon seeing me; I’ll delegated myself to write a little something and he knows it. Though there’s not a great deal to say, especially nothing negative; I didn’t even snap a photo through nattering. If you’ve not heard how unsurpassed George’s every performance is then you’re both new to Devizine and to the area. In a peak cap he breezed through sublime covers and proficient originals like it was child’s play, and maintains his audience with genuine and sincere affability.
Hidden between Simon & Garfunkel, The Animals and even Abba classics, he slipped a refined version of his own My Backwards Head, doing as he always does, brilliantly. With right here, and naturally, The Southgate adding end-of-weekend live music too, Sunday afternoon in Devizes has never been so good. If the value of a pub is the sum of its landlords and its atmosphere, Marc and Georgie have done wonders. It’s Wadworth but with its own stamp. Sunday sessions continue for a while, check our event calendar of their Facebook page. Sunday roasts are also popular here; Mark tells me about plans to open some outside space, but while it’s February, we’re here, nice and warm.
We held a surprise anniversary party for My Nan and Grandad when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. My Grandad was the straight man, my Nan the funny one in an unsurpassed comedy duo. Her sister called out while Grandad did the thank you spiel, “just like your wedding night, eh Carrie?!”
As spontaneously as the wit of the cockney comes my Nan replied, “no, there were bombs on my wedding night!” In an age where we’d go ballistic if a drop of rain appears on our special day, it’s a sentiment I’ll never forget, and I find myself wondering, how on earth do you joke about a thing like that?! Makes you ponder the spirit of the time, people coping through making light of the atrocity of the blitz, and that we would never fully appreciate what they had to endure.
Rowde
Through my grandad on the other side’s photos and keepsakes I hold dear, I became quite fascinated by the era and therefore honoured to be asked to design not one, but two posters celebrating the 75th Anniversary of VE-Day. Firstly, Wayne Cherry and team helps Rowde mark the occasion on the small playing field on the afternoon of Friday 8th May, as I’m sure our other villages will do similar. We also have the Market Place being closed off in Devizes, as Jeanette Von Berg heads the organising of celebrations there.
I begun the journey to designing these as usual, on the book of face, enquiring if there were any photos of VE Day in Rowde or Devizes. This request remained unanswered, and with time pushing on I decided to use some national images of VE Day to incorporate in the design. Still, I think it came out rather special and I have to confess I’m rather chuffed with it!
But for Devizes I was determine to discover something more local, and thanks goes to Jane and the archives staff at the wonderful Wiltshire Museum for hunting for some amazing images and references. I’ve included some here I didn’t use for the poster.
It was here some years ago, when they held an exhibit of war memorabilia, I dragged my son along with the convenient timing that he was doing a school history project on the wold wars. He was particularly interested with the mock Anderson shelter they had, but I had to correct them when they claimed “everyone had an air raid shelter.” For my family in the poorest parts of the East End of London, gardens were hard to come by, and my Nan fondly recalled the songs and banter echoing through the underground station. We were never told of the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster of 1943, as we were never told of any hardships they faced daily.
I also came to realisation then, while untold dangers and misfortunes were wrought everywhere, there are subtle differences here in urban Wiltshire than the stories passed down to me from my London family, thus opening up a whole new avenue to explore. I knew of the bomb-holes in Savernake Forest, for example, always contemplated the worth of Nazis bombing a forest, but a helper at the exhibit, who was a police officer during the war, answered when I held to question a photo of the large gatehouse at the entrance to Grand Avenue. Ah, I see now, it was a bomb disposal area. He continued for some time, informing me about the prisoner of war camp on Horton Road, and how he had to round them up and chase them back in!
The concern I guess, is that relaying these stories second-hand doesn’t carry the same impact as coming from the horse’s mouth. So, I accept while these events may be geared towards the older generations, I think we owe it to attend if we can, as those who were alive then thin with every year, we have a duty not to forget the sacrifices they made. But the celebrations of VE Day must have been one great explosion of relief, you’d have thought. Yet a book found in the museum told, amazingly, that the Devizes Town Council were criticised for failing to organise anything to mark the occasion; and you thought they’re rather frumpy now!
VE Day in Devizes
Here then is the only photo found of VE Day in Devizes, but its slow aperture has blurred the image and therefore it wasn’t suitable to use in the design. The picture I did use was from a parade in 1944. For while the Council did nought, sporadic parties held by the pubs and hotels burst out into the Market Place. Today, The Devizes Lions have agreed to assist closing the road off for the event, and, at this stage, it’s unclear exactly what help the Town Council will offer. I’m quite chocked by this, having thought on this particular occasion, we all could unite to help however we can. Yet you can bet your bottom dollar Devizine’s upfront attitude will send a rocket up their butts to do something to help mark this monumental occasion; so, watch this space!
For now, though, I’m flattered to have been asked to contribute, by doing what I love, and look forward to seeing these posters around, and in attending. I’ll try swish between the two, eager to pick up some stories we can publish here, that’d be nice, wouldn’t it?
After the previous night’s superb gig with The Arnie Cottrell Tendency (see other review elsewhere in Devizine), it was back to The Southgate for something completely different. From gentle Americana on a Friday to straight-up pub-rock on a Saturday night. Part of me was concerned that the night just couldn’t be as good, but I needn’t have worried. Different music genre, different vibe, but still excellent.
Navajo Dogs, formed in 2016, are a local blues-influenced rock band. Consisting of Simon Hansen on vocals, Tom Evans on lead guitar, Kieran McLaughlin on rhythm guitar/ vocals, Jonny Wallhouse on drums/ vocals and Graham Hill on bass, these guys are one solid entertainment unit. The music is loud and uncompromising, the performances are hot, sweaty, sweary and in your face.
Covering a wide range of pop/ rock/ blues classics, outstanding numbers for me were Hot Chocolate’s “Everyone’s A Winner”, Free’s “Fire and Water”, Prince’s “Purple Rain”, The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” and Sam The Sham’s “Woolly Bully”, but there were plenty more. The dance-floor was full all night long, and the crowd clearly appreciated their no-nonsense, no-apologies style. This was 4-star leaded, full cream, full fat pub-rock. It was thumping, steady, rocking and totally infectious. Great vocals, nice guitar work.
Two superb gigs on two consecutive nights. This is what live music is all about.
• Friday 14th February Trevor Babajack Steger
• Saturday 15th February Mike Barham
• Friday 21st February Kent Duchaine
• Sunday 23rd February CRC
• Friday 28th February The Shudders
Friday night is music night, so where else to go other than the ever-welcoming Southgate? Once again Dave and Deb had found a wonderful band to fill the pub…..
I managed to miss the very start of the gig, but then stayed to catch the rest of it, and was still sitting there at nearly midnight.
What had been originally billed as The Velvet Doonicans had morphed into The Arnie Cottrell Tendency. Same people, same band. Whatever. Whoever. Either way Arnie Cottrell, Rick Foote and Graham Bushell played a simply superb gig. Featuring upright bass, acoustic and steel guitars, mandolin, and shared vocals blending into double and triple harmonies, the trio produced music that was magical, melting, melodic and absolutely mesmerising. This was Americana at its best.
The guys were clearly confident and comfortable with their music and with each other, and produced some stunning versions of Dylan’s “Girl From The North Country”, Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”, and The Band’s “Up On Cripple Creek”. Every song was easy on the ear, relaxed and understated, delivered with panache and some wonderful self-deprecating good humour.
Song after song was wheeled out, and I dearly wanted to go home and get my head down for the night, but there was no way I was leaving whilst these guys were still playing. Such superb musicianship just drew you in. It was warm, lovely, embracing, mesmerising and – well – brilliant. No other word for it.
Yet another reminder that it’s absolutely worth getting your arse in gear, going out into the night and supporting live music venues like the Southgate.
• Friday 14th February Trevor Babajack Steger
• Saturday 15th February Mike Barham
• Friday 21st February Kent Duchaine
• Sunday 23rd February CRC
• Friday 28th February The Shudders
Slow news week, our local rag The Gazelle & Herod decided to report on the country’s most vital subject, Philip Schofield’s sexual orientation, as if he lives in Burbage or somewhere, so why can’t I focus on something irrelevant too? Like the world’s most famous fences. Yeah, as you ponder daring to whisk across your lawn and rescue fence panels, pirouetting trampolines and low flying plant pots, I thought yeah, this is bound to cheer you up.
It might even inspire you for your new fence, after Storm Ciara has done her worst. After all, seems researching a topic such as the most world-famous fences, most of the data is provided by fencing companies. They generally begin by explaining the reasons for installing a fence, be it privacy, security, or decoration. But many of our best fences have other reasons for being; preventing wild animal invasions, cultural, political, or, and do not take off-fence (ba-boom) for hanging women’s undergarments on. So, for your reading pleasure, here’s my chart rundown of the world’s most famous fences; you don’t have to thank me. My sanity was on a hinge browsing “Fencebook” today, what with the perpetual OMG posts of people’s fallen fences.
1: The Great Wall of China
Such an obscure and bizarre subject cannot be comprehensive without some deviation from its limitations, so many cite The Great Wall of China, or the Wànlǐ Chángchéng, as the world’s most famous fence; yeah, I know, there’s a clue in its name, it’s not a fence. Cheating Ming Dynasty Chinese, but you’ve got to admit, it deserves to be top of the fences, for its age, history and simple fact it’s so mightily impressive you can see it from space, if you were in space, which you’re most probably not, so I don’t know why I mentioned it.
2: Hadrian’s Wall
If it’s good enough for the Chinese it’s good enough for us Brits. Again, the second on most lists is a wall, not a fence; what a rip off. Heck, you all know the story of Emperor Hadrian commissioning a coast-to-coast wall to keep out those pesky Scottish barbarians, I haven’t got the leather elbow patches to be any more of a history teacher than that. Let’s just thank our lucky stars it’s not happening today or Hadrian’s act might have been viewed as “Trumpish.” These days though, the wall has disintegrated and wouldn’t keep a haggis from leaping over it, as they regularly do.
3: The Berlin Wall
One last wall then, if we’re going to have walls, we cannot forget the Berlin Wall. It physically and ideologically separated Berlin from 1961 to 1989, protecting its population from fascist rudiments conspiring to avert the “will of the people” from building a socialist state in East Germany. The evening of the 9th November 1989 is known as the night the Wall came down, and marked the end of fascism in Germany; funny, we’re only just starting out with ours.
However, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, other barriers were disposed of in the breaking of the Iron Curtain, and yay, they do include fences! A long one too, in Hungary, stretching 149 miles it bordered Austria. In April 1989, the Hungarian government ordered the electricity in the barbed-wire border fence turned off, and consequently it was removed shortly after.
4. Dingo Fence
But if you want length in your fence, as many do, consider South East Australia’s The Dingo Fence, for it’s the longest real fence in the world, in fact, at approximately 3,400 miles, it’s one of the longest structures in the world. This beaut will stretch from London to New York, and was constructed in the 1880s to protect sheep on southern Queensland ranches from attacks by wild dogs. Without wild dogs hunting though, the population of kangaroos and emus exploded on the south-eastern side of the fence. While us pommes have an affection for kangaroos, they can be a pest in Oz. Pass the burger relish and put another roo on the barbie, Shelia.
5. Buckingham Palace Fence
Gawd bless her, she’s got a lovely fence to help keep her safe, along with her five regiments of guards, who will bayonet you in the ribs for the slightest mickey-taking. Though many have climbed it, and few succeeded, its elegant cast-iron stakes, topped with extravagant gilded fleurs-de-lis symbolises the theme of our national anthem; she’s pretty safe in there, God. Yep, sure is one highly decorative set of railings, the envy of foreign tourists, especially our Yankie-doodle friends, whose rather plain White House security fence pales in comparison. In fact, unless you’re reading an American “World’s Most Famous Fences” website, it barely gets a mention.
6. Aquarium Fence
If you want to really show off though, and get one over on her majesty, and the neighbouring Jones’, here’s the ideal plan after Storm Ciara has taken it out on your fence. Leave it, let it go, and ping a message to Turkish billionaire Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu, ask him where he got his fence from, because it’s more likely Jollyes pet shop than B&Q. I’m not shitting you here, the guy’s got an aquarium of fish, eels and octopus for his 164-metre fence, attracting tourists from all over the world. Poachers watch out though, he’s had to put 17 security cameras around it.
7. Paris Lock Fence
Apparently, fastening a padlock to a fence and throwing away the key is popular symbolism of undying love; I’m not that romantic. Such a gesture is commonly done on the fence of the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris, until the weight of thousands of padlocks caused a six and half section of it to collapse. The accident didn’t cause any physical injuries, just a few broken hearts. And?
8. Glastonbury Festival Security Fence
Quite honestly, I’m so shocked this one hasn’t been churned up through research, I felt the need to add it myself. Over the course of fifty years the festival felt the need to increase its security with a bigger fence. Ode to that corrugated fence, how many scaled its heights are incalculable, but it was all part of the Glastonbury experience. Saunter along the perimeter to find abandoned rope ladders, stalls, and Scousers willing to bunk you over for a tenner or couple of spliff-worths. One year in the mid-nineties, memory doesn’t serve me too well, it collapsed completely and no one battered an eyelid when campers set up temporary residence in the fields outside. It’s all history now, as 2002 saw the unveiling of a new £1m, five-mile perimeter fence with a second barrier that put an end to people jumping in. Probably for the best, festival goers now would only get caught, or least break their phone, as they attempt a live-stream or selfie whilst atop of it.
9: The Green Monster
Perhaps the most iconic fences in the USA are ones surrounding baseball fields. Take Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, dubbed the Green Monster, as it was painted green in 1947 to match the rest of the field; nothing escapes those Americans. Built to protect Fenway Park from gate crashers, it also protects outsiders from flyaway baseballs.
But the right field boundary at AT&T Park in California has a reputation as a “hitters’ ballpark,” due to the fact its shorter than most baseball fences, also means you can illegally watch the game from a boat from McCovey Cove, just the other side of the San Francisco fence.
10. Bra Fence
Save the best till last, at least the most titillating. Despite it not being the most renowned fence, it’s aptly quickly gathering attention. You should note, in acts of random fascination, fastening assortments of everyday objects to fences is a national obsession in New Zealand. But teapots, rubber boots and shoes have had their day, and the jewel in the Kiwi crown is the bra fence in Cardrona. There was no meaning as to why women starting whipping off their knocker lockers and attaching them to this fence in 1998, dubbed Bradrona, but this tourist attraction and obviously prime photo opportunity has raised over $40,000 for breast cancer research.
But if you think, only in Australia, interesting to note a bra fence has also taken off in the Eyjafjöll mountains of Iceland, where the climate is bound to raise more of a nip (in the air I mean.) Here’s a plan then, if you’ve said goodbye to your fence in the storm. I know it’s something I’m considering, but getting approval from the better half may be tricky, and it’s not the ideal season to sleep in the dog house.
Spring, that’s what we need to be talking about today! I’m getting my shades and sun tan lotion ready. Plus, White Horse Opera’s Spring Concert this year will be on Friday 20th March at 7.30pm in Devizes Town Hall.
It will include Haydn’s Creation, Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’amore and Ruddigore by Gilbert and Sullivan. “A musical treat not to be missed,” they tell me. I’m really beginning to think I should break my anxiety of opera and try this out rather than assign Andy, what do you think?!
You can come too though, just avoid my incompetence with such matters. Tickets are £10 and on sale now from Devizes Books and www.ticketsource.co.uk/whitehorseopera
Daydream Runaways are reflecting back to the start of their career together, even if it’s only a year ago! Still worthy to mention this live session recording of their debut single “Light the Spark,” which we glowingly reviewed on its release last April, here.
On their website it reads, “recorded and filmed in an intimate setting, this version of gives listeners a glimpse into Daydream Runaways performance style whilst showcasing the energy that the track is known for in their live sets.” I agree, it’s everything we been raving about. While this newer live version was released on Thursday, lets hope this upcoming young band are daydreaming of the future too, as I’m eagerly awaiting their next move and some new songs. This is not the time for a “greatest hits” album, guys, yet!
However, it’s a brilliant example if you’ve not taken heed of our previous praises and hooked in their songs, or witnessed them playing live. Come on people, see here! I’m grateful they blew the low roof of the Cellar Bar off at our fundraiser last month, and wish them all the best.
Good for old St Bridget, a 5th Century Irish nun who whinged to St Patrick, about women waiting too long for their suitors to propose. You see, ladies, you can’t blame modern man, we’ve always been this rubbish. 5th Century lads didn’t even have X-Box as an excuse.
In a bold stand for feminism, five hundred years before the Spice Girls, they forged a compromise. On one day, once every four years, that being the 29th February, women could pop the question. Men’s generosity knew no bounds back then.
But girls, according to the tradition, you either have to wear breeches or a scarlet petticoat. Begging the question, what difference would that make, and surely lacing your boo with vodka and Red Bull might be more effective? In fairness though, if they refuse they have to buy you twelve pairs of gloves. If it sounds random, I’ll explain they weren’t quite at the bra-burning stage, and the gloves are, apparently, to hide your embarrassment of not having an engagement ring; sing about that, Beyoncé.
So, the big question is; will you dare to propose at the Town Hall this leap year, ladies? Not to me, mind, I’m spoken for…. a heartbreaking sentiment to end this post on I know ladies, but there’s plenty of other men out there who are nearly, just nearly, as nice as me! Oh, and you’ll get a discount on your wedding at the Town Hall.
After the previous night’s blow-away gig by the Jack Grace Band, it was back to the Southgate first of all for some post Six Nations music.
The afternoon’s offering was Skedaddle, a local band mostly populated by the Witcomb family. With Southgate regular Eddie on acoustic bass, dad Chris on guitar, mum Jane on vocals and friend Chris Whant on guitar, the band gave us a gentle stroll through some great covers and soon had the pub singing along. Jane’s vocals, a little nervous at first, soon grew in confidence, and she was well supported by the rest of the team. Wonderful afternoon music.
Talking of singalongs, I got two for the (free) price of one when I wandered down the road to the Three Crowns, where Chris O’Leary was giving it large. I’d not seen Chris before, but was well impressed with his playing, singing and general energy level. Chris was playing covers and actively seeking suggestions from the friendly crowd. Effortlessly slipping from song to song and making good use of stomp-box and loop-pedals, Chris showed all the versatility of a human juke-box. By the end the whole pub was singing “Sweet Caroline” and a good Sunday afternoon was brought to a close. Really great atmosphere, and a great way to wrap up any weekend.
Great to see The Three Crowns offering itself as a music venue again. Roll on the summer when, hopefully, we can get outside in the courtyard again.
Future gigs at The Southgate:
• Friday 7th February Velvet Doonicans
• Saturday 8th February Navajo Dogs
• Friday 14th February Trevor Babajack Steger
• Saturday 15th February Mike Barham
• Friday 21st February Kent Duchaine
• Sunday 23rd February CRC
• Friday 28th February The Shudders
It was Saturday night, which could mean only one thing – free live music at The Southgate!
Jack Grace was a figure new to me, so thought I better give him a good old listen – be rude not to. And so pleased that I made the effort to go and see him.
Jack’s band is described as delivering “Country Rock with a Latin Twang” and that was certainly much in evidence. The trio were already operating at full blast when I walked in, and rarely if ever let the tempo and the excitement level drop. The pub was full, the dance-floor crowded, and the band were cooking. They gave us two superb sets of music that was loud, exciting and great to listen to.
We got lots of styles – country, country/ rock, R&B, boogie-woogie, rock n’ roll, and little bit of vaudeville, all delivered with some panache, confident playing and a good deal of humour. There were musical nods in there to Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Johnny Cash, and many others. Jack and his band seem to be constantly on the road, and their playing reflected a close understanding, driving rhythms as tight as a nut, and some very assured vocals and guitar playing. Yet this didn’t mean any kind of complacency or just running through the numbers. The band were not afraid to experiment, and to completely let rip at times. And the crowd absolutely loved it.
To me, this is what live music is all about – musicians who want to deliver a great show, and a crowd that really wants to listen. A completely belting gig, and a fabulous live band.
• Friday 7th February Velvet Doonicans
• Saturday 8th February Navajo Dogs
• Friday 14th February Trevor Babajack Steger
• Saturday 15th February Mike Barham
• Friday 21st February Kent Duchaine
• Sunday 23rd February CRC
• Friday 28th February The Shudders
Broke my hibernation last night to trek across the downs and catch Swindon’s Skandals play the Lamb in Marlborough; well worth the effort……
“Some proper drum and bass,” yelled frontman of The Skandals, Mark Colton during the break of a Bad Manners’ Special Brew cover, “not like the shit the kids listen to today!” In essence there’s the summary of The Skandals’ ethos, yet with the catchiness of the simple offbeat of ska, you’ll commonly find every generation up dancing together. So, while the attitude is to appease the elder, skinhead, mods and scooterists, I think you’ll find generations too young to personally recall the days of yore a band like The Skandals arrest, still love it.
This was certainly true in Marlborough’s Lamb last night, as this Swindon ska cover band came to skank, with bells on. It was a squeeze in the crowd, with the aforementioned varied demographic, but none can resist the surge of retrospective ska. Limited to saxophonist Nina as the brass section, and without keyboards, this six-piece still manage to capture the spirit of the era and throw it back in your face loud and proud. I’d wager this comes from experience; the band boasting not just Nina, but both guitarists Jase and Mark, who previously played with Swindon’s legendary Skanxters, and in turn this event brings fond memories to my old watering hole, as those Skanxters skanked here during their nineties reign.
Though frontman Mark also heads a new wave punk cover band, The Rotten Aces, among other projects such as Thin Lizzy tribute, The Lizzy Legacy. This punker angle showed through the playlist, as adroit but only subtly ‘ska’d’ covers of “Echo Beach” and the Toy Doll’s bonkers arrangement of “Nellie the Elephant,” echoed between the more archetypal tunes of Madness, The Specials, Bad Manners, et all. I wanted to quiz Mark on what he favours, but when they stated they were taking a ten-minute break, it was far more punctual than most bands!
Pigeonholing I haven’t time for, and in a hedonistic moment it matters not. Example; they covered Rancid’s Time Bomb, pioneers of the ska-punk crossover that the international third-gen ska-heads thrive on. Yet the Skandals didn’t venture over this border, delivering predominantly eighties Two-Tone they were obviously inspired by, and giving the audience diminutive verbal notations as to why, amidst the usual banter. They were lively, fun and entertaining; everything a ska band should be, and would guarantee to liven up your venue or pub. Specials covers Rat Race, Rich Girl, Little Bitch and their version of Toot’s Monkey Man being the nimblest.
It may be a timeworn formula for a ska band to cover classics like Baggy Trousers, Lip Up Fatty and Mirror in the Bathroom, but like fish n chips, it’s cliché because it never fails to thrill an audience, and The Skandals do it superbly. Interestingly, they added northern soul anthem “Tainted Love,” reggae’s “Pressure Drop” and “Chase the Devil,” into the melting pot, and choosing “Food for Thought,” as their UB40 cover is a wise move; anything post-Red Red Wine and it’s a cover band covering a cover band!
While Devizes has a thriving music scene, other than sporadic gigs from the scooter club, the pub circuit lacks ska and reggae, and you all know how I feel about that. If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad. It was a delight to pay a visit to Marlborough’s Lamb again, despite remining in Wadworthshire, it’s working formula stands the test of time. “We’re quite lucky in Marlborough,” a regular informed me, rattling off the Bear’s backroom, The Wellington and Royal Oak as fond live music venues, as well as the Lamb. Yes, I nodded my acknowledgment, but when ska comes to town that’s where you’ll find me! “Let me tell about Sally Brown……”
Word from the top, I’m always happy to receive a message from our mayor. Although, I might be remanded to the town gaols for my inexcusable misuse of photoshop. I think Judy Rose is a great choice, in my defence, yet I just like mayors in general, most likely from being a lifelong fan of Trumpton. Despite remaining anonymous, he’s the most reliable character in Gordon Murray’s stop motion masterpiece, along with his faithful chauffeur, Mr Philby. But hey, I’m nostalgically waffling now, please stop me.
From Trumpton to Devizes, Judy is keen to tell me about a couple of upcoming Mayoral Fundraising Events, so here’s the lowdown. Both being held to raise money for her three charities: Victim Support, Devizes and District Food-bank and Devizes Youth Football.
The first one is the Mayor’s Quiz Night with superb quizmaster, Don Jones, from just down the road in Camberwick Green I believe. It’s on Sat 8th February, 7 for 7.30pm in the Assembly Rooms of the Town Hall. Tickets are £3pp from the Town Hall or on the night at the door. Judy tells, “if you aren’t part of a team, just come along and we will set you up with others to create one. There will be a cash bar and a raffle.”
The second one is the Mayor’s Ceilidh on Sat 18th April, again 7 for 7.30 till 11.30pm. “I didn’t want to go for a formal ball as I sense that folk nowadays are reluctant to take on the cost of such an event,” Judy explained, “and I wanted a proper community knees-up if at all possible!”
It sounds like a plan, essentially it promises to be a party with dancing and food, in which all ages can participate, so families with children are welcome. There will be fantastic Ceilidh musicians: The Pack Horse Band, a finger buffet and cash bar, plus the usual raffle etc. “This is a money raising event after all!” Judy reminds us, and for some brilliant charities too I might add. “I’m hoping there will be other entertainment, but that is not confirmed yet. Tickets are £30ph, with Primary School and younger children free and secondary school children £15ph. I have used this band before for a similar private event, and they are terrific fun.”
So, save the dates in your diary. “Here is the clock, the Devizes clock. Telling the time, steadily, sensibly; never too quickly, never too slowly. Telling the time for Devizes.”
Having got a couple of hours to spare before the evening’s Rockfiles gig at Long Street Blues Club (see elsewhere), I thought I’d pop into the White Bear for a couple of looseners, and to see Jon Walsh, a performer new to me.
Using both acoustic and resonator guitars, Jon clearly had an extensive repertoire of songs. His material varied from old 1920s and 1930s blues standards such as “Crossroads” and “Walking Blues” through to fairly contemporary pop songs e.g. “Walking In Memphis”. In each of his two sets he was joined on vocals by his partner Terie, who lent some bluesy and jazzy phrasing to several classics such as “Crazy”, “I’d Rather Go Blind” and “Valerie”. There was clearly some musical chemistry between these two, and they obviously enjoyed working together.
Jon put in an extremely versatile performance, including a nice smattering of his own original songs. Nice crowd, and nice atmosphere.
Can’t think why I’ve not come across Jon before, but shall certainly be happy to listen to him again.
Don’t panic, and reach for the crate of wine, it’s only a half-term holiday. Plus, we’ve some solutions to keep them from wearing their X-Box out. So, without further a-do here’s the lowdown on exciting activities and events to engage their little minds, and help keep your sanity!
Events which run through the week are listed on the day they begin, but I’ll put a little OG next to them to let you know it’s ongoing, because we all like an og now and then.
Only a few solutions you’ll note, mind, not found as much as I usually do for other school holidays, but we have the power to amend this, do let me know what I’ve missed, local area only please, and we can always add them, provided you’re nice! Also note, we do this for each school holiday, so don’t forget it for Easter too; let me know, saves my legwork.
Saturday 15th February
OG: At Stonehenge this half-term, they’re running hands-on workshops for all the family all week, with forensic facial reconstruction experts. Learn how to use archaeological evidence to uncover what people might have looked like thousands of years ago, (I’ll give you a clue, a bit like me in the morning) and even have a go at a reconstruction yourself! No booking required; workshops are included with a standard Stonehenge admission ticket.
Sunday 16th February
OG: Pick your own daffodils at Whitehall Garden Centre in Woodborough from Sunday until the end of March, subject to availability and weather permitting. £4.99 per bag – Maximum of approximately 50 stems. Book tickets.
Monday 17th February
OG:CJ School of Music introduces an interesting idea over the half term, starting Monday; a recycled orchestra project will see children make their own instrument out of recycled “things” and create a recycled orchestra together! They promise “it won’t be rubbish!” Bring a lunch as it’s from 9-3:30.
OG: Scrap Modelling at its finest for ages 3 to 11, at the Holiday Art Club of the Wiltshire Scrapstore & Resource Centre on Bowden Hill near Lacock. Running all week, bring your mini-Monets along to a popular Holiday Art Club, and teach them the importance of reducing and reusing our waste, all whilst having lots of fun using the scrap resources! Each session is run by a qualified trainer. Parents/guardians must stay with attending children during the session, and pre-booking is essential.
Blue Butterfly Yoga Provides yoga instruction for children in Devizes and surrounding areas, and they’re at Rowde Village Hall in the morning with a class for 3-7-year olds. Yoga games and songs, breathing techniques and a short relaxation. Siblings receive a £1 discount. Tea, coffee, squash and biscuits available in the adjoining room so parents/carers can have a little relaxation time too. You are also welcome to bring babies or younger siblings along as there is plenty of space in the next room. Limited numbers for this, payment secures your place; contact here to book a slot.
Meet children’s author Rachel Jane @ Melksham Library at 10:30 on Monday, and hear all about the adventures of Milo and Lil the Campervans! Rachel will be reading two of her books, and this will be followed by a themed craft activity. Ideally 3-7-year olds, this is a free event. Please book your place at the library: Tel: 01225 702039
M4 Stompers is a regular line dance class, every Monday evening at The Town Hall, Devizes and welcomes all ages & abilities. Absolute Beginners Class 6.30-7.30pm £5. Beginners 7-8pm £5. Dance 6.30-8pm £6. Improvers Class 7.30-9.30pm £6.
How about you create a dinosaur or unicorn on Monday? Children’s party organiser, Smarty Party Roxy invites you to fill a 16″ Dinosaur or Unicorn with fluff, a make-a-wish token and love at Shrewton Methodist Church. Complete the birth certificate and take your new friend home in their own carry bag. Squash and snacks available, there will also be a fancy-dress competition for the best Dinosaur/Unicorn outfit or accessories. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times, this activity is best suited to ages 4 and over. £12.50 per Dinosaur/ Unicorn tickets available from Eventbrite.
Tuesday 18th February
OG: Devizes Tennis Club has a holiday camps, running from Monday to Thursday. Promises to be fun, enjoyable days for juniors to come along, make new friends and improve their tennis skills with coaching activities. They’ll be serving up three days of tennis fun for Minis (aged 3-9 years) this February Half term and best of all, it’ll be indoors. Spaces are limited, just 20 per day, so early booking is recommended! Camp will run Tuesday 18th to Thursday 20th February 2020, from 10am to 3pm daily. Half days are available by prior arrangement. The cost is £20 per day, held in the School Hall at Bishops Cannings Primary School.
Camps are run by experience LTA qualified, DBS checked and first aid certified coaches so you can be assured your kids are in safe hands. No experience, no membership, no racket required! Just a packed lunch, drink and suitable clothing are needed, oh and plenty of energy and enthusiasm!
Holiday Activities at the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes starts off with star splatter pictures in a workshop called “Stars and Space.” Inspired by the ‘Earth and Universe’ photographic exhibition, you’ll be creating star splatter pictures and other space and star themed craft. Two sessions: 10.30am-12.00noon and 1.00 – 2.30pm. Booking essential – £6 per child, no charge for adults attending workshop.
CJ School of Music in Potterne again, with a Feb Sing, today and on Friday 21st too. 9am-1pm, with a performance for the parents at 12:30. £19 per person.
Wednesday 19th February
Another holiday Activity at Wiltshire Museum, this time it’s Stone Age Discoveries. Art and craft creations for the whole family inspired by cave art and prehistoric animals. Two sessions 10.30am-12.00noon and 1.00 – 2.30pm. Booking essential – £6 per child, no charge for adults attending workshop.
Crafty Kids in the Café: The Cafe in the Park, Hillworth Park, Devizes.
Wally loves to find treasure on his travels! Bring your mini-makers along to decorate their very own wooden treasure box to keep their own riches in!Sessions running at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Tickets are £4.50 per child and include the box, a drink and a snack.
Please note that you cannot leave your child unattended during these sessions.
OG: Meanwhile, over at the Potterne village hall, the Potterne Pantomime presents Jack & The Beanstalk. It runs each day until Saturday, at 7 and a matinee on Saturday at 1:30pm. See the poster for details.
Leadership Martial Arts run classes every Wednesday afternoon and Sunday morning at the Cavalier Community Hall on Eastleigh Road, and are open right through the half term holiday.
Thursday 20th February
OG: Jack’s Beanstalk also grows over to the Seend Community Centre on Thursday as Fawlty Players Presents Jack and The Beanstalk. Running until Saturday, tickets on sale at the Post Office and Community Centre.
Friday 21st February
The Hillworth Park gang are throwing open the gates to Wally, Wanda and their friends on Friday!
Have your picture taken with Wally and Wanda, take part in our treasure hunt and add yourself to our very own enormous Where’s Wally poster! The wonderful books will be on sale too from our friends at Devizes Books.
Saturday 22nd February
Frozen fans need to head to the Cavalier Community Hall where they have a Children’s Frozen Theme Ball, with a special guest appearance from Alsa and Anna, oh and Pippa Langhorne too, who sang with her dog on Britain’s Got Talent. It promises to be an afternoon of songs, stories, photos and a disco to follow. There will be a prize for the best dress girl and boy.
This one is just a fiver, and £3.50 for photos, but it’s all in aid of my favourite 5-year-old, Carmela, who you may recall from my Spiderman outing last summer. If not, she is battling a rare progressive muscle wasting disease which will weaken all her muscles including her heart and lungs, shortening her life to potentially 16. Money raised will go to her Therapy Fund to help with ongoing specialised equipment, physiotherapy and adaptions as she grows. Tickets limited so book online. Photos must also be paid in advance on the ticket line.
Sunday 23rd February
Nothing new yet, have a day of rest and pray Monday isn’t a teacher training day, or as I like to call them, teacher down the pub day! Have a great half term!
Two days up at the Con Club this week for Long Street Blues Club’s “Beat The January Blues” Week-ender.
On Saturday night we had a packed room to listen to Liam Ward & Malcolm Thorne (support) and the Kirk Fletcher band.
Ward & Thorne, who are new names to me, were a delight. Their set was clean, fresh, quirky and entertaining. Featuring guitar, vocals and some deft touches on harmonica, these two produced a wonderful set of originals which were laid-back and nicely bluesy. I particularly liked their song “You Are My Medicine”. I’d be happy to go and see these guys again.
Then a single extended set from the main star Kirk Fletcher and his band. Kirk hails from California and is ex-lead guitarist with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. He’s had some great reviews on this tour so far. Ian Hopkins reports that Innes Sibun said he was amazing when he shared a bill with him last year, and Joe Bonamassa rates him as one of the world’s best guitarists. Well, I didn’t know anything about all that, so I could only judge on what I saw and heard.
Kirk himself was obviously up at the front with some snarling guitar work, but there was plenty of featured keyboards too. It took a few numbers to really get the room warmed up, but once the trio hit their stride, the band were really cooking and in their groove. We had guitar solos aplenty, the band providing a solid platform of driving rhythms. There was minimal chat from the stage, and the guys delivered number after number, hardly pausing for breath. The playing was always technically superb, and at times inspired, and the crowd lapped it up, but (for me at least) it didn’t carry that magic spark of real excitement. Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoyed the gig, but it didn’t quite hit my hot-spot.
Then just 24 hours later, on Sunday night we had Thompson Smurthwaite (support) and Billy Bremner’s Rockfiles. A slightly smaller crowd this time, but still a great atmosphere.
Thompson Smurthwaite is starting to become a regular in these here parts. Having played support here at the Club a few months ago, Thompson has also recently played slots at The White Bear and The Southgate. It was good to see him back with a large audience again. He was relaxed and confident, joking with the audience, whacking out some great tunes from guitar, harmonica (his “Mississippi saxophone”) and stomp-box. The guy put such heart and soul into his performance. Great entertainment.
Then on to the second main act of the week-end. Billy Bremner was one of the founding members of Dave Edmunds’ Rockpile along with Nick Lowe, and produced some great music during the seventies. Prior to this particular outfit he has had a long track record in session work and a member of Lulu’s backing band the Bruvers. Then a season as guitarist with The Pretenders during the recording of On The Chain Gang – he has always been the guitarist to go to. Billy now resides in Sweden and his touring is carefully rationed so the Club were delighted to be one of a few carefully selected club dates on this UK tour.
Rockfiles are probably the polar musical opposite to Kirk Fletcher. Whilst the latter was focussed on originality, improvisation and exploration, Rockfiles were just as firmly set on reproducing classic hits of the seventies and eighties. The songs were short, snappy, catchy pop/rock classics. The four-piece hit the stage running, sharing the vocals between them, and never let up for the whole of their 75-minute set. This was Old Skool retro and nostalgia at its very best. And the hits just kept on coming, including “I Knew The Bride When She Used to Rock & Roll”, “Three-time Loser”, “Cruel To Be Kind”, “I Hear You Knocking” and many, many more. The inter-song chat was absolutely minimal, so they could pack more in. The music wasn’t complex, but it was solid, thumping good stuff, and difficult not to enjoy. Absolutely no blues were involved in the making of their performance.
Overall a great weekend of music – four great acts, four different styles, but all enjoyable and great value for money. There was something there for everybody. Devizes is so lucky to have access to so much great live music.
• Saturday 7th March Ian Parker Band
• Saturday 4th April Mike Zito Band
• Saturday 18th April Mark Flanagan Band
• Saturday 30th May Antonio Forcione Quartet
On the strength of the two singles we’ve previously reviewed I was in little doubt I’d need to flatter Bill as he appeared at my door, beaming an eager expression and holding out “Still,” the hot-off-the-press debut album from his trio Billy Green 3. He has every reason to be excited, they’ve (Bill Green, Harvey Schorah, Neil Hopkins, Martin Spencer and Matt Clements) worked hard on this project, and it shows.
