Author: Darren Worrow

UrchFunk; The Forgotten Tale of How George Clinton Created Funk Music in the Wiltshire Village of Urchfont

You’d be forgiven for believing funk music came out of Detroit in the early seventies, when it is a little known fact, obscured and deliberately hidden, likely for the prestige of the American city and the ignominy of the village, that funk music was actually created in the Wiltshire village of Urchfontโ€ฆ.

Funk pioneer George Clinton and bandleader of the collective Parliament-Funkadelic was born in North Carolina and grew up in New Jersey, moving to Detroit in the mid-sixties to work as a songwriter for Motown. By the early seventies Clinton and several members of the band settled in Toronto, but during this time he encountered legal difficulties arising from acquisitions of his record label, resulting in dangerous circumstances and was secretly exiled to England, settling in Urchfont for a few short months.

It was in solitude at the sleepy Wiltshire village where Clinton honed the funk style based on the recordings of James Brown. Developing an association with a few village musicians who had formed a skiffle group on his lonely walks to the village pond from his home in Cuckoo Corner, Clinton convinced them to create a new band. Clinton called them Urch-Funk. The band would play to a small crowd in the village hall, and even daringly attempted an ambitious outside gig around the pond.

After a short while, Clinton got the all clear from his record label, and made his way back to Toronto, taking the idea of funk music back with him, but not without leaving a significant influence in the village. What happened next was a secret funk phenomenon in the village, now sadly hidden; I wanted to know why.

1973: Parliament-Funkadelic visits Clinton in Urchfont

A villager, who prefers to remain anonymous, revealed, โ€œyarp, they bee dancin’ โ€˜nโ€™ singin’, arn movin’ ter thar groovin’, arn joist wen wun hit me, with argh bloody shovel I mioght add, I turned arand I dids, n shouted play art funky music Urchfunk boi!โ€

But, it was not a case of one village under a groove. Some villagers and the parish council have deliberately made my research as difficult as possible. My initial discovery of a disco ball buried in mud for decades and only unearthed when the new houses at Peppercombe were built, led me to wonder how it came to be there. I returned to the site to discover disregarded afro wigs and flyers for soul all-nighters at the village hall. But everyone who I approached refused to talk, accusing me of creating a hoax.

Some even chased me out the village with pitchforks and torches, calling me to not unearth Urchfont’s secret funkadelia past, if I knew what was โ€œgard fur me!โ€ This naturally roused my suspicions that Urchfont held a direct secret link to funk music, a majority were embarrassed by it and, it seemed, were willing to kill to protect the secret. I had to know more.

A rare flyer for an UrchFunk gig at the Village Hall

I took to returning to the village to hunt for more clues by the cover of night, but I found nothing. Until one evening, so frustrated my searching was unfruitful, I stayed all night looking, and early morning joggers and dog walkers were emerging from their homes. Ducking stealthily into Stone Pit Lane, a strange looking old man appeared from out of the bushes and clasped his hand over my mouth, stating, โ€œcum wiff me if yer wanna live… groovy!โ€

He took me to a secret lair in the undergrowth which appeared to be a shrine to Urchfont’s forgotten past. Within this hobbit hole of treasures he allowed me to browse, and as I did he told me his story. He was one of musicians who met Clinton, and who had created the definitive sound of funk which would soon take America by storm. But he told me how the local folk club banished them, believing funk was the work of the devil, but really, he suspected it was more likely because they upstaged them, with glitter, and platform shoes with goldfish in them, which later they declared was animal cruelty. The fish were released into the village pond.

Likely the only existing photograph of UrchFunk. Believed to have been taken at the Urchfont Village Hall in 1973.

They were simply excuses, the man dressed in worn purple corduroys and flowery dagger collar shirt, informed me. He explained how the folk club encouraged the entire village and council to hide Urchfont’s funky disco days, as it was considered untraditional and could radicalise the young people of the village into wearing sequined jumpsuits.

โ€œHoy,โ€ he said, โ€œonce eye bee argh boogie singer, playin’ in argh rock-and-roll band, see? Never โ€˜ard no prublems, me, yer nose, ganderflankinโ€™ down thar one-night stands, like. N everything arand me gart ter start ter feelin’ so low, so eye decided quickly, yarp, eye dids, ter disco down anโ€™ check art thar show, praper jarb!โ€

1973: Parliament-Funkadelic visits Clinton in Urchfont

Once settled down from his excitement of my arrival, the old man continued with his amazing story. Clinton tried to organise a funk festival in the village which he called the Afro-Festival, which the old man claimed once Clinton left for America the parish council changed the name of it to the Scarecrow Festival. The outside gig around the pond, Disco Balls Around the Pond was swiftly changed to Candles Around the Pond, and the villageโ€™s connection to funk was forever swept under the carpet, save for when the wind blows south east across Sleight.

I remain steadfast that this forgotten past of Urchfont should be exposed, and celebrated; the village should be proud of it’s funky past. Therefore, Iโ€™m glad to be able to finally publish this information after many years of research, today, the 1st April 2025.ย ย 

Devizes Auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son Relocating to Old Emporium

Renowned Devizes auctioneers and valuers, Henry Aldridge and Son announced today they are relocating their auction rooms to The Old Emporium, a Grade II listed property that backs onto the iconic 16th Century St Johnโ€™s Alley, which, as a long-running gift shop, sadly closed last monthโ€ฆ..

In 2024 the company sold the two highest-priced items at auction outside of London. Andrew Aldridge, Managing Director commented, โ€œWe feel moving to the centre of Devizes shows our commitment to the community and hope that our international reputation will bring a number of new visitors to the town.โ€

Henry Aldridge and Son has a global reputation for selling iconic historical memorabilia, from a watch from the Titanic for $2m to the Worldโ€™s First Christmas Card, and in moving to the Old Emporium, they will be selling history within a unique setting which they believe will be one of if not the oldest Auction Room in the UK.

Looking for the right property for two years, Henry Aldridge and Son say that the old Emporium is โ€œperfect.โ€ Its location dates from the early 16th Century, before Henry VIII came to the throne and over 150 years before the English Civil War. The opportunity to move to this unique location in the centre of Devizes, a town described by Poet Laureate John Betjeman as having the โ€˜Perfect Market Placeโ€™, was โ€œone we had to grab with both hands. We will remain at our present Bath Road site until later this year, and the first auction in our new premises will be Titanic and Iconic Memorabilia in the autumn of 2025. Once our renovation is complete we will be running free jewellery and collectibles valuation days on Market Day at The Old Emporium, giving clients access to our specialist valuers.โ€

Devizes Kebab Van Riding High But Staying Put!

Four months on from the tragic fire on Northgate Street in Devizes which took out the popular Kebab House, owner Mustafa Suna and his dedicated team have set up a mobile unit, The Devizes Kebab Van at The Garden Trading Estate opposite the Travelodge. Business is as busy as ever, and the kebabs are as tasty as ever, too!

It’s a bustling Sunday afternoon at the Devizes Kebab Van as the staff dance around each other, preparing food and serving customers, yet they never fail to greet you with a smile. Any misgivings you might have about mobile street food will be immediately forgotten; it’s spacious and spotless, with a vast selection of quality options from burgers and kebabs to chicken and vegetarian dishes too. It’s of the same exemplary standard as it was back in Northgate Street; ah, we remember it well!

Earlier this month, they upgraded their previous unit, and it’s state of the art now, and they’veย  got an online ordering system too; proper job!

I’ve brought kebabs in other towns and been bitterly disappointed. Seems The Kebab House rewarded us with high expectations, and the new van continues that exceptional quality as a standard. Plentiful portions, perfectly cooked and served, that’s one tasty kebab!


Now only open from 4 to 11pm, there might be no chance of falling into the place directly from the Exchange any more, it’s  a lengthy wander from town, but it seems the Kebab Van is doing plenty of business on Folly Road and likely at cheaper rates, the team is as busy as ever and happy. Asked if they’d consider moving back to the Market Place if the right property should come along, they seemed adamant they’ll be staying where they are.

Perhaps it’s closer for you where you live, may be it’s not. Perhaps you pass it on the way home from work, maybe it’s not as convenient as the town centre, I certainly miss it being on my wobbly wander home from the pubs, but hey, it’s well worth the trek; work up an appetite, won’t it?!

JP Oldfield Meets The Devil’s Doorbell at the Cellar Bar

To suggest I’m knowledgeable about the music of the 1920s because I lived through the era is plain cheeky, though I wouldn’t put it past you! I like to think I know just enough to hold my own in a drunken waffle on the subject. Such is that Jellylegs Johnson suggested a resurgence of 1920s jazz was pending, to which I agreed, or at least I would appreciate it if it was soโ€ฆ.

Cos I love digging to discover the roots of music, although I cannot be certain a gig of the era resembled what occurred down the Bear’s Cellar Bar last night, even if it was labelled thus, but it was an entertaining night for sure. This much is guaranteed whenever The Devil’s Doorbell has moored nearby.

Yeah, that’s right, I said The Cellar Bar, that central cobblestoned cosy dungeon which holds as many fond memories for Devizions than it does history. It feels great to be down there, as it’s been a while, and this sentiment is shared with the modest audience.

Backstory to why we’re here goes, after our interview with Devizesโ€™ rising star of kazoo-blowing, suitcase drumming idiosyncratic delta blues, JP Oldfield, he landed a gig at Chippenham’s Old Road Tavern supporting the bonkers jazz skiffle duo and boaterโ€™s royalty of double-entendres, Devil’s Doorbell.

Being he was unaware of them at the time, I assured Josh he was in apt company. For if JP’s style is quirky, Nipper, a freewheeling James Baskett/George Formby crossover, and Jellylegs Johnson in sequined hot pants, feathered flapper girl headband and marigolds, audaciously but not impudently salvage long-lost rags, nuggets of bebop and gypsy jazz with tenor ukuleles, a kazzumpet, and Jellylegs on a bass handmade from a washtub and broom handleโ€ฆ and that’s beyond averagely quirky!

It’s also a hard act for anyone to follow, as the agenda was switched for Nipper and Jellylegs to open the show JP Oldfield had arranged. They rang the doorbell for surety, with their unique cheeky tunes and banter, which Jellylegs told me afterwards are often assumed to be of their own pen, rather than outrageous long-lost 78s of a golden jazz era. It’s always a pleasure to hear them play, and so playful with the circus-cabaret they are, it’s infectious.

JP contends with more sombre moods versus a need to be jocular, but his ability to find that perfect balance is his unique spin on delta blues, that and using a kazoo where a harmonica is usually positioned, and both are something blossoming with each gig. His masterwork to date, The Ghost of Spring-heeled Jack is the verification of this balance.

I don’t believe confidence was ever an issue for JP, but that’s grown too, and he proficiently pulled a stunning set of originals and rare covers, neatly chosen to compliment those of his own labour; Tainted Love perhaps not so rare, but with added kazoo, welcomed!

Though on this occasion JP proved he’s no one trick pony as he turned to harmonica for a song, and excused himself for any amateur delivery of it, which was unnecessary as it was sublimely done. As was his entire set.

If we fondly reviewed his debut EP last month, JP Oldfield astutely replicated the magic on stage and guided the crowd to his chosen mood. Likewise, we fondly reviewed Devil’s Doorbell live recording from Trowbridgeโ€™s Pump a couple of years ago, and their excellent stage presence sticks like mud. Two acts, complimenting in a manner others might find it tricky to do, makes for an entertaining night, which it was, and back in the Tin Pan Alley days of yore, of course instruments were handmade or secondhand, salvaged from wherever they could be sourced.

Maybe a gig in the 1920s wouldn’t have been so different to this after all, as both JP and the Devil’s Doorbell are authentic enough and value the retrospection, and when sprinkled with this fun element, does it even matter?!

Killers, Catalysts and Devizes Author Dave McKennaโ€™s New Novelette

On impulse I speculated, just short of a quarter way through this book and at the conjunction the format of the narrative is sussed, that if the author, Devizesโ€™ Dave McKenna, has a favourite Quentin Tarantino film it might be my favourite too, the lesser acclaimed Jackie Brown. Not for its plagiarism of blaxploitation nor usage of derogatory slangs, rather for the multiple point-of-view conclusion, because The Killer & The Catalyst follows this formula throughout, and this is what makes it engagingโ€ฆ.

This and breakneck volatility, conspiracy inducing, disloyal and sadistic action from nearly every character and the intense velocity itโ€™s all delivered with. Coincidently, Dave cites Tarantino as an influence at the back matter, alongside Harlan Coben and Stephen King. Some of the bookโ€™s settings are drawn from actual features and places in Devizes. Most commonly the now closed and speculated as haunted Roundway psychiatric hospital, and an alley besides it in which Dave elucidates his inspiration for the storyโ€™s events set there were developed from a real incident at the location. Itโ€™s with these eerie settings, familiar if youโ€™re local, I find understanding for citing King as an influence, especially to begin with; it feels like a horror, yet while the book has an unnerving ambience, a crime thriller might better pigeonhole it.

It’s causally written in a loose style with nothing academic about it, making it simple to digest, as if the narrator is on equal level to the characters, as if rambling the yarn to his mate in the pub. Breathes a sense of reality into it; the characters talk like you and I, therefore you identity, why not the narrator too? I like this relaxed and contemporary approach, particularly suits the plot and macho target audience; lads need to read more, and if thatโ€™s the case, this might be the book for them. Hyper popcorn-munching movie violence fashion this is.

Apostrophes are used instead of speech marks. This, and the abbreviation of okay to โ€˜OKโ€™ out of speech makes the grammar police inside me cringe, to be honest. Such usages and the out of speech line, โ€œThat was a piece of piss,โ€ implies this is hardly Dickens quality! But Iโ€™m willing to overlook and ignore these niggly criticisms for this book, because Dave McKenna can weave a story, dammit. He can evoke an appropriate mood within his readers, twist it, and he can suspend you on the edge of your seat. That makes him an author, not an ability to whisk long and misunderstood words (like wot I do to make me sound more intelligent than I is!)

Identifying the protagonist from the antagonist is questionable, when this periodic method of returning to the same opening scene with each point-of-view occurs, and thatโ€™s genius and a narrative difficult to construct. It conveys everything is not as it might seem from the angle of each individual and engages you into understanding the bigger picture. That is what makes The Killer & The Catalyst an absorbing and worthwhile read.

With the current state of the literature industry being itโ€™s who you are rather than how good you can write, I wouldnโ€™t imagine finding this on a supermarket shelf alongside ghost-written celebrity autobiographies. This is an example proving the asset of self-publishing, that which a mainstream publisher wouldnโ€™t touch, doesnโ€™t mean a person hasnโ€™t got an exceptional story to tell and the ability in which to write it, it simply means itโ€™s not commercially viable.

People merely need to be brave and take a lucky dip on a rising author, rather than accept what Waterstones throw at them. The Killer & The Catalyst is the good example of this, should you wish to be held in suspense and driven to question which characters were right and which were wrong, not forgoing indulging in some nasty scenes of violence to boot!

You can get The Killer & The Catalyst as paperback or Kindle on Amazon, or pop into Devizes Books for this page-turner, and youโ€™ll look forward to reading future yarns of Dave McKenna, of that Iโ€™m certain.

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Rowdefest 26 Lineup Reveal!

Drizzly Sundayโ€ฆagain. Iโ€™ve just finished designing the poster, so allow me to reveal the lineup for Rowdefest this coming May, might cheer us upโ€ฆ

by Darren Worrow

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Bits of Elation; Chatting with The Belladonna Treatment

One of Swindon’s premier grunge pop-punkers, The Belladonna Treatment released their debut single, Bits of Elation, with London-based SODEH Records earlier this month. I spoke about the single, the band and local circuits with the bassist in the band, Ian James, as he was the most punctual at a recent gig at the Vic!

Bits of Elation is fifteen seconds under a three-minute-hero which doesnโ€™t come up for air, compensates for those missing seconds with a dynamic and retrospective Ramones-fashioned riff and the feelgood vibe of pop-punk this side of the millennium.

It is far from the Belladonna Treatmentโ€™s first outing to a recording studio, there was a single last year The Torture Garden, and a three-track EP called Pleasure from 2023, which cherry-picks the best elements of many punk subgenres and moulds them into an imitable and infectious house style. Though Ian expressed working with SODEH has opened doors for the band popular in Swindon, evidently blossoming elsewhere. โ€œItโ€™s being played on radio stations in Belgium, Brazil, USA and Canada,โ€ he told me with delight.

The Belladonna Treatment I witnessed live once, in awe at how they rammed the Castle with adoring fans at Swindon Shuffle. Tonight they play a double-header with I See Orange, who alongside Liddington Hill and a number of others usually on this burgeoning Swindon grunge scene, have turned my head toward the subgenre which passed me by at its inception, save Smells Like Teen Spirit. The Belladonna Treatment are ahead of this game, their appeal is universal and seemingly not confined to aficionados of the grunge subgenre. That was clearly evident at the Castle gig, but other than playing Minety last year, I rarely see their name pop up on local circuits other than Old Townโ€™s lively route of The Vic, Castle and Beehive.

Understanding thereโ€™s a number of local grassroots venues where The Belladonna Treatment would fit like a glove, I was surprised to note they hadnโ€™t yet ventured to Trowbridgeโ€™s Pump, Bradford-on-Avonโ€™s Three Horseshoes or even Chippenhamโ€™s Old Road Tavern. I pondered on bands which seem to get stuck in certain fanbase circuits, despite being fully deserved to be showcased across the county and beyond. โ€œIt all depends on what everyone wants to do,โ€ Ian began, โ€œthings like this pop up and itโ€™s nice to do them, but we do want to expand and do other gigs.โ€

โ€œIt is very easy to get stuck into that circuit, of doing the Castle, and those,โ€ he expanded, โ€œbut itโ€™s nice to get out too. I mean, we played a gig in London at the end of January; a cracking venue, which James put together. There were other bands there, all different, but it was a brilliant show, packed out. We were two or three under the bill, so there were loads of other bandโ€™s fans watching us and we can get more followers this way.โ€

Guitarist James has recently moved to London, hence the opportunities for gigs there, but originally the band were all from Stratton, and knew of each other prior to forming The Belladonna Treatment just over two years ago. โ€œLee and James accidentally got together about five years ago, wrote some songs and went around as an acoustic duo, but weโ€™ve all known each other our whole lives. Then they decided they wanted to get a band together. I hadnโ€™t seen either of them for about twenty years, but I was getting back into playing. Stu, our drummer has been around in lots of other bands, played Glastonbury and stuff like that, and again, weโ€™ve known him, and for the last two and a half years we’ve been playing as a full band.โ€

The Belladonna Treatment have been honing their sound since, and Ian felt Bits of Elation is a milestone. Pigeonholing their style he cited Nirvana and The Manic Street Preachers as influences they grew up on, and also mentioned Bowie, โ€œbut if you listen to the songs theyโ€™re melodic, itโ€™s not just head down thrash punk, itโ€™s more melody-orientated, grunge too. That’s why we like playing with I See Orange, thereโ€™s a whole nineties feel about us, similar to them.โ€

We rapped over the idea of levelling off the thrashed out element for a more melodic preference might once have been considered as โ€œselling out,โ€ in punkโ€™s heyday, rather now itโ€™s more of a natural progression and causing the sound to become viable to a wider audience. โ€œIt can do,โ€ Ian agreed, โ€œitโ€™s also a case of, you want to sell more records and if you want to be popular, you have to do this.โ€ Such progression is kingpin to crowds turning up at the Vic tonight and ramming the Castle at The Shuffle, knowing thereโ€™s a motivated band which rocks!

So I threw in the labour of love concept, and we talked cheerfully about while theyโ€™re sharpening their style to suit wider appeal, theyโ€™re also determined to strive for individuality, create their own methodology and not clone existing successful bands. Ian spoke of three new songs ready for release, the snowballing of radio plays and their determination to accomplish wider appeal, โ€œthatโ€™s what weโ€™re going for.โ€ 

It was great to meet Ian, and the rest of the band briefly, when they turned up! Dadโ€™s taxi was on duty and I could only remain until the end of the Wildcats game, unfortunately missing the gig. A valid reason for highlighting bands seemingly confined locally to our larger towns and encouraging venues to book them around here, because you only need to stream some of their infectious tunes to see what I mean, and why The Belladonna Treatment should be popping up at grassroots venues across the UK, at the very least; fingers and toes crossed.  

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Doctor Faustus Sells His Soulโ€ฆ. in Devizes!

Featured Image:@jenimeadephotography Just another rainy Saturday afternoon in Devizes, whereby I watched a profound fellow dramatically sacrifice himself to the devil, then popped to Morrisonsโ€ฆ

Chandra Finds Heaven on Earth

Usually I just write what I think, but if I had a point-scoring system this new single from Bristol-based indie-pop outfit Chandra would tick everyโ€ฆ

Devizes Issues Wants You!

Dubiously biased and ruled with an iron fist, the mighty admin of the once popular Devizes Facebook group, Devizes Issues, is using the iconic Greatโ€ฆ

Who Broke into Joyrobberโ€™s Car?!

Poor Joyrobber, got his car broken into, on his birthday too, but avenged them in song! Requiem for my Car Window is this mysterious characterโ€™sโ€ฆ

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Situationships With Chloe Hepburn

A second single from Swindon Diva Chloe Hepburn, Situationships was released this week. With a deep rolling bassline, finger-click rhythm and silky soulful vocals, this is the definite RnB sound of now, with nods to nineties RnB like Macy Gray and Mary J. Bligeโ€ฆ.

Though this is fresh, I believe itโ€™s fair to compare Chloe to such RnB queens, for the elements are composed accordingly; the poignant relationship prose of passionate writing, and the sensual tone expressed simply both rinse out those sombre amatory vibes commonly associated with the genre, especially with female vocalists.

Chloe Iโ€™ve just discovered, but itโ€™s an immediate like from me. Soul is not the typical style we find much of here, therefore when it does youโ€™ve got to take it on the hip and make the most of it! Itโ€™s been six months since her last single On The Run, which takes a slightly more ballard approach, and followed by a five track EP called 7 Months, tending towards a pop sound, and that RnB style reliant on and spliced with dancehall, and even house. But, when youโ€™ve finished listening to the moreish Situationships, youโ€™re duty bound by your ears to delve deeper into Chloeโ€™s back catalogue.

But more importantly, now we know of Chloe Hepburn we look forward to hearing what she will do next, as I believe this emerging soul artist has not yet reached her peak, and we need to be there when she does. Situationships filled me with the confidence Chloe is destined for greater things. Itโ€™s a gorgeous single, oozing with potential and only trickling with the necessities to produce something groundbreaking.

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Devizes to Host New County-Wide Music Awards

I’m delighted to announce Devizine will be actively assisting to organise a new county-wide music awards administration, in conjunction with Wiltshire Music Events UK. The public will be asked to vote, and the award ceremony will take place in Devizes at the Corn Exchange, on Saturday 25th October 2025, with hope it will continue annually…..

Wiltshire Music Events UK in conjunction with Devizine, have decided it is overdue to acknowledge and celebrate the creativity, innovation and dedication of musicians, music promoters, and venues in Wiltshire. Therefore, we have created The Wiltshire Music Awards, an annual award ceremony reflecting and commemorating musical talent within the county.

Nominations are open for the ceremony from 1st May 2025, and will close on 10th June 2025. We are excited to unveil the categories, which reflect the diverse ways people bring music to life within their respective communities, county-wide.

These awards will recognise the individuals, groups and organisations whose efforts make a real difference. If you know someone you believe deserves recognition, or want to showcase your group, this is your chance to give them the spotlight they deserve.

Wiltshire Music Events calls for anyone promoting music locally to get involved and help create diversity and coverage for their own communities. A panel of professionals from across the county will be elected to assist in judging the nominations. With a finale date of Saturday 25th October, when an award ceremony will take place, central to the county, at the Corn Exchange, Devizes.

I have pushed for this event to take place in Devizes, for while it’s geographically central to the county, I’m sure you’ll agree, there is also a powerhouse of talent emerging in this area and it will be a positive attribute to Devizes and hallmark its rightful place in the arts scene of Wiltshire.

Why get involved?

Music has the power to unite communities, foster creativity, and change lives. The Wiltshire Music Awards will honour those who make this possible and provide a platform to showcase to local talents. Whether youโ€™re a performer, organiser, or supporter, these awards are an opportunity to highlight the hard work that often goes unseen.

To receive an award will bring more than just a trophy. It will elevate profiles, help with funding applications, and energise the community.

There is plenty of time to recognise the people and projects that inspire you. Nominating will be easy and online, and we will release the website in which to do so nearer the time for voting. There will be categories. The public can nominate their choices in all of the categories. Once the nominations process is completed, the top three of each category will be presented to the judges, who will then decide the winner of each category. The judges decision will be final, and we shall then announce to the public the top 3 of each category with the result announced at the ceremony.

The 2025 Categories:

Best Solo Male Artist – Best Solo Female Artist

Best Covers Band – Best Original Band

Best Duo – Rising Star Newcomer

Tribute Artist /Band – Music Venue

Best Original Song – Best Vocalist

Best Guitarist – Best Bassist

Best Drummer – Best Instrumentalist

Best Original Song – Best DJ

Lifetime Achievement Award


Outstanding Contribution to the Wiltshire Music Scene


Outstanding Contribution to Music in the Community:

Ruby, Sunday at the Gate

It’s a rarity that I should drag myself off the sofa on a Sunday these days, one usually reserved for the monthly Jon Amor Trio residency at The Southgate. But beyond doubt my favourite young singer-songwriter right now, Ruby Darbyshire, is down my favourite watering hole, and such an occasion would be unmissable even if she did it weekly; twist my arm, why don’t you?!

This raw and self-disciplined talent when I discovered Ruby a little under two years ago was so breathtaking it caused me to state, โ€œRubyโ€™s music will grow into a phenomenon, and you need to hear it blossoming.โ€ I’m honoured to note it’s quoted on her website, one which everyone took heed of, on our local scene and beyond, and one which we can safely convert to past tense; Ruby’s music has blossomed and is now phenomenal.

Everyone was held spellbound throughout, this is now standard protocol wherever Ruby plays. Though Ruby remains modest and โ€œshowyโ€ simply doesn’t equate for her performances, alongside her refined multi-instrumentalism, her confidence to present herself and engage with an audience has accelerated to level up with the naturally sublime soulful voice she’s blessed with. A voice which may be kingpin to her excellence, but is really only the cherry on a cake with top marks all round.

A cake which covers virtuosos Nina Simone to Freddie Mercury, and makes them her own homages, then flips to bring Rag’n’Bone Man’s magnum opus to an older audience, and slides her own compositions in so effectively it’s divinelyย  encapsulating. Then, there’s the additional nods to her Scottish roots; folk sing-a-longs and her distinctive introduction to the second half of her set, with bagpipes. Even if you know it’s coming, you’ll never tire of it or any of it because that’s simply the magic Ruby brings to any venue.ย  Ruby Darbyshire is the whole deal now.

Headline Tickets For Devizes Arts Festival Available Now, And What Else is to Come?!

Tickets for the headline acts at Devizes Arts Festival are up for grabs now, and the rest will follow for general release on April 28th, unless you become a โ€˜friendโ€™ of the festival, in which case it will be the 7th Aprilโ€ฆand why wouldnโ€™t you?!

We all love Devizes Arts Festival here at Devizine, which opens on Friday 30st May and runs right up to Sunday 15th June. If you promise not to go breaking my heart, Iโ€™ll tell you whatโ€™s happening thereโ€ฆyeah, I know, you couldnโ€™t if you tried!!

The festival opens with headliners, Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri at the Corn Exchange on the evening of Friday 30th, and an exhibition by local landscape artist David Oโ€™Connor, who draws inspiration from Paul Nash, and ceramicist Richard Phethean. The exhibit will run throughout the festival at White Chalk Gallery in the Old Swan Yard.

Saturday 31st May sees multi-award-winning teacher, composer and organist Chris Totney returning to Devizes to give this yearโ€™s Festival Organ Recital; one of the very first times youโ€™ll get to experience the new pipe organ that has taken the best part of a year to install in St Johns Church. Followed by one of the UKโ€™s finest Latin bands, Kโ€™Chevere, at the Corn Exchange.ย 

Sunday 1st June, thereโ€™s a walk with Judy Hible of Wiltshire Geology Group, and furniture-maker Stewart Linford hosts a fascinating and informative talk on โ€œLuxury in Woodโ€ at the Peppermill (free fringe event.) But all eyes will be on the skies, when space scientist and BAFTA-nominated presenter of โ€œThe Sky at Nightโ€ Maggie Aderin-Pocock, pops in for an inspiring exploration of the universe.

Monday 2nd is time to get interactive, in a writing session with members of Devizes Writersโ€™ Group, exploring writing fiction or nonfiction, one of the first workshops at the festival this year. Tuesday sees an enthralling and earth-moving evening of gardening talk with TVโ€™s top gardener Frances Tophill. Wednesday is the turn of bestselling crime and thriller writer Felix Francis, for a fascinating talk on mysteries in the world of thoroughbred horse-racing. And Conan Doyle expert David Stuart Daviesโ€™ โ€˜Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act,โ€™ directed by award-winning director Gareth Armstrong, plays at the Wharf Theatre, with a second performance on Thursday. Also find guitarist and singer-songwriterAnna Ling at St Andrews on Thursday.

Friday 6th, join Rowdeโ€™s only botanical artist and author, Ann Swan, for a workshop in her studio, while ceramicist Keith Brymer Jones will talk about his life as a creative potter and his experiences as a judge of The Great Pottery Throwdown at The Corn Exchange.

Saturday 7th June, and youโ€™ll find the Sunday Times bestselling author of โ€œMiss Austenโ€, Gill Hornby talking with Mark Jones from Fantasy Radio, a demonstration by the Devizes Regency Dancers (free fringe event,) and an electrifying country show with all-female Country Chicks.

Another walk on Sunday, gosh, they do like their Sunday walks, this time with Wiltshire Wildlife Trustโ€™s Nick Self, conservation lead for North Wiltshire. Then itโ€™s over to The British Lion for some Welsh frontier roots music with Whiskey River, (free fringe event.)

Monday 9th June you can join print-maker Hannah Cantellow at her Printmaking Studio in Rowde, or learn some crossword secrets from Times Puzzle Master Tim Moorey, who has been solving Times crosswords for over 50 years, on Tuesday. Tuesday also sees virtuoso clarinettist Sarah Williamson and soloist and chamber musician Simon Callaghan.

Wednesday 11th sees singer-songwriter Miranda Pender presenting a darkly humorous talk which includes five original songs based around some of the more bizarre stories unearthed from her family history. And Two Queens, One Nation at the Wharf Theatre, Miriam Cooperโ€™s one-woman show exploring the unavoidable collision of dynamic sovereigns and cousins, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots.

Photographer and naturalist Stephen Davis is at the Cheese Hall on Thursday 12th, and jazz saxophonist Julian Costello brings his quartet to the Town Hall.

Friday is comedy night as Mark โ€˜Taskmasterโ€™ Watson, celebrates twenty years in standup. Multi-award-winner, YouTube cult figure, Radio 4 favourite and recently โ€˜Baby Reindeerโ€™ actor, Mark comes to Devizes after seasons at the Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Edinburgh comedy festivals.

Author of English Civil War historical fiction series โ€˜Divided Kingdomโ€™, Charles Cordell is with us on Saturday 14th June. His writing has received high praise in editorial and readersโ€™ reviews alike, his latest novel, โ€˜The Keys of Hell and Deathโ€™, is set between Wiltshire and Somerset in July 1643. Followed by the Bath Male Choir in St Johns, and Torbayโ€™s five-piece 80s party band Riviera Dogs at the Corn Exchange.

For the final day of Devizes Arts Festival, Sunday 15th June, author Charles Cordell finishes his talk with a guided walk and discussion of the Siege of Devizes in July 1643. Journalist, writer, and experienced skydiver Sally Smith is at Devizes Books talking about her book โ€˜Magnificent Women and Flying Machines.โ€™ And Bath-based instrumental jazz-infused blend of Levantine mystery, Balkan passion and Latin rhythms quintetย  Radio Banska bring the Arts Festival to a dynamic close at the Cellar Bar. Both of these last two events are free fringe events.

Tickets for the headliners are on sale now, all others will be on sale from HERE on April 28th.

Trending….

Lady Nade; Sober!

Dry January, anyone? Well, Lady Nade just plunged into an outdoor 4ยฐC eucalyptus sauna for a social media reel. But whilst I’d require a stiffโ€ฆ

Keep reading

Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward โ€œEโ€) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy tunesโ€ฆ

Keep reading

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Take Our Wiltshire Pothole or Moon Crater Quiz Challenge!!

Can You Find The Wiltshire Potholes From The Moon Craters?!

Now, at Devizine Towers we are far too mature and sensible to mock Wiltshire Councilโ€™s sterling efforts to repair our road defects by jumping on the bandwagons of chalking phallic symbolism around our countyโ€™s potholes, playing pitch and putt in them, or creating memeโ€™s with a drowning Leonardo DiCaprio. But we thought a fun game for all the family might be some harmless entertainment; at least, far more harmless than driving on our roads….

Can you distinguish the pictures of potholes on Wiltshireโ€™s roads between those pictures of moon craters?! It’s not as easy as it looks, kids! Would you know which of these images to report on the MyWilts app, or NASA?!

Thereโ€™s ten pictures below, carefully cropped and in grayscale to avoid clues, like vaguely painted road markings, or little green aliens. If you do need a clue, I can tell you, there’s more Wiltshire pot holes than there are moon craters; we like to keep things real on Devizine!

See how many you can correctly guess in our pothole or moon crater challenge!

Find the answers below, if I can remember myself which ones are which!!

NO PEEKING!!

Question 1: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 2: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 3: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 4: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 5: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 6: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 7: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 8: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 9: Pothole or Moon Crater?

Question 10: Pothole or Moon Crater? Tricky one to finish on!

Answers: 1- pothole, 2- pothole, 3- moon crater, 4- pot hole, 5-pot hole, 6-moon crater, 7-tricky one this, but it is a moon crater we found on the Poulshot road, 8- pot hole, 9- moon crater, 10- unless Neil Armstrong took a traffic cone with him, we strongly suspect it’s a pot hole, but who can be sure? I reckon you’ve taken a traffic cone to the moon in the past after a few too many shandies, or maybe just to the end of your cul-de-sac.

Mark your own papers, I trust you, but deduct a point for every traffic cone you’ve woken up with, cuddling in your bed, you silly drunken sausages.

Swindon Palestine Solidarityโ€™s Charity Iftar and Poetry and Art for Palestine Events

Two upcoming events from Swindon Palestine Solidarity in March. The first is a charity Iftar this Friday 14th March, from 6pm – 8pm at the Broadgreen Community Centre, Salisbury Street, Swindon. The second is an evening of poetry and art at the Friends Meeting House, 79 Eastcott Hill, Swindon, on Friday 21st March, from 7.30-9pmโ€ฆ..

Swindon Palestine Solidarity are raising funds for the HandsUp Project. This project is an amazing initiative that through a network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and self-expression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth, and the development of English language skills.ย 

The Hands Up Project trained teachers to set up and run drama clubs in schools all over Palestine. These spaces enable students to develop their creativity and discover their talents. They are now very well established as a tool for extra curricular English language development, and as a focal point for Hands Up Project remote sessions with volunteers around the world.

All funds raised will go to teachers in Gaza and the West Bank to help the children there.

This Fridayโ€™s evening will start with a three course meal, where a mixture of different cultural cuisines will be available. Swindon Palestine Solidarity thanks the Lalbagh, Mummy’s Kitchen and Grand Bazaar along with community volunteers who are donating food, goods, money and time to make this event a success.

Swindon Palestine Solidarity are delighted to have a very special guest, Nick Bilbrough who founded the HandsUp Project, accompanied by teachers, to speak about the project and its positive impact for the children who have suffered loss, disruption and trauma. Here is an excerpt from the diary of a young girl from Gaza: โ€˜I opened my eyes at sunrise, weariness gnawing at my mind and soul. Yesterdayโ€™s evacuation journey had been so terrifying that I wanted to bury it deep beneath the layers of grim memories. Leaving behind the people I had lived with for more than three months weighed heavily on my heart.โ€™ (HandsUp Project – handsupproject.org)

Tickets are available on Eventbrite HERE, or email @swindonpalestinesolidarity.org, especially if you have special dietary needs, so that they can accommodate you.

The second event is Poetry and Art for Palestine.

Swindon Palestine Solidarity are pleased to announce an evening of poetry and art at the Friends Meeting House, 79 Eastcott Hill, Swindon, SN1 3JF, on Friday 21st March, from 7.30-9pm. This is a free event but booking is recommended on Eventbrite HERE.

Join Peter and Alice Oswald and local poets from the community for an evening of spoken word and poetry, to hear the stories and voices of children in Palestine. Peter will make a stop in Swindon on his Pilgrimage 4 Palestine to Westminster while fasting Ramadan in solidarity with Palestine and raising awareness of Islamophobia.

Come to this event to welcome Peter and his crew on their way and find out how you can help the children in Gaza. Take the opportunity to view an exhibition of art from children in Gaza and meet members of Swindon Palestine Solidarity.

๐€ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Œ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ : ๐…๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ญ๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐Ž๐ซ๐œ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐š ๐š๐ญ ๐“๐ž๐ฐ๐ค๐ž๐ฌ๐›๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐€๐›๐›๐ž๐ฒ

Review by Pip Aldridge

Last week, I had the privilege of seeing the Fulltone Orchestra perform at the beautiful Tewkesbury Abbey beneath the Peace Doves art installation.…

The entire concert was breathtaking, divided into two halves. The first featured a mixture of orchestral pieces and solos, beginning with the theme from Blue Planet, which was my favourite piece of the evening. The acoustics of the church, combined with the sheer talent of the orchestra, completely captivated the audience. It felt as though, if you closed your eyes, you could almost believe you were watching the programme itself.

This half included a range of music, including a stunning violin solo that provided a striking contrast to the rest of the programme. It concluded with a wonderful rendition of Youโ€™ll Never Walk Alone, which was the perfect piece to lead into the second half.

The second half featured Karl Jenkinsโ€™ The Peacemakers, performed by the Fulltone Chorus and Orchestra. There was a fascinating contrast between the different pieces – some were slow and melodic, while others were more rousing and intense. Many had African and Celtic influences, with a driving beat towards the end.

To me, it felt as though the music gradually built in intensity, symbolising the lengths to which people will go in their pursuit of peace. The concert ended with a powerful crescendo that left me feeling both hopeful and deeply moved. Performing this music beneath the Peace Doves installation felt so intentional and uplifting; hearing music about striving for peace in such a setting truly enhanced the experience.

The variety of music worked beautifully together, giving the impression that it represented the world itself – how it changes and how our approaches to peace evolve over time. The inclusion of words from great peace leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr. made the performance feel deeply personal, yet simultaneously vast in its significance.

This was my first time attending a concert of this kind, and I found it profoundly moving. The passion and dedication of the performers were evident in every note, and I experienced a wide range of emotions throughout. If you ever have the opportunity to see the Fulltone Orchestra and Chorus in one of their upcoming projects, I would highly recommend it – it is a truly special experience.

The last one is in Bath Abbey on the 15th March. You should go. 

Pip is sixteen and studying film at college, with the hope of becoming a journalist. We wish Pip all the best with her career and are grateful for allowing us to publish this insightful and brilliantly written review.

CUDS, Devizes Town Litter Pick for GB Spring Clean

Clean Up Devizes invites you to help with a town littler pick for the GB Spring Clean on 22nd March. The Litter Pick is open to everyone to take part in, equipment can be borrowed on the day. CUDS have pledged to pick up 100 black bags of litter this year which is up from 75 bags last yearโ€ฆ..ย 

On the day people just need to turn up at The Green opposite Morrisons at 10am, they’ll be split up into small groups of 3 or 4 people, and have litter picking routes to go on. The litter pick ends at 12:30, but coordinators Shirley and George tell me, โ€œthey can do as much as they feel able to do, and it’s open to everyone to take part in. We hope that families, neighbours, friends, etc, will all take part!โ€.

Just pledging to fill one bag can make a big difference to the town we love!

Coupled with a Devizes Swap Shop at St James Church on the same Saturday, where you can donate clothes, toys, books, games, crafts, and house plants, swap or take some as you need, itโ€™s going to be a very green day in Devizes! See the poster below for details.

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Burning the Midday Oil at The Muck

Highest season of goodwill praises must go to Chrissy Chapman today, who raised over ยฃ500 (at the last count) for His Grace Childrenโ€™s Centre inโ€ฆ

St John’s Choir Christmas Concert in Devizes

Join the St Johnโ€™s Choir and talented soloists for a heart-warming evening of festive favourites, carols, and candlelit Christmas atmosphere this Friday 12 th Decemberโ€ฆ

For Now, Anyway; Gus White’s Debut Album

Featured Image: Barbora Mrazkova My apologies, for Marlboroughโ€™s singer-songwriter Gus Whiteโ€™s debut album For Now, Anyway has been sitting on the backburner, and itโ€™s moreโ€ฆ

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Hells Bells! AC/DC tribute in Devizes

With our roads being the state theyโ€™re in, is it any wonder on the 5th April Hells Bells, rated as the UKโ€™s top AC/DC tribute, are taking the highway to hell, via Devizes Corn Exchange?! But they are! Better to be thunderstruck than burst a tyreโ€ฆ..

Hells Bells are Europe’s longest established AC/DC Tribute Band who have performed all over the UK as well as Portugal, Austria, Russia, Belgium, Czech Republic and the Middle East since 1996.

And theyโ€™re bringing Dead Zebras, who claim not to be your typical rock revivalists. They’ve mastered the art of blending eighties nostalgia with a fresh, modern sound, and creating a cocktail that sounds like a wild ride in a DeLorean with a Van Halen soundtrack, apparently!

Tickets are a snip at ยฃ15, which you can grab online here, and Let There Be Rock!!

Soupchick to Take Over The Hillworth Park Cafe

Weโ€™re delighted to hear Anya & Marc of the fantastically tasty Soupchick in the Devizes Shambles are to take over the cafe at Hillworth Park. โ€œWe are excitedly expanding by taking on that little gem of Hillworth Cafe. We aim to source most of our produce as locally as possible to benefit the local economy and to be sustainable,โ€ said Anyaโ€ฆ.

It is hoping to be going ahead in April, and the dynamic soup duo intend to have a grand opening; watch this space! I supposed to Marc that the cafe at the park cafe seemed to sell mainly cakes, chocolate, teas and soft drinks, many of which one could nip around the corner and buy cheaper from the Hillworth Store. Soupchick would be a game changer.

โ€œThatโ€™s what weโ€™re hoping,โ€ Marc replied, โ€œAnya has loads of ideas. We will start with a bit of caution, but of course will do hot food, and alcohol, but weโ€™re really excited to see what we can do!โ€

Soupchick made an appeal for information today, already using Heritage Fine Foods, Lower Field Farm Meats in Coate, coffee roasted in Warminster and fresh fruit and veg from the Thursday Market, they need suggestions for reasonably priced back ups to guarantee a smooth flow. They are looking for local fruit and veg wholesalers, particularly interested in juicing oranges, salad veg growers, and cheesemakers, particularly feta style, cheddar & halloumi style cheeses. Contact them via Facebook.

We wish them the very best of luck with the project, but I grew concerned; would I still be able to get my soup fix in the Shambles and sit in the lovely Valentina art gallery opposite to eat it?! โ€œOh yes,โ€ Marc assured me, โ€œwe are keeping the Shambles going, I like being in town.โ€ We like being in town too, Marc, we like that you like being in town, and I hope you like that we like that you like being in town, andโ€ฆ oh, just lace me with some beef & mushroom stroganoff to stop my over excited waffling, hint, hint!!

If Devizes can have two Greggs, it can have two Soupchicks too!!!!

Trending…..

Butane Skies Not Releasing a Christmas Song!

No, I didnโ€™t imagine for a second they would, but upcoming Take the Stage winners, alt-rock emo four-piece, Butane Skies have released their second song,โ€ฆ

One Of Us; New Single From Lady Nade

Featured Image by Giulia Spadafora Ooo, a handclap uncomplicated chorus is the hook in Lady Ladeโ€™s latest offering of soulful pop. Itโ€™s timelessly cool andโ€ฆ

Large Unlicensed Music Event Alert!

On the first day of advent, a time of peace and joy to the world et al, Devizes Police report on a โ€œlarge unlicenced musicโ€ฆ

Winter Festival/Christmas/Whatever!

This is why I love you, my readers, see?! At the beginning of the week I put out an article highlighting DOCAโ€™s Winter Festival, andโ€ฆ

Cracked Machine at The Southgate

If many space-rock acts have more band member changes than most other musicians change their socks, Hawkwind are the exemplar of the tendency. There might be some scientific theory for this, equally there may not. What is more probable is that it is an occupational hazard for members to get as lost in space as Dr. Zachary Smith. Cracked Machine, here tonight to provide the entertainment at the Devizesโ€™ Southgate, are also prone to getting through some keyboardists and drummers, though if the lead guitarist-frontman and bassist remain steadfast, this propensity is not the only element to them comparable with Hawkwind, and thatโ€™s a good thing in my opinionโ€ฆ..

If youโ€™ve any hazy recollection of a maintaining a horizontal posture in a bedroom for the duration of a scratched long player with a gatefold sleeve, staring at patterns either in the mould on the wall or blu-tacked Mandelbrot set posters covering them up, in a smoky haze proportionate to your memories and stenching of wood burner and red Leb, whether only with a bong for a friend or a few stragglers with no more conversation than the bong, save a few comments like โ€œoh wow, man, can you see it?!โ€ then Cracked Machine is the band to seek such fond memories, and bring them to the forefront of your fragile cerebral cortex, through a preponderance of sublime bassy rock bliss.

For if space-rock is a natural progression from Led Zeppelin, Flyod or Hendrixโ€™s overextended bridges of swirling sonic electric guitar skullduggery and wobbly sound effects, Cracked Machine nailed it some years ago and show no sign of altering their methodology. In fact, the tendency is to get harder. Though Hawkwind allowed vocals, Fromeโ€™s Ozric Tentacles may be a better comparison for space-rock aficionados.

In this, itโ€™s been some years since Iโ€™ve caught up with them live, despite reviewing albums one, two and three. It was left up to Ben Niamor and Andy Fawthrop to review their last two appearances at the Southgate, respectively in November 2022, and October 2018. For me, I will always have the 2019 Devizes Street Festival, when Pete of Vinyl Realm paid and hosted our local stage idea on the corner of St Johnโ€™s and townsfolk slow-roasted on deckchairs while Cracked Machineโ€™s definitive sound caressed their very souls. But while Cracked Machineโ€™s lineup has changed since then, their devotion to the sound and ability to knock it out to the shimmering rafters, isnโ€™t. 

In that, I knew what I was letting myself in for. It was another one of those birthday things for me, which always seems to charge me with ever-increasing speed. There wasnโ€™t actually much else happening in town Saturday night, much I wouldโ€™ve missed this for a wanton jig to Motown or some-other such-like, elsewhere. Suppose I had the option to go down the Bin afterwards, but as it was advised by Vince Bell who I met on the bus, such a recommendation had to be taken with a pinch of salt, and was best at 52 to get a taxi direct to my duvet! For a while there though, it was a party, as it is in The Southgate, with itโ€™s no frills hospitable atmosphere, affordable range of drinks, and general โ€œproper pubโ€ tenet. The affectionately dubbed โ€œGateโ€ doesnโ€™t change like band members of a space-rock band, and itโ€™s a cracking party there more often than not.

Tom Harris kicked off the proceedings with his guitar, belting vocals and the expressions of a hyperalgesic at the dentist. Impossible to fault, Tom delivers the banter as well as his songs, divides covers equally from originals, so if heโ€™s not charming an emotive blues ballad of his own pen, itโ€™s perhaps a scatological one or heโ€™s made amusing entertainment from a slyly chosen cover. Rob Thomasโ€™ Santana summer smoothie reflects the unusually clement climate for March, and Tenacious Dโ€™s hilarious Tribute was surely perfect for Tom, and he handled them with might, until drummer Gary Martin arrived from a support slot at the Pump with Clock Radio, and the main act was completed and ready to rock.

They didnโ€™t come up for air throughout these lengthy compositions of prog rock formulated instrumentals, and as a result of not taking advantage of the customary break, their set ran off too early. Landlord Dave encouraged them to pull something else out of the bag, saving the necessity of the crowdโ€™s cliche call for an encore, which you know wouldโ€™ve happened anyway. To which they considered how to continue, yet what elapsed was another drifting spacey masterpiece of fifteen minutes or more. We loved it.

If the template of Cracked Machineโ€™s sound is arguably narrow, and narrative is vague due to only being expressions of instruments, their nature is stylised, and works wonders, creating a spellbinding ambience. Cracked Machine are always welcomed by the Southgate regulars, for even if the pub strives to diversify, itโ€™s electric blues and prog rock which they favour, and this, with those wobbly keyboard noises and subtly placed samples, is simply a psychedelic progression from it which is decades old, yet Cracked Machine proves itโ€™s worth in the modern world.

Space rock, or acid rock, a direct descendant of Pink Floyd and Zepโ€™s tolkienesque The Battle of Evermore, also acts as the bridge from rock to electronica and ambient house, a bridge the guarding troll usually confounds most rock subgenres with a riddle and renders them unable to cross, thatโ€™s why I love it, and thatโ€™s while I will only have good things to say about Cracked Machine.

Trending…

Isnโ€™t She Lonely, New George Wilding Single

The second single from Georgeโ€™s sessions with Jolyon Dixon is out today, Isnโ€™t She Lonely. With the vaudeville ambience of Queenโ€™s later material and sprinkles of doo-wop at the intro, this whisps around crooners with subtler psychedelic undertones than usual. One could ask if this is tongue-in-cheek or a mature direction for George, to delve into post rock n roll influences, yet, of course, it retains, through its incredibly inventive uniqueness, the definitive George Wildingโ€ฆ..

For his fans itโ€™ll remind them somewhat of Terrible Little Secret from his decade past Being Ragdollian EP; how George is skillfully capable of frolicing vocally with the schlager of artists like Tony Christie, and remain cool throughout by splicing this music hall vibe ironically with a degree of melancholy in the narrative. It is, in short, impressive.

โ€œThe lyrics were born out of the idea of changing one letter of โ€˜Isnโ€™t She Lovelyโ€™ so it takes on this whole desperate air,โ€ George explained. โ€œIt goes from so celebratory to a real longing when you change it to โ€˜Lonely;โ€™ the instant flip side of love. When I wrote it I had it as a 60โ€™s thing in my head; think Bobby Veeโ€™s โ€˜Take Good Care of My Baby.โ€™โ€

George Wilding

My immediate reaction was Stevie Wonder was referring to his newborn daughter in the title, rather a romantic interlude, but this take only bears resemblance to it by title, and just like how George can make a cover his own, Isnโ€™t She Lonely is not in any way a parody of Wonderโ€™s 1978 hit. Though the commercially viable element rings home, and sticks. 

Just as Madonna did with True Blue, yesteryear pop hooks will be recalled and reused so not to be archived in an impenetrable chest, and in that they become timeless, precisely summing up this song. If the last single back in October, Signs of Life, bore elements of gothic and most definitely indie, this is George being more playful, different, yet still being George!

Isn’t She Lonely is across streaming platforms today….

Trending…..

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Favourite Waste of Time: Chatting with Owen Paul Ahead a Devizes 80s Gig

July 1986, Madonna was asking her papa not to preach, Chris De Burgh was fantasising about a lady in red, and they were the only two things preventing a feelgood summer cover called My Favourite Waste of Time reaching the top of the charts. It was recorded by Owen Paul, who arrives in Devizes for a โ€œtribute to the eightiesโ€ gig at the Corn Exchange on Friday 21st March. I caught up with him ahead of this, and we chatted merrily about the hit, his origins and influences, mullets and all things eighties, oh and what to expect from the showโ€ฆ.

After clearing up uncertainty over his two forenames, Owen is his, Paul derived from a younger brotherโ€™s name, we moved onto the way I envisioned this meeting. I imagined weโ€™d be dancing on some tropical beach in white sleeveless t-shirts and sporting mullets, as was the video to his pop smash.

โ€œYeah,โ€ he laughed, explaining about a gig last Saturday in Exeter with Radio 1 DJ Pat Sharp, โ€œit was the battle of the guy that used to be the world champion of the mullet people!โ€

A tropical theme was so eighties too, I said, from Wham to Blacklace, we all wanted to go on holiday, we all wanted to be on that beach in the My Favourite Waste of Time video. โ€œYou’re absolutely right,โ€ Owen responded, pointing out the gig last weekend was in a theatre called Tropicana. โ€œIt was one of the strangest shows I’ve ever done. Club Tropicana, just for the event, right? ย The show started at 2pm and run โ€˜till 8pm. I said to my manager, โ€˜weโ€™re gonna play in the afternoon?โ€™ She was like, โ€˜yeah. You do the thing in the afternoon, people come dressed in eighties clothes and they forget their lives for five minutes.โ€™ Apparently, itโ€™s a thing; adults like to go to a show between 2 and 6pm, so they can get back to watch Casualty!โ€

I assured Owen I must be the exception to that rule, but Owen was still giggling, โ€œor Strictly!โ€

But were the contents of the show like what we can expect to see in Devizes on the 21st, I had to ask. For the record, while tagged with the idiom โ€œone-hit-wonder,โ€ Owen is a prolific recording artist who is still releasing new original material; will he be playing these? โ€œEven though I still do songs, when it’s an eighties show like in Devizes, it’ll be full on eighties-tastic, girl singers, dancers, and weโ€™ll sing Bowie, U2, Deacon Blue, Crowded House and more.โ€

Time to drop my million-dollar question which had been floating around my excuse for a brain since knowing I was to chat with Owen. That the term one-hit-wonder, which Owen was bequeathed at the time, must be quite disparaging for an artist with a wealth of other works. I asked him how he felt about it at the time, and how he feels about the label now.

Not to blow my own trumpet, he replied, โ€œif I think of all the interviews I’ve done in recent times, that is the best question I’ve ever had! No one has ever asked that of me because they’re always scared. And youโ€™ve asked, so thatโ€™s fine. Iโ€™ve got to tell you the truthful answer, right? And I mean this with all my heart. I know a million acts whoโ€™ve never had a hit. And I have. That ahead gave me the doorway to be here forty years later, playing festivals all over the world. So I don’t think it’s disparaging at all. I think it’s a complete opposite. I think I’ve had a hit, when I know people more talented than me,โ€ Owen exampled a mildly successful Scottish band called The Blue Nile, โ€œthey had โ€˜Tinseltown in the Rain,โ€™ the closest thing to them having a hit, (reached No. 87 on the singles chart in 1984) Theyโ€™re an incredible act, but I had a smash that went global. They never had. So I don’t think of it as disparaging at all.โ€

In this I think Owen misunderstood my question, that it wasnโ€™t the having a one-hit-wonder which I thought might be disparaging, rather being labelled a one-hit-wonder which could be, but hey, it was a calculated and flattering response anyway!

Being Iโ€™m walking Owen down memory lane, I wanted to take him further back, being aside My Favourite Waste of Time being an acoustic guitar-led feelgood anthem delineating eighties pop, Wikipedia claims it was the Sex Pistols which first inspired him.

โ€œThe basic story is this, and this is completely true,โ€ Owen elucidated, โ€œwe had a basement, which makes us sound posh, but it was a council flat. My brother and his mates from school used to come back to our house, and they used to rehearse and make an absolute racket of a noise! And this is like 1975-76ish. I was too young; I wasn’t allowed to go downstairs. I used to sit upstairs and listen to what they were doing, and they would play singles of whatever was going on, and they played the Damned, The Clash, The Strangers, and then played the Sex Pistolโ€™s Anarchy in the UK, and I’m upstairs going, what, the, hell, is, that?!โ€

โ€œAnd I’m going off the back of the seventies when it was prog rock and all the stuff where you had to be a virtuoso and play for ten hours. And it really changed me, and the guys who’s downstairs in our basement, turns out to be Simple Minds; you wanna write that down?!!โ€

Noted in awe, Owen, thank you. His brother Brian was the Simple Minds drummer, and guitarist Charlie Burchill, he informed me, โ€œwould come upstairs to my room, ’cause I was not allowed down there, and I had a guitar. My dad was publican, and when people couldnโ€™t pay their bill, you make them get on and perform.โ€ Owen told how Charlie showed him an E chord, an A chord and a D chord, โ€œand he said that’s all you need, and I said โ€˜thanks!โ€™โ€

We talked of the 3-chord simplicity of eighties pop, Owen extended this by getting technical on learning structures from the likes of The Velevt Underground. โ€œAnd then,โ€ he explained, โ€œoff the back of that, I started to make my own noise.โ€

On his first band, Venigmas, Owen explained how at just sixteen they left Glasgow for London, and he told his mum, โ€œI don’t think we’ll be back.โ€ Owen spoke of the changing scene, the new romantics, but was adamant he was a โ€œrock guy.โ€

โ€œBecause everyone thinks you’re an overnight sensation. I was eight years or more in the industry before I got signed to Sony. They signed me as a rock act, and then I stupidly made a pop record! And that became my real problem. Because I saw myself as a Bowie guy, I thought you could do anything. I thought you could do funk, you could do rock, soul, and pop; that’s what I thought. How naive was I?!โ€

Owen recorded two songs for Sony, the one we all know was nominated for a Brit award. He spoke fondly of recording it and how they immediately knew it was a hit, then suggested โ€œbut at the same time, in my heart I went oh-no. I’m in trouble here.โ€

I speculated aloud, asking him if it was because the music industry will typecast him as pop, and he replied, โ€œyou’re absolutely right; that’s what happened. So the record comes out, it’s a worldwide smash. It got me on Smash Hit’s cover, on Saturday morning, telly; I’m shiny, bubble-gum pop guy. That’s where I am, right? Now, the record label wants ten more tracks which sounds like thatโ€ฆ. but Iโ€™m a rock guy!! You can see the problem?!โ€

If all sounds weighty, I must point out Owen finished this sentence with a giggle, recalling his moment in the spotlight playfully. But we compared it to his freedom now to write, and his new song Fly With Me, which I observed reminded me of Cat Stevens or George Harrison. Again, he found my question about it, โ€œinteresting. I don’t get it asked much. I think ultimately, I’m a Celt, Scottish and folk music is everything to us. I’ve always been like that, every song I hear in my head, when I’m doing new tracks sounds like a folk song. But when you’re in the eighties and you’ve got a record deal, they donโ€™t want that, you turn that into a pop song.โ€

Owen continued to explain how, with his guitarist Howard, decided to produce a folk album after an acoustic gig, but clarified, โ€œfolk is the fifth of it all.โ€ This seemed like a convenient time to move away from the roots and back to idea he was coming to Devizes to do an eighties show, and people will lap that up. โ€œI love that about eighties shows,โ€ he revealed, โ€œI didn’t do them for a long time, nearly twenty years. I pretended that I wasn’t Owen Paul or sang that song. And then, I did a thing on telly called Watchdog, Rouge Traders. They were investigating this company with security cameras and asked me to walk in at the end and sing (and he did sing it for me!) youโ€™re mineโ€ฆ!โ€

โ€œI thought, hang on a minute. Is this because I didn’t pay my tax bill?!  Are they actually chasing me?! I double checked, and it turned out that it was the BBC, and it was fantastic and really funny! The next day, my phone was exploding. My website was exploding with pictures going โ€˜oh my God, Owen Paul isn’t dead,โ€™ can you do this show?!โ€

Owen recalled with joy, how it felt to now do retro festivals where, โ€œthe most amazing thing occurred to me. After me not wanting to be Owen Paul, that guy, that song. I get to the beginning of the song, and obviously it’s not like there’s an intro, it just goes bang, you know? And then suddenly, I’ve got 20,000 people singing that back at me.โ€

Regardless of how you might feel about the commercialisation of it, I try to imagine that and offer to Owen that it is truly is the testament to his work. โ€œYeah,โ€ he responded so positively, โ€œI think I grew up as well. You know, I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’ve realised if you’re the wrong side of forty-five, so youโ€™re an eighties kid and you’ve got two kids, a mortgage, bills and you’ve got all your rubbish; you want five minutes away from it all.โ€

Which is, in turn, the best advert for the upcoming show! We continued for some considerable time, I was enthralled he spoke about Howard Jones on first name terms, being asked to do a number of celebrity shows, like Strictly. We talked about dance music, Britpop, and the changes these brought, and even from the effect of streaming services on the industry, to the youth of today identifying with the songs of the eighties. It was becoming clear one of us needed to break the chat through fear of day becoming night, and maybe back again.

It was a wonderful conversation which knew no natural end, because though I was honoured and slightly in awe of Owen Paul, we chatted like old school friends at a reunion. If the nineties saw me shun the commercialisation of the pop of my youth, Owen caused me to rethink it again, and it was a pleasure.

Owen Paul brings his eighties show to the Corn Exchange on Friday 21st March. Tickets are aptly ยฃ19.80, because itโ€™s promised youโ€™ll be transported back to the 1980s! Have I got time to grow a mullet?

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Steatopygous go Septic

If you believe AI, TikTok and the rest of it all suppress Gen Zโ€™s outlets to convey anger and rage, resulting in a generation ofโ€ฆ

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Geckoโ€™s Big Picture

In 1998 a pair of pigs escaped while being unloaded off a lorry at an abattoir in Malmesbury and were on the run for a week. The brother and sister pigs were dubbed the โ€œThe Tamworth Two,โ€ during the huge media sensation. I didnโ€™t remember this bizarre scoop, I was told about it in 2022 by London-based artist Gecko, on stage when Kieran of Sheer Music used to do gigs at Trowbridge Town Hall, as an introduction to his new song; itโ€™s a track on his latest album, The Big Picture, due for release this Friday, 7th Marchโ€ฆโ€ฆ

If the storyโ€™s location, or the gigโ€™s, is a feeble excuse for reviewing something not locally produced, as I vowed to uphold, neither matters; Iโ€™m willing to make an exception for something so uniquely satisfying as Geckoโ€™s humble and sentimental outpourings. For in these days where the pop song template is generally concerned with how compassionate someone is in the sack, or how ignorant someone was in the sack, thatโ€™s why they dumped them and now both parties involved are agitated, Gecko breaks the mould so absolutely ingenious and inventively. His singing of a song about two pigs escaping their fate is surely proof!ย ย 

Gecko

And if Iโ€™m intending to pigeonhole such outpourings I must go broadly with hip hop, though nothing remains of the ostentatious machismo stereotype of the genre, quite the opposite here. Iโ€™d only mention it with a flux capacitor in hand, ready with Doc Brown to form an alternative timeline where the mixture of sounds to suit a cosmopolitan society still resides in hip hop, and the bullshit doesnโ€™t.

For Gecko is a inoffensive dreamer, like the rare influential teacher who inspired a class, his songs drizzled with the utmost sentiments, and innocuous observations, sprinkled with humour. In which case his intelligent writing better fits indie rather than hip hop, his DIY stylistic choice of lo fi electronica reflects the contemporary, and will suit the mood of the narrative.

Thereโ€™s three songs as examples to what I mean, before the one about the pigs. Geology opens with a retrospective thump, elucidating the overall theme of The Big Picture rests on environmental concerns, though nothing about Geckoโ€™s delivery is vexed, rather calm and reflective. Darn it, itโ€™s a good start, I expected it would be. Though the second track threw me, in general the humour is subtler than 2020โ€™s Climbing Frame, the sentimental wordplay remains, and this one, Itโ€™s You (That I Find) parodies a conventional love song, using a jazzy beat and favouring singing over rap, as if Jamiroquai is a Gecko tribute!

Whereas the third tune, In This Tree, raps over a tropical or tribal bassline, Iko Iko fashion. Gecko always fits the soundโ€™s style around the narrative, in this case a luxuriant rainforest, the next a racing acoustic guitar celebrating the Tamworth Twoโ€™s break for freedom, orchestrated for the uplifting sentiment, kazoo applied for tongue-in-cheek underscore!

If heartfelt sincerity is key throughout The Big Picture it builds in layers of emotion. The Dawn Chorus is a piano based ballad to the morning reflecting an awakening, like the most memorable primary school assembly youโ€™d ever be blessed to be present at! The lounge-jazzy Family to Me follows, extending the positive attributes of friendship. Itโ€™s a lengthy journey of goodness, ten family-sized tunes. The Lost Boys beautifully tells a story of precisely what it says on the tin, and the sense of adventurousness is so overwhelming you assume itโ€™s a memory, only using J. M. Barrie as an analogy.

Gecko at Trowbrisge Town Hall 2022

Being The Tamworth Two has a backstory, I assume Bowling in Madison has too, but how Gecko makes the motivation of a bowling team so concentrated and purposeful, one can interpret it more vaguely, as the importance of any achievement. But if the run up to the finale has become the best possible saccharine vibe, the penultimate Take a Look Around is a formulated Gecko at his best, with the observational and uplifting rap sprinkled with humour. And lastly, The Universe is another lounge jazz parody which is the most perfect ending to a live show ever. Itโ€™s a goodbye message which incorporates every golden element to this most perfect album, the mindful study of deeper meaning to the everyday, pondering the stars above, and everything in between which nature gifts us with. 

It is, in short, beautifully executed with the best ingredients, thoughtful prose and ingenious blending, the sum of which can only leave you spellbound. Do not delay, listen to it, tomorrow, your ears will thank you.

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The Wurzels To Play At FullTone 2026!

If Devizesโ€™ celebrated FullTone Festival is to relocate to Whistley Roadโ€™s Park Farm for next summerโ€™s extravaganza, what better way to give it theโ€ฆ

DOCAโ€™s Young Urban Digitals

In association with PF Events, Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts introduces a Young Urban Digitals course in video mapping and projection mapping for sixteen toโ€ฆ

Jol Roseโ€™s Ragged Stories

Thereโ€™s albums Iโ€™ll go in blind and either be pleasantly surprised, or not. Then thereโ€™s ones which I know Iโ€™m going to love beforeโ€ฆ

Vince Bell in the 21st Century!

Unlike Buck Rogers, who made it to the 25th century six hundred years early, Devizesโ€™ most modest acoustic virtuoso arrives at the 21st justโ€ฆ

Deadlight Dance New Single: Gloss

You go cover yourself in hormone messing phthalates, toxic formaldehyde, or even I Can’t Believe It’s Not Body Butter, if you wish, but it’sโ€ฆ

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The Trump & Zelenskiy Meeting; A Personal Reflection From a Ukrainian Living in Wiltshire

Iโ€™m certain most of us have seen the disturbing video of Zelenskiy meeting Trump at the White House last week, and have formed our own judgments of it. While opinion pieces abound in national media, we donโ€™t dabble in national politics here at Devizine nor jump on a bandwagon. However, as the affair has left me unusually speechless yet moved with concern and compassion for those directly affected by this terrible war, I figured the only way to address this with a local angle is to ask a Ukrainian currently residing in Wiltshire for their personal reflectionโ€ฆ..

ะžะปัŒะณะฐ ะกะธะปะฐะตะฒะฐ (Olga Silaeva) came to Royal Wootton Bassett with her son under the Homes for Ukraine programme. She agreed to express her feelings about the incident. All I ask is you leave any political opinion at the door if you wish to read on. For while Olga begins by outlining the politics of the incident, this isnโ€™t about affairs of the state, rather what it flows into, which is heartfelt and personal.ย ย 

For translational purposes Olga has used Chat GPT for the political parts, but here is what she had to say:

Of course, watching President Trump’s statements and actions (his pressure on Zelenskiy to influence the presidential election, public accusations of dictatorship, false debt figures, imposing a disadvantageous rare earths contract, voting against the Ukrainian resolution at the UN to whitewash Putin’s policies), we all expected the continuation of harsh pressure and attempts to force Zelenskiy to surrender Ukraine’s interests.

It is clear that Trump has no real plan to end the war, despite repeatedly promising this to his voters. Since he cannot agree on a ceasefire with Putin and does not want to confront him, he decided to force President Zelenskiy, who is in a weak position, to make significant concessions. In addition, Trump is keen to distance Russia from China in order to weaken China, and he seems willing to sacrifice Ukraine to achieve this goal.

I believe that Zelenskiy, when he went to Washington, hoped to convince Trump and improve relations. However, he could not ignore the insults from J.D. Vance, who said many offensive things, including that Zelenskiy organised โ€˜tourist tripsโ€™ to Bucha. (Bucha is a city that was occupied by Russian troops, where many civilians, including children and adults, were subjected to violence, torture, looting and brutal killings. It was the first big shock for all Ukrainians and the world).

President Zelenskiy was certainly not a perfect diplomat and openly disagreed with the White House leadership. However, he has told the truth and called a spade a spade without humiliating anyone. That is why the vast majority of Ukrainians support him. He has demonstrated that he will not betray us or our national interests.

โ€˜Agreements with Putin on a ceasefire are meaningless without security guarantees from the West.โ€™

โ€˜Putin has repeatedly deceived European and American leaders.โ€™

โ€˜If Ukraine loses, there is a high probability that Putin will send troops to other European countries. Then America, as a member of NATO, will be forced to send its soldiers to war with Russia.โ€™

This is the truth that offended President Trump.  The nuclear weapons that Ukraine voluntarily gave up in exchange for the support of the Budapest Memorandum signatories give Ukraine the right to demand a legal document as a guarantee in response to America’s demands.

But today, the US president is not acting as an ally and partner of Ukraine, but as a party lobbying for the interests of the aggressor Russia.

Thus, it is deeply regrettable that the leader of the United States does not put justice and international law first and does not appear to be a reliable partner or ally for Europe either.

It seems that the US is no longer a leader in global security and compliance with international laws and agreements. Europe must therefore take on this vacant leadership role. Europe should form a new military alliance – this would be the best guarantee of peace and stability in the future. We very much hope that European leaders will act quickly and decisively in this direction. In the meantime, we, Ukrainians, will continue to fight the evil of our crazy neighbour and continue to tell the world the truth.

A little bit about me. I came to Royal Wootton Bassett with my son under the Homes for Ukraine programme. We have a strong community of active Ukrainians and an amazing support network. We organise festivals, celebrations and performances to introduce the British to our history and culture, explain the reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, support each other and raise funds to help Ukrainians.

I fell in love with Britain. The British are very open, kind and always ready to help. I am extremely grateful to everyone I have met here – they are wonderful people. Despite our differences in culture, traditions and habits, I also see that we share a similar spirit.

But my heart remains at home. I follow every air raid alert in Kyiv and am regularly donating money to support our soldiers in various ways. My nephew was recently wounded in action. Some of my friends and their children were killed in the war. My parents’ house was completely destroyed. What our nation is going through now is terrible and tragic because we are losing our best people. Many of our fallen heroes were never able to start families and have children. Civilians are dying and becoming disabled. Thousands have lost their homes and jobs. Thousands more remain in the occupied territories, suffering from oppression and violence. Millions have fled to other countries with their children – will they ever return home?

We have difficult times ahead of us. But we must save our nation, our country and our independence.

I would like to thank Olga for her insightful and moving words. We stand with Ukraine.

Olga and many other Ukrainians living in the Swindon borough network, campaign, and get assistance from Swindon Welcomes Ukraine, a not-for-profit committee created to help the people of Ukraine. And there is a Facebook support group in Wiltshire for Ukrainian people both in Ukraine and those fleeing the fighting.

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CrownFest is Back!

Yay! You read it right. After a two year break, CrownFest is back at the Crown in Bishop’s Cannings. So put a big tick ontoโ€ฆ

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Park Farm; New Music Festival in Devizes

A new music festival is coming to Devizes this July. Organisers of the long-running Marlborough based festival MantonFest are shifting west across the downs and hooked up with Grist Environmental to bring a second day event, this time in Devizes…..

Park Farm Music Festival will take place on Saturday 12th July at Whistley Road near Potterne. Park Farm Music Festival will be held in the beautiful location of Potterne in Devizes, Wiltshire. It promises a big outdoor stage, brilliant sound and lighting, plenty of room to dance, lots of trade stalls and a range of food and drink outlets.ย 

Barrelhouse at Mantonfest 2023: Image Gail Foster

The line-up includes headlining tributes AC/DC UK, and Nirvana UK. Sixties legends The Swinging Blue Jeans. MantonFest favourites and one of our favourites too, Barrelhouse will also play, with Chicago 9 Rhythm & Blues Band and Essex’s finest and stalwarts at the Southgate, Jamie Williams & The Roots Collective.

Jamie Williams

Adult tickets are ยฃ40.00, 13-17 are ยฃ20, and children under 13 are just ยฃ10.
Camper vans are an additional ยฃ2,5 and tents are ยฃ15, if you wish to camp. If you would like to bring your own gazebo (3m x 3m max.), these will ยฃ10 and be payable on entry.

Tickets and more info HERE.

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Oh Danny Boy!

Oh Danny Boy, oh, Danny Boy, they loved your boyish Eton looks so, but when ye was voted in, an all democracy wasnโ€™t quite dying,โ€ฆ

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A Quick Shuffle to Swindon

Milkman hours with grandkids visiting it was inevitable a five hour day shift was all I was physically able to put into this year’s Swindonโ€ฆ

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Results of Salisbury Music Awards

All images: ยฉ๏ธ JS Terry Photography

An awards ceremony to celebrate the outstanding musical talent within the city, aptly titled The 2024 Salisbury Music Awards, was held on Saturday at The Winchester Gate, and the results are inโ€ฆ.

Members of the Salisbury music community came together yesterday to celebrate the incredible musical talent the city has within its music scene.

The Thom Belk Community Fund, named after the founder of the Salisbury Music Awards who sadly passed away in 2023, wanted to ensure that the awards continued in his memory. They collaborated with Salisbury Live, Sounds of Salisbury, The Winchester Gate and Rock The Boat DJs to bring a spectacular night of celebration and music to Salisbury.

The musical talent on offer for the event was a showcase of the superbly diverse music scene within the City. With a DJ set from Radio Odstockโ€™s Kev Lawrence kicking off the proceedings, the fantastic crowd were also treated to live music on two stages. Luke Hall, Lauren & Hardy, Sock Puppet Jukebox and Black Iris entertained on the acoustic stage, with sets from Solarbird, Charmtype, KINKi and headliners Pugwall lifting the room off of the band stage area.

And when the live music was finished, a silent disco provided the perfect end to a wonderful event via DJ sets from StreetLife, No Gimmicks and Bad Gxrls Do It Well.

The Awards, voted for by the public and collated by the team at Wade Digital, were announced over two breaks in the live music schedule, to allow acts and audience to show appreciation and support for winners and nominees. With voting up 16% on the previous year, there were an incredible number of nominees in each category.

There was a truly emotional moment during the second awards segment, as the Belk family accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Thom Belk, given in recognition for his many years of supporting and promoting Salisbury music and the community as a whole.ย 

His sister Charleigh said, “Thom would be incredibly proud and humbled to see his legacy continuing with these awards and extremely happy to see so many acts continuing to prove Salisbury has such a superb music scene.”

The family also recognised the extremely positive influence of Colin Holton and Robb Blake on Thomโ€™s musical and life journeys, gifting them special commemorative gifts as token of their appreciation.

Here at Devizine, we would like to congratulate all the winners. In particular, Rosie Jay for picking up the award for best breakthrough act. An incredible soloist we’ve keenly followed the career of. And to Lucas Hardy for best solo act.ย 

Award results are as follows:

Lifetime Achievement Award: Thom Belk.

Outstanding Contribution to Music in the Community: Lilli Badcock (Evolution Choir.)

Outstanding Contribution to the Salisbury Music Scene: Sounds of Salisbury (Ellen & Alex Morgan-Wardrop.)

Best Band: Lump

Best Original Song: Love is Enough for their song โ€˜1 in 4โ€™

Best Live Act: Lump

Best Solo Act: Lucas Hardy

Break Thru Act: Rosie Jay

Best Covers Act: Solarbird

Best Venue: The WInchester Gate

Best Vocalist: Becs Marchant

Best Guitarist: Joe Burke

Best Bassist: Nick Gowman

Best Drummer: Edd Grigg

Best Instrumentalist: Owena Archer

Best DJ: Disco Dion

Exchange Comedy Back in Devizes Thursday 6th March

Monsieur, with these Exchange Comedy night you are really spoiling us, for usually comedy in Devizes is just what we make ourselves; laughing at visitors trying to hairpin turn at Shane’s Castle, or trying to order a Just Eat delivery, and ode to the guy who climbed atop Roses’ faรงade to ride the lawnmower mounted on display there, for that guy is comedy gold!

Yet on Thursday 6th March we can relax from our banter and let the professionals do the work, thanks to Exchange Comedy. Steveย N. Allen, long-standing on theย Mashย Report headlines. He has joy, he has worries, he has hopes and he has a knack of relating what is personal grief to not seem maudlin in anyway. The writing is tight, the delivery spot on and the way of painting images with his words is almost tangible. Featuring on TV’sย Late Night Mash, Not the One Show, and talk RADIO, LBC, GWR and Mercury FMย to list but a few.

Samantha Day also on the bill, explores everything from sex and money,ย to pronouns and social media; come and find out if you were smart enough to be born at the right time.ย SCF New Comedian of the Year (2022)ย andย British Comedy Guideย Proย Award Finalist (2024).

Plusย Ben Bridgeman and Marina Oโ€™Shea. Next Exchange Comedy Night is on the 1st May, with David Tsonos and Rajiv Karia.

Tickets are ยฃ15 from HERE.

Tickets also available in DEVIZES – Devizes Books / Vinyl Realm / British Lion โ€ขย Marlboroughย – Sound Knowledge

Political Point Scoring on the Roads of Wiltshire, Again!

While world leaders have a slagging match over world war three, letโ€™s have a Sunday roast about the state of our roads, shall we?! Because, letโ€™s face facts, if any roads get a plaster on their war wound itโ€™s not for your safety, itโ€™s for political point scoring. Not a council election coming up by any chance, is there; asking for a friend?!

Itโ€™s the hot topic for the public, fed up to the back teeth of bouncing along a lunar landscape, wheel trims flying off in random directions, and deciding whether to shave a wind-mirror from oncoming traffic or delve into a bottomless pit of hell. As a result itโ€™s also one which candidates with or without a seat have focussed on. The problem remains, sorting the reality of humble promises from prospective councillors, from the hyperbole spewing from the desperation of existing ones. But either way, their dedication to national political parties encourages them to fight this out with the same gusto and ethos as national politics, and thatโ€™s usually dirty and dishonest.

Hopeful candidates like Taylor Wright, Liberal Democrat candidate for Devizes East was bang on the money when he said, โ€œwe heard that potholes were just part of pothole season, as if dangerous roads are something we should simply expect. Now, the explanation has shifted to residents being confused about the works taking place. But the reality is clear, people arenโ€™t confused, theyโ€™re frustrated. Windsor Drive has been in an unacceptable state for far too long, with potholes making it a daily challenge for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike. Calling this frustration โ€œconfusionโ€ risks downplaying a very real and serious issue. Rather than shifting explanations, we should be asking why roads like this are allowed to deteriorate so badly in the first place. Devizes deserve safe, well maintained roads, not short-term fixes and new excuses.โ€ 

Declan Boore, Liberal Democrat candidate for Devizes South added, โ€œresidents have told us loud and clear; roads in disrepair, housing challenges, and the need for stronger local services. Weโ€™re not just taking notes, weโ€™re taking action. This campaign is about delivering real change for our communities.โ€

Such posts on their individual Facebook pages were indirectly criticised by Devizes North Conservative Councillor Iain Wallis, who uses his more general Facebook group, Devizes Issues, strictly censored by himself to keep atop the discussion and delete any opposing views. He lambasted such pledges, stating, โ€œWe know the roads arenโ€™t perfect, they never will be. Any candidate in the upcoming election who says otherwise either doesn’t understand the issues, or is trying to mislead. While candidates can say what they like to pull at heartstrings and play on legitimate concerns we have, I will keep doing my best to get to the bottom of the real issues and bring you answers from Highways.โ€ ย He continued to compare the immense cost needed to repair the roads to the funds available as a justification, and praised the recent investment. He said โ€œbottomโ€ too, tee-hee.

This Conservative claptrap is all a bit Theresa Mayโ€™s โ€œmagic money tree,โ€ isnโ€™t it? The county can find ยฃ2.5 billion to propose building a completely unnecessary and permanently damaging tunnel underneath Stonehenge, but ask them to please cover up a few holes in Windsor Drive and theyโ€™re suddenly brassic!

Lavington Conservative Councillor Dominic Munns also got wet knickers about the new bobcats, declaring, โ€œLasting repairs brought about by Wiltshire Council’s ยฃ22 million extra investment in our road network and the machinations of our bobcat machines are making a big and visible difference across the county. Bobcats are capable of repairing up to 200 square metres a day – that’s a lot of potholes!โ€

Humm, that is, lots of potholes; Bobcat the Builder! Can he fix it? Yes, apparently he can, and not a minute too late (election is May.) But surely The Munnster cued that the time is overdue to address the elephant in the room; why are there so many potholes in the first sodding place?! Whoโ€™s job is it to highlight the issues to Highways and push things forward?!

We sang the Munnsterโ€™s praises upon announcing improvements to the dire and dangerous Black Dog crossroads, seven months ago, yet absolutely nothing has been physically done; just you know, an example to his dedication. If hardworking Munns concentrated on the issue rather than weaponizing the declaration to fire at his opposition we may be some way into carrying the work out by now. The campaign has been ongoing for decades; face it, he simply signed it off and claimed the credit, true Tory stylee. Stating it wouldnโ€™t have been done if the councillor was of any opposition party is hearsay he portrayed as fact, and his downside; no one can say for sure unless the opposing councillor is given an opportunity to.

If Iโ€™ve used this analogy before it seems to get directed to a brick wall; if you leave the washing up in the sink, you eventually run out of plates, and you have a much bigger task to address, or eat off the floor like a dog! For the existing councillors can patronise their assurances, they can waffle on social media each time a pothole is shabbily pasted over, but the fact remains the same, Wiltshire Council have seriously neglected road repairs for so many years, the slight problem has amounted to a county-wide embarrassment, and we are the plateless, being treated like dogs.

Iโ€™ve been to other counties, some worse than others, but none seem as bad as here. How do they do it? Maybe they didnโ€™t neglect them to begin with, just, you know, a thought. In a 2023 National FOI request into road maintenance repair times, out of the bottom ten, Wiltshire ranked five. 5,565 potholes were reported, the longest fix time was 453 days. The long term damage to vehicles is incalculable and unreportable. Report a pothole on my wilts app they hail their triumph, in the singular! Thereโ€™s a multitude of โ€˜em every damn ten centimetres down every single road in the county, and you expect me to fill out a form for each one individually?! Ainโ€™t nobody time fer โ€˜dat!!

Councillors gather around a repaired pothole to take credit, generally one they live nearby. The only way to live on a pothole-free road in Wiltshire is to move to a house neighbouring a Wiltshire Councillor! Itโ€™s a photo-opportunity to post to social media, expecting praise for their drop in the ocean, like showing mummy a picture they drew. They donโ€™t need a medal or flattery, and don’t be manipulated by their propaganda. That. Is. Their. Job! We pay them for this, and if theyโ€™d been proactive it wouldnโ€™t have amounted to such the momentous disaster theyโ€™re expecting gold stars for patching up.