I wouldn’t give brownie points for a physical copy rather than a spotty-fly or whatchamacallit link, cause and effect of which I need to badger my daughter, as she has an account, and risk the danger of leaving a near-teenager in the house without a phone for half an hour. It just makes it easier for my old-fashioned methods. I don’t need to ask Alexa how to play a CD. But, “Still” needs not to collect bonus points.
If there’s a hard angle I could adopt, it’s that for me, the rave era bypassed any real appreciation for Britpop, which is what this is best pigeonholed as. While there were times the genres rivalled there were also experimental segments when it fused, and my eclectic tastes would always make me float the surface of any youth culture, to take in other surroundings; i.e. I’ve seen Pulp live, if it helps.
Yes, I kissed some Britpop and I liked it. That said it’s hard for me to review with precision comparisons and acute contrasts, being no expert. Simplest option is to listen, see if I enjoy it; box doubled-ticked. If this is a grower, I’ll be hooked for sure, as first impressions is impressive, without the aforementioned flattery.
What polishes that notion is the flow of it, it drifts beautifully. Sixteen tracks heavy, many are short avant-garde interludes, like fragmented thoughts, splinters of concepts. You often see this with trip-hop, like Money Mark’s Keyboard Repair. Here it’s principally experimental on the drum-looped “London,” and “Banus.” The latter rivals the crossover of the Noel Gallagher vocals on the Chemical Brothers “Setting Sun,” if only for a brief moment. Prime example of its tolerant flow; when “Banus” marches into a far woozier but lengthier, “Lose our Way.”
If these interludes splice concept album epitomes, throughout the album there’s subtle soundscapes and samples. To concentrate on the fuller tunes; it’s gorgeous, pliable indie, dipped in Britpop but wrought with all that Britpop was influenced by too, as opposed to being a tribute to the genre.
There’s certainly some tragedy to the portrayals as the genre characterises, “Lose our Way” for instance, but it drips a fresh approach without cliché. Though throughout my evaluation my thoughts immersed with The Beatles to Pink Floyd, and of Madchester to Spaceman 3. They invade my mind. The things I touched close to Britpop are nodded to here.
This could sit comfortably on your shelf with your Suede and Verve albums and not look out of place. But expect to pick out that scooter sound of eighties, of the Jam, or Merton Parkas, while contemporary indie subgenres such as lo-fi or chillwave, rather than grunge, slip through too.
As my ears wander through the upbeat “Blindside,” to the mellowed and aptly-titled “Drifting,” I ponder comparisons I’m more familiar with, and find the Who rather than Oasis, particularly with the adroit and catchy “I Should be Moved.” There’s a running theme of “why did I have to write that love song,” but it’s whirly romantic, which comes to an apex with “Love Song.”
Just launched on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, and Deezer; you could do yourself a favour and pick this up. With the production value second to none; The Badger Sect is to Devizes what Sun Studio is to Memphis, I’d rather suggest, to keep it local, you march down to Vinyl Realm, Devizes Books, Light & Sound or Mikey’s barbershop with just a fiver in hand and get Still. Get a trim too at the latter, sort your ombre-dyed indie bob out.
Do not fear though peeps, while Billy Green and his significant other two may’ve switched me onto a lost love of Britpop, I have no plans to practise my Wonderwall cover. That’s the deal though, isn’t it? Chestnuts abound with covers and tribute acts, despite we love a sing-a-long, Billy Green 3 knocked them aside like Richard Ashcroft on the let-down of a promise and produced this brilliant original material. Fair shout.
Asa is coming back, this time without the Buddy Holly specs, but as himself. He brings a variety show direct from the banks of the Mersey. It was April last time we saw Liverpool’s swing singer, radio presenting, all-round entertainer Asa Murphy, he filled and thrilled the Corn Exchange with an absolutely marvellous Buddy Holly show. It combined just enough narrative but focussed on the music of this rock n roll legend, and was delivered with passion and admiration.
It was his friendship with the late Bruce Hopkins which brings him to our town. A man after my heart, though I never had the honour to have met former Devizes Town Football Club chairman, Bruce. He had an appetite for music, and when he was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, he organised a mini festival, the Patney Picnic, in his garden, and raised about £30,000 for the charity. Asa paid tribute to Bruce at the Buddy show, making a contribution towards the Cancer Research from its takings. He plans to do this again, but what can we expect from the show? I asked him.
“It is a variety show, pal,” he explained, “with all the performers and the musicians coming from Liverpool.” He brings Sandy Collins, “a superb sixties singer, very popular and with a great career of performing,” Asa continued, “plus Lennie Anderson, an excellent comic who tours all over the UK.”
“Myself, and the other acts have worked together many times on the Liverpool Empire and Philharmonic Hall,” he said, “plus on Ricky Tomlinson’s club the Greenroom.” Other than that, and, “it will be a night of singing, laughter and dancing!” Asa didn’t say much more than he does on his video dairy doing the rounds on Facebook. I watched it anyway because I love the way he says the word Devizes in that rich scouse accent!
Lennie Anderson
It’s back at the Corn Exchange on April 11th, tickets are £15 from Devizes Books. While I’d wager it’ll attract an older crowd, what with it being sixties related, and it being in Devizes too (!) I’d endorse it to our younger population too, if not only because everyone loves the sounds of the sixties, far from antiquated, variety performances are very much the trend given television’s BGT et all, but mostly based on the quality of last April’s performance.
I’ll hold my hands up, somebody put half an ale in one, because my guilty confession is, I’ve not yet had the opportunity to doDOCA’s annual Festival of Winter Ales. This’ll change this year, attendees will have the added bonus of me sauntering about dribbling piffle, but if I tell you what acts are appearing, it won’t put you off too much!
If, like me, you’re an apple-a-day chap, you’ll be pleased to note as it’s held in collaboration with Stealth Brewery, they’ve ciders as well as ale. Our man Andy Fawthrop tells me there’s usually ten-twelve types of cider; just enough for me! That said, when in Rome; I maybe, just maybe, open to ale conversion for the duration only. Double-whammy, to soak it up they have to pie too. Andy can’t review it though, as he’s there in a professional calibre, and I simply won’t allow anyone to review an event they helped organise ……ehm …. (okay; in-house joke if you note our last article it might, I said might, just amuse.)
Matt Barnard
So, down to me then, a harsh critic softened by alcohol. But Matt Barnard I suspect will swing it. DOCA aim to make it cabaret; Matt has performed across the world as a compere, actor, musician, singer and as himself in this unique one man show he brings to the festival.
He was the resident compere of the cult Sensation Seekers Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, starred in London’s oldest variety show in the West End in and performed his unique act at the famous London Palladium. He also appeared in the Hollywood movie Mrs Henderson Presents in which he performed the famous sand-dance with Gareth Jones. Matt Barnard has won many awards for his solo show including at the Feldkircher Gaukler Theatre Festival in Austria.
Just because Matt Barnard does it, doesn’t mean you should try this at home
It should be noted the festival spans over Friday and Saturday (28th and 29th February.) Saturday is divided into two sessions. While Matt covers all, there’s a different act for each session; pleased to see they’re some of our local favs. I imagine half-cut real ale fans ushered out via a digital sign, like at the Oasis leisure centre, “yellow wristbands your time is up!” But attendees on Friday, for example, might not ever leave (another local joke); Devizes-own Vince Bell booked and all. We need not bio Vince, surely? His emotive lyrics, constructed from personal experience or annotations of the area are always delivered with passion, proper job.
You ain’t ever leaving. Our Vince. Image by Nick Padmore
Swindon-based folk-rock five-piece, Splat The Rat slap the Friday late slot too. Taking songs of old and giving them a modern going over, they’ve nailed many great gigs locally, none I’ve personally witnessed, but they’re high on my things-to-do list. Expect lively arrangements, singalong songs and a rousing good time. https://www.facebook.com/splattherat/
Splat the Rat
Things get complicated Saturday afternoon. An extensive cross-section of original songs and rearranged covers, It’s Complicated make them their own. Yet it’s not just what they do with It’s Complicated, it’s the way that they do it! Take it from me, it’s not complicated at all, in fact it’s simply enticing, marvellously professional, and when Jacqueline sings Etta James, oh my. https://www.facebook.com/Its-Complicated-364813334370698/
It’s Complicated
Worthy to note, if you do this slot, you could jog over to the Town Hall and catch them again, with Daydream Runaways. I’m planning to; you could carry me! Devizes Town Hall plays host to a black-tie Casino Royale evening for Just4Children’s ‘Carmela’s Fight to Stay Mobile.’ See here for details.
NOTE: UPDATE
Unfortunately, the Casino Royale night at the Town Hall has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
Kris Dollimore
Back at the Corn Exchange Saturday night is all about Kris Dollimore. He’s played with many international bands and artists including The Godfathers, The Damned, Dee Dee Ramone and Johnny Thunders. He’s also a member of Del Amitri. As a solo artist Kris has toured the length and breadth of the UK & Europe performing at clubs, venues and festivals. He has also released four critically acclaimed solo albums. Kris’s guitar skills have always been admired in whichever genre he has played. A man, a guitar and a voice. With a largely acoustic repertoire, precision playing is expected and delivered, earning him a hard core following of loyal fans and admirers. Expect bluesy guitar playing, soulful singing, and foot stomping sounds. https://www.facebook.com/KrisDollimoreMusic/
I’m looking forward to (hic!) breaking my Winter of Festive Ales cherry, be there, tickets here, see if I can handle it!
All Images by Nick Padmore, unless otherwise stated.
Reviewing my own organised event being a slightly naughty and obviously bias idea, I’d still like to notify you how it went. View this then as a journal entry of my weekend as opposed to a review, per se, and the opportunity to thank everyone who kindly offered their time to help….
Chloe Jordan
Returned now from a frosty Sunday morning in Potterne; my son had a taster piano lesson at CJ School of Music. Andrew Hurst presented a one-on-one introduction to music in such a friendly and humble manner he was immediately absorbed, and playing a simple tune in under half-hour. It’s something I cannot help him with; not a musical note in me, but I have a fascination and respect for those who can; you knew that much.
Coincidently his lesson should be the morning after the originator of this wonderful and newly opened music school, soprano singer Chloe Jordan, held a surprised Cellar Bar spellbound. Not before thirteen-year-old piano prodigy Will Foulstone, a pupil of CJ’s music school did likewise. Will featured on Devizine back in April 2018, when a video of him playing attracted the interest of Danny O’Donoghue, frontman and pianist of The Script and coach on the Voice UK. A surprise meeting with Danny saw Will jamming with The Script at the O2 arena.
The Amazing Will Foulstone. My dodgy photography!
Well, our Cellar Bar may not be the O2 arena, but Will was welcomed, and his piano interpretations of era-spanning pop was the perfect opening for our fundraiser. For though it maybe a January night where the temperature nose-dived, a fair crowd turned out, in what I wanted to be a celebration of how our town can bond and support in crisis, rather than a sombre occasion. Yet with the collaboration of an assorted bunch of local acts, it reflected both moods equally, I feel. For Liz Denbury has already done a sterling job, raising £4,000 for those affected by December’s fire in the flats of Waiblingen Way. If this could top it up it would’ve been nice, but I was determined not to pressure for any contribution, as so many have already chipped in. Delighted to report then, the evening raised a further £292 for the cause.
While the Cellar Bar hosts the brilliant Open Mic nights, every last Thursday of the month, I’d wager such diversity to appease my eclectic taste buds and especially, a soprano singer casting so wonderfully into the air the sound of opera, has not been seen in the venue for many-a-year. Though accompanist Susan Braunton and Chloe best played to the crowd, and wowed them with popular offerings, such as the Frozen theme, a Greatest Show song, and an own-penned amusing children’s song, as well as opera. Best heard in a church or concert hall, Chloe won the hearts of an alternative crowd, if leaving us with a dilemma of how to follow such a class appearance.
Contrast, the order of the day. A switch to folk with Mirko and Bran of the Celtic Roots Collective. A duo who simply improve with every gig, in confidence and technique. Their brand of an Irish folk style throws known foot-tappers and rock songs into the melting pot. Through Whisky in a Jar, Dirty Old Town they rode, to traditional songs and the Irish Rover; with their help, things were beginning to return to the Cellar Bar’s usual ethos.
Unscheduled but always welcomed at our gigs, poet Gail Foster arrived with two poignant sonnets, relating to the cause and delivered with personal emotion, “You didn’t see me, right?” and “Come, Friendly Bulldozers to Wobbly Way.” Thank you, Gail, spot on as usual; I’m so glad you made it.
Gail Foster
Time for acoustic singer-songwriter, Ben Borrill and guitar to step up to the cobblestone stage, and he did with gusto, humour and his untroubled attitude to performance. This cool and modesty grounds underestimation of Ben in some, I feel, who launched into covers with ease, causally making them his own, and it exhibited in eminence, skill and entertainment value, which was also touching, considering why we were there.
It’s no wonder our headline act looks to Ben as their choicest support act. After a few words of thanks from Liz Denbury, it was time for the band who’d been hanging around all afternoon setting up gear, to finally conclude the night. Doubtless was I, that Daydream Runaways would capture the audience with a lively finale, but with augmented professionalism since I last saw them live, they exceeded my expectation.
Daydream Runaways. Image by Gail Foster
I was honoured, as prior to the opening, I was treated to a taster while they tuned, and retained the secret they’d cover Blur’s Song Two, for instance. It was there we spoke of future plans. Being we’ve fondly reviewed their singles, I asked whether an album was in the pipeline. It’s never a simple question in this era of changing formats, I know some hold favouritism of EPs, whereby others strive for an album. This caused a differing opinion between drummer Brad Kinsey and guitarist Cameron Bianchi, but without tension they debated the idea. Diplomacy between gentle banter displays strong unity in this Swindon-Devizes amalgamation, both on and offstage. Despite powerfully-themed tunes such as Closing the Line, with despairing narrative of the closure of the Honda Plant in Swindon, I sense unison, but figure they’ve not reached their magnum opus yet. Hold tight for that moment.
With youth on their side, Daydream Runaways need not daydream at all, and it seems plans are little more than to continue on the current path. Thoroughly relishing every moment projects to the audience for The Daydreamers, they lap it up. Frontman, for want of a better term as they’re glue, Ben Heathcote oozes enthusiasm and unveils this joyful aura over the crowd, with the talent to back it up. Meanwhile bassist, Nath Heathcote seems quietly confident of their astounding impact.
Fused with a selection of classic indie favourites, they slide in their own compositions unabridged and without complaint, as if these are equal in importance to the crowd, as they obviously are to the band. After just over a year, I honestly think they’re fast becoming so. This comes from hard work and dedication, and it really shows in this lively indie-pop four-piece. I may have high hopes for these guys, but after tonight the crowd at the Cellar Bar have joined those at Vinyl Realm’s stage at the Street Festival, and the Southgate in understanding why I crowned them best newcomer this year.
Phew, what a blinding finale to an awesome night, I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for their absolutely brilliant and individual performances. I also thank the staff at the Cellar Bar, to Liz, and obviously all who braved the winter chill to join us. It’s heart-warming and makes Devizine feel actual to me to stage such events. A big thank you also goes to Mike Barham, for despite having to venture off with his band Nerve Endings and not getting to fulfil the bill this time, rolled in earlier than I to setup and do the tech stuff. With quality such as this, I’d welcome the idea of future fundraising gigs which celebrate all that’s amazing on our local scene; cheers to all, see you at the next one!
We’re getting all excited here at Devizine towers, as the band I tipped best newcomer of last year, Daydream Runaways are heading the Cellar Bar on Saturday night in an event we’re proud to put our name to. In fact, I take no credit, it was the band’s idea. I’m there purely to prop up the bar, which would be better than allowing me to sing, and encourage you to bundle me if I was to even contemplate it.
It’s been a rather rushed-out and impromptu gig, and now I find myself disquietingly anxious you will be there. January is a quiet month, people strapped for cash and the weather doing its wettest. It’s your job, and all I will ask of you, to prove me wrong. I look forward to meeting you all on Saturday night. We’ve stated we’re kicking it off at 7pm, might start a little later, I don’t wish for anyone to be playing to minimal audience, so I encourage you to get early tucker and pop in as soon as possible.
January it is though, as we’re urgently fundraising for the Wailblingen Way Fire Fund which Liz Denbury has worked so hard to promote. It’s been a huge success already, that is why the event is free. If you’ve already donated, we thank you, and welcome you to this treat. There will be a chance to contribute to the fund at the door, but without hassle. I’d be the world’s worst chugger! View this, though it may become a sombre occasion at times, being for an issue which has touched us all emotionally, but I ask we view it as a celebration also, of how at times to tragedy we can bond and raise such a wonderful amount of money. Liz will be on hand to explain how and why she has fronted this cause, and will give us a few words on the night.
I’m delighted to announce Chloe Jordan will be performing, adding especially to the eclectic nature of our line-up. Chloe is a local soprano singer with a breath-taking voice and blossoming career after training with internationally renowned soprano Janice Watson. She has also recently opened a new school of music in Potterne called CJ School of Music of which I’ll tell more about in the coming month. I do not know exactly what to expect from Chloe at this stage, as to what she will sing, note it will be classical-related and know it will be awesome!
Sadly, Mr Mike Barham, who is billed, has had to decline last minute. Nerve Endings won a competition in Bracknell, I’m told, and play the final heat there, or least something like this. I congratulate Mike, Rob and Luke; knew you could do it. But, dedicated to this gig from the off, Mike has agreed to drop in early in order to set it up for us prior to setting off for Bracknell; so, cheers, Mike, total legend.
To replace Mike we had two, as the guy takes the space of two, but if you heard the fantastic Patrick Goodenough was coming, I said those words but I lied them. Unfortunately, Patrick has had to pulled out, but local singer-songwriter, Ben Borrill will be there. Ben, a regular support for Daydream Runaways, brings an accomplished acoustic set with a passionate delivery and a charming persona; can’t wait to catch up with him.
Slotted somewhere in the middle we will be treated to Mirko and Bran’s Celtic Roots Collective, who are gathering local bookings with their brilliant take on Irish folk fused rock. Foot-stomping sing-along tunes that they are! All we need now is you, watch those slippery steps and please, come on down, as despite all these great acts kindly contributing their time and effort, it wouldn’t be the same without you, especially if you bring me a cupcake.
Three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Josie Long brings her latest show, Tender, to the Bath Komedia on 20th February. Josie is back on the road with a brand-new show about the mind-bending intensity of new motherhood, but it is also about kindness, gentleness and joy.
A cult-optimist herself, Josie wants her audiences to feel optimistic about the future, although in this current day and age, that’s a big ask. But at the very least there will be some silly voices. Society’s biggest issues that we’re facing today, from climate change to Boris Johnson, cannot be ignored, but Tender’s main focus is about bringing new life into this ever-changing world.
Image by Idil Sukan Draw HQ
Having started performing comedy at just 14, Josie went on to win the BBC New Comedy Award, Chortle Best Newcomer, Best Newcomer at the 2006 Edinburgh Comedy Awards and then was nominated for Best Show at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards three years running. She has since sold out West End runs, performed at the most prestigious comedy festivals in the world, written five solo tours and sold out shows in LA and New York.
On screen, Josie has been seen on 8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4), Never Mind the Buzzcocks (BBC2), You Have Been Watching (Channel 4) and Skins (Channel 4), for which she also wrote. She has presented on BBC 6Music, was nominated for a Radio Academy Award for her adventurous short documentaries Short Cuts on Radio 4 and earned a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award nomination for her two short feature films, Let’s Go Swimming and Romance and Adventure and her recent feature film, Super November, was nominated for a BIFA Discovery Award.
Josie Long Image by Giles Smith
In 2011, Josie started an ongoing project called the Alternative Reality Tour; an anti-cuts, pro-youth, no-profit performance in a bid to fight for social justice and support public art, and is co-founder of the Arts Emergency Service, a charity which aims to support students from underprivileged backgrounds who wish to study arts degrees.
PRESS ON ‘TENDER’
★★★★★ “Riotously hilarious…such a uniquely optimistic hour of comedy…it is a dose of medicine which is so very needed” THE SKINNY
★★★★★ “A playful and intelligent hour” ONE4REVIEW
★★★★★ “Beautifully written… you leave feeling hopeful, with enough energy to keep fighting and a good dose of joy and silliness” FUNNY WOMEN
★★★★★ “Incredibly funny… a joy throughout” YOUNG PERSPECTIVE
★★★★ “The mother lode of love, joy and laughs” THE GUARDIAN
★★★★ “What a delight it is to have Josie Long back… the perfect cure for a spot of November SAD” THE TELEGRAPH
★★★★ “In Long’s hands, the material is revitalised… there’s something refreshing and sort of revolutionary about it” THE i
★★★★ “Articulate, passionate and intense, but heart-warmingly funny, too” EVENING STANDARD
★★★★ “Her relentless cheeriness would win over even the most cynical of hearts” THE ARTS DESK
★★★★ “As infectious as always…Tender is explicitly personal and positive” THE SCOTSMAN
★★★★ “It’s a genuine joy to spend an hour with Long” THE LIST
★★★★ “Long’s skill as a comedian is undimmed… so personal and so humorous with it, too” FEST
★★★★ “There is so much love in the room for Josie Long” EDINBURGH FESTIVAL MAGAZINE
★★★★ “We need people like Josie Long now more than ever” BROADWAYBABY
★★★★ “A cleverly constructed and thoughtful show” THE WEE REVIEW
Celebrate Chinese New Year and support one of Wiltshire’s best loved charities.
What better way to celebrate the Chinese New Year than a 3-course Chinese meal cooked by Chef Peter Vaughan of Vaughan’s Kitchen and dancing the night away to the ever-popular local live band, Indecision?
Alzheimer’s Support have a fundraising dinner and dance at Devizes Sports Club at 7pm on January 31st, and it promises to be a fantastic evening out to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Cor, I love eating Chinese food; if it was an Olympic event I’d get a gold! But I’ve never tried any of food magician Peter’s, although, unlike a magician, he intends to show you how he does some of his tricks. Guests will be treated to a cooking demonstration from Peter before the dance.
Warning: do not read this next bit on an empty stomach, the menu looks like this:
Starters: Prawn crackers; Assorted Dim sum; Yuk Shung (Chinese Lettuce wrap)
Main course: Aromatic Wiltshire pork Szechuan Pepper; Crispy tofu hoisin sauce (vegetarian); Egg fried rice with Chinese 5 spice; Stir fry of Chinese leaves with pickled ginger
Dessert: Chinese pineapple apricot cake with mango & lime cream
The evening comes at the end of the winter’s bleakest month, so why not jazz up January with a great night out? Tickets at £30 a head include a three-course meal and drink on arrival. All proceeds will go to support people living with dementia in Wiltshire.
Tickets for this summer’s Manton-Fest are up for grabs, a one-day festival I’ve heard only good things about.
The date is Saturday 27th June. A £20 Early-bird ticket will guarantee you’re in for this previously sold-out mini-fest, this year you can book a plot for your gazebo for £5, parking has been moved to a separate field allowing more space, but let’s see what your money will get you this year shall we?
The headliner is Edinburgh’s Blondie tribute, Dirty Harry. While there’s Blondie tributes aplenty, the band say, “the essence of Dirty Harry is to put on a show Blondie would give the nod to and in true punk style.” Call me, I’m convinced, and slightly hot under the collar; with the advantage of YouTube you can judge for yourself, modern technology eh?
The Ex-Men are next on the hierarchy, as the name suggests, it’s an amalgamation group made up of Alan Sagar ex Big Country, Graham Pollock ex The Hollies, Peter Barton ex the Animals, Phil Bates ex ELO and Geoff Hammond ex Denny Laine; you get the idea. A stimulating sounding assembly with a wealth of experience between them couldn’t possibly go wrong.
The Ex-Men
Vintage blues with a hard edge groove is the ethos of Barrelhouse, who promise up-beat original tracks and classic covers. You be forgiven for assuming the Swinging Blue Jeans would headline, but this classic-sixties rock n roll group have no members of the original skiffle sextet. Yet the band went through constant changes throughout its expansive history, with replacements dating back as far as 1963, when they had their memorable hit, “Hippy Hippy Shake,” and frontman Alan Lovell has led the band for over twenty years.
London-based Bob Marley tribute, the One Love Orchestra could well be my arm twister. Formed in 2010, by musical director and lead guitarist Marcin Bobkowski, One Love Orchestra comprises of reggae musicians who’ve worked with legends like The Wailers, Max Romeo, Johnny Osbourne, Lee Scratch Perry, and UB40, and bring a moving tribute to the legend.
Lancashire singer-songwriter Joe Martin returns after being a hit last year, Manton’s own mellow blues-based Ed Witcomb will also appear, along with local rock covers band @59, and Skedaddle open the show with their mix of soul, blues and jazz. More are promised, if this isn’t enough to be getting on with, and I dunno, it just sounds like a splendid day. For what begun as an event to aid much-needed restoration funds for Manton Village Hall, its grown into an important occasion on our local circuit and aids other local charities.
If you’re looking for a whole week-end of music-based events, with lots of sessions for children too, then you should do yourself a favour and head over to Bradford-On-Avon. It’s a bit out of D-Town I know, but it doesn’t take long to just tootle over to the really splendid Wiltshire Music Centre.
Now in its eighth year, Bradford Roots Music Festival, now extended to three days, is all about two things – showcasing the vast array of musical talent that has any connection with Bradford, and raising (lots of) money for good causes. This year’s beneficiaries will be Dorothy House Hospice, Zone Club (creative club for disabled young adults) and Wiltshire Music Centre. All the artists play for nothing and the event is administered and operated wholly by volunteers. That way all the funds raised go to the good causes.
This year’s event starts next Friday night (17th Jan) with a concert featuring Louie Millar, Crossing The Rockies and Verdisa. This concert is almost sold out, so get your skates on!
Then the main two-day Festival spreads itself across Saturday and Sunday from 11am each day. Saturday’s programme goes through till 10pm, and Sunday’s programme finishes at 4pm. There are four stages in operation, including the superb main WMC auditorium. Over the two days there are more than fifty different acts scheduled to play, including music concerts, shanty sessions, children’s concerts, jazz, blues, poetry, morris dancing and much more.
Particular acts to look out for are The Magnificent AK47, Will Lawton & The Alchemists, Lee Broderick, Billy In The Lowground, and The Yirdbards, although there’s so much going on that it almost seems invidious to pick out individual artists.
Apart from all the music events, there are several spaces given over to craft workshops, merchandising, tarot readings, a Peculiar Gin Company gin bar, a Box Steam main bar and an artisan fair. Just outside there’s a huge marquee hosting JC’s Kitchen, which runs all weekend serving hot drinks and great array of home-cooked food.
I can’t recommend this event highly enough – there genuinely is something for everyone to enjoy, with great food, great beer and a great atmosphere. It’s superb value for money and there’s plenty to do and see for children and for adults. If you’ve never been, I urge you to check it out. You can buy tickets online, or on the door. Day tickets for Saturday or Sunday are available, as well as a 2-day Weekender Ticket.
The Wiltshire Music Centre is also a superb venue in its own right, hosting a year-round programme of top UK and international artists from all genres – classical, folk, blues etc. Worth checking out if you are after top-class entertainment.
Word of the week in the Vizes; Splashpad (apparently Word sees it as one word) So, who wants to splash and who wants to whinge? I ask Town Clerk, Simon Fisher the questions which need to be asked……..
Once upon a time there was a slash-pad on the Green in Devizes, dubbed a drug-hatch, it was a public loo popular with vandals, in a pretty shabby state and kept closed much of the time. Now it’s a haven for the youngest of our community, who on summery days can play and splash until their hearts content. What a wonderful prospect if this could be a reality, yet despite a huge response to a Gazette & Herald article last week, which only stated “Devizes COULD get a splash-pad on the green,” both speculation and hope have seen an unprecedented online reaction.
Are we just “keeping up with the Jones’,” namely, Melksham, shouldn’t we be conserving water, is it an open invitation to vandals? There’s a sure quantity of negativity surrounding the idea, and personally I’d like to ensure a budget for children’s activities is equal for all ages and not just the toddlers, in an era where we’ve seen the closure of youth centres et all. Though my hand is swayed by my own fond memories of how the two mini-mes enjoyed splashpads, obviously me too, a little!
Hats off to Melksham, their largely Lib-Dem council have made a success story from the project. Water used in a splashpad is a tiny percentage of a town’s supply, no more than a swimming pool and no one is rallying outside the Leisure Centre, are they? There are two approaches to splashpad mechanics; a flow-through system and recirculating system. A recirculating system operates like a pool with chemicals, filters and pumps. Water is sent to the pad from a tank roughly four to five times the system’s flow rate; in short, it’s recycled, people.
Splashpad in the Sham
As to vandalism, I have to cough. While it’s possible, and certain lengths will have to be introduced to ensure it isn’t, what we have now, a toilet block is a far cry from pristine. Litter, yes, litter happens there anyway, splashpad or slash-pad; surely, it’s a matter of trust and education, added on top the concept if you give the young something to do, rather than lounging on vacant grass bored, perhaps they’d repay it with gratitude and consideration. A long shot you may cry, but it’s a presumptuous cry, isn’t it?
Are we getting ahead of ourselves here though? I thought I’d play Devil’s advocate and fire some questions, Town Clerk Simon Fisher dared to answer them! “The project is still at a relatively infant stage,” he begins. “At the end of last summer, the Town Council was approached by a number of parents who asked if Devizes could have its own Splash Pad and therefore the Council needed to determine if there was a general demand for such a facility and also if a suitable site could be found. That initial phase of the project was completed just before Christmas, with a report to Council identifying a potential site, cost implications and evidence that a Splash Pad facility would be well used.”
“As you would expect, whenever we evaluate the need for a facility there will always be those who have no need for it and therefore resist its delivery,” Simon continued, obviously unable to name them fuddy-duddies who wouldn’t know fun if it came up and slapped them around the chops with an inflatable banana, but hey, I will! “But that is very much in the realm of public service provision, therefore whilst we must not ignore non-users, what is important is that we ensure that if money is spent on facilities they will be well used.”
I agree, we must not ignore them, we must splash them!!
“One of the comments you have raised, about the time of year it will be used and the assumption that it will only be used during the summer is a fair one,” said Mr Fisher. Oh, yeah, I did ask that; hardly Hawaii, is it? “However, this facility is not unique in this, with most of the outdoor facilities we provide seeing a massive drop off in use during the winter.”
See me screwing up my face, which is never a good thing, my Nan used to say I’d get stuck like it, but our other outdoor facilities aren’t a massive new cost; they’re football goals and swings. Sorry, that’s unfair; Hillworth park’s renovation is wonderful. Let’s look at that shall we? Summer days I go there, I see kids of all ages, really active, enjoying every minute, and I never see them dropping litter; coincidence? But money, innit, that’s what it comes down to.
Artist’s Impression of how Devizes Splashpad will look
“There is clearly a cost implication attached to providing any capital project and we still have to determine how a Splash Pad will be funded,” Simon explained. “There are two elements to this, one is the capital cost, for which we will seek developer contributions and grants but this will need some Town Council seed funding. The other is revenue funding, ensuring any facility is well maintained and this will come from the Council; however, this funding may also support the upgrading of services more generally in the area and the Splash Pad will do this for the Green. Many of the services we provide are free at the point of delivery and a Splash Pad is likely to be such a service.”
My note on spreading the budget equally on all ages of youngster, Simon seems positive such a project would impact on the area as a whole. “The Splash Pad project may well see the provision of a café facility on the Green, which will enhance the area as a place to “hang out”. Many teenagers already do this; therefore, this will enable us to manage the space and keep it clean, which is a current criticism.” Yep, jobs too; a parkie, like Ranger John Smith; he chased bears smarter than the average, away from pic-a-nic baskets, though; we’d need Dwayne Johnson on the nightwatch!
Keep off the grass!
He also expressed the projects already in place for older kids. “Whilst youth services remain principally the responsibility of the Unitary Authority, Wiltshire Council, whose budget for this purpose has been progressively cut in the last few years, Devizes Town Council does seek to provide facilities for all ages.” A major downer, as in another story, I’ve been waiting two years for a response from Wiltshire Council about when they’re due to repair a bouncy chicken and swing in a Rowde playpark; so I wouldn’t blow up your arm bands just yet.
“A few years ago,” Simon explained, “we built a large skate park for older children at our Green Lane site at a cost of over £150k and we are in the middle of a £1.7m investment for new football facilities, again aimed at older children and adults.” I have to take off my hat here, with or without Wi-Fi, satisfying most teenagers is near impossible, for the record I was a right stroppy one, though I’d imagine you’d find that hard to believe.
You kids have got lots of splashpads already, be happy!
One thing is easy though, satisfying younger kids. Babies will play with a box, a set of car keys, toddlers happily play in a muddy puddle, why get a splashpad, just section off our road’s potholes?! Honestly, I’m certain that’s the pompous attitude of many of us. Toddlers though, soon learn how to whinge and whine to get what they want, or don’t want. Where do they pick this stuff up from? I’ll remind you, shall I? They get it from us, so quit your selfish whinging, just because you’ve outgrown your water-wings and spare a thought for the kids. Splashpad, I’m all over it, pal!
Swindon’s indie-pop four-piece Talk in Code have a new single pending, which will blow your diddy-boppers off…..
Okay, six seconds into Swindon-based anthemic indie pop darlings, Talk in Code’s new single “Talk Like That,” and these old ears are blessed with an intro which drifts me back to electronic synth-pop of the eighties. If I stated near on a year ago, when mentioning their second album Resolve, their sound wouldn’t feel out of place in a John Hughes movie, with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall sauntering an American high school corridor, this only cements the imagining in concrete.
What you had in that era is unchartered territory; electronics in music was nascent, but cradled by the inspired it swept a new wave over yearning youth. Misunderstood by the elder generation and abused later by the hit factories, the essence of the eighties sound we typecast today was built on those early foundations, why? Because those songs were beguiling, catchy and danceable, and that’s why Talk in Code compare.
Let’s talk Simple Minds, Blancmange, Tears for Fears, yet I beg to differ to a contrast to the Pet Shop Boys on their press release, arguing their expansive success drew on a rather timeworn formula, and Talk in Code maintains an element of contemporary indie freshness. Retrospection maybe big business, this is far from an eighties tribute act. Though, akin to my comparison of Hughes’ movies such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, the subject offers a romantic ‘chase,’ and as the band put it, “a feeling of longing.”
Make no mistake, this is a blooming marvellous and natural progression for Talk in Code, and I expect great things from them this year. They’ve notched up fifteen festival appearances over the UK during last summer, most notably opening the main stage for Years & Years at M for Festival and playing the main stage before Scouting For Girls at Wychwood Festival. They’ll be supporting Matt Owens (Noah and The Whale) at the Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham on 31st January before heading out on a string of festival dates this summer including Minety Festival, Daxtonbury and many more.
But this single, Talk Like That, from a forthcoming EP to be released later this year delivers. Recorded and mixed at Studio 91 in Newbury (Supergrass, Fickle Friends, Bring Me The Horizon, Amber Run), will be released on 27th February and highly anticipated by their fans, dubbed “Talkers.” Do yourself a favour, become a Talker!
I know, January is a quiet one, let’s shake it up a whole lot! Finally got around to sorting out a new Devizine Presents night at the Cellar Bar, it’s coming up real soon, 18th January, so stick in your diary.
We have the fantastic Daydream Runaways, Mike Barham, The Celtic Roots Collective and another surprise guest to entertain you down the legendary Cellar Bar of the Bear Hotel, Devizes.
The event is free, but we ask you kindly donate to the Waiblingen Way Fire Fund, which Liz Denbury wonderfully has set up. It has raised over an amazing £3,500 to date, let’s see if we can top it up a bit and have some fun while we do it; what do you say? Be there for 7pm. Say you’ll be there, it wouldn’t be the same without you, yes, you.
9 people were injured in the fire in a block of flats in Waiblingen Way, Devizes Tuesday 17th December. They included one woman who suffered serious injuries whom later passed away. Detectives are treating the fire, which started shortly after 1am on Tuesday, December 17th, as a suspected arson attack.
The funds will be spread out between the families who need it for food, supplies, clothes and other costs of living. I will not withdraw the money until I know how many it is to be shared amongst as some do not know the extent of damage until the assessors have been.
Local indie-rock outfit, Nerve Endings have a debut single, out last week…..
At the distal end of every axon lies the conclusion to a nerve. They message sensory neurons, bleating “you’re hot,” “or cold,” or “oi, that hurts!” Around these waters a personification are the nociceptors of noise, chiefly guitarist and lead vocalist Mike Barham, bassist and vocalist Rob McKelvey and drummer boy, Luke Bartels, and their stimuli definitely sends threat signals on the ears, in a premium possible manner.
When they step on stage expect a little horseplay, then an explosive set of twisted blues riffs combining the elements of all contemporary alternative and indie rock subgenres. It leaves one intrigued by the news, which was drunkenly fed to me one summer’s evening at the Southgate, what will become of the progression towards recording the sound; we now have confirmation. Muddy Puddles is a Peppa Pig free song, which howls all that’s prodigious about Nerve Endings; unless Peppa is one who wears her heart on her sleeve.
Players, I shit them. Relationship annoyance by those who view romance as a sport, if being an archetypical subject, this alarm-ringing debut single of thrashing guitar riffs, with howling vocals that meet a near-sixties blues melody composes it with freshness. And as the gritty theme takes no prisoners, wailing “you won’t change, get your head out your arse and you might see,” analogous of actual nerve endings, sending a powerful warning to those who dig the dagger deeper into their victim’s heart. The result is boundless energy I might’ve expected, but executed professionally and agreeably adroit; great start to the year, guys!