โ€œThe blight of potholes and crumbling road surfaces in Devizes has become untenable, not only is it having an effect on road safety, it is hitting road-users in the pocket,โ€ head of Devizes Guardians, Jonathan Hunter expressed. โ€œThe Devizes community expects a far better deal, as opposed to the haphazard and reactive approach to repairs, which is having a crippling impact on the town.โ€ 

โ€œResidents want to see Wiltshire Council demonstrate clear leadership with a targeted and sustainable roads programme, as opposed to blaming the state of the roads on the so-called pothole season and relying on road users to pull-up in their vehicles and report every pothole, as a primary solution,โ€ Jonathan continued; he goes on worse than I, but stick with it!

โ€œDevizes expects and deserves a better deal for the town, with Wiltshire Council listening to the community, in harmony with a repair programme that uses quality and sustainable materials, alongside a rolling maintenance program. Instead, and unfortunately, we have local Wiltshire councillors taking to social media to suggest that the good folk of Devizes ‘believe in unicorns’ when it comes to road quality expectations, this approach completely trivialises the pothole epidemic that has sadly become a reality in Devizes.โ€ In which Jonathan is referring to an outrageous post (few of them arenโ€™t) made by our omnipresent hero Councillor Iain Wallis, whereby he slammed the voting population of Devizes for their complaints, and for any who might take heed of the pledges of the opposition, in favour of praising Wiltshire Councillors for their efforts, and said, โ€œbelieving in unicorns isnโ€™t going to do it.โ€

Neither is believing in Tory councillors, Boss Hogg. I reserve my freedom of speech, not to provoke, merely to add for satirical effect, you understand?! โ€œRoscoe, arrest them there Duke boys, yeee hawlll!โ€

If I take the issue out of context, and place it within my own labour, youโ€™ll see how ludicrous it is. Imagine I hadnโ€™t delivered any milk for a whole year, and suddenly I drop two pints of out-of-date sludge off at old Mrs Perkinsโ€™ house, take a selfie at said location, post it on social media declaring how Iโ€™m delivering the milk, ban anyone who dares to point out my hypocrisy, and delete their comment so I get the final say; I delivered the milk, here I am doing it, if Keir Starmer was delivering the milk, youโ€™d get nothing but rainbow oatmilk and think yourself lucky!!

You wouldnโ€™t stand for it, would you? Youโ€™d tell me, sorry, but youโ€™ve found another supplier. Yeah, he might not be as sexy and brash as me, thatโ€™s understandable, but at least heโ€™s doing what you paid him to do. Maybe thatโ€™s what you must also do come election time.  

For the latest in this verbal battle goes beyond debate and into the spread of misinformation, and surely acts as justification for my last paragraph, with perhaps the exception of declaring myself sexier than my successor. On Road repairs, Councillor Iain Wallis threw the teddies from his pram, calling out opposition candidates for โ€œirresponsible posting trying to wind people up and get a few votes!โ€

Ah, anotherscathing post in which Mr Wallis lambasted who he claimed are the ringleaders as โ€œparties who donโ€™t even stand for Wiltshire Council or do stand but donโ€™t live in Devizes and are not part of the community!โ€ It was a shocking Facebook post implying if you do not stand for Wiltshire Council or you do not live here your view is void and invalid; way to go to win over popular opinion; right out of the Royston Vasey political rulebook.

Shame anyone who dares criticise it on his biassed platform akin to the Daily Express on steroids, will be axed and left complaining to uncaring gammons on the alternative Devizes Issues (but better) group, which exists only for spreading hateful prejudice anyway.

โ€œThis type of electioneering does nothing for good community relations and unity, it completely trivialises the dire road situation in Devizes,โ€ Jonathan Hunter reacted, Devizes Guardian not standing therefore with a invalid opinion according to Mr Wallis! โ€œCommunity campaigners are not โ€˜ring leaders,โ€™ they are local people who are prepared to stand up for residents. Itโ€™s very disappointing that candidates are prepared to stoop to these levels and spread misinformation.โ€

โ€œI take full responsibility for standing up for residents, and will always own my efforts as we support and work alongside the many local people for a better roads deal for Devizes. This is not electioneering, itโ€™s simply standing up for our community, by calling out years of under investment and lack of listening from those who are elected to represent the folk of Wiltshire.โ€

โ€œI have been campaigning for a better roads deal for many years, therefore to read a widely shared politically motivated statement, describing all those who are standing up for residents as โ€œring leadersโ€ is completely unfair, patently wrong, and is an absolute disgrace. This type of behaviour completely trivialises local issues, seeks to drive division and puts the personal interests and ambitions of those seeking election above what really matters, which is community unity and respect for each other.โ€ And youโ€™ve got to admit if you follow the Devizes Issues Facebook group or youโ€™ve been kicked out, Jonathan has a point, and what they are being fed there really is one-sided, opinionated and quite frankly, Trump ethics within a local community, and do we really need this?

I urge all standing councillors to quit backstabbing and get on with the job we pay you to do. Else, urge voters to take heed and give a chance to, not those with broken promises being spiteful at those airing popular opinion, but rather those fresh-faced candidates willing to take them on. That, to me, makes more sense than flogging a dead horse which clearly hasnโ€™t delivered, and of whom occupy most of their time playing the blame game, insulting and censoring anyone who feels it necessary to express their frustrations on the issue, because clearly it is frustrating and counterproductive; all the council has to do is fix a darn pothole, storm in a teacup!!

Drone Dogfight; Beaufort Hunters Attack Sabs’ Drone

A drone operated by Wiltshire Hunt Sabs was attacked by a second drone, twice, while surveying The Beaufort Hunt, after it recorded them illegally hunting a fox. Sabs were assaulted by the pilot and their accomplice in an attempt to destroy the evidence…..

Something to hide, Beaufont? Why else would you go to this effort and get yourself arrested?! Keep up the good work, Wiltshire Hunt Sabs….. this video is the most compelling and upsetting yet.

Marlborough School of Languages to Hold Summer Fiesta

Pot pourri, Rodney, mange tout! If weโ€™ve brought to your attention as large a variety of local festivals as possible, here is one that is completely unique, and you will learn something from, rather than, like me, remaining speaking French with the fluency of Del-Boy!

Marlborough School of Languages is the newly branded Marlborough Language Tutorsโ€™ Hub; a group of independent language tutors who offer a wide range of courses and workshops for secondary school students and adults. They are now taking bookings for the 2024/25 academic year. But as well as these workshops and a Spanish student exchange program, over the week from the 7th to the 11th July they are holding a summer fiesta across Marlborough’s grand high street; a unique week of language, culture and fun!

The fiesta is an immersive summer experience designed for language enthusiasts of all levels, it includes morning language lessons in Spanish, French, Italian and English as a foreign language with expert tutors. There are afternoon cultural talks and workshops in language, culture, and gastronomy, and to really twist your arm, you will also enjoy meals at top local restaurants, a paella feast on Wednesday, and a finale celebration of wine tasting, tapas and live music the tutors call the “Battle of the Nations.”

It must be a challenge second only to teaching pet hamsters quantum mechanics, to teach the average English person a foreign language! Personally, I assume shouting in the same English what has already been misunderstood, while ingeniously adopting a wonky foreign accent will generally suffice! But you should be rest assured the team at Marlborough School of Languages are a dedicated bunch.

There are eight fully-qualified tutors at Marlborough School of Languages. Valรฉrie Calder for French, who comes from Champagne, Italian tutor Claudia Marin from Venice, Laura Simons who teaches English, Welsh and French, Kate Browne from Canterbury, who teaches English, and four Spanish tutors, Nazaret Garcรญa Val from a town in Zaragoza, Nacho Panadero Carroceda from Vigo, newest member Ignacio Vargas online only from Cantabria, and the founder Marรญa Gonzรกlez.

โ€œAfter years of tutoring students of all ages in Wiltshire and London, I decided to offer the locals the opportunity to make their learning experience a social event too,โ€ Marรญa explained, native Spaniard from Lugo, in the beautiful Galicia who has lived in the UK for twenty-five years, teaching at Marlboroughโ€™s St John’s Academy, organising Spanish learning clubs in local primaries and is now working at the Department of Modern Languages in Marlborough College.

Marรญa Gonzรกlez

Maria said, โ€œWe aim to give our students, whether secondary school pupils or adult learners, a chance to really immerse themselves in the language and understand a little about different cultures from our base in the picturesque Wiltshire market town of Marlborough and online. We offer them the opportunity to engage in cultures and perspectives beyond their immediate environment.โ€

“The tutors at the fiesta will be Andrew Brown (French), Matt Gow (EFL), Claudia Marin (Italian), and I will teach Spanish,” Maria continued, “Andrew and Matt both worked at Marlborough college and they are just doing this event with me. They have 30 and 25 years of experience so, over the moon with their input!”

This could be the golden opportunity to broaden your horizons and learn a language the fun way, discovering new cultures, and making unforgettable memories. Always a silly sausage, I struggled with languages in school truth be told, troubling with English even, but had my teacher brought in a paella feast things might have been oh so different!! 

There are limited spaces available for this, so secure your place with a ยฃ100 deposit HERE. The cost overall is ยฃ345 per person. Book now at: www.marlboroughsol.com

Contact Marlborough School of Languages at info@marlboroughsol.com or call 07940910821 for more informationโ€ฆ. or informaciรณn, con su permiso mi amigoโ€ฆ okay, thereโ€™s no fooling you, I used Google translate, but you might not need to after this and the world will be your oyster, or ostra!

Devizes Street Festival Cancelled For Second Year

Without sounding like a stuck record, itโ€™s the same unfortunate news for Devizes Street Festival as it was last year; Arts Council England has not awarded DOCA funding for their programme of summer events in 2025โ€ฆ..

DOCA was sorry to announce today, a spokesperson saying, โ€œfunding across the country has diminished significantly and demand for it has increased. As a result our already small staff team will be reduced to a minimum as we try to secure funding for the future.โ€

โ€œThis means that the Street Festival cannot go ahead as intended on 4th & 5th May. We will, however, still be delivering an exciting event in town that weekend. The YEA Devizes project (Youth Event Area Devizes,) which has been funded by National Grid, will present a youth-led event in the Market Place, created and delivered by the incredible young people of our town.โ€

Devizes Yea would like to connect with other community groups and individuals, so if you are a young person interested in being a part of it, or an organisation or club that would like to support the event please get in touch at: yeadevizes@docadevizes.org.uk ( For all non-youth related enquiries please use info@docadevizes.org.uk)

Alongside this DOCA will host Grow Devizes that weekend, a concept that encourages and combines both growth in nature, and growth in our community. To this end, the Out and About project will take the performing arts out into a rural village and in turn invite people from those areas back into all they do in town.

โ€œWe are still navigating the best way forward for our other summer events,โ€ DOCA continues, โ€œsuch as Colour Rush, Confetti Battle, Picnic in The Park and Carnival, working with our partners around town and funders to come up with the best solution. Please bear with us while we consider all available options and weโ€™ll update you as we know more about each specific event.โ€

This was such a special event in Devizes, loved by all. It is such a shame to hear this terrible news for a second year running. The effects of the governmentโ€™s 16% cut in real terms across the UK to arts funding since 2017 is beginning to impact significantly on free events such as town carnivals and village fetes.

Earlier this month Wiltshire Council confirmed an increase in funding to its arts and heritage partners. The council funds four arts organisations across the county; Pound Arts in Corsham, Trowbridge Town Hall Arts, Wiltshire Creative in Salisbury and Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon. Funding also goes to Wiltshire Museum and Salisbury Museum.

We support, of course we do, all additional funding for arts in the county, but Devizes gets zilch for arts. They stated this demonstrates WC, โ€œis committed to the delivery of culture in the county by agreeing to uplift each of its grants to arts and heritage partners by 10% in 2025/26.โ€ Yet this excludes every charitable event organisation in the county dedicated to providing arts and culture freely, as while many of their heritage partners fundraise for important charities, all events at the venues require tickets.

The failing of funding for community events is the remnants of a conservative austerity ethos that arts and entertainment will only be available to those able to pay for it, and if Wiltshire Council were as thoroughly dedicated to arts and culture as the claim they are, they would provide budgets for town carnivals as well as the ticketed venues affiliated with them. Instead, and to illustrate by example, one of our Conservative town and county councillors and area board managers criticised the beloved Street Festival for not having a โ€œdiverse audience.โ€ 

The statement was, obviously, poppycock and only made to favour profit-making events in the town; Street Festival was, by a country mile, the most diverse event Devizes has ever seen and attracted the most diverse audience, being it was free and open to all.

Street Festival was a true colourful display of music, arts and theatre, and was once a testament to all which can be accomplished freely when a community comes together. It is heart-breaking to have to mention the event in the past tense, but this sad news today casts a shadow over any hope the Street Festival will ever return.

Trending….

No Rest For JP Oldfield, New Single Out Today

It’s been six months since Devizes-based young blues crooner JP Oldfield released his poignant kazoo-blowing debut EP Bouffon. He’s made numerous appearances across the circuitโ€ฆ

DOCA’s Early Lantern Workshops

Is it too early for the C word?! Of course not, Grinch! With DOCA’S Winter Festival confirmed for Friday 28th November this year, there willโ€ฆ

I See Orangeโ€ฆ.And Doll Guts!

There was a time not so long ago when I See Orange was the most exciting new band in Swindon. Their latest offering released atโ€ฆ

Talk in Code Down The Gate!

What, again?! Another article about Talk in Code?! Haven’t they had enough Devizine-styled publicity?! Are their heads swelling?!ย  Didn’t that crazy toothless editor catch themโ€ฆ

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Between the Lines; Melkshamโ€™s Upcoming Teen Band

We remain in awe of the deserved success of indie-pop band The Sunnies, which has continued to flourish since winning Take the Stage at the Neeld two years ago. But is their hometown ready for the next big teen sensation? If so, Iโ€™m predicting it will be Between the Lines, because it should be Between the Linesโ€ฆ..

Last weekend The Sunnies headlined a town councilโ€™s 4Youth โ€œNext Gen Gigโ€ at The Melksham Assembly Hall. Being just a smidgen over the age limit I missed this, but a video of the support act, Between The Lines, shared on social media caught my eye, or at least, my ear!

Formed five months after The Sunnies took the Neeldโ€™s stage, in October 2023, Between The Lines are smooth indie-rock female-fronted four-piece, consisting of bassist Belle upfront, lead guitarist George, and Ethan and Louis, who both switch between drums and guitars, the latter being the rhythm guitarist.

They put out a demo single, Fading Time earlier this year, with an irresistible classic rock riff, some nonchalant and confident vocals, and an enchanting hook. Itโ€™s raw, for sure, but a grower. Its ingredients blend wonderfully, painting a melancholic picture of adolescent romance; the tune is moreish, and blossoming to bursting point with potential.

โ€œFading Time was the only song we recorded in that session,โ€ George explained, as I thought I should catch up with them, sooner rather than later, โ€œbut there are exciting new ones due to be released very soon.โ€ I look forward to hearing them; progression feels imminent with this promising new band; you should keep an eye out for them.

With the band members currently studying music courses at either college or sixth form, I always like asking teenage groups what their music teachers thought of their band, poorly assuming it’ll break the ice! Even if referencing their education is highly unlikely to do that, I tend to stereotype teachers in retrospection of my own, wondering if they retain the doddery notion rock music is the โ€œwork of the devil,โ€ and attempt to throw classical violin at them, or theyโ€™ve modernised, least enough to be hip to be square on a Huey Lewis level!

Louis answered this one, elucidating Georgeโ€™s and his music teacher had, โ€œsupported our band on multiple occasions, with gig opportunities and equipment in the past, and has always been enthusiastic about it. Fortunately, no classical violins!โ€ Ah, got you. Our music teachers used to be funky too, though only in the archaic definition of being unpleasantly smelly!

Ethan expanded on this, and moved onto their first few gigs. โ€œMy drum teacher was always telling me to form a band and after talking with Isobel,โ€ He said, โ€œshe was adamant to get something going. Through music GCSE, we started Between The Lines, playing songs with each other for assignments and eventually starting regular rehearsals. Weโ€™re still new to the gigging scene, and have performed at the Kings Arms in Melksham and The Queenโ€™s Head in Box.โ€ The latter being a fortunate venue to play so early, Ethan also went on to reveal theyโ€™re on the bills for Box Revels in May and CorFest at Corshamโ€™s rugby club on June 21st.

George explained how theyโ€™d heard of The Sunnies before they had formed, upon me cheekily asking them if they thought they were the next big thing to come out of Melksham; youโ€™ve got to big yourself up in the Sham, theyโ€™ve got a golden arches, and Henry Moule inventor of the dry earth toilet, as claims to fame!

โ€œWell, hopefully!โ€ he laughed, but remained modest. โ€œIt really was great to play with people that youโ€™ve looked up to, in a way, and of course they bring such an energetic and fun performance which is something to be fond of. As for us, it’s exciting to see lots of new people enjoy what we do and it brings a lot of motivation for us to keep moving forward and expand as much as we can, it’s only up from here.โ€

Based solely on this single, I strongly hope and suspect it will be, so we moved on to the demo, Fading Time. I suggested the opening riff reminded me of the intro to Sweet Home Alabama combined with a dollop of Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn, even if itโ€™s showing my age, itโ€™s an accolade. I wondered if this smooth feel-good indie-pop rock was the kind of quality they were going for.

โ€œThe song itself came from a simple melody idea that I had for ages never necessarily taking any inspiration from others,โ€ George expressed, โ€œand we bounced back and forth from each otherโ€™s ideas until we recorded it in the short space of time we had.โ€

Ethan expanded on the backstory of Fading Time, in answering that cliche question I fired at them about their working process. โ€œSo far,โ€ he clarified, โ€œour originals have stemmed from one idea. For example, โ€˜Fading Timeโ€™ came from a melody idea from George and our unreleased single developed from a project I created for a college assignment. We then developed the song together to add a little bit of each otherโ€™s personality in our parts. We are fairly new to songwriting as weโ€™re mainly a cover band but we all develop our own little ideas and send them to each other!โ€

Their current repertoire includes covers of The Foo Fighters, Radiohead, and Chris Isaak, among others. โ€œWe try to choose covers that are both crowd-pleasers and that reflect the same vibes as our originals,โ€ Belle expressed.

Between The Linesโ€™ website cites Radiohead and Matt Maltese as influences, Belle expanded on this, โ€œas the main lyricist of the band,โ€ she suggested she took inspiration from โ€œvery poetic artists, like Boygenius, Fiona Apple and Bon Iver. Ethan focuses on instrumentation, inspired by Big Thief and Better Oblivion Community Centre. George is all about the hooks and guitar riffs, heโ€™s influenced by Wallows. Louis works on a strong rhythm, taking from Foo Fighters and Seal.โ€ 

Phew, at least the last two my dilapidating database has heard of! Youโ€™ve got to love Seal, I saw him live once, but he didnโ€™t do Kiss From a Rose nor Crazy, just balanced a beach ball on his nose and clapped his flippers. That was the last time I went to a gig at the Sea Life Centre.

As a finale, I pondered whatโ€™s in the band name, perhaps they met in a history class about WWII, you know, between enemy lines … .perhaps, ah, forget it, Iโ€™ll get my coat! When actually, Belle revealed rather than history, they did meet in GCSE music, โ€œdoing a project for the Christmas concert!โ€ Not too far off the mark then, just the wrong lesson, which goes in line with my own schooling. I was often found in the wrong lesson, and if I was in the right one, I tended to be somewhere else mentally; kind of explains a lot.

โ€œChoosing a name for the band was quite difficult,โ€ Belle said, signalling her vast music knowledge supersedes her age, โ€œeveryone suggested different names every day. Ethan suggested the name In Between The Spaces, which reminded me of two things – Between The Bars by Elliot Smith and especially the album Between The Lines by Janis Ian. After numerous ideas for names we decided on Between the Lines!โ€

Deliberating on a band name is important, it might fatefully fade into obscurity as the competition of a tough market to break takes its toll, or it could be that name in lights for decades to come. I wish Between The Lines all the very best with their ambitious beginnings, and very much hope the result is the latter.

I advise you to support new local talent and follow their socials, TikTok, and website here, as while Iโ€™m no clairvoyant, I know what I like, and predict we will be hearing a lot more good stuff from Between The Lines in the near futureโ€ฆ..

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Recommendations for when Swindon gets Shuffling

Swindon’s annual colossal fundraising event The Shuffle is a testament to local live music, which raises funds for Prospect Hospice. If you’re ever going toโ€ฆ

A Busy Week For Lunch Box Buddy!

It was great to bump into Lunch Box Buddy in Devizes today. Last week was hectic for him; first BBC Wiltshire stopped by his standโ€ฆ

Wither; Debut Single From Butane Skies

Whilst dispersing highly flammable hydrocarbon gases into the atmosphere is not advisory,  Butane Skies is a name increasingly exploding on local circuits. The young andโ€ฆ

Static Moves at The Three Crowns Devizes

Bussing into Devizes Saturday evening, a gaggle (I believe is the appropriate collective noun) of twenty-something girls from Bath already on-board, disembark at The Market Place. One cries out her desperation for the loo, but there’s no detours to another bar en-route for relief, they’re steadfast to their destination, The Three Crowns; a wise choiceโ€ฆ.

I’m heading that way too, trying to pick up pace and overtake them, so as not to convey I’m some creepy codger following them from the bus! Some lads intervened with a wolf-whistle down the Brittox, I gathered at them and not me. I’ll quip with them to break the ice, in hope they see it’s coincidental that our destinations are the same. It worked, they seemed unconcerned, and giggly.

With a fresh lick of paint it really didn’t need in comparison with others, and a scrumptious selection of designer burgers, The Three Crowns is the go-to pub for gen z coming of age, millennials, and a number of elder diehard party heads who still think they’ve โ€œgot it,โ€ because they have, bless โ€˜em!

But the greatest thing about these cross-generational gatherings at The Three Crowns is the carefree atmosphere without division. Everybody is here to enjoy themselves. They crave a live band to throw high-energy covers at them, era-spanning songs they know, love and can sing along with, and they’ll party trouble-free together. Younger attendees will high five the elders, and dad dancers mingle without mockery, I hoped!!

I’m at the back gate chatting to landlord Simon while tonight’s band is sound checking. It’s this Marlborough-Swindon based band’s debut at The Three Crowns, but I assure him what I suspected, that Static Moves will fit like a glove. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I was bloody right anโ€™ all!

Static Moves are a side-burns, flat caps and pork pie wearing, two-Clives five-piece covers band with keyboards, in self-promoting black t-shirts. Even if these other elements don’t convey Static Moves are bringing a touch of new wave eighties mod retrospection to the table, any band boasting two Clives is a win-win!

Being honest, there have been occasions when I’ve dropped into the Crowns to see a great cover band, yet my desire for originals redirects my zimmer frame over to the trusty Gate, and I’m faced with two half-reviews; not this time. Static Moves are irresistible, and enthral any audience.

The systematics of Static Movesโ€™ repertoire appears to be anything which can be delivered loud and proud like it’s Coventry in 1980 or Madchester in 1990. If a particular song choice isn’t, they make it so it is. Taking no prisoners they were greyhounds out of the starting traps, rarely coming up for air, save a short break.

The frontman isn’t Luciano Pavarotti, needs not to be, but is commandeering, can hold a note, and a dynamic showman, with a habit of launching his tambourine either airborne or into the crowd.

The band compliment the lively mannerisms, though fairly recently formed, all members hold a wealth of experience, which shows. It looks like a tight ship, a new drummer slipping into the kind of camaraderie which reflects onto the audience; they’re having fun, you will too.

Static Moves compact a party into their pocket, and, for want of a less Potterhead analogy, like a Choranaptyxis it expands to fit the available space when they catapult it out upon an anticipated crowd. They told me they were working on some originals, we’ll hold the front page.

There were components to their set, it kicked off seventies, absolutely scorched Primal Scream’s Rocks, then launched tongue-in-cheek into early eighties pop hits like Nena’s 99 Red Balloons, Kim Wilde’s Kids in America and even found time to make one-hit-wonder Tiffany’s smash their own! As you might imagine, this was my personal summit, โ€˜cos I bought those singles, but I also observed all generations present acknowledging and lapping up those bubblegum classics.

It moved as swiftly as their tempo onto tracks I’d consider were their own favourites, the more less commercial punk anthems like The Buzzcocks, by which time they had the audience eating out of their hands and could’ve pulled any cheesy bygone slush puppy out of their bag and still rinsed it! As it was they took to The Beastie Boysโ€™ Fight for your Right, which was only amusing until they followed it with a grand attempt at Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Despite the diversity, the template of loud and proud prevented pigeonholing, a party band with a big sack of crowd-pleasers and an unrivalled enthusiasm to deliver them. The finale alongside Billy Idol, were millennial showboats, Britpop anthems, you know the one from The Killers, and yeah, they did Wonderwall, but while I deem that clichรฉ, they did it well, and it always gives the youngsters an opportunity to show everyone they have torches on their phones!

Ahem, that’s irrelevant against the positivity of a diverse crowd throwing away their cares for a moment and enjoying themselves. That’s what’s infectious; you’re duty bound to follow suit with a band like Static Moves. I couldnโ€™t physically leave until the deal was fully sealed.

The Three Crowns revel in this infection, and is the reason it bucks the trend of a decline in pub culture. Here is a Devizes lesson in how to do it, they deserve the praise but don’t really need it. Stalwart for a number of years now, most know the Three Crowns is a testament to a memorable night, including, it seems, girls bussing in from Bath. 

What else is happening?

Send Your Camel To Bed! The Brand New Heavies Headline Sunday at Minety Music Festival

Heavenโ€™s holding a half moon tonight, a secret I’ve gotta spill, shining for all going to the Minety Music Festival in July….

Seeming not content with just awesome headliners The Fun Lovinโ€™ Criminals on the Saturday evening, Toploader and The Stereo MCs on Sunday, organisers of this, which I hailed the best local festival last year, have confirmed the UKโ€™s finest nineties soul ensemble, The Brand New Heavies will bless their stage on Sundayโ€ฆ.

Debuting in 1990, The Brand New Heavies may not be so new any longer, but theyโ€™re still the heavy, funky acid jazz pioneers who toured last year to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their ground-breaking 1994 album Brother Sister. Propelled by the classic singles Dream On Dreamer, and Maria Muldaurโ€™s Midnight At The Oasis, the record achieved huge success (a #4 chart position, over a million sales and a BRIT nomination) as they cemented their position as the pioneers of Acid Jazz.

Featuring original members Andrew Levy and Simon Bartholomew, with the phenomenal vocalist Angela Ricci, the The Brand New Heavies continue today, and make for a brilliant end to what looks to be the festival worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Fun Lovin’!

Heavies, brand new or not, is not the reason I loft Minety on such a high pedestal. Yeah, they book universal big names to headline, but the whole community feel, affordable markets, food and drinks, so much for the younger attendees, and so much more so, their devotion to upcoming local live music is something to behold.

Set over four stages, thereโ€™s a plethora of great acts, from tributes to The Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd, Sex Pistols and The Police, to many of the original local artists weโ€™ve praised right here on Devizine; I See Orange, M3G, The Vooz, Jimmy Moore, SN Dubstation, Bottle of Dog, and those The Real Cheesemakers, naturally! Plus of course, many other bands new to us, which Iโ€™ll endeavour to catch as many as I can between chilling at the Incapable Staircase tent.

Midnight though, I hope thereโ€™s an international time zone between Minety and the Oasis, because the cider there is affordable, and Iโ€™m not sure if Iโ€™ll hold out for that long!ย 

Minety Music Festival runs over the weekend of 3rd – 6th July 2025. Itโ€™s a scorcher, tickets and more info HERE.

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FullTone Festival 2026: A New Home

It’s been a wonderful summer’s weekend, in which I endeavoured to at least poke my nose into the fabulous FullTone Festival, despite being invited toโ€ฆ

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Bouffon! JP Oldfieldโ€™s Debut EP in Review

Once the demonic entity Spring-Heeled Jack entered folklore it became subject to many books and plays, diluting the once real threat of this Victorian bogeyman into a mockery of mass hysteria and hoaxes. If our local upcoming blues soloist JP Oldfield is resurrecting the legend as an opening to his forthcoming debut EP, Bouffon, the trackโ€™s haunting ambience is broken by the usage of his kazoo, implementing the very vaudeville element of satire the albumโ€™s title reflectsโ€ฆ.

Bouffon, being a French theatrical term for a performance of mockery, much like a jester becomes subtly apt once youโ€™ve listened, but thereโ€™s deeper prose at work. โ€œI threw a lot of names around in my head for this project but nothing seemed to fit,โ€ Josh told me, โ€œI wanted a name that summed up everything that these songs, my style, stood for. As such Bouffon, I think, is an unexpected title for my debut EP but I’ve never really seemed toย  like following the mould with any of this musical stuff and despite at first I rejected the idea, it sat in the back of my mind and wouldn’t go away.โ€

In a town where blues is taken extremely seriously my initial reaction to this EP was โ€œthere he goes again, blowing that kazoo when traditionally there should be a harmonica!โ€ But it soon dawned on me, this, and his beaten up suitcase pedal-drum looking like a juke joint throwout, is all part of the unique and idiosyncratic approach JP Oldfield has forged, and its originality works wonders.ย ย 

If thereโ€™s one notable eccentric kazoo-blowing duo on the local circuit itโ€™s Devilโ€™s Doorbell, who Josh supported at Chippenhamโ€™s Old Road Tavern. But whereas those crazy boaters with ukulele and washtub bass rely solely on the jaunty and jocular, thereโ€™s a much deeper tenet to JP Oldfield, richly layered, psychologically.

โ€œTo me a Bouffon clown holds a mirror up to the audience,โ€ Josh explained, โ€œat times it can be hard to look at, deeply sad, and presents you with things you’d rather not face, but in the end it doesn’t pull its punches, and allows for anything to be possible, a blank space where youโ€™re truly free to explore. I really resonate with the idea of this. I’ve always enjoyed the strange, quirky and unlovable. Elements of this have bled far enough into my music to feel a need to name my debut after it.โ€

The second tune asks this directly, if the singer has the blues, as if the melancholic disposition of blues is an affliction the doctor can diagnose. But three tunes in and weโ€™re blessed with such melancholy, Last Orders is a gorgeous ballad to vainly justifying alcoholism. Magpie which follows delves much deeper in its narrative.

โ€œA lot of people associate me with lively suitcase drum playing, jazz chord kazoo mania,โ€ Josh expressed, โ€œand I get it, but that’s not the only side to my music and I would be doing myself a disservice if that was all that I recorded. All my songs are dark but sometimes it needs to bubble up fully to the surface and see the light of day.โ€

He examples the two as those which โ€˜really fill out the point of the recordings.โ€™ โ€œLast Orders is a deep dive into my previous alcohol abuse and really aims to look behind the curtain on the inner workings of a lonely alcoholic. Magpie is a story told from the point of view of a child whose parents have just lost a baby and the confusion that comes from that as the parent’s attempt to hide and dress up the truth. It was actually written in half an hour, the afternoon before hitting the studio, when I put it down on tape it was only the fifth time I ever played it. I had the lyric sheet in front of me and sat real close to the microphone. We did it in one take, the studio went silent and we all seemed to be in agreement that despite it not being perfect, it was exactly the take we needed for that song.โ€

I suggest, in its rawness, Magpie is the most emotionally driven track on the album, the song an audience will take away with them. Though achieving the balance is key here. When we first met for an interview, the topic rested mainly on his powerful basso vocal range, likening him to Cash or Leonard Cohen, and while Josh should pursue this angle in his recording, his live show wouldnโ€™t be the same without the more kazoo blowing mockery of his macabre topics. For the finale Josh pulls in all resources. By title and topic, Satanโ€™s Bar one could imagine weโ€™re off in a similar style as Last Orders and Magpie, but no, mate, itโ€™s jump blues and off he goes with that kazoo again! I suppose, solving the dilemma on how to go out, Satanโ€™s Bar has both sides to JP Oldfield covered nicely.ย 

If I tend to relate baritones to Jim Morrison, and his ability to induce his crowd hypnotically, (taking into account their probable intoxication!), one can suggest JP Oldfield has a similar commanding voice, and thatโ€™s a high compliment, but deserved on the strength of this EP alone.

Oliver Stone projected this well in his 1991 biopic, though those who knew Morrison criticised his persona as deeper layered than that which was represented. They claimed while Morrison was the unbalanced and sometimes vexatious character portrayed, that Stone missed his more playful and humorous side. Josh undoubtedly has the capacity and skill to mesmerise a crowd, like Riders on the Storm, yet if those middle tracks on the EP proves this, the beginning and end ones suggest his favourite Doors track might be the more gamesome Alabama Song, showing Morrison to the way to the next whiskey bar.

Bouffon is released on 25th February 2025, it certainly wonโ€™t disappoint his live fans. With this original balance of melancholic delta blues with a sense of vaudeville satire, thereโ€™s deep personal reflection versus folklore and contemporary narrative, all encompassing and blended superbly.ย 

When I first heard Josh perform, I figured this needed the kind of guided hand only the legend Nick Beere at Mooncalf Studios could master. Coincidentally I bumped into him the weekend after Josh sent the album, and Nick not only confirmed he had recorded it, but agreed the kazoo and all JP Olfieldโ€™s gubbings were all part of the uniqueness of the act. 

โ€œNick’s not only very knowledgeable but also a great guy,โ€ Josh finished on. โ€œWe’d met a couple of times before, at open mics, and he already had a fairly good idea of what I sounded like. I left the production side completely in his hands, he’s the master, I just make the sound. It was the first time Nick had ever recorded a kazoo and a suitcase so I was happy to be the first!โ€

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Devizes Dilemma: FullTone or Scooter Rally?!

Contemplated headlining this โ€œClash of the Titans,โ€ but that evokes the idea of a dramatic power struggle with fierce consequences rather than proof Devizes canโ€ฆ

Goodbye to The Beanery but Hollychocs Lives On

Popular award-winning artisan chocolate business Hollychocs has announced that its Beanery Cafรฉ will close on Saturday 23rd August, marking exactly two years since its openingโ€ฆ

Park Farm; Mantonfest Came to Devizes!

The first Park Farm Festival happened Saturday, it was fabulouso, and in some way Mantonfest came to Devizes; conveniently for me as I had toโ€ฆ

Ann Liu Cannon’s Clever Rabbits

Ann Liu Cannon is the Marlborough success story I hadn’t heard of until yesterday; thanks to local promoter and frontman of the Vooz, Lee Mathewsโ€ฆ

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Jamie Hawkinsโ€™ Teeth and Side Owl Short Films

Devizes singer-songwriter Jamie Hawkins, famed for poignant narrative in his songs and one-third Lost Trade, has always had a passion for filmmaking; Teeth is the breakthrough worth chatting aboutโ€ฆ.or chattering about!

What started as simple yet amusing animations as Team Biscuit and the obligatory music video for his sole projects and those with The Lost Trades has come to this, Side Owl Productions.

Short film creator for music, documentaries and promo videos, Side Owl showcases its talent with this quirky horror short, a genre I firmly believe works best for the format, and this is bizarre and a tad eerie.

Torben Fugger provides the score. Jamie stars alone in the four minute flick, save some novelty chattering teeth. It’s like Hitchcock teamed with Monty Python and cast Jeff Bridges once more as The Dude… in Devizes!

โ€œIt’s been months in the making and a huge learning experience,โ€ Jamie explained, โ€œI’m really proud of what I feel is a massive level up from my previous work and this has been helped by the amazing original score from the very talented Torben Fuggerย  whose work has elevated the film as a whole.ย ย  I’ve always found collaboration difficult as it’s hard to let go and put my trust in others, but Torben made it incredibly easy in this case.โ€

โ€œAlthough this was mostly a solo filmmaking project, I couldn’t have done it without the help of Ed Dowdeswell, Dougerick Marsh, and Janey Lou.โ€ I just hope and pray he cleans the blood off the carpet, orโ€ฆ..well, you give it a watch and find out for yourself!

The Emporium in Devizes to Close

If Devizes boasts an abundance of independent gift shops of unique and exquisite or often novelty items in the face of a national pandemic of boarded up storefronts, itโ€™s saddening to hear today The Emporium on St Johns Street is to closeโ€ฆ..

It has been a stalwart in our town centre for generations, as long as I can recall, and it has seen off a number of similar shops. Once of a dark green faรงade, it was a creaking floorboard cavern, a treasure trove of curious and peculiar shiny things, from vintage clothes and Indian rugs, to charming novelty gifts and titillating joke books!

Teresa Garraud opened the shop in 1981 and ran it until retiring in 2019. The owners of the last decade Kate Suter and Kelly Harford reinvented it, gave it a fresher white design, and offered luxury gift items through the adjoining K Collection shop, but also adhered to keep it within the spirit Ms Garraud created, and has always been known and loved for.  

At one point in recent history it was one of few places charms of such could be found in Devizes, now it seems itโ€™s innovation has seen a blossoming of similar gift shops, online ones too, and with the growing popularity of craft fairs. If it sadly looked as if this is the last we will see of it, we now believeย new owners have been found but are we are yet to know if they intend to continue trading as The Emporium or if products stocks will be similar.

Photo by http://www.gphillipsphotography.com 

The Emporium told its Facebook followers, โ€œThe Emporium is closing downโ€ฆ All stock now half price!โ€ and has not replied to the huge response in the comments section as townsfolk, flocking to show their respect for the gift shop:

โ€œSuch a great shop for gifts. One of my favourites.” “I’ve bought so many lovely gifts for people from here.โ€ โ€œLove your shop. Been going in here since I was 8 years old, I am 50 this year.โ€ โ€œI spent hours in there when growing up buying scented rubbers and notepaper.โ€ โ€œGreat memories of spending my pocket money in here 35+ years ago!!โ€ And many others comments of sympathy and fond recollections are flooding in.

Times change, Amazon has some great coupons for similar products. You should see HERE for some great codes and discounts.

We have been informed unofficially that someone is seeking to continue to run a shop at the location, but perhaps not in its current format. We wish Kate Suter and Kelly Harford our best wishes for the future.

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PREVIEW โ€“ Jazz Sabbath @ Corn Exchange, Devizes โ€“ Saturday 1st March 2025

Donโ€™t Miss This One!

Andy Fawthrop

Just over two years ago I was privileged to be in the audience when Jazz Sabbath played their only previous show in D-Town.ย  And what a night that was. The musical skill on show simply blew me away.ย  No surprise then that weโ€™re mightily looking forward to their next gig here on 1st March….

Jazz Sabbath are a jazz trio headed by Adam Wakeman, son of Rick Wakeman on keyboards, Dylan Howe, son of Alan Howe on drums, and Jack Tustin (son of his parents Iโ€™m sure), on upright bass. Theyโ€™ve just started on their 2025 UK tour, and many of the venues are either already sold out, or very close to doing so.ย  And one of those dates is in our town, long in the calendar, thanks to the forward thinking of long-time fan Paul Chandlerโ€™s Longcroft Productions.

Adamโ€™s credentials are absolutely second to none.  Apart from having a famous father, Adam has played with the elite of the music world.  Recent credits include Tony Hadleyโ€™s world tour, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Rick Wakeman, and at Ozzy Osbourneโ€™s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Heโ€™s also booked to play with Ozzy and the mighty Sabbath themselves at the recently-announced farewell gig in Birmingham this Summer.  Thatโ€™s a pretty impressive CV in my book.

Their offering is to present jazz interpretations of Black Sabbath classics.  It sounds utterly mad, but it isnโ€™t.  Adamโ€™s jazz arrangements are an almost unrecognisable world away, and the bandโ€™s shows also feature plenty of Adamโ€™s own contemporary compositions.  To my ear itโ€™s very little Sabbath, and very much Jazz, but the only way to test that supposition is to get yourselves a ticket and head on down to The Corn Exchange!

The band will be playing material from their latest and third album โ€œThe 1968 Tapesโ€ which, as usual, is promoted in the bandโ€™s straight-faced spoof mock-documentary style.  Itโ€™s worth the ticket price alone just to see and hear the whole comedic wrap-around, never mind the excellent music.  So take it from me โ€“ youโ€™ll be in for a superb night of entertainment.

Get out and get those tickets โ€“ this is going to be a real one-off!

Tickets available online through the bandโ€™s website at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/select/yebepzmqgpvw or at Devizes Books (the Last Minute dot Com of D-Town).

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Henry Aldridge and Son to Move Into Devizes Old Town Hall

Family run premier auctioneers of antiques and collector’s items, Henry Aldridge and Son announced a move into The Old Town Hall on Wine Street, Devizes; a move which will see them return to their rootsโ€ฆ.. Alan Aldridge started Henry Aldridge and Son from the first floor of The Old Town Hall thirty-five years ago. Theyโ€™reโ€ฆ

Darren Worrow's avatar by Darren Worrow

โ€œMuch Ado About Nothingโ€ at Cleeve House, Seend, July 7th-12th 2025.

By Ian DiddamsImages by Ian Diddams and Shakespeare Live Is it post watershed? Then I shall beginโ€ฆ  The etymology of the word โ€œNothingโ€ is quiteโ€ฆ  interestingโ€ฆ aside from meaning โ€œzeroโ€ such as is today, historically it has had other meanings and pronunciations including โ€œnoting,โ€ the writing down of musical notesโ€ฆ  and in Shakespeareโ€™s era itโ€ฆ

Devizine's avatar by Devizine

Live in Pewsey, at the First Oak-Fest

Amidst another packed summer weekend’s schedule laid that lovable large village Pewseyโ€™s turn to shine; always a law unto itself, things went off; if itโ€™s good enough for King Alfredโ€ฆ.. The Royal Oak has filled a gap, hosting quality regular music nights under the production of Wiltshire Music Events, but this Saturday was the trueโ€ฆ

Darren Worrow's avatar by Darren Worrow

Mental Rot; New I See Orange Single

Hold on tight, the new single from I See Orange, Mental Rot embodies everything I love about this Swindon grunge trio, and takes no prisonersโ€ฆ..

If there are few bands on the local circuit to have turned my head and caused me to wallow in self-pity that I sorely missed out on the grunge zenith, I See Orange is the kingpin to this personal change of tide; proof youโ€™re never too old!

With sublime professionalism abound, theyโ€™re creating riotous rock anthems; my untrained ear evaluates what I deem to be the conventions of grunge, and this tune in particular, while sits into the subgenre only subtly, relishes more in orthodox, good old punk rock, with perhaps a slice of metal, to be savoured, and not overly-pigeonholed.

In the words of Chuck Berry, who, face it, knew what he was talking about when it comes to rock n roll, โ€˜you can’t lose it, any old way you choose it.โ€™ Iโ€™m getting more Joan Jett than Nirvana with this one, a timeless sound you cannot ignore, to that of what the Smalltown Tigers are more recently putting down.

Upon hearing the title was to be Mental Rot I wrongly assumed this new one would drift in the layers of melancholy and emotionally rise and fall, in that grunge formula many their past tracks follow, but this rocks out from beginning to end and sustains an explosive feel good energy aging punkers like me simply cannot whinge about! If, as the lyrics suggest, itโ€™s โ€œgnawing up and getting to the claw,โ€ hey, I like it like that!

They’re one of six finalists to play The Finsbury in London tonight for a place in The Musos Awards Soccer-Six finals at the Electric Ballroom in March; we wish them the very best of luck. Play like this new single, and I reckon you’ve got it in the pocket I See Orange.

Last Few Tickets for Devizes Festival of Winter Ales This Saturday!

There are only a few tickets left for this yearโ€™s Devizes Festival of Winter Ales, an important fundraiser for DOCAโ€ฆ..

This year DOCA has teamed up with the Southgate Inn, who have provided a fantastic selection of thirty ales and ciders, there are pies from Padfield Porkies and sausage rolls from Pig in the Middle.

Saturday 15th February 2025, is the date, at Devizes Corn Exchange. Thereโ€™s an Early Session โ€“ 11am โ€“ 5pm and a Late Session โ€“ 5:30pm โ€“ 11pm.

This year they welcome Glorious Productions, who are excited to bring a taste of their legendary Social Club Cabaret to the Festival of Winter Ales. While you sip your ales and relax they provide comedy, skills and the unexpected! Compere โ€“ Goldie Fiasco, Cabaret โ€“ Jon Udry and Jude Elizabeth. And Vince Bell and Adam Woodhouse play the early session, while Burn the Midnight Oil and Junkyard Dogs take the later session.

New for 2025: based on attendee feedback, there will be a slight difference between the 2 sessions this year. Both sessions will have the same great selection of beers, alongside brilliant entertainment from bands and cabaret. However, the Early Session (11am โ€“ 5pm) will be slightly more low-key for entertainment, geared more towards those who are mostly interested in beer tasting. The Late Session (5:30pm โ€“ 11pm) will be slightly more entertainment focussed for those looking for a buzzier vibe alongside their beer.

This is a fundraising event to help meet the costs of DOCAโ€™s free annual programme of outdoor arts events and activities, including the Street Festival, Confetti Battle, Carnival, Winter Festival and Lantern Parade.

Tickets are ยฃ13 and include your first pint free, and a souvenir glass if you want to take it home.

The Festival of Winter Ales is an 18+ event. The layout will be similar to 2024 with some seating, and some standing. If you require a seat for accessibility reasons, please contact DOCA at info@docadevizes.org.uk

More information on the Winter Ales entertainmentโ€ฆ

Goldie Fiasco โ€“ This yearโ€™s Festival of Winter Ales will be compered by the โ€˜wonderfully bonkers and totally endearing!โ€™  Goldie Fiasco. Goldie is a veteran performer with thousands of shows under her belt including โ€“ Glastonbury Festival Circus Big Top, Edinburgh Fringe, The Social Club Cabaret, Bestival, Shambala, Komedia, and Main Stage Redfest. She will preside over a smorgasbord of delectable entertainment for your delight. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Jon Udry โ€“ There are jugglers. There are comedians. And there is Jon Udry. Jon combines the two to such a brilliant effect that his unique performance has his audience roaring with laughter from entrance to the final curtain. Formerly the British Young Juggler Of The Year and New Act of the Year Finalist 2018, Jonโ€™s skills and stage persona have brought his show onto various television and radio shows, as well as being a regular on the bill at prestigious festivals like Glastonbury. 

Jon travels internationally, working on a host of luxury cruise lines, at festivals and events, and โ€“ due to his unique comedy style โ€“ his show is also at home on the domestic comedy club circuit. Jonโ€™s repertoire is not the normal type of speciality act โ€“ instead, itโ€™s young, offbeat, quirky and hugely impressive. His current show โ€˜Jon Udry Punches Gravity in the Faceโ€™ is quickly becoming his most successful to date with a host of bookings around the UK, Europe and beyond. 

Jude Elizabeth โ€“ Jude trained as a professional ballet dancer but turned to Circus over a decade ago specialising in Aerial arts and Handbalance. Now internationally renowned, she has performed alongside Hugh Jackman at The Brit Awards, performed for the Royals and at some of the most prestigious venues in the world.  We look forward to bringing her exceptional talent and elegance to our stage.

Vince Bell โ€“ A talented singer-songwriter based in Devizes, Vince Bell is a prominent figure in the local music scene. Known for pouring raw emotion into his songwriting, he creates deeply personal yet universally relatable songs. His music is meticulously crafted and delivered with a captivating sincerity, showcasing his artistry and passion. Drawing inspiration from a diverse range of influences, including the likes of John Martyn, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, and Richard Thompson, Vinceโ€™s sound is both unique and richly textured, resonating with audiences on a profound level.

Adam Woodhouse โ€“ Guitarist and singer, Adam Woodhouse has a love of country, blues and folk music. As a solo acoustic performer, these influences are always apparent, no matter what musical genre he is playing. Adam covers a wide range of music from across the decades, bringing his own style, vibe and humour to a collection of well-known hits.

Burn the Midnight Oil โ€“ are a powerhouse trio that skim the surface of blues, country, folk, rock and pop with an all-original repertoire.

Junkyard Dogs โ€“ Junkyard Dogs are a group of seasoned musicians with a shared love of Blues and goodtime Rock & Roll. Donโ€™t forget your dancing shoes and let the good times roll!

Electric Dream Comes True; Cephidโ€™s Sparks in the Darkness at The Rondo

A sublime evening of electronic elegance was had at Bathโ€™s humble Rondo Theatre last night, where Cephidโ€™s album, Sparks in The Darkness, was played out exclusively to a packed house. It was, in a word, breathtakingโ€ฆ.

The type of genius who built a laser-harp at seventeen years old, Cephid‘s composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Moray McDonald is bound by modesty, and appeared, prior to the show, understandingly nervous about the prospect of performing. He hadnโ€™t contemplated ever reproducing this masterwork on stage, for the project began as a collection of demos he created โ€œfor fun.โ€ โ€œWith all my focus being on creating an album that would live up to the grand ideas in my head,โ€ he explained, โ€œI didnโ€™t stop to think about whether this music could be performed in a live environment.โ€

Seems he shies from being centre of attention, his comfort zone on stage favouring the many occasions he hides as a keyboardist in prog rock bands. Moray, currently residing in Lavington, cut his teeth touring with progressive rock and metal artists such as That Joe Payne, Godsticks, Kim Seviour and Ghost Community, more recently he remixed for OMD.

Moray was adamant this was a totally exclusive show which wouldnโ€™t be taken on the road, although it has the magnitude of doing so. The show was produced and promoted by his partner Charlotte, whoโ€™s theatrical flamboyance encourages Moray to overcome his reservedness. Therefore a communal air bloomed in the audience, that this was a one-off treat, and we were the lucky few; because we were.

Being I was there to review, it probably didn’t help his anxiety any telling him I’d seen Kraftwerk at a Tribal Gathering of yore, where from every tent of every subgenre ravers descended to observe the roots of it all. โ€œKraftwerk was the beginning of everything,โ€ he agreed.

While itโ€™s an accurate summary of the origins of electronic pop music, Sparks in The Darkness delves beyond this for inspiration. Itโ€™s orchestral on a Jean-Michel Jarre level; even if the show wasnโ€™t to the same scale it was in spirit. It nodded to the trial phase of electronic music, prog-rockโ€™s psychedelic swirls found in Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin et al, and continues to the ambient house pioneers like The KLF and Orb. It rests on the heyday of electronica, the quirky experiments of new wave post-punk like New Order, and early US electro outfits, like Newcleus. Yet it incorporates contemporary technological advances, the variety of modern subgenres stemming from it, and it evoked in me a fascination with the history of electronic sound.

To contemplate futurist Luigi Russoloโ€™s 1913 The Art of Noises theories, that music would change due to the ear becoming accustomed to mechanical, industrial and urban noises, and the dadaists flouting this, is to consider the eighties clunkiness of the engine sampling of the aptly named Art of Noise, or Yello, or the piercing hubbub of acid houseโ€™s 303s, for the sake of artistic expressionism rather than melodious music. Sparks in The Darkness doesnโ€™t go there, it doesnโ€™t tumultuously provoke, rather itโ€™s polyphonically beautiful, sampleless, and tonally complimentary on the ear. In this, the decades of electronic music progression has become an epoch, therefore a โ€œfolkโ€ music, effectively turning music full circle; Cephid is on that cusp, and proved it last night.

But not before That Joe Payne, who later returned to the stage to provide vocals for Cephid, supported with an astounding original set. With just keyboard and voice he acoustically gifted us with a one-man rock opera, the like Iโ€™d never seen before. Combining camp comedy with tragedy, reminiscent of Elton Johnโ€™s heyday and expressed divinely with the vast vocal range of Freddie Mercury, this was delicious vaudeville. Though I cite these clear influences, they broke the mould when they made That Joe Payne, and that is the only shame about this highly entertaining character.

If That Joe Payne was something which bucked my norm in the nicest of methods, the whole evening was equally different for me, who these days is used to traditional rock, folk, or blues bands, and even with a history of dance music under my belt, this wasnโ€™t a rave anymore than it was a gig in the tradition of, even if the effect was similar. This was a showcase of modernism, an electronica fantasy in fruition. If at any point I likened it to something visually, it was Howard Jones meets Orbital, and thatโ€™s a high compliment.

The Rondo ignited with laser lights after the interval, colouring the subtle smoke machine output, and doused with a building ambient drone. Moray appeared onstage with electric percussionist Graham Brown, both dressed in white bodysuits with scarlet tie-belts. Layers developed and the album was played out sublimely, stretched to fit the show. The skill of the pair, to unite in sound and highlight exactly how these tunes were accomplished was insightful, and amazing. The only analogue instrument being a snare, the rest was digital technology caressed to evolve the most refined musical topography, an audio landscape masterpiece.

The grand finale was the usage of the triangular centrepiece, the laser harp Moray created at seventeen but had never used publicaly. Even if many in the crowd were connected in some way to Moray or the team, akin to a family party, everyone was held spellbound when the laser harp strings lit up, and Moray took position behind it.

If the perfect composition of this groundbreaking sound, with the laser show and theatrical performance wasnโ€™t enough to convince anyone in the crowd to the monumental importance to the artist, and the rare and wonderful occasion this was, it was Morayโ€™s expression of sheer joy, at the audienceโ€™s standing ovation. It was confirmation that this project, so immensely well received, is surely the testament, plus an ego boost, to the diffidence of a creative genius!

You might have missed this show, but you can (and should) buy the album HERE.

Trending……

IDLES’ at Block Party

With their only UK shows of the year quickly approaching, the 1st and 2nd August will see IDLESโ€™ and music festival Block Party take overโ€ฆ

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Just a Little New Single From Sam Bishopย 

โ€œThis song speaks to anyone who’s ever felt like they weren’t quite enough for someone, yet still held out hope for just a hint of validation,โ€ Sam Bishop explained to me about his latest release, Just a Little which is out today, 7th Februaryโ€ฆ.

The immediate hook to this song is in the simplicity of the riff, it glides with a summer breeze echoing in feelgood ambience. Refreshingly vehement and not overworked, Just a Little caused me to think of Natasha Bedingfieldโ€™s Unwritten, and further back to how Madonna secured her queen of pop title with the Latino hook in La Isla Bonita, or am I going too far back for you now?! Noah Kahan brought back fervency, this goes along similar lines, though Sam likened it to Coldplay and Bastille, stating, โ€œI hope people can connect to it.โ€ย 

Itโ€™s certainly miles beyond his beginnings in Devizes School boy band 98 Reasons and the duo Larkin with fellow member Finley Trusler, in commercial viability. It shows a maturity, but if weโ€™ve followed this natural progression I could argue his previous songs were growers, whereas this was an instant like, and swift appeal is whatโ€™s needed in the fast-paced industry.

Sam scribed this beauty whilst travelling the States over summer and produced it once home. โ€œThis song is for everyone whoโ€™s ever felt like they were giving their all but still wondering if itโ€™s enough,โ€ he expressed, โ€œI wanted to create something that felt vulnerable, yet comforting, that also feels personal.โ€ Yeah, Sam, I think youโ€™ve captured that!

Just a Little is out across streaming platforms from 7th February. Check it out HERE; it’s already top ten on UK iTunes – deservedly.

SwinterFest Broke Me Out of Hibernation!

Like a hedgehog poking his nose out of the bracken, just a few hours on the Sunday at Swinterfest was enough to cure me of my hibernation, which seems to lengthen with each year and causes me to worry the attraction of warm, cosy nights in might seclude me forevermore, and Iโ€™ll never see a chap strum a guitar again!

I was only at the Beehive for ten minutes before wishing Iโ€™d got here sooner, three days sooner! Swindon Shuffle organisers decided to create a winter version for last weekend, and speaking with both Ed Dyer and Jamie Hill of Swindon Link and Ink, they were wary if it would be as successful as their annual summer extravaganza. Exhausted by Sunday but still positively beaming with enthusiasm, Iโ€™m glad to report Ed signed the event off as a huge triumph.

Crowds turned out to the respective pub venues on each day; Thursday at the Hop, Friday at the Vic, Saturday at The Castle, and Sunday at the Beehive. A colossal selection of the South Westโ€™s finest musical talent united to raise some wonga for the Prospect Hospice, as they do with The Swindon Shuffle and My Dadโ€™s Bigger Than Your Dad festival. 

The team assembled for the final showdown at the Beehive, which is a crazy-good watering hole aptly on Prospect Hill; I could resist no more. From Courting Ghosts and Canuteโ€™s Plastic Army to Will Lawton, George Wilding to I See Orange I sadly missed many of my favourites, even our wonderful M3G and Devizes-own Nothing Rhymes With Orange; what can I say in my defence? Would central heating, cosy sofa or homemade stew cut the crust?!

Despite it being a whistle-stop, I was so glad to be reunited with Swindonโ€™s premier Americana collective Concrete Prairie. At one point I was close to becoming their groupie, unfortunately our paths havenโ€™t crossed for a while. Seconds into their set why Iโ€™ve claimed theyโ€™re better than sliced bread came flooding back. They were, for want of a technical evaluation, absolutely and steadfastly, one-hundred and fifty percent on fire.

I donโ€™t know if it was the fact the Beehive is one of their favourite venues to play, if time had eroded my expectations of them, or theyโ€™ve polished their already proficient skills, or maybe because they opted for their more high-energy originals, or possibly now those songs have become classics fans chant them back at them, but wow, just wow!

I was introduced to Clarie, their new fiddler, previously informed she fitted like a glove into this astounding band, and they weren’t fibbing. It is in their unification where sparks fly, if individually theyโ€™d reach a level of greatness naturally, together theyโ€™re solid and tight. Concrete Prairie is the whole deal for dark and foreboding themed country-blues-rock which takes you on a mood-changing journey; they could play disco and still rouse the hairs on the back of your neck, dammit! (they donโ€™t though, for the record!)

Prior to their invigorating explosion I was delighted to find a new love. From Newport, Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy were truly a blessing. Described as a chameleonic presence, in so much as he plays solo, or his masterful originals are fleshed out with the three-part vocal harmonies, guitar and keyboard combo of his backing band the Royal Pharmacy. Joe explained the versatility of his band contained missing elements today, of drums and bass, which when added could evoke the harder rock ambience of a five-piece, on occasions, but the harmonious delivery of folk-rock masterpieces was plentiful for me to decide this outfit is something I could perpetually return to.

Perfectly pitched between smooth and rustic, Joeโ€™s authentic raspy call of expressionism is breathtakingly emotive, his canvas is projected outwards but his brush operates inwards. It conveys that timeless fidelity and sense of personal reflection and identification of Guthrie or Dylan, with the gusto of Geldof or Petty. It is, in a word, gorgeous; music for the soul.

Through his self made independent record label, Dirty Carrot Records, thereโ€™s a selection of their recordings to check out, I recommend you do, and theyโ€™re showcasing their local circuit with five other artists on the books. Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy timelessly embrace every classic element of folk-rock, the emotional poignancy, sincere homespun fashion, the evoking sound, and project them outwards nothing short of sublimely, encapsulating an audience you really need to be in!

And that was only two of the thirty three acts booked to perform at the inaugural Swinterfest last weekend; imagine the length of my waffling if Iโ€™d see anymore! Jamie at Swindon Link wore the Swinterfest T-shirt out and gave a more comprehensive evaluation, here. Me? Iโ€™m more of a Catchphrase contestant than a music journalist, I just say what I see, and those bottles wonโ€™t deliver themselves, so, I had to retire from the bustling Beehive, disappearing into the night; milk and honey not mixing well this time. Shame, because I missed Erin Bardwell and the Subject A gang, and SN Dubstation, despite knowing theyโ€™re both up my street and knocking loudly on my door.

The most important part to all this was questioning the big chief organiser of the Shuffle and now Swinterfest, Ed Dyer, if heโ€™d make this an annual thing, and there was absolutely no sign of doubt in his tone that he would. Interestingly he suggested incorporating other arts into the mix, suggesting comedy, poetry and drama. The idea was to separate it from the music dominated Shuffle, so it lives in its own domain and isnโ€™t viewed more simply as a winter version of the Shuffle. But as Jamie expressed, what they know best is music, so they went with that to begin with, and they certainly do!

Trending…..

RowdeFest 2025!

Okay, I canโ€™t keep the secret any longer or Iโ€™ll pop! While all the hard work is being organised by a lovely committee, because they showered me with biscuits Iโ€™ve been doing the easy bits of arranging some live music and designing a poster for Rowde Fest 2025โ€ฆ..

Itโ€™s happening on Saturday 31st May from 1-7pm, itโ€™s free, you can roly-poly down Dunkirk Hill, and join our village family fete-like festival at the Rowde Small Playing Field (next to the church); no pressure, but I think youโ€™ll like it!

Burn The Midnight Oil

Already confirmed we have music from Thieves, Adam Woodhouseโ€™s marvellous Americana quartet. With a village connection, the most wonderful new band on everyoneโ€™s lips, Burn The Midnight Oil are playing too. The incredible Sarah C Ryan Band are up for it, and local legend Andrew Hurst is also on the blossoming line-up.

Sarah C Ryan Band

And I believe we may have some super-duper, and I mean super, surprises, like, โ€œpossiblyโ€ the best indie pop band in Wiltshire, and acoustic god, and oh, did I say itโ€™s super-duper?!

Hold the front page!! More great acts to be confirmed!

Update: Wiltshire’s finest indie-pop band Talk In Code have just confirmed; you’ll love these guys!

Thieves

Thereโ€™s Devizes Jubilee Morris dancers, childrenโ€™s activities, face painting, food and drink and side stalls, and more. You all should know by now Rowde has the best ice cream this side of Italy, so yes, Rowdey Cow are sure to be there.

Talk in Code

It is all free, but, you lovely people, we really need some kind donations on the gate, if you can, so we can ensure we can make it an annual occasion.

If you’ve an idea for a side stall, please let us know and I’ll pitch it to the committee, they don’t bite, or at least I’ve seen no evidence of it yet.

Andrew Hurst

Iโ€™m even over-excited to share the poster with you! Subject to alterations, as if I could possibly find any more room on it for other acts yet to confirm, the poster has been collated by me, but is also the fine artistic work of three pupils from Rowde Academy. So a huge thank you to Luca Dowling, Theo Doherty, and Lila Ransome for their inspirational pictures, which were incorporated into our poster.

I look forward to seeing you there; you are coming, right? Here’s the Facebook event page thingy. It wouldnโ€™t be the same without you.

Trending….

Clock Radio Turf Out The Maniacs

The first full album by Wiltshireโ€™s finest purveyors of psychedelic indie shenanigans, Clock Radio, was knocked out to an unsuspecting world last week. Itโ€™s calledโ€ฆ

Keep reading

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An Insight into Devizes New Youth Centre Project

I caught up with an excited Jonathan Hunter, leader of Devizes Town Councilโ€™s independent party The Guardians, and local loyal youth worker Steve Dewar to rap about an imminent youth centre coming to Sidmouth Street in Devizesโ€ฆ.

I was aware Jonathan swore to create a youth project in town some years ago and was engaging with teenagers, researching what their expectations of such a place might contain.

โ€œThis is all part of a speech I made in council years ago,โ€ he told me, โ€œAsking the council to support three objectives, which were civic recognition for young people, to put them on equal standing to all the other recognitions we do in the annual civic awards, which we now do and thatโ€™s brilliant. The second was a street engagement program where we work with disenfranchised young people, on the streets, through an outreach team.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s taken four years to get the premises,โ€ he continued. โ€œThe council have decided to redeploy what was an old bed shop. What it does is gets to the youth right in the middle of town, gives them their own cafรฉ.โ€

If like me, your memories of youth clubs are dubious, based on the out of touch approach of our elders at the time, I was keen to discover how much of the project will be created by youths themselves. โ€œThe vison is that they get to run it and be integral rather than a bunch of older people meaning well but not necessarily understanding all the issues and concerns young people have,โ€ Jonathan replied. โ€œItโ€™s going to be brilliant!โ€

He used the word โ€œbrilliantโ€ numerous times, our own version of Paul Whitehouseโ€™s Fast Show character, Brilliant Kid, right here on our town council!! But are we to overcome the stigma of said youth clubs of the past which tended to not engage the youth who might need it most?

โ€œAbsolutely,โ€ Jonathan responded with his constant air of enthusiasm, โ€œIโ€™m really focussed on that, taking a collaborative approach with different people, with Steve Dewar, who inspired me five years ago to stand. Steve spoke of a โ€˜missing piece in a jigsawโ€™ with youth provision. I just wanted to go and bat for young people, and doing whatโ€™s right for the community rather than a political party or any ideological stuff, and make things happen that way, which Iโ€™m glad we can.โ€

I couldnโ€™t think of a better local youth worker than Steve Dewar to be involved in this project, but as the sole-creator of a mobile youth charity and his mobile Youth Pop-Up Cafรฉ travelling the county providing leisure facilities to youth, I was concerned his involvement with the youth centre would reduce usage of the pop-up cafรฉ project. โ€œWe, as a charity havenโ€™t had any financial provision for staffing the centre, that would be perhaps an independent youth worker,โ€ Steve explained, โ€œor someone employed by the council, to man it. The challenge we have as a small charity is weโ€™re also committed to supporting young people in schools, through detached youth work, and thereโ€™s only me in this area and a few volunteers.โ€

โ€œIt is a constant battle and challenge, and is nationally, to reinvest back into youth workers as a vocation, to give it the time and professionalism that we think it deserves,โ€ Steve expressed. โ€œUnfortunately cuts to services has removed a lot of that peoplepower, to be able to commit to it. As much as I would love to give more time to it, as I certainly have a heart and vision for it, that needs to align with our other projects.โ€

โ€œFor me the challenge will always be an applicate to Wiltshire council, town councils that a centre-based provision isnโ€™t a quick fix and isnโ€™t a one-size fits all. It must compliment and work alongside with detached youth work, such as our pop-up van, schools-based work, and uniformed organisations, other charities.  It must be a part of that. The Pop-Up Youth Cafe has had its busiest year, and weโ€™re in the process of converting another van, to be able to respond to more needs across the county. Obviously, I want to see all these elements of youth work flourish.โ€

Jonathan informed me there would be three floors, the ground floor as a youth space โ€œwhere they can congregate with a coffee bar or whatever they want to put in. They can hang out and discuss things in a safe space and enjoy each otherโ€™s company, without the cost of a coffee in a regular place.โ€

Plans for the first floor is โ€œan aspirational hub, where different youth agencies can come together and work direct and deliver their visions. The top floor weโ€™d love to se it going to an external educational provider which works with young people who might be disenfranchised from normal education, that are getting bused or taxied around the county access basic maths and English, to have something more local, which is sits far better for these local young people who have slipped through.โ€

Current town Mayor and councillor Ian Hopkins has also been working towards the project. Jonathan furthered, โ€œalso, what weโ€™ve done in conjunction with this is, Ian Hopkins and I, are building a relationship with Devizes School, which is going well. We had a forum last week with the head and a selection of students. Theyโ€™re really interested in this; they want to be involved and take a lead and be part of it.โ€

โ€œWhat was brilliant was, when we met with the school, one of the studentsโ€ฆ these young people are so eloquent, articulate and knowledgeable, I was massively inspired by themโ€ฆ one of them said, โ€˜we need to help the parents too,โ€™ because there are parents out there who are looking after and struggling to help teenagers growing up. Itโ€™s not an easy task, and some parents out there could probably do with some support; that came from the young people, that wasnโ€™t our suggestion, so thereโ€™s possibilities on the top floor to develop a meeting place for parents to come together and share ideas and concerns.โ€

On youth engaging with the project, Steve added, โ€œif we were doing it without them, weโ€™ve missed the point. Thatโ€™s why Iโ€™ve advocated several our local councillors to engage with young people and working in better partnerships with school staff so young people are involved, on the grounds on training.โ€ He exampled a girl today who had been helping him create posters to go up in the youth space as they develop it, to let people know to โ€˜watch this space.โ€™ โ€œAnd we spoke about what she thinks the teenagers need and want.โ€

โ€œResults of the school survey was young people would like safe places to go,โ€ Steve explained, โ€œand safe people to be able to speak to, and thatโ€™s nothing new, itโ€™s been the case for years, and is certainly true in Devizes. Yet weโ€™ve not been able to respond to them. Thatโ€™s why Iโ€™m so chuffed, pleased, stoked, that hopefully Devizesโ€ฆ well, that this is the start of the journey which is starting to respond to that.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m really encouraged,โ€ Jonathan said, โ€œand weโ€™ve got some seeds running through the area board, but I want to attract some funders to be able to run it, and for it to be successful and sustainable for years to come.โ€

I thought out loud, that the previous youth club in Devizes being attached to the school may have been viewed a hindrance and rather off-putting to the youth, whereas this, regardless of the schoolโ€™s keen involvement, is geographically separate from it.

โ€œYes,โ€ Jonathan agreed, โ€œBang in the centre of town! And what weโ€™re looking at next is a brand, thereโ€™s a provisional name that weโ€™ve given it, but young people are examining different kind branding and names, to give it the right kind of profile as well, and thatโ€™s with them. I think they should be the architects of that, and how they want it to develop. Itโ€™s just a great breakthrough, more to do, and talking with Steve and Ian, we want this to be super sustainable, and we want it to run itself.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m looking for this to have a halo effect,โ€ Jonathan said, โ€œmaybe the minority of young people who find themselves disenfranchised and donโ€™t have the infrastructure that some can enjoy, or maybe they donโ€™t have good role models, they might look at this place and think Iโ€™d rather be there in a positive environment than be caught up in anti-social behaviour.โ€

Steve spoke fondly of a new national youth program, discussing a coloration of a lack of youth services has resulted in a trend of anti-social behaviour, โ€œand those links as to how we, as communities, invest in our young people positively, goes in line with those elements to society which will take advantage of our young people,โ€ he explained. โ€œSo, doing nothing, to me, isnโ€™t an option, and thatโ€™s why Iโ€™m pleased the town and county council and other local organisations, hopefully local businesses as well, will get onboard with insuring that Devizes has the pullies to develop youth work provision.โ€

On the matter of a prospective opening date, Jonathan estimated, โ€œthe work is underway, weโ€™re aiming for spring, an aspirational date. Itโ€™s all about working together, and I was really encouraged by MP Brian Matthewโ€™s support, he recognises thereโ€™s a void of this kind of activity, which weโ€™re aiming to fill.โ€

It all sounds amazing, certainly far better than my memories of a youth club, where youโ€™d discover the most diluted orange squash known to mankind, in a drafty scout hall, and two kids playing on an undersized snooker table, while an aged vicar snored on a broken wooden chair in the corner!  Itโ€™s all too late to save me, but good news for those just slightly younger than me! That, thanks to the organisers of this project, the youth are positively encouraged to engage with inputting what they want to get from the project.

Events This Weekend; January Into February!

If weโ€™re nearly out of the prolonged gloom of January, note itโ€™s still winter but weโ€™ve climatised and are ready to party. February this year looks positively booming with music events. This weekend alone looks hotter for events than it will probably be climate wise!

Leading us up to the start of the month, Swindon Shuffleโ€™s new wintery thang SwinterFest is covering days all this coming weekend from Thursday and onto the 1st and 2nd; Saturday is at the Castle, Sunday at the Beehive, check the poster for the fantastic lineup. Another amazing fundraiser for Prospect House.

Thursday 3oth Jan

Also in Swindon find Ian Barrett Band with Bare Knuckle Asylum and Tiddles the Hellcat at The Vic. Ignacio Lopez at Swindon Arts Centre, and Jack Deeโ€™s Small World at The Wyvern Theatre.

New Writing Night at The Rondo Theatre, Bath, and Tom Jonesโ€™ favourite singer Mim Grey is at Chapel Arts.

Follow Comedy Club at  Qudos in Salisbury, Alistair McGowan at Salisbury Playhouse, and Limehouse Lizzy at Salisbury Arts Centre.

Friday 31st Jan

Jamie Hawkins is at The Bridge in Horton. The Tipsy Gypsies are at The Royal Oak in Pewsey.

The Blunders are at the Pump in Trowbridge, with The Lindup Brothers & Hometown Devilry. Morphew School of Dance presents A Wish Come True at the Civic Centre.

As well as SwinterFest, Last Train Smokinโ€™ are at The Beehive, Swindon. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde at Swindon Arts Centre,and Cirque Enchantment at The Wyvern Theatre.

Stable at The Rondo Theatre, Bath.

Lucy Loves Liquor at the Coach and Horses in Salisbury. Diamond Froggs at Deacons, andย Barnstormers Comedy atย  Salisbury Arts Centre. Salisbury Playhouse has Thatโ€™ll Be The Day.ย ย ย 

Sound of the Sirens at The Tree House in Frome. Dire Streets at The Cheese & Grain.

Saturday 1st

Falls on Deaf Ears at the Southgate in Devizes, and thereโ€™s a Long Street Blues Club night at the Cons Club with The John Martin Project. Devizes Scooter Club promises a soul, Motown, ska and reggae DJ night at the Football Club, and Mr M & The Original PJ have a soul night also, at the Bear Hotel. DJ Karl Maggs playing club hits at the Exchange.

Bodge It & Scarper at The Bear, Marlborough, Jam Night at The Barge, HoneyStreet.

Three upcoming local DJs, ET Tronic, FLAM and Artoid play a Future Sound of Trowbridge night at The Pump, while Junkyard Dogs are at the host pub, The Lamb. Morphew School of Dance presents A Wish Come True, a matinee at the Trowbridge Civic Centre.

Dโ€™ Ska Assassins are at Prestbury Sports Bar in Warminster.

Mustard Allegro at The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon. Colin Hoult: Colin at The Rondo Theatre, Bath.

As well as Swinterfest in Swindon, Mojo plays The Swiss Chalet, Still Marillion at The Vic, and Peter Andre stars in The Best Of Frankie Valli at The Wyvern Theatre!

Thereโ€™s a Winter FiggleFest at Figheldean Village Hall. Jetpack at The Ram, Tidworth.

Wiltshire Creative Comedy Club with Lucy Beaumont at Salisbury Playhouse. Sarumโ€™s Lot at Qudos. Lucas Hardy, Rosie Jay and Rich Butcher at The Avon Brewery Inn Salisbury and Graffiti Classics: The Comedy String Quartet at Salisbury Arts Centre.

Laurence Jones is at The Tree House in Frome, and there’s an Retro Electro at the Cheese & Grain.

Sunday 2nd Feb

Jon Amor Trio with guest Shannon Harris at The Southgate, Devizes.

Everyone Says Hi are Instore at Sound Knowledge in Marlborough, which we previewed.

Super Blue Moon at The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon.

The Roy Orbison Story at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.

Sunday Session at The Coach & Horses, Salisbury with Ben Nicholls 

Open Mic at George and Dragon, Salisbury.

CSF Pro Wrestling Showdown at the Cheese & Grain, Frome.

But of course, youโ€™d know all this if you keep checking into our event calendar! We are not running the weekly roundups any longer due to it being time consuming which basically just repeats whatโ€™s been listed already. It was just that this weekend seems to have really opened up for events again, and see this as a gentle reminder to keep checking into Devizine, as the calendar is always updating, as fast as I possibly can add listings!

Do contact us if weโ€™ve missed your event out, and we can list it free for you.

Bradford-on-Avon Green Man Festival Returns In May

Experience the Bradford on Avon Green Man Festival, a vibrant, family-friendly community gathering featuring traditional dance, music, song, and folklore throughout the town centre on Saturday 10th May 2025 (9.30am to 6pm). And the best part is, it’s free!

Witness over 50 dance groups, including 500 dancers and 120 musicians, featuring Morris dancing and diverse European styles.

Join the whimsical journey of our 10ft tall Jack in the Green and Jill in the Green, visiting 12 town centre venues with bands and fantasy beasts.

You’ll also discover the kid’s zone, artisan market, community hub, pagan arts and crafts.

Groove to a samba band, mummers’ play, Folk Club stage, Wiltshire Music Centre stage at Holy Trinity Church, a great venue with fantastic acoustics, Blues @ The Shoes stage, live pub music with English folk music in The Canal Tavern organised by the regular BoA session players, The Dandy Lion hosting an Appalachian session, French music outside in the sun at Timbrellโ€™s Yard, buskers and more!

A Friday night launch party at the Wiltshire Music Centre is always a great start to the festival. This year it is on Friday 9th May, and theyโ€™ve booked the fantastic John Martyn Project.

The full programme is available on the BoA Green Man Festival website: boagreenmanfest.org

The BoA Green Man Festival has something for everyone โ€“ so dress up for the day and really get into the swing of things.

Date: Saturday 10 May 2025

Time: 9.30am to 6pm

Location: Across Bradford on Avon

Website: boagreenmanfest.org/welcome/

Trending…

Thieves Debut EP

Adam Woodhouse, Rory Coleman-Smith, Jo Deacon and Matt Hughes, aka Thieves, the wonderful local folk vocal harmony quartet of uplifting bluegrass into country-blues has aโ€ฆ

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Henge Journey to Voltus B, Via Fromeโ€™s Cheese & Grain; Abduct Me!

If Iโ€™m considering reviewing worldwide music again, why stop with this planet?! Though Iโ€™ve reasoned two tenacious links to mention this madcap Scottish interstellar outfit; one, their tour lands them at Frome’s Cheese and Grain on Saturday April 19th, and two, they’re called Henge, and as Wiltshire houses the most famous one of them, thatโ€™ll do!

Why am I so keen to mention them? It’s the challenge of summing up something completely unique. It requires a gaping pigeonhole, comical jazzy post-rave space-rock probably best suits; bonkers, in a word. Someone shared a video of them headlining the Shambala Festival and I was abducted, though while Iโ€™ve not listened to their previous three albums, weโ€™ll launch off with their forthcoming album Journey to Voltus B, set for release on January 31st, exactly ten years to the day from when the band gave their first live performance on planet Earth.

This is truly out of this world fantastic, and what should’ve been playing at the Cantina in Star Wars. It’s like Scott Joplin came after Eat Static, or Miles Davis was a member of Hawkwind. If Funki Porcini met Altern 8, or Philip K Dick was a guest on Yo Gabba Gabba, it’s the sum of all these parts yet it’s none of them, because it’s alien, pinching Jeff Wayneโ€™s stash for testing purposes and stranding him on an uninhabited Plutoid!

Over seven certifiably insane but glorious tunes you travel to Voltus B with the half-druid mutant electronic spacerockers, the planet of an advanced civilisation with a looming atomic future, and you get to decide their fate!

Side B of the vinyl version of the album has been innovatively cut in โ€˜parallel grooveโ€™ with two tracks, both called Power of the Atom, pressed concentrically to each other on the same side of the record. While one track tells the bleak fate of Voltus B after its inhabitants use their newfound knowledge of atomic power to make weapons, with the planet annihilated in war and entering a nuclear winter; the other tells the story of the planetโ€™s future after the aliens decide to use their scientific discovery to create limitless clean energy through Nuclear Fusion. 

But you are supplied with the mission brief enroute. Ascending is the opening tune and first single, which is out now and available on all platforms. It blasts off without waiting for you to lock into position. Then itโ€™s a Slingshot around Mars to get us on our way, a post-punky robotic vocal track with equal pace, which falls dramatically by the third tune as we enter Hypersleep. As it suggests, this is the dreamy ambience of the Orb, and you await for landing, in audio bliss. Descending next, and weโ€™re off again with the crazy uptempo nut-filled jazzy explosion of synths. Youโ€™re welcomed to Voltus B like it was a nineties free party, then comes the concluding narrative, like Edward Packardโ€™s Choose Your Own Adventure book series, on acid!

Of the new single, Henge frontman and crew captain, Zpor, explains, โ€œwith this new single Ascending we are setting the scene for our latest adventure into space. As we blast off from Earth, it becomes clear that YOU, the listener, are among our crew for this high-stakes voyage, where the fate of an entire planet is literally in your hands.โ€

This is, without doubt, mind-blowingly progressive, and highly entertaining, especially for stoners, Trekkies and kids of all ages alike, and I tick all those boxes. Itโ€™s child-friendly psychedelic vaudeville, the Jetsons meet the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, in Lego.

This new favourite thing made me think about the end of ET, and why Elliot couldnโ€™t go with him, because if music is like this elsewhere in the universe and I was Elliot, Iโ€™d have packed glow sticks into my backpack and not looked back at Earth once!

 In support of their latest campaign, HENGE are embarking on an extensive run of UK shows planned for 2025. Join the band at the following locations and venues:

HENGE TOUR DATES

UK (with Tirikilatops)

14/03/25 – G2 Garage, Glasgow

15/03/25 – The Grand, Clitheroe

20/03/25 – The Parish, Huddersfield

21/03/25 – The Drill, Lincoln

22/03/25 – The Tivoli, Buckley

27/03/25 – Castle and Falcon, Birmingham

28/03/25 – Esquires, Bedford

04/04/25 – Sidney and Matilda, Sheffield

05/04/25 – Brudenell, Leeds (matinee & evening)

11/04/25 – Boileroom, Guildford

12/04/25 – Forum, Tunbridge Wells

17/04/25 – Arts Club Loft, Liverpool

18/04/25 – Marrs Bar, Worcester

19/04/25 – Cheese and Grain, Frome

20/04/25 – Cornish Bank, Falmouth

23/04/25 – South Street Arts Centre, Reading 

24/04/25 – Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis

25/04/25 – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

26/04/25 – Trinity Centre, Bristol (matinee & evening)

27/04/25 – Barrelhouse, Totnes (matinee & evening)

02/05/25 – Concorde2, Brighton

03/05/25 – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

Swindon Festival prevails for fourth consecutive year having raised over ยฃ40,000 for Prospect Hospice

The team behind popular all-day music extravaganza, My Dadโ€™s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival, can now reveal that nearly ยฃ11,500 was raised for Prospect Hospice following last Summerโ€™s event, bringing the total raised since the festivalโ€™s inception to well over ยฃ40,000…..

MDBTYD 2024, organised in association with the South Swindon Parish Council, was held at Old Town Bowl on Saturday 20th July 2024 with around 1,000 people joining in the festivities. Devizine sent our Ian along, and this was what he said about it.

This was the fourth year of the increasingly popular local festival, which was organised to raise much needed funds for Prospect Hospice in tribute to Dave Young, the former landlord of The Victoria and 12 Bar, who died in early June 2021 at the Hospice after a hard-fought battle against cancer.

Prospect Hospice, based in Wroughton, provides invaluable care for people across the region and has to raise in excess of 70% of its costs through fundraising through the local community. In 2023 alone Prospect Hospice provided free care for over 2,000 patients. With costs continuing to rise and more people than ever needing their care, fundraising is critical to continue this vital service โ€“ they have sadly lost 50% of their capacity for inpatient care due to underfunding within the last two years.

โ€œProspect Hospice is an organisation that does incredible work, delivering palliative and end of life care to those who need it; work that is only going to become more important in the future. Everything that the hospice does is driven by the people in our community, which I find to be truly inspirational.โ€ โ€“ Jeremy Lune, CEO.

The story of local music promoter Dave Young and the support he and his family received from the hospice is reflected in this event through its energy, varied line up of predominantly local bands and array of family friendly entertainment throughout the day, all supported by local sponsors and an army of volunteers. The event is a true community collaboration, much like the hospice itself.