See, I once pondered if the rave era ended youth culture as without conviction, I couldn’t assess any post-genre apt for the idiom. Perhaps the most stimulating conversation I’ve had with Mr Mike Barham, over a decade my junior, was at a Saddleback Festival, where he proclaimed grunge and emo proceeded my era. I was saturated in the fact younger people considered them youth cultures, concluding just like the teddy boys, punks and skinheads before me, my epoch was blindly trapped in the renaissance of a particular era.
For the record I wouldn’t change it for the world, we partied harder, faster and longer than any predecessor, and I’d like to wager more than any “emo,” whatever that was, had to Google! Yet his statement not only aided new exploration in me, but a liking for this gentle giant who explodes with passion and fiery temperament when on stage. A specific style of the genre, that much I am aware. I know who Kurt Cobain was pal, blanketed by an era maybe, but not living on the moon; just a few miles closer to Earth.
My eclectic taste was never faulted by the overindulgence of the youth culture which engulfed me for a period, and I emerge open-minded and prepared to accept anything. Intrigue took me to a Bowling For Soup gig at Bristol’s O2, that and my son’s need of a lift. Yet if I felt out of place, searching for another sober, taxi-driving Dad as youths collapsed in the heat and the frontman made stagediving a cliché, I still enjoyed it. As is Nerve Endings, I’m not dying my hair black with a neon streak, neither are they, but this rocks with competence, appetite and enjoyability.
Here’s the spotty-fly link, I know my system needs updating, here’s one if you’ve an apple; but Mike, thanks to my son’s Christmas present I now know where Bowser’s Castle is, and I like it; getting there, I just take the long way around!
Memories are made of Facebook reminders! Ah, the trusty book of face pings a notification of yore, leading me to contemplate, “did I write that crap?!” For us 2019 has been a magical year; reviews, previews, silliness and seriousness on equal pegging. From Mark Thomas’ Comedy Project to Eric Ravilious’ The Downland Man, from MACS Theatre School’s performance at Disneyland to the bizarre occasion when Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse and Tigger were kicked out of The Brunel Shopping Plaza, Devizine mentioned ‘em all, least as many as we could without sustaining writer’s elbow or facing a lawsuit. 2019 has blessed us with great memories, so many I needed to scavenge the archives to recall them.
MACS at Disneyland!
While some made me think, oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that, many will remain with me forever. If I had to pick just one, well, that’s easy. My son’s friend said to him at school, “your Dad is famous for dressing up as Spiderman to deliver milk!” Typical, after years of comics, novels, posters and endless other stuff, and that’s how I’ll be remembered; the milkman in his Spiderman onesie! But you know what? When I think of the wheelchair AND new Petra race-runner Carmela’s parents managed to buy with all the wonderful donations you guys gave, I think, so be it.
Towards the end of the run Carmela, dressed as Wonder Woman helped me deliver a few bottles. The job is a solitary one at the best of times, but after they left, I’d never felt lonelier on my milk run. I realised, I’d never make a journalist. The job of working a story, meeting people involved, but after it’s published, it’s cheerio. Decided then, I can’t let this happen. Carmela is instantly lovable, but every person I interview, every band I review, I come away making a new friend. That’s how I see it, they’re not subjects, they’re friends. That’s the difference between Devizine and a newspaper, it’s personal.
There were many other occasions this year I’ll never forget. Such as in February when I joined a session with Clifton Powell at the fantastic Arts Together, such a wonderful charity. At the beginning of the year, when I handed a cheque to Sue Tovey and Treasurer, Frank Marshall of The Devizes Area Committee for Cancer Research. The money raised at our first birthday bash in November. In June we slipped another cheque to the homeless charity Devizes Open Doors, from the two Devizine Presents nights at the Cellar Bar, featuring the Roughcut Rebels, The Truzzy Boys and The Hound on the Mountain. The second I owe to Razah and Knati P for a brilliant night of reggae. I’ve slacked off holding events recently, but think it’s time for another come spring, what do you reckon?
August, we featured Swindon charity Doing it for Dan, who fund our future sports legends, ahead of a fundraising Casino Night. Plus, we shouldn’t forget the commendable effort by two Bromham year-six girls, Greg and Al, who gave goodie bags to the homeless this Christmas.
Well Done Greg and Al!
Funniest interview had to be when I attempted to chat online with all the girls of the Female of the Species supergroup, that got saucy! But a massive well done to them all, when they picked up a Community Civic Award for their charity work. We also covered the campaign to get six-year-old Liam Pangrazzi to Egypt for vital surgery. August saw the formation of 10p Mix Up, and I talked to Mirko Pangrazzi about his love of Irish folk, and though the band has reduced to him and Bran Kerdhynen they continue as the Celtic Roots Collective. This was to promote a fundraiser at the Cellar Bar for Liam, with George Wilding, which Andy kindly reviewed; school night wasn’t it!
To the beginning of the year though, when our mocking another local website’s awards led to actually holding our own. Bit silly really, not going there again. But you know, the puerile articles and spoofs seem to be the ones with the highest hits, that and food reviews; greedy munchkins!
It’s true, our most popular article this year was in September when I was invited to try out New Society, the new restaurant in Devizes. Interesting while cafes and restaurants don’t feature often on Devizine, it was extremely popular. Others restaurants should take heed, it’s a worthy venture to invite me, or Andy, to review your tucker, and I’m not just after a free lunch; well, I might be, but honestly, he who dares, Rodney, he who dares!
The New Society piece was closely followed in popularity by our April fool’s joke announcing Devizes Town Council planned to erect a statue of Claire Perry in the Market Place! Other silly stuff included a signpost campaign, when a Wiltshire Council highway engineer advised Devizes Town Council that a sign at the High Street junction with Long Street was not big enough. A Romance Story, upon news of Claire Perry standing down in September. But rather fondly received, was our Top Twenty Best Vids of the Vizes article in October; check it out, see if you’re in it!
Serious stuff though; stats. I aimed to better last year’s hits, which was 30,588 and I’m delighted to say we did: 39,356 hits, and counting! That’s awesome, and I thank you all for the support and encouragement. Further thanks to our many sporadic contributors and photographers, but none so much as Mr Andy Fawthrop, his many contributions have been a valid and vital element to Devizine. Thank you, Andy.
In January I nipped to the old Palace Cinema to report on the new owners, Picture-Drome and their plans to renovate this wonderful building. Chatted with Devizes Town Clerk, Simon Fisher about the transfer deal from Wiltshire Council to Devizes Town Council, and the future usage of the Market Place. Both in February and August I spoke with businessman Iain Wallis, heading the campaign against it; why do I get myself into these things?! For a spoof on the same theme I wrote a short “Godfather” parody on the parking in the Market Place fiasco. Oh, so long ago now, but still a great loss for accessibility in town. Traffic issues also came to a head in Calne when Labour were campaigning to urgently secure funding for an independent traffic study, to investigate practical options for Curzon Street, the bottle-neck in Calne; still the same I believe.
Last Year’s Prediction of How The Market Place May Look in The Future
Not trying to overshadow the opening of Melksham’s £236,000 Splashpad in August, I ranted about the state of the Wiltshire Council owned playpark in Silverlands Road, Rowde. Much as I’d like to announce it a success, and despite it having thousands of hits, absolutely nothing has been done and no correspondence has been made in reply by Wiltshire Council or our local councillor Anna Cuthbert. If you repeatedly say it doesn’t exist hopefully it’ll be true WC; I think not, Devizes may now be getting a splashpad, to replace the slashpad, but I will be kicking up a fuss again soon, and urge you to let me know of other playparks left in such a terrible and unsafe state.
August also saw Devizes part fund a zero-waste system at The Healthy Life Café. However, the best news for zero-waste shopping came to Devizes when I paid a visit to the all-new Little Eco Shop at the Wharfside, on Couch Street. April, I was pleased to talk with Wiltshire Police’s PC Paul Woodbridge about knife crime in the local area. July saw the amazing Gerry Watkins bring his Big Yellow Bus project to Swindon.
February met controversy when DOCA changed the date of the carnival; first world problem, eh? I had a natter with key manager, Loz Samuels. We also talked in June, ahead of the festival, and discussed the ambitious plans for confetti battle and the colour rush. One of my favourite articles to research this year was DOCA related, in a way, when, in July, I penned: How Does Devizes Confetti Battle Compare to the World’s Most Bizarre Festivals?
All quiet for DOCA through Autumn, but Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the spectacular Lantern Parade, which I dragged my daughter to with the promise of a brownie. We all look forward to February’s Festival of Winter Ales, which I previewed recently.
Unsure what happened to May’s newly formed duo De Novo with Claire Gilchrist and Mark Povey, interviewed Claire at the time. Also interviewed Jordan Whatley ahead of our Open Doors gig. One band which shook the rafters this year was Little Geneva, we spoke to them about their EP, ahead of their launch at the Cellar Bar in March, which was an absolutely mind-blowing gig.
Summer days though, one of my favourite gigs in Devizes had to be in August, when People Like Us came to the Three Crowns with support by Tamsin Quin and Vince Bell in aid of Julia’s House. Steady though, more gig memories to follow.
We reviewed a wide range of great music this year, starting with Swindon’s dub project, Subject A’s album Writer’s Eyes. Talk in Code’s Resolve album was next. August, I featured the Easy Chairs’ EP “Devil’s Music,” chatted to Lottie J for her single “You,” with Tamsin Quin about the single “Scandal,” and Mike Barham’s “Relevance.” September saw Jamie R Hawkins, “Thank you Friend,” and an absolutely brilliant authentically vintage soul/blues album, Numb Tongues, from Bristol’s The King Dukes, we’ve simply got to get these guys a gig in Devizes this year. It was also great to hear our reggae aficionados; Urban Lions return with the single “Champion Sound.”
Phil Cooper got a feature in October, reviewing the “Falling at your Feet” single, but also catching up on the many other releases I was supposed to review but slipped to the back burner! The article doubled-up as an apology to Phil. Premonition time though, I suggested “Phil’s song writing ability is first rate and, with or without the trio of aspiring local musicians; Jamie and Tamsin Quin….” Whoa! Did I predict the start of The Lost Trades here? Call me Nostrildamus, or whatchamacallit! We broke news of the Lost Trades in December, and look forward to this formal trio grouping.
Another star album, we reviewed in November but is due for release this February is Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Revue’s Live at the Louisiana, and it was great to follow this up by meeting the man himself at the Southgate the following month. Yeah, more about Devizes answer to the O2 arena to follow; we love you, Southgate!
If I had to pick a favourite album which we reviewed this year, I’d scratch my stubble until sore. Through possible aforementioned albums by Subject A, Ruzz, and the King Dukes, I’d have to pick “Mutiny” by Mr Tea & The Minions, which I reviewed in October; gorgeous meowing folky-Balkan ska shenanigans that it is.
May introduced us to promising new group, who I’d argue is our local scene’s best newcomer, Daydream Runaways, in a review of their debut single, “Light the Spark.” The band went from strength to strength, reviewing “Fairy-tale Scene” in June, which was followed by their astounding performance at the Vinyl Realm Stage at DOCA’s Street Festival. The pinnacle, recording-wise, was October’s release of “Closing the Line,” with the dejected subject of the closing of the Honda works in Swindon.
It was in June when I blew the story that Vinyl Realm would host and fund a second, localised stage, and they did such a fantastic job. August saw the grandest event in Devizes, our festive week, which begun for me inside the petite yurt on the Green. When DOCA gave us Los Galindos’ Udel, it must’ve been the weirdest night of the year, amazing though it was. While the intention was to review the entire “black rat Monday,” it’s hard with so much going on. Still, as a website dedicated to our local scene, the highlight was Vinyl Realm’s stage where Daydream Runaways, Ben Borrill, Strange Folk and Cracked Machine unconditionally rocked.
Britpop trio, Billy Green 3 begun recording some tracks, we reviewed “I should be moved,” in June, and followed in November with “Soul,” I look forward to the forthcoming album. So too did Sam Bishop, coming to ahead in December with release of Cold Kingdom EP, but it was sad to hear of the split with Finely and breakup of Larkin. Though good to hear both of them progressing well. In July I reviewed, Same Days, a twenty-year-old London born Swindon performer, whose real name, David Whelpdale is cousins with Fin, and let’s not forget those Truzzy Boys! Not just music though, I review anything, like local author Jerry Bradley’s debut novel, Candy Man and when I chatted to Kelly of Haunted UK Spirit Team about our local ghosts.
I previewed the beginnings of Funky Sensations at the Exchange, spoke with DJ G-Force. And I pondered drum n bass, as Vinyl Realm staged such nights at the Lamb; managed one in April, danced my ass off, despite feeling a tad elderly! The Stone Mountain Sinners at The Devizes Ameripolitan Club was another of many previews which I followed up by attending; enjoyed that, with Jamie R Hawkins, the last night for Dean at the Cons Club before transforming the Cavalier Community Hall. I did manage to drop into see them for October’s Devizes in the Round with Tamsin Quin, Zenne, Josh Beddis and Danny McMahon.
I reminisced about my rave days upon the sad news of Keith Flint’s passing, and my zine making days when The Swindon Zine Fest announced its second annual event. Ryan West kindly reviewed My Science Fair in Bradford, and I covered the snakes in a museum display at Wiltshire Museum. We do like to have some guest posts; Jemma Brown poured some emotion into a review of Things I Know to be True at The Wharf Theatre in April. The same month when Jemma revealed the ambitious plans for The Full Tone Festival in July; a very successful day, Andy reviewed it. Thanks also to Sarah Tyler of Devizes Town Band, for telling us how the Children’s Proms in Hillworth Park went in September. One I had to miss but previewed, was Purple Fish’s Dark Side of the Moon tribute at Lavington, yet I’m sure there’s so much I missed. Let’s focus on the stuff we did catch!
April saw me in the Sham, meeting Bruce Bury at the Assembly Hall, and also the organiser of their Party in the Park. Great then, to be invited along to huddle in the rain with Train to Skaville at Parkfest when they supported Neville Staple; had to be a highlight of my year. You know I love a bit of ska, and after befriending Bristol ska legend, Ya Freshness by reviewing his album last year, he asked me to do a radio show for a new internet station, Boot Boy Radio. Yeah, I know, nothing to do with Devizine, but without this website I’d never have got the opportunity to cross it off my bucket list, and Ska-ing West Country has also become somewhat of a “thing” now too.
awful selfie time with Jools of Train to Skaville!
June and I wrote about Solstice, commenting on English Heritage’s conditions of entry to Stonehenge, and Arthur Pendragon’s reaction. Talked to cycle enthusiast, Sharon Crabbe who planned to ride the Costa Rica Cycle Challenge in November to raise funds for Woman V Cancer, ahead of her gin night at the Cons Club. Also, in June we detailed the Marlborough Opens Studios. I was pleased to hear the event raised funds for Arts Together, and also, Clifton Powell was included in the event; this had a heart-warming finale you’d have to read about here.
It’d be laborious if I simply listed all the fantastic gigs and events we’ve reviewed, yet there’s too many to detail. Andy reviewed Rick Wakeman’s KGB at the Corn Exchange in Jan, I loved Larkin’s EP launch gig at the Cons Club. April I was invited to Devizes Musical Theatre’s production of Made in Dagenham, and loved Asa Murphy’s tribute to Buddy Holly, something I could drag my mum to!
I think it goes without saying, The Southgate has been a lifeline in providing regular free gigs in Devizes. Unsure about Andy, who gave us reviews of Thompson Smurthwaite, Jamie Williams, Hadrian’s Union, The Bone Chapel, Kimberley Rew and Paul Cowley, but my most memorable gigs were Jon Amor, The Boot Hill Allstars, Sophia & The Soul Rebels, Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Revue, Back Wood Redeemers, Six O’clock Circus, Tamsin Quin, Soapbox and Patrick Goodenough, Alabaster Queen and of course, Phil Cooper & The Slight Band.
It was also great news to see the Barge at Honeystreet back in the swing of things, and I ventured over when Knati and Razah held the first of their Reggae Nights in July.
You can always find Andy at the Long Street Blues Club, he’s not only part of the furniture but also reviewed Jon Amor, Ian Siegel, Rick Estrin & The Wildcats, Kyla Brox Band, Kossoff, Skinny Molly, Watermelon Slim, Big Dez Blues Band and to finish in apt style, John Coughlan’s Quo. In September I popped in myself, and was wowed. It’s clear where your ticket price goes, The Malone-Sibun Band and support by Joe Hicks knocked me for six. Another new adventure for me was the Cellar Bar’s monthly Open Mic, this one a Halloween Special, and quite horrific it was too, in a nice way!
Around July, new owners of The White Bear opened up for Sunday live sessions, and Andy became part of the furniture there too. Vince Bell kicked it off, Ian O’Regan followed, and Eddie Witcomb, Andrew Bazeley, Jamie R Hawkins, Phil King, Cutsmith, Wade Merritt all followed. I joined the fun to catch George Wilding play. The Cross Keys in Rowde also started a live music programme in September, I managed to catch Rockhoppaz there. But a new year’s resolution is to get out of town and see some other venues, the notion spurred on by October’s trip to Melksham’s brilliant boozer, The Foresters Arms, when Train to Skaville called in there.
July is Fantasy Radio’s Month of Sundays, Andy covered Tamsin Quin and Andrew Hurst, then the Rockin’ Bandits. Then Lark in the Park the following month. Along with events such as Devizes Comedy Festival at the Corn Exchange in September, Chippenham Folk Festival, The Yirdbards at Bradford Folk Club, Henry Priestman & Loved-Up Les Glover at the Rachel Fowler Centre, Melksham, The Full Tone’s Big, Bold and Russian concert at St Johns, PSG Choir at the Neeld, Sheer Music’s Second Subterranean gig at the Cellar Bar with Falling Fish, Larkin and Clock Radio, Sunjay at the Royal Oak, Corsham, White Horse Opera’s Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” and Bizet’s Carmen and the Acoustic Strawbs at Melksham Assembly Hall; he never comes up for air.
My last gig of the year was Devmas in the Cellar Bar, a most memorable occasion, particularly when organiser Mike Barham was hoisted up with Luke by Jon Amor to perform Wham’s Last Christmas! Despite nipping out to catch the Roughcut Rebels blow the roof off the Black Swan, which was bloody great too.
In March the Devizes Arts Festival announced their line-up and we were on the ball this year, previewing the great events they held. Starting with an interview with Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens, a tribute to Morcombe and Wise. Sara McGuiness too, manager and keyboardist with Cuban-Congolese fusion band, Grupo Lokito; I managed to attend this, it was awesome. My favourite, and definitely one of the best gigs of the year was Coventry’s ska-reggae band Barb’d Wire.
For the Arts Festival, Andy took on reviews of Josephine Corcoran and the poetry slam at the Vaults, The String Sisters at St Andrew’s Church, Moscow Drug Club, and The Hot Club at the Three Crowns. Out of all the fringe events, I enjoyed She-Robot the best, which we both attended and had a good natter while Gail Foster snapped us in a rare conference! The most unfortunate part of the festival, was when headliner Ed Byrne’s car broke down and the support comedians covered for him. Though Chris Stokes and David Hadingham patched the gap wonderfully, it was September before Ed could reschedule, but when he did it was well worth the wait, although my ribcage may not agree.
Immediately after the Arts Festival we held our breath for November, when Georgie Fame was due to appear, alas, after a terrible accident, he was unable to make it. Had to be the biggest disappointment of the year, but we wish Georgie a speedy recovery. I’m in the process of leaking this year’s line-up, especially happy to report award-winning Limerick folk artist, Emma Langford, is to appear; not to be missed!
Talking festivals, while I’m getting past it for puking in tent, I ventured to Bromham’s brilliant Owlfest, chilling with George Wilding, Kirsty Clinch, and her Dad. July, I attended Devizes Scooter Club’s first rally in Rowde; great event, brilliant music, Particularly, The Erin Bardwell Collective and Orange Street; the sound did bodge up towards the end, but lessons hopefully learned for this year.
On the eve of Devizes Food Festival announcing their events, in July I contemplated what attributes taste, be it class, culture or trends, which led onto some hints of what to expect in September. Not to outdo September’s Taste of Wiltshire at the Farm Cookery School at Netherstreet, Bromham, which I previewed but couldn’t attend; must try harder this year! I did waddle to the Market Place in September for the Devizes Food Festival grand market, and had a memorable fill, stopping for far too long at the Gourmet Brownie Kitchen based over at Poulshot Lodge, and Muck & Dunder rum bar, to be introduced to Frome’s wonderful folk four-piece, The Decades.
Straight after Andy previewed Melksham’s Craft Beer & Cider Festival, and I previewed more Bier stuff at Seend’s Oktoberfest, which I still haven’t made it to, anyone would think Seend was in Dusseldorf! I did, however, love meeting artists Si Griffiths, Mike Long and Emma Sally for an all-together different art show in Chippenham in September. Another arty thing was gate-crashing The Lawrence Society of Art’s Annual Exhibition in November.
At the Wharf Theatre we previewed Legally Blonde Jnr, The Turn of the Screw, Alan Ayckbourn’s Living Together, and I’m sure a few more, as well aa a super feature, looking both back, and forward for their 40th birthday. Sometimes though you preview something which sounds so good, such as the interactive performance/drama workshop Spectacular Space-Bots at the Shoebox, and also their intriguing drama-thriller work, At This Stage, but with hardly any hits. I’m determine to take a visit to the Shoebox this year, see if I can muster some attention from Devizions.
Election time came in November, and using New Society as a base, I interviewed our prospective candidates. Not without some annoyance from our readers asking if Devizine has become political. Not at all, Devizine is mine, and yours, so I’ll write on any subject I feel driven to explore, so there! If it’s not for you, then scroll on, as we do feature stuff, I’m sure you will enjoy. Just felt Tory Town overreacted, as if having an alternative opinion is now illegal. Get over yourself!
Fact is, these interviews were popular and necessary; it was great to meet them all. Rachael Schneider Ross was first up, Emma Dawnay next. Labour heading an event at the Cellar Bar in aid of Devizes Open Doors with George Wilding, Vince Bell and The Celtic Roots Collective was rather special. I caught up with Jo Waltham too, early in December, but my emails to Danny Kruger were left unanswered, my response wrapped up an election conclusion I labelled as a one-off return to my satirical rant column, No Surprises Living in Devizes; sorry, won’t happen again. No one took heed anyway, and the inevitable happened. Devizes is Devizes, sadly, it never changes.
Yet we make the most of it, we have a great entertainment scene, with theatre, arts and live music and this year has seen it all blossom. We should be proud. There may be some points I need to make on this, and a few disusing the future of Devizine. It’s okay, nothing bad, but still, don’t want to go out this New Year on any of those notions, so, we’ll save it for next year and I’d like to finish by thanking everyone for their support, and wishing you all a Happy New Year!
Only a week after John Coughlan’s Quo’s rousing set, it was back up to Long Street Blues Club for another great gig. If you needed the Christmas blues blowing away, this was the gig to do it.
Support act for the night was Jamie R Hawkins, aided and abetted by his sometime collaborator Phil Cooper. I suppose you could say that this was two thirds of the newly-formed Lost Trades, but we’ll have to wait until later to hear their new songs. This set was Jamie and Phil classics from their back catalogues, taking it in turn to take centre stage with mic and guitar, then to drop back onto cajon to provide backing beats and vocals. Of the two, Jamie’s presence and performance is the stronger, and his songs stand up much better. And it was great to hear Jamie belting out his rather non-PC “Hope You Have A Bloody Good Christmas”, with enthusiastic audience participation, to finish up with.
Then an amazing, raucous almost two-hour set from the The Pink Torpedoes. Fronted by ex Dr Feelgood Pete Gage, backed up by former Hoax drummer Dave Raeburn, with guitarist Paul Hartshorn and bassist Pete Lowrey, this four-piece really delivered the goods in this one-off gig.
Keeping the chat to an absolute minimum, the boys launched straight in and played their way through an enormous song-book of rock, blues, R&B, boogie-woogie – you name it. Sounding as tight and professional as if they were gigging every night of the week, the set was full of excitement, raw power and incendiary licks. Pete, on vocals, harmonica and keyboards was the dominating presence up front, but the rest of the band absolutely played their parts.
At times there was a definite “feel-good” factor in the room, and the dance-floor filled up number by number. There was no tin, but if there had been a tin it would have said “open with care – raw, undiluted and powerful”. And the band did exactly what that tin would have said. Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Pride and Joy”, Muddy Waters’ “Hoochie-Coochie Man”, Little Richard’s “Lucille”, Bob Troup’s “Route 66” and Albert King’s/ The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” all came tumbling out, one after the other. This was R&B at its very best.
And it was clear that the band thoroughly enjoyed their outing playing together again – the smiles and the laughs, and the audience rapport were great to see.
Another amazingly good gig, another bargain night’s entertainment at Long Street Blues.
• Saturday 25th January Kirk Fletcher (Fabulous Thunderbirds)
• Sunday 26th January Billy Bremner’s Rockpiles
• Saturday 7th March Ian Parker Band
• Saturday 4th April Mike Zito Band
• Saturday 18th April Mark Flanagan Band
• Saturday 30th May Antonio Forcione Quartet
Bureaucracy gone mad, or rightful regulations? Make your own mind up, but kids were upset to see many of their favourite cartoon characters escorted from the Brunel Shopping Centre this Christmas like criminals.
Outcry ensued after Alan Reed posted this video, showing security of the shopping centre harshly directing the characters off the premises. “Every year I organise a visit to the GWH hospital,” Mr Reed explained, “I take all the mascots up there to visit the kid’s wards and give them a present that has been kindly donated. I have a great bunch of friends who volunteer their time to do this. Then, just for some Christmas fun, every year after the hospital we go to the Magic Roundabout, walk about and wave to the cars. The after this we go to the town centre to spread some more fun and Christmas cheer to the people. All the kiddies love it along with their parents.”
Upon asking the reason Alan and friends do this, he told me, “we do all of this free of charge, with no other meaning to it at all.” Perhaps Christmas joy just isn’t enough to warrant such a gesture, not in the eyes of the centre, whose Saturday saw children flock to see Frozen characters Anna & Elsa in aid of Swindon’s Down Syndrome Group. No issue with this, but this impromptu visit is a blunt reminder for Swindonians, despite the shopping centre commonly being regarded as the “town centre,” it’s actually a privately-owned business.
Rob of the Brunel Shopping Centre explained, “as a privately-owned shopping centre it is our duty to ensure that shoppers and their children are kept safe. Therefore, our staff will always politely ask unannounced visitors, who have not sought prior permission to be at the centre, to leave. We regularly work with charities and fundraisers who book in with us and are always happy to work with people to benefit good causes, but we do need to carry out due diligence when booking these people in.”
The issue becomes irate when the organisers question the reasoning, but without an informative response, and security ordered to carry out their task, things become awkward and it doesn’t fair well on the personal relations within the centre. Ah, it happens, but with the children who do not understand the red tape, it has to be said, it’s a crying shame the issue couldn’t have been dealt with diplomatically. I’d suggest the Brunel has a disclaimer form, stating clearly that any repercussions are wholly the responsibility of the organisers, and then, where’s the real problem?
It does remind me of the scene in the classic Pink Panther film, where Inspector Clouseau arrests a blind beggar and his “minky,” whilst a bank robbery is occurring behind them. Forcing me to wonder how many shoplifters or fraudsters happen to be bobbing about the centre during this inconsequential fiasco; maybe it’d make a great decoy!
In an era when physical shopping is losing the war against online shopping, you’d have thought the issue could have been dealt with diplomatically, if not for the children’s sake but the reputation of the centre. Meanwhile social media exploits the video, shares and comments call to boycott the centre as the witch-hunt progresses. A cruel sign of the times with unsolicited media where anyone can pass comment, when the centre has strived to host similar fundraising events yet the bureaucracy stamps on such a good deed. Not in the spirit of Christmas, and yes, I said Minky; because I’m annoyed by what bureaucratic balderdash has degenerated us into, Merry bloody Christmas!
This one was billed as Long Street Blues Club’s Christmas Bash, and it turned into a rare old party.
Support act for the night was the irrepressible George Wilding. As usual, he was witty and engaging, a bit sweary, but always charming and completely entertaining, finishing his set with the inevitable singalong crowd-pleaser of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life”.
Then two sharp sets from Status Quo’s original drummer’s John Coughlan’s Quo. This four-piece featured the set-up of John on drums, Rick Chase on vocals/ bass, Mick Hughes on vocals/ guitar and Pete Mace on guitar/ vocals. John was a member of Quo from 1962 until 1981, and the set-list mostly featured material from that early “classic” period.
They’re not a “tribute” band in the normal sense of the word, more interested in keeping alive the spirit of the classic early line-up. But they certainly looked the part – long hair, head-bands, Marshall stacks, and satisfyingly loud, complete with demon drumming and catchy guitar breaks. They kicked off with “Something About You Baby I Like”, and the dance-floor was immediately full. Thereafter we were taken through the early back catalogue from 1972’s “Piledriver”, 1975’s “On The Level” and 1976’s “Blue For You”, including the song they first appeared on BBC’s Top Of The Pops with – “Pictures Of Matchstick Men” – a period when the band were still toying with psychedelia, before settling into their now more familiar rock groove.
The sound is not complicated, nor sophisticated, but simple and effective and emotive. It does exactly what it says on the tin – good, down-to-earth rocking – and you can’t help dancing and singing along. We had all the early hits – “Paper Plane”, “Caroline”, “Roll Over, Lay Down”, “Without The Rain”, and a rollicking version of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues”.
It was going well, and the crowd were having a party. Then John decided to come out from behind the drums to talk to the crowd and to reminisce. Personally I think this was a bit of a mistake, because the band lost impetus quite late in the set. Whilst it was interesting and amusing, it might have fitted better much earlier in the set.
Fortunately the band quickly got back into gear again to finish with John Fogerty’s “Rockin’ All Over The World”, followed by a well-deserved encore of “Down, Down”, nicely seguing into “Johnny Be Goode”. The dance-floor was full and the crowd were happy.
• Saturday 28th December Pink Torpedoes
• Saturday 25th January Kirk Fletcher (Fabulous Thunderbirds)
• Sunday 26th January Billy Bremner’s Rockpiles
• Saturday 7th March Ian Parker Band
• Saturday 4th April Mike Zito Band
• Saturday 18th April Mark Flanagan Band
• Saturday 30th May Antonio Forcione Quartet
I reckon I’ve been honourable to The Devizes Arts Festival, as in their excitement they’ve often accidently divulged a booking they’d rather have kept secret, and I’ve not yet let the cat out of the bag until they want it unzipped! Said excitement, though, is symbolic of their passion to bring us a wonderfully diverse roster.
For this one I’ve been equally as thrilled, and glad to be the one to broadcast the news; yes, with their permission! Aptly perhaps, as I’m proud it was my suggestion and I’m so glad they took heed.
So, it gives me great pleasure to announce folk singer-songwriter Emma Langford is to appear at this summer’s Arts Festival. From Limerick in South-West Ireland, Emma has gone from strength to strength. But to start at the beginning of our association; it’s been well over a decade since I got chatting to her father, Des, and in sharing a love of comic art, we’ve been online friends since. Call me archaic, but while you can meet lots of people online which the book of face terms “friends,” you have to wonder if they really constitute “friends,” I mean, if you’ve never met them in person. Des is the exception to that rule.
It was around 2016 when he sent me a video of his daughter singing, yet if I went around telling people “listen to my mate’s daughter sing,” it sounds cringeworthily like I was pushing it only for this reason. I bid you listen to her songs; clearly, it’s not just me saying how utterly fantastic she is. Emma has received unwavering acclaim internationally, after a whirlwind 100-date promotional tour across Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland, to launch her 2017 debut album, Quiet Giant. The Irish Times described Quiet Giant as ‘music that weaves a spell as you listen to it… An enduring piece of work’. Ireland’s state broadcaster RTÉ Radio 1 presented Emma with the Best Emerging Artist award at their inaugural Folk Awards in October 2018. She also made her debut appearance in the USA this August, on the Snug Stage at Milwaukee Irish Fest.
Emma possesses a distinct natural tone and resonance that is truly breath-taking. Quiet Giant features stunning full-band arrangements for ten self-penned songs, and following the album’s Irish release, she was invited to launch it internationally with Germany’s Irish Folk Festival tour. In Devizine’s infancy reviewed Quiet Giant, suggesting it’s “a suave survey of dignity and passionate despondency with uplifting string arrangements and traditional Irish folk values.” I worthlessly tried to find a tenacious link to Devizes to justify reviewing it on our local website. I just wanted to get the message across, as I compared her to Andrea Corr, or a young Kirsty McColl.
But, being as it’s said Emma’s “spell-binding” sound is made to be heard live, be it solo or with a full complement of musicians, I took steps to try to bring her to town for a gig, but it fell through. The promoters were in awe though, told me she really needs to head for London for maximum exposure; “she’s too darn good for Devizes,” I was told! Pleased to say, we’ve no need to worry, thanks to the Arts Festival, and I look forward to this with bells on.
Emma is a prolific artist, recently collaborating locally on projects with musicians, theatre-makers and aerial-dance performers. This summer’s show should align with her highly-anticipated new album.
The Arts Festival had their final committee meeting of the year at the beginning of the month. “The 2020 programme is nearly there,” they say, “although there are some threads to be tied up. We can assure you that it will be as good as (or maybe even better than) 2019.” Other acts already leaked are London’s Tankus the Henge, who describe their sound as “five-wheeled, funk fuelled, open top, custom paint job, rock ‘n’ roll jalopy that comes careering around the corner on a tranquil summer’s day, ruining the silence and disturbing the bats.” Performing comedy for less-than-perfect parents, The Scummy Mummies are also confirmed, along with San Francisco born jazz pianist and composer The Darius Brubeck Quartet.
You may recall our year six Bromham girls, Greg and Al, undertaking the mammoth task of creating Christmas Boxes for the homeless. They organised the campaign for people to donate, at various “stations,” including St Nicholas in Bromham and at Beezes in the Ginnel, Devizes. And people did! Dressed in personalised campaign T-shirts, the girls handed over fifty full gift bags of goodies, as well as extra donations of clothes and sleeping bags to Doorway in Chippenham today.
What an inspirational story, apt for the season of goodwill. A super-duper, humongous congratulations to Greg and Al. Well done, I think you’re officially top of the good list! Here’s a message from the girls, and we wish them a very Merry Christmas!
Ever heard of The Lost Trades on our local music scene? No? I can guarantee you have, yes, you have, no, really, you have, oh yes you have!
No, I’m not trying to baffle you pantomime style on this Sunday close to Christmas, for after years of loose amalgamations, collaborations and supporting each other’s gigs, Phil Cooper, Tamsin Quin, and Jamie R Hawkins have officially formed a trio, The Lost Trades.
Tamsin explains the plan, “anyone who’s been following our careers recently, will have seen a growing musical kinship between us. Well, we figured it was about time we made it official and so The Lost Trades has been born. We’re incredibly excited about writing together and creating amazing three-part harmony lushness.”
Expect an announcement at the Southgate this afternoon when the boys join Tamsin towards the end of the set. If you’re going, sorry for the spoiler, but Devizine has the exclusive on this scoop and it’s going to blow the news!
Not that’s it’s all that surprising, to be honest, after the closeness of the musicians of recent, but it is great news for us. All three of them have raised the bar of our local music scene, strived to progress their aptitude with explosive success. Singularly they’re amazing, collaborations work so well, now, as a group, I predict a shower of awesomeness!
“But it’s not just about us…” Tamsin expressed, “we feel like we’ve made some amazing friends and supporters over the last year or so, and we want to bring you with us in this exciting new chapter. We’ll be documenting the story in a typically friendly behind-the-scenes type way. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the notification bell to keep up to date with that.”
Starter for ten, here’s a Cat Stevens cover, “Moonshadow,” recorded as part of these “Living Room sessions,” basically a band practice, but clearly shows how vocally harmonious this is set to be. I had to ask if they planned to continue solo as well and Tamsin confirmed it was so. Yet, perhaps the country bumpkins’ trip to big smoke for an epic day at BBC Music Introducing Live rubbed its magic, and now we’re blessed with this official merger.
“We’ve already started working on brand new material,” Tamsin said, “and will be playing our first gigs in March; dates will be announced early in the new year.” I can tell she’s excited about the news, I’m reckoning the boys are too. As long as she keeps them in line, I told her!
Streaming killed the download star; you have to be of a certain age to get that joke. Feeling my age today, I remembered standing in a record shop in awe at this heavyweight 10” silver disc and being told it’s read by a laser rather than a needle. Laser, beyond cool, like Star Wars.
Yet where this futuristic “laser-disc” failed, the compact disc was literally a year away. I think our Dad tried to work out what was the A-side and what was the B with our first CD! Spurring this memory was when I had to pop upstairs and launch my phone at my daughter, as I know we’ve got her this spotty-fly app, or whatchamacallit, and within moments confusion was over, I was lent her phone to take a listen to this new EP I was sent. Now all I have to work out is how to Bluetooth it to my speaker!
Notwithstanding, leaving a near teenager without a phone in the house for over ten minutes is a highly dangerous risk, you can blame local singer/songwriter Sam Bishop for my senior moment. If I’ve told him to send me a simplified method of listening to his tracks once, I’ve told him a thousand times (there’s a pun to follow there.) Still he sends me this baffling set of streaming website links, and I feel like my perplexed father staring muddled at his own reflection in a CD.
Four tunes in length, Cold Kingdom presents Sam’s latest material. The first tune, A Thousand Times (there’s the pun, see what I did?)I reviewed as a single back in June. Likewise, with the third tune, Cry For Help, which was in September. In June Sam explained, “This song is hopefully the first song of many under my own name. I already have another two completely finished, which hopefully will be released as a double over summer. There may be an EP before the end of the year, but we’ll have to wait and see.” So, Cold Kingdom comes in the nick of time to conform.