Anna Sprawson, Daveโ€™s widow & event co-organiser has said โ€œWithout the support of Prospect Hospice, what was a terrible time for Dave and us, his family was made somewhat more bearable โ€“ I could call on Daveโ€™s Prospect nurse, Tina at any time for support & guidance and she remains a close family friend to this day. Hospices are often simply thought of as places where someone goes to die, however it is so muchย more than that โ€“ it allows the family to spend the remaining moments with their loved ones, allowing me to be Daveโ€™s wife again and not only his carer.โ€

My Dadโ€™s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival 2024, which had the support of Future Planning as its headline sponsor for the third year running, took place over two stages with 16 acts performing on the Old Town Bandstand acoustic stage as well as the main stage at the Old Town Bowl. Sanjay from Future Planning said โ€œEveryone we work with and speak to knows about the Prospect Hospice and the incredible work they undertake, touching so many lives, itโ€™s a privilege to be able to help such a worthy cause. Each time we interact with someone from Prospect, they are always friendly and helpful. We are always happy to support in any way possible and hope the Prospect Hospice can continue doing their amazing work for many years to come.โ€.

Other sponsors of MDBTYD Festival 2024 included Holmes Music, The Tuppenny, Lewis Farrant Floor Layer, Funky Corner Radio. Some of the best acts of the local music scene came together to support the event – SN Dubstation, Gaz Brookfield and The Company of Thieves, The Chaos Brothers (one of Daveโ€™s bands) and many more.

Part of the fee paid to South Swindon Parish Council to use the venue has been put aside to help raise money for the continued upkeep of the Old Town Bowl, an eye-catching 1930โ€™s art deco amphitheatre.

After a well-earned break, the organisers of the festival are now planning for MDBTYD 2025, with the date set for Saturday 26th July 2025. For further updates, follow My Dadโ€™s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival on social media. Facebook. Insta.ย 

Discounted early bird tickets for this yearโ€™s event are already on sale via their website โ€“ HERE – get them while theyโ€™re still hot!

What else is happening?!

You; Lucas Hardy Teams With Rosie Jay

One of Salisburyโ€™s most celebrated acoustic folk-rock singer-songwriters Lucas Hardy teams up with the Wiltshire cityโ€™s upcoming talent who’s name is on everyoneโ€™s lips, Rosieโ€ฆ

Bands At The Bridge

Organised by Kingston Media – to raise money for Dorothy House and Wiltshire Air Ambulance – the 3rd of May saw Bands At The Bridgeโ€ฆ

Phil Cooper is Playing Solitaire

Trowbridge singer-songwriter and one third of The Lost Trades, Phil Cooper has actually been doing more than playing solitaire, heโ€™s released a new solo albumโ€ฆ

Devizes Musical Theatreโ€™s Next Production; Beauty & The Beast

If I had to be magically turned into a candlestick or a teapot, I believe Iโ€™d rather be a teapot than have a wax candle on fire wedged into the top of my head! Fear not, itโ€™s not a worry Iโ€™m losing any sleep over, rather the kind of bizarre fleeting notion which popped into my mind when previewing Devizes Musical Theatreโ€™s next production, Beauty & The Beastโ€ฆ.

The wardrobe is definitely out of the question, anyway I digress! For if thereโ€™s one local amateur theatre collective to make you question the definition of โ€œamateurโ€ itโ€™s Devizes Musical Theatre, in my experience. To pay a kingโ€™s ransom for a West End production is to expect, much less assume, youโ€™re in for a treat, but to see the dedication and hours of labour which goes into an amateur production like those of Devizes Musical Theatre, is the surprise element, that the magic isnโ€™t so far from a professional production.

So, get ready, Gaston, for a tale as old as time, as Devizes Musical Theatreโ€™s curtain is rising once again for Beauty and the Beast. Itโ€™s running from Wednesday 2nd April โ€“ Saturday 5th April 2025, at Dauntsey’s Schoolโ€™s Memorial Hall in West Lavington and tickets are available now at www.devizesmusicaltheatre.co.uk or Devizes Books.

Devizes Musical Theatreโ€™s last sold-out show was Sister Act back in March 2024, of which I reviewed and said โ€œitโ€™s the combination of their motivation and exceptional effort which makes this such a dynamic show, coupled with the elementary notion, Sister Act has universal appeal and is simply fun on a stick!โ€ But no one listens to me, so please note the show was nominated for Best Musical and Best Publicity at the prestigious Rose Bowl Awards.

โ€œTickets are already flying off the shelves,โ€ weโ€™re informed, so donโ€™t miss your chance to experience the magic of live theatre right here in our community. Whether you laughed with the nuns, hissed at Curtis and his baddies in Sister Act, or youโ€™re a newcomer to the DMT productions, this show is guaranteed to leave you spellbound; be their guests, be their guests, be their guests!

Returning to Kaya Street For Fuller Soul Sessions

In November last year I was mightily impressed with Bristol soul-reggae producer Kaya Street, and reviewed their EP The Soul Sessions, read it here for thereโ€™s no reason to go back through rewriting it, everything I said stands, except for one sectionโ€ฆ.

At the time I praised Kaya Street for the experimental fusions which seemed to switch from four-beat soul and jazz into offbeat reggae, simultaneously evoking sounds of Africa like soukous. I said, โ€œitโ€™s not the ingredients in Kaya Streetโ€™s melting pot which makes it prominently interesting and beguiling, rather the way they stir it, the method in the composition and production.โ€

Despite taking into account albums like Mo Waxโ€™s 1996 Money Markโ€™s Keyboard Repair Kit, which used short fragments and splinters of ideas deliberately juxtaposed to create a kind of musical mosaic, I did make a slight criticism about The Soul Sessions, and that was that they were underdeveloped and tended to end abruptly and far too soon. I stated at the time,  โ€œIf I am to find some niggly, itโ€™s a lack of intro; the songs tend to jerk right in, but I guess itโ€™s because I have the single edits here, and Kaya Streetโ€™s impressive lineup is plentiful to convince me they know the formula to extend and polish.โ€ 

I am glad to hear that has now been amended and extended versions of the radio edits have been uploaded to Spotify. Each tunenow runs at an average five to seven minutes, and sounds complete. Itโ€™s now time to fully ingest the absolute magic of Kaya Street, in which youโ€™re taken in smoother and played out satisfied by more wholesome versions of their interesting and wonderful fusions, and melting pot of influences, and, in turn, the journey is now complete.

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Soupchick in the Park

And there was me thinking nothing good comes out of a Monday! Today local bistro Soupchick, popular in the Devizesโ€™ Shambles opened their second branch, transforming theโ€ฆ

Keep reading

New Album from Illingworth; Man Made of Glass

Four years of hard work in the making, and it sure shows, Man Made of Glass, the third album from John and Jolyon, aka Illingworth, is released across streaming platforms this week. If youโ€™ve seen this Salisbury duo performing on the circuit, the unyielding passion they inject into the obligatory classic rock covers set isnโ€™t half of what they put into their own compositionsโ€ฆ..

Pardon me if you came here for a respite from the onslaught of inflammatory international headlines and to read a nice music review, Man Made of Glass contains much prose on the tyranny of contemporary politics. As the idiom is defined, this narcissistic disorder of egotistical figureheads is fragile and therefore likely to shatter manifests abstractly, particularly in the title track and single Gaslight, but hey, I think itโ€™s safe to say we know the people it is directed towards.

Itโ€™s a floating opening, building in layers, this title track, richly written even if poignantly critical of power corrupting. As ever with Illingworth thereโ€™s this breezy air of feelgood rock too, of Foreigner or The Cars, which enriches the sound naturally. Soulless might be the subject, but soulful is the expression; itโ€™s a contrast.

Superior single Gaslight does similar theme-wise, but as powerful as an indie rock anthem, and rolling on a tougher riff than the title track, throughout, it takes the manipulation of its titleโ€™s term to the worldly encouragement of avoidance; this โ€œdonโ€™t be convinced by propagandaโ€ concept.

Bittersweet is the general ambience Illingworth delivers with here, and thatโ€™s no new thing in rock, but they do so with such passion and expertise it polishes the delivery and leaves you feeling alive and stimulated, with nothing bad you could possibly say about their songs. They are rich with honesty over vanity, reflecting on the theme. Gaslight may be the kingpin to the album, the running motif becoming less prominent in the other tracks. Every tune is a beauty though, embracing all stimulating elements of being uplifting, inspiring and catchy, just subtly with differing moods and tempos.

We Donโ€™t Have to Try is a country-rock ballad on an eternal love subject, whereas, Heart To Rule Your Head, is an inspiring โ€œyou can get it if you really wantโ€ upbeat track. 

Another Passion is upbeat too, of if, buts and maybes, whereas New Year is arousingly paced, reflecting on the unification and love perpetrated by the annual occasion. Love conquering over evil becomes the inclusive factor as the album drifts archetypically. This conquering notion to avoid the brainwashing of those seeking power lessens somewhat in favour of identifying affections, yet never fully expires. The finale is not to let it worry you, as the matter will shatter like glass.

While great, if previous Illingworth albums can feel fragmented, like randomly placed collections of their memorable songs you rarely hear enough of when theyโ€™re gigging, Man Made of Glass is more rounded, it has an overall concept. Like a classic rock album, the tracksโ€™ narratives combine and flow wonderfully. Itโ€™s not a โ€œconcept album,โ€ per say, but in the same classic fashion, and thatโ€™s a welcomed rare find these days of media overload and the average attention span of a goldfish!

Man Made of Glass is more suited to a vinyl, CD or cassette format, of a time when album composition contained an all-inclusive message, and you sat in the dark listening to it. Just like those albums of yore it feels like something to cherish, a testament to a bleeding heart of sentiment you identify with and get emotionally involved with, rather than simply hearing it while you wash the dishes. But hey, streaming is the mainstay these days, and thatโ€™s where youโ€™ll find this treasure buried.

Apple Music Link

Amazon Link

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Family Easter Holiday Events

Devizine isn’t only about music and gigs for grownups, y’know? It’s about events for everyone. This Easter we’ve lots of things to do over theโ€ฆ

REVIEW โ€“ Devizes International Blues Festival โ€“ Saturday 18th January 2025, Corn Exchange, Devizes 

Another Stunning Week-End For Live Music

Andy Fawthrop

Normally Iโ€™d be raving about just how good the live music was at The Southgate on Sundayย afternoon. ย And it was indeed brilliant, featuring the amazingly talented bluesman Eddie Martin, withย his band The 58s (the year he was born apparently). ย The band consisted of Tom Gilkes on drums,ย Jerry Soffe on bass, and the wonderful Patsy Gamble on saxophones. ย And normally Iโ€™d write a longย incoherent full review of that gig on its own, but thereโ€™s just too much other stuff to tell you about!

The previous day was the first Devizes International Blues Festival. ย And hereโ€™s the low-down.

Nobody could ever say that Long Street Blues Club and its wily leader Ian Hopkins (currently alsoย Lord Mayor of this parish) doesnโ€™t keep on trying to push the boundaries of live music in D-Town, andย to present some really top-notch entertainment. Not content with a full programme of events at theย mothership venue of The Conservative Club (see below), there was still ambition enough to doย something even bigger in terms of both entertainment and venue.

So, in the interests of blowing out the post-Crimbo and New Year cobwebs, I felt it was only fair to reward such bravado with my own presence on Saturday afternoon and evening (yes it was an all-dayer, not just the normal simple gig format of band + support).  This was altogether more than that with no less than five, yes five, headliners playing their way through the six hours or so of the two main sessions.

This is (as far as anyone knows) the first indoor Blues Festival Devizes has ever staged (if you donโ€™tย count the blues events at the club itself this time last year). Being January, it was cold, damp, and wetย outside, so I think everyone was pretty glad to be on the inside! This was definitely not the same as,ย say, Saddleback of a couple of years ago sitting outside at Devizes Rugby Club in the middle ofย summer! ย 

The team had attempted to create an intimate blues club in the Ceres Hall, using tables and seating,ย but with some room for dancing at the front near the stage. ย It was always going to be a big ask withย the high ceilings and the big windows and aircon units much in evidence, but they did a pretty goodย job, by closing the curtains and excellent use of both main hall and stage lighting. And the rewardย was a virtually-full room of music-hungry people.

First up the afternoon double-header was harmonica player extraordinaire Giles Robson. Although based in Jersey, and the only UK resident amongst this star-studded otherwise Chicago cast, Giles was entirely at home, having in the past played with all the American greats, and having toured with his own band all over Europe.  I think I last caught him a year ago at the Blues Club playing support to another of todayโ€™s line-up John Primer.  Giles, accompanied by only an acoustic guitarist, served up a portion of (somewhat unusual on the UK scene) acoustic blues.  His wailing, crooning, imploring style of playing, together with his laconic inter-song chat style, soon had the audience hushed and listening intently. His last offering, which Iโ€™m sure had to be a parody on a whole raft of suggestive blues songs, involved milk in the ice-cream mixer.  Donโ€™t ask. Seriously, donโ€™t ask.

After a suitable pause for stage changes and (ahem) refreshments at the bar, it was the turn of Oscarย Wilson. Here was the real deal (in my book at least). ย Although not great in physical stature, andย leaning heavily on his customised stick, this guy had a commanding presence and provided some bigย sounds, with deep gravel vocals right from the outset. ย Growing up in Chicago, his major influencesย were Muddy Waters and Howlinโ€™ Wolf, and there was plenty of that on show right here. ย Workingย with a โ€œhouse bandโ€ that he didnโ€™t know, Oscar soon built a rapport with his musicians, commandingย every move with subtle moves of the hand, a flick or a bounce of the stick, or a wry smile to the side.

They were winging it a bit but (honestly) you could hardly see the joins.  His set was a real switch from what weโ€™d just heard from Gilesโ€™ solo set.  It was instantly deeper, faster, and with much more intent.  There was more variation, changes in tempo and altogether much more heft.  Even with Giles himself joining the band and providing the frills and the infills, the full band sound was much more to my taste.  Weโ€™d definitely moved up a notch, and the crowd were loving it.

At this point there was a break in proceedings for a couple of hours, and we were tipped out into the D-Town afternoon to find what other pleasures we could discover.  I guess the gap had a sound logistical reason behind it, but it felt strange to kind of lose all of the atmosphere that had started to build up.  Maybe it was sound checks, but the โ€œhouse bandโ€ was still the same guys upporting the evening performers. So Iโ€™m not sure about that one.

Anyhow, after the break and the crowd had reassembled itself once more, the next four and a halfย hours gave us three cracking performers of the Chicago blues.

First up was Nora Jean Wallace, a Chicago blues singer with Deep Delta roots. ย A striking figure of aย woman, sporting a fine silver wig, Nora Jean delivered a set that was far funkier than what had goneย before, almost leaning towards Motown at times. ย Clearly unwell with a stinking head-cold, sheย declared โ€œbut ahโ€™m gonna give it ma bestโ€, she absolutely delivered on that promise. ย The singingย was strong and high-powered. ย Only between songs could you see that she was struggling a little, andย you had to feel a little sorry for her. ย Her detailed control of the now-regular โ€œhouse bandโ€ wasย slightly less tight than Oscarโ€™s had been, but with Giles once again on stage with the harmonicaย support, the overall sound was terrific.

Toronzo ย Cannon came up next, sporting a nice line in hats, and a guitar that he used withย devastating effect. ย His song lyrics (and indeed the inter-song patter that introduced them) was wittyย and truth-telling. ย His topics included sex, divorce, insurance, his various health issues (again, pleaseย donโ€™t ask), his mid-life crisis (pubes turning grey anyone?) and so on. ย These were all original songs,ย and topics not normally covered by the mainstream blues, but massively entertaining nevertheless. ย But it was his blistering and inventive guitar work that impressed more than his impassioned vocals. ย Like all the artists who preceded him on the bill, he worked hard at engaging the audience, crackingย jokes and engaging in plenty of call-and-response numbers. ย Giles did not join the band on this oneย occasion, and Toronzoโ€™s sound was all the better for it. ย I love blues harmonica, but weโ€™d had quite aย lot of it already by this stage in proceedings.

Almost finally, it was the turn of John Primer, another one of the kings of Chicago blues. Originally aย guitarist in Muddy Watersโ€™ band for many years, he also played with another Chicago legend, Willieย Dixon. Here was another of these great performers, having also played in Long Street club about aย year ago, which was where Iโ€™d last seen him. ย Compared to Toronzo, John seemed more focused andย down to it, a little more serious, with less chat and humour. ย And still the โ€œhouse bandโ€ were thereย with him, together with Giles Robson once more. ย There was more of a feeling of just cracking onย with the show now, but never in any kind of hurry. ย โ€œAhโ€™m jusโ€™ takinโ€™ ma timeโ€, he declared at oneย point, which was absolutely how it felt. ย He also described himself as โ€œan old man, but with youngย ideasโ€ and then cracked the broadest smile of the evening. ย He delivered (to my ears at least) superbย versions of โ€œGot My Mojo Workingโ€ and โ€œRainy Night In Georgiaโ€. ย What a great performer.

But there was one final thing still to enjoy when the whole ensemble hauled themselves back onย stage for a final encore, sharing vocals and guitar licks. ย And finally also โ€“ huge applause for theย โ€œhouse bandโ€ whoโ€™d managed to play backing band to four different headliners, staying on stage forย over four hours. ย Unfortunately, I couldnโ€™t catch all their names, but a definite hats off to those guys. ย 

Overall, it was a great day out, packed with some great performances and musical gems. ย My favourite? โ€“ย Oscar Wilson was the guy who really nailed it for me, but these things are often a matter of personal taste. All five headliners gave great performances, and difficult to fault any of them. So, well done,ย once again, to Ian and his team for putting on such a great event in our town. Brilliant.

Future gigs at Long Street Blues Club:

Saturday 1st Feb โ€“ the John Martyn project

Friday 21st Feb โ€“ Brave Rival (at the Corn Exchange as part of the Lord Mayorโ€™s Dinner)

Friday 14th March โ€“ Jimmy Regal & The Royals

Friday 4th April โ€“ Tommy Castro & The Painkillers

Saturday 12th April โ€“ Billy Walton Band

Saturday 3rd May โ€“ Alastair Greene

Saturday 17th May โ€“ Fullhouse, with special guest Innes Sibun

Saturday 9th Aug โ€“ Skinny Molly

But, as always, check with their websiteย www.longstreetbluesclub.co.ukย for all the latest information.

Stepping Up My Spine; New Nothing Rhymes With Orange Single

Developed in Devizes, blossoming in Bristol, as well as a snazzy new website, indie-punk phenomenon Nothing Rhymes with Orange released their next single, and itโ€™s stepping up their spines … apparently!

A narrative of pending infatuation in the hope the feeling is mutual, Stepping Up My Spine is instantly lovable, projecting a more lenient and ubiquitous indie-pop sound than the bandโ€™s raw punkier past; a direction they seem to have been progressing towards with each new release.

Image: Gail Foster

I cite many local bands like Talk in Code and Atari Pilot, reflecting a national indie trend to return us to an eighties pop-rock vibe, and this follows suit, but only slightly. It retains the โ€œreal instrumentsโ€ rock ethos theyโ€™ve sworn to uphold, thereโ€™s no electronica influence, thus maintaining the edge we know them for. Letโ€™s call it a natural progression rather than a desire to follow a trend, not forgoing itโ€™s still stylised to their sound and is bound to appease their maturing fans.

If weโ€™ve keenly watched Nothing Rhymes With Orange and their devoted fanbase evolve and proliferate, this new single reflects and preserves that continuation. And long may it be so!

Keep up the good work, guys! You catch NRWO at SwinterFest next Saturday, at the Castle.ย 

The Oak Festival; The Best Thing to Hit Pewsey Sinceโ€ฆ..?!

Yet to witness it myself but heard on the grapevine, the blossoming liveliest place to be in Pewsey at the moment, is, apparently the Royal Oak. Wiltshire Music Events, who brought us CrownFest in Bishops Cannings and sold out Devizes Corn Exchange with The Marley Experience, has been at the forefront of furnishing the pub with gigs from the growing wealth of talent on their books. Tempted to drop by and check it out asap, but if all else fails, Saturday July 5th sees them holding a debut mini-festival, which is double-underlined on my personal calendarโ€ฆโ€ฆ

The Oak Festival is an all dayer boasting seven bands, food and outside bar, but itโ€™s the lineup which will really wow. Three, no, thirty yeses from me, to The Marley Experience headlining, being smitten with Bob Marley & The Wailers since day dot and after much deliberation, these guys recreate their music and vibe with such unprecedented precision itโ€™s unmissable.

Thereโ€™s also a lively Irish folk element to the festival with The Tipsy Gypsies, and Pouges tribute, The Phogues, both Iโ€™ve yet to tick off my must-see list, but they also dive into indie with the blues edge of The Leon Daye Band, and our favourite-most indie-pop masters Talk in Code, who need no introduction here neither further praise; forget sliced bread, theyโ€™re the most electrifying exciting local act we have.

Thereโ€™s two acoustic singer-songwriters too, Lucas Hardy who Iโ€™ve heard only good things about, and Salisburyโ€™s Rosie Jay, who with her poignant writing and exquisitely unique delivery overnight clocked into our all-time hall of fame here at Devizine!

Early bird tickets at an extremely reasonable ยฃ25 are available until 1st Feb, HERE.

Later the price goes up but only slightly, to ยฃ32.50, which, once youโ€™ve seen The Marley Experience, youโ€™ll realise the ticket stub was worth it just to see them alone, and why Iโ€™m all excited about this one!

It could be the best thing to happen in pea island since carnival, since the coronation of Alfred the Great; trust me on this one!!

Devizes Welcomes New Coffee Shop, Caffe Vialottie

Devizes welcomed a charming new coffee shop to The Market Place today, called Caffe Vialottie; I thought it best to drop by, poke my nose inโ€ฆ..

Caffe Vialottie takes over the listed number 35, where the cherished Times Square closed its doors for the final time in June 2024. The walls are adorned with some nice artwork, the colour theme altered to a dark green and cream, but the tried and tested layout remains much the same as Times Square. It was met with busy enthusiasm by customers, many I suspect devotees of the previous cafe happy to see it back in action. โ€œEveryone wants to try the new cafe,โ€ manager Chelsie Godden greeted me, between frantically serving customers, โ€œitโ€™s been busy, but nice!โ€

While Chelsie worked at Times Square previously, the owner was new to the area. He stressed the importance of creating an individual space, adamant copying the mainstream coffee shop chains wasnโ€™t on the agenda here, he said, โ€œI think weโ€™ve got something special here, something nice.โ€

If the word nice was coincidentally dropped twice, it certainly is that; nothing negative could be said about Caffe Vialottie. It seemed friendly, with a vibe to fit like a glove into Devizes. Yet with coffee being centre stage, tea and a good choice of soft drinks, thereโ€™s only toasties and a selection of cakes and Kettle crisps to wash down. It is, primarily, a โ€œlight lunchโ€ stop-off point, rather than attempting to be a restaurant, and despite the call not to replicate the major coffee shop chains, unfortunately we do have a lot of similar establishments already in Devizes.

But hey, it does what it says on the tin, hospitably, and is price-matched with the established competitors in town. While personally Iโ€™d like to see someone trying something different and off the wall, ideas like tapas and Caribbean themed cafes havenโ€™t been so successful in Devizes recently, as the tried and tested formula of tea, coffee and cake, seems to appease locals more. It is with that notion we wish Caffe Vialottie all the best of luck in these trying times, and hope future days will emulate the success of their opening day. Devizes can never have enough coffee it seems!

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Ruby, Sunday at the Gate

It’s a rarity that I should drag myself off the sofa on a Sunday these days, one usually reserved for the monthly Jon Amor Trioโ€ฆ

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La Belle Hรฉlรจne; White Horse Operaโ€™s Debut at The Wharf Theatre

Seems odd the perfect combination between Devizesโ€™ only theatre, The Wharf, and one of the longest-running performance group, White Horse Opera hasnโ€™t linked before, but they are set to do so in March with a performance of Jacques Offenbachโ€™s Opรฉra bouffe, La Belle Hรฉlรจneโ€ฆ..

Okay, this is not exactly true. Barbara Gompels of the White Horse Opera told us many years ago there was a one night show at the Wharf with the operaโ€™s touring show, but this will be the first main opera held at our wonderful theatre here in Devizes, so Iโ€™m not totally fibbing!

La Belle Hรฉlรจne is a comic opera in three acts parodying the story of Helen of Troy’s elopement with Paris, which evoked the Trojan War. The premiere at Parisโ€™s Thรฉรขtre des Variรฉtรฉs in 1864 rekindled Offenbachโ€™s operas with his audience, after six years attempting to emulate his success with the risquรฉ satire of Greek mythology, Orphรฉe aux Enfers.

Having been promised the most beautiful woman in the world by Venus, Paris arrives disguised as a shepherd boy with the aim of cashing in that promise. Helene, currently married to Menelaus, wards off his advances. However, when Paris comes to her while she is sleeping she believes it all to be in her dreams so it must therefore “be all fine.” 

Do come and see the fireworks that ensue when Menelaus comes home early and discovers the lovers!

Fully staged and sung in English with an orchestra, tickets are now available, and the show runs from Tuesday 11th until Saturday 15th March.

Tickets from Devizes Books and hwww.ticketsource.co.uk/whitehorseopera

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๐€ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐œ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Œ๐ž๐š๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ : ๐…๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ญ๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐Ž๐ซ๐œ๐ก๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐š ๐š๐ญ ๐“๐ž๐ฐ๐ค๐ž๐ฌ๐›๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐€๐›๐›๐ž๐ฒ

Review by Pip Aldridge Last week, I had the privilege of seeing the Fulltone Orchestra perform at the beautiful Tewkesbury Abbey beneath the Peace Dovesโ€ฆ

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People Liked Us; Devizes Premier Covers Band Call it a Day

A sunny July in 2018 and Iโ€™m in Hillworth Park for a Fantasy Radio live session, finally witnessing a Devizes based band Iโ€™d been adding the gigs of onto our calendar. With an especial distinctiveness People Like Us complimented Coldplay, nailed as Oasis, and breezed through Crowded House, but it was when they covered Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, and gifted us with their timeless rendition of Mr Blue Sky, sparks flew. It is sad to see them announce today that โ€œPeople Like Usโ€ is now in past tense. โ€œPeople Liked Usโ€, because they sure didโ€ฆ.

More appropriately, โ€œPeople Loved Us,โ€ twas to have observed a typical night in the Three Crowns in Devizes, where, if ecstatic frenzies of table top dancing amidst a crammed beer garden became something of a clichรฉ (which had to be culled for health and safety regulations,) I do declare the originators who evoked such wild party vibes with such an accomplished and respected homegrown sound, was People Like Us; I might be wrong on this, but if so, well, thereโ€™s a first for everything!

Okay, I mayโ€™ve compared the then four-piece visually to Scooby-Dooโ€™s gang, at the time, then worried afterwards they might take offense to it as they didnโ€™t tend to wear bell-bottoms and cravats, but it was the first time Iโ€™d seen a band use a cajon drum, and the effect came across with a decidedly Californian sixties pop panache, though with contemporary cover choices. Yet it will go down in the history of the local music circuit, that People Like Us bucked any deliberations folk may have against cover bands by stamping their unique take on classic pop songs, and thrilled every audience.

Only a couple of years after they formed, they seemed to crop everywhere, from pub gig to fete, and wherever they did they brought the party with them, compulsively. All vocalising harmoniously, People Like Us was made up of prolific keyboardist Nicky Davis, Claire Gilchrist on kick drums, who would depart from the band a year later, Andy โ€œPipโ€ Phillips on cajรณn and guitarist Dean Ellicock. Since leaving the band Claire embarked on a solo career, performed with six-piece function band LiveWired, and has created local music promotional Facebook page Bird is the Word. The remaining three, Nicky, Dean and Pip carried on People Like Us, clocking up nine years of service to the local music scene.

But in a shock Facebook announcement today, they said โ€œweโ€™ve decided itโ€™s time to bring People Like Us to a close. Weโ€™ve had an incredible time over the last nine years and want to thank each and every one of you who came to a gig, booked us for an event, danced and sang for us and genuinely reminded us how lucky we were to be able to entertain you. Itโ€™s been a pretty awesome run for a project that was just meant to be a bit of fun here and there!โ€

While it certainly has, the group gave the cloud a silver lining, reminding fans Pip is still part of Finley Truslerโ€™s The Unpredictables, and Nicky continues the even longer running band, The Reason, and theyโ€™ll no doubt join again for the annual The Female of the Species fundraiser.

If this is buttering up a sad situation, itโ€™s a good and acceptable one, still, we will miss you all as People Like Us, wish you all the best for your existing and future projects, and declare your honourable and thoroughly deserved place in our local music hall of fame, with a big gold framed portrait…..if, erm, I was a portrait artist, which I’m not, and if I attempted it you’d really look like Scooby’s gang then, so maybe it’s best I don’t. I’ll just quote Abba instead, (which is not as rare a thing as you might imagine it to be) and say, “thank you for the music!”

Ex-Kaiser Chief Nick Hodgsonโ€™s Everyone Says Hi Coming to Marlborough

Featured Image Credit: Stewart Baxter

Riot predictor Nick Hodgson formerly of the Kaiser Chiefs has a new band, the charmingly named Everyone Says Hi, and theyโ€™re playing an instore at Marlboroughโ€™s Sound Knowledge, on Sunday 2nd Februaryโ€ฆ.

Everyone Says Hi will play a number of live dates across the UK to celebrate the release of their upcoming self-titled debut album, set for release on 31st January 2025 via Chrysalis Records. The latest single from the record, Lucky Stars, is out now.ย 

The band will embark on a run of UK in-store dates, in cities like London, Lancaster, Hull, Bristol, Nottingham, Leeds and Liverpool. The fact Marlborough appears on this and many other major industry playerโ€™s giglists is a testament to the reputation and hard work of Sound Knowledge.

Prior to this, they will perform two newly announced headline shows in support of Independent Venue Week. Frontman Nick Hodgson said of the importance of indie venues, โ€œweโ€™ve just finished a tour of small independent venues in the UK and it really brought into focus for me how precious they are. There are people all over the country working so hard to bring live music to their area and when people turn up and love the gig it really feels like the beginning of something.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s a cliche to say that without the small venues there would be no arena bands and festival headliners but itโ€™s definitely my experience with Kaiser Chiefs and Iโ€™m sure for the other guys in the band that independent venues arenโ€™t just a cute little step along the path, they are the path.โ€ 

Nick has long been a songwriter in high demand. Since leaving his teenage band back in 2012, he has co-written for the likes of Dua Lipa, You Me At Six, Duran Duran, George Ezra, and Holly Humberstone, and collaborated on tracks alongside Mark Ronson, Kygo, and Shirley Bassey. Having racked up over 5 million cumulative album sales globally, Nick now focuses on a new challenge. You wouldnโ€™t bet against him.

Itโ€™s a floaty album of universal indie; instant like from me! Everyone Says Hi sees Nick adopt the role of lead singer-guitarist, and brings together musicians Pete Denton on bass, Glenn Moule on drums, keyboard player Ben Gordon (ex-members of The Kooks, The Howling Bells, and Liverpoolโ€™s The Dead 60s respectively), alongside Leeds based guitarist Tom Dawson. The bandโ€™s name is lifted from a David Bowie song of the same title. What you hear across its ten tracks is high-calibre, beautifully sculpted songcraft performed by high-calibre, experienced players. Not so much showing โ€˜promiseโ€™ here, but instantly delivering bonafide โ€˜big songsโ€™ that belie the bandโ€™s status as relative newcomers. The record was produced by Nick at Londonโ€™s Snap Studios and at his home studio. Pre-order the albumย here.

Everyone Says Hi is the fruit of a multi-platinum musician deciding to draw a line and start afresh. Back to the same bedroom floor where the first tentative notes were played, holding the same guitar that was played way back when, back to forming a band with trusted friends, and back to booking the sticky basement stages where teeth were first cut. But whilst you can metaphorically wipe the slate clean on most things, you cannot unlearn what you already know. If emotionally driven, arena-ready songs come almost second-nature, youโ€™d be foolish to ignore the gift youโ€™ve been given.

Sound Knowledge said, โ€œwe’re delighted to say that Everyone Says Hi will be joining us for one of our first in-stores of 2025. They’ll be playing a stripped back set in the shop itself from 3pm on Sunday 2nd February. Stick a note in with your pre-order to guarantee your place.โ€ Which you can do HERE.

Tickets for all shows are on sale here.

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Geckoโ€™s Big Picture

In 1998 a pair of pigs escaped while being unloaded off a lorry at an abattoir in Malmesbury and were on the run for aโ€ฆ

Park Farm; New Music Festival in Devizes

A new music festival is coming to Devizes this July. Organisers of the long-running Marlborough based festival MantonFest are shifting west across the downs andโ€ฆ

Results of Salisbury Music Awards

All images: ยฉ๏ธ JS Terry Photography An awards ceremony to celebrate the outstanding musical talent within the city, aptly titled The 2024 Salisbury Music Awards,โ€ฆ

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Two-Tone Icons, The Beat Headline Devizes Scooter Rally 2025

Matthew Murphy, or Ranking Junior, son of the late Roger Charlery, aka Ranking Roger vocalist of eighties Two-Tone ska band, The Beat and new wave collective General Public has settled into the shoes of his father and now fronts a reformation of The Beat, which tours extensively. This includes our blossoming scooter rally in Devizes this coming summerโ€ฆ.

If thereโ€™s two types of scooter rally and scooterist festivals in the UK, the boss events like Skamouth and BSRA nationals, and those locally-based eensy events constituting little more than a beer garden with DJ, showy hairdryers and undercooked hotdogs, Devizes Scooter Clubโ€™s annual rally has sat between the opposing levels, aspiring to better the value of municipal rallies. In its fifth year, Devizes Scooter Rally sets a president above them, striving to create the kind of environment more suitable for those mainstream โ€œbossโ€ events, yet retains the communal atmosphere of smaller events; thatโ€™s its magnitude; it is a blessing to our town to host it.

It does this by staging an impressive, tried and tested lineup in a hospitable and affordable atmosphere. Itโ€™s the Mardi Gras of the club, and members work tirelessly to welcome guests and design the perfect setting. This is not me flattering them, last year I spoke to several guests at the rally, from all over the UK, who stated, (in their own subtle and slightly dribbling way) the reason they love this event is precisely this balance between the electric atmosphere of a local event yet packing the punch of an established larger oneโ€ฆor words to that effect!

Whilst music at the rally has always been first-class, names might not be so recognisable to those outside the scooterist niche. This is set to change, as Birminghamโ€™s The Beat were one of the key bands in the UK ska revival of the late โ€˜70s and โ€˜80s, and managed to crossover to the mainstream. Youโ€™ll all remember Mirror in the Bathroom, Hands off Sheโ€™s Mine, and so many others, my personal favourite, Canโ€™t Get Used to Losing You. Youโ€™ll all be up dancing, and making that essential Full Stop, Iโ€™m sure.

Set for the weekend of 25th-27th July, the rally for 2025 also boasts The return of the Butterfly Collective, Small Faces tribute, Small Fakers, Wardour Street, Cardiffโ€™s The Brew, and DJs of the Soul Pressure sound system, but, thing is, youโ€™ve only a couple of days to get your early bird wristband. Facebook message the Devizes Scooter Club, or call 078088 49965 now!

Goldsteppers at Devizes Scooter Rally 2024

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Jamsters; A New Initiative For Musicians at The Southgate

Bob Marley sang โ€œjamminโ€™ โ€˜til the jam is through,โ€ Jimmy Cricketโ€™s catchphrase was โ€œcomeโ€™ere, thereโ€™s more,โ€ but it looks like The Southgate in Devizes is combining the two. Jamsters is landlord Daveโ€™s new initiative to provide a Friday night platform for loose groupings and associations created at their regular jam sessions each Wednesdayโ€ฆ.

The inaugural occurrence of this happened in November, with JP Oldfield, Gordon Thompson and Sammi Evans, this Friday, 10th Jan, sees the turns of Ben Borril, Chrissy โ€œSteenโ€ Chapman of Burn the Midnight Oil, Adam Spanswick and George (not the pub dog!) and they kick off at 8pm. We understand this is to become a monthly occasion,and are happy to hear of it!

Wednesdays jam sessions have been in operation for some years now at the Gate, and have become something of a regular convention for local musicians to gather and network. Perhaps more so even than open mic nights, these jam sessions not only provide entertainment, practice, and the chance of making friends and connections, but are also an opportunity for our local musicians to experiment and see who works well together. During its time weโ€™ve seen collaborations and bands formatted from it, such as Pat Ward and Ben Borrillโ€™s Matchbox Mutiny and Tom Harrisโ€™ No Alarms And No Devizes.

Now, with a monthly instalment of this Friday night extension of the jam sessions, we hope to see more groupings form and flourish from it. Through all the current hardships of the hospitality industry, The Southgate continue to buck the trend through their dedication to making the pub a friendly, affordable, and welcoming place and, supporting, not the recognisable big names rather upcoming local musicians; the like whoโ€™ll mingle with the punters and be glad you came. Thatโ€™s itโ€™s community feel and thatโ€™s itโ€™s grand appealโ€ฆ I hope to see you down there soon, mineโ€™s a pint of Rosieโ€™s Pig, cheers!! 

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RowdeFest 2025!

Okay, I canโ€™t keep the secret any longer or Iโ€™ll pop! While all the hard work is being organised by a lovely committee, because theyโ€ฆ

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First Christmas: Kopp and Guyโ€™s Second Feature Film Enters Development

The second feature film for director Keith Wilhelm Kopp and writer Laurence Guy, First Christmas enters development, to be produced by Shropshire-based production company, Ask Seek Knock. We sent our Helen to the press screening of their award-winning first film, Translations, hereโ€™s what she thoughtโ€ฆ..

First Christmas is set to be filmed in Shropshire, with a primarily West Midlands based crew. The film is to be associate produced by West Midlands-based Emily DeJesus and Adam Fray. The synopsis, โ€œa widowed man invites his three grown up children and their families for Christmas, in the hope that they stitch their fractured family back together.โ€

Luke Allen is a renowned young producer with a solid track record of short form productions. He is the writer and executive producer of Something Sketchy, a sketch show pilot, having previously worked as production manager on the heavily anticipated pilot Henry House (starring Peter Purves, Annette Badland and Mark Lewis Jones) and in other production office roles on the upcoming features Bjorn of the Dead (dir. Sara Sugarman, starring Ralph Brown and Amelia Eve) and Reckless (dir. Elliott Montello, starring Scott Adkins & Vinnie Jones). Lukeโ€™s short form credits include the drama Weightless Words and the darkly comic Got Your Nose, which recently screened at Raindance Festival. 

Luke is set to make his feature film producing debut with First Christmas. He said, โ€œwhen Keith approached me to produce this, it was an instant yes as I had so much fun working with him for a couple of days on Something Sketchy. Once I read Laurenceโ€™s beautiful script, I knew I had made the right decision – itโ€™s an honour to be onboard and I canโ€™t wait to bring this story to life!โ€

Laurence Guy is an award-winning Screenwriter, who has worked in collaboration with Keith Kopp on several films that have played in festivals around the world, as well as streaming online (SkyTV and Amazon Prime). Laurence’s play, ‘ZORIC’, was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in 2022, and his debut feature film ‘Translations’ won best screenplay at the Riverside International Film Festival, before gaining UK distribution in the summer of 2023. Laurence is represented by Steven Russell at Collective Talent.

Laurence stated that, โ€œIโ€™m really excited to be working with ASK on Keith and my second feature, First Christmas. After the success of Translations it felt like a natural step to bring this ensemble comedy drama to life in a way that I know audiences will love. It’s a real actorโ€™s script, with character and heart at the centre of the story, that centres on a family brought together over Christmas after the death of the matriarch of the family.โ€

Keith Wilhelm Kopp is an award-winning film Director whose works have screened in festivals globally (Encounters FF, Belfast FF and Portland FF) and has had TV broadcast in the UK. His debut feature film Translations has received rave reviews and had a theatrical release in 20 UK cinemas. He is interested in films about redemption, transformation, and family dynamics. Keith is a BAFTA connect member. 

Kopp said, โ€œI look forward to bringing First Christmas alive because of the universality of families coming together during the holidays, overcoming their hardships and rediscovering the joy of spending time with people who know the joy and complexity of each other. This film has a lot of humour and humanity and I know there is a wide audience who will really engage with the story. I am especially excited to shoot First Christmas in Shropshire, a location that is wealthy in history and picturesque landscapes.โ€ 

First Christmas is currently in development and available for investment and sponsorship conversations. For more information, contact Luke on luke@askseekknock.co.uk

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Discover the perfect destination for Walk Your Dog Month at Nightingale Wood

Image credit: Forestry England/Crown copyright.

Forestry England Nightingale Wood invites dog owners to celebrate Walk Your Dog Month this January…..

Walk Your Dog Month is a great opportunity to build your bond with your four-legged family members. It can be tempting to stay indoors at this time of year, but regular walks are essential for a dogโ€™s physical and mental health. The good news is, theyโ€™re pretty good for ownersโ€™ health too! So, grab a lead and some poo bags, and read on for Nightingale Woodโ€™s top tips for a brilliant Walk Your Dog Month.

Beat the January blues

With festivities over, January can be a difficult month of cold weather and long nights. Spending time in nature with your best friend by your side is a fantastic way to enjoy natural light and fresh air. Physical activity can increase your energy levels and reduce stress. Even a short walk can clear your mind and lift your mood.

Fun for the whole family

Fun awaits the whole family at Nightingale Wood. Spot wildlife, build dens, and splash in puddles.

Dog-friendly environment

With clearly marked paths and plenty of space to roam, Nightingale Wood is the perfect spot for exploring. Choose from three easy-to-follow walking trails or create your own route from the network of surfaced trails and forest roads. There are so many scents and sounds to explore, your dog will never get tired of returning to the forest.

Build your fitness

Fancy trying something different? Look out around the trails for pieces of fitness equipment which have been installed as part of the Great Western Community Forest project.

Canine community

With fellow dog walkers enjoying the forest, there is always someone to pass the time of day with during a walk. Human connection is one of the NHSโ€™s essential ingredients for positive wellbeing. You never know whose day you might change with a smile โ€“ or who might change yours.