I said of A Thousand Times, at the time, “a breezy indie-pop affair it is, dour and atmospheric with that theme of heartbroken youth so apt for Sam’s hauntingly distinctive vocals. With slice of maturity, this is nice work, but akin to his work with Finley Trusler as Larkin, almost a natural progression.” And I stand by that, a great opening.
Although I was slightly more critical of Cry For Help. Sam claimed it to be “the most heartfelt and vulnerable song I’ve ever penned.” And I commended and concurred, it was lyrically one of Sam’s best to date. Yet I had to say, compositionally it wasn’t my cup of tea, when compared to A Thousand Times. While through the atmospheric temperament it reigns more pop ballad than perhaps indie. Hence why I mention the age thing, as I’d contemplate this single isn’t aimed at me; my daughter saved it on her playlist. I only teeter on that, it has scope to grow on me.
The EP has a balance. Eternity, with its modest up-tempo guitar riff is both clever and catchy, more my thing. Yet if it only reaffirmed my admiration for Sam’s voice and songs, the finale, Broken Mirror, I think knocks it out the park. Here’s a direction I can identify with, encapsulating all which has gone before; a four-year journey from Devizes Sixth-Form boyband 98 Reasons to the divide, a duo with Finley Trusler as Larkin, to hopes for a solo career through his current music studies. Broken Mirror spurts it back at you with a progressively defining track which in my opinion, could be the magnum opus we’ve been waiting for from Sam, at least to date.
Sam & Finley back in the Larkin days
Fans of Sam and/or Larkin will not be disappointed, indie-pop admirers should take heed; Cold Kingdom is melancholic yet enriching, and it reaches to a place in the soul, particularly the youthful abyss of yearning, misunderstanding and a quest for passion. A grand effort, Sam. Do check it out here.
It’s a laborious task to compile an end of year review, as we did last year on Devizine, which I’m currently undertaking. It involves picking through the archives to reminiscence, as there’s so many wonderful things we’ve done I tend to forget some! Others, though, will remain with me forever. If I had to pick just one, well, that’s easy. My son’s friend said to him at school, “your Dad is famous for dressing up as Spiderman to deliver milk!”
Typical, after years of comics, novels, designing posters and endless other stuff, and that’s how I’ll be remembered; the milkman in his Spiderman onesie! But you know what? When I think of the wheelchair Carmela’s parents managed to buy with all the wonderful donations you guys gave, I’m fine with that! More than fine, my heart melts to think of it; thank you to everyone who supported it and gave so generously. Update: I didn’t realise, but our efforts also part funded a new petra race runner too, so I’m adding a second photo. Carmela’s mum, Lucy explained “It is so Carmela can be supported when running or walking to help her heart and lung therapy and bone strength as she can’t normally run or walk far.”
There was a wonderful moment in Bottlesford, towards the end of the milk round when Carmela and her parents, Lucy and Darren joined me. Carmela, dressed as Wonder Woman helped me deliver a few bottles. The job is a lonely one at the best of times, but after they left and I had a few more deliveries to do I realised, I’d never make a journalist. The job involves you working a story, meeting the people involved and after it’s published, it’s goodbye. I’d never felt lonelier on my milk run than at that point. Decided then, I can’t let this happen. Carmela is instantly lovable, but every person I interview, every band I review, I come away making a new friend; that’s how I see it, they’re not subjects, they’re friends. That’s the difference between Devizine and a newspaper, it’s personal.
Although I know it’s been and done, and to do it again wouldn’t have the same impact, Carmela’s muscular dystrophy and its campaign continues, for Carmela and her parents it’s an everyday struggle. So, here’s an update to explain there’s many other options and events forthcoming to support both Carmela and muscular dystrophy as a whole.
Firstly, a huge thanks go to Dean Czerwionka and all at the Cavalier Community Hall, who’s organised some fundraising events, starting Friday 20th December with a Children’s Christmas Disco. From 7:30pm, the disco is free, and it’s just £3 to visit Santa in his grotto; all proceeds will go to Carmela’s Fight to Stay Mobile.
And February is jammed with events, as 7th February is the “Go Orange for a Day” national campaign raising awareness and funds for muscular dystrophy. Simple premise, wear something orange on that day, and get everyone in your office, school or community group to pay a small donation to Go Orange for a Day. Details on how to sign up here.
Locally, on Saturday 22nd February, the Cavalier community hall will be transformed into the magical world of Disney’s Frozen, for a Children’s Frozen theme Ball. With a special guest appearance from Alsa and Anna and also, Pippa Langhorne, who sang with her dog on Britain’s Got Talent. There promises to be songs, stories, photos and disco. A prize for the best dress girl and boy. Money raised will go to Carmela’s Therapy Fund, to help with ongoing specialised equipment, physiotherapy and adaptions as she grows. Tickets limited so book online. Photos must also be paid in advance on the ticket line. Tickets are £5 per child, adults free and photos cost just £3.50.
Adults will have to wait until the following weekend, when Devizes Town Hall plays host to a Casino Royale evening. Just4Children ‘Carmela’s Fight to Stay Mobile’ would love you to join them at their Black-Tie Charity Casino Event. There’s a posh finger buffet and casino entertainment, with a cash bar. I’m delighted to have suggested the bands for this brilliant night, so you can guarantee some great music. Firstly, our newcomer of the year by a country mile, Daydream Runaways, and Devizes favourite It’s Complicated. Tickets are available now for £25, online here.
Rescheduled until October, The Barge at Honey-Street will be hosting a fire walk, in aid of Carmela. There’s a minimum £200 registration sponsorship, or simply pop down and watch; I’ll try and let you know when exactly this is happening. Yet you don’t need attend an event to help, you could donate £5 this Christmas to 70085, Texting CARMELA 5.
Or you could start your own fundraiser; like Danielle Tudor who ran the Bristol Half Marathon last year, Neil Foord on the Chichester Half Marathon, and Dotte & Elaine’s Santa Run. This year Holly Miller runs a Jurassic Trail half marathon in April, and Justin Olejnik takes on an Olympic Distance Triathlon in May. Good luck to all of them, rather them than me! And if running seems to be the trend, lest we forget brave Carmela’s Dad, Darren, and family friends Charlie Beardmore and Scott Willis, and Hannah Ashford, who all take on the London Marathon this coming year. Another massive thanks must go to Devizes Fire Station and staff, for their continued support and fundraising events.
Between horse-riding, wheelchair football and music lessons with CJ Music School, Carmela herself takes on her Yearly Triathlon Challenge. She’s already raised around £1000 for MDUK taking part the past 2 years. With a need to cram as much life experience as possible into her short life, she’s certainly been non-stop, meeting celebrities such as Prince Harry, Sarah Duchess of York, Frank Bruno, Beverley Knight and yes, Jimmy Carr too! I wonder if she remembers me after rubbing shoulders with all these stars? But I think if you asked her, her favourite would be her new puppy, Tinker!
Please show some support for any one of these worthy ventures and help Carmela, if you’ve had the opportunity to meet this wonderful girl, and seen her smile, you’d know why. Fuller details can be found here.
I was delighted to have met all of our local candidates and interview them prior to this election thingy……… wha? Missed one you say? Yes, I must be terribly bias, just like real newspapers. I favour to call it common sense, and I have reasons….
Through all this political point scoring one thing is certain, the Tories don’t listen to Bob Marley. The quote “you can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time,” springs to mind. Yet much as I love the outpourings of this reggae legend, I overlooked “never let a politician grant you a favour, they will want to control you forever;” but it was only a cuppa at New Society, honest, Bob!
Despite the notion to keep Devizine as politically free as possible, the importance of this election is paramount. It must be, otherwise political parties wouldn’t risk exposing their blatant predisposed fabrications or vicious disingenuous methods; think the Conservative Party website posing as an independent fact-checking site. I asked Danny “do you believe in an election, campaigning parties should use whatever means necessary, no matter how deceitful, malicious or morally wrong?” No Answer.
The Cottingley Fairies photos fooled people a hundred and three years ago; We. Have. Photo-Shop. The ultimate question, how stupid does the propaganda wheel take us for? Did the knuckle-dragger who so poorly copy and pasted a picture of Jeremy Corbyn in his holiday shorts and I heart the IRA T-shirt onto an IRA funeral procession photo really think we’d be like, “he is not human, I’d wager he’s a demon; observe the way his t-shirt naturally creases yet the logo upon it doesn’t, witchcraft I tell ye!”
Over on a new Facebook Devizes debate group, which I refuse to join for my own sanity, but for some unknown reason frequently pops up on my newsfeed, a bunch known for having a hard-on for Boris are suggesting the photo of the four-year-old boy on the floor of the Leeds hospital is fake. Despite the hospital apologised to the family and made a statement, Tory fake news-bots rushed to their laptops to perpetrate and spread this despicable lie. Across the superhighway fruit bats copied and pasted the falsehood, and the mainstream media followed it unchecked. Neither example can do the Conservatives any favours, you’d think.
Yet that’s the mentality, if you cry every piece of exposure to the right-wing’s corrupt agenda is fake, what will ever convince you we need to make a change? Maybe the hospital is fake, and its staff, maybe the ex-army solider living in a cardboard box is fake, maybe cardboard is fake. Fake, fake, fake. Show a picture of the shoes of the victims of the holocaust, and they’ll cry fake; they just nipped round the back of Freeman Hardy Willis on bin day. Dangerous juvenile behaviour Orwell introduced us to in 1949. Nineteen Eighty-Four was supposed to be a warning, not a self-help guide.
Therefore, I felt if I didn’t say something my brain would explode from Facebook newsfeed overload; a miniscule detonation, obviously. But social media is catered to taste isn’t it? For me Labour is winning, pretend to be the opposition for a scroll or two and you’ll see a multitude gathering support for Boris; just a shame their grammar and spelling is illegible. Yet I say, I’ve genuinely enjoyed meeting the candidates; Emma of the Greens, Jo of Lib-Dem and Racheal of Labour…. Ah, you spotted it with your incredibly fine toothpick; clever so-and-so. Now you’ll screech political bias at me from your ivory towers, won’t you, oh sweet Tory town of mine?
There is one missing. Yeah, I know, right; all I can say in my defence is I tried. Danny Kruger seemed up for it, returned my message, and while I deliberated an angle he messaged again. Unlike the others, there was never to be a cuppa in the deal; Danny requested I emailed him some questions. I did, he never got back to me. His campaign publishes news of Danny gallivanting the downs, rapping to sure Conservative bets, but akin to sixth formers banned from questioning Boris at a school visit in case fifteen-years-olds had too taxing a question, he’s failed to address conflicting folk, visit Open Doors or the Food Bank; historically blue cushioned seat, does it matter? I asked Danny, “…perhaps others need persuading. Yet it’s a minority in this constituency, so does converting them matter to you, in such a safe seat?” and “how did you get the cushy number?!” No Answer; pattern emerging.
Thing is it’d have been no skin off my nose if he didn’t want to do it and told me so. Rather he opted to pretend he was up for it and stood me up, crying at the altar. This meant I had wasted precious free time deliberating questions which, incidentally, was far harder than the others. At first, I headlonged with the sensitive criticisms of the current government, then I considered it unfair to offload every problem onto this one guy, Boris’s buddy or no, I’m nice like that. I watered it down somewhat, but each time my frustration at the performance of said government got the better of me and so I decided, with careful wording, it was futile not to be direct.
I’ll tell no lie; it was playing on my mind. Danny Kruger is a far superior writer; articulate and educated. I thought he’d eat me for breakfast, so I started grinding over myself some black pepper in preparation; proper Waitrose stuff, as he’s doubtless accustomed to. Politicians rarely get time for a full breakfast though, before rushing to parliament for a snooze.
Given he had no desire to meet me for a cuppa, as the others did, in the real world, I guess my deepest fear was he may attempt to infiltrate my dreams and make me into sausages there. Wishing to get it over and done, and in full knowledge if I could extract him from my dream, he would have human vulnerabilities and could be destroyed, I set the scene in my mind prior to sleeping; a disused cattle market in Devizes (no, not the old Royal Oak.) Dressed in my best Scooby Doo jimmy-jams, trembling, I sauntered the abandoned building in a smoky haze. But you know what? Even kipping in a bath of baked beans, he couldn’t be tempted to turn up.
Banter aside, and in fairness I did get a standard letter, signed by Danny but from Bojo’s office. It stated “we can end the doom and gloom” by reaching a majority government, the new excuse, as after nine years at the helm, “Labour did it,” looked implausible, not for the want of trying. I mean, you ask any Tory why they intend to vote Conservative, rather than quote a policy they’ll snap, parrot-fashion into a rant about how filthy Jeremy Corbyn’s vest is. Yet a majority government isn’t democracy, it’s totalitarianism. Given the manifesto claims; “Better hospitals, safer streets, improved schools; let’s unlock Britain’s Future,” against their current record; education spending slashed by £7bn since 2011. Claims of 20,000 extra police, when approximately 21,000 have been cut. The National Audit Office found Conservatives have not built a single starter home out of the 200,000 it promised. The promise to build forty new hospitals only amounted to repairing six. The promise to ban fracking was thrown across the media, the immediate U-turn was quietly pushed in, I asked Danny why, and “if the current manifesto is really intended to be implicated, why hasn’t these things begun during the nine years in government?” No Answer; pattern apparent.
“Last election Labour was slammed for having a candidate not local, rather from a faraway land called Swindon, this year you’ve been shipped in from London by the Bojo himself, even upsetting local Conservatives. This year the tables have turned, Racheal and Jo are very much locally based. Do you think this’ll make a difference to the result?” Asked him that too; yeah, you guessed it, no answer. Unfortunately, Danny not be one of us, ewe; he’s not proper job. He’s never fallen out of the Bin on a Saturday night and puked kebab meat and chips on the towpath, neither has he been kicked off The Devizes Issue for no apparent reason.
It takes many years to get fully accepted by the locals, yet fasten a blue rosette onto a dog turd and the insular will vote for it. Indoctrination here is a process which can be sped up by climbing the drainpipe at Roses and mounting the sit-on lawnmower displayed on its facia. If Danny Kruger had the decency to ask, I’d have gladly pointed out the store, informed him to Google ganderflanking, and bought him a Barbour jacket, so he’d at least look like one of us. His knowledge of our area is no better than one who attempts to turn right off Dunkirk Hill at Shane’s Castle.
My humble email was prior to the supposed exposure of the real reason he was drafted in, to “fall on his sword” for his buddy Boris should he make a mess of Uxbridge. That trustworthy Gazelle & Herod claimed Danny poo-pooed the idea and said the Daily Mail was being “mischievous.” Ha, they do that though, don’t they? Funny, like the time they alleged JK Rowling had falsely accused her former church of bigotry, or the story about a hotel restaurant in Nigeria serving human flesh, and ha-ha, when they accused Israel of intentionally opening dams to flood the Gaza Strip, or factually hysterical headlines like “Sold out! Flights and buses full as Romanians and Bulgarians head for the UK,” and “Is the changing role of women in our society behind the rise in autism?” Very mischievous, I’d rather call it sexist and racist propaganda, but whatever floats your boat. So, anyhoo; could be false I guess; smarmy Telegraph journalist.
I was saddened to learn Boris isn’t jetting over to our constituency, I confess I think it’d be great if he did, it’d give me no end of satirical ammo. The only advantage if Danny wins is it won’t inflate Claire Perry ego. Imagine our horror of her reasoning that we voted for her due to her popularity and not just her allegiance to the nasty party? When Danny was whisked over, the local campaign leaflet had a bold statement he was “our new MP.” Due to social media outcry it was quickly changed. “A rather audacious and arrogant assumption,” I asked Danny, “or a plain phraseology error? As a journalist and speech writer yourself, shouldn’t this error have been picked up prior to publication?” No answer, yet you and I know the silent majority will blindly vote blue, so it’s only an incy fib.
With all the candidates who did give me their time, one thing was unified, that this current government is not the Conservative party of yore. “A vote for Tory means we leave in January no matter what, deal, or no deal. Why January? Isn’t this, coincidently, the same month the EU promises to curb tax loopholes for offshore accounts?” Danny’s saying nought. Proof it doesn’t have your best interests at heart, unless you’re a billionaire. Not a billionaire, are you? Then do not vote for them.
If you’ve succumbed to media persuasion and retch at the thought of voting for JC, then you should note I liked the cut of the Lib-Dems’ jib too. I say this because, ah, well, this totalitarianism concept scares me; documents leaked suggesting meetings have been had and deals are on the table for US privatisation of the NHS. Some have wafted a history of always wanting to do this meme in my face, and expressed the wonky opinion it’ll never get pushed through. With a dictatorship it could, and with Brexit it’ll have to. Ah, who remembers the young conservatives debauched party photos, where they scribed “fuck the NHS,” on their shirts? Funny!
The working classes might just manage to pay their meds bill, or eat, but not both, as it is in the good ol’ US of A. I asked Danny, “yet Boris continues to deny this. Thatcher would turn in her grave; if she intended to do this, she would take the attitude; I’m doing this, like it or lump it. Wouldn’t honesty be a better approach? And if so, I thank you, but why are we selling off the NHS?” Starting to see why he didn’t answer me now.
I mean, another question I put to Danny, “the government is accused of a dereliction of duty, after admitting that it has no plans to carry out an assessment of the economic impact of the prime minister’s Brexit deal. Without the propaganda baloney, man to man; why will the government not consider a final vote on the issue, for if it’s truly “the will of the people,” leavers have no need to worry that the result will change?” Honestly, I tried to be nice, but Brexit makes my blood boil and no party is putting the real vital issue of the environment first. In an ideal world we all should vote Green. Doesn’t matter, we can sort all that out in 2050 when you’ll be delighted to be swimming off the coast of Potterne; being a coastal resort will be great for local business.
The election’s overexposure has done one positive thing, bored me silly. I like being silly, let it be known. Yep, I feel we’ve lost our Britishness in taking politics far too seriously. It’s as depressing as the thought of losing Channel 4 because it didn’t laugh at Boris Johnson’s hilarious and PC letterbox gag. Even the meme started out as a bit of fun, now we’re basing our entire political opinion on the one with the most incorrect grammar. Old Jean Luc Picard only facepalmed over Borg, not Brexit. That said, I have more faith in the meme as a trustworthy source of information than the British press.
Oh, bring back the good old days when we ripped the piss out of all of them and went about our day chuffed with the knowledge of a job well done. If James Gillray could see us bickering now, he’d turn in his grave. There could never be enough rubber in the world to make Spitting images puppets of all the lying twats in politics these days, and it’s a shame about Rik Mayall; he could’ve sued Boris Johnson for plagiarism.
Come on, it’s high time we started taking politics as the complete piffle and laughable shambles that it is, and unite in mocking and caricaturing them with grotesque and offensive material, not the other way around. See, while we squabble it out and threaten one another on local Facebook groups with only 15 members, they’re laughing at us, guzzling vintage bottles of chateau le Pin, paid for by us. They don’t care that you care, so stop caring and find your sense of humour, for without it, it really doesn’t matter some donkey’s kidneys if we leave the EU or remain, it doesn’t matter if we sell the NHS to Trump and die a horrid drawn out death because we deported every doctor and nurse, or starved because no English man is brave enough to pick fruit when it’s raining, yet thinks they’ve the bollocks to cope with a return of the blitz, because without our sense of humour we’re no better than a bratwurst in a tutu.
They wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire, because they think you’re stupid. They Tweet and announce blatantly that they think you are stupid, about how much they hate you, and then you vote for them, proving them right, despite their PA told them they had to apologise. We are stupid. Stupid for letting them get away with it and bottling up our outrage unless we’re on Twitter. What kind of shit, shabby show are we letting them get away with?
The time has come to give up the seriousness and stop feeding these egotistical attention seekers. Let them do whatever the fuck they want, they will anyway no matter how many toys you throw from your Facebook posting pram, they’ve tax-free offshore accounts to uphold, no point in trying to find their compassionate side by thrusting a famished baby meme their way, not when they’ve a luncheon to attend. We cannot win, so I suggest we start taking the piss out of them in the most unflattering, cruel and spiteful method possible, or all that was once great about Great Britain is truly lost.
Thick skinned are they, that it’s pointless to lightly smear them; a strawberry milkshake just washes off. They will not break until every last man, woman and child has slaughtered their ego trip with a machine gun of mirth and wit so nasty as to curdle the very milk of their cosmetically veneered milky teeth, and make them spew the silver spoons from their mouths.
Viva le funny revolution. Do it now, take the piss out of your politician; your country needs you.
Tickets for DOCA’s Devizes Festival of Winter Ales 2020 at the Corn Exchange on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th February 2020 are now on sale…..
The Devizes Festival of Winter Ales is a fundraising event to help meet the costs of DOCA’s free annual programme of outstanding outdoor arts events and activities, including the Devizes International Street Festival, Confetti Battle, Devizes Carnival and the Christmas Lantern Parade.
Held in collaboration with Stealth Brewery, DOCA have bespoke, warming ales and ciders from some of the best independent breweries in the country, as well as some fantastic bands and special DOCA style entertainment. You’ll be able to chose from a selection of Lovett’s pies, and top quality snacks to keep you going.
Expect fantastic bands over the three sessions, Soon to be announced. In usual DOCA style we will bring to you a cabaret act with a difference!
This year, for your entertainment they will be welcoming Matt Barnard. Matt has performed across the world as a compere, actor, musician, singer and as himself in his unique one man show.
He was the resident compere of the cult Sensation Seekers Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, starred in London’s oldest variety show in the West End in and performed his unique act at the famous London Palladium. He also appeared in the Hollywood movie Mrs Henderson Presents in which he performed the famous sand-dance with Gareth Jones.
Unfortunately, DOCA will be unable to admit people who are under 18. Tickets will include a festival half pint glass and enough beer tokens for two half pints.
Images nicked from Nick Padmore, cos we love him, and his new lens!
Local musicians, George Wilding, Vince Bell and the Celtic Roots Collective united for a Devizes Open Doors Christmas fundraiser down in that Cellar Bar on Friday night, dragging me kicking and screaming from my outings on Friday nights embargo; least I still made it to work notwithstanding the inclination to slip away quietly before Mr Wilding done his thang! Trust in me then, to produce half-a-review, yet despite what they say about assumption, given the high standard of every past appearance of George I’ve witnessed, I know a supposition of the finale is justified.
Upon my arrival Mirko and Pete were bearing the cobblestone dais, since a split between the four-piece 10p Mixup, the duo now forms The Celtic Roots Collective to deliver what it says on the tin; a jubilant, toe-tapping assortment of Irish folk. And a grand job they make of it. If you missed this, bookmark Feb 23rd, aptly at the Southgate.
Under the impression sixteen-year-old environmental campaigner, Joe Brindle was to make a quick speech, again an assumption he kicked the evening affair off while I still had my hands in the kitchen sink! But before I’d made it to the bar, our often-underrated singer-songwriter Vince Bell tuned. I believe Vince favours it this way, there’s no pretence in his performance, yet his songs hold you spellbound by their accomplished guitar melodies, intelligent lyrics and unbridled delivery of them. Often emotionally poignant subjects, some locally witty, you can never tire of either; let’s hope he really is never leaving Devizes!
And that’s me done, over and out. Guessing if George Wilding gave a bad performance, I’m the Queen of Sheba. Safe in knowledge, I had to slip out through fear of the fury of old ladies when they didn’t receive their pint of semi-skimmed. A massive well done to the organisers, Mirko and the Devizes Labour Party, including Steve Osborne manning the door. I believe between £200 and £240 was raised for homeless charity Devizes Open Door, with the promise of more such gigs in the pipeline.
As crazy as it sounds upon sharing news of this event, I was subject to one of those pathetic Facebook mini witch-hunts, as if the mere utter of Labour is a swear word in Tory Town; get over yourselves! Devizine, I should point out, is here to promote all events regardless of the political viewpoint of the organisers, and I will not adhere to insular remarks against this ethos. It came to ahead when I was asked why similar Conservative Party events have not been promoted. Upon my response, to notify me of any such events as I was unaware any existed, being left unanswered, I think proves my point at how pitiable this outcry was.
Ironically, I suspect there are no such events, in fact, seems to me the current Government have done nothing to reduce poverty and any of us are at real risk of losing our homes; put that in your pipe when considering this forthcoming election. In which case, we must and will uphold the brilliant work of Angie Carpenter and all the volunteers at Devizes Open Door. I’ve seen first-hand how worthy this charity is, and we’ve raised funds from events at the Cellar Bar ourselves earlier this year.
All fair in love and war; while local candidate Rachael Schneider Ross and members of Devizes Labour organised and attended, nothing politically motivated took shape throughout the evening, save Rachael’s reminder to me that this gig was organised before this badly-timed election was called. I’d like to remind people, Open Doors is a worthy charity, and aside national affairs, one which known local Conservatives also take an active role and support. If anyone plans to hold a local fundraising event, it is valid (unless it’s for Boris Johnson’s Dom Perignon fund,) welcomed and promoted freely here, but if I’m not made aware of them do not tighten your collar at me! It’s all getting really rather silly now, the premise of the review should be the music, perhaps the venue, a few excuses as to why I couldn’t stay, and that should be it, so let’s keep it that way, please; negative political responses will be deleted, don’t waste your time.
Here’s looking forward then, to a possible series of such events, in which I encourage them to consider holding on Saturday, that is, if they want to see me up dancing! I cut a rug like a carpet layer on a four-day week; just saying!
Now I know what you think; I’ve got red on me, politically speaking. Really! I’m just trying to know what’s best for everyday people, and my family. Truth is I could clash an orangey colour (no, not skin tone, do I look like Trump?!) I’ve added a hint of yellow in the past but they sold my vote to the Tories! It’s unforeseeable today the Lib-Dems would form a coalition with the blues, being their opposite position on Brexit; which blows my primary concern, and angle of this interview. Do I care? I’m going to ask about coalitions anyway, intending to question the name “Democrats,” when their stance on Brexit is to remain, and well, that’s hardly democratic being the slight majority voted to leave, but most importantly, the scope and support for this middling party in a left-right divide epoch.
Yep, I’m having a cuppa in New Society again, politically flirting with another candidate. This time I’m somewhat cagey, considering the Nick Clegg era, only to find myself thoroughly supportive of another pleasant, and local lady, Jo Waltham. Meanwhile pressure amounts in messages about interviewing Danny. He seemed up for it via email, so I fired some questions and await his response. Though have you noticed a fantastic number of little yellow signs this election, perhaps more than usual, and on land too? It’s getting exciting, as far as politics does, when our landowners seem keen to make a change.
Rurally then, does Jo think they offer the best deal for small local businesses and agriculture, as generally they’re the safest Conservative slices in previous years.
“In previous times yes, I think they would have been,” Jo stated, “but I think the Conservative Party of 2019 is very different from previous years.” She suggested there was, “a lot of in our manifesto for small businesses.” Jo herself runs a small website design business in Marlborough, “so I certainly understand the sort of issues small businesses have. I know the changes in the IR35 legislation are creating a lot of concern, and trading with the EU. The power of the internet means it’s been easier to trade internationally, so leaving the EU will impact small businesses as much as bigger companies.”
“With regards to rural affairs, I think for the farmers, naturally they’re equally concerned about leaving the EU and losing the funding they rely on. They worry about lowering of food standards in a trade deal with the US, and how that might impact them,” she expressed, and I had to drone about the dreadfulness of that outlook. “It is a major concern, so obviously the Lib Dems are fighting to stop Brexit.” Jo predicted at tomorrow’s NFU hustling the majority of questions will be what will happen when we leave? “My simple answer is let’s not leave!”
It all boils down to Brexit doesn’t it, the anger in confusion when we should really be prepping for joy to world and the peacefulness of Christmas. I stressed purposes of being here was to keep issues local, but suggested we get the big one out of the way. “I feel there’s two big ones, or maybe three,” Jo interjected, “it is about stopping Brexit, it is about climate change, and it is about investing in public services.” Time then to throw in my sold my vote to the Tories whinge and see if Jo thinks the Lib-Dems would consider a coalition with anyone else. “Andrew Neil was pressing Jo Swinson on this point again and again, and I think she was incredibly clear, that if we end up in hung parliament territory, we will vote on those policies that we agree with and won’t on the ones we don’t. So, we would vote on for any policies that come through, like the people’s vote, votes for sixteens, allowing EU nationals to vote, all of those things we agree with we would vote with, whatever party get them, but I don’t see us in a formal coalition with Boris or Jeremy Corbyn.”
Here’s the point in our nice chat when I questioned this “democrat” namesake hardly being democratic when the slight majority voted to leave. I’m asking for it, I know; time to munch the freebie biscuit! “It’s a fair question, lots have been asking it, it’s absolutely fine,” Jo laughed it off. “Basically, when you write a manifesto, you’re writing for what you’re going to do if you win a majority government. If you don’t win you can’t do those things. If we won, we would take that as a mandate to do what is in our manifesto, that’s why we revoke, because we’d take this new mandate as being acceptable to do that. Obviously, it’s sadly unlikely we’d get a majority government, but who knows? Still a week to go, otherwise we continue to campaign to get a people’s vote. We would have to think what would we do if we did get a majority government, would we then go back to negotiate a new deal, which we don’t believe in, and don’t want, we couldn’t, it’d be a mockery of the whole system. So, the idea is if we did win, we would need fifty percent of the vote because the first-past-the-post system and that would be a mandate to do what we said in our manifesto. Any majority government would.”
“Also,” Jo snapped, “I find it frustrating it’s regarded as the remain parliament which is stopping Brexit, when isn’t it the ERG who voted against Theresa May’s deal, isn’t it even Boris Johnson himself who voted against her deal? If they voted for it way back when, we’d be out by now! It’s not the remain parliament, you can’t expect people who don’t want to leave to enable leaving, but you should expect people who do want to leave, to enable leaving, and they didn’t!” She is critical of this first-past-the-post system and used the confused reasoning behind the referendum result as an example, stressing a key Lib Dem policy is to change to a proportional representation system, “so every vote does matter, and people will be engaged with the process.”
I have to wonder if the importance of Brexit to the masses or to the party is the reason why it’s above environmental issues on the manifesto guide on the menu of the Lib-Dem website, but it’s time to quote our previous interview with Emma Dawnay, who said no mainstream party is doing enough to tackle the issue. Jo agrees with this, so I asked for the party’s stance. “We need to get started now,” she expressed, well, we needed to get started thirty years ago, but c’est la vie!
“There’s talk about the Conservatives saying 2050, Labour is saying sometime in the 2030s, and Lid Dems are saying 2045.” I had to chuckle despite being the fate of the planet we stand on, as it’s symbolic of this straight down the middle approach. I mean, I like if it’s multiple choice on a TV quiz show to opt for the middle question, but this is a smidgen more serious. There is no date, there is only speculation and scientific evidence, and it’s not good news. Much as I’m enjoying our chat, here’s the issue, just as Labour and definitely Conservative, where I quiver at pondering the divide between talking the talk and walking the walk.
“What is critical, the Lib-Dems have introduced some interim targets,” Jo explains, “because it’s not only about how much CO2 emissions we have each year, it’s the cumulative total. So, since the industrial revolution we have emitted about 1,500 billion tonnes of CO2, which has led to 1% of warming. Which means if we want to limit it to 1.5% warming, we’ve got about 750 billion tonnes of CO2 left to emit. We’re currently emitting it at about 50 billion tonnes globally. So, if we rapidly start reducing that now, get it down to say, 30, even, that gives longer before we get to that 1.5. So, that’s why it’s about the cumulative total, and getting started is more important than that net-zero. By reducing now, it gives longer to solve the things which are more difficult to solve. One simple Lib-Dem policy is to have 80% of our energy from renewable sources by 2030. That will be challenging, but it’s doable. It’ll make a huge difference because if you think about our energy, everything else comes onto it, like electric cars, the only point in switching to them is if we getting electricity by the renewable sources. Then there’s also reducing the gas and electricity we’re using to heat our homes and public buildings, so we’d retrofit insulation, particularly people on income support.” Jo suggested it’s a win-win, for environmental and poverty issues.
Jo stressed encouraging more to use public transport is tricky, locally, “but there’s things we can do to improve that, Lib-Dems are investing to improve our bus and rail networks, we’ve a fund earmarked for it.” It’s a point I need to return to, but Jo continued about encouraging local government to take more action. Proudly she cited Wiltshire Liberal Democrats who implemented a zero-carbon strategy together, and who proposed a climate emergency motion to the oppositional Wiltshire Council, “and much to our surprise, it passed! But they’ll need money to implement the changes we need, and a Lib Dem government would help fund local councils to take part in those local initiatives.” This led onto us both criticising the Conservatives for lowering buying tariffs, signing of fracking, “they’re doing the wrong thing about climate change,” Jo exclaimed.
Locally, I asked about the tactical vote being a grey area, being while Lib Dem come second more regularly, Labour did last time. Why would anyone risk their vote on yellow? “If you take Wiltshire as a whole, we have twenty-two Lib-Dem councillors and three or four Labour ones. So, there is a strong Lid-Dem vote in Wiltshire, you only have to look at the five 2019 local by-elections, Labour stood candidates in only two, Lib-Dems in all five, Conservatives won two, Liberal Democrats won three. Where Labour did stand, they came fourth. The Devizes Town Council election in February, won by Conservatives, we lost by something like seventeen votes, it was quite close, then Iain Wallis, then a tie,” she contemplates, “wasn’t it, between The Guardians and Labour, but the main point was, they were fourth or fifth.” If your response is voting is different in general elections, Jo offered, “Yes, they do, but we can only go with the information we’ve got.”
More stats about EU elections followed as I refilled my cup! Given these, Jo pondered, “I think, we’ve got a good bit of data which suggests Lib-Dems are the tactical vote here. I was encouraged to look closer at the local demographic, and who we need to change their vote, suggesting they need to switch the Conservative voters. “Moderate conservatives, probably voted that way all their life, are remainers, and actually have a lot of liberal core values; who are they most likely to vote for, Labour or Lib-Dem?” Yet Jo stressed their growing numbers include some who switched from Labour, which was fortunate as her campaign manager joined us moments later, who I happen to know was a former Labour supporter!
I asked about the Lib-Dem stance on our gypsy and travelling community, after Priti Patel’s recent proposals to criminalise unauthorised encampments which to me, sounds like legislative cleansing. Plus, of course, would put further strain on housing. Jo stressed she was unaware of a particular policy, and although she circled the question, the result expressed a Lib-Dem vision of tolerance and equality for all, “helping everyone live their life in the manner of how they want to live it, regardless of race, gender and sexuality.”
This point brought about discussing the LGBTQ community and the terrible trend in opinion regressing to abhorrence, generally. I asked how they’d deal with making them feel safer and more respected. Jo was firm on this, “we don’t tolerate it. We should not tolerate the intolerant, at the end of the day.” This change in values, which we both saw as corrupting raised Jo’s thoughts of the 2012 Olympics, “how as a nation we felt so different, to how we feel now, and that’s due to Brexit, and popularism and hatred coming into our politics.” Interestingly, and allowing a little background on our Lib-Dem candidate, Jo expressed this was her reasoning for coming into politics. “I’m standing because I’m standing up for the reasonably-minded, ordinary person. If you’d asked me five years ago if I’d stand for parliament, I would have really laughed, really laughed!”
“Basically, it’s a case of I can’t stand what’s happening, not just Brexit, it’s about the tolerance, openness. Therefore, I find myself standing in what seems to be the craziest thing for me to do, but here I am. All it takes for evil to flourish is for the good people to do nothing.” I agree, it was an eyeopener for me to read right-bias critical of the celebration of the NHS portrayed in the opening ceremony. See, I like Jo, I like the way she opened up about her motivation; all three candidates I’ve talked with have convinced me politicians are human. I confess, if many see me as a leftie, as I begun this article, I’m just hunting for what’s best. I accept conservative theory has its place in the debate. That there’s nought wrong with upholding the pleasanter sides of tradition and hierarchy, but I honestly cannot see this ethos inherent in the current cabinet.
Then I suggest, if you cannot stomach leftism, you could at least meet in the middle, a Conservative-lite! Rather than this far-right leaning, of which I challenge you to find me an example, historically, where its ever done anyone any good, ever. And that’s reason to consider yellow this Christmas, I think.
In this middle-ground defying moment, I returned to the notion of Devizes Parkway train station, which all parties seem in agreeance in supporting. Reason being, Labour manifesto calls for scrapping the HS2 in favour of fixing and opening local lines, and nationalisation would make it rail travel affordable, while the Conservative are gung-ho on HS2 and give little response to improving local lines. The Lib-Dem manifesto states they’d cap ticket prices, which would retain price, and support both the HS2 and the repair of local lines. I find it symbolic of this middle-ground ethos, and question the expression; you can’t please everyone. Where would the budget come from to go ahead with both rail propositions? “We had this £130 billion budget which is coming from borrowing, because interest rates are low, we may as well do the investment. As long as you’re borrowing to build something it’s okay, so we’ll use the money to invest, because we need to; to negate climate change, to boost the economy.”
We certainly do, and with the election date coming upon us like the speeding train that never was here in Devizes, Jo Waltham and the Lib-Dems thoroughly deserve your consideration. I sincerely thank you for your time Jo and Lisa, it was a pleasure to meet you and wish you the very best of luck.
Hibernation, like a bear, saving motivation and funds for Christmas, spent too much at the Lantern Parade? Ah, a bit of all three meant it was only to be a whistle stop at the Southgate Saturday night. When I should’ve been at the Sham’s Assembly Hall for the Female of the Species, and I should’ve been in Trow-Vegas for Sheer’s gig too. Without cloning technology, the pressure usually melts my enthusiasm entirely, and opt to I slob on the sofa cuddling a packet of digestives, chocolate ones, naturally. Yet if just a pint at the dependable local couldn’t persuade me,after reviewing the forthcoming live album from Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Revue I simply couldn’t resist.
And for all the thoroughly deserved lovely things I had to say about it, I propped this gig on a pedestal, but was far away from disappointment. The band started with Hold It, and blasted Baby Please Come Home, virtually replicating this live album. Best thing at the Southgate is the communal feel, beneficial to meet and greet the artists; I was a handshake away from Ruzz Evans and the band, which I did, and with it he explained they often begin with that formula and mix it up thereafter. The advantage though was not our quick chat, but the close inspection of Ruzz handling that guitar, as it’s something spectacular and I watched in awe.
Unsure if I got the ball rolling fittingly, as I mumbled, “you make that look so easy,” at the suited Bristolian caked in perspiration. Clearly, and as I expressed in our album review, blasting a lengthy and vigorous rock n roll chef-d’oeuvre like this takes stamina! I knew what I meant though, they did make it look like child’s play, the band equally as proficient as the front man.
So, a high-energy blast of traditional rock n roll blended with acute blues blessed the trusty Southgate, a never-ending foundation of great, free, live music in Devizes. Here’s the twist; it’s the uniqueness of Ruzz and crew, amidst the conventional rock n roll cliché of Elvis or Buddy tributes, passé eighties rockabilly four-pieces, and nostalgic but substandard fifties cover bands, Ruzz simply doesn’t come off like that. Mostly fresh, original works; if there were covers, they were rarities, and delivered with the youthful energy and passion of an era of yore.
I can’t keep on this glorious new find, I’m not even a rocker! But when stripped back to the roots, as authentically as this, all pop genres combine and there’s no need to pigeonhole. Funny, in reflection, and considering diverse fifties artists like Buddy Holly, how close mod’s and rocker’s tastes were, yet at the time, reason to fight. Look, just read our album review, will you, before I waffle on a tangent? Which, incidentally, is released February but available for pre-order today. There’re also two previous studio albums, and Ruzz returns this way in March at the Sports Club, (see poster) if not before.
Christmas for me doesn’t start until Jona Lewie Stops the Cavalry, for most of Devizes it’s DOCA’s Lantern Parade and lights switch on. Double whammy Friday evening as I patrolled the Market Place with daughter, deciding if hotdogs or fudge would spoil our pending dinner most. Devizes Town Band did knock out a wonderful Stop the Cavalry, and for that my Lantern Parade was complete and Christmas has officially started.
If I’d argue over a lack of activities for our youngest, it didn’t matter; there was a warmth through the nip in the air in noting every kid, lantern or not, was wrapped in the joy of the moment. The market was bustling. A wide variety of street food stalls, warm clothes, toys and gifts, campaign and charity stands, sweeties and booze buses spilled into the Corn Exchange for a craft fair, and back into the cool night air, where only the square stood vacant marking where the lantern parade would end and Santa would dismount a steam engine and climb the scaffolding chimney to switch the lights on.
Surrounding pubs and cafes were lively, shops stayed open later, and in composition this was exceptionally organised with an ambience of delight and anticipation. The moon landing theme of lanterns was loosely adhered to, with some spectacular efforts, including a 1969-styled Spaceman, but I had to wonder why a whale was present, fantastic though it was not everyone is a Douglas Adams fan. A hilarious dancing chicken to make Bernie Clifton blush confirmed the irrelevance, and all partied or else bobbed around aimlessly.
Outside the Shambles my daughter dragged me kicking and screaming away from the Muck & Dunder mobile rum bar, then the Gourmet Brownie Kitchen stall, and we found a distant viewing spot, being too matured to get hyper about Father Christmas’ arrival; least I pretended.
Yet only as far away as the corner of the Corn Exchange, Papa Noel’s voice was muffled and drained to the point he may well have been talking French. Unsure what he was doing, fart-arsing around as far as I could see, but ordered to film it with a phone despite freezing fingers, nearly seven minutes passed in confusion, and only on social media was I informed he actually did the traditional countdown. This kind of killed the anticipation, as one minute the lights were off, then they were on and that was it; perhaps a loud speaker is needed? I rubbed my stubble in contemplation; might have to await grandchildren before I can really excuse myself to get into the thick of it as we once did!
Saved by the excellent fireworks though, all in all a thoroughly good time was had and Santa hats off to DOCA for what was essentially an event to satisfy all ages, executed with professionalism and with all the joys of the season. I’ve no memory of a Christmas light switch on in other towns, but I’d imagine they’re not this good; makes you proud to be in Devizes.
The fun isn’t over by a long shot though, check our event guide and plan your yule celebrations with Devizine!
Back at the Lionheart Studios, our local reggae forerunners Urban Lions have rinsed an alternative style for the single from their forthcoming debut LP, it’s out today, and a sound system killer.
Some tunes launch themselves at me, instant like, Champion Sound is a grower, creeps up on me after a couple of listens. This doesn’t make them any worse, just sometimes there’s an innovative modification in style which takes ears some adapting to. Unlike Urban Lions’ steppa dub tunes we’ve reviewed in the past, ‘See Me Rise’ and ‘Forward to The Sound’, this one partially retains the fashion, but the riddim nods heavily to dancehall.
Rather akin to when Dreadzone released Once Upon a Time in 2005 and I confessed I’d lost track of their progress somewhat. Upon first listen and expecting the loops of nineties charged techno-dub crossed with creative sampling, I was like, oh, it’s got a dancehall edge. Yet I think Champion Sound’s direction is justified, particularly around these waters where what little reggae we receive is archetypical, what we’d consider “traditional one-drop reggae,” as when Bob Marley and the Wailers ruled the day. Elsewhere reggae has moved on, dramatically. Full points to those Urban Lions for pushing us up to date!
Publicity shot by Siobhan Boyle Photography
Unacquainted, the sparse beats of raw dancehall can feel alien to us aging country bumpkins, vocally lending closer from Jamaica’s folk music, mento, than the ska sound which belched this preconceived model at us through the punk and skinhead cultures. Yet contemporary pop wouldn’t be the same without it. Splicing brief toasting solos into a pop tune, like Little Mix featuring Sean Paul; such a cliché since The Soup Dragons gave Junior Reid an indie platform in 1990. With that thought in mind, isn’t it overdue to give dancehall its fuller affirmation, to start to mould an independent inspiration from? You don’t need answer that; yes, it is!
Yet Urban Lions don’t overkill the angle, retaining their style, and not considering hiring a dancehall rapper to guest or some such puerile concept, gives it a unique edge and something which feels more like home than attending a Top Cat V Capleton soundclash in Rae Town, Kingston. Yeah, it’s exceptional and affable; love it and can vision it lifting a festival marque or ten this summer. For the more outdated crusty-heads, there’s a melodica dub cut on the flip akin to Augustus Pablo, which rocks, rockers style.
Who thinks I’d make a good job replicating Clare Torry’s orgasmic vocal improvisation on Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky?! Don’t all jump at once; Purple Fish’s bassist Roger Marsh suggested tight trousers may help, I reckon a vice or at least some mole-grips would be more appropriate!
It can’t be an easy section to reproduce live, of an album that can’t be easy to reproduce live, yet local rock covers band Purple Fish have already done it, five times. Originally to celebrate Dark Side of the Moon’s 40th anniversary, they bring their tribute of this stunning and timeless album to the Market Lavington Community Hall on Saturday December 28th. Face it, the Quality Street tin will be filled with just empty wrappers by then, and you’d have had it with cold turkey sandwiches.
On another night, Purple Fish cover rock classics, a seamless five-piece, female-fronted function band, who cite Pink Floyd, Rush, Dream Theater, Doobie Brothers, and Heart as some of their influences. They also have a couple of side projects, namely this Pink Floyd tribute and amusingly titled Mick Jogger & The Stones Experience. Tricky Sunday quiz time, I’ll leave it up you to decide who that’s a tribute to!
Roger, who’s been Purple Fish’s bassist for the past four and a half years, informed me guest musicians and singers are pulled in to enhance the show, which includes all the sound effects from the album, plus a background projection which, although might not be possible for this gig, completes the effect usually. There may well be other Pink Floyd songs added in too, for your money’s worth!
The Great Gig in the Sky vocal then, is okay, no need to recruit me after all. Roger explained it’s performed by a trio of girls who were originally pupils of lead singer Adrienne’s, when she taught at their school. Tickets are £15, in aid of Alzheimer’s Support. Best of luck to them all with this project, one of my all-time favourite albums, and I’m sure you’ll agree no easy feat to replicate live…. already said that bit, didn’t I?!
Ah Silbury Hill, mound of mysterious meaning. Yet most plausible, visually, is the pregnant belly of Mother Earth. A burial mound akin to the womb-shaped West Kennet Long-Barrow, both symbolic of the body returning to the earth, at a time when we worshipped the physical things we could see; the sun, moon and Earth. Science proves we decompose; we’re a product of the planet. Yet with climate change we argue if we’re responsible, or nature; as if we’d sue if she did it! Why have we detached ourselves from nature, it cannot be justified by the laws of man? Why are we even wasting time debating this while implementing doable solutions should be the priority? Is there something we could learn from our ancestors? I put it to my elevenses invitee, it’d be a no-brainer for ancient pagans, they’d vote for The Green Party!
Poor Emma Dawnay, our Green Party candidate, she thought she’d come to New Society for a standard campaign interview, instead she got my insane ramblings! But she nodded, “yes, most people, I think,” she approved, “feel we’ve disassociated ourselves with nature, that we can somehow control nature and manipulate it, but actually that’s not the case, we are part of it, and if we don’t change our ways, it’s going to get the better of us.”
I’m liking Emma already; she accepted my folly. After an hour of discussing environmental issues on both international and local levels, I reckoned I could’ve chewed her ears off for another few. I even took it to the next level in suggesting if dinosaurs could’ve known their fate, and had the means to prevent the asteroid hitting Earth, they wouldn’t think twice, or argue about it, they’d stop it, because that is nature’s way, a defence mechanism. It’s as if humans have lost that basic mechanism, we have to sort this problem out regardless of the political things, or costs in our way.
“We managed to develop the scientific understanding of how things work enough to see we now have a problem. We have solutions, it’s so frustrating we cannot implement them,” Emma reacted, “we have been doing a little, but not enough. With the 2015 Paris agreements, those commitments needed to be five times higher to stay below the 1.5% warming, we’re not on track to reach our 2023 target.”
So, let’s rewind this back to the beginnings of our interview, because we’ve received a few whinges that Devizine is getting political, despite you know no one locally will cover this election in quite the same bizarre manner. And I apologise for not attending the husting, through fear of either dosing off or spouting some rubbish about dinosaurs! I’m not politically motivated, you see, but confess I’m enjoying one-to-one chats with our local candidates; let’s see how I fair with Danny next week!
So, it’s another cuppa with another candidate; I’m such a political flirt! Emma though, from a hamlet near Marlborough is perhaps the most intriguing character among our chosen four. For I spend our time trying to decide if it’s politics or environmental campaigning which drives her motivation most.
The extent of my scrutiny was to breeze through their manifesto, from it I asked Emma if when the party makes such claims as they’d have 70% of the electricity via wind power by 2030, have they been researched fully and ensured it’s possible. “Yes,” Emma responded, “We absolutely believe that we need to decarbonise as soon as possible, and the IBCC reports have given us lead when this needs to happen by, we need to turn the economy around in the next ten years. We have some amazing experts to work out what we need to do, they are looking at what’s possible offshore and on shore. I think the big problem is going to be training up enough people to do the work. You can’t just say let’s build, without the people trained to do it.”
Does Emma think any of the other parties will achieve the needed targets. “The other parties are either totally thinking the old way of thinking, that we can only do it if the economy is working, or else they’re, like Labour, coming around to our way of thinking,” Emma replied, stating she was unsure if they were “completely there yet. The Liberal Democrats want to make sure the deficit stays down. If we only do what’s possible from the economy point of view, you end with climate destruction. We think we need to do what we need to do from the climate, or planet’s point of view, so we don’t get devastation, and if that means more borrowing then so be it. But let’s make sure the future of the planet is saved, rather than an economy.”
Unsure how she’ll take my notion that in an ideal world we shouldn’t need a green party at all, that all parties should be putting environmental issues as top priority. Not worth having policies if you’ve no planet to conduct them on; that’s the logic. Emma was concerned Labour have “watered down” their targets, once similar to the Greens. I asked if this was pressure from the oil and gas companies. “Might be pressure from the unions, worried about losing jobs in old industries,” Emma interjected, “but our argument to that is actually, the amount which needs spending on building renewables, insulating people’s homes and electrifying transport, that is going to generate many new jobs.”
We talked over lack of funding for companies creating renewable plastics. “We want to get more localised banking enabling lending to these sorts of enterprises, because that’s really important too.” I asked Emma if she’d like Claire Perry’s job, or if it’s a scapegoat position! I mean, it’s not for me to sing Claire’s praises, as she sings her own on these apparent climate triumphs, then she signs off fracking, but I wonder how much her arm was pushed to do that, from these companies. Emma agreed, “a lot of the large donors to the Conservative party have interests in fossil fuels, and that makes a difference. She had meetings with the fracking companies off-record, what’s that about?! Why are we allowing these companies access to our governing ministers, it doesn’t make sense to me?”
Still unconfirmed if she’d like Claire’s job (!), but my aim for asking was building to the question of coalition. I mean, if, god forbid, I was in charge, I’d reason The Greens are the climate experts, allow them to take that ministry role. Emma explained they don’t have a whip, their MPs are allowed to vote with their conscious, probably making it difficult to join a coalition formally, because I can’t imagine our MPs following a Labour whip. So, we’d certainly support any party which is doing what we believe is important to do, but it’s more likely to be informal.”
Keen to know if Emma cringes when the focus is on other issues, like Brexit. After all, Mother Nature is not going to spare us if we leave, or if we stay in the EU! “We’re wasting so much time discussing Brexit,” Emma clarified, “when we should be turning our economy around, to be low carbon. It is such a pity, and horrible the way it’s made people so polarized. It is a big distraction. Personally, I think if it happens, and the Conservatives are in power, we’ll end up losing sovereignties to the United States because we’ll be making trade deals. They’ll insist on us accepting their agricultural products which are made with much more pesticides and hormones, and lower animal welfare standards, and also insist we sell our NHS, and it’s all very well at the moment as we have the Conservatives saying, of course we won’t do that, but actually, they’re a big economy and if they say they’re not going to sign on the dotted line until…. At least with the EU we do have elected MEPs who could do something about it, in the US we wouldn’t.”
We rapped about influencing on a grander scale within the EU, Emma pointed out the Green Party is strong there, the third block of about seventy MPs. “We can actually do stuff there, which we are doing, we are pushing to ensure big companies pay their taxes, which is far easier at an EU level than a national level.” The scale of the operation concerns me, I mean, how important is it, really, that I fish out one plastic bottle that I’ve accidently thrown into my bin, as that’s trivial compared to the massive issues with Greenland controlling their waste, and if you can fit Britain into just Texas two and a half times, well it doesn’t bear thinking about coping with the global operation necessary.
Still though, I note some locals’ harsh reactions to Extinction Rebellion, seemingly taking it personally, or patronised by Greta, when surely, it’s an attack on the governments of the world to make it easier for the ordinary person to adapt to the changes? “In reality for most people,” Emma said, “so busy in their lives , put under such financial stress, because inequality is getting worse, lack of wage increases, they don’t have the money or time to work out how best to do things, therefore it needs government regulations to come in, to enable people to do the right thing.”
Emma accepted organic produce is more expensive, I added while the wealthier have driveways to park and plug in an electric car, if you live central in a town or city, you’ll consider it lucky to have found a spot to park, let alone close to a charge point. This got us nicely onto local issues, lack of public transport, electric charging points were key to the tangent. How does Wiltshire compare with other counties in reducing our carbon footprint? “I think we do fairly well on solar,” Emma enlightened, “obviously we’ve got lots of trees, on some measures we do well, transport is essential.” I pointed at the garden waste, well, not directly, not in the café! It’s an extra cost we cannot afford, and recycling in other counties is much more efficient. We need a food waste bin; I can’t eat it all!
Emma highlighted the Westbury incinerator plans sends out the wrong motivation, “to make it finically viable, it’s venturing into wanting to go on producing the waste, otherwise it doesn’t work and waste will be shipped in from other places. So, having huge incinerators means there’s no pressure to change, or it becomes too expensive to run it otherwise.”
It was a lovely and meaningful chat, not helping with my dilemma of where to put my X; can I do two at least? Need I also spoil it towards the end by stating if there’s one greener change I cannot bring myself to consider; becoming vegan, not while the smell of a bacon butty wafts my direction?! I asked Emma how important veganism is, and was pleasantly surprised to hear she is not a vegan either, but stressed how she has been trying to eat less meat, and said she thought that was adequate; phew!
Not surprised that Emma seemed unaware of Hollywood’s stab at an environmental catastrophe in the movie 2012, where, conveniently the ice age seems to envelope the area marginally slower than our heroes can run, making for a dramatic escape in the nick of time! It seems to me at times the consequences of climate change are out of our sphere of understanding, consumed by fictional apocalyptic scenarios and dystopian themes, I wondered aloud if it has to take a monumental disaster to finally wake the masses up to the seriousness of the issue. “I hope not,” Emma gulped, “statistically we’re likely to see more of it, and I hope without it getting to a catastrophic level, we’ll start to think actually we do need to do something about this. To me, what’s so frustrating is the measures we need to take to change things are slight; we can still live happy prosperous lives, it’s not that we have wear hair shirts or something!”
That’s the positive message Greta was suggesting in the last video I watched, if you subscribe to her channel, you’ll see a different side to her the mainstream media simply doesn’t portray, she does smile, with every new tree planted! But, aside, what else could we expect from a Green Party?
Emma added, “we’re suggesting there should be a four-day working week, allowing people more time to do things outside their jobs, and we offer a universal basic income, trying to relieve financial stresses.” Now here’s a policy which when I first heard of, I thought it was too radical even for me, but given thought, I’m warming to the notion. Yet it’d take a compete rehash of our way of life, of capitalism. So, despite it being an intense and fascinating chat, that’s when I started waffling about prehistoric man and dinosaurs!
Yet through it I never nailed down if Emma comes from an environmental motivation or a political one, they seemed to merge for her as one and the same. “My training,” she enlightened, “was originally as a scientist, and then I became fascinated by economics since the year 2000. I was working for a successful company in the dot.com bubble, which went to nothing in the end, making me think there’s something wrong with these economic bubbles. The way the predominate economic theory was, was that if we have growth everyone will be better off, but you know, this simply hasn’t happened. You find things are going really well if you’re in the top five of wealth, despite the economic crisis, but it isn’t working for everybody, wages are not going up. We even have hedge fund managers who are billionaires saying, look here, this existence isn’tworking. And, I think because of the pressures put on everybody, that meant that people don’t have the capacity to worry about climate when everything else is a struggle. That’s the really sad thing, this economic theory that we’ve bought into, in the eighties and nineties, has led us up a garden path, making us incapable of looking at the real problems, and that’s the real tragedy of it….”
“And that’s what,” I finalised, “you aim to turn around……”
“Absolutely!” Emma laughed. With the tactical vote still locally confused, Emma entreated we voted with our hearts, and with that notion, you could do a lot worse where you put your cross on December 15th; be like the ancient pagans, I reckon they had better ideas than us!
The Southgate’s going to get fuzzed, groovy garage and grungey punk tomorrow (Friday 22nd November) when Bristol’s Shucks Promotions invade the red carpet. Three for the price of none, The Idle Silence offers noisy, spikey rock flavours of punk, blues, grunge and flange. While the Mighty Magic Animal brings fuzzed up, riff-rocking grunge, and I’m taking a listen to The Leathers’ new released EP, Class Action as I write.
Bristol-based duo formed in 2017, The Leathers may be the surprise element between the grunge, far too boogie for my preconceived notion of grunge, which I reckon is best. I dunno, age may obscure an affection for grunge, that and soul. The Mighty Magic Animal EP, Guts certainly rocks out, it’s all three-minute max Nirvana blast, proficiently produced, if it’s your cuppa it’ll be a strong one, no milk!
The Leathers though I warmed to, it’s garage all right; proficient and groovy, I’m thinking Primal Scream getting rockabilly, Leathers duo Chris Mitchard and Ed Calvert likened it to the Stooges meets Booker T. Nice stuff, bound to be another class and active night.
After the utter chaos, madness and mayhem of the previous night at The Southgate featuring the totally bonkers 7-piece Back Wood Redeemers (see the review by esteemed colleague Mr Worrow), I thought I’d start my musical Sunday afternoon back at the same venue to see if there was anything left standing. Surprisingly all previous traces had been removed, and occupying the red carpet of musical fame was the small, lonesome figure of Mr Thompson Smurthwaite.
I’d last seen Thompson play a few weeks back at Long Street Blues Club, supporting local legend Jon Amor. On that occasion he’d played a wonderful set, if anything slightly over-awed by the size of the crowd and the great warmth of the reception to his playing. But I’d been impressed by what I’d heard, and was looking forward to hearing him in slightly more intimate surroundings.
And I was not disappointed. Thompson has a lovely laid-back, casual, self-deprecating style of talking to his audience, as if chatting to just a few friends. And indeed he was among friends this afternoon. Guitar, voice and harmonica were all employed to great effect to deliver a wonderful set of self-penned smoky-sounding blues. His material is often personal, and reflects his experience of life, both on the canals and elsewhere. His playing style is relaxed, unfussy and genuine. Most songs are slow, rolling, rambling numbers – and all delivered with a thin, reedy, drawling vocal. And the crowd received his sets with warmth and genuine appreciation.
It’s a great tribute to the Southgate that Dave & Deb continue to provide such a diverse range of free musical entertainment every weekend. You really couldn’t get a greater contrast between last night’s rollicking 7-piece band and this afternoon’s laid-back solo blues artist. And yet both worked so well in the pub, and provided superb entertainment.
Then back down into town to The White Bear for their latest Sunday Session. Big shout-out to Georgie & Marc too, who’ve just celebrated their first year of being in Devizes, and who have already made a difference in terms of pub dining, craft beer and musical entertainment.
This afternoon’s offering was the return of the very versatile, and very talented, Ian O’Regan. Ian had impressed so much on his first visit a couple of months ago that they got him back again. This time, although I’ve heard Ian many times, was probably one of his very best performances. Newly-refreshed (or tired) from his recent trip to Nashville, Ian was on top of his game. As usual, he reeled out number after number from across the musical spectrum, hardly pausing for breath. Ian is a chatty, friendly soul, but once he picks up his guitar, he’s off and running. Again we got two sets of perfectly-crafted, superbly-delivered music. Great versions of John Martyn’s “May You Never”, Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”, Joe Jackson’s “Is She Really Going Out With Him” and even Deep Purple’s “Soldier of Fortune” were interspersed with the occasional O’Regan original. His playing, and his vocals, as ever, were absolutely spot-on. The crowd loved it, and dispersed into the late-afternoon murk of Devizes, with smiles on their faces. Great gig.
Future gigs at The Southgate:
• Friday 22nd Nov The Idle Silence, The Leathers, Mighty Magic Animals
• Sat 23rd Nov Jamie R Hawkins
• Friday 29th Nov Duskers
• Sat 30th Nov Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Review
Future Sunday Sessions at The White Bear:
• 15th December Phil Jinder Dewhirst
• 22nd December Vince Bell
A commendable effort by two Bromham girls to give fifty goodie bags to the homeless this Christmas is quickly growing worthy attention. A massive congratulations goes to these kind year 6 girls, Greg and Al, for such a wonderful thought and their determination to organise this.
Still, they need donations of many items on their homemade list, including cosmetic products like toothbrushes, deodorant and soap, to warm clothes, torches and treats such as chocolate! In fact, I think they’ve thought of a number of valid items most us probably wouldn’t have!
They’ve set up a Facebook page for their campaign, with details on how to donate. Collections are possible, but the girls have set up donation stations at St Nicholas in Bromham and at Beezes in the Ginnel, Devizes. They also sought other possible places for these stations in various local villages.
So, can we give this wonderful idea a boost? I know we can! Start by giving their Facebook page a “like,” and see what you are able to donate, please. Thank you! We wish all the best with this brilliant idea, girls and hope that you will tell us how it went after Christmas; you are both on the good list, that’s for sure! Remember though, have a great Christmas yourself too!
Yet another blinding night’s entertainment at the Southgate, as Frome’s Back Wood Redeemers came, saw and kicked ass….
His banjo to one side for a beer break, Flounder Murray perched on the step as I defined the live music scene in Devizes as thriving. As most Saturday nights we were spoiled for choice; People Like Us, I explained, popular locally, playing the Three Crowns, and there’s Britpop trio Billy Green 3 heading the Crown, rock n roll at the Rotary’s sixties-themed Presidents Night at the Cons Club, an Elvis tribute at the Cavalier and a gin and bourbon festival at the Corn Exchange. Not even touching upon various village gigs, such as Splat the Rat who played the Cross Keys in Rowde. I really need a clone, or five!
The area’s population is approximately 31,000, I’ve researched now, but returned the question on the night with a blank stare. Inevitable if you’ve not heard of Frome’s Back Wood Redeemers, this one passed you by. Alas, you missed out on what was a no-brainer for me, since Flounder last appeared here as part of the band The Boot Hill All Stars and blew the roof off with an original blend of grinding, upbeat folk and gypsy ska. It was one sweaty night. Though a quieter Saturday at the trusty Southgate didn’t damped the atmosphere, just rather more intimately contained.
An altogether unusual seven-piece band squeezed into the tight space, I expected no less then crusty beards, the circus attire of vintage suits, bowler hats, clown trousers and stripy tights and anything goes. Armed with an electric guitar, harmonica and drums, nothing unusual there I’ll grant you, but throw in a banjo, two, yes two double basses, a pink electric mandolin made to look like a mini guitar, and a fellow propped in the alcove with a trombone, might just invoke an appropriate image as to how bonkers it was; might.
Described as “songs of dark country, twisted blues & religious fervour,” BWR did what it said on the tin. The mood on my entry was melodically paced; on asking Flounder the difference between them and the Boot Hills he expressed the hunt for vintage blues or country songs, even gospel and the ethos of twisting them into this west country folk. We talked of ska and how it developed in a similar manner as rock n roll, those rhythm and blues rarities very much standard radio airplay across the Americas. Yet Flounder pronounced the need to cover artists such as Tom Waits and Nick Cave too, and with his archetypical gritty vocals these artists are apt.
Flounder though did not front all the tunes, the band clearly a collective as the double-bass man in tights straddled off his instrument to parade around like Bez of the Happy Monday’s, singing fervently with an expressive dance routine to boot. The second half promised to be dirtier, faster and grittier, and did just this. Through the promised murky country tunes, those Somerset folks threw everything at this original blend. Think of a Wurzels-Levellers combo as a Northern Soul band at the Hacienda’s Madchester era trying their hand at jump-blues, you might come somewhere near! Yet whatever pigeonholes you care to throw at it, in the jest of this band who daren’t take themselves seriously, it’s lively, crazy and highly entertaining.
Danceable too, once a Nick Cave song finished, the Train to Skaville riff teased the audience, and Flounder bounced into Toots & The Maytals’ 54-46, only for a melody of Tainted Love and the Cure’s Love Cats to follow. Yet aside the crowd-pleasers, it’s the proficient general skulduggery of instrumentation and upbeat sound which fuses the frenzy of the Back-Wood Redeemers and makes them so appealing. The finale Bound to Glory being the icing on the cake, and perhaps more apt for the band’s description than those known pop tunes; but either way, all were executed sublimely and originally. It was, in short, a crazy, crazy night Kiss fans wouldn’t dream of.
As it’s been said, hats, and many of them, off to the Southgate, who, while the others tend to provide us with safe options of tributes and locally renowned acts, and there’s nought up with that, The Southgate strive to hunt for something different, and bring alternatives to town. With the attitude of providing free live music every weekend, of course, there is also plenty room for our local favourites too and while these make the best and most crowded nights here, when The Back Wood Redeemers are back around this zone, you’d be a fool to miss them.
Not wishing to dabble in politics too much, I still think it’s important we get to know our local candidates a little. Hopefully we’ll track down all of them in time, as I invite Rachael Schneider Ross of Labour to be the first under the Devizine cosh……
So engrossed in our chat, I thought the lady on the table next to us was talking to the window; being on the first floor of New Society I didn’t expect anyone to be outside. It was some guys on a scissor-lift putting up the Christmas lights! We both stared out to the view and my companion commented how much she loved Devizes.
I’m not the political sort usually, but in a dilemma with this election, maybe you are too. So, I invite all local candidates to face my interrogation, I mean a chat! Ah, Devizes then, Tory safe seat. I don’t know about you but I’d want some options on the table, I yearn for change. Tactical voting to achieve this is still a grey area locally. While the Lib Dems traditionally do better than Labour, the latter came second last time. Therefore, Labour’s Rachael Schneider Ross is my first victim.
I’d like to know more about Rachael, her local priorities but start on how she feels about national issues, and Jeremy Corbyn. I asked her outright if she is a “Corbynite,” and if, through the smear against him, ol’ Jezzer remains the right man for the job. Rachael explained she doesn’t think of herself as a label, “I don’t really do labels,” she replied. “I’m just a working mum, who’s come into politics recently, in the last two years. What’s really interesting about Jeremy Corbyn is he has been incredibly successful at bringing young people into the party, and democratising the party.” Rachael enlightened, as an example, a conference in September where all the members decided to increase the ambition around the green new deal. “A decision made by all members, and that feels very democratic.” Impressed with his influence on her children too, Rachael completed the answer with the point, “my kids came into politics, because of Jeremy.”
Does Rachael agree with me, that the voting age should be reduced? I suggested to 14 years old, maybe too radical, but Rachael agreed at 16 most are ready. Kids, you have a cool mum!
And in that, there’s something immediately warming about Rachael’s character, aside being openly consistent and extremely optimistic, she’s not defensive and we spoke on an equal level. This blows my stereotype politician out of the water! She responded to my questions with a heartfelt persona, of family, and a resident, despite my prompts to focus on a national scale. A story followed about Jeremey’s mother who used to live nearby. She gave him a book of her village history some years ago, and upon meeting him recently, was surprised to find he remembered her, and had read the book. “I’m impressed with him; think he has great vision. I think of the whole green revolution, his relationship with the young, and taking it to heart, and to the heart of our policies.” It’s in sharp contrast to Boris Johnson, she noted, and expressed he doesn’t see the importance of those issues.
But the smear of Corbyn is so extensively ingrained. Seems we base our political opinion on the meme with the worst grammar, least they might be more trustworthy than the newspapers. As I said, Rachael is ever the optimist, “I know he has a mixed reputation, I think often, the Labour party, particularly he, is not getting a fair hearing by mainstream media. Sometimes I read things and think, well I was there, and that didn’t happen. Some have a distorted view, but I think he’s the leader of the moment, and he is right to stand toe-to-toe with Boris.”
We spoke about bickering in Parliament, I compared the charade to a rap battle, it got a laugh. “I’m very impatient about all of that now,” Rachael expressed, “watching it over the past few years, it’s one of things that’s got me involved, to be honest. I just am fed up with exactly that, the nonsense, that echo-chamber going around, as it’s so different from how we get stuff done, in the real world. Which is about cooperating and building bridges with each other, even if we don’t understand or like each other, we have to work together. That’s, in working life, how we make stuff happen.”
Bing, bang, bosh; thus, Brexit was an inevitable subject, I’m going to gloss over it, knowing Rachael is in agreeance with the Labour policy, and the mandates are on the table. Passionate about leaving without any consideration of the negative implications, stick with what we have. Passionate about remaining, despite the referendum result, vote Lib Dem. I honestly feel the most logical solution to the mess is Labour’s; we know no deal is economical suicide, Rachael worries about this. So, obtain the right deal and take a vote, the final answer. If you respect democracy, you should respect people have a right to change their mind over three years and exposure of the propaganda enforced on the campaign. If it really is the will of the people, then where’s the argument? Just one more cross in a box, I’m sure you can manage. If you still believe we should remain, regardless of the millions who voted leave, then maybe, just maybe, that’s not entirely fair either. “I also have a lot of concern and want to understand better,” Rachael summarised, “why people chose to vote to leave, and I think there’s lots of reasons. One thing Labour would do is address the underlying causes of that frustration and anger, about how they felt democracy or government was letting them down.”
Again, Rachael bought up youth, maybe she’s hinting something, aware my greying sideburns worsen daily! “Of course,” she stated, “in the last three years, a lot of young people are eligible to vote who wasn’t, and it’s about their future, isn’t it? It’s our children and grandchildren who will reap the impact of Brexit.” Enough! I feel we need to hear the local angle here on Devizine, and what a Devizes constituency would look like under a Labour flag.
Considering the voting history of the constituency, does Rachael really feel she has a chance in turning that round? “You know,” she answered, “I never say never.” See, always the optimist! “You’re right, there has never been a Labour MP, but we have had some wonderful Labour councillors over the years.” She strives to follow in their footsteps. “We’re in strange political times at the moment, and I think and hope when they weigh up who to vote for here in this constituency, they think about the policies, ask themselves what kind of country do they want it to be, I think that’s fundamental, and also, who will represent and stand up for us best, as a community. I would love to do that; I would love to stand up for the community, and represent us well in Parliament. I have ideas, and strong views about local issues which need much more focus and attention on, and would like to bring that campaigning spirit that I discovered in myself a few years ago, through the Oxenwood and Braeside campaign, that’s what really woke me up, politically.”
Again, I see this air of positivity shine through Rachael, at a time when the local Conservatives are in turmoil over choice of candidate, in whatever attributes Danny Kruger has, he is not local, and you know, we keep it local here, like it that way. “Wouldn’t it be better, to have a local mum, who knows the area, knows the issues, instead of someone piloted in from London, because he’s Boris’s mate?!”
It brings to the boil my killer question, not necessarily for Rachael herself, but for our consideration, being we don’t like change, we continue to stick with the Tories. If-it-isn’t-broken attitude might now be unfitting; even our affluent community is suffering, open your eyes when venturing beyond, it gets worse. Maybe making a change is not really changing at all, being Rachael is one of us. So, given Rachael lives in a village life between Devizes and Marlborough, I asked what’s the importance, to her, of having an MP who is locally based. “I think it’s absolutely crucial,” she asserted, “I’ve lived here over twenty-five years, bought my kids up here. So, I’ve experienced what it’s like living in a rural community, where there are no buses, of becoming a taxi for your kids! I’ve lived and breathed Wiltshire country air and my feet are firmly planted here; and I love it. You also notice what’s worrying.”
Rachael strapped the local homeless issue onto the youth angle too, proud of her trustee status with two such charities. Her volunteering gives her, “first hand, in-your-face experience of what’s it’s like when things just don’t go according to plan. Each of us are a few steps away from homelessness, and I’ve seen that reality.” Keen to point out the issue of homeless army veterans, evident locally. “Now, someone coming in from London, who has sat at the top table with Boris, and doesn’t know this area, I don’t think he’ll have the same local knowledge and understanding, and why he’d want to care about what’s happening here.”
More tea was poured, she thinks we need to discover our radical roots here, pointing to the population of working class, and told me of Upavon’s Henry Hunt, the radical farmer during the Napoleonic Wars. With a wealth of local knowledge and history, undoubtedly, she is one us, no matter how you feel about voting Labour.
The anniversary of Jo Cox’s death shifted something in Rachael Schneider Ross, she explained, spurring her on to this post. “It took things to a different place; I was getting more concerned with where things were heading. I feel this general election, (despite the bad timing around Christmas) is really important. For me it’s a once in a generation moment to say enough, we don’t want to head further and further to the right, which will be a further division of hatred between people. That will be encouraged by Farage and Boris.”
I pointed toward our prospective development, a possible train station, new NHS centre. Rachael stressed it may be just be talk, while she’d love to be a part of making them happen, concentrated on the issue of affordable homes. “What worries me a lot, talking to people, is they say we just don’t have enough affordable housing, so my kids have to go elsewhere. And you know, there are other issues too; are there enough community spaces for young people?” We talked over Braeside and Oxenwood, closing of our youth centre, “and Pewsey has no youth centre, used to have the Shack.” Thus, cuts of police, schools and public spaces became the subject quickly, and how it creates disorder. “I think the government doesn’t join the dots between reducing police numbers, removing youth workers, or limiting their time significantly. If you close public spaces where young people can hang out, or the whole exclusion and criminalisation of young people, it’s no wonder we end up in a place where we have real problems.”
With all this mind, my finale interrogation; “if this historic moment happens, what would be the main difference to our constituency?” I got her on this one, but after some contemplation the reply was, “I think, we would look back and honestly think we’d say ‘thank god we voted in Labour in 2019,’ a bit like, post-war, The Attlee era, a time when the NHS was founded. I would like to think we’d look back at this as a ‘see change’ moment. At a fundamental level I would hope for us to be thinking people and planet at the heart of all decisions and policies, right the way through parliament to local councils, rather than profit and privilege. People being central around politics, that’s what I’d like to see for us. I think people are completely fed up with the way things have gone for the past few years. One of the biggest changes too, would be a change to the whole attitude to climate.” Holistically, Rachael linked this with the youth agenda, and we know they go hand-in-hand.
I really don’t care for your preconditioned view of Labour, bought about by the waft of media negativity, I warmed to Rachael, felt immediately like we were old friends on a reunion, and I never thought that would happen with a politician. You know me, I’ll say it how it is, and I wonder what I’ll make of the others, should they take the dare!
Nice prolonged mellow murmur of Britpop breezes through my headphones, the Billy Green 3’s last single release of the year, Soul. There’s a mesh of Verve and Spaceman 3 coming across, it’s growing on me fast; do check it out, and bear in mind Billy and the lads are down the Crown, Devizes Saturday night.