Donโ€™t miss the chance to celebrate Walk Your Dog Month at Nightingale Wood. Lace up your shoes and head into the woods for an unforgettable adventure.

For more information, visit https://www.forestryengland.uk/nightingale-wood

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Devizine Review of 2024 Part 1: Jan to July

Featured Image: Gail Foster

All other image usage here was credited on the original articles, to locate sources again would take a long time, so please accept my apologises. If you see an image you own and wish to be credited for it, please ask. Thank you.

Okay so, three days into 2025 and my chicken kiev parped at me. Is this an augury?! A prediction of how this year is going to play out?! Even my dinners will be farting in my general direction? Que sera sera, weโ€™re not looking forwards, weโ€™re looking backwards, at how 2024 passed here at Devizine Towersโ€ฆ..

Start with stats, โ€˜cos after 2023โ€™s doubling on hits from 2022, we failed to make a similar hike, achieving about 9% less hits than 2023. Iโ€™m not going to lose sleep over it, it was a great year, but figure thereโ€™s a few reasons for this drop. Firstly, despite a shock general election, Iโ€™ve tried to avoid controversy and local political satirical slants as much as possible. Unfortunately itโ€™s often me playing the grumpy old toad which gains attention, but I really wanted to focus more on arts and entertainment news, as thatโ€™s our ethos, the spoof and opinion articles are just me, abusing the platform to magisterially backseat drive.

Result, though; we rid ourselves of Tory tyrants, in parliament at least, thereโ€™s still work to be done to obliterate the impact and ingrained cluelessness of elitist robbery of the working class and have a fairer system for all. Whatโ€™s my opinion of Starmer so far? Not impressive, thatโ€™s for sure, but by comparison with the circus of thieves which was the last government I think weโ€™re in a better place overall. Iโ€™m certainly not going to jump the bandwagon in disparaging him, knowing the alternative is this growing trend for fascism. Though itโ€™s not the shouty sort of fascism of the Third Reich, itโ€™s more ignorance is bliss, pie n chips, pint in hand C3PO gammon nescience. But, enough said about that!

Other reasons for the slight drop in hits could be due to the rising cost, my own fatigue and motivation to head out; I do worry what will become of Devizine with my aging and possible inability to get to gigs and events. A massive thank you must go to our contributors, then. Though submissions can be sporadic, we always need budding writers, especially younger ones to keep what weโ€™ve built here, and report on happenings, because left up to local press weโ€™d be doomed; they seem to favour national clickbait headlines over supporting local arts and entertainment, but likely they deem it is their only way to keep their heads above financial waters. I can’t blame them, but I can have a sly quip or two about it!

It is the accolades we receive from those talented locals which we promote and highlight which keeps me going with Devizine, and I thank them for motivating me. That is therefore where the concentration should be now, not on politics.

Another is top secret, but if youโ€™ve been contemplating that Devizine simply isnโ€™t funny anymore, Iโ€™ll reveal my best jokes are being saved for a book Iโ€™m near to finishing. I think youโ€™ll like it, itโ€™s absolute filth! And lastly, currently Iโ€™m so utterly fed up with social media. Itโ€™s all so bloody serious, nothing is taken with a pinch of salt, nothing is carefree or amusing. And if I do publish something on there for fun, the jokes fly over someoneโ€™s head, they take it the wrong way, get offended and execute a witch hunt against me. Itโ€™s all so petty and obnoxious, akin to road rage, rather than the creative outlet of its potential, and likely, original intention.

If itโ€™s not bombarding me with targeted adverts as a constant reminder Iโ€™m getting old, like care homes and life insurance, it’s flooded with utter crap, often using AI to illustrate misinformation and promote the rightwing bias of the owners, attempting to sway the masses; and it works too, thatโ€™s why they do it.

As a result Iโ€™ve massively reduced my screen time for such wet fart dribbles. Iโ€™ll share our articles on our social media platforms, but rarely feel inclined to interact with the gusto I once did. It is a shame, and it means you need to bookmark our wonderful website and check into it generically rather than wait for your social media platform to prompt you. Otherwise, fuck it, Iโ€™m doing this for bugger all reason, nearly as less than a few pennies it might yet generate. A fundraiser event may be a necessity now, at least an excuse for a much-needed party to lift my spirits! It is January though, a depressing little bugger, our annual review usually turns into whinge!

January

January Iโ€™m usually in hibernation, many are, so previews of events to come are more common as I hide in my hubby hole. Last year we ran ones on The Magic Teapot Gathering, the first line up announcements for My Dadโ€™s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival, Nโ€™Faly Kouyatรฉ of the Afro-Celt Sound System coming to Wiltshire Music Centre, and of course, the Bradford Roots Festival of which dragged me out of my cosy pit for! Two previews for new initiatives in Devizes worthy of previewing in January too were Palooza, a house night to happen in March, and Devizes Youth Action Groupโ€™s U18 gigs, both at The Exchange.

We announced a Lego Club starting at Devizes Library, and looked at courses in the art of chocolate at HollyChocs. I reviewed The Importance of Being Earnest at the Wharf Theatre. Andy ventured out to Long Street Blues Club, but for me, it seems the year begins with The Bradford Roots Festival, blooming lovely that occasion is, then I go back into winter hiding again!

Bookworm time, and Jan saw a review of Sorrel Pittsโ€™ novel Broken Shadows; undoubtedly the best read weโ€™ve ever reported on. And of course, recorded music reviews came thick and fast during those winter months. Albums from Billy Green 3, Richard Wileman and Daisy Chapman. Singles from Sienna Wileman, Nothing Rhymes With Orange, and Ushti Baba.

In the news, politics was brewing for a general election, we talked to the Melksham-Devizes Primary on where best to place our vote. We also reported on the sewage in the Kennet, and the MP who voted to strip legal duty on water companies to reduce harm caused by storm overflows. Yet regardless of all of this, the highest hitting article of the month by far was about a lost dildo found by dog walkers in Quakers Walk; you canโ€™t make up a golden scoop like that!!

February

Still wintery, we looked into SoupChickโ€™s new art gallery in Shambles, Valentina, celebrated thirty years of the Devizes Writers Group, the Kidical Mass bike ride calling for safer streets in Devizes, the Worton & Marston Brownies needing volunteers, and the Swindon Palestine Solidarity charity dinner. But my personal favourite was Darren and The Chocolate Factory, when I joined a family workshop at HollyChocs!

Other memorable events of Feb cannot be topped after Gaz Brookfieldโ€™s Village Hall Tour arrived in West Lavington. Though I also recall with fondness the Errol Linton Band at Long Street Blues Club, The Worried Men at the Pump, and Deadlight Dance at The Southgate. Ian gave us a review of Vince Bell at the Southgate, and Carrie at The Rondo Theatre. And we welcomed a new writer, Florence Lee who reported on Devizes Youth Action Groupโ€™s First Club Night.

Music in review came from Cracked Machine, The Lost Trades, The Jon Amor Trio, Jol Rose, and  Talk in Code. We previewed The Beat at The Cheese and Grain, the Jesus Jones tour, Devizes Pride, Gaz Brookfield, Mantonfest 2024, The Scribes at The Pump, and that The Marley Experience was coming to Devizes.

March

Politically we had a clue to the change in the tide, with a historic Lib Dem win in Marlborough Town Council, shame the trend didnโ€™t carry onto the GE there. We reported on a Palestinian Children Memorial in Swindon, and a Palestine protest at Labour Party fundraiser. We had a recap on the good work Devizes Clean Up Squad do, and opinionated on Wiltshire Councilโ€™s threats of prosecution against Wiltshire Music Eventsโ€™ posters in Devizes. 

I think the hero of the month goes to our bravest 7-year-old, Chloe, who slept out for Devizes OpenDoors. Though Chloeโ€™s feat might yet have been slightly upstaged by our Brian, who discovered Led Zeppelinโ€™s mystery thatcher, became a national hero to prog rock fans, and was the subject of a Wiltshire Museum exhibit.

We previewed FearFreeโ€™s fashion show at the Condado Lounge, Devizes Musical Theatreโ€™s Sister Act at Dauntseys, our Shelly on the wheels of steel at the Muck & Dunder, and Devizes Arts Festival. Andy went to Cinelli Brothers at Long Street Blues Club, Ian gave a review of โ€œRENTโ€ at The Rondo Theatre. I had two unforgettable nights out, when Ian Siegal joined the Jon Amor Trio at the  Southgate, and the first Palooza got me dancing my socks off for my birthday at The Exchange.

An album from Deadlight Dance and singles from M3G, Atari Pilot, and Life in Mono got covered, and we rediscovered our Chrissy from as yet unformed band Burn The Midnight Oil, providing vocals for drum n bass tracks. Oh yeah, I had a rant at those ranting about the Glastonbury line-up too!

April

April fools, of course, when we headlined โ€œDevizes Road Resurfacing Plan Abolished Due to Dinosaur Fossil in Pothole!โ€ The rest, though, was sadly true. Wiltshire Police Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson lied through his teeth, Amnesty in Salisbury responded to the Rwanda Bill, and Michelle Donelanโ€™s fake magazine campaign leaflet was promoted by drink driving fox hunter Jonathan Seed. Meanwhile, Wiltshire Council continued to gloat about prosecuting fly posters, attacking Adrenaline Stompers in Westbury this time, whilst The Marley Experience concert in Devizes was attacked by some nasty Facebook posts, falsely claiming it was cancelled. 

But away from nastiness, Chloe raised ยฃ600 for Devizes OpenDoors and we previewed Devizes Lionsโ€™ sponsored walk for the homeless charity too. The Peppermill started an open mic. We also previewed Simply The Best; Tina Turner Tribute at the Corn Exchange, The Female of the Species fundraising this time for Rainbow Early Years in Trowbridge, two teenage punks bands appearing at the Pump, Steatopygous & SHOX, a Bradford Roots session special with Bill in the Lowground, Daisy Chapman & Thieves, the Patsy Gamble Jazz Trio in Bromham, White Horse Operaโ€™s Pucciniโ€™s โ€œLa Bohemeโ€ at Lavington School,

Six:Teen Edition, Devizes Music Academyโ€™s first show, Paloozaโ€™s second night at The Exchange, and Swindon Jazz & Soul Festival, which I attended and loved!

Reviews also from James and the Cold Gun, Lucky Number Seven, Nobodyโ€™s Dad, The Real Cheesemakers at The Pump. Jinder and Mark Harrison at the Queens Head in Box. Barrelhouse at The Southgate. Roughcut Rebels and The Clones at the Three Crowns. Shox & Steatopygous supporting Menthol Lungs at The Pump. The Lost Trades at The Piggy Bank. Six:Teen Edition. โ€œSkylightโ€ at the Rondo Theatre. โ€œThe Thrill of Loveโ€ and โ€œAnd Then There Were Noneโ€ at the Wharf Theatre, and The Marley Experience came to Devizes and everyone loved it regardless of the grandstanding whingers!

May

A month of ups and downs, we previewed Professor Elemental, Madam Misfit and the Real Cheesemakers at The Barge on Honeystreet, Frome Festival, White Horse Operaโ€™s Mathieson Trust fundraiser with Anup Biswas and The Brand New Heavies at the Cheese and Grain. We reviewed music from LilyPetals, Courting Ghosts, Nothing Rhymes With Orange and Poppy Rose.

We talked about Affordable school costs for all, Swindon families uniting in memory of innocent children killed in conflict, and while Vicar Gerry Lynch faced a soaking at Pottenre fete, St James Devizes Vicar Keith Brindle was honoured as a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral! But sad news was to hear Devizes International Street Festival was cancelled, and funding was needed to keep Confetti Battle going ahead. And Tonka Bean was closing too.

Events picked up though, Ben hailed the Beaux Gris Gris gig the best Devizes has ever seen. Meanwhile I was with Illingworth and catching up with George Wilding at the Crown in Bishops Cannings. Andy attended Peter Knightโ€™s Gigspanner at Pound Arts Centre. Ian covered โ€œThe Incident Roomโ€ at the Rondo Theatre, โ€œSister Actโ€ at St. Augustineโ€™s, and โ€œThe Thrill of Loveโ€ at The Wharf Theatre. There was a homecoming gig for Nothing Rhymes With Orange at the Three Crowns, and another one of those nights when I went on a round robin tour of live music in Devizes, at Long Street, The Southgate and Three Crowns. The only time for a spoof article that month was for one headlined โ€œLabour Party Could Change Star Wars Day to โ€˜Sci-Fiโ€™ Day so to Not Offend Trekkies!โ€

June

June is about going out! Ben gave us reviews of Jim Blair and the Mojo Makers at The Beehive, Swindon, and Robert Vincent & Ryan Davis PAs at Marlboroughโ€™s Sound Knowledge. I caught I See Orange at The Pump with Devizes-own Steatopygous.

Ian checked out โ€œThe Collaboratorsโ€ at the Rondo Theatre, and โ€œWhereโ€™s The Cat? Live!โ€ at the Wharf Theatre, and then there was Devizes Arts Festival which we all covered as extensively as possible.

A Junco Shakers at The British Lion, The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, The Sound Of Blue Note, Duo Tutti, Martin Simpson, Belinda Kirk, Lucy Porter, Ida Pelliccioli, Adam Rutherford, Edward Cross Quintet, Dr. Phil Hammond, Jolly Roger and The Cable Street Collective all reviewed, mainly by Andy, but a few by myself and Ian too, even had one from the Wharfโ€™s own John Winterton. What a great year for Devizes Arts Festival, my personal favourite? Easy, that was Lady Nade.

All this and I still found time to preview Devizes Scooter Rally, the return of Devizes Youth Action Group gig nights, and FullTone Festivalโ€™s youth-supporting extra day. Review music from Talk in Code and Rosie Jay. But if anything kept me busiest, it was interviewing candidates for our MP post, Green Party candidate for Melksham-Devizes Catherine Read, Labour candidate Kerry Postlewhite and Lib Dem candidate Brian Matthew. It was an honour to meet them all, and I enjoyed chatting to them in New Society. Any one of them had the potential to do a more honest job, but there was something about Brian which made me think, hey, thatโ€™s the guy for the job; the best thing about it, a majority agreed with me; crazy times!!

July

And so, it came to be. After fourteen tiresome years of Conservative lies and robbery, continuously leaning further into far right extremism, openly promoting hate and dividing the nation, they got thrown out of there, but didnโ€™t take it on the chin! โ€œMichelle Gonelan Makes History,โ€ was one article we published to make fun of the knicker-twisted attitude of those poor losers. Furious Tory supporters took to local Facebook groups, and we made fun of that too, with a headline deliberately in caps-lock, โ€œWOK SNOWFLICKS GIT THERE KICKS ON DEVIZS ISSUES (BIT BETTER) THIS ELEKTION!โ€ And then, even our county council leader wept like a baby over the new government scrapping the Stonehenge Tunnel! Oh, such fun!!

We continued to focus on DOCAโ€™s fundraising efforts, and took a recap visit to Devizes OpenDoors too. But July is festival season, and we were too knee-deep in sunny vibes to worry about the disgruntled minority upset with the election result.

Firstly, it was a shame Devizes Scooter Rally and the Full-Tone Festival had to be one same weekend, such that I attempted to do both but spent most of my time cruising from one to the other, great though they both were. And it was a time when our recommendations came to pass, as Meg was booked for a rather smashing MantonFest, and The Sarah C Ryan band played DOCAโ€™s Picnic in the Park, in which I played compere, in a giraffe onesie! Happy days.

Ian went to My Dadโ€™s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival, in Old Town Gardens, Swindon, and I popped over to check out Minety, and crowned it the best local festival Iโ€™ve been to. Other great nights out included Talk in Code & Laissez Faire at The Southgate, Ian reporting on The Rob Lear Band at The Piggy Bank, Calne, โ€œFaithโ€ at the Rondo Theatre, and โ€œMacbethโ€ at Cleeve House, Seend.

We also previewed the next season at the Wharf Theatre and announced there were only a few remaining tickets for Trowbridge Festival. Events, events, events, thatโ€™s what summer is for, not worrying about politics, it all ends with the same poor results. I believe it doesnโ€™t matter who is at number ten, and while itโ€™s probably better to have the last lot gone, we will never recover this financial pothole until we ALL face up to the fact the cost of Brexit has ruined us, and until we accept it and freely discuss without prejudice and arguing, what we can best do to recover from it, instead of blaming the current government for problems rooted in politics long before they won, we will see those comforts the UK have become accustomed to drop from us one by one. The closure of venues, pubs, shops, event organisers, the hardship of creatives, the general disillusionment that a new government can fix it overnight, all paints a very gloomy picture. Therefore, as I said at the beginning, Iโ€™m done with politics, and feel Devizine should focus on supporting the arts and entertainment as much as possible.

And thatโ€™s the end of the first half of this 2024 review, weโ€™ll see a lack of political matters during the last six months of the year, and a new ethos of positivity in the face of such gloomโ€ฆ..I hope!!      

Discovering Swindon Story Shed

With Dad’s taxi on call in Swindon and a few hours to kill whilst her majesty is at the flicks, it was fortunate local author Sorrel Pitts posted a thank you on Facebook yesterday evening, to all who helped promote her fantastic book, Broken Shadows. Because, as well as Devizine for reviewing it, she also mentioned an intriguing thing called Swindon Story Shed…

Not having heard of this travelling bookshop literacy project before, I thought I’d poke my nose in, being they had a popup bookshop in the Brunel shopping centre and with said hours to kill I’d only otherwise have spent stuffing my face in Greggs!

Swindon Story Shed is a partnership project by Debi and Nick. The latter was running bookshelf errands while Debi managed the shop. A self-confessed bookworm, Debi explained the ethos of the project. Alongside this lovely travelling bookshop with an arts and craft space, the two also hold free creative writing workshops at Swindon’s Central Library, book signings, workshops on immersive storytelling, in which Debi explained they were looking to create a โ€œwalk-throughโ€ story, and last year they hosted a โ€œBloodShed Crime Fiction Festival,โ€ of which I believe Sorrel took part in, hence the connection.

The ethos was basically anything books, and they had interesting ways of promoting reading and writing for all ages. Support for local authors self-publishing, there were book-related handmade gift items and books Debi pointed out designed for both children and adults with dyslexia or learning disabilities. They even had little cuddly burger toys with a book in its zipped inside; loved that especially!

Whilst there were modern books, self published or by small publishing houses you’d be unlikely to find in commercial bookshops, there were mainstream reads and a few classics. I browsed through a collection of DC Thompson annuals from the 60s to 80s, but Debi told me while they had graphic novels, they didn’t display them here because the wonderful Incredible Comic Book store was opposite, of which I also felt inclined to pop into afterwards.

She spoke so enthusiastically about the Shed, telling me how personal it was to them; she had read every book of the shelves! Debi reviewed books for distributors, and had advise for aspiring authors; imagine, I could have chewed her ears off all day, about books, publishing and local related enterprises, but a young boy came in with his mum, early for a storytime session, and was put immediately to work, creating some bookmarks!

From the Percy Jackson series and anything YA fantasy to Nick’s more artistic reflections in manga and sequential storylines, 3D paper sculptures, and art classes, this is simply an enchanting literacy venture. Driven with such passion, Swindon Story Shed is living proof that literature can be exciting and interactive without the need of tech; this was a place of pen and paper with no sign of a tablet or device, yet with far more universal appeal than the niche of zine culture. It’s just a friendly place for book worms of any age.

The popup bookshop is only at the Brunel until Sunday, but you can find out more about The Swindon Story Shed on their website HERE and Facebook page HERE. There is a Crowdfunder HERE to help Debi and Nick find a permanent base, but Debi was adamant that this wouldn’t lessen the โ€œtravelling bookshop,โ€ aspect to the project.

What a nice discovery and first article of the year. And, for the record, I still found time to stuff my face at Greggs; what? Turns out you save money having a side of wedges. Who knew?!!

The Rise of Winter Festivals

Once upon a time it seemed to me, that folk would grin and bear the winter weather for the sake of a Christmas lights switching on type of event, then batten down the hatches and hibernate like hedgehogs until spring. Nowadays you need not wait till summer for music festivals; winterfests are a thingโ€ฆ..

For those who cannot wait for the blossoming, and need a big fix of music and arts right now, here’s some local winter festivals to unravel their scarves and remove their bobble hats:

Bradford Roots Festival

Firstly, a well established winter occasion, Bradford Roots Festival at the wonderful Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford-on-Avon. This is happening as a Saturday only event this year, on the 18th January. Our Andy reported on this one some years ago, and I snatched coverage of it off him, realising the โ€œRootsโ€ in its title refers more to hosting local acts of a variety of genres, not just a folk festival as it might be wrongly conceived as. It has become something of an unmissable winter local music convention, especially feeling like this being housed under the one roof of this purpose-built venue.

Wiltshire Music Centre are leaking names for the lineup individually on their Facebook page, the incredible Becky Lawrence being the first reveal. You can rest assured, though, based on past experience, this will be a whoโ€™s-who of local acts, over five stages. WIth an open mic stage, late-night transatlantic folk sessions, a family-friendly daytime with Wassail and childrenโ€™s arts and crafts, food & drink, a mini makerโ€™s market, and more, this is a delightfully warming occasion. You can choose from an All Day ticket (11am โ€“ 10.00pm) or an Evening Session ticket (7pm โ€“ 10.00pm) ยฃ25 / ยฃ13.50 All Day, ยฃ12 / ยฃ7 Evening. U12 free with an adult.ย 

Devizes International Blues Festival

Same date, different town, if Devizes has a penchant for the blues, luckily supports the Long Street Blues Club which hosts international blues artists, and the current Mayor Ian Hopkins is the organiser of the club, you can trust when it comes to the compulsory organisation ofย Mayorโ€™s Appeal events itโ€™s going to be a blast.ย ย ย ย 

Saturday 18th January sees the first Devizes Blues Festival inside the Corn Exchange. It promises โ€œto create an intimate blues club in the Ceres Hall around tables and seating is just limited to 250 guests.โ€ One of the greatest contemporary blues guitarists hailing from the south side of Chicago, Toronto Cannon, Nora Jean Wallace, a Chicago blues singer with deep Delta roots, John Primer, one of the kings of Chicago blues and original guitarist in Muddy Watersโ€™ band, singer Oscar Wilson and harmonica genius Giles Robson, you can guarantee have been cherry-picked by the expertise of Long Street. Tickets on sale now. ยฃ50.00 in advance.

DOCA Festival of Winter Ales

If the Blues Festival is new to Devizes, of course the town has had a winter festival for a number of years, and surprise, surprise, itโ€™s all about booze! The DOCA fundraising WInter of Festive Ales is on Saturday 15th February, early bird tickets are up for grabs and itโ€™s vital to the future of DOCA to support this, if you can. There will be a massive selection of beers and ciders to try with some quality music and cabaret to entertain you, we just donโ€™t know what they are yet!

Figgle Winter Festival

While I confess, thereโ€™s still a lot of updating to our event calendar to be done to bring 2025 to full fruition, and no doubt details of more winter festivals will come to light. Events like Figgle Winter Fest on the 1st Feb at Figheldean Village Hall, with a great and varied lineup of All Floyd, Strange Folk, Break Cover, The P45s, Lump, The Zucchinis, and one of our favourite upcoming stars, Rosie Jay. 

Swinterfest

But itโ€™s over to Swindon where we really need to concentrate, for the Swindon Shuffle is saving one big Christmas cracker for the end of January! The Shuffle offers us a scaled down in quantity but not quality version of their annual fundraiser for Prospect Hospice, on the weekend starting Thursday 30th January. Swinterfest is now a thing, and it looks set to warm live music in Swindon. The Shuffle really is a blessing late summer, when you can wander Old Town and beyond and discover so much live music itโ€™s impossible to take it all inโ€ฆ and itโ€™s free too, save for collection buckets for the hospice. It is therefore a safe bet Swinterfest will be off the scale awesome too!

Swinterfest is scaled down to one pub per day, saves wandering the nippy night air. Thursday at the Tuppenny with Courting Ghosts, Canutes Plastic Army, Will Lawton and George Wilding starts it off in style; we love all this with cherries on. Friday, the 31st Jan and itโ€™s all down The Vic for a punkier gig with All Ears Avow, Modern Evils, Not Warriors, Adder and our personal pick of this bunch, I See Orange.

Saturday night at Swinterfest is down the Castle, with our picks Meg and Nothing Rhymes WIth Orange, and also new ones on us, Stay Lunar, Wild Isles, Oojah, The Vivas and more are promised too. Sunday is the Beehiveโ€™s turn to play host, with our recommendations being Subject A, SN Dubstation, Concrete Prairie, and Fly Yeti Fly, and newcomers to us, Joe Kelly, Carnival Saloon and Sebastian and Me. Swinterfest may be a new venture, but, well, look at the fantastic lineup, the choicest one of all; it beats a brown snowball in the chops, in my humble opinion!ย 

As I said, Iโ€™m sure more winter festivals will come to our attention as time moves on, so keep an eye on our event calendar, but for now I think thatโ€™s plenty to warm your cockles, and massively reduce those post Christmas winter blues.

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Whatโ€™s Happening New Years Eve in Wiltshire 2024

With the big C ticked off, thereโ€™s one big push for the final night of 2024. Time to throw off all your aggravations, like who keeps putting the empty wrappers back into the Quality Street container. The busiest Tuesday of the year is coming up fast, and we have thirty-five options in Wiltshire of where to celebrate it, and countingโ€ฆโ€ฆ

Devizes

Starting off at our base, Devizes with a jam potato at the Southgate, where Jamie Hawkins, Tom Harris and Pat Ward are taking them into the New Year. Soundhog Karaoke takes over The Three Crowns. Thereโ€™s a Back to Skool New Yearโ€™s Eve Party at the Pelican. All of these are free. DJs The Original PJ & Mister M have a party at The Bear Ballroom, ticketed. Also on the door, The Exchange has a fancy dress party with DJ Maggs. The Conservative Club has DJ Andy Saunders and live music from The Saga Louts, ticketed.

Around and about Devizes, find a party at Seend Community Hall. The Reason plays The Green Dragon in Market Lavington.

Pewsey

Pewsey area, thereโ€™s a New Years Eve Party at Woodborough Social Club. Woodbridge Inn has the Muddy Drifters, plus guests and a free buffet. And Rich the Ditch is on decks at The Barge on HoneyStreet. Find No Middle Ground at the Royal British Legion Hall in Burbage.

Marlborough

An acoustic NYE at The Bear in Marlborough with Bodge It And Scarper, free. At St Peterโ€™s, thereโ€™s a Great Gatsby New Yearโ€™s Eve Party, ticketed. 

Calne

Six Oโ€™Clock Circus plays the Talbot in Calne. Plan of Action at The Jenny Wren. DJ Caztro at The Wheatsheaf, all free.

Melksham

Free at Melksham Cons Club, The Blue Moon Band. Raindrops at Spencerโ€™s Club, tickets from the club. New Yearโ€™s Eve Party at the Forresters. Band of Others at The White Hart, Atworth. 

Chippenham

Burbank at Old Lane, Chippenham. Opera Sulis presents Opera Pops and Broadway Beats with DJ Bobbi for a New Yearโ€™s Eve Extravaganza at Wine Monkey.

Trowbridge

Be Like Will are at The Gloucester Road Cons Club in Trowbridge. Thereโ€™s a NYE party at the Civic Hall. And a Boaty Extravaganza at The Twelve Bells, see poster below..

Hungerford

Static Moves play the Hungerford Town Football Club.

Swindon

In Swindon, if youโ€™re a metaller be at the Vic, where Nu-Call have A Nu-Metal New Years. And ravers head to Levels.

Salisbury

George Wilding is with Jolyon Dixon & Rachel Sinnetta at The New Inn, Amesbury.

In Salisbury, Total Recall is at the Coach and Horses. Lucas Hardy & Paul Furtado at The George & Dragon. Ribble at the New Inn. Tom & The Clementynes at Qudos. Linz Sutton at the Anchor & Hope. Karaoke with Evie at the Greyfisher. The Treblemakers at Laverstock & Ford Sports Club. The Deloreons at  Salisbury Arts Centre.

Frome

 New Years Eve Party at the Cheese & Grain in Frome, with The Hammervilles.

And thatโ€™s a wrap. I think thereโ€™s plenty to choose from there, but Iโ€™m sure there will be more, so keep your best eye on our ever updating event calendarโ€ฆ.and have a Happy New Year! There’s all the info and ticket links you need on the calendar.

Didn’t find your event here? Did you tell me about it?! Ah, there you are then, new year’s resolution, tell Devizine and get your gig listed FREE!

It’s a Barrelhouse Here, Long Live The Southgate!

Hey look, I’m done playing nice. Been good all year, but if Santa’s list starts afresh from now, I’m on for a bag of coal next yule; all in the name of honest opinion. I’ve been venturing elsewhere for entertainment, else hibernating like a little hedgehog, Saturday night before the big C, working hard, and all I ask is for a good night in Devizes, wet me whistle, and for that we have The Southgate, accept no substituteโ€ฆ..

Caught an early bus into D-town, it’s been a while. I thought hey, check out this Pour House I’ve been hearing about; much ado about nothing, what a premature wank into a sock that place is. Boasts the widest selection of drinks in town, and toffs gather there in a corridor to waffle shite, but I fact checked the bar, only one brand of cider. Best part of seven quid into Jeremy Clarkson’s grubby billionaire fake-farmer mitts, which wouldn’t be so bad if the owner had a grasp of basic manners. 

In two words, legal tender. Young lad served my pint onto the bar and in turn I attempted to hand him a tenner. Grasping the glass as tight as he could, the owner intercepted and snarled โ€œit’s card only!โ€ With his other hand he thrusted his machine under my nose. Glaring at me like I’d murdered his family, he held his hand around the drink until the card machine accepted my payment and only then did he release it, without another word. Maybe someone inked the word โ€œpeasantโ€ on my forehead, regardless, it wasn’t particularly welcoming; I ended up sitting outside, feeling I’d be exiled by class, drinking quickly and listening to the sound of the town hall’s tarpaulin wafting in the December wind.

Compare and contrast to my final destination, The Southgate, a benchmark of how to run a pub and stalwart of creating a welcoming atmosphere. I’m fondly greeted by bar staff, landlord Dave, and even George the dog acknowledged my presence in his own subtle way! Then my hard-earned cash is accepted and I’m served scrumpy at just over half the price than that of The โ€œPoorโ€ House, with a smile. By past experience I expected nothing less. Despite my recent absence, I feel at home, reunited; everyone is made to feel at home here.

For seven years the Southgate has held the title of the best pub in Devizes in my personal opinion, and still nothing seems to be available to challenge this. And for those seven years, Devizine has been reporting their dedication to local music fondly, with the wobbliest out of focus images any blog has ever provided the world over! What? I’m too busy having a ball; they looked alright at the time!!

Hats must also be tipped, though, to the longstanding king of pubs in town, The British Lion, the diverse offering of the Muck & Dunder, and to that of Simon and his hardworking staff at the Three Crowns, for providing the perfect lively option for the millennials. The Southgate and all these fine establishments go above and beyond to create an environment far beyond the replication of a front room, challenging the newfangled fallacy you’d be better off buying drinks from the supermarket and staying at home. If economically you might, socially you wouldn’t, and that’s the cornerstone of public houses; if a landlord abuses this, their pub will unfortunately not survive these days. For example, I went into a pub once, and they were watching Eastenders on the big screen. That particular boozer is no more. I rest my case.

If my criticism of this poor house feels a smidgen unfair, you should note I reserve my right to express an opinion, which this is. A better angle would be to point out its popularity and welcome any drinking establishment to town. In part I do, yet it is with concern that to normalise a bar which is unwelcoming or cherrypicks clientรจle is damaging the reputation of the entire industry.

It sure is a busy week at the Southgate, but they retain their smiles. Wednesday saw likely the biggest turnout to the regular acoustic jam, virtually a whos-who of local musicians amassed. Thursday saw the monthly residency of the Jon Amor Trio shifted from its usual Sunday slot, whereas this Sunday sees groundbreaking local band Burn the Midnight Oil holding a charity fundraiser. This Saturday though, it’s โ€œvintage blues with a hard edged groove,โ€ from the simpatico Barrelhouse. If their style sounds niche, it’s apt to Devizesโ€™ penchant for blues, and besides, they deliver it in such a manner it’s got universal appeal. An appeal which has made them favourites on the Marlborough circuit, their home turf, which has over the past couple of years spread to Devizes too.

Barrelhouse is also apt here, because a barrelhouse is another name for a juke joint, an Afro-American blues shack, and while the Southgate’s musical programme is diverse, it is more often than not, hosting blues or blues related rock, as this is favourite with the regulars. As the drinks flow, Barrelhouse evokes an epidemic of dancing, and the whole Southgate can be best compared to a juke joint. There’s good vibes all round, an amazingly communal and hospitable atmosphere; precisely what I came out looking for.

In the seven years I’ve attended the Southgate as regularly as possible, I have never, ever, heard one cross word, or seen a scuffle. Everyone is there to enjoy themselves, and that’s made easy with good management. If the music appeases the elder regulars, like rock or folk or blues, or if they’re introducing alternatives which attract more sporadic punters, the positive ambience of the Gate encapsulates them all, and they act in accordance. Be those times like when Monkey Bizzle brought us agricultural hip hop, or Devizes hometown teenage sensation Nothing Rhymes With Orange reduced the age demographic here, and any other of the plentiful examples I could give, the result is always the same, that being, it’s a hassle-free great night.

It’s the most dependable tavern I’ve ever warmed to, live music every Saturday, most Sundays, occasionally Fridays, then there’s acoustic jam Wednesdays, quizzes, and other weekday events. A hat for tips might occasionally be passed around, but no one has ever been asked to pay for a ticket. The Southgate has a carefree ethos, everyone is welcome, treated equally, and nothing is ever a problem; all this earns respect. Reasons that, despite the squeeze, musicians are queuing to play in this now legendary alcove. Dave showed me the list. They’re booked up till June, with various names listed aside acts which Dave would like to see returning but is struggling to fit them in.

Even with a fantastic Christmas party at Long Street Blues Club, Adam Woodhouse at the Three Crowns, and a busy schedule this weekend at the Gate, the crowds sign in to this eccentric, electric and humble watering hole, to drink, dance and be merry. The band members of Barrelhouse tell me how they love playing here, but it’s a compliment to the Southgate I’ve heard many times before by near-on every talented performer who’s graced us with their presence.

Long live the Southgate, and all who sail in her! In Devizes, accept no substituteโ€ฆ..

Wiltshire Digital Drive’s Plea to Donate Old Tech in the New Year


Wiltshire residents are being asked to donate their old Laptops, PCs & Mobile phones in the new year, as part of the 3rd annual Donate Your Digital Day…..

Taking place just after Christmas on Friday, January 10th, 2025, Donate Your Digital Day was created by Wiltshire Digital Drive (WDD) to encourage people to donate any tech they had replaced over the festive period such as laptops and tablets, to reduce the amount of technology that goes to landfill and to address digital poverty in the county.

Once donated, devices will be refurbished and handed back out to schools, organisations, and charities, to help people access the benefits that technology affords such as education, employment and better wellbeing.  

Natalie Luckham, Chief Executive at Wiltshire Digital Drive, said: โ€œWe had such a positive response to previous Donate Your Digital Days. In 2022 we received 1,000 donated devices in just one day! We had a break last year but weโ€™re back for 2025. So many people receive new laptops and tablets for Christmas, or treat themselves in the Black Friday or Boxing Day sales, now is the perfect time to let us have your old tech. By giving it to us, not only will the device help another member of our community, but it will also stop it going to landfill.โ€

โ€œThe figures speak for themselves. Since we began our mission in 2020, weโ€™ve given more than 3,500 school children, families and organisations a laptop or computer. Imagine how many more we could help if we all worked together. And itโ€™s not just members of the public that can get involved; weโ€™re also asking businesses who are looking at upgrading their IT to consider donating their old tech to us.โ€

Local businesses across Wiltshire will be opening their doors to become drop off points for the donated items. They can be taken to:

Naturally Social, Melksham
Aster Housing, Devizes
Ford Dealership, Trowbridge
Hearing & Mobility Store, Marlborough/ Swindon/ Wroughton
Household Waste & Recycling Centre, Swindon
Castle Sundborn, Malmesbury
Godolphin School, Salisbury
Retro Relics Games Cafรฉ, Market Lavington
The Mind Tree Cafรฉ, Rowde
Town Councils in Bradford On Avon, Tidworth and Calne
The Home Guard Club, Warminster

Anyone wishing to help who doesnโ€™t have a device to give can donate to the non-profitโ€™s Gift of Tech Crowdfunder page. A ยฃ45 donation will cover all the parts needed to refurbish one laptop, with all donations match funded by the Aviva Community Fund. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-gift-of-tech

Please visit www.wiltshiredigitaldrive.org for opening times and locations where you can donate.

The CIC ensures that every piece of technology donated is tested and securely wiped. If a machine isnโ€™t feasible to upgrade, it will remove all reusable parts and recycle the rest, so nothing goes to waste.

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Christmas Greetings From Devizine!

Here’s our Christmas video Greeting, ho-ho-ho! Filmed on location at DOCA Winter Festival, Devizes, 2024 by Jess Worrow. Merry Christmas everyone!

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In Retrospect With Gary Martian

So yeah, not only has Cracked Machine and Clock Radio drummer Gary Martin added a letter A to his name to make it sound more extraterrestrial, heโ€™s also fired a sonic blast back to planet Earth in the form of a whopper of a solo rock album! In Retrospect does what it says on the tin, taking inspiration from his most treasured rock bands of yore, and does it loud and proudlyโ€ฆ..

Starter for ten, now Gary Martian, proves heโ€™s a supernova of a multi-instrumentalist, taking the helm of every aspect from guitar to drum and the recording, mastering and distribution of this heavily-laced monster. If Cracked Machine are known for returning us to those heady days of space-rock, the intro to the opening track Lifeboats feels this is going the same direction, but in seconds weโ€™re awash with slamming guitar and drum combos letting rip of a riff more akin to grunge. Whoa, it didnโ€™t even wait for me to attach keychains to my flared cargo trozzers.

Yet while thereโ€™s rising and falling influences from nineties grunge like Nirvana and Therapy? I also taste nods not only to pioneers of the Seattle sound like Alice in Chains, but a broader spectrum of alt-rock too, and even rooted at the few tender moments, with electric blues and the soundscapes of Floyd, such as the closing of a few tracks, one called Bang in particular. Thing is, this value for your dollar, twelve dynamite tracks perpetually exploding at an average full four minutes each, and an epilogue song, Red Handed running into the twenty-minute margin, sublimely. Time enough then to input a carrossel of nods to every influence which has inspired Gary over time.

And there are Syd Barrett moments of whimsical psychedelia, something about Your Coffee Table, thereโ€™s metal grinding like Pearl Jam, breezy moments of The Smashing Pumpkins, such as Summer in the Autumn, and brief commercially viable moments like Jane’s Addiction. โ€œItโ€™s a big-olโ€™ rock album,โ€ Gary told me, โ€œinspired by the bands I love.โ€

Iโ€™m not in my comfort zone connoting such heavy rock and nailing its influences, I confess. I just say what I like, and like recent outfits coming out of Swindon, I See Orange and Liddington Hill, this is the kind of thing which causes me to regret my ignorance to harder rock subgenres, particularly during the ravey nineties. I guess it was all that slushy โ€œsoft metalโ€ previously, for it was an impermanent trend which put me off track; still time for me to catch up, isnโ€™t there?!

This album erodes the Muppetโ€™s Animal stereotype of drummers just being drummers and bit bonkers, as Gary excels in mastering not only all the instruments required to stage an entire rock band, but also in the composition of them. In Retrospect was released across all streaming platforms and is downloadable from Bandcamp, at the beginning of the month, apologies for the delay, but this will rock your cosy Christmas foozies off!

Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, etc…. https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/garymartian/in-retrospect

Youtube Music: https://music.youtube.com/playlist…

Amazon Music: https://amazon.co.uk/music/player/albums/B0DPHGW1MT…

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Chapters, New Single From Kirsty Clinch

Okay, so, Iโ€™m aย  little behind, recently opting to perfect my couch potato posture and consider hibernation, meaning Iโ€™ve not yet mentioned Kirsty Clinchโ€™s newโ€ฆ

Burn the Midnight Oil; New Devizes-Based Band Youโ€™ll Be Hearing a Lot Aboutโ€ฆ.

Far from burning the midnight oil, itโ€™s a weekday afternoon and Iโ€™m with a cuppa, at a rehearsal for a blossoming Devizes-based trio, Burn the Midnight Oil. If youโ€™ve ever thought nothing great comes from open mics, this might be the thing to change your mindโ€ฆ.

Itโ€™s early days, forming in September, theyโ€™ve created a corporate identity, recorded a three-track demo theyโ€™re planning to launch, are busy writing more songs, and sound as if theyโ€™ve been on the local circuit forever. I wanted to catch up with Burn the Midnight Oil to find out how theyโ€™ve come so far so quickly, dig a little deeper into their backgrounds and generally poke my nose into their business.

First clue, theyโ€™ve varying areas and degrees of experience in music, but have found common ground through their medical issues. Front girl Chrissy, aka Steen, spoke of her PMDD, GAD and ADHD, and coming to faith during Covid at Devizesโ€™ St James. โ€œThere was a day I was like, really, really sobbing my heart out, and praying,โ€ she expressed, claiming she heard the โ€œbiggest, boomiest voice ever say โ€˜sing,โ€™ and two weeks later I was having videocall with a huge hip hop artist who was part of Foreign Beggars, which were massive during the 90s and early noughties.โ€ Landing a deal working for a record label Chrissy liaised with drum and bass producers, who asked her to โ€œjump in on the tracks,โ€ and she supplied vocals on tunes from artists like Beskar.