Nipped into the Town Hall earlier, imagine, me, in the Town Hall. The Guardians will want me on their head chair before you know it; they should be so lucky! Ah, but there’s milling around The Assembly Rooms, few things still in boxes and a few ends to tie as The Lawrence Society of Art prepare for their annual art exhibition.
I’m informed I’m rather early, all will be running for the preview evening tonight, Wednesday 13th November, where all are welcome, from 6pm onwards. I sneaked a preview; you know me by now, just barge in uninvited, start randomly snapping phone photos and bust out of there like Billy Whizz on a promise, leaving everyone inside wondering “who was that guy with the chin?”
The show ends on Saturday 16th November, I’d advise paying it a visit, for to my pleasant surprise, the range of paintings are diverse and the standard is outstanding. All local artists, members of the society, with the furthest away coming from over Trowbridge yonder, I’m told. For sale or browsing, I note our good friend Clifton Powell has a selection from his Africa series, and spotted some brilliant sketches from Rowde’s Alan Watters too. But more enlightening was the quantity of contributors I’ve yet to discover. From cubist to landscape, and abstract to fine art, the range is sundry with no apparent theme. I like this approach though, nothing open to interpretation.
Proudly I’m informed the Lawrence Society of Art was formed back in 1953, and has actively fostered an interest in art with lectures, demonstrations, classes, outings, workshops and this major Annual Exhibition consistently since. The productivity of such an established association shows here today; my few pics will not do it justice.
The other major event of the society is usually in August. Their Art Trail, where participating shops and venues have a trail map, and there are about 30 shops in town showcasing members work, many available to purchase.
Named after child prodigy Sir Thomas Lawrence, a leading English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy, who picked up sketching aged ten while his Dad was proprietor of the Bear Hotel, The Lawrence Art Society has an annual membership fee, for regular meetings and workshops. If you dabble, this exhibition could be the perfect introduction, if you just fancy a browse, I’ll say it’s very worthwhile. The opening times are: 14th November 9.30 am – 5.30 pm, 15th 9.30 am – 5.30 pm and 16th November 9.30 am – 12.00 pm.
Pop Quiz: The best way to preview what’s on Friday down the trusty Southgate is A: Have me waffling about Chippenham/Devizes based Blues Reviewed with Adrienne Hale, Mark Johnson, Paul Hale, Pete Lamb, Derek Head and Martin Cleverley. Or B: Have a listen to this preview YouTube Vid of four classic covers? Eh? Me, waffling? Oh, right you are then, please yourself, here it is:
Yep, speaks for itself really, but that’s just the start, Frome’s Back Wood Redeemers on Saturday also comes highly recommended; Go Southgate!
Quick pint before Sunday dinner, and where (roast pork and crackling, yes thank you, it was) better than our dependable Southgate? The live music board is jammed with some great future gigs. We will keep you informed too; you know we will. This Sunday session though comes from Trowbridge’s singer-songwriter Phil Cooper, backed by his Slight Band, namely returning original Jack Moore on drums and Phil’s brother Ellis Cooper on bass; both accompanying vocals.
Perhaps it’s my autumn lack of enthusiasm to hike up Dunkirk Hill recently, the inability to witness some of Devizes’ live music scene left me craving, or, more than likely, Phil has polished the live act, as in my humble opinion they simply knocked it out of the park, or pub at the least. My account also propped by the notion I’ve only ever seen Phil play live acoustically, faired by Jamie on Cajon, and the backing band really gives him that extra dynamism. Yep, they gave it their all, and came across professional while residentially convivial. It was a comfy atmosphere, as is the Southgate on all occasions.
I arrived one song prior to a well-deserved doughnut break for Jack, when the egg shakers came out and the second half rang through one of my favourites of Phil’s, Road Songs. Yet Phil is so prolific an artist there’s many accomplished songs I haven’t heard, the gig planned to dig into the back catalogue a bit, but there’s probably a couple of new ones knocked out while I write this……hold on, check the book of face…… yep, told you; his electronica sidearm BCC has an armistice day release with Tamsin Quin on vocals! See this here Spotify link.
Ah good on them, it was an enjoyable gig, particularly poignant was the quasi-political I Don’t Have A Voice, about as radical as Phil gets, subject matter usually retained for emotions and social interactions. I apologise for avidly eyeing your doughnut like a famished Victorian street urchin, Jack, let it be known I had cheesecake waiting at home.
See here, next Friday is Peter Lamb’s Blues Reviewed, I’m looking forward to some twisted folky-blues skulduggery on Saturday with Frome’s Backwood Redeemers, and Sunday bluesman Thompson Smurthwaite gets on his harmonica. Blow the man down, do they ever come up for air?
Wade Merritt is a young (21) man who is fairly new on the scene, and I’d certainly never seen/ heard him before. So I thought I’d go and give him a listen. Hailing from Warminster, Wade’s offering is largely covers from the 1960s/ 1970s, with occasional forays into the 80s/90s. In other words, all stuff from long before he was born. Obviously he was brought up properly, and it was nice to see his dad in the audience to take some of the credit for that.
We had plenty of familiar singalong stuff from the Beatles, ELO, Queen, Elton John, Zutons and far too many more for me to remember. He played all of these very competently, but hasn’t quite yet developed the knack of putting his own stamp on them. What was very pleasing though was to hear Wade’s own songs, quietly inserted here and there in the two sets. These tended to be fairly upbeat numbers (of which he had a CD for sale) and none of your miserable, introspective singer/ songwriter stuff.
All in all a thoroughly entertaining afternoon, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of this young and rising talent.
Future Sunday Sessions at The White Bear:
• 17th November Ian O’Regan
• 15th December Phil Jinder Dewhirst
• 22nd December Vince Bell
A cheetah can achieve motorway speeds, but not long enough to get off the slip road; worthless trivia, unless you’re an antelope. I like to think cheetahs listen to rock n roll; no, hear me out. Akin to this feline fact, those RnB and rock n roll classics are one short burst of energy. Fortunately for the artists the 78rpm record lasted a maximum of five minutes, and for radio play they’d cut it to little over three, any longer they surely risk congestive heart failure.
As the era passed to late sixties, psychedelia stretched recorded music to live and extended dimensions Little Richard could never maintain. Mellowing tendency matured rock, but arguably robbed its dynamism. Ah, come the eighties twelve inch single and the mega-mix, prompting the question; why didn’t Glenn Close choose the Jive Bunny to boil?
Rare then it is, to hear a frenzied traditional rock n roll sound encompass ten minutes; welcome to Ruzz Evans’ world. Embodiment of Johnny B Goode, Ruzz can pick guitar like he’s ringing a bell, for an astounding period too. Due for release on 10th February, but available for pre-order from December 1st, I’ve been adoring this album recorded live at the Louisiana in Ruzz’s hometown of Bristol.
Forgive me for sustaining the rock n roll pigeonhole, for Ruzz has the quiff and is photographed in a teddy boy drape jacket. With backing from an incredible band including drummer Mike Hoddinott and upright bassist Joe Allen, the panache of Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Revue straddles rock and its namesake blues. Since 2016, when they added an awesome horn trio to the roster, we can add big band jazz to their style. That’s my thoughts while absorbed in this, of what Miles Davis did to jazz, or Pink Floyd to prog rock, Ruzz does to traditional rhythm and blues come rock n roll; the result is breath-taking.
Bearing in mind his voice isn’t growling Tennessean, yet neither was Gene Vincent’s, rather quirky Bristolian, the vocals are sporadic, instruments reign. There’s an amusing conclusion to “Under Your Spell,” where 10 minutes of detonating electric blues is broken by a genuinely surprised thank you from Ruzz in said accent. This often amuses me, pondering, no, thank you, mate, I just clapped, you’ve just held me spellbound for ten minutes, the pleasure is all mine!
In this instance I’m not even there, merely listening on my headphones, but still entranced. While they’re Bristol based Ruzz and his Guitar’s Blues Revue are no strangers here, and you can catch them at the Southgate (Nov 30th), White Swan Trowbridge (tonight 9th Nov) at the R&B bar in March at Devizes Sports Club. I’m quivering, ashamed after hearing this that I’ve not caught them live yet; an offence I will rectify, you would too if you hear this.
Live at the Louisiana explodes from the off; the two, Hold It and Baby Please Come Home, for starters envelope all I’ve said, lively jump blues come big band rock n roll. Catchy, you’ll be lindy hopping before your first sip. Yet if Movin On groovily notches to allegro moderato, Back Home to Stay boogie-woogies again, and Sleepwalk is as dreamy as it suggests. The last two tunes, Sweet as Honey and the aforementioned Under You Spell embrace all we’ve so far said, making this release, I reckon, a treasure; fantastic!
With two self-released studios albums already under their big rockabilly buckles, and opening for Dr Feelgood, The BlockHeads, Kirk Fletcher and Bill Kirchen and Darrel Higham, they’re stamping an authority of quality worldwide. Ruzz has been honoured by being officially endorsed by Gretsch Guitars, and that’s what I perceive of him, the kind of obsessive guy who will turn any conversation to his labour of love, but when it’s this proficient, you cannot help but take heed. I’m off to find out what they can do in the studio, but with such a formula I think this live album captures the spirit perfectly.
I sometimes think Ian Hopkins is just trying to confuse me. Long Street Blues is on a Saturday Night, right? Well, usually, but this week it was on a Friday. So for the second time in seven days I found myself walking up the hill to the Con Club.
Another surprise was that we are usually treated to some 4-star blues featuring a full band. Not tonight though. Ian Siegel, who usually works in a full band format, is currently undertaking a tour to promote his latest album “All The Rage”, playing the songs in a stripped-back, one-man-and-his-guitar format. He’s also thoughtfully separately recorded a 4-track EP with some of those same songs in this current unplugged format.
So down to it. No support act. Just a packed room, and one man and his guitar. And we were treated to two sets of superb, modern acoustic blues and more. Many of the songs were Ian’s own compositions, or those of his friends, or collaborations. Only occasionally was a rock/ blues/ gospel standard thrown in, such as the Delta classic “You’ve Gotta Move”. His guitar style is strong, loud and gutsy, his vocals ranging from loud and expressive, through to slow, cool, gravelly, whispered, half-talked.
He does a good line in inter-song chat too, interacting very positively with the audience with wry humour. We learned many things – he hates Southampton (Scumhampton) and supports Liverpool (I like him already), he advocates positive action against those who’d like to talk loudly through his set, he’s a big fan of Jon Amor and his latest album (hurray!), and he has an interesting theory about Bob Dylan (the guy really can sing – he just chooses not to – he’s messing with us).
At several points in the gig, Ian stopped to say that playing his “big” material this stripped-back way genuinely made him nervous, and wasn’t sure that it would always work. But he needn’t have worried – it all worked superbly and came across well. The audience absolutely loved it. The encore was well-deserved and featured two covers – the traditional gospel/ hymn “I’ll Fly Away”, and Tom Waits’ “The House Where Nobody Lives”.
Another cracking gig, and another great advertisement for live music.
• Saturday 30th Nov Gerry Jablonski Band
• Saturday 21st December John Coughlan’s Quo (support from George Wilding)
• Saturday 28th December Pink Torpedoes
Your intrepid reporter had been on the sick/ injured list for most of the past week, and only received his clearance to enter the field of play at the 11th hour after a very late fitness check. Having felt ill, and having suffered the misery of watching England fail to win the RU World Cup, I was feeling pretty low. So what sort of music did I need to fit my mood? Of course there was only one place to head for, and that was Long Street Blues Club.
Not as large an audience as some gigs, but still a very respectable showing. Playing support were acoustic blues guitar duo Mojo Hand, who entertained with a whole string of classic blues covers, including Crossroads, Smokestack Lightnin’, Let’s Work Together, Little Red Rooster, Walkin’ Blues and the eponymous Got My Mojo Working. This was all classic blues stuff from across the spectrum from Chicago right down to the Delta, played straight-up, undiluted and with little fuss and not much chat. Good set from a great pair of musicians.
The main act were Paris-based Big Dez Blues Band, an extremely tight, competent blues outfit. Of course it was a big notch up on the volume front from the support act, but all the better for that. A great four-piece of drums, bass and twin guitars, this was full-fat, leaded R&B. Both vocals and lead-guitar parts were shared, adding more depth and dimension to the set, which consisted of both originals and covers, again delivered with minimal inter-song chat. The accent was on letting the music do all the talking, and it spoke well. The sound was clean and uncluttered, and the audience certainly warmed to it. The joint was certainly jumping.
Unfortunately, lack of match fitness (and alcohol) on my part led to major fatigue and I didn’t quite make it to the end of the gig, and I had to retire from the field of play. However I certainly felt I’d had my money’s-worth, and wandered off happily to my bed.
• Friday 8th Nov Ian Siegal Unplugged
• Saturday 30th Nov Gerry Jablonski Band
• Saturday 21st December John Coughlan’s Quo (support from George Wilding)
• Saturday 28th December Pink Torpedoes
Double-whammy night as I flipped between Alabaster Queen at the Southgate and Lottie J at the Crown, in search of the perfect evening’s entertainment.
Southgate, ah Southgate; hasn’t failed me yet. While the always excellent Long Street Blues Club will understandably ease the quantity of pedestrians hunting live music on a Saturday night in the Vizes, we’re seated seasonally between mid-autumn and the big C, and weather none too clement, it was a quiet start at the Southgate.
Gave me opportunity to become acquainted with an Alabaster Queen from Manchester, prior to her performance. Enthusiastic about her second visit to our gypsy canal favourite watering hole, claiming she thought she was eccentric until she turned up here. I asked her what’s in a tag, and she described her pale complexion attributed to this translucent form of gypsum namesake. The informative explanation which followed delved into marble imitation, statues being immersed in a bath and gradually heated is a process demanding great care; if the temperature is not measured, the stone acquires a dead-white, chalky presence. Yet the patterns created are diverse, relating back to a previous question when I asked what genre we were to expect, and she replied “a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.”
Solo, the unique Alabaster Queen treated us to a series of elated covers, acoustic cabaret style with an air of positivity, confidence and tambourine. Off the starting block with Sympathy for the Devil and marching into Jolene, this queen delivered distinctively and fervently. Unsure if a song she called Jasper was her own writing, but this one wowed with passion. After a trip to bar, I heard a melody of Sweet Dreams and You Spin me Round (like a Record) flowing interesting into Bob Marley’s Pimper’s Paradise, an interesting choice noted when she surprisingly sang the toasted Damien Marley version, and made a stunning job of it.
With an abrasive voice characteristically resolute, Alabaster Queen is not about to whisk through an X-Factor final, yet made great work of Born to be Wild, and appeared to love every minute of her performance. The Floorshow was confident, the songs flourishing and therefore, this Queen deserves her crown.
I confess though, I sneaked out at this point, double-booked and on a mission to see Lottie J at The Crown. I passed a few groups either heading home early, or more than likely, heading in the direction of the Southgate, so I hope the audience picked up in the second half. Conflicting performance here, where at just 15 years old, Lottie’s voice is as smooth and silky as, well, smooth silk. The only similar aspect being her desire and passion. Chosen to take the keyboard out of the equation, Lottie used her laptop to provide the backbeat and concentrated on her vocals.
I cannot fault her voice; it’s perfected at such a young age it’s the envy of all others. My issue is with the surroundings, convinced the Crown had upped its previous rep as a rowdy cattle market of twenty-somethings, was quashed. I felt like a pensioner on a Club 18-30, my stubble too grey to be trendy here, amidst these trimmed beard perfectionists.
I’m not attempting to gripe grumpy old man style, The Crown is lively as always, we need this in Devizes, every town does. But I couldn’t help ponder if a plain ol’ disco would’ve been more apt, being Lottie sang so beautifully, profligate over a crowd hardly noticing her presence through chatter and noise. Likewise, Lottie needs to be pitched into an establishment where punters are appreciative and listen. There then is my dilemma, Lottie, in my opinion needs a session band who will take heed of this intelligent and imminent talent, who can cater for her sound and style, then she would be off the scale amazing. Yet, youth is on her side, and I wait in anticipation of her progress.
Outside my reservations were confirmed, as a young fellow angered at his unsolicited elimination and friends demanded he be allowed to return, despite the accusation he puked over the seats. There was an amicable conclusion without kerfuffle, and the chap wobbled away. I felt need of a scratch of the foresaid stubble, fine and dandy for the adolescent, unfortunately not my cuppa. If it wasn’t for Lottie, I’d rushed back to the Southgate, even if the pub Terrier attacked my shoelace!
Such a shame, with a tired Lottie J after a flight from her holiday, she performed immaculately, comparable with the Alabaster Queen, who in all honesty while she’s a well above average pub circuit act, Lottie I’m convinced is worthy of stardom, and time will tell, but really, The Crown is not the venue she should play.
For want of a grand Saturday, I received a mish-mash, to be honest. A great live music pub with a fairly great act, and a raucous glitzy bar with an extreme talent. To combine the two elements, one heck of a night would’ve been possible, c’est la vie.
For want of a feel-good story this stormy weekend, what a marvellous opportunity for the kids at MACS Theatre School, as a group performed a musical melody Halloween show on the main stage at Disneyland Paris this week. “Each and every one of them were absolutely fantastic, and a pleasure to take on the trip,” the Devizes theatre school announced.
A proud moment for the school, and a memory that’ll last a lifetime for the group. Twelve-year old Evie, who performed, said, “I had the best time with MACs last night, attending has given me the confidence I never knew I had.” Many other parents and children have expressed their delight at the chance. It’s an achievement proving what we’ve said before, “Mac’s Theatre School is refining local drama and putting Devizes on the map!”
With a high quality of standards, Mac’s aim is to “create and produce theatre that excites, entertains but more importantly inspires. Giving young people a chance to shine, to challenge themselves and exceed expectations,” and I think this news goes to show just that, if you’ll pardon the pun!
“We’re so incredibly proud of them,” said Emily Dodd, assistant director and Mini Mac coordinator, “the show was a huge success!” Held in anticipation since the wonderful “Our House” performance, I asked if she could give us a hint as to what might be next for MACs, or if it’s top secret?!
“We’re taking a break from big shows this year so we can spend time with our own little mini Mac! However, we will continue with our full membership groups, which run on a Wednesday and our mini Mac’s sessions on a Monday.” Membership fee is just £15 for weekly workshops. Weekly workshops run as Mini Macs (aged 5-10), First Stages Group (aged 11-13) or the Centre Stage group (aged 14-16.) Places are available, contact: macs_theatre@yahoo.com for more information.
As for me, I’d risk a roller-coaster ride, but I’m not singing and dancing; no one needs to see that, even Mickey Mouse! I’m just wishing all those involved my very best wishes for the future. Well done to all!
Felt a tap on my shoulder in the Cellar Bar of the Bear Hotel last night, an eerie witch called Tess taciturnly offered sweets from a variety Halloween basket. If it was just a kind gesture, I also saw it symbolic of the evening; variety is the tenet of these regular open mic events.
Secured on the Devizes circuit as the last Thursday of each month, I wobbled down the steps to witness no end of participants willing to step up. Preconceived judgements of a drunken karaoke, a Saga Britain’s Got Talent or a host begging for acts immediately dismissed. The scene is bustling for a week night, the quality varied but not in any manner amateurish.
Treated to a great unity and quick turnaround of tens of performances, from either upcoming or matured musicians, there for the love of it really is inspiring, communal and fun.
I swear there were more guitars than people down there, and there was a sound amount of people. Take it as red, a majority were acoustic singers, most with a cover song. Yet some originals were noted, some bought a band, others perhaps jamming via a makeshift group for the evening.
Variety moulded though, particularly through Neil & his Ukeladies, bringing a taste of the Southgate uptown! Admitted and uncaringly, they trashed Monster Mash and the Addams Family theme in a satirical and seasonal show so drunkenly fun it was nothing short of hilarious. But not without the following poignant, then viciously witty Halloween and rugby themed poems from Gail Foster. While these two acts stick in the mind, through their diversity, or insanity, the standard of all acts was simply superb.
From Dereck Wood to a pale-face-painted Terry Couchman, and through an Eric Clapton aficionado, to a gorgeous acoustic adaption of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, the evening was exceedingly entertaining and gregarious. Had to ponder if I was the only attendee not planning a blast under the spotlight, though the offer was there, some kind of stand-up routine suggested; yeah, no really!
With little alternative options, it wouldn’t have mattered if Oasis was planning a one-off in the Corn Exchange, it’d still be the best thing to do on a Thursday night in the Vizes, and it was also free entry too.
Any dubiousness of open mic nights I once may have had were quashed last night. I ponder the necessity of venturing to a different one, in a different town, to compare, if only for an accurate review. But when did I give a toss about accuracy? Considering I was thoroughly entertained, that’s enough, and all you need to know to do a lot worse for an evening then bookmark the next one of these gatherings in your diary.
Top marks Richard Benham, the organiser and compere, who, with a witty slant on introductions, banded the heavy flow of hopeful performers. We stopped for a short natter, enthusiastically informing how for some it’s a gateway, for others a solace, but all played an important part in this, what essentially felt more like a family gathering. Top marks too, to the Bear; Luke, for a pause in tending the bar to fetch drumsticks, and a welcomed event. After a tough afternoon trick or treating, this was no trick, the highlight of which, amidst all these performers, in my humble opinion, was undoubtedly Laurie Couchman’s spellbinding and apt performance of Eva Cassidy’s Autumn Leaves.
Halloween, Mwhahahaha! If you’re not venturing out tonight, armed with a sugared-up face-painted youngster, lucky you! Perhaps you’d like to lounge on the sofa with a scary story. Here’s one I wrote, back when I wrote stories and Devizine didn’t occupy my every waking minute!
Wrote in 2016, only a novelette size, but creepy enough. Blindfold is the telling, first person, of a professor of science, now in a care home, and his story of how he got there.
“Ghosts are a figment of the imagination, we proved it here today.”
If you’ve an ereader or tablet you can download the book here at Smashwords. If you buy it, use this code XG89W and it will be free! Happy Halloween!
Andy’s usual Sunday stroll around Devizes, hunting live music, took a different turn this weekend, as I interfered! In order to save time, treat this article as a roundup of all that happened to us both; a kind of music relay race!
Andy spent the early afternoon down our trusty Southgate, I met up with him on my maiden voyage to the White Bear. There is no apparent reason for my never having been to the White Bear, and now I realise neither was there an excuse. I immediately got my feet under the table; proper gorgeous pub, and what is more, George Wilding, sat in the alcove, doing his thing. But before that, here’s Andy’s start, before he handed the baton to me. Double-whammy, you lucky, lucky people!
REVIEW – Paul Cowley @ The Southgate, and George Wilding @ The White Bear, Devizes – Sunday 27th October 2019
Fantastic Afternoon’s Entertainment
Andy Fawthrop
Sunday afternoons have been a happy hunting ground recently, and this week was no exception.
First up to the Southgate to see bluesman Paul Cowley. Originally from Birmingham, Paul now resides in France. He was paying the UK a visit with a few dates, so would have been a shame to miss him. What we got was a singer, a songwriter and a guitarist playing acoustic fingerstyle and slide guitar. Playing a mixture of his own compositions from his recent album “Just What I Know” and a number of Delta blues covers (from such luminaries as Lightnin Hopkins, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Son House and the Memphis Jug Band), Paul served up the perfect afternoon of laid-back, moody and melodic blues. There was always a nice driving rhythm from the stomp-box and guitar, accompanied by a gravel-voiced lyric. And there was a good crowd to appreciate some fine entertainment.
Nice vibe, nice atmosphere, nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
But there was still more to come. Next on to The White Bear to listen to the incomparable George Wilding. George will probably be familiar to Devizes audiences, but I personally never tire of listening to the guy. Every show is completely different, since George tends to feed on the atmosphere in the room and requests from the audience for his next song, rather than relying on anything as mundane and organised as a written set-list. And I think he’s getting better as he goes along. He’ll have a go at just about any song (whether or not he knows all the words), and there’s no style he won’t cover – pop, rock, blues, easy listening. His rapport with the audience is genuine, and would be a great lesson to many other performers. His wry, sardonic and self-deprecating humour goes an awfully long way towards winning people over.
On this occasion it was also great to hear him singing a few of his own songs, mostly in response to requests from the audience, which he often puts in the background in favour of covers. Personally, I think he should be more confident in his own material, and serve up more of it.
Suffice to say, long before the end of his set, he had the whole pub singing along, and the calls for an encore were fully deserved.
Another great atmosphere and superb, great-value entertainment.
Future Gigs at The Southgate:
• Friday 1st November John E. Vistic
• Saturday 2nd November Alabaster Queen
• Sunday 3rd November Kent Duchaine
• Friday 8th November Triple JD Rock Band
• Saturday 9th November Jamie Willians & The Roots Collective
• Sunday 10th November Phil Cooper & The Slight Band
Future Sunday Sessions at The White Bear:
• 10th November Wade Merritt
• 17th November Ian O’Regan
• 15th December Phil Jinder Dewhirst
• 22nd December Vince Bell
Yep, agree with Andy’s words, yet I expect no less from George Wilding. His charisma and charm, coupled with passion and natural ability will satisfy an audience no end. I feel the confidence point is part of George’s appeal, almost a hallmark. George plays on this bashfulness, always with an excuse why this particular performance may not be up to his usual, then knocks it out of the park! While he nods appreciation to other’s songs, he wished he written, many anticipate the moment he’ll perform his originals.
Audience participation, isn’t it? He never shies to a request, even if he doesn’t know it. A question was fired at him, what’s his guilty pleasure? He confessed a liking for the song-writing of Abba, even if he deplored the production, expanding he never dared play one, as it was uncool. Dancing Queen fell forth, he owned it as well as other spoofy adaptations he’ll willing crowd please with. No other so apt this specific Sunday than Swing Low Sweet Chariot; the audience yelled along.
Devizes in the Round @ The Cavalier Community Hall
I thought I’d complete the evening with a journey to the Cavy, where Dean held a “Devizes in the Round;” a country music play-off between a selection of his favourites, all in aid of Lupus UK. The event only come to my attention hours beforehand. Melon twister as to how I missed it, gave Dean the usual spill about ensuring we’re alerted, he told me he had; shucks, many apologies to him.
Never an easy task, a niche, country, a Sunday night in Devizes too. Sadly, turnout was not great. Something crossed off my perpetually increasing to-do-list, to see how Dean had transformed the just adequate pub function room, into a club; but he has, and it’s impressive. There’s a secondary bar in the hall, and the stage is ample.
Here’s a Devizes gem you may’ve missed, and if country music is not your thing, although it’s Dean favourite, it’s still only a small section of all that goes on here. The Family Club ethos is that of the Northern working clubs, where variety is blessed by a pragmatic atmosphere. Tribute acts abound, Dean informs me the UB40 one, Johnny 2 Bad went down particularly well.
Do yourself a favour and keep an eye for future events at the Cavy, it’s a community-fuelled pub, as it ever was, and striving to provide diversity, and very often for a worthy cause.
All said and done, our heroine Tamsin Quin appeared. Playing to a slight crowd in her hometown, now she’s booked throughout the southwest and beyond, is a little shameful, Devizes. Nevertheless, Tamsin gave a stunning performance, as ever. I also welcomed a chat about her progress, and how a trip to Nashville inspired her.
This Nashville subject arose again when shuffling my chair across to meet another two acts, Josh Beddis and Danny McMahon, they told me of their customary pilgrimages and how well they’re received there. Both tremendously gifted fledgling acoustic performers in this field, blasts the erroneous stereotype country is for an older crowd. These guys treated us to a spectacularly sentimental set of originals, as country music will, alternating songs between them. Such, I was informed, was the nature of this “round” idea!
In the same light, Tamsin stepped forth after the break with another of Dean’s favourites, Zenne. Zenne’s talent knows no bounds, a matured confidence saw a worthy corporation with Tamsin. Country music may not be my favourite, but I was satisfied, and held spellbound by the music and lyrics of all these acts.
If we’re spoiled for choice on a Friday and Saturday in town for live music, I think we’ve proved it continues till Sunday too. Sometimes it needs a little support though, understandably being Monday looms, I’m guilty too, but hats off to the Southgate, White Bear and Cavalier for extending the weekend; bit less drizzly on Sunday too, wasn’t it?!
Carmen is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, based on an original story by Prosper Merimee, first performed in 1875. It is written in the genre of opéra comique, with musical numbers separated by dialogue, and it shocked its early audiences with its breaking of social conventions. Nowadays it is one of the most popular, and frequently-performed, operas in the classical canon. And, of course, it features two very famous arias – the Habanera, and the Toreador Song.
It is set in southern Spain and tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naïve soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties, yet loses Carmen’s love to the glamorous torero Escamillo, after which José kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life, immorality, and lawlessness, and the tragic death of the main character on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial at the time.
So – what have White Horse Opera done with this absolute classic of an opera? First up they’ve kept it simple. There are just four backdrops to represent the four locations of the four acts, the costumes are modern and unfussy, and there are very few props. This allows the music, the singing and the acting to speak for itself. It’s also sung in English to keep it very accessible. Even the orchestra is a stripped-back unit of only seven musicians + conductor.
Stand-out performances came from all the leads – there are no weak links here – Paula Boyagis as Carmen, Phillip Borge as Don Jose, Jon Paget as Escamillo, Barbara Gompels as Micaela, Brian Brooks as Zuniga and Graham Billing as Morales. But the cast has strength in depth, with some fine support work from Jess Phillips, Bryony Cox, Lisa House, Stephen Grimshaw and Robin Lane. The only wooden thing on the stage (making a key contribution to Act 2) was one of the benches from The Vaults!
I enjoyed the production a lot. It had pace, passion and a great freshness. Why wouldn’t you? – the story involves love, smuggling, jealousy, seduction, and death! Definitely worth the trip out to Lavington School.
Yesterday spent wisely, at the wonderful Little Eco; Devizes first zero-waste shop…..
Shopping bags are in the boot, but when I’m on my own I forget. Damn, buy another bag, it’s just one after all. Last supermarket visit I figured no, as I had my daughter’s help; I left her to scan the items at the self-service checkout, and made haste to the car to fetch them. Yeah, double-whammy; I jogged, part way!
I’ll confess I’m guilty, but at least I’m willing to. Rapidly aging, stuck in my ways, yeah; the stereotype Greta scorns at. Yet I don’t care who is warning me, it doesn’t patronise me what age they are. The younger they are the more they’ll have to face the consequences, ergo if you lambast youth for telling you that you need to do more, shame on you. The irony is some take it personally, insecure with guilt and try denial. This current wave of ecological outcry addresses world governments, rather than the individual. Still, personally taking as much action as you can pushes that little bit towards the good.
Here’s a little slice of that good, recently arrived in Devizes. The Little Eco shop is lovely, and as it says, little, but the grand step in the right direction our town needs. Situated in that yard, Wharfside, on Couch Street, I popped into our first zero-waste shop, to meet owner Jeni. A number of customers browsed the delightful array of dispensers, scoop-bins and glass jars. There is also a central feature with organic gifts and accessories.
Few customers had been here before, and bought containers with them. For the rest, glass and recycled tubs and containers are available, along with paper bags. The vessels are tared in, and they’re free to shop, many asking for assistance to dispense items; this innovative process is in the making of becoming normal practise. Even the receipt is an email, if required.
While this store may not be a hypermarket, its quaint surroundings harbour a surprisingly vast array of goods. There’re cleaning liquids, of which I profess to know nothing of such matters, erm, washing-up liquid, and erm, that washing powder and soap stuff! Now, onto the tucker, which I can do; they’ve got organic maple syrup, and there’s pasta, rice, cereals and organic maple syrup, flour, herbs, dried fruit, chocolate, and erm, so much stuff, did I mention the organic maple syrup?
The Little Eco Shop has been open since September; Jeni acknowledged the prospect of little acorns. Perishable goods, I think, will make or break it. Still, the like of this needs to be a supermarket, it needs to be central in town, in every town, and it needs a comprehensive fresh range; veg, bread, milk (yeah, I mentioned that!) But at this early stage, what it really needs is your attention first and foremost.
Aside David Attenborough’s influence, we chatted about supermarkets mostly. I referenced how my Nan would tell of pre-supermarket days, when you took your butter dish to the shop, your salt shaker, and they filled them. Without realising they had the carbon footprint of a beatnik amoeba. It’s only since our thirst for efficient consumer self-service, we’ve accumulated this mountain of waste packaging and terrible throw-away ethos. The final straw for me came a few years ago in a petrol station, upon noticing a single orange wrapped in a hard-plastic container; it’s a bloody orange for crying out loud, nature provided it’s packaging.
The greatest dilemma facing Jeni is the progression of supermarkets towards reducing waste. I have to hand it to McDonalds, taking heed of eight-year-old Jacob Douglas, from Basildon, and a small number of other children, and have banned Happy Meal plastic toys. If they listen to what the future generation tell them, surely so can you. Yet, so can and will the supermarkets given time, and if so, Jeni’s self-built business is at risk, but her ethics have had a profound effect.
“If anybody’s sceptical,” I asked Jeni, “it’s over convenience; could you serve the town as quickly as a supermarket?” Negatively she replied but retorted with the notion it’s the personal feel at Little Eco. Jeni expressed the turning trend in the desire to shop at the butchers and greengrocers, who will greet you at the tingling of the bell. Supermarkets steer away from human contact, but if the change to self-service checkouts can be turned around in such a short space of time, a move towards a doable solution to zero-waste on a mass scale could too, by these clever-clogs, if they so wished.
For now, though, we have this gorgeous and friendly shop, yes, it takes a little longer to shop, but I encourage you to try it out; I’m not accepting freebie banana chips, this is not an advertorial, I don’t spew that baloney on you. Crunch time comes down to price then, as ever, and I think you’d be pleasantly surprised it’s competitive and kept at a minimum. Filled a paper bag with my beloved banana chips and was impressed it was just pence, so got myself another scoop-full!
We wish Jeni and the Little Eco shop all the best of luck with this venture, and in order for it to work, the town must show its support, after all, they’ve got a giant cask of organic maple syrup, if I failed to mention it!
DOCA’s Lantern Buy Back Scheme
Along with The Town Hall and The Healthy Life, Little Eco also has a scheme in conjunction with DOCA, where old lantern lights that you may have stowed away from previous parades can be recycled. It’s a lantern light amnesty! Turn your lights into reception at the Town Hall, The Little Eco Shop and The Healthy Life Company. For every working lantern returned you will receive 50p, no questions asked!
The scheme will be running from 11th November to 14th December 2019.
DOCA state, “We can all play a part in making this years festival events greener, but we need your help to reduce the impact of our events on the environment, returning lanterns is one way of doing this!” More information here.
After a hushed couple of months for Daydream Runaways, they return with a topical smash single, Closing the Line……
I observed in awe the multitude, at least for Devizes, squeezed between the Town Hall and Vinyl Realm. Ah, what with the perpetual drizzling, wish it could be summer again; street festival time. The highlight for me was undoubtedly Pete and the staff at Vinyl Realm’s second stage; what a totally awesome job.
I did one of my live, wobbly Facebook vids of a band I held in anticipation to finally catch, which earned a comment, “who are they?” Coupled with loitering local musicians inquiring, I was astounded that this dynamic indie Swindon-Devizes four-piece were still fairly obscure. But as the sun shone, I think this photo captured perfectly that the moment of elation was communal, and confirmed everyone present will not forget the name, Daydream Runaways.
Just to make certain, they rocked the Southgate at the end of August, and what with appearances on BBC Wiltshire Radio and It’s All Indie Spotify playlists, their Facebook page has been quiet recently, save a swanky new logo. On a separate note, the threat of closure at Swindon’s Honda plant looms over its employers. I don’t want to argue the toss, and I think neither does the band, let whatever bias newspaper you believe squabble if this is the result of Brexit, or not, it’s not going to help those losing their livelihood. Such is the passionate subject of Closing the Line, the Daydreamer’s forthcoming single.
Here then is a progressive step in their building discography, which is already teetering with quality, into the realm of local topical subject matter. Personifying the shockwaves felt by a community, this emotive and illustrative indie rock track is akin to Springsteen’s woes of factories shutting. Closing the Line kicks off with an industrial noise effect, which abruptly ceases and this striking riff explodes post-haste. Vocals wail eloquently, questioning if you’ve ever tried with all you’ve got, and you’ve given up with ardent prose, continuing the leitmotif of pending gloom. It’s all very U2, but this street has a name, it’s the Highworth Road out of Swindon.
If it’s not the dejected subject of a current and local topic which drives this potently catchy tune, what fills me with enthusiasm about Closing the Line, due for release this coming Friday (25th October,) is it matches the excellence of their previous singles and wiggles towards a maturity in sound and production. In an era where pop shies from the expression of political and social stock, favouring to warble about bad relationships and who has the tightest buns, it’s an advancement the band should be very proud of achieving.
For just a year into their journey, self-recording, producing and mixing their singles, Daydream Runaways are never fearful to experiment with different production and song writing techniques. I reckon with this one, they’ve just found a niche. I hope this could encourage an album which would be as characteristic as Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever. Yet amazed, pondering what took Petty ten years of playing with the Heartbreakers to achieve, the diligence and motivation of Daydream Runaways means they could nail this less than a quarter of the time. Then, the world is ready for these kids, and bloody good luck to them.
Click here to pre-save Closing the Line to the streaming service of your choice, and wake up to little indie rock gift from Daydream Runaways on Friday 25th October!
Cutsmith derives his moniker from being the Wordsmith from the Cut (canal). Aka Josh Alej Bowes, he describes his music as “imagine Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Jamie T, John Martyn and Lauryn Hill jamming by a fire pit on the towpath”. Fittingly perhaps, he had played a gig the previous night at The Barge at Honeystreet, a place with which he was intimately acquainted, having been brought up in the area immediately around the pub.