โ€œIt feels a bit serendipitous,โ€ she said, โ€œbecause I had no experience working as a social media manager, I had no business connecting with somebody who’s quite prestigious and I had no right to just jump on some tracks and with my first EP release going straight onto one of the biggest drum & bass labels in the UK.โ€ To which she compared the unforeseen development to meeting the band members, Andy โ€˜Big Birdโ€™ Jacobs and bassist Chris Lane.

Chrissy explained Chris has Marfan syndrome, โ€œI’ve known Chris for a while, but he’s very introverted,โ€ she elucidated, progressing onto finding a mutual neurodivergent connection and being a support system for each other. Chrissy formed a duo with a bassist called One Trick Pony, performed at a few open mics and organised charity fundraisers at the Southgate over the past two Christmases. When the bassist was unavailable due to other band commitments Chris stepped in, and they spawned the idea to reform the duo under a new name. Though not present at the beginning of our chat, Chris did turn up toward the end, either shy or forgetful as to just how many bands he’s currently engaged in!

Present and vocal throughout, lead guitarist Andy, told of a car accident which affected his nerves, and most of the dexterity in his fingers. Prior to this, Andy spoke of being a โ€œvery successful professional guitarist in London,โ€ a session and theatrical guitar player, citing Shirley Bassey as an artist he had worked with.

โ€œI could still play a bit,โ€ he explained, โ€œbut my career was over, which was a bit of a downer.โ€ Playing his part in an amateur blues band, Andy went into social care management, โ€œbut Covid triggered an illness in me called Barry Syndrome,โ€ he told me, โ€œWhich completely paralysed me from my neck down overnight. I was in hospital for six months. My wife was told I probably wouldnโ€™t last the night. On the two occasions I didn’t see her for six months because there was no access, I was told I’d never walk again.โ€

Andy put his recovery down to the bicycle in the gym, and though he didnโ€™t imagine he would play guitar again, he expressed, โ€œit was all a bit tragic and horrible, but slowly I got a little bit back and I started picking the guitar up again. After about six months, I came out of hospital. I just started playing again, just acoustic, and I that’s when I went up to The Crown [open mic at The Crown, Bishops Cannings] and I played a couple of pieces there.โ€ Within those pieces, he asked Chrissy to sing them.

They trialled a drummer, โ€œbut he wasn’t the right fit and he knew he wasn’t,โ€ Chrissy said. โ€œSo he very graciously said I’m going to walk away from this because I’m not the right drummer for you, which is a really nice thing to say. But I think we’re percussive enough with how we play.โ€ Considering their medical tribulations they joked about getting the legendary one-armed drummer from Def Leppard. โ€œYou know, like one arm, one leg, not as long as they’re opposite sides of one another, one each side, that would be silly!โ€

Now, if music is therapeutic, I wanted to gage if that was their reasoning for the band, but burning the midnight oil isnโ€™t best medically advised over a strong cup of coco and an early night! Chrissy explained the band name derived from her staying awake all night drafting the songwriting, rather than the notion they were rock, rolling, and burning the candle at both ends.

Chrissy passionately talked of being a survivor of domestic abuse. โ€œIf you’re a woman with ADHD, you’re more likely to attract people with narcissistic tendencies,โ€ she explained, justifying her โ€œhorrible cycleโ€ sheโ€™s trying to break, โ€œof quite abusive relationships,โ€ and how this is reflected in her songwriting. โ€œThere’s a lot of resilience and hope that comes from the songs. I’m on a journey of healing. I think we’re all on a journey of healing, and Iโ€™ve always used the music as a form of therapy. If I can get my experiences onto paper, it’s like I’m not affected by it.โ€

Andy agreed, spoke of his consistent neurological pain, โ€œbut when I’m playing it just goes. I don’t think about it. I’m just so intense in the music. I mean, it’s just my passion.โ€ He began reminiscing of his instant attraction to guitar when, on his first day at secondary school, the music teacher putting a guitar in his hand, and that was his calling.  โ€œI wanted to be a professional guitar player, and nothing would stop me.โ€

If this is all beginning to feel like Iโ€™m in a support group here, the proof is the pudding, and the three tracks theyโ€™ve put down so far suggests otherwise. With harmonica and wavering strings opening, Lock Up has a rootsy blues feel, Chrissyโ€™s vocals poignantlyย express the theme of the arrival of mysterious and dubious fellow, expertly, and the whole vibe is nonchalant and smooth.

Scapegoat ushers in a more upbeat bluegrass air, with a deadpan subject, and Werewolf posing similar tenet, yet tips back into blues, and probably contains the most beguiling hook. Throughout though, thereโ€™s an intelligent balance between Americana and UK folk-rock, bags of potential, and the stylised promise of a blossoming band heading for something far greater.

In trying to think of a suitable female-fronted comparison, I changed to consider The Doors in the end, for the composition of three individuals with varying influences combining to create a timeless sound is how Iโ€™d pitch them both. On songwriting Chrissy connoted a song she was working on called Devil You Know, โ€œbecause statistically you’re more likely, as a woman, to be raped by somebody you know,โ€ she said. โ€œIt’s not about being dragged into the bushes, and that’s been my experience I’m really trying to connect with, those darker sides of life experiences, because life’s hard, it’s not any an easy ride for anyone.โ€ Using a metaphor comparing a paper cut to a broken leg, Chrissy conveyed an expression she said she was fond of, that โ€œpain is pain. I really want to connect with people of over-shared experiences like this, in the hopes that music could be healing.โ€

It’s the most common conviction of dedicated singer-songwriters to want your audience to identify with your outpourings, otherwise your voice is just an instrument, and you are just a pop singer. Though within the masses of potential for Burn the Midnight Oil I hear scope for commercial viability, itโ€™s through their personal reflections and devotion to support one another which I feel will strengthen their ability to convey the image they desire. After a successful first gig last weekend at The Kings Arms in Amesbury, arranged by Wiltshire Music Events, Burn the Midnight Oil are looking forward to a fundraiser at the Devizes Southgate on Sunday 22nd December. See the poster below, thereโ€™s raffle prizes et al.

Chrissy has a solo set at the Lamb in Urchfont this afternoon (15th Dec) supporting Vince Bell, the most modest of Devizes acoustic legends, who Chrissy cited as assisting her in developing her songwriting talent. Promising things are afoot here, and youโ€™ll be chuffed with yourself to witness it blossoming, I believe.

โ€œSeeing us as a brand and my understanding of working in the industry,โ€ Chrissy figured, โ€œis like, actually the music isn’t the product, we’re the product and I really want to share that journey, make it personal for everybody.โ€

With folk songs drafted about the origins of tiramisu, odes to Morticia and Gomez Addams, Steen justified her thought processes and random muses, the latter being an โ€œepitome of a really healthy, loving relationship,โ€ in a tenacious yet optimistic manner to direct her developing subjects didnโ€™t all focus on โ€œthe bad things that happened to me.โ€ Though I find itโ€™s the ability to use such as metaphoric examples and include them into a combination which will really make the hairs on the back of our necks stand up, and theyโ€™ve the greatest potential to do this.

ย I’m hoping one day I can write a happy song,โ€ she mused, โ€œbut the style is, well, you know, you donโ€™t choose the songs, the songs choose you.โ€ And so ensued a conversation about the differences between the melancholy of Dylan and wild romantic images Springsteen tended to paint, for thereโ€™s always exceptions to the rule, they both broke their own style at times, but pictures, I think youโ€™ve got this one now; Burn the Midnight Oil is a name we will be hearing a lot of over next year.

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Salisburyโ€™s Rosie Jay Releases Debut EP

Salisbury acoustic singer-songwriter Rosie Jay released her debut EP today, taking its title from her first single from June this year, I Donโ€™t Give a Damn. Thing being, I do, I give much more than a damn about Rosieโ€™s musical outpourings, because this doesn’t sound like a debut EP from a nervous teenager warbling immature ruminations. This sounds like an accomplished artist who’s been with an agent, producer and mainstream record label for eons, and established a name for themselves by acquiring the skill to balance a hook and identifiable narrative, and compose them into a beautifully stylised soundโ€ฆ.

Rosieโ€™s been working with producer Joylon Dixon on these four tunes, and it shows. Likely a perfect match, for this is faultlessly fresh, like Kirsty MacColl in her prime; a comparison Iโ€™ve used before for Rosie, and though a high accolade, itโ€™s fully deserved. For there is nothing to dislike here, the mood is breezy, the prose is thoughtful, both reaching out to her generation, while maintaining the classic template for acoustic folk rock for all to appreciate.

Beginning with her heartfelt breakup song, I Donโ€™t Give a Damn, the opening has this easy to sing along to chorus, but defines the potent melancholic and ironic thought pattern of the victim of a relationship breakdown in its verses. Akin to Sinead O’Connorโ€™s Nothing Compares 2U, and just as expressly delivered.

For Rosieโ€™s voice is magnetism, flowing gracefully and earnestly, but the whole composition suits this, perhaps with no better example than the second tune, also the second single released, Sing Another Love Song. As it sounds this is a flowing, more positive angle yet while thereโ€™s still a clever hook, in so much as McCartneyโ€™s ironic Silly Love Songs conveys the opposite effect.

If I preferred this song from the debut at the time, the next two, so far unreleased tracks, proves Rosie though beginning with a firm base, her songs will improve each time. Mind Fuckery is her magnum opus, but only to date. Isolation and affliction brought about by addiction is spelt out in the imperfections Rosie compares within herself and her generation. Again, weโ€™re sneaking through an open door into Rosieโ€™s mindscape, and it’s a poignant landscape of intense pensive and evocative prose.

The measure of a good singer-songwriter is when a listener feels like they bring a little subconscious of the artist back with them, the notion they identified and made a friend through their performance, as if they knew this person all along. I had been reviewing Rosieโ€™s singles for a few months before finally meeting her. When I did, it was exactly like this, it felt as if I had known her for ages, because even at this young age she projects herself, her thought processes and emotions so utterly exquisitely through this beautiful music. The final tune, well, despite all thatโ€™s been before, Carry Me, is the most graceful yet.

The final song is angelic, and steeped in astute metaphors Rosie faces her โ€œpersonal battle,โ€ it is, just as the other three songs, an emotive treasure wrapped in sublimity. There’s something standalone in the simplicity of person with guitar; the stripped back diploma for a musician, the final exam, and Rosie passed with flying colours. She should be setting the exam rather than taking it! What an amazing start.

Just as Iโ€™ve seen the careers of profoundly talented local artists like George Wilding, Tamsin Quin, Kirsty Clinch and Jamie R Hawkins progress from first reporting on them, I have high hopes for many of our aspiring newcomers, from Ruby Darbyshire to Meg and Harmony. Rosie Jay is high among these others, and based on the excellence of this EP I see no reason not to compare her to the likes of Elkie Brooks, The Beautiful South or Cerys Matthews. You simply have to allow yourself a quarter of an hour to take this in, released on all streaming platforms and as a CD. Follow Rosie on Insta. TikTok. YouTube. Thereโ€™s an EP launch party at the Winchester Gate in Salisbury, tonight.

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What’s Happening During November in Devizes?

Remember, remember, weโ€™re moving into November; leaves, loads of โ€˜em! Being as we are no longer doing weekly roundups, hereโ€™s some highlights of eventsโ€ฆ

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Devizes Upgraded: We’re a Two-Greggs Town Now, and You Know What that Meansโ€ฆ..

Exciting news, isn’t it? Enough to cause me to skip merrily through the daisies in my garden as naked as a cherub, and sing its praises from every rooftop from here to Wellington Drive.…

โ€œOh hear ye, oh hear ye, Devizes hath been blessed! Devizes, oh, Devizes, magically upgraded from a one to a two-Greggs town!โ€ fairies chant over a maid tinkering on a harpsichord, sprinkling their fairy dust in jubilation. Wonโ€™t someone sign me into my Facebook account so I can spread word of it pronto: twelve โ€œlikesโ€ and counting, three are love heart emojis, yay! I blush at my popularity and bite into my steak bake milliseconds before it gets cold.

Yesh, brothers, sisters, true as I sit here typing this crap, another Greggs bakery chainstore has majestically opened in Devizes like the second coming of a prophet, making us a two-Greggs town now, and you know what that meansโ€ฆ.

You do know what that means, donโ€™t you? No, neither do I, really. They have pasties with peas in them; peas have no home in a pasty, thatโ€™s too much of a trigger. Job opportunities, perhaps, and thatโ€™s good, right? The notion that one quick swerve from the congested fury on London Road, and you can be refreshed with a lukewarm cuppa and a salty dog-meat sausage roll as traffic builds up behind you. You need no longer to stop off in the Market Place and realise there are better quality local produces available, and that has to be the winner winner chicken baguette dinner, hands down. At least it beats knowing you’re funding a convicted nonce, eh?

Otherwise, I see no valid reason to jump for joy. Swindon has thirteen Greggs, Chippenham has four; do you see them wetting their knickers when another opens? We donโ€™t even beat electronic talking Christmas treeโ€™d Melksham, dammit, theyโ€™ve got threeโ€ฆ and donโ€™t get me started on the Golden Arches. Unfair, Devizes Town Council, just because no one has actually ever applied to open a Maccy-Dโ€™s here, doesnโ€™t mean you shouldnโ€™t pull your bloody fingers out and kidnap Ronald McDonald until he starts supplying his celebrated Fillet-0-Fishes and McNuggets here. Damn your eyes, sirs, and look around at the desperate and needy fast food generation, see their tiny tears welling!

Stop catering to a yesteryear generation, eating on plates is soooo last millennium; we’ve surpassed Wimpy and demand our pointless packaging.

For what is a town without the splattering of unwanted pickles on its pavements? What is the measure of a place where rat-enticing decomposing chicken bones in a Colonel Sanders bucket isnโ€™t found dumped down every alleyway, I cry? Hark, the sound of a Deliveroo moped on an otherwise quiet evening? These are the things upcoming generations will hold in dearest retrospection upon reaching maturity. But come, let us flock around this new arrival in awe, on this December slow news day, for it is all we have and we learn to make do; save Subway, of course, where seven of your best earned quids will see you handling a BLT roll, you total ledge.

Ah, monopolisation has found a new home in Devizes and to hell with the independent bakeries, I chortle like a chav, as my belt buckle bursts from the weight of more cholesterol-hugging delights. Factual reporting here you know, I researched for this bitch of a scoop. Queues out the door and through the Shambles to get a Greggs at the Winter Festival, there was, while independent eateries a stoneโ€™s throw away nervously twitched their feet at the hope someone might drop by. And thatโ€™s reason enough to justify the opening of a second Greggs, question what have we become, and munch happily into our affordable pepperoni pizza slice till the watery juice stains our shirts. 

Yeah, come over to mine, mate, celebrate its magnificent arrival; weโ€™ve got a gazebo in the garden, going to play some Pop-Up Pirate and get some tandoori chicken baguettes in. Whoa, chicken? I thought that was โ€œwokeโ€ now? The Daily Fail said it so itโ€™s true, numpties! Get a โ€œreal,โ€ pea-less pasty and shop for savoury delights from local purveyors, please.

Kebabgate in Devizes, Shock Horror; We Agree With Cllr Wallis!

To have kebab, or not to have kebab, that is the question in Devizes at the moโ€™: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to make do with the fish n chips of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, by walking to Folly Road opposingly, and end them! Where do I stand on the Town Councilโ€™s rejection of an insensitive and opportunistic application for a whopper of a kebab van in the Market Place, you might ask; much as I love a kebab, I stand with themโ€ฆ.

Backstory as fast as possible first for those not in the know. The Kebab House on Northgate Street in Devizes, a well respected institution in our town renowned for the finest takeaways unfortunately burned down last month, leaving owner and family man Mustafa Suna devastated, without a business, and his staff to have lost their jobs. Though locals rallied behind fundraising for the victims of the incident, they were shocked to hear of an outside application to Wiltshire Council for a ten-foot kebab van to rock up in the Market Place, flogging burgers, kebabs and everything the Kebab House once did, twenty-four seven.

The public reaction to a Gazette & Herald report on the application, 1st of December, shared on The Devizes Issue Facebook group, was rightfully that it was an insensitive move given the circumstances, an opportunist muscling in and profiteering on a tragic circumstance. All fine and dandy when commenting on Facebook, but given the occasion youโ€™ve had a few bevvies and feel like soaking them up with a kebab, would townsfolk be so willing to adhere to the notion a kebab van in the town centre is unfair on the owners and staff of The Kebab House and consequently boycott it? I think the temptation would be too much for many!  

The original report by the local newspaper appeared to show no consideration for Sunaโ€™s loss, blazening the news as a good thing. This only worsened the negative reaction, that this was unfair on the part of Mustafa Suna and his staff.

Councillor Iain Wallis stepped in, and stated, โ€œas the Wiltshire Councillor for the area I have already made very clear to public protection that I object to this application. I would be unlikely to object to an application from the Kebab House and would support them if a workable plan was put forward and supported by the town council. I see this application as taking advantage of the situation and I do not support it.โ€ 

Though the jury is still out for Wiltshire Council to make their minds up if to allow the application for the kebab van, the responsibility for managing the Market Place falls upon Devizes Town Council, who have rejected the proposal. Iain told the Gazette, โ€œwe discussed the licence from someone unknown for a kebab van in the Market Place, this was turned down. I think everyone agreed that this wasnโ€™t the right thing to do but everyone also agreed that if The Kebab House came forward then we would look as a council at what solutions we could offer.โ€ Well done to Devizes Town Council, particularly Iain, if you are to read this, though I doubt you will.

Obviously we get sticky seconds on this and other scoops, and a little plagiarism of the articles is necessary to form an opinion piece needed to express the concerns of the public, as the newspaper isnโ€™t in a suitable place to do so with equal gusto. It was unnecessary and tactless too, on Newsquestโ€™s part, I feel, to have covered this sensitive issue at all while it was only an application. But if the article raised concern with the public and councillors took heed of that outcry, then perhaps the seemingly clickbait intentions of the paper came up trumps in the end. The question needed to be answered is if the council would have still rejected the application without the online public outcry?

Lots of people have understandingly expressed, and particularly anyone living nearby, that the Market Place is an unsuitable location for such a street food vendor, though under the circumstances they would support an application for one from Mr Suna, as they know it will only be temporary and assist in him rebuilding his respectable business. But being the Town Council have made moves to increase police powers in the area to prevent a trend in anti-social behaviour there, the presence of any such vendor could be counterproductive to this, therefore would not have supported it anyway, and there was no real need for the Gazette to have stirred up the public by being so presumptuous with the story. They could have waited for the outcome of the application.

I should explain for those who donโ€™t know, that Devizine has been ousted and deliberately falsely accused of all manner of misdoings, including personal bullying and harassment of Councillor Iain Wallis, by Mr Wallis himself. The reactionary culling of members of his Facebook group who dare disagree with him has been called into question here, for it is frustrating for those involved to have been, what they consider, unfairly dismissed from the popular local group. Other actions Mr Wallis has engaged in as a town councillor have been criticised in the past too, but all with good reason and no personal malice was ever made or intended. There has never been, as he has claimed, any matter published which is a personal attack or bullying of any kind, thatโ€™s him, playing the victim card in order to discredit us; why, I don’t know, and any reason I could provide would be speculation.

In this instant, whether the councillor is only homing in on public opinion or this is his personal belief, either way this was a sterling move on his part and we thank and congratulate him for it. Though I fear he will reject my felicitations, as itโ€™s seemingly his intention to slander us, and that is surely unhinged and unfair. If we all worked together and shared an understanding that not everyone is going to agree with us all the time, we could make things better for everyone. And who knows, by the time the Kebab House is reopened we could be sharing a donor!!

Okay, that might be expecting a bit too much, but you get the idea! We look forward to a time when Mr Suna’s business is back on its feet, and we believe DTCโ€™s decision was the right move towards this, but we also believe public information, such as the reopening of Station Road, should be made available to all, not just on the Devizes Issues group given many people have been banned from it quite unfairly.

Devizes Town Council made no announcement of this road reopening on their Facebook page, rather it was only published on the Devizes Issues group, conveying this information was a โ€œlittle secretโ€ between only those who adhere to Mr Wallisโ€™ conservative opinions, and that is unfair on those he has banned from the group without a valid reason. And thatโ€™s where we stand, great news, but a little more cooperation and fairness with the press is needed to convey it; we are not and have never been against any council or councillor.

Swindon’s Silver-Star Teams Up With General Levy to Motivate Swindon!

I’m loving this new tune! Swindon’s upcoming reggae singer/DJ Silver-Star has teamed up with the legendary General Levy for a drum n bass golden nugget called “Put Me Down,” with a video filmed on locations in Swindon and Highworth. The aim is to motivate people and promote Swindon town….

What a grand start for Silver-Star, to team up with Levy, his smooth vocals over the legendary toaster, but there’s more going on here than first meets the eye. Over a ragga-drum n bass roller the two contrast perfectly, but it’s no mindless banger, there’s a sunny side of the street against all odds narrative, encouraged by the brilliantly inspiring accompanying video, set in various locations across the town.

It shows the struggle with everyday issues and holds a message to rise above them, yet it retains a beguiling hook you simply have to bounce to! Eye of a tiger, it’s a local reggae Rocky!!

Do check it out, follow SilverStar on Instagram and, most importantly subscribe to his YouTube channel. I look forward to seeing more from this emerging artist, and wonder if he can top this!!

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YEA Devizes: DOCA New Youth Project

Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts announced their upcoming project, YEA Devizes today. Made possible by a grant from National Grid Electricity Transmissionโ€™s Community Grant Programme, theโ€ฆ

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Avoiding the Drizzle: Devizine Online Christmas Market!

You should know me well enough by now to accept I donโ€™t beat about the bush; itโ€™s supermarkets and chain-storeโ€™s own silly fault for the rise in popularity of the Christmas Market, for lavishing their shelves with uninspiring commercialised, plastic rubbish!

There, there, got that off my chest! Now, Christmas Markets are popping up locally faster than Santa on Christmas Eve, but if you cannot make it to one, or simply prefer to shop in your jimmy-jams, hereโ€™s some ideas for Christmas presents weโ€™ve found which won’t break the bank, and support local craftersโ€ฆWelcome to the Devizine Online Christmas Market, jingle your bells!

DIY it, with Pins & Needles!

One affordable and genius idea springs to mind; do-it-yourself. For as well as personal and unique designs by owner Vixter Woolista, Pins & Needles in Snuff Street Devizes has all your knitting and crochet needs, and an online shop too, here. With a fabulous range of accessible crochet and knit kits, patterns and gorgeous hand-dyed yarns, Pins & Needles is a little shop with a big heart, and winner of the 2020 British Knitting Awards for best yarn shop in the south west.

Good Reads!

We donโ€™t get as many book reviews from local authors as weโ€™d like, but this year saw two great reads, which would make ideal presents for your book worm.

First up, Sorrel Pits published Broken Shadows, and this has to be my personal favourite novel Iโ€™ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing. A gripping thriller based locally, this really is a page-turner. Hereโ€™s the review, you can grab this from Devizes Books, or online here.

This year also saw local author Molly Andersonโ€™s Dadโ€™s New Dress, an emotional rollercoaster of searing honesty into family ties and commitment. Reviewed here, at Devizes Books and online here.

Polish up on your cooking!

Novel idea we hope your recipient wonโ€™t take the wrong way, cookery classes at The Farm Cookery School on Bromhamโ€™s Netherstreet! They have adult and childrenโ€™s courses available, and various Christmas meal related workshops too! Christmas baking masterclass anyone? Beats a can of Christmas Tinner!! Find them Here.

Chocolate, of course!

Hollychocs in Poulshout, award-winning chocolates; need I say more, other than you shop online for them, HERE.

Getting Crafty

Upstairs in The Healthy Life Company in the Little Brittox, Devizes, you will find the most fantastic display of Christmas gift ideas, many sourced locally. We reported on this last year, see here. Find them online here.

Bramblerose Designs is by local artist Ginnie Burns, stocking lots of Christmas gifts and cards, fantastic tie-dye T-shirts and prints of her colourful local landscapes. Find them HERE.

Cositas Bonitas in Albion Place on Sidmouth Street, Devizes has beautifully handmade crafts, like personalised baubles and cute drawstring Christmas sacks, knitted advent calendars, decorated jars and decorations. Find them on Facebook, here.

Merlin Glass Studio & Gift Shop in Woodborough Yard is run by crafter Louise Spink, has some great Christmas craft workshops, and sells beautiful decorations and glassware designs. How can you resist these little robin brooches? Awl! Find them Here.

Moonflower and Me has original hand illustrated artwork, handmade resin & clay Items and more fascinating gift ideas. Check out their magical mushroom terrarium baubles; gorgeous! Find them Here.

Over the Yarnarm is a small, unique business cruising the British waterways, bringing a touch of handmade warmth to every corner they visit. Operating from a cosy liveaboard narrowboat, sharing our passion for all things yarn. Find their Etsy shop here, be a star and grab yourself a knitted star!

Enter artist Matt Bakerโ€™s World of Thoodles. Donโ€™t know what a Thoodles is? Find stickers, prints, stationary and badges of these colourful kawaii fashioned monster characters here. We think they rock, and Iโ€™m 51 years young! Find Thoodles HERE.

And lest we forget the white bear at Christmas, Arthe! Lots of prints and some fantastic Christmas tees up for grabs, HERE! Find Arthe Christmas cards at Black Dog Coffee on Couch Lane.

That’s all folks! Well, there’s bound to be many more jumping the bandwagon once they see this, expecting me to do a thing called “editing,” I’ve heard it’s all the rage these days. Have a lovely Christmas everyone, here’s our Christmas card video message, filmed on location at DOCA Winter Festival, by Jess…..

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Christmas Greetings From Devizine!

Here’s our Christmas video Greeting, ho-ho-ho! Filmed on location at DOCA Winter Festival, Devizes, 2024 by Jess Worrow.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Riot Grrl in Devizes? Steatopygous Release Demo

Featured Image: Kiesha Films

In times of pain or stress cats mimic the cry of a human baby to best attract attention. You may not like it, but if you donโ€™t address the situation and aid the pet, you are unfortunately part of the problem. Riot Grrrl is a subcultural movement of anti-punk feminism deriving from the USAโ€™s northwest in the nineties, which, like it or not, has found a new resting place in Devizes thanks to rising teen band Steatopygous…and with a debut demo, theyโ€™re rightfully attracting attention too.

Not Devizes you may whimper, our affluent yet insular market town steeped in tradition, where the most commonly reported crime during October this year was violence and sexual offences, more than double the second on the list, this anti-social behaviour we’ve got a bee in our bonnets about? Seems a rather apt location for youthโ€™s screams of anger and frustration at the inequality of patriarchy to me.

Dealing with issues facing youth, our townโ€™s newcomers, riot front-grrrl Poppy Hillier, bassist Eliza Brindle and drummer Ewan Middleton may well have facetiously named their band after an accumulation of fat on the thighs and/or bum, but their musical subjects are far from ironic or amusing. Neither are they the female answer to NRWO, with their blithe and amicable indie-pop style. This is artistically righteous, a freedom of expression, and just like the catโ€™s meow, you’d better take heed.

Stalwart support act at Trowbridgeโ€™s Pump, a venue dedicated to hosting the upcoming, whereby I saw them first, in June, despite our much younger reporter Flo singing their praises prior, when headlining Devizes Youth Action Group gigs. Steatopygous delivered varying themes there, such as one song on the crisis in Gaza. But the two tracks released on this demo, recorded by Kieran Moore at Komedia, concentrate on matters closer to home and traditional to the ethos of Riot Grrrl; boys taking advantage of a male-dominated world.

Cassowary, a bird with unusual reproduction behaviour which sees the male tend the egg while the female seeks other mates, is the metaphoric name for perhaps the most composed tune of the two. With archetypal driving drums and laden guitar it’s short, fiery and in your face, but perhaps not so aggressive as the other tune, Little Boy, which is a style-defining peach. Angry and unabashed, it takes no prisoners.

Image: Kiesha Films

It is the screech of utmost exasperation, the deliverance of cries typically bottled or only released alone. And therein lies the brilliance and reason of Steatopygous, this erudite anti-sensitive artistic licence opens a matured eye to the vexations and anguish of youth, particularly identifying the uneven game of love and all its sordid undertones. Or if you fall into the category subjected and victimised by the behaviour expressed so poignantly by Steatopygous, theoretically thereโ€™s the emotive response of identifying with it and not feeling alone with your troubles.

This is thunderously original and raw, daring samaritan punk, released on Trowbridgeโ€™s cassette label Sketch Book Records, which if it honours anything, itโ€™s this wholly DIY ethos of Riot Grrrl, and though will remain niche, is something you cannot ignore; phew, I might need a little lie down now!!

Merch at Bandcamp. Instagram. Spotify.

They support Perennial at the Pump on 7th December.

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Autumn-Winter Comedy in Devizes

Comedy in Devizes is a rare thing, unless you count visitors turning right at the Shaneโ€™s Castle junction, reading opinions on the Devizes Issuesโ€ฆ

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Hedge Monkey Returned Techno Faithfully and Soulfullyโ€ฆ. in Westbury!

Somewhere just outside Westbury a sizable barn hosted the most memorable new year’s eve raves in the mid-nineties, but Iโ€™d never have imagined then, that thirty years later I’d be saying I went out raving in Westbury last night, but I did, sort of!

Attendees at the Westbury Conservative Club yesterday willingly admitted not a lot happened here, but none I badgered about it, Uncle Albert style, seemed to recall any of the raves, nor can I find any record of them online. It is not all in my warped imagination, honest, that I recall a rumour circulating one year that Altern 8 played a live PA. They may have done, but with hazy recollections, my matured mind must consider the very real possibility it could’ve been any number of random nutters dressed in illuminous bodysuits and dust masks, probably was, and no one wouldโ€™ve been any the wiser if it was!

No one there at the time gave a hoot if Altern 8 played or didnโ€™t, it was never an era for live music, (it wouldnโ€™t have been โ€œliveโ€ music anyway,) it was all about DJ culture. Likewise, events for rave die-hards today mostly rely solely on DJs, unless youโ€™re lucky enough to trek to festivals or city gigs from bands like Orbital. That is, not to discredit them, even those who combine cheesy raves with soft play centres, just to say, when local trance-techno collective Hedge Monkey organise something of a reunion, or comeback gig in an era geared more toward actual live music, with instruments and everything, it was something matured, proper, and fantastically different.

โ€œWe were a band years ago,โ€ singer Lou Cox explained for our preview piece, โ€œeven played Glastonbury festival twice! But this was before social media, really. Iโ€™ve been recording music with Jase the whole time, but we never did anything with it. Just recently we decided to get it all back together and itโ€™s been fab, so we decided that we need to have a comeback gig!โ€ Both Jase, the main man at the control tower of Hedge Monkey, and Lou, were que sera sera on what the gig indicated for the future of the band, but based on what I and a packed club of devoted fans, friends and family of the collectiveโ€™s members witnessed, I sincerely hope thereโ€™s more to come.

It was, in technical jargon, banginโ€™. If weโ€™re at the boundary for the westcountry penchant for crusty trance-techno, historically bands emerged from it, like Eat Static, tended to knock out endless layer-building electronic beats, chuck a few samples in and tick them off as a job well done. Not that thereโ€™s anything wrong there, itโ€™s the beats and bass entrancing the crowds and hence giving the subgenre its name, but as a collective Hedge Monkey brought out multiple female singers, who did their parts and returned to the dancefloor with their friends, and a real drummer, with a real drum kit, and these elements gave it body and soul, something I feel often overlooked from the ambience of techno.

Alongside the archetypal gorgeous, plodding basslines of trance it was experimental too, with dubbed rises and delays akin to what Norman Cook later brought to the breakbeat party, but with a squeaking overlay of wobbly 808s it held tightly to acid house, the root of it all. But to repeat myself, for itโ€™s worth noting, each singer brought their own styled vocals to the melting pot, one even brought alto choral tones, and the drummer watching the tempo,  Hedge Monkeyโ€™s sound is unique, as if striving to make the subgenre formulated to traditional pop music templates without rejecting its roots. At one point interpreting Nina Simoneโ€™s Feeling Good, at most though, original compositions which wouldnโ€™t look out of place when LFO and 808 State ruled the day.

Needless to say, without intoxication, as Iโ€™ve matured way past all that, and even booze was off the cards being I drove, I still felt the irresistible urge to shake my thang to this like the noughties never happened! There was a communal, reunion feel to the gig, without cheese, glowsticks, and the poorly researched assumptions of what symbolised the rave epoch, and though not part of that and alone, by the end I made temporary friendships in the manner the rave scene has always advocated, and this besides the sublime sounds, blessed the party with vibes of yore; top one, nice one, and all this grandad needed to be sorted was a nice cup of tea and cheese toastie when I got home! 

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Forestry Operations Due to Start at West Woods

Featured Photo: Forestry England/Crown copyright Planned timber harvesting is set to begin at popular walking destination, West Woods, from the end of September until Marchโ€ฆ

Swindon Gets Shuffling!

Despite the population of Devizes throwing confetti and paint at each other in their most celebrated annual ritual, I believe I picked the right weekendโ€ฆ

The Juggernaut Delivers Back at The Southgate

If there’s been welcomed stand-ins for the monthly Jon Amor Trio residency at the Southgate in Devizes recently, Ruzz Evans and Eddie Martin, Jon โ€œtheโ€ฆ

Deadlight Dance New EP Chapter & Verse

Marlborough gothic duo Deadlight Dance are due to release an EP of new material. Itโ€™s called Chapter & Verse and itโ€™ll be out on Rayโ€ฆ

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Fun Lovinโ€™ Criminals to Headline Minety Music Festival

A Scooby snack-sized pinch punch, first day of the month came from Minety Music Festival this morning upon announcing their headliner for 2025, The Fun Lovinโ€™ Criminalsโ€ฆ.

Set for the weekend of 3rd-6th July, the Saturday will see those infectious Fun Lovinโ€™ Criminals headline the mainstage with their blend of cinematic hip-hop, rock โ€˜nโ€™ roll, blues-jazz and latin-soul, stalwarts of the New York music scene since 1996.

Famed for the worldwide multi-platinum debut album Come Find Yourself, from which we all remember their famed Tarantino movie sampled single Scooby Snacks, the fun Lovinโ€™ Criminals settled in the UK, performed an infamously raucous set at Glastonbury and have amassed six studio albums, two cover albums, and a triple live album. Their comical tales of music, drugs, crime and existential ennui as parts of life in the neon metropolis rewarded them Europeโ€™s best-loved โ€œcousins from New York.

Exciting news for this Wiltshire festival, but far from the only fun lovinโ€™ thing about it. Yes, they grab some major headliners, but this community-driven, wonderful yet affordable festival supports a plethora of established and blossoming local acts, loads of side activities for all ages, and has this generally superb vibe, as I discovered when I dropped in for the Sunday this year, and felt from the one day alone, Iโ€™d found my spiritual nirvana; most well-organised, carefree festival around these parts by a country mile or two!

Addition: You could also be dancing in the moonlight with Top Loader, headlining the Sunday night at Minety!

Tickets are up for grabs HERE.

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Ignore Grandstanding, Devizes is Open, and itโ€™s as Wonderful as it Ever Was!

For the second week running our desperate local rag The Gazelle & Herod have kicked Devizes town centre while it’s on its knees. We say, no, stop it, it’s naughty, and sensationalising only for paper sales and clickbait; Devizes is open, thriving and a wonderful place to visitโ€ฆ. as it always was.

You can monotonously rant your presumptions on umpteen โ€œBritish nostalgiaโ€ Facebook pages that the country is in ruins and is now not a patch of its former self, because of whatever political faction you abhorrent and blame, or ordinary folk from overseas seeking a better life you take for granted. You can whinge there that shops are closing and the High Street is doomed until youโ€™re triggered in so much self-pity your rose-tinted specs drop into your jug of Chรขteau Cheval Blanc. But, by comparison with the nationโ€™s empty shopping malls and dilapidated high streets, Devizes is punching above its weight. We have a great cafe culture, we have independent shops, we have talented folk putting on theatrical shows and live music, and we have an aesthetically pleasing relatively trouble-free town centre steeped in history and legends.

But the front page this week suggests the fate of Devizes town centre is in doubt, when all thatโ€™s really happening is the Town Council are to include a discussion on the town centre and Market Place, at their next monthly meeting, to see if anything needs improvement; nothing usually comes out of these discussions other than some oversized flowerpots! Itโ€™s not broken, it doesnโ€™t need fixing, and itโ€™s likely the council will conclude this is the case.

Last week they splashed the story of how Police now have powers to issue ASBOs to a few โ€œundesirablesโ€ loitering around the town centre, drinking, all across the front page. Whilst Iโ€™m pleased, of course, that anyone causing other folk troubles will be dealt with, it makes me wonder if itโ€™s as serious an issue that itโ€™s highlighted to be. For whether it is being dealt with, or not, it is still creating a potentially damaging image of Devizes by raising attention to the issue and bringing this false ideology to the forefront of peopleโ€™s minds that the town is Wiltshire’s answer to Tijuana, and if you go there youโ€™ll be mugged for your Greggs sausage roll, which you know as well as I, this simply isnโ€™t true.  

I find myself contemplating if the few people sitting around the Market Place are actually causing as regular disturbances as it claimed. They could be, they equally could not be. Iโ€™ve certainly not seen any more trouble there than any other town centre, not even near it, and therein lies my reasoning to rant on the topic. If you want antisocial behaviour, take a look at how we drive through town!

Every town centre has antisocial loiterers, every town centre has congestion, or problems with closing shops or elements in need of replacing. What are you going to do? Stay in forever, with Netflix, worrying about it? Shop online? When the chain reaction of this is the root to the very problems you fear, the problems media is sensationalising! I look at local town centres and see the same thing happening, everywhere; why the need to single out Devizes when really the problem here isnโ€™t even in the same ballpark as others I could mention, but wouldnโ€™t, because it would be as damaging as the negative image the local newspaper seems to want to project of Devizes?

But the real sour cherry on the doggie doing cake is that this slander could not have come at a more inappropriate time. Right now, Devizes NEEDS your support, shopkeepers, landlords and the community as a whole need you to visit.

Since the terrible fire a few weeks ago and consequently access to the Market Place closed to vehicles from the Northgate side to ensure safety, the town is feeling inevitable repercussions. In light of the tragedy, the majority acted faithfully in compliance, we accepted congestion would increase, and planned our journey times better. But traffic is easing now, in fact the closure of the Market Place at Northgate (which we must add is only to vehicles, NOT pedestrians) has quickened the pace of flow at the Brewery roundabout from New Park Street, despite it affecting the amount of traffic using it and the temporary bus stops. Iโ€™ve said before, replacing that roundabout with traffic lights and a box junction could ease congestion, but what do I know?

We cannot discredit the fact this may be so because less are inclined to pass through Devizes, but mostly I believe this can be turned around once it is reopened, provided negative images cast upon the town are not believed and savoured. Plus, it is more likely because weโ€™ve come to terms that we must all use New Park Street and have applied some defensive driving measures; vital to keep traffic flowing. It is not the traffic lights at fault, rather the attitude we take to driving through town.

The solution to easing traffic is as simple as turning a frown upside down; it is driving with consideration for others, as it will help you out in the end too. I illustrate my point with my journey back from town this morning, at around 7am. Iโ€™m planning to turn right at Shaneโ€™s Castle to take the Chippenham road, but the traffic is nose-to-tail due to the traffic lights at the roadworks on Prison Bridge turning green in the coming into town direction. It is not the traffic light at fault, itโ€™s only changing colour, itโ€™s only programmed to change colour, that is its only function and purpose. Itโ€™s the drivers causing the issue, as not one car would consider slowing to allow a gap for me to turn right, when any of them could have, and this would have allowed cars to travel downhill to the lights. In theory it would not have impacted their journey time, because the traffic is flowing less than the speed limit and any car could have easily caught up with the race in seconds.

But so many drivers cannot seem to see the consequence of this, they are driving in an offensive manner rather than a defensive one; an inconsiderate trait that impacts them too rather than helps. You see, because Iโ€™m waiting to turn right, vehicles are building up behind me, and thereโ€™s only one car down the hill at the lights. The lights turn green this side, and I can finally turn right. Now the cars behind me must decide if they should race for the green light in icy and foggy conditions or be stopped by the light changing back to red. 

Itโ€™s rush hour, and they dive into their cars like headless chickens, with a do or die attitude, running late, because an unexpected frosty morning caused them to have to run their engine for a half hour, to save a spray of de-icer. Itโ€™s an everyman for themselves tenet which will inevitably backfire. I found myself wondering how many people will need to turn right at the junction in the next hour, it is a busy route after all. If each time they do, a backlog of traffic builds up behind it, consequently only allowing a few cars to make it to the lights before they turn red again, will undoubtedly in time cause a domino effect further into town, and traffic will be queuing by eight oโ€™clock, at every other roundabout and junction; QED. So, while the traffic coming into town saved a car length by not giving way to cars like mine trying to turn right at Shaneโ€™s Castle, their actions have found them stuck further down the line.  

You should note, Station Road is now open again, so you can get around the Market Place that way and save yourself a few seconds. Top secret leaked info that one, as while it seems Devizes Town Council has made no announcement of this on their Facebook page, certain Facebook groups with a penchant to ban anyone who doesnโ€™t agree with the political opinion of the admin are the only ones in the know; that is the very same selective and insular โ€œevery man for themselvesโ€ attitude we must avoid as the driving like a muppet one, if we are to paint a better picture for our town than the journalists are delivering for sales.

For while yes, perhaps these news items need to be published, thereโ€™s no need for them to be lead stories splashed across the front page when thereโ€™s plentiful positive stories with feelgood factors, locally, of more importance and interest. So, put them inside the paper, small mentions, and counteract them with said positive news that project all the good happenings in towns like Devizes, because there really is, but youโ€™re not reading about them because all you read about is how bad things are, and that is damaging everyone struggling to uphold a business here.