I’d not seen him before, so thought I’d give him a look-see. Overall, I think I’d describe my experience as a mixed bag. On the positive side there were some soulful, heartfelt lyrics with stories based in personal experience (as you might expect from a singer/ songwriter). There were some nice spoken parts, almost dub-style, over the top of the guitar, which added some welcome texture. I was even minded of a slowed-down Arctic Monkeys at times.
On the less positive side, I felt his set lacked any particularly stand-out songs. Quite a few seemed to merge together at times. The only one I specifically remember was in fact a cover of Gershwin’s “Summertime”, which lacked the song’s normal haunting quality. Cutsmith is not the strongest singer I’ve ever heard, and there was nothing particularly outstanding in his strumming guitar style either. And – it maybe me (don’t judge) – I found his in-between song patter a little grating at times. Whilst friendly and outwardly engaging, some of it felt a little forced. Just my opinion of course, and I realise that he’s probably crossed me off his Christmas card list, but others might find him more to their liking than I did.
Competent and engaging, but not particularly outstanding. But, as they say, you can’t like all of the people all of the time, and Cutsmith wasn’t really my cup of tea.
Future Sunday Sessions at The White Bear:
• 27th October George Wilding
• 10th November Wade Merritt
• 17th November Ian O’Regan
• 15th December Phil Jinder Dewhirst
• 22nd December Vince Bell
Put the kettle on; Balkan gypsy ska here in Bristol, Mutiny, the new album from Mr Tea & The Minions is a favourite for my best album of the year, with a top hat on.
Impressionable, I creaked the door on a near-expired student party, where a cocktail of Cinzano and shrooms polished off the amateur bassist, and he hung unconscious half off the edge of a sofa in his own puke. I witnessed scholar deprivation; comatose youth, crusty dreadlocks matted into a teetering Christmas tree, and a random arm draped over a guitar amp, howling feedback. I gulped, no partygoer standing, but an erratic noise of a “Red Roses For Me” cassette whirling. Sounds blessing such a character-building eye-opener makes you reconsider your loathing for a particular genre of music.
Until then, my presumption of folk music was pruned from an overwhelming desire to hold primary school sweetheart, Trudi’s hand, and the only foreseeable method to achieve it; to opt for country dancing. Ever frustrated to find myself partnered with dowdy Emma instead, I guess it rubbed a revulsion for frumpy folk music, with its delicate romances of falling autumn leaves and daisies dancing in a spring zephyr. It can be nauseating, symbolic of my failure to caress Trudi’s nail-bitten digits.
The epiphany dusted, I bought the Pouges long-player, shaking my preconception solo until crusties like The Levellers came onto the scene, boiling the realisation folk doesn’t have to be frumpy, in fact, it’s an epoch, a people’s music, and the roots of all that followed owe it. But if that era of recklessly launching yourself around, knocking down parent’s ornaments and calling it dancing has come of age, and if the Pouges are now acceptable, seasonally, (they stole the best Christmas song slot from a band in tartan trozzers and platform shoes after all,) I say unto thee, Mr Tea & the Minions; it’s my new favourite thing.
It’s not an awkward mesh of Despicable Me and the A-Team, rather a contemporary Bristol based, female-fronted six-piece ska-post-punk-folk Balkan-inspired riot, and their new album, Mutiny is beyond blooming gorgeous. Constructed out of lead vocalist and controller of “shaky things,” Elle Ashwell, drummer Fabian Huss, guitarists James Pemberton, James Tomlinson and James (Fold) Talbot on bass, with manager Lucy Razz on violin, they formed six years ago through James’ love of Balkan music. With the edges polished by collaborating with DJ Howla, and James’ professed love of tea, Mr Tea & The Minions was born, a name which they say was “a joke that was never meant to go so far.”
As Balkan, it’s fresh, electrifying and wonderfully danceable. Elle’s gritty shrill is apt and uplifting, the theme is often invitingly saucy, awakeningly tangible, sometimes metaphorically current affairs, but it hardly wanes in energy, and if it does you know it’s building to something. Mutiny is ten songs of splendour, drizzly evening enriching with a gypsy spin. It’s a warm musky pub of yore, where a furtive crusty band jams and you spill your cider on a scraggy dog. It also riffs like ska, boils like The Levellers and rinses fresher than Shane MacGowan on his best hair day.
The Eye of the Storm, like the title track, and Pandemonium are the Fruit Pastels, breezier tempo tunes like the beautifully crafted The Spider and The Fly stun you in anticipation of the melody, but no single tune stands alone, there’s a flow of prog-rock, and if it starts and ends with a little “meow,” it’s never completely nonsensical. Lyrics are sublimely executed, mostly evocative, but dashed with fun. There’s really nought bad I could say about this unique album, I’ll be dancing to it for the foreseeable future, maybe even look up Trudi on Facebook, she can’t still bite her nails.
Somebody local book these, pl-weaseeee; the Southgate or Barge would suit to a, pardon the pun, tea. Yet times are looking good for this madcap band, on the verge of another spectacular festival season and numerous gigs on tour, our closest to date is the Prince Albert Stroud Nov 22nd, Bocabar in Glastonbury on the 9th, or recommended homecoming at the Old Market Assembly, Bristol on 30th Nov. Failing this, try the Mutiny for size.
Well the weather had been pretty wet all weekend, and Sunday afternoon was no exception. Good excuse then to hunker down in the White Bear with a pint, and listen to one of the best singer/ songwriters in the South West.
Phil King hails from Bristol, and is now (despite his still-youthful looks) a veteran of the SW live music scene, having played pubs and clubs all over the region, together with festivals, and stints with touring musical theatre productions of “Jane Eyre” and “To Kill A Mockingbird”. So this guy definitely knows his way around a song and a guitar.
And I’ll declare an interest here – I’ve been listening to Phil for several years now, and I’m a complete fan. There was no way I was going to miss this one.
His latest album is The Wreckage, and he was keen to showcase several numbers from that record, but thoughtfully mixed in with several numbers from his back catalogue (The War I Cannot Win, Do Not Surrender, Black Wind Blowing and When Will I Ever Learn), and some beautifully-reworked covers (Merle Haggard’s Sick, Sober & Sorry, and even If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz). His opening gambit was Dylan’s “Shelter From The Storm”, a comment on the weather outside perhaps. And thereafter we were treated to two sets of incredibly beautiful songs, each one tenderly and carefully delivered. Phil’s voice is smouldering and smoky, distinctive and an instrument of great subtlety, switching effortlessly from a haunting, gentle whisper through to a full-throated howl of pain. His guitar-playing was careful, intricate and beautifully crafted. There were no loops, no stomps, no gimmicks – just the man, his guitar and the very occasional use of harmonica.
The whole performance was simply mesmerising, and there were times in the crowded pub when you could have heard the dropping of the proverbial pin. The audience was an interesting mixture of people who had never seen/ heard him before, together with obvious fans sitting mouthing the words to the songs. It made for a great and appreciative atmosphere.
“Superb”, “amazing”, “sublime” and “extraordinarily good” were phrases I heard around the place. Not my words, but the comments of people around the room. To be honest, it’s actually difficult to define what a singer/ songwriter could possibly do to give a better performance.
Absolutely fantastic afternoon of class entertainment.
There are more Sunday Sessions to come at The White Bear, so watch their Facebook page and, of course, here on Devizine.
If Devizes’ thriving live music scene lacks one thing, in my humble opinion, it’s ska. I got to get over my grumpy, staying-in head-state for fear Celebrity X-Factor is the best mainstream telly can thrust upon me, drive to the Sham, if only for a pint. Ska will force my hand if nothing else will.
The Foresters Arms is a new one for me, but it’s immediately attractive, in a humble way. Functional, even for the eight-piece ska-cover maestros known as Train to Skaville. They fit comfortably; Devizes needs something like this, a reasonably sized pub-venue for a brass section to bounce, and a landlord wearing a Fred Perry and cherry Doc Martins. Proof was in the pudding; we are missing out.
It’s a welcoming and friendly community spirited pub, with ample space to skank rainy blues away. Amidst bustling crowd of young and old, male and female, black and white, there was a point when the landlord was up having a jig himself, for jolly example. And a band, if whose appeal seems to fizzle east of Bromham, are welcomed with open arms here. I can’t drum this point any further, Train to Skaville are brilliant.
If doing this ska show on Boot Boy Radio has taught me one thing, it’s that this division is far from an aging retrospective minority who can’t shake their Two-Tone youth culture, rather an international burgeoning scene where bands under a “Ska-Family” banner aspire to create new and original tangents. The foundation of which, though, is that classic period where the Windrush generation gifted us this offbeat sound for us to exploit to the max, and Train to Skaville embrace this. They are not out to be the next best thing, rather to supply an audience with the benchmarks they know and love, and to get them off their seats. They do this, with bells on.
Propping the foyer of the Foresters during the break, I laughed that although it was raining, it was nicer to be huddled inside, rather than the last time I caught this act, on a drizzly St George’s Playing Field supporting Neville Staple. Jules of the band remarked happily that they could play Specials covers too, which were crossed out of a setlist prior to Neville wanting to understandably do them. Train to Skaville did just that this time; Ghost Town, Rat Race, Gangsters, you name them, they covered them with unique panache, a cut above the average ska covers band. Alongside typical Madness and Bad Manners floor-fillers.
But it doesn’t stop there, their repertories know no bounds, as they break it down to reggae anthems, owning Bob Marely’s “Is This Love,” Marica Griffith’s “Feel Like Jumping,” and Tim’s heart-warming rendition of Ken Boothe’s “Everything I Own,” a tribute to his mum who he recently lost. There were tears, but veneration as the band played through. Our respect and condolences go out to Tim and his family.
I find though, even greater than knocking out known ska classics, or bouncing to boss reggae, when a ska band can produce ska versions of pop songs. Sometimes amusing, sometimes out of admiration of another genre, but for a ska-fan, often better than the original. Train to Skaville also have a line which branches out here, as a skanking Echo Beach rang out towards the end of the first half of the show.
A great night, great surroundings, and sure sign for me that Devizes needs to skank it up a bit!
I think it’s fair to say that both Jon, and a lot of the audience last night, had been looking forward to this gig for quite a long while. No surprise then that a packed room was there to witness one of the gigs of the year.
Support act was Thomas Smurthwaite, an artist I’d not seen before. But it didn’t take the guy long to impress me and the rest of the room. An imposing, grizzled and bearded figure, he seemed slightly dwarfed by all the equipment set up on stage around him. But sound-wise he punched well above his weight with voice, guitar, harmonica and stomp-box. His set was confident, laid-back and bluesy. In a short 30-minute set he won the crowd over, finishing with a great singalong version of Janis Joplin’s “Oh Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes-Benz?”
Then on with the main act, and the reason we were all there. Jon, stick-thin and suavely suited & booted, was there to tour his latest album “Colour In The Sky”, and he was joined on stage by an impressive band of old friends and great musicians – Jonny Henderson on keyboards, Mark Barrett on drums, with Little Geneva’s Dave Doherty on guitar, and brother Chris Doherty on bass.
From the first number, “Faith Reborn” we were in for a treat. Thereafter Jon picked his way through several numbers from the new album, carefully interspersed with many favourites from his back catalogue of albums and bands. The rhythm section, as you might have expected, was solid and strong, laying down a great platform for Jon to let rip with some great solos. The keyboards added that bit of extra depth and texture to the songs. And they were proper songs too, not just excuses for long rambling improvisations, with clear beginnings and endings, Jon’s vocals stringing it all together. This gave the band plenty of opportunity to show off different styles, moving from rocky to bluesy and back again.
Jon was on great form, clearly relaxed, laughing and joking with the crowd between numbers. There was no doubt that this was a home-town gig, and there was plenty of love in the room. And deservedly so. Jon is a world-class artist, and deserves it for the crowd to let him know it.
Highlight of the night for me was “Juggernaut”. This was the first time I’d heard it played in full-band format, and it was worth waiting for – heavy, driving, and really solid – a real classic.
Absolutely great gig, wonderful night out.
If you haven’t yet bought Jon Amor’s album “Colour In The Sky”, you need to get a copy!
And if you haven’t yet made it to Long Street Blues Club (at The Conservative Club), it’s time you made the effort – world-class blues & rock entertainment in a great atmosphere at an absolute bargain price. Tickets for future gigs from Devizes Books, Sound Knowledge (Marlborough) and from the club itself.
Upcoming gigs at Long Street Blues Club are:
• Saturday 2nd Nov Big Dez Blues Band
• Friday 8th Nov Ian Siegal Unplugged
• Saturday 30th Nov Gerry Jablonski Band
• Saturday 21st December John Coughlan’s Quo (support from George Wilding)
• Saturday 28th December Pink Torpedoes
The Invitation Theatre Company presents an evening of Christmas music, featuring the Fulltone Music School Voices, and we all love Christmas music, at Christmas that is! Fortunately, it’s on 14th December at St Johns Church, which is plenty time to wash the Christmas jumper and check the reindeer nose lights still work from where you spilt eggnog down it last year.
Tickets available online and Devizes Books, are £6, raising money for Frontline Children and Action for Children. “Each year,” TITCO elucidate, “is a sumptuous evening of music, from classical pieces through to popular Christmas toe tappers – brought to you by the most wonderful singers! It’s just the BEST evening!”
For the very first time Wiltshire Museum will be borrowing from major National Museums to bring an international standard art exhibition to the County. They’ve confirmed important loans from the Tate and V&A, as well as private lenders. They are also liaising with the Imperial War Museum, British Museum, National Museum of Wales and the prestigious Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne, as well as private lenders, to secure a significant range of evocative watercolours for the display.
This ground-breaking exhibition celebrates watercolour artist Eric Ravilious, and his fascination with the sweeping downland landscapes of Wiltshire and Sussex. His watercolours have such a spirit of place you can almost feel the wind on your cheeks and hear the birds above. Wiltshire Museum say, “it will appeal to art lovers across the country and to local people who love the iconic local landscapes.”
The exhibition is masterminded by guest curator, James Russell. James created the enormously successful Ravilious exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2015. He will also write an illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition.
The importance of the downlands to Ravilious is well documented, but this exhibition will be the first to be dedicated solely to this subject. It will explore this area of his work and relate it to the national fascination with downland landscapes, mythology and archaeology, which gripped Britain between the wars. The exhibition will include darkly menacing war-time views of the coastline, including the famous ‘White Cliffs’ of Dover.
Items from the museum’s designated collections will be included in the exhibition. A highlight will be a sketch book Ravilious created in 1939 for the ‘Puffin’ series of children’s books. Although never published, it contains delicate pencil drawings of chalk hill figures, ancient monuments and prehistoric earthworks in Wiltshire. The idea behind the series of books was to promote patriotism in the youth of England as the Second World War loomed.
Though Wiltshire Museum need your help to bring this important exhibition to life. You can support the appeal by clicking here. donations will provide invaluable match-funding for grant applications to make the exhibition possible. They have already had donations from private individuals and are seeking commercial sponsorship.
We will also be organising an events programme linked to the exhibition. If you are interested in bringing a group to see the exhibition, having a guided tour or a lecture to your group, then please get in touch with the museum.
I’m adiaphorous to Crowded House, I confess, probably due to timing. Late eighties, early nineties and like many-a-teenager I was gurning in a field, revelling developments in music technology. If I couldn’t dance like a puppet on fast forward to it, well, you know, some good things pass you by. This is not meandering off subject, it’s a point I’ll return to, after a heartfelt apology to the man who, this week, has produced a fantastic cover of their song “Falling at Your Feet,” and is long overdue some updated attention here on Devizine, Mr Phil Cooper.
So, it was a compare and contrast job, flicking to YouTube to hear the original, and back to confirm this Trowbridge singer/songwriter’s version, not overlooking the added harmonies of Jamie R Hawkins, is equally sublime. The only difference being Phil’s stamp, which is never a bad thing. There are occasions, such as Eric Clapton’s I Shot the Sheriff, which opens someone’s eyes to the original artist, so maybe this, alongside People Like Us who regularly cover Weather with You and make me smile, will shake me up to the songs of Crowded House. Prior, if handed them on the three-in-ten finale of Ken Bruce’s Pop Master, I’d get Weather with You, and then epically fail. Always wanted a pop master t-shirt over a DAB radio anyway (fib.)
Feeling it hugs the original pretty tightly, with a passion in Phil’s vocals which nods to the respect he obviously holds for Crowded House, there’s not much more I can say on the single, other than encouraging you to take a listen. Oh, and I hope it’s not Phil’s Red, Red Wine moment. You know, after that hit, UB40 transformed into a cover band (one reason I cringe with irony when tribute bands take on a name of one of their numerous cover versions.) Because, well, Phil’s song writing ability is first rate and, with or without the trio of aspiring local musicians; Jamie and Tamsin Quin, his input would be greatly missed.
Leading me neatly onto why I started with an apology to Phil, as fallen to the bottom of my dusty in-tray was the promise to write something about a previous project. Double-whammy then, this one dates back to summer, when I thought Phil had a new album called Nine. Whisking him a message it became clear via the reply, Nine was an older project. “I’ve decided to release it on streaming sites for the first time to celebrate it’s ninth year, nine month and nine day anniversary,” he explained.
The Nine Album was originally recorded on 9th September 2009 (09/09/09.) He wrote nine songs between the 1st and 9th and started recording the album at 9am on 9th. The album was completed that day and released at 9pm that same day, which I think clarifies the title adequately! But it coincided with a complete reworking of the album by his indietronica alter-ego, B.C.C, titled “Nein.”
Maybe, I figured, its title’s conversion to German nods to the pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, as BCC is Phil’s ambient electronica side-project. Now this intrigued me, note my promise to return to my point of the rave days of yore. My love of dance music obviously holds dear to its roots in electronica, often retelling the occasion of first hearing Afrika Bambaataa’s Planet Rock in 1982 as the epiphany of said era. Yet through all the technological changes from the punks turning new romantic, to the birth of hip hop, the development of house, techno and drum n bass via the rave scene, and the thousands of offshoots since, Phil’s BCC stays close to the simplicities of early electronica, rather than do a Damon Albam and push new boundaries with Gorrillaz. So, it’s nice, yeah, it’s breezy and experimental for Phil, and if you like his music, it’s essential to check this out, but still, I dunno, may be it’s an age thing, because if you asked me which one of Nine and Nein I favoured, it’d be the original.
Blast, I’ve hung up my whistle, posse! Fetch my pipe and slippers.
For Nine is like what The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle is to Springsteen, if Thoughts and Observations, an album which I think was the first I ever gratefully reviewed on Devizine, is his Born to Run. Relishing in the roots of a musician or band I love, discovering early works, and for this, Nine is fantastic, it captures Phil at his rawest, most ambitious, and if it fails to be as polished as Thoughts & Observations, that’s its charm. Tracks like Cloud Nine, Where I Belong and You are wonderfully composed, beautifully written. However, the BCC project might put an interesting, electronic spin on it, worthy of attention, some things, I feel, are best left the way they are.
But that’s the package you get with Phil, what a prolific genius who cares not about defining a distinct style, though has crafted an excellent one, rather ventures out there, to experimentation, to stripping back or developing a track. You have to hand it to the man, for this works on his marketing side too, a DIY enthusiast who’ll do radio but live stream shows, release on all online sources but still strive to produce a CD, a blogger who maintains an honest, familiarity with his fans, and as a promoter and producer for the trio he has done astounding works with Jamie and Tamsin.
So, if it’s solo Phil Cooper you’re listening to, or if Jamie or Tammy assist him, or if it’s a track of theirs he’s produced, or as BCC, or Get Schwifty – Phil and Jamie’s cover duo nom-de-plume, you know it’s been stamped with Phil’s distinctive style, and it’ll sound great. Which brings us full circle, and is darn good reason to check out this Crowded House single, because if Phil wants to do a cover, he will, and make it sound awesome. But for the full package, I advise you like his Facebook page, follow his Bandcamp page, subscribe to his YouTube, and naturally catch him live (next gig on 8th November at the Southgate, Devizes, Jan 23rd at The Tuppenny, live stream this Sunday at 6pm; the guy never stops for a cuppa and a garibaldi.
Images used with the kind permission of Steve Ullathorne
I’ve been a admirer of the pragmatic Mark Thomas and his satirical cutting-edge comedy since his days guesting on The Mary Whitehouse Experience at the dawn of nineties, end of this month he’s at the Swindon Arts Centre; could you ask for a more apt date?!
I recall with fond nostalgia how he ridiculed and enraged his local McDonalds, or gambled the entire ten grand profit from the previous show on a hopeless outsider at Doncaster, thanking Michael Grade, chief executive of Channel 4 at the time, for allowing him to waste his money. The notion, he stated, was that it was an exhilarating thrill of washing someone else’s money down the toilet, and likened it to the how the Queen must feel at races.
But it’s been a while since stumbling across his name. Hearing this self-dubbed “libertarian anarchist” comedian is heading to the Swindon Arts Centre on Thursday 31st October as part of a work-in-progress tour, before the real thing kicks off in the New Year, I did a little YouTube catching up type research, and found a decade old stand-up show where he the tackles the fox hunting ban, Tony Blair’s move to the right, and the Islamic extremism hot on the world’s lips. He takes no prisoners, dares to go where other comedians would quiver.
I have to ponder if the current affairs of a hare-brained conservative ruling, shifting towards nationalism and abandonment of a unification of Europe, simply to maintain billionaire’s tax-free offshore accounts whist politically dividing the country through media-bias, propaganda and blatant fabrications, thus creating a hatred of alternative thinking which even lambasts the very extinction of all life on Earth simply because it’s voiced by a teenage female, is enough ammunition for this cheeky-faced comedian.
The blurb suggests though, his new show, 50 Things About Us will go beyond this, “Mark Thomas combines his trademark mix of storytelling, stand-up, mischief and really, really well researched material to examine how we have come to inhabit this divided wasteland that some of us call the United Kingdom.”
“He picks through the myths, facts and figures of our national identities to ask how we have so much feeling for such a hollow land. Who do we think we are? It is a show about money, history, songs, gongs, wigs, unicorns, guns, bungs, sods of soil and rich people* in the vein of The Manifesto-meets-sweary History Channel.
*(not the adjective Mark has chosen)
It sounds like age and the writing of award-winning plays has only in heightened his crusade and hilarious radical sarcasm. I think we can take it as red; he isn’t going to do a Morrissey on us just yet. With a full tour of this show happening next year, here’s something worthy of your attention for the 31st October, what else you going to be doing on that date, eh? Kowtowing Boris Johnson whilst stockpiling baked bean tins before your meds run out?
With an 12+ Age Restriction, tickets are £15.50. Concessions: £2.00 Off, from here.
Wet play project, can’t be bothered to go out. I’ve complied the best-loved videos documenting our crazy lil’ town, yet it can be updated if you know of a better one? And not one of your barbeque party where cousin Billy lost it on the trampoline; I’m not Harry flipping Hill and you won’t get two-hundred and fifty quid out of me, lucky to blag 10p. Let the arguments commence, but I’ve tried to top twenty the best, based on historical fact, entertainment value, general nostalgia and quantity of eighties short-shorts.
1- I was fascinated to watch this near on half-hour 1956 silent film, A Small Town Devizes. Made by cameraman David Prosser, from a series of similar Small-Town shorts. It features the lives of people in Devizes during Carnival Week August 1956. In the YouTube notes there’s an extensive list of people and companies which featured in the film. If it brings any notable points of interest it must surely be lobbying DOCA to reintroduce the drag-your-wife-along-in-a-pram-attached-to-a-motorbike race, methinks.
2 – Lion in the Hall! Courtesy of BBC Points West, the day in 1980 when escaped circus lions paid Devizes School a visit during the lunch hour goes down in history. Were you there, are you showing your age, and did you try feed the lion your mate’s school tie? What about today’s pupils, do you think Mr Bevan should reinstate this lion, maybe give him a TA job? Would your teacher benefit from fighting a lion, it might help to maintain the pupil’s interest in the lesson?
3 – Boto-X clip 1986. See, my Devizes born and bred better half told me about this strict health & safety regulated event and, if it hadn’t been Devizes, I’d probably have branded her a liar. Delighted to see Caen Hill Locks dig up a clip of this incredibly brilliant Boto-X from 1986. Stop! Win a Colour Telly!
4 – Oh get off my back, I’ve read Tess of the d’Urbervilles, just not any other of ol’ Tom Hardy’s books, it’s not like he’s going to hassle me about it. Far From The Maddening Crowd was his first major novel, and had four film adaptations. John Schlesinger’s 1967 MGM version was part filmed in Devizes, and Bill Huntly of Devizes Television loses his shit about it like it was Casablanca or Star Wars; bless. There are some great clips of the film in this interview, of people drunkenly singing and dancing in the Market Place; something you don’t see every day, eh? Yeah, I know, right, not that far from the maddening crowd at all really, wait for the bin to kick out.
5- Out of all Simon Folkard’s gorgeous aerial shot films, last year’s snow-covered town and canal was undoubtedly the most breath-taking. Oh, that Beast from the East, looks beautiful from above, but just to think, I was wheel-spinning a milk-float down there somewhere, holding on to me gold-tops for dear life.
6- While we’re on the subject of the milkman, here’s Madness disciple Mark’s moment in the spotlight as BBC Wiltshire focus on Plank’s Dairy. It has to be nine below zero before he puts his long trousers on, no one needs to see those knees, Mark. Ask him to whistle a Thin Lizzy tune on his round, I double-dare you.
7- 19 36- Last Train From Devizes. Post-punk poets, Browfort, ingeniously fuse synth-pop and local history in this video about The Beeching Axe and the last train from Devizes in 1966. There’s some great railway footage, mixed with their performance at The Bell on the Green. There’s no evidence to suggest the band will reform as Julia’s House to pay tribute to the first train from Devizes Parkway, when…. erm, if it happens.
8 – If you’re considering shoplifting for camera film in town, watch this early-eighties adaptation of the story of Ruth Pierce by Devizes Cine Club, and you’ll quickly be bored into submission. It really is so bad it’s good. I need not mock it, the acting, production and deviation of facts does it for me. Just to say though, is it me, or does the lead role sound a little like Claire Perry?!
9- We love our whacky historian John Girvan, the only man to enter the Town Hall lock up and live to tell the tale, save for feasting food festival fanatics who failed to note there’s the far comfier Peppermill across the road. But did you know, rather than most men whose interests lie more on what’s inside them, John confesses a love for brassieres? So, if your bra goes missing from the washing line, you know who to point the finger at.
10- Proof that either the legendary ghost of Room 4, or stranger still, the Black Swan’s window cleaner has five fingers. In 2014 the Visual Paranormal Investigations team trucked their mystery machine into our town and, without the great Dane and giant sandwiches, set up an experiment to find out if the ghost broadcasts on FM, like Ken Bruce.
11- More actual evidence in this charmingly narrated clip, this time of the Muppetry of the new traffic light system on London Road. Evidence the road planning department of Wiltshire Council are, and I quote, “retarded!” Classic, don’t hold back Truthseeker. I don’t know who you are pal, but you’re defo not Philip Whitehead.
12- There’s countless musical performers I could include here, but perhaps the widest known and appreciated is blues legend Jon Amor. Here he is, at the International Street Festival 2015 with a lengthy but worthy song, Even After That.
13- Talented Arthur Plumb, the Juggling Unicyclist at Sidmouth Street Festival 2015. While there’s a vast amount of street acts posted to YouTube, from our street festivals and carnivals, if I could only pick one it’s this entertaining Devizes TV presentation of a rather youthful Arthur Plumb. Three years ago, Shambles trader Bill Huntly was fast becoming our town’s TV host, where did he go, someone nick his cravat? Seriously though, hope you are well Mr Huntly and wishing you all the best; we loved your short films.
14- Usually reserved for the still camera, Nick Padmore is a man loved by our local music scene, for capturing the essence of its performers. Here though he videos the man, Vince Bell at Sheer Music in the Fold. Not intending to post too many music-related videos here, this 2017 performance is a must, if not just for Ship of Fools, but his amusing ditty about Devizes, Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive, right at the end of this film.
15- If you ever wondered why Tesco shut its Devizes metro branch, this may go some way to explain why. Yep, never had a lick of paint applied to it since the release of Michael Jackson’s album Thriller. The staff were friendly though!
16- Set the captives free! No really, I think they’d have moved convicts before blowing Devizes prison to the ground to make way for housing in 1927, wouldn’t they? Or did they move into the houses? Might explain a few things. British Pathe have millions of videos on their website, search Devizes and you’ll find a carnival parade of the 1920s and an Army Football Cup final from 1955, to name a couple.
17- There’s nothing sarcastic I can comment here, even I wanted to, which I wouldn’t, cos I’m not like that; a gorgeously edited film of Devizes at Christmas by Chris Watkins, accompanied by a song written and performed by the equally wonderful Kirsty Clinch, makes my bells go all jingly…I said my bells!
18- Well done Paige Hanchant, for the only Harry Hill style clip I’m going to allow; capturing this amusing moment on the canal, just when it was going so well too; who ordered the chubster? Awl, bless.
19- No one interrupted the march to nip into Greggs for a sausage and bean melt in 1983, not in this pleasant three-minute video of the parade at least.
20 – Moonrakers Fable. Vintage poem narrator Alan Doel puts on his best Wiltshire accent to recite Edward Slow’s 1881 telling of the Moonrakers fable, and illustrated with postcards and emblems, makes a fair job of it. Yet the tale is known only too well in Devizes, it be rioght gurt lush to ‘ear it read in ye olde Wiltshire dialect, ewe.
That’s all folks, well, I’m sure there’s many others, but these were my favs. Not to blow my own trumpet, but Devizine does have its own YouTube channel, mostly I create wobbly musical performance clips, with a cider in the other hand and standing far too close to the speaker to do the band or musician justice, but they seem like a good idea at the time. So, subscribe at your own risk. I set it up primarily to capture this meeting with local street magician Raj Bhanot in Café Nero last summer, and here he is for a bonus vid.
Perhaps, if we get another rainy day, which is doubtful, I’ll find another set of videos based in Devizes. If you know of any which should be included then do send the link. Saucy ones to my personal email though, please.
Have you ever loved a show so much that you wished you could kidnap the actors, keep them in your basement and get them to perform it again for you? No? Just Rupert?
After a successful three week run at the Miniver Theatre, a troupe of young actors are ready and willing to let go of their most recent production and move on to bigger and better things, but Rupert isn’t going to let that happen. He loves the piece to the point of obsession and can’t let their show die. There are a few things you should know when trying to save a play from death. Thing number one: the actors aren’t gonna like it. Trapped in a basement, forced to rehearse and fearing for their lives, there is only one way for the performers to gain their freedom.
They must act their way out…
The intriguing new drama-thriller work, At This Stage is on at The Shoebox Theatre, Swindon on Saturday 12th October at 7.30pm. Suitable for ages 14+
Tickets are £10 from HERE
Monday 21st – Saturday 26th October sees the next Wharf Theatre production, Living Together, by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Mervyn Harrowven.
When the Norman Conquests (named after the plays leading character, assistant librarian Norman, as opposed to the Kings William and Harold!) burst onto the theatre-going public in the early 1970s, they were a revelation. Here was domestic comedy that spoke to everyone; intelligent, well-observed and extremely funny. Today they are regarded as possibly Ayckbourn’s most ingeniously constructed set of plays.
The second in the trilogy, which features the same characters in the same house during the same weekend, Living Together takes place in the living room. Here we are introduced to incorrigible womaniser, Norman, his wife’s family and a vet.
Certain liaisons have been arranged but when plans change, and Norman drowns his sorrows in a bottle, the scene is set for the testing of married relationships and the comic dissection of middle-class morality.
Tickets (£12/under 16s £10) can be purchased from Ticketsource at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/the-wharf-theatre/events or at the Devizes Community Hub and Library on Sheep Street, Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm or by ringing 03336 663 366. To find out what else is on at the Wharf pick up a new Autumn/Winter brochure which is available from the Community Hub and Library and many other outlets around Devizes. Tickets for this year’s panto, Cinderella are being snapped up, so get in quick!
If you like your soul and blues with an authentic vintage feel, look no further than this new Bristol group, The King Dukes….
If Bristol wasn’t the birthplace of a “new cool” through electronic blues in the nineties, with the likes of Massive Attack and Portishead, it certainly led the way. I have to take a deep breath, fetch my pipe and slippers; this is a new era of anti-pop, an era of retrospective tendency, where traditional instruments override our technological desire of the pre-millennium. An era where technology is used only to market, allowing sounds to hark back to a time before drum loops, rap, and the DJ as king.
The king is dead, long live this exciting renovation, and long live The King Dukes. I’m honoured to give you the low-down, about their new journey. Formed in Bristol in April, a merger of a variety of local bands, including Crippled Black Phoenix, Screamin’ Miss Jackson and the John E. Vistic Experience, The King Dukes combine said talent and experience to create a unique, authentic sound, dipped in a heritage reuniting contemporary slices of British RnB with a dollop of Memphis soul.
Set to unleash their debut album ‘Numb Tongues’ on October 25th, I’ve had a listen or ten, and can plainly see why it’s been picked up by UK label, Paratone, as well as French label QSounds Recording. Chatting to guitarist and frontman, Marc Griffiths, I asked him what’s in a name, predicting it might relate to Duke Ellington. While pondering he sent a YouTube link of a track not on the album. This song, titled King Cyrille, is Hammond organ boss reggae, akin to Harry J’s Allstars. It’ a tribute to West Bromwich Albion player Cyrille Regis. “The team used to come out to Liquidator,” he explained, “it’s in conjunction with West Brom, for their podcast, so we did something similar.” Momentarily contemplating the name possibly nods more to Duke Reid, Marc cleared it up, informing me they had a residency at the Old Duke in Bristol, “but that’s named after Duke Ellington.”
I can see why, aside this one-off tune, Numb Tongues is not only dependent on a classic RnB sound, there’s sprinkles of jazz, blues, yet formulated like Stax or dare I say it, Motown. It rolls out in a manner able to slip its tunes into a set of old-time soul unnoticed. Caril-Anne, for example, is up-tempo soul, beguiling through that recipe of yore, simplicity. Kid Gloves is another lively number, foot-stomping soul with a subtle nod to rockabilly akin to The Big Bopper. This one reminded me of Jack and Elwood Blues marching back and forth.
But if this four-beat soul formula rings through tracks like I Gotta Go, and Gone, Gone, Gone is stepping, handclapping doo-wop reliant, Rub You The Right Way hooks into a blues riff taking me to Howlin’ Wolf, and True, True, True nods to bebop. This one has a sublime vocal by April Jackson, who holds a note like Etta James. Generally, the vocals are as polished as the aforementioned soul legends, yet grittily Caucasian, like Jim Morrison’s finest hour.
As a whole there’s much going on here, but whether there’s echoing vocals like the ballad, Dying Man, with a breezy jazz-come Otis Redding passion, or, like Marlo Cooper, it’s a blast of instrumental groove, comparable to Stax session musicians Booker T & the MG’s, it’s all stylised and flows superbly. In fact, it was mention of an Otis Redding post on their Facebook page which got Marc and I chatting; glad I did now.
With Marc and April, there’s drummer Dan Clibery, bassist Mandrake Fantastico, Henry Slim owning that Hammond Organ and Harmonica, and a fiery three-piece brass section with Joss Murray on Trumpet, Rebecca Sneddon on Tenor Sax and Sarah Loveday-Drury handling the Trombone.
Together they’re a force to be reckoned with. Throwing modern recording techniques aside and using methods for a fifties-sixties sounding album, such as recording a section with multiple instruments all at one time, and playing period-specific instruments, The King Dukes have captured perfectly this raw, vintage backline on ‘Numb Tongues.’
We’ve seen a similar blueprint around our way with the brilliant Little Geneva, and if this is the trend then I’m in, hook, line and sinker. Although, naturally, those ol’ time classic soul songs never wane in appreciation, sometimes looking further afield to the rare grooves, like Northern Soul aficionados, often the tunes never make equal approval in production and quality. Numb Tongues meet this notion in middle; The King Dukes deliver fresh material with honours, and if heard in 1965 would surely be considered classics.
You can pre-save a copy of Numb Tongues here, there’s an album launch on December 7th at the LeftBank in Bristol; I’m keen to hear of anyone willing to bring these guys local for a gig. As you know Devizine doesn’t usually cover Bristol, too much going on and not enough hours in the day, but when it’s this good…….
Whilst it’s not strictly in Devizes, it’s an easy enough bus-ride away to The Sham to merit a mention in your esteemed entertainment guide. (Quite the contrary, we cover the Sham too Andy; Ed!)
If you like music, beer (and/ or cider) and pizza, then you need to get yourself across to The Sham on either Friday or Saturday and fill your boots. Featuring a range of craft ales on cask and keg (including a cinder toffee stout, a tea-spiced pale ale a peach milkshake IPA amongst several others), several types of craft cider, Ian Timbers’ Pop-up Pizza Station (as regularly featured at The Hiding Place in Melksham) and live acoustic music – what’s not to like?
Sessions are:
• Friday evening 4pm till 10pm
• Saturday afternoon 11am to 4.30pm
• Saturday evening 5pm to 10pm
Image by Gail Foster
For music fans, Friday evening’s session will feature the blues pocket-rocket that is Ian O’Regan (recently featured in one of the Sunday Sessions at The White Bear), and the Saturday evening session will feature the talented and ubiquitous George Wilding.
Between sets, and on the Saturday afternoon session, it’ll be just background music.