Just stop, slow down, consider the lilies, consider each other! It’s the Winter Festival tomorrow, lantern parade, Christmas market and lights being switched on. No doubt you will be in the Market Place, enjoying the festivities, drinking mulled wine, but will you be back next week, believing what you read and frowning at the few folk drinking there?! Or will you say, โ€œyou know what? In the grand scheme of things, Devizes is a great place to live,โ€ avoid media persuasion and general silliness, drive with consideration, shop here, doing your bit to make it so? Devizes is open, thriving and a wonderful place to visitโ€ฆ. as it always was.

Jolly good show, carry on….

JP Oldfieldโ€™s Advent Cellar Session Videos

Itโ€™s been a busy season for Devizes musician Josh Oldfield. Since our chat early in October his name has been propping up everywhere across our live music circuit. Over the past few weeks heโ€™s been busy putting together “the cellar session,โ€ an hour long live video of covers and a few originals, just in time for Christmasโ€ฆ.

โ€œBasically, it’s my TV Christmas special!โ€ Josh joked, as heโ€™ll be releasing one video of each song from the session every other day on YouTube from the 2nd of December, with the final upload arriving on Christmas Eve. โ€œThink of it as a bit of an advent calendar!โ€ he said.

โ€œThe idea of the Cellar session was to put on a DIY live lounge with no frills or major edits in an attempt to recreate the live environment as much as possible,โ€ he explained. โ€œA lot of work and countless hours have gone into this and hopefully youโ€™ll enjoy the end result as much as I enjoyed making it.โ€

JP Oldfield plays the Sunday sessions at The White Bear on 1st December with John E Wright from 5pm.

Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, HERE, to not miss the uploads!ย 

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Get ‘Lifted’ by Chandra

Chandra, Hindu God of the Moon, with his own NASA X-ray observatory named after him, and also frontman of a self-named friendly Bristol-based four-piece pop-punkโ€ฆ

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Some Days with Paul Lappin

Paul’s self-made cover to his latest single, Some Days depicts a fellow sitting under a tree pondering life, while an autumn zephyr blows leaves aroundโ€ฆ

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House Music All Night Long: Palooza Returns to Devizes

Purveyors of perfect motion, house music promoters Palooza return to The Exchange in Devizes on Friday 20th December, for its grand finale of the yearโ€ฆ..

March of this year saw the launch of Palooza, a project from two local house music diehards to bring the good vibes of house clubbing back to Devizes, and they succeeded with an unforgettable opening night at the Exchange nightclub. Palooza returns one last time in 2024, and itโ€™s set to be the boldest night of the year as they transform the venue into a dance music haven.

Five hours of non-stop music from 9 PM to 2 AM, featuring a stellar lineup of DJs bringing their unique sound across tech house, future house, classics, and techno, guaranteed to bring the beats and keep the energy high. The lineup consists of Grit, Fashion, RodJ, Alchemy, Sun and T-Rex, the latter Paloozaโ€™s first female DJ, from Brighton.

Doors open at 9pm, when thereโ€™s a happy hour until 10pm with half-price drinks.

The last Palooza of the year promises to be an unforgettable celebration of dance music culture. Whether youโ€™re a loyal fan or new to the Palooza vibe, this is a night you wonโ€™t want to miss! No tickets, just pay on the door.

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Imberbus is running this Saturday !

Following on from last monthโ€™s email, this is a final reminder that yearโ€™s Imberbus service will be running this coming Saturday โ€“ 17th August 2024.โ€ฆ

Marlborough, I’ve Seen Your Pants

โ€œWe can’t stop here. This is Tory country,โ€ I chuckled while fiercely yanking the handbrake, as if Dr Gonzo was in the car. We canโ€ฆ

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Chapters, New Single From Kirsty Clinch

Okay, so, Iโ€™m aย  little behind, recently opting to perfect my couch potato posture and consider hibernation, meaning Iโ€™ve not yet mentioned Kirsty Clinchโ€™s new single Chapters, released at the beginning of the month, which I should have done. Why, you might ask, is it any good? Did you hear me right, itโ€™s Kirsty Clinch?!

Eloquently sentimental as ever, Kirsty suggests it would make the perfect wedding song, and Iโ€™m inclined to agree, though I had my turn already, choosing Ben E King; for prospective newlyweds though, take heed! This bears all the hallmarks of a breezy country classic from the likes of Dolly or Wynette, with a contemporary sense subtler than Swift, that is, added bass by local legend Pete Lamb, who also mixed and mastered this delicate beauty recorded by Kirsty herself.

It trickles like water, with a loose narrative to be interpreted to suit your dreams too, but if thereโ€™s the opening of a new chapter of thoughtful prose, the character in the song admits to being too young to reminisce on previous chapters. In fact, it has been a few years since past chapters opened musically for Kirsty, her Evolution album was released in 2021. She has been concentrating on Westburyโ€™s Award Winning music school, First Melodies, which she created to coincide with a series of preschool music books. I love this project as itโ€™s perfect for Kirsty, but, itโ€™s a warm welcome back to recording, as this song sure makes up for lost time!

Buy Chapters on iMusic HERE

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Ruzz Up The Gate!

I was intending to start this along the lines of โ€œyou don’t need me to provide another reason why I love The Southgate,โ€ but thisโ€ฆ

Sing Another Love Song with Rosie Jay

Second impressive single from young Salisbury singer-songwriter Rosie Jay is released today. Sing Another Love Song; a sound of the summerโ€ฆ.. Her debut breakup trackโ€ฆ

Cotswold Water Park to be Renamed

Here’s a prime example as to why I could never be a councillor….. Cotswold District Council will vote on changing the name of Cotswold Waterโ€ฆ

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Cephidโ€™s Sparks in the Darkness Goes Live at Bathโ€™s Rondo Theatre

Best part of a year has passed since Cephid released the groundbreaking electronica album, Sparks in the Darkness. At the time I said of West Lavingtonโ€™s musician and composer Moray Macdonaldโ€™s alter-egoโ€™s masterwork, it was composed of โ€œgorgeous complex structures and intense electronic textures,โ€ and comparing it thus: โ€œlike Jean Michel Jarre came after dubstep, as if 808 State created Tubular Bells!โ€ On February 8th 2025, Cephid is coming to life, live at The Rondo Theatre in Bathโ€ฆโ€ฆ

Yeah, so I waffled in the review, from Dadaist Art of Noises to Delia Derbyshire and onto Kraftwerk, but it was hard to describe this album, to convey how technically constructed it was, because while contemporary, we usually associate electronic music with dance music ever since the slapadash rave era. While itโ€™s certainly danceable, it also relies heavily on the ambience of prog and space-rock soundscapes of yore, and creates this timeless classic impossible to pin down.

The show will likely be that rare and unmissable occasion, Moray said heโ€™s โ€œvery excited and a little nervous to announce the first ever Cephid live show!โ€ but that he feels, โ€œlucky to have such a great space to perform in, and Iโ€™ll be using light shows, projections, and more to bring the album to life.โ€

Partner Charlotte is producing the show with Nick Beere on sound. Graham Brown of Grace and Fire and The Paradox Twin will be on percussion and keys, and thereโ€™s a solo support performance by ex-Enidโ€™s That Joe Payne.

Since releasing Sparks in the Darkness, Moray has spent a lot of time explaining his thought processes while producing it, and remixing Kleptocracy, the new single from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark which charted at number 1 in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart in May. If you’re an OMD fan, or just have the slightest interest in any subgenre of electronic music, this will be an unmissable show.ย 

Tickets are HERE.

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Devizes Scooter Rally Rules, OK?!

If it’s been a fantastic weekend on Devizes Green with the orchestral Full-Tone Festival, further out of town scooterists, mods, skins and anyone elseโ€ฆ

The Next Season at the Wharf Theatre

Featured image byย Chris Watkins Autumn, finish your ice lolly, as we need to to start thinking about it! Our wonderful, one and only, theatreโ€ฆ

Christmas in Devizes: Everything Happening From Now Until NYE!

Being as we received a taster of wintery weather to come this week, I believe itโ€™s okay to use the C-word; yes, Christmas!!

Hereโ€™s everything weโ€™ve found to do in and around Devizes, so far, from now until New Yearโ€™s Eve, in addition, of course, to decorating trees, picking all the toffee pennies out of the Quality Street tin, and enjoying watching Hans Gruber fall from the Nakatomi Plazaโ€ฆ.

Do remember though our event calendar is constantly updating, so do keep an eye on it, as more events may well be added when theyโ€™re brought to our attention. And if youโ€™re in another town, check our event calendar for events in your area; sorry you are not included here, we still love you, but thereโ€™s only so many hours in a day!

Lets go from this weekend, but be warned, thereโ€™s a lot to get through. Ongoing photographic exhibition at the Valentina Gallery, opposite SoupChick in the Shambles, ends on 2nd December. 

Thursday 21st November sees an Evening of Mediumship with Psychic Medium Nikki Kitt at the Corn Exchange.

Friday 22nd: Public Living Room is open at the Cheese Hall from 1.30-4pm. John Girvanโ€™s celebrated Ghost Walk of Devizes, takes on a Christmas spin. You find tickets at the Wiltshire Museum website. Queen tribute Qween UK plays the Corn Exchange. Recommended trip out of town: boom-bap legends The Scribes are at the Barge on Honeystreet.

Saturday 23rd November: and thereโ€™s a Sighthound Stroll at 12pm. Devizes Eisteddfodโ€™s Junior Showcase at the Town Hall. The FullTone Orchestra is at the Corn Exchange with an 80s special, so get your rah-rah skirts dusted and ready.

The Sylvertones are at The Three Crowns. The Ben Fletcher Band at The Southgate. DJ Emilo is bringing in the sounds at the Exchange. And for a short trip out of town, I recommend The Killer Circus show at Market Lavington Community Hall, with a double-header of mod-indie, britpop and ska with The Killertones Underground and 6 Oโ€™clock Circus. Or The Publicans at the Royal Oak, Pewsey.

Sunday 24th, The Duskers are at the Southgate for 5pm start, same time, itโ€™s nice to see live music back at the White Bear too; Andrew Hurst kicks those Sunday Sessions back into gear.

Tuesday 26th sees Devizes Lions Bingo Night at the Conservative Club.

Wednesday 27th, donโ€™t forget the acoustic jam at the Southgate.

Thursday 28th – do not miss this, the fantastic Ruby Darbyshire is doing a Fantasy Radio Live Lounge from 7pm at The Pelican. The Last Thursday of each month is also open mic time in the Cellar Bar of the Bear Hotel, from 7:30pm.

Friday 29th is the Winter Festival, on go the lights and Christmas begins officially in Devizes! 

12:00 โ€“ 20:00: Indoor & Outdoor Markets and Creative Installations. Lantern Parade at 18:30. 19:00 is Christmas Light Switch On. Window Wanderland begins and runs until 2nd Dec. Look out for the Cascade Chandelier, in the Shambles!

There will be several opportunities to get crafty over Winter Festival weekend with bookable artist-led workshops. More workshops will be dropping soon, so keep an eye on DOCAโ€™s social media! Willow Reindeer Workshop from 10am to 4pm at the Yeoman Room, Corn Exchange. Sarah Jayne Edwards works in willow in all scales, she made the Sanctuary that appeared on the Green in Devizes 2023. Spend a day with her where she will support you to create your own beautiful willow reindeer. 

All materials will be provided on these creative workshops, no experience needed. Event capacity for each is only 8 people. Participants must be aged 16 years or over. There are 2 free places allocated for low-income participants, no questions asked. If you would like to claim one of these places, please email: info@docadevizes.org.uk  

Elsewhere in Devizes, the fantastic People Like Us are at The Three Crowns, itโ€™s the Pour Houseโ€™s official opening party, and karaoke at the Pelican. Big Plus: itโ€™s panto season at the Wharf Theatre with the opening night of Hansel & Gretel; this is superb, Iโ€™ve seen the rehearsal, youโ€™re going to love it, young and old. Hansel & Gretel continues until 7th December, tickets are sold out, but you can join a waiting list.

Saturday 30th sees a Devizes Lions book sale at St Maryโ€™s Church.

Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts Winter Festival continues, presenting ‘Crow’ by Avanti Display. ‘Crow’ is a beguiling, genre-defying, beautifully odd show. It teases us with strange images, magical clowning and bewitching visual images. Accompanied by a live inventive score. Video projections expand their comic and curious world, suggesting ideas both profound and absurd. This is a ticketed event at Sheep Street Baptist Church and starts at 6pm.

Also part of the Winter Festival, from 10am to 3pm, thereโ€™s an Outdoor Market with Music & Street Entertainment, and Makery Sessions Craft Workshops at various times. Porcelain Christmas Decorations Workshop at Parnella House from 10am to 1pm, with Geraldine Francis.

Contemporary Wreath Making Workshop at 2pm to 5pm at Parnella House with Nancy Rose Stott, an accomplished maker, best known for her amazing hats. All materials will be provided, no experience needed. Event capacity: 8 people only. Participants must be aged 16 years or over. There are 2 free places allocated for low-income participants, no questions asked. If you would like to claim one of these places, please email: info@docadevizes.org.uk

Thereโ€™s also a Christmas Wreath Making Workshop at Poulshot Village Hall, not DOCA related.

Groovedream at The Three Crowns. Red Light at The Southgate.

And relax, itโ€™s Sunday, but it is December 1st! Curious Kids: Winter Fun at Wiltshire Museum, Devizes. The Pelican has a winter festival Christmas Lunch. JP Oldfield is at the White Bear at 5pm, the Jon Amor Trio residency at the Southgate, same time, and One More Shot at the Black Horse.

Monday 2nd, find a new open mic session at the Pour House, set up by the one and only JP Oldfield; very busy boy atm!

Wednesday 4th December: acoustic jam night at the Southgate.

Friday 6th sees a new regular acoustic session on Fridays at The Southgate, this week has JP Oldfield, Sammi Evans & Bryan Davies playing. White Horse Opera presents some Christmas Music at St Andrews. Itโ€™s Christmas Mixup night at the Exchange.

Saturday 7th, thereโ€™s a tour behind the scenes at Wiltshire Museum, and another Ghost Walk Christmas Special with John Griven.

The Shudders are at The Southgate. James Mitchell at The Three Crowns. The Coco Club Christmas Ball at the Corn Exchange. Christmas Party at the Exchange. Recommendations out of town, find a reggae night with Knatti P at the Barge on Honeystreet and Ruby Darbyshire at the Woodbridge.

Sunday 8th sees a family Christmas Party at West Lavington Village Hall in aid of Juliaโ€™s House. Sunflower Events Christmas Fair at the Corn Exchange. Christmas Fayre at The Barge, Seend Cleeve. 

Music at the Southgate from 5pm with The Wholesome Soul Trio.

Wednesday 11th, acoustic jam at the Southgate.

Thursday 12th is the second Exchange Comedy Night for The Mayorโ€™s Appeal.

Friday 13th thereโ€™s Devizes Good Afternoon Choirโ€™s Christmas Invitation with Children from Wansdyke School at St Andrewโ€™s Church. Young Curators Club: Mid-Winter Celebrations: Yule and Saturnalia at Wiltshire Museum.  

Saturday 14th: Table-top Sale for Camps International to Peru Trip: 12-4pm at The Wharfside. LECTURE: Digging for Erlestoke by Leigh Chalmers and Dr Phil Harding at Wiltshire Museum. And the opening of a new exhibit at the Museum, Megalithic Connections โ€“ Drawings & Etchings by Dave Gunning, which runs until 22nd Feb.

Christmas Market at Hillworth Park, in which Santa is fully booked, but heโ€™s also at, Breakfast With Santa at the Fire Station! Santa! Hey! I know him!

The Big Sound Christmas Concert at the Corn Exchange. Sour Apple at the Three Crowns, The Worried Men at The Southgate. And Karl Maggs has got the Jingle Bangers in the mix at the Exchange.

Sunday 15th, Wish Tree Gathering from 3-5pm at Quakerโ€™s Walk. Devizes Town Band Christmas Party at the Corn Exchange. And  Manos Puestas at The Southgate at 5pm.

Wednesday 18th, acoustic jam at the Southgate. 

Friday 20th, John Grivanโ€™s celebrated Ghost Walk of Devizes, takes on a Christmas spin. You find tickets at the Wiltshire Museum website. 

Devizes most celebrated house nights, Palooza returns to The Exchange.

Saturday 21st: Barrelhouse at The Southgate. Adam Woodhouse at The Three Crowns, and the Long Street Blues Club Christmas Party with the Thomas Atlas Band. DJ Mike Alford is at the Exchange.

Sunday 22nd is the Tractor & Tinsel Run at the Market Place. Charity Fundraiser with Burn The Midnight Oil, new band fronted by the fantastic Chrissy Chapman at The Southgate, from 5pm. 

Monday 23rd: The Unpredictables at The Three Crowns, being anything but unpredictable!

Tuesday 24th: Spend Christmas Eve at The White Bear, where the one, the only Jamie R Hawkins will be singing a few songs with Vince Bell too.

Thursday 26th: The Last Thursday of each month is also open mic time in the Cellar Bar of the Bear Hotel, from 7:30. We assume this will take place as usual.

Friday 27th: Drew Bryant at The Three Crowns. Twixmas Fun Quiz at The Pelican. DJ Stevie MC at the Exchange for an after Christmas Party.

Saturday 28th: The Killertones Underground at The Southgate; nice one!

Tuesday, New Yearโ€™s Eve: find Soundhog Karaoke at The Three Crowns. Back to Skool New Yearโ€™s Eve Party at the Pelican. The Original PJ & Mister M at the Bear Hotel. DJ Karl Maggs at The Exchange, and NYE Party at Seend Community Centre; Happy New Year!

Thatโ€™s your lot, unless thereโ€™s something we missed? Tell us about it, please do, we can add it, it isnโ€™t going to cost you anything more than being nice to me when you see me next! I hope everyone has been good all year, and wish you all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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A Perfect Picnic in the Park

A perfect sunny(ish) Sunday at Hillworth Park in Devizes, if not to overcome one’s fear of public speaking while dressed in a giraffe onesie andโ€ฆ

The Pleasure was all Minety!

Broke my Minety Music Festival cherry, and it was gurt lush! When it comes to live music and festivals, I initially set a high bar.โ€ฆ

DOCA Picnicing in the Park!

With the unfortunate cancellation of Devizes International Street Festival this year due to Arts Council cuts, all eyes are on our wonderful Hillworth Park nextโ€ฆ

Michelle Gonelan Makes History

Last political rant from me for a while, given all that happened today, pinky promise! Hitler shot himself, then, as requested, he was doused inโ€ฆ

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Local Tech Firm Encourages Shoppers to Think Pre-Loved this Christmas

With Black Friday just a few weeks away, Wiltshire based Blackmore Computers Ltd, is encouraging people to think pre-loved if theyโ€™re planning on buying laptops and computers in this yearโ€™s sales…….

Electrical goods are one of the leading categories of intent to buy over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend (29 November โ€“ 2 December 2024) and while discounts on new products can be enticing, second hand devices offer an environmentally friendly alternative without compromising on quality or cost.

Steve Edmunds, Director of Blackmore Computers, said: โ€œThe second-hand laptops we sell in our e-store often have higher specifications than new consumer-grade laptops because of higher initial quality and performance standards which are required in the corporate world. Essentially, theyโ€™re built to perform and last better than consumer grade laptops.โ€

The UK is facing a substantial e-waste problem, generating the second-highest amount per capita worldwide. Research from Material Focus, released in March 2024, highlighted that ‘UK households are holding onto 880 million unused electrical items and throwing away 103,000 tonnes of electricals, costing the economy ยฃ488 million in lost valuable raw materials.โ€™

Purchasing new tech not only places unwarranted demands on the planetโ€™s resources but poses the question for consumers: โ€œHow do I dispose of the old one safely?โ€

ReassuredIT, a new initiative by Blackmore Computers, addresses both problems by providing a convenient and secure way for residents to dispose of electronic devices they no longer need or want and providing them with a voucher in exchange. The voucher can then be used towards the cost of a quality refurbished laptop from the companyโ€™s e-store. All laptops have been refurbished to the highest of standards and present an affordable option for purchasing ‘new tech’ gifts during a cost-of-living crisis.

For a small fee, old devices can be shipped to, or dropped off at, Blackmore’s secure facility near Warminster. Each device is then securely wiped and either refurbished or recycled. More importantly, every customer will receive a certificate confirming all data on the device has been removed.

“Our focus has generally been on corporate contracts and their need for high levels of data safety; however, the number of households storing old devices due to data security concerns is significant,” explained Simon Barfoot, Founder of Blackmore. โ€œI have always been an advocate for sustainable IT and the work we do not only reduces the amount of tech going to landfill but it guarantees the highest standards of data security. Our team of experts restore and refurbish what we can in order to extend the lifecycle of a laptop or computer and tackle the โ€˜throw awayโ€™ culture. Buying new shouldnโ€™t be the default shopping mindset, and purchasing second-hand in 2024 doesnโ€™t mean having less. Itโ€™s about making smarter choices.โ€

To learn more or to register for the Reassured IT service visit: www.ReassuredIT.co.uk

Westbury Trance Masters Hedge Monkey Reunite For Hometown Gig

If rural West Country had a penchant for trance in the happy daze of the mid-nineties, heady nights of fluorescent-clad crusties with eyes like flying saucers and gyrating like robots at the UFO club down Longleatโ€™s Berkeley Suite, or bumbling around a nearby forest afterparty keeping Wrigleyโ€™s in business, trance-techno, it could be debated, tended to be heavily influenced by German Tekno and of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream which predated it, and in doing so, often felt rather soulless when compared to rivalling subgenres spawned from the rave era, of house or drum n bass, but there’s an alternative, Hedge Monkey….

House, jungle, happy hardcore, et al, they all had their pros and cons, but I tended to saunter them all with equal love, as I arrived on the rave scene at its inception, acid house, and if any splitting subgenre related closer to those roots it was trance and techno. Louโ€™s smooth vocal chants on Westburyโ€™s electronic dance music ensemble Hedge Monkey blesses it with something bands like Eat Static lacked, a soulful voice and meaning. With an underlying base of trance-techno of yore, Hedge Monkeyโ€™s engineer Jase cherry-picks other dance music influences and moulds them into the melting pot. If Massive Attack came from rural Somerset, their sway to hip hop might be lessened, and you might find yourself with a sound not so unlike Hedge Monkey.

Being honest, I hadnโ€™t heard of them until last night; I may have completed my rave honeymoon when Hedge Monkey was blossoming. Theyโ€™ve three tracks on SoundCloud worth checking out, two new and one being a โ€œsamba dubโ€ of an older tune. โ€œWe were a band years ago,โ€ Lou explained, โ€œeven played Glastonbury festival twice! But this was before social media, really. Iโ€™ve been recording music with Jase the whole time, but we never did anything with it. Just recently we decided to get it all back together and itโ€™s been fab, so we decided that we need to have a comeback gig!โ€

The comeback gig is Saturday November 30th at Westbury Cons Club, tickets are ยฃ8, from HERE. Thereโ€™s DJs until 9pm, then Hedge Monkey swings on stage. If youโ€™ve a passion for dance music of any pigeonholing subgenre, you should take note of this gig.

Based on the tunes, thereโ€™s more going on than mindless techno stomp, the vocals on the first tune Deeper Meanings, echoes out as 808 squeaks build in layers to a bouncing beat akin to Leftfield. Itโ€™s uplifting, euphoric trance, like Warpโ€™s early days, elements took me back, conjured happy memories of fluffy nuggets like Tuff Little Unitโ€™s Join the Future, (or am I showing my age now?!) which used subtle piano to give balance to the hypnotic ambience. Similar here, actual drum beats, guitars, and vocals give it body, makes it a band, which it is, rather than the sole bedroom producer flouting the usual samples.

The second tune, Lou’s Samba Dub Lung, shakes up more experimentally and contemporarily, dubbing a chemical breakbeat. Thereโ€™s absolutely no reason for Plump DJs or The Chemical Brothers not to spin this one in my humble opinion, yet still, thereโ€™s still something underlyingly faithful to the trance techno of its roots, the dirty little tent on a muddy Somerset field!

Final tune to mention, then you can go take your meds; Turkish E, take us back to trance.ย  Itโ€™s seven minutes of bliss, retaining uplifting vocals, squidgy 808s, shroom-inspired twirls and block rockinโ€™ beats. You know, I might have an efficacious relapse if I attend this reunion-type gig, just try to prevent me from waffling Uncle Albert moments; โ€œwhen I was in the rave,โ€ type stuff! Ruffle your matted dreadlocks, unearth your tie-dye T-shirt from the loft, ignore me best you can, and I might see you there!ย ย 

Devizes Writers Group Win Silver Award

Congratulations to Rosalind Ambler and Paul Snook from Devizes Writers Group…

At the National Community Radio Awards held in Cardiff on 16th November Together!, the soap opera written by DWGโ€™s Rosalind Ambler and former member Paul Snook, and produced and broadcast by Warminster Community Radio, got the silver award in the Arts and Culture section. Paul nobly stepped from merely playing the part of Gary the [โ€ฆ]

A bit of a boast โ€“ we got Silver.

Market Lavingtonโ€™s Killer Circus Show This Saturday

Two of the county’s top retrospective cover bands meet for a double-bill of action in Market Lavington This Saturday. Calneโ€™s indie rock five-piece Six Oโ€™clock Circus have diverse influences to win any crowd, but itโ€™s always conveyed with this affirmed nod to the heyday of mod rock, new wave and Britpop. Swindonโ€™s The Killertones Underground likewise will bring Two-Tone ska classics and new wave punk to the forefront in what looks set to be an awesome showโ€ฆ

Saturday 23rd November, Market Lavington is treated to this one-off double-billed headlining show, at their Community Centre. I highly recommend both bands, you will not be disappointed. Killertones you may recall weโ€™ve mentioned many times before, always a hit at Devizes Scooter Rally, and members Cath & Gouldy can equally engage a crowd at the Southgate, often with the more folk-influenced sounding duo Sound Affects.

Six Oโ€™Clock Circus can also be as diverse, shows at the Three Crowns in Devizes and the Southgate too, always make for a blinding nightโ€™s entertainment, despite differences in the crowdโ€™s demographic, proving we all love to be taken back to a time when music was our lives.

Tickets for the Killer Circus Show are ยฃ12 from here; I hope to see you down the front, giving it some like the noughties never happened!

Congratulations to Chloe Boyle, Fundraising for Devizes OpenDoors

Again we find ourselves congratulating and thanking young Chloe Boyle for fantastic fundraising efforts for Devizes homeless charity OpenDoorsโ€ฆ.

With friends and family she spent Saturday morning selling teddies and soft toys outside Morrisons in Devizes, this time raising ยฃ61.40. But if weโ€™ve featured Chloe before they are usually for her individual fundraising efforts. However, it is in her and her familyโ€™s continued efforts in which Chloe has been a hero and an inspiration, raising a grand total of ยฃ1372.95 so far.

What began as a stall selling her own cuddly toys, has amounted to collecting donations from others, and continuing this amazing work. Mum, Julie proudly told me how the community has got behind this, and led her stall to be found regularly around the area, at our many great events like FullTone, and special occasions at Hillworth Park. If you see Chloeโ€™s stall around and about, do take a look and buy a bear or two! Congratulations Chloe, you are a star!

Hansel & Gretel: Panto at the Wharf!

Images: Chris Watkins Media

It was lovely to spend Sunday afternoon at Devizesโ€™ Wharf Theatre, to see how this yearโ€™s pantomime Hansel & Gretel, is coming along. If my preview is behind me now, or if โ€œoh, no, it isnโ€™t,โ€ Iโ€™m happy to confirm ticket holders are in for a real treat, and those without a ticket I urge you to be as quick as a quick thing being quickโ€ฆ..

Tickets for panto at the Wharf sell out fast every year, rightfully. I believe thereโ€™s only a handful left. It may beg the question why Iโ€™m here to preview it at all, but with our Ian hot on the scene of anything theatrical these days, Iโ€™ve missed being at our communal little theatre. While I may not be so knowledgeable on Shakespeare’s plays, I know what I like, and Iโ€™m smitten for a great panto.

First time panto co-director Karen Ellis, who works with Jessica Bone, told me thereโ€™s a slightly different approach this year. I couldnโ€™t tell, Jack & The Beanstalk was wonderful last year, Hansel & Gretel is going to be as amazing as a gingerbread house decorated with sweeties!

A few sweets need tweaking, Iโ€™m at an early rehearsal, neighbouring seats are occupied with ladders and paint pots. Opening night is Friday 29th November, and with extra dates added the show runs until Saturday 7th December, with matinees on the Saturdays. With professionalism abound from whatโ€™s essentially an amateur production, from my sneaky peek alone, Iโ€™ve no doubt, this show is going to absolutely sparkle and thrill young and old equally.ย 

It was interesting, though, to see the inner workings of a panto developing, the many elements needing synchronisation I wouldnโ€™t have contemplated before now, and the attention to detail to something which might seem somewhat improvised to an outsider. It might be a couple of hours of quality family entertainment to you, but from script, expertly crafted by The Wharf Writersโ€™ Group, to this stage where only a few Iโ€™s need dotting and Tโ€™s crossing, has taken a year of hard work from a thoroughly dedicated group of very talented people.

And the hard work explodes like a supernova. As any panto should, the narrative is slight and loosely based on the Brothers Grimm fairy-tale. The show concentrates on slapstick, corny gags, drag, parodies of pop songs, slight tragedy, and a huge dollop of funny banter and audience participation, with a sprinkling of storyline. Brush up on your children’s TV show themes, anything more might be deemed a spoiler, but I can assure you, youโ€™re going to love it; all these elements are in grand abundance, and it thoroughly entertained me.

Starter for ten, neither Hansel, parts shared by two great young actors, Rory Lee and Tamsin Antignani, nor Gretel, similarly played by Emily Edwards and Gigi Underwood, are the protagonists here, rather the main parts depict an investigating police officer, Buttons, and his love interest, comically named Carrie Okie. The latter is played superbly by Georgina Claridge, also responsible for choreography, and the former, Officer Buttons is sublimely brought to life by Darcey Oswin; both masterful and confidently versatile in acting and singing, they work together like the perfect double-act.

Adam Sturgesโ€™ thespianism flare, with a natural ability for improv makes for the quintessential dame; he remained in character and high heels when I chatted to him outside! Is this the first pantomime dame to have a son, I wondered? Shaken, but not stirred and played by Lucas Dowling.

Likewise, Helen Pritchard makes for an excellent witch, and there’s supposed to be a compliment in there! Lesley Scholes is hilarious as a discluded fairy godmother, and the randomly placed comical duo is supplied brilliantly by Oli Beech and Liz Sharman.

Other singing and dancing characters are cast aptly, with Archer Leigh, Jo Benyon-Tucker, Cathy Chappell, Corrin Bishop, Poppy Lamb-Hughes, Emily Webb and Ben Bryan. It wouldnโ€™t be Christmas without a panto, and even a Grinch like me, after watching just a rehearsal for this early in November, could sense sleigh bells jingling and ring-tingle tingling all the way home!

I cannot guarantee your Brussel sprouts will be perfectly timed to coincide with the turkey, but I can assure you without doubt, Hansel & Gretel at The Wharf Theatre will warm your hearts and send you home smiling from elf ear to elf ear!

But hurry and be lucky to pick up the few remaining tickets HERE.

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MantonFest Magic, Again

With the danceable penultimate act attracting a packed crowd, I observed a young teenager, who, on spotting a disregarded beer bottle, picked it up andโ€ฆ

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No Worries; Worried Men at The Pump

Long overdue a visit to the Pump in Trowbridge, Jamie Thyer, frontman of the Worried Men twisted my arm Friday night and there I was, to witness, once again, these wonderful weavers of sublime blues to rock n roll tapestriesโ€ฆ..

Itโ€™s been five months since I was last here in the legendary pump room converted music venue, and it feels good to return to this friendly appreciation society. Steeped in history of Trowbridge nightlife, newfound energy was, quite aptly โ€œpumpedโ€ into the once adored folk club upon Kieran Mooreโ€™s takeover some years ago, in which diversity was widened by the Sheer Music promoterโ€™s vast knowledge of indie bands both local and international. Iโ€™ve said this before; you can see established big names at our cityโ€™s larger venues, but at the Pump youโ€™ll see the upcoming names soon to be big, thatโ€™s its unique appeal.

Despite the Pump bucking the concerning trend of grassroots music venues stumbling on financial difficulties, its future felt dubious at the beginning of 2024 when landlords of the Lamb, the Wadworth pub which houses the establishment planned to leave. A silver lining was emerging from the cloud when I was last there, Kieran was optimistic after meeting the prospective landlords, who were supportive.

It has to be said, my past experiences of the Lamb was such that it felt like there was a psychological barrier between it and the Pump. A thriving pub, but not interacting with a similar ethos of the venue, like the Pump was a welcome entity only for extra bar sales. But, alerted to the new landlords staging live music in the actual pub too, and hosting Brian Reidโ€™s celebrated open mic nights as well, it seemed like the tables were, quite literally, turning.

Confirming this, I spoke to a few punters in the Pump last night, who had curiously wandered in from the pub, delighted in what they were witnessing, and dammit, if I wasnโ€™t suspicious that the couple leaning against the wall by the actual pump itself wasnโ€™t the new landlords themselves, lapping up the music (I shouldโ€™ve asked rather than make the assumption, but it was loud!)

If it feels like a positive new chapter has opened here, the Pump is much the same visually; if it ainโ€™t brokeโ€ฆ. And who could blame those curious punters and the landlords, when the Worried Men do their thing, itโ€™s something to behold and nothing, as the name might suggest, to be worried about.

Three matured rockers, new drummer I think, doing a show Iโ€™ve seen enough times before to know what gorgeousness I was treating my ears to. With a support act awol they started their journey early, no one minded getting a little extra worried, and Jamie mocked the situation, as he does many elements, in his psychedelic surrealist sense of humour.

A grand night indeed. For anyone not versed on the occasions Iโ€™ve reviewed The Worried Men, here at the Pump, their album, and at The Southgate, hereโ€™s how they throw it down. Yes, thereโ€™s life in covers, Jim, but not as we know it. Renowned riffs and rhythms of rock music classics you will acknowledge, but theyโ€™re woven into an original tapestry, a medley of homages in splinters, where the band interpret and Jamie improvs these wild experimental guitar adventures akin to Hendrix, and dare I suggest it, with equal skill and gusto? Okay, with honesty, itโ€™s not far off that unbelievable benchmark.

On Jimi, itโ€™s a personal favourite of mine when elements of The Wind Cries Mary come into play, but equally, the baby, please donโ€™t go blues of Waters and Wolf, to mellowed Flyod-esque moments of sixties psychedelia, smoke on water, Louie Louie, Berryโ€™s rock n roll finales with farewells to Johnny B Goode, all interspersed with original thoughts, observations and compositions, and a jumpinโ€™ Jack flash encore; itโ€™s easy riding, keepinโ€™ on truckinโ€™ as if the age of the Rubix Cube never happened!

And I call it a tapestry, for they are the most skilled pre-Renaissance medium created by the most proficient embroiderers, and The Worried Men are proof that practice makes perfect. Efficiently if cheekily quoting my own quotes, Iโ€™ve said in the past, โ€œand Morpheus said unto Neo, โ€œunfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.โ€ Funny cos, I kinda feel similar about The Worried Men!โ€ and upon discovering them at the Gate two years ago, I explained Jamieโ€™s gestures thus: โ€œJamie holds an expression of concentration, occasionally looking up at you through these spellbinding Hendrix fashioned excursions, as if to ask โ€œis that alright for you?โ€ Like a dentist with his tools stuck in your gum, you feel like responding, โ€œyes, fine, thank you doctor.โ€

And these quotes still fit, for if thereโ€™s nothing new to report about The Worried Men show, it doesnโ€™t require improvement. The majority of acts at the Pump are younger, upcoming and to catch them irregularly over time you will see them progress. The Worried Men had their talents honed long before I came to report on them, it is, in a sentence, timeless bliss youโ€™ll never tire of hearing.

The Pump is the proof, locally, the message is getting out there: support live music, and I look forward to returning; just wish there was a late night bus to and fro, because if thereโ€™s one good reason to head for Vegas, itโ€™s their Pump! Check out whatโ€™s coming up there.

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Emo Night: Slash Fiction and The Yacht Club Nationwide Tour Comes to Trowbridgeโ€™s Pump

Sheffieldโ€™s DIY punk queer emo five-piece, Slash Fiction will be at the Pump in Trowbridge on Wednesday 20th November as part of their nationwide tour. A winter-warming double-header with their tour buddies, Londonโ€™s math-emos, The Yacht Club, and Devizes’ own upcoming nu-gaze band Enguun, with Steatopygous drummer Ewan Middletonโ€ฆ.

Comparable to Get Up Kids and The Wonder Years, Slash Fiction, recently released their debut album, Gender, Trauma & Friendship, which Kieran J Moore of the Pump hailed as hisย album of the year. They also claim The Yacht Club are equally as wonderful; โ€œthink math-y guitars a la American Football combined with a Jimmy Eat World pop sensibility,โ€ they said. Four members fighting their guitars, The Yacht Club define their style as Revival-Revival Math Rock and have an EP out called IDTTIARTBWY.

Itโ€™s unusual for the Pump to be open for a Wednesday night show. โ€œThis will either prove that we’re mentalists OR that Trowbridge is great throughout the week, and not just at weekends,โ€ they said. 

Engunn proved a hit at Devizes Youth Action Groupโ€™s club nights in February and June. Our reviewer Florence Lee said, โ€œwhen Enguun went onto the stage, I was simply blown away. They are insane. My ears were in euphoria as soon as Ewan Middleton and Joshua Allen started to bless the audience with their music. As a musician, their ability to capture audience attention and put everyone in a trance-like state of freaking out was out of this world.โ€ย 

Tickets Here, from the Pump Website.

Slash Fiction & The Yacht Club

Ian Siegal at Long Street Blues Club

Devizes is often spoiled for choice when it comes to live music. Swindon folk ensemble SGO at the Gate would’ve been an excellent decision for this Saturday night, and I considered dropping by at some point during the proceedings at Long Street Blues Club prior to the proceedings at Long Street Blues Club, but during the proceedings at Long Street Blues Club I concluded I’d have to be criminally insane to leave nowโ€ฆ..

I might be insane, but not criminally, yet! To a packed house, award-winning, and not one to shy away from jesting about it, UK blues legend Ian Siegal came, saw, and revisited his two debut albums as requested by Long Street Blues Club organiser and Devizes mayor Ian Hopkins, enthralling the crowd; including me.

Ian Siegal is a national treasure, his 2009 album Broadside made MOJO magazineโ€™s blues album of the year, but the theme tonight focussed on his debut album from four years previous, Meat & Potatoes, which received four stars in the Penguin Book of Blues Recordings and paved the way for Ianโ€™s sound, and its follow on, 2007โ€™s Swagger. With the original organist from Meat & Potatoes, Jonny Henderson, and drummer Tom Gilkes, he drove sublime Detroit, Chicago and Memphis blues fusions, authentic and raw, to the forefront of a deservedly ostentatious show. Thatโ€™s how you play it.

I’m not up on these albums, detected a chorus mentioning Swagger, but for the most part, I was simply soaking up the sublime moment joyfully and without overanalysing; too easy to go with the flow of Ian’s sound. There were nods to his influences in splices of covers, flamboyant banter, and skilled compositions. It was, in summary, divine blues. Devizes own, Jon Amor joined him for a couple, and Ian spun blues riffs like they were childsplay.

None of this before the support act, young Ruby Darbyshire, who for the first and last time she played here I called it to be the best support Iโ€™ve seen at the club; itโ€™s a double-whammy line-up tonight. Multi-intrumnetalist, Ruby was blowing her bagpipes for Remembrance in the Brittox earlier. Arriving a tad late due to a bus delay, I noted she was already underway, unusually behind a keyboard. Explaining she hadnโ€™t played piano live before, she made a grand job of it, and returned to her guitar where we know and love her best.

A few originals including her timeless Insomnia, and covers from Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone to Rag & Bone Manโ€™s Human, she puts her wonderful stamp on them all, rapturously expressive and soulful. To hear Ruby is a magic Iโ€™ll never tire of, sheโ€™s improved her confidence, which is tricky in this appreciation society, where thereโ€™s the silence of a library while performers do their thing. It may be respectful, but a smidgen daunting for anyone on the stage used to more clamorous venues. But hey, anyone who can make Queenโ€™s Is This The World We Created their own fully deserves the upstanding applause she received, from a matured audience who have witnessed many talented people come and go.

Blues stalwarts at the club may have been in the know much longer than me, but Devizine was a learning curve, and when I began it I had no clue how deep the rabbit hole went, this, what I dub โ€œMel Bush effect,โ€ the town’s association with UK blues. When blues supergroup lockdown project Birdmen became a live show at Long Street a couple of years ago, Dave Doherty invited me and it was my epiphany into how the club was continuing Devizes folk’s affection for the blues. This fantastic eye-opening gig was so due to the stellar lineup, in particular frontman Ian Siegal. 

In its review I summarised him as โ€œthe very definition of cool,โ€ but knew I’d have to expand on that next time, which was when he was a guest at the Jon Amor Trio monthly residency at the Southgate in March. So, the extended version was as โ€œcool on a barefoot Bruce Willis pounding through the glass of the Nakatomi Plaza level, he is the Steve McQueen leaping anti-tank obstacles on a stolen Triumph of UK blues!โ€ 

As a quote I was kinda chuffed with, I thought I’d attempt to recite it when I met him after the gig, but intoxication levels took control, and accepting I’d probably stumble out the word Nakatomi, I only mumbled I compared him to Bruce Willis. He didn’t seem impressed