The event is presented by Stealth Brew Co, your friendly local brewery, based in Melksham. Entry is by e-ticket only. Tickets are £8.50 per session, which includes a glass to take away and tokens for your first pint. www.stealthbrew.co/beer-festival
Dust off your Lederhosen and dirndls, tune your alpenhorns, Seend Community Centre annually hosts an Oktoberfest to make King Ludwig envious. It’s next week volks, Saturday 5th October. They invite you to “join us for another fabulous night of fun and entertainment, in true Bavarian style.”
Traditional games include Holz Sägen (Log Sawing) Kuh Melken (Cow Milking) Nagelbalken (Nail Beam) Bier Stemmen (Beer Holding) and Bier Trinken. Tickets are £12.50 available now from the Community Centre or the Post Office, Seend, and include a hot buffet supper and disco.
Parking in the Market Place today yes I did, parked my butt on a Muck & Dunder Chair and took in a great Devizes Food & Drink Festival Street Food & Artisan Market, thank you!
Yo-ho-ho, an unpredictable drizzle didnâ stop th’ Devizes Food & Drink Festival settin’ thar grand Street Food & Artisan Market sail today, launchin’ into a chockful week o’ various foody events. ‘Twas me first attendance last year, and not for want, I’ve nah other grub festival t’ compare it to. Nevertheless, thought ’twas great, ‘n I’d been lookin’ fore t’ saunterin’ th’ Market Place once more, landlubber, testin’ ‘n tastin’ th’ wide variety o’ grub ‘n drinks, even tried t’ starve meself beforehand!
This isn’t the Sun tabloid, usually don’t fib here, I did say “try;” truth be told, I loaded up on a cooked breakfast earlier; still, I’m a bottomless pit. They say that though, don’t they? Don’t go to a supermarket on an empty stomach or you’ll end up overspending, guess the same applies to a food fest. That’s the excuse I’m sticking with. With all homemade or small business enterprises, the stalls here aren’t Lidl-cheap, but you know your taste buds are in for a treat. The reason for the pirate-translated opening paragraph? Between all these great stands, our beloved Muck & Dunder Rum Bar stole my show……cos, they like, sell rum, see?!
Perhaps to their advantage, they were located by a seating area and the music marquee, this year supplied by Wadworth. All it takes is a little reggae during the band’s breaks to entice me, and many others, over. They really know their rum, better than Uncle Albert, and if this review is slightly jiggered, blame them! Not entirely though, I also sampled Majorcan gin, from Gin Eva, which I liked despite gin not being mi ting, mon. Back to suspiciously loiter the square where Shelly from the abovementioned Muck & Dunder swung around with a trayful of pina colada, and Frome’s eclectic-influenced folk four-piece, The Decades entertained the masticating crowd.
I butted in to introduce myself, as although this was the only band booked, they were more than apt. With a pleasant folk angle and generous banter their style was offbeat, comical and proficient. Covers such as Pulp’s Common People and the finale of The Fun Boy Three’s Lunatics Have Taken over the Asylum particularly adroit and amusing. Vaunted our humble Southgate in hope they’ll pass our way again, and much to my delight Deborah and Dave magically appeared like Mr Ben’s shopkeeper and exchanged contacts.
Spoiled for choice when it came to a street food lunch; The Notorious Pig, Cantina El Burrito, Japanese food with a Filipino fusion from De la cuisine, Bath’s varied White Heat, Dorset’s Fanny Annie grilled cheese butties, Salisbury’s The Tasty Tapas, vegan Firmly Planted, Greek-inspired Cosy Kitchen, and the Gourmet Goat Farmer with everything goat, even soap, which I guess is to wash your goat, or goatie beard, or even, possibly, soap made from goat’s milk; didn’t like to investigate further. No, I went to Take a Bao, it was new to me, and lush, like Asiany stuffed dumpling balls.
For washing your goat
Here’s the thing though, the portions are served quite large, I mean, I like large, don’t get me wrong, but with so much to choose from, a little half-size, half-priced dish would enable a little more experimentation from the punters, rather than having to select one for lunch. Opposite is the scale of the event, due to the powers of perspective a passer-by may wrongly perceive the event as quite petite, but once among it, there’s a copious amount to take in. And that copious was excellent, a variety of splendour; can we do it again next week?
If you’re stuffed there’s stuff to take home too, and it was abundant; both Harry’s and Rutt’s Lane Cider, The Incredible Brewing Company, Plenty Pies, The Leafy Tea Company, Glastonbury Cheeses, Olives ‘n’ Stuff, Stainswick Farm Oil, those wicked chutneys from The Cherry Tree and Calne’s own Waitey’s, with their exclusive range of Chilli Jam, ah, I could go on. My arm was twisted into trying Blood Orange Liqueur from The Wiltshire Liqueur Company Ltd, and Harry’s Mango & Lime cider.
I mean, cripes, I haven’t even mentioned pudding; Purbeck Ice Cream, may’ve won a slightly warmer day, the variety of vintage sweeties from The Sherbet Piglet was overwhelming, my arm near twisted by the stupendous brownies of the Welsh Ridiculously Rich by Alana, but I ended up back on the bus with a doggy bag of Malteser brownies from the wonderful Gourmet Brownie Kitchen based over at Poulshot Lodge. Word on our streets are these are the best brownies around, and even as a connoisseur of the brownie, I was not disappointed.
Award for the most novel though, goes to Butternut Box. Without a show of samples, without much of an ascetically pleasing display, this innovative company freshly prepare and deliver homemade dog food. Now, I’m not a dog owner, just thought it different, that here’s some dog food which looks edible for human consumption, and if it wasn’t for all these brilliant and wonderful food stalls, given perhaps a few more rum samples, yeah, I reckoned I’d have tucked in!
A delightful opening to this year’s Food Festival then, and with a new thing, the World Food Lunch at The Corn Exchange tomorrow, (Sunday 29th September from 12.30) where admission is free, and taster portions allowing you to explore the globe on a plate, are just 50p, it just gets better.
If you drop into the old Tourist Information centre in the Market Place these days, you’ll get much more than a leaflet on the Caen Hill Locks.
The owner, Steve, greeted the better half and I by the stairs, outgoing but with a shattered expression. The word on the street is out, in an unmissable location, cafe-lounge-bar New Society puts the old building to exceptional good use. It talked the talk, receiving rave posts on social media, and as passing by I witnessed it bustling on Saturday night, I’d be fool not to give it a lunchtime stab and see if walks the walk.
Anything new in Devizes attracts initial attention, the issue is maintaining interest. Staff at New Society have been working tirelessly for the past fortnight to ensure it lives up to first impressions, yet they show no sign of tetchiness when it comes to serving you. Combine this family-styled friendliness with an extensive menu, reasonable prices and this beautiful bespoke setting, New Society is everything they say it is, and more.
It sits somewhere between high-end restaurant and archetypal pub, matching the restaurants for quality but the latter for worth, but does so enthusiastically and cordially. It’s also extremely diverse; tapas on the menu, and coffee bubbling, there’s an element of Mediterranean in ethos, but open for a cooked breakfast, decor decidedly quaint pub, plus the bar resembles a wine bar running through to the evening, it’s fundamentally local too.
Vegan Breakfast
Yet you’ll see no noses in the air, or sawdust under a ragged pool table, it’s as if New Society has melded the pros of all these types of establishments and scrapped the cons.
I could’ve randomly stuck a pin in the menu, between said tapas, burger menu and omelette bar, it consists largely of every pub grub classic you could hope for, but refined; sandwiches and toasties, fish n chips, ribeye steaks, mac & cheese, Caesar salad, etc. Coupled with a similar desert selection, and from beers, ciders, cocktails and wine to tea, coffee and milkshakes, there’s something for all, including vegans and children. Mrs Devizine is often impatient to my lengthy menu browsing, and worried I’d spend an eon or three interrogating this varied one, I opted for a pub classic, chicken tikka masala, post-haste. She went for an omelette.
This was our hoard, the other photos I’ve just borrowed, didn’t eat them all, but I could’ve!
But where the menu isn’t exactly exotic, hot dang (can I say hot dang in a serious food review; who cares?) if it didn’t taste far beyond that of standard pub grub. The tucker was presented nicely, to match the surroundings, and tasted equally as mouth-watering. Ingredients of excellent quality, my curry served with pilau rice was simply gorgeous, fresh pulled chicken, spiced beautifully and with a naan toasted to perfection. Home-cooked, these guys don’t know what a microwave is. The wife agreed, her omelette was fluffy, and chips to die for. To take two rather standard pub grub dishes and make them something rather special makes this alone the perfect lunch location.
Not to mention we were sat next to a brilliant stained-glass window depicting the Devizes crest; the advantages of taking over the tourist information centre, I guess, but without the need to go in there, I’d never seen it before, had to take a snap! There’s a selection of comfy sofa seated areas, and traditional tables spread over a ground floor and two smaller rooms upstairs, all exceptionally welcoming and easy-going, just like the atmosphere. There was a sense in the air that New Society is excitingly innovative, interestingly middle-ground, and will become a standard for others to aspire to. It’s quickly become a hub in town, now I know why.
First to The Southgate, where Dave & Debs continue to provide a platform for acts of class entertainment. Today it was 5-piece folk-rockers Hadrian’s Union, a band completely new to me. Except that their fiddle-player Penny wasn’t actually with them, so they just carried on as a four-piece, on their Penny-less tour. Geddit? Oh, never mind.
The line-up included Saul Rose on drums, Brian Bell on 5-string bass, Robin Jowett on melodeon and keyboards, and founding member Stew Simpson on guitar and vocals. Saul Rose, who produced their last album, is as good as folk royalty, having played with a wide range of famous folk bands (Faustus, Mawkin, Eliza Carthy’s Wayward Band). Normally he plays accordion, but had decided, just for the hell of it, to get back to his first love the drum-kit.
They hail from the debatable northern lands of the English and Scottish borders, and had had a very early start that morning in order to make this gig. Their name originates from the locality and mindset of the band, since their separate members are based along various points of Hadrian’s Wall. They come to the band from various music genres – folk, punk, rock, blues, Celtic, ska etc – which reflects in the music they create together. They quote their musical references as Lindisfarne, Jethro Tull, Stackridge, and The Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band.
I quickly discovered that this meant an eclectic and varied set of self-penned songs, but paying musical dues to all those traditions. One minute we were in full rock mode, the next minute we were in a folk club, listening to traditional morris tunes. If they are rockers, they were very folky, and if they were folkies, they had a mean line in driving blues/ rock. Great stuff, and the packed crowd really lapped it up, whooping and dancing to just about every number. The sound was relaxed, yet tight, and every number was delivered with confidence and impeccable timing.
Upcoming gigs at The Southgate are:
• Friday 27th Sept Pink Tribute (Beautiful Trauma)
• Saturday 28th September Phase Rotate & Cobalt Fire
• Friday 4th October James Hollingsworth
• Saturday 5th Oct ober Jon Walsh
Then back into town to the White Bear, for the latest of Marc & Georgie’s Sunday Sessions, this week featuring local favourite and all-round good egg Jamie R Hawkins. It’s a sign of the level of esteem in which Jamie is held that this was probably the best crowd these Sunday Sessions have attracted so far. This time not surrounded by & supported by his musical friends, but playing the whole of his two sets on his own, Jamie delivered (as ever) a superb performance of self-penned and very personal songs. Those of us who have been following him for a while are obviously familiar with much of his material, but we never tire of hearing those songs again, especially when each performance (like this one) is delivered with such intensity and feeling. And of course, we liked the way he works in the new songs. The atmosphere was great, the crowd loved it, and we had a great afternoon all round.
Next week’s Sunday Session (29th Sept) @ The White Bear @ 5pm features Fraser Tilley.
A cracking night for our blues club last night, which I managed to finally appear at!
After publishing a run of awesome reviews from our man Andy, and with a flimsy hunch he wasn’t going to make it Saturday night (though he did,) I figured it high time and a good opportunity to break my Long Street Blues Club cherry; can’t let him have all the fun.
If I only popped my head around the door towards the end on a previous occasion, it was plentiful to note in our preview of their new season that, “there’s a lack of background noise at Long Street, the audience don’t chitter-chatter through the act like the backroom of a pub, it’s a fully entrancing appreciation society.” In fact, upon entry I was thanking Ian Hopkins the organiser, only to be shushed by a member. Who shushes at a gig? At least one in a hall chockful of blues aficionados captivated by the music, that’s who!
After pondering out loud, feasibly too loudly for this attendee, if this blues club needs a review at all, being it’s marked with exceptionally high-regard on our music scene and the hall of the Cons Club is bustling, I took heed of Ian’s reply, “any publicity is good publicity,” and tiptoed to the bar as if in a Christian Science Reading Room.
With family ties to Devizes, we’ve mentioned the support act on Devizine in the past, and it was good to finally meet him, even better to hear him perform live. Newbury-based answer to David Gray, Joe Hicks is wonderful, simple as. At ease with his surroundings he chats enough only to tune and give a modest synopsis of the following song, or to praise Livewired, for his last gig at the Electric Bear in Bath. He delivers his original songs with appetite but no strain, and aptitude which he makes look like child’s play. Among others, we were treated to his new single, Swim and another spellbinding comfort song called Rest Your Head. Mildly dreamy rather than sombre, his chants sublime, making a perfect cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere so apt for a finale.
Now for the main act, you know how levels of cool range? I mean, there’s that mate in the pub with the amusing party-trick, he’s pretty cool, right, but compared to someone like Hendrix, he’s a total nerd. Smoothly Detroit’s Marcus Malone frontstages, oozing cool from his gaze to his fingertips like the lovechild of aforementioned Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz. His talent replicates his persona, and combined with a tight band, and Devizes-own electric blues guitar-legend, Innes Sibun, this is loud, proud and quite simply, mesmerising.
I realise now, witnessing the brilliant Beaux Gris & The Apocalypse, and Mr Amor, I was only a fraction engulfed into my epiphany of contemporary blues, the Malone Sibun Band completes it. Innes may appear more like that air-guitar playing headbanger at school who was asking for bullies to pick on him, drawing metal band logos on his army surplus bag in biro and all, but this guy wows and visually loves that he’s wowing, probably sighting a said school tormenter in the crowd, rocking out! The quality of this duo, this collective, is second-to-none, and their music takes no prisoners.
It was rock, harking back to times of yore, when the blues influence was prevalent, yet more refined than psychedelic sixties, edging more towards traditional Delta or jump-blues than even Cream and Hendrix did. In contrast it was gritty, persistent and never waived from its ethos. Whether leisurelier tempo or all-out detonation, it was not experimental, rather a tried and tested formula. It neither clichéd or borrowed from previous works, it never waited for you to compare it, it was entirely unique, and it was full on in your face. There was no sing-a-long section, popular covers, there was no idle chatter; they came, they saw, they blasted their labour and treasured every minute of it.
I was left entranced, my jaw hanging low and my mind whisked away, as said noise restrictions of the club crumbled, and its preconceived barriers collapsed, there was no associating the Long Street Blues Club to a library any longer. In all, this club may attract an older majority, but if you’re thinking fuddy-duddies you’d better think again! Next up, Jon Amor, his full band, on the 12th October, but you’d have known that if your read our preview! Yep, in it I did speculate The Long Street Blues is “simply addictive. Hook line and sinker,” I feared, “they’d have me in the palm of their hands.” It’s confirmed now.
First up was Canadian born Tanyalee Davis, described in the publicity as “Joan Rivers meets a pile driver”. She has a form of dwarfism called diastrophic dysplasia. At only 3 foot 6 inches tall, this presents a few challenges and misconceptions in her daily life, but this also provides a rich vein of material for her stand-up routine. Her material, like her, is low to the ground, quite blue and racy in places, evoking laughs both from the inherent humour, but also from the shock value. A highly entertaining opener.
Next up was more normal sized Irishman Keith Farnan. Here was a comic very comfortable in his own skin, and very confident with his material. He delivered an absolute master-class in how to play an audience, feeding on minor and polite heckling, and casually eliciting and provoking clues and local information to mould his script. A lot of it felt extremely-well improvised, and he took great delight in holding up a mirror to the Devizes crowd’s lack of diversity. He successfully took the piss out of being middle class, being Irish, his own name, being Jewish (he’s not, but his wife is), homophobia, Ryannair and many other topics. Not topics that were exactly bleeding edge, but he wrung some absolute belly-laughs out of such thin gruel. For my money – the best comic of the night.
After the interval, another two acts. First of these was Tom Lucy – young, slightly camp and with a mother he described as a MILF. He tried the same trick as Keith Farnan, trying to use the audience to provide clues and prompts to direct his material, but far less successfully. A number of times he ended up, by his own admission, up a comedy cul-de-sac, having to cut routines short because they just weren’t going anywhere. Better material was on modern technology – smartphones, emojis, dating apps and dick-pics. But to my mind he never really got going, and the big laughs just weren’t there.
And finally, top of the bill, was Mike Osman. We were all asked to stand, face to the rear of the room, and put hand on heart, to allow the entrance of this Donald Trump impersonator to the strains of Hail To The Chief. A showy entrance, but to my mind, one that felt a bit flat. Once up on the stage we had the White House lectern (later revealed to contain a Kim Jong-Un lookalike) and a pair of US flags. The whole act was an extended riff on “DT comes to Devizes”, occasionally side-stepping into a (very poor) musical number, and a range of old & new impressions (I don’t think Rory Bremner or Jon Culshaw have anything to worry about). Osman had DT’s looks, mannerisms and voice, and did a fairly good impression of The Orange One, but (to me at least) failed to convince. Most of the audience found him hilarious most of the time, but the material was frankly tedious and thin, and the jokes fairly old/ poor/ standard. If this is what you have to do to earn a living…..
The Wharf Theatre has been offering high quality theatre and diverse entertainment to audiences in the Devizes area for decades. The beautiful converted barn sits next to the busy Kennet
This’ll make you repel; Red Dwarf first aired thirty-two years ago! Sci-fi comedy would never be the same again after Lister roamed his empty mining vessel asking the ship’s computer where the crew were and curiously licking piles of dust he randomly found. There was an irresistible contrast between Rob Grant and Doug Naylor’s protagonist and his antagonist, Arnold J Rimmer, elevated by the brilliance the two actors bought to the roles. Dave Lister was an endearing anti-hero, a cool but lovable ragamuffin.
Corrie aside, everything Craig Charles has done since is cool; undoubtedly, he’s not typecast, as his Funk & Soul Show surely proves; he really is this cool. A decade of broadcasting on BBC 6 Music with a primetime Saturday night show, I’d prey in the absence of a Radio 2 presenter, Craig would be the one drafted in as relief. The show frequently goes on the road, locally playing the Cheese & Grain, Meca Swindon, and some of that magic he brings to Salisbury City Hall on 11th October 2019.
“When BBC 6Music asked me to do a radio show I only had one condition,” Craig explained, “it has to be a funk and soul show, otherwise I wasn’t interested.” Live every Saturday night with an assortment of classic gems and emerging artists, Craig has garnered global support as one of the UK’s foremost Funk and Soul commentators, DJ’s and promoters of new music. The only quality soul classics he hasn’t played yet, are by Rastabilly Skank!
“Since its inception I have been interested in all varieties of soul and funk music, without imposing any barriers and I am just as enthusiastic about fresh new talent as I am about the classic artists from the golden age of the 60s and 70s,” he continued.
Guest-listed legends have been on The Funk and Soul Show; Gil-Scott Heron, James Brown, Roy Ayers, Cymande, Marlena Shaw, Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Terry Callier, Candi Staton, and Marva Whitney. Hip hops acts included, The Roots and the Jungle Brothers, as well as the leading players of the new school Kokolo, Cut Chemist, Sharon Jones, Osaka Monaurail, Amp Fiddler, Amy Winehouse, The New Mastersounds, Smoove and Turrell, Quantic, The Apples, The Grits, JTQ, and The Fusion Experience.
Craig Charles has captivated crowds throughout the UK, playing a plethora of festivals, and a monthly residency at Manchester’s Band on The Wall. Him, and his trunk of funk DJs, present a night of soul-hitting funk, ‘can-you-dig-it’ attitude and dance-floor jivin’. The monthly is currently one of the most anticipated nights in Manchester’s scene.
Winner of the 2018 Smirnoff Equalizing Music DJ competition, DJ Emma supports Craig at The City Hall, so arrive early to get the full flavour of the biggest funk & Soul party to hit Salisbury this Autumn!
If all products are carefully marketed towards a specific target audience, none I feel, are as precise as boxes of chocolates. The whole idea of taking an everyday item, the sort you might shout to your driver as he approaches the garage, “and get us a Twix,” when stuck in a box suddenly becomes a rare treat, gifted by an acquaintance for a special occasion. It’s vital you pick the correct box to suit the message; while a Dairy Box says “happy birthday, Gran,” Milk Tray says “get your kit off love!”
Connotations all in the packaging and advertising, push comes to shove, they’re the same bloody thing, but last thing you want is to hand your gran some Milk Tray. Often, it’s fallacious, a Flake is the most unsuitable chocolate bar to eat in the tub, no matter what the telly might tell you. That’s why you have to hand it to the Cadbury’s Roses ad campaign, for while it’s not the best box of chocolates, it is somewhere in the top five. But it’s the across-the-board implications; anyone can buy a box for anyone, for any reason; it’s choco impartial. Buy Roses if you don’t want the receiver to assume you see them like your grandparent, or you want to snog their face off until sore. “It’s just to say thank you;” yeah, yeah, clever bastards.
New single out from Jamie R Hawkins then, unless you’d rather me waffle about chocolate? It’s like Roses though, it’s a universal thank you, for friendship, and while it may not the best Jamie R Hawkins song, it just rocked up somewhere in the top five. Though Jamie has pre-set his bar high, and if his May single, Welcome to the Family was quirkily agreeable, Thank You, Friend harks back to the classic sentiments we love Mr Hawkins for. Diluted, this song is more general and will infectiously touch all who hear it, as concentrate it profoundly assesses what a friend is, and how they’re capable of helping, in a manner The Beatles only skimmed the surface of.
Another perfect production for Phil Cooper; Jamie is on top form. “I never fail to be amazed,” he sings, “That what defeats me leaves you totally unfazed, it’s almost like I’m lacking in, the thing that makes you so alive, and it’s so good to know you’re always on my side.” Just one of the beautifully rendered verses of this fantastic song which undoubtedly showcases Jamie’s brilliance of song-writing, and with conviction he chants his own words of a song dedicated to his brother with unequalled passion.
It made me think of a time he was supporting a gig at the Cons Club; I drove out of the carpark to see him perched on the wall. Offered him a lift, he was only heading for the British, but jumped in. A handshake would’ve sufficed, but Jamie gave us a man-hug; one of the marvellous reasons why I love writing Devizine, I’ll locally praise what needs to be praised, slag off what needs to be slagged, but it’s also clear most recipients don’t view me as “the evil press,” but as a friend. And it’d be virtually impossible, I’d wager, to deliberately make yourself an enemy of Jamie, unless you’re the jealous sort of song-writer, struggling to compose a song a quarter as good as this one.
He’s here, he’s there, he’s at the White Bear this Sunday afternoon, catch him when you can, it never gets tiresome despite the fact Jamie does our circuit regularly, like a J S Lowry painting, the songs he weaves always have something different you may not have picked up on before, and his new ones, well, get better and better. This new track is available today through all the music sites. iTunes is too Thornton’s for me, spotty-thigh or whatchamacallit is too, well, Haribo; here’s the Bandcamp link, it’s this old timer’s Dairy Box!
With the dependability our gallant roving reporter, Andy will attend The Long Street Blues Club and send us a review to make me jealous, I ponder if I’ll ever make have to make it down there. Thing is, the Club which is about to launch into its incredible twelfth season at the Devizes Conservative Club this Saturday, is simply addictive. Hook line and sinker, they’d have me in the palm of their hands.
Yet there’s good reason to succumb, I did pop my head around the door once, to find a hall chockful of blues aficionados captivated by the act. This is nothing rare, there’s a lack of background noise at Long Street, the audience don’t chitter-chatter through the act like the backroom of a pub, it’s a fully entrancing appreciation society.
Enough said to state, these guys know their blues, claiming for their opening night on Saturday 21st September with the merger of two forces of nature Marcus Malone and Innes Sibun, “we’ve been inundated with requests to get them back.” Coveted by Motown records, Detroit-born Marcus worked on demos with some of the biggest names in the business, before being moved to LA by Ike Turner’s management team and signing with United Artists Records.
He opened for Bob Seger and Iggy Pop, now adding BB King at the Albert Hall to his impressive résumé. Marcus has written, produced and recorded seven albums on the Redline Music Label since relocating to the UK, the magnum opus being “A Better Man.” In all, it was hearing BB King which inspired the twelve-year-old Innes Sibun to pick a guitar. Legendary producer Mike Vernon produced his first band, Blues Explosion’s debut album. By 1993 he joined Robert Plant’s band for his “Fate of nations” tour, spurring a prolific musical career.
Joe Hicks
I’m glad to hear incredible Newbury singer-songwriter, Joe Hicks will be supporting, blending his pop, blues and folk influences which Linda Serck at BBC Introducing critiques as “absolutely smashing it!”
If I needed to bio these musicians, you’ve not been indoctrinated into the contemporary blues scene, something Mr Hopkins and his crew will be able to help you with. But the name of the second night at Long Street needs no introduction. You can source blues on an international market, as they do, but Saturday 12th October is owned by the man who put Devizes on that map, Jon Amor.
Jon, image by Nick Padmore
He brings the group; Mark Barrett of the Hoax, the Doherty Brothers, who’ve been enjoying a successful run as the band I can’t get enough of, Little Geneva, and keyboard genius Johnny Henderson. The Jon Amor Band, out to promote the critically-acclaimed album Colour in the Sky, will be a homecoming gig after his national tour, and you can rest assured they’ll be on top form.
Like Jumping Jack Flash, the blues club steps on the gas with a duo of gigs within a week. Saturday 2nd November Larry Miller band’s bassist Derek White joins the Cinelli Brothers, a project born form of a common passion for the electric Chicago and Texas blues from the sixties. It comprises of brothers Marco and Alessandro, Music Republic Magazine nominated Marco Cinelli as Best Guitar Player of 2018.
The following Friday, 8th November the club presents a solo, unplugged show from Ian Siegal, who Mojo credited as “one of the most gifted singers & writers in contemporary blues,” and Long Street claim it’s “simply a must.” The date unfortunately squashes a huge blues-related clash in our bustling town, with Chippenham’s Triple JD Rock Band playing the Southgate, The London Philharmonic Skiffle Orchestra at The Wharf Theatre, and the highly-anticipated arrival of Georgie Fame as a special Devizes Arts Festival evening at The Corn Exchange. While it’s clear, Devizes has an appetite for the blues, and the choice we have of live music is astounding for a town our size, this is one overloading Friday night. I only hope the best for all these great bookings, and that we have the capacity to fill them.
But business as usual for the Long Street Blues Club, it has a truly dedicated following, and this season’s line-up of shows confirm it’s standing as a benchmark for our county’s blues scene.
With my ribs near fully recovered from giggling injuries caused by the one Ed Byrne, it’s nice to note if you missed him at the rescheduled Devizes Arts Festival evening, he’s playing Trowbridge’s Civic Centre on the 26th September, March 13th at the Wyvern, Swindon and Bath’s Forum on March 19th.
Here’s an interview with the man himself, to tempt your taste buds….
Jason Barlow
A household name teetering on the brink of national treasure status, award-winning comedian Ed Byrne enjoys worldwide acclaim for his stand-up. With 25 years under his belt, Ed has parlayed his on-stage success into a variety of notable television appearances. A regular on Mock The Week and The Graham Norton Show, Ed has recently co-presented Dara & Ed’s Big Adventure and its follow-up Dara & Ed’s Road To Mandalay, and managed not to disgrace himself on Top Gear or whilst tackling one of The World’s Most Dangerous Roads. As a semi-professional hill-walker himself and fully paid-up humanist, he also brought a refreshing warmth and honesty to BBC2’s recent hit The Pilgrimage.
But the Irishman is still best-known and best appreciated for his stand-up performances. A quarter of a century at the comedic coal-face has equipped Ed with a highly evolved story-telling ability and a silky mastery of his craft. Yet his wit, charm and self-deprecatory observational humour is often underpinned by a consistently hilarious vitriol and sense of injustice at a world that seems to be spinning ever more rapidly out of control.
Having recently hit a new peak with shows such as the sublime Spoiler Alert and reflective Outside, Looking In, which explored the minefield that is modern parenting and a generational sense of entitlement, Ed’s new show If I’m Honest digs ever deeper into a father’s sense of responsibility, what it means to be a man in 2019, and whether he possesses any qualities whatsoever worth passing on to his two sons. Occasionally accused of whimsy, If I’m Honest is a show with a seriously steely core.
Gender politics, for example, is something Ed readily engages with – deploying his customary comedic zeal. ‘I’ll admit that there are things where men get a raw deal,’ he says. ‘We have higher suicide rates, and we tend not to do well in divorces, but representation in action movies is not something we have an issue with. It was Mad Max: Fury Road that kicked it all off, even though nobody complained about Ripley in Alien or Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. Of course, social media means this stuff gets broadcast far and wide in an instant, which emboldens people.
‘The problem with men’s rights activists is that it’s not about speaking up for men’s rights, it’s about hating women. If you’re a men’s rights activist, you’re not going to care about the fact that there’s an all-female Ghostbusters remake. That’s nothing to do with men’s rights or female entitlement. That’s everything to do with being, well, a whiny baby.’
As ever, Ed manages to provoke without being overly polemical, a balancing act that only someone of his huge experience can really pull off.
‘I did stuff about Trump and the Pizzagate right wing conspiracy,’ he says, ‘and a couple of the reviewers said, “Oh, I would have liked to have watched a whole show of this”. And I think, ‘well you might have, but the average person who comes to see me would not like to see that’. I like to make a point or get something off my chest, or perhaps I’m talking about something that’s been on my mind, but the majority of stuff is just to get laughs.
‘People who come to see me are not political activists necessarily, they’re regular folk. If you can make a point to them, in between talking about your struggles with aging, or discussing your hernia operation or whatever it is, you can toss in something that does give people pause as regards to how men should share the household chores.’
He continues, ‘It’s not that I feel a responsibility, I think it just feels more satisfying when you’re doing it, and it feels more satisfying when people hear it. When a joke makes a good point, I think people enjoy it. It’s the difference between having a steak and eating a chocolate bar.’
Ed, who broke through in the mid-1990s when the New Lad became a genuine cultural phenomenon, doesn’t want to submit to any unnecessary revisionism, but admits that if the times have changed, he has changed with them. He reflects a little ruefully on one of his most famous jokes. ‘There’s an attitude towards Alanis Morrisette in the opening of that routine that I’m no longer comfortable with, where I call her a moaning cow and a whiny bint… slagging off the lyrics of the song is fine, but there’s a tone in the preamble that I wouldn’t write today.’
The new show also takes his natural tendency towards self-deprecation to unexpected extremes. ‘I do genuinely annoy myself,’ Ed concedes. ‘But the thing of your children being a reflection of you, gives you an opportunity to build something out of the best of yourself only for you to then see flashes of the worst of yourself in them. It’s a wake-up call about your own behaviour.’
When I challenge him over the degree of self-loathing he displays, he disagrees. ‘Self-aggrandising humour is a lot harder to pull off than self-deprecating humour,’ he insists. ‘A lot of people get really annoyed when Ricky Gervais is self-congratulatory. I always find it very funny when he accepts awards and does so in the most big-headed way possible. I think it’s a trickier type of humour to pull off, talking yourself up in that way.
‘So no, I don’t think I’m being massively hard on myself. The fact is when you’re the bloke who is standing on the stage with the microphone, commanding an audience’s attention, you’re in a very elevated position anyway.’
That said, If I’m Honest brilliantly elucidates the frustration that arrives in middle age – and lives up to its title. ‘I’m bored looking for things, I’m bored of trying to find stuff, because I can never find it, and it is entirely my fault,’ Ed says. ‘Nobody’s hiding my stuff from me. Although my wife did actually move my passport on one occasion’.
He insists that, while the show might have mordant and occasionally morbid aspects, it’s also not without its quietly triumphant moments. ‘I thought I was being quite upbeat talking about the small victories,’ he says. ‘You know, finding positivity in being able to spot when a cramp was about to happen in your leg and dealing with it before it does. I was very happy with myself about that.’
Age, it seems, has not withered him. Especially now that he’s figured out how to head off ailments before they become a problem. ‘You see comics who are my age and older but are still retaining a level of “cool” and drawing a young crowd. I can’t deny that I’m quite envious of that. But there’s also something very satisfying about your audience growing old with you.’
Ed Byrne is touring nationwide, appearing at Trowbridge’s Civic Centre on the 26th September, March 13th at the Wyvern, Swindon and Bath’s Forum on March 19th. For more information, please visit http://edbyrne.com/
Another great afternoon in The Vize for free music. Be rude not to enjoy it!
After listening to Proms In The Park with the Devizes Town Band (see report elsewhere in Devizine) I headed back into town, and to the White Bear to catch Andrew Bazeley.
Andrew is, quite simply, a Blues fanatic – Delta Blues, Country Blues, Traditional Blues, Bottleneck Blues, Acoustic Blues – whatever you want to call it, this is your man for playing it, singing it, learning about it, teaching it, writing about it, and even giving all-day lectures about it! What Andrew doesn’t know about the history of the Blues, the US Deep South, and the history of guitars, is simply not worth knowing.
Andrew cuts a distinctive figure, balding and sporting an impressive grey-white beard, and it’s fairly obvious that he’s a child of the sixties. That’s when he acquired his first guitar, and he’s been singing the Blues ever since.
On Sunday afternoon, he kept the talking to a minimum and just let the songs flow out. Swapping between his two guitars (one 101 years old, the other a mere 82 years old), the music just kept coming. Most of his set was traditional material from the likes of Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson and others, but there was also a few of his own self-penned numbers seamlessly worked into the set.
His sets were assured, well played and well sung, to the obvious enjoyment of the audience as it built up during the early evening.
Another very pleasant afternoon spent in the White Bear, and another tribute to our great little down for providing a whole afternoon of free musical entertainment. Happy Days!
Coming up at The White Bear on future Sunday Sessions @ 5pm are:
• 22nd September Jamie R Hawkins
• 29th September Fraser Tilley
When apathetic to galivant to a gig, and not for want of staying in my village, there’s always the Cross Keys in Rowde. Hum, been a while, historically had its ups and downs. Last report I did here things were looking up; food-wise, a few craft fairs and various goings-on. But it’s changed hands again, and the one thing it lacked other than the sporadic Splat of the Rat, live music, has returned to the agenda by the new landlord.
Arm twisted, I’m back in the watering hole where I had my wedding reception and the kid’s christening parties. Little visually has changed, punters included. No bad thing, village hub. The landlord tells me they’ll be renovating the restaurant area, but if it isn’t broken. For the functional the main pub is perfect, aesthetically it’s apt. Although the change for the evening is the pool table area, where guitars and drums swim amidst wires and foot pedals. Devizes band Rockhoppaz are due to kick off a season of performances here. This is good, heard of but not seen these guys yet.
Holding a preconceived idea, largely based upon the name, I was mistaken to assume I’d be knocked over by rock verging on metal, which though not my cuppa, I’ll endure to support live music in my village for sure. Pleasantly surprised then to hear this matured four-piece’s repertories, though while varied, were largely based on rock and punk-mod classics.
Tuning teaser being Johnny B Goode, the age range of songs went from contemporary back to rock n roll. Commencing with the Kaiser Chiefs, we heard Dandy Warhols and Primal Scream covers, we were cast rearward to Buzzcocks and The Jam, and plopped into a pinnacle of Rolling Stones and Kinks. It was this era where I thought the band reigned, with an awesome Brown Sugar. Yet the range was achieved in its entirety with equal passion and skill, but when lead singer, Jim Smith rolled out an adroit version of Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free World, I changed my mind.
I questioned this namesake preconceived idea to the band during their beer-break, pointing out drummer, Ian “Tef” Martin’s AC/DC tee-shirt. Oh yes, I was told, they’ll be playing an AC/DC cover in the second half. What ensued was a potentially everlasting musical trivia conversation, indicting their passion was their motivation, and herein lies the spirit of Rockhoppaz, I feel.
They’re not the next big thing, just a bunch of guys satisfying an appetite on the pub circuit, but as far that notion travels, lead Jim Smith, aforementioned drummer Ian Martin, guitarist Chris Downing and “Big” Ben Robinson bassist pull to its bumper, and would do your function a huge favour, for their thirst and talent rubs off on the audience; punching above the average pub circuit band’s weight.
In various incarnations they’ve been around for a while, previous band names being more profane, they say, causing me to think they once had a punk vibe about them. They’ve played the Opportunity Centre charity fundraiser at Wadworth Brewery, The Yeoman, The George in Frome, Melksham’s Pig & Whistle and our trusty Southgate, they’ve gigged the Midlands, Windsor and Bath. The Cavalier, Devizes has them on November 2nd, their next local gig.
As for the Cross Keys, I hope it’s the first of many, and with the great pub-grub and Sunday roast menu retained, I wish them all the best. The landlord calls for more, monthly, with local mod-rockers, Cover Up appearing next. I’d like to see some local heroes with some original acoustic booked too, happy to recommend the usual suspects. There is a notion cover bands will undoubtedly satisfy the regulars at The Cross Keys, but said originals will bring others in. It’s not a long walk from Devizes, I do it the other way many weekends, and that’s uphill, pal! That said though, getting a bit autumny innit, so nice to know live music has extended out to Rowde.
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Felt a tap on my shoulder in the Cellar Bar of the Bear Hotel last night, an eerie witch called Tess taciturnly offered sweets from a variety Halloween basket. If it was just a kind gesture, I also saw it symbolic of the evening; variety is the tenet of these regular open mic events.
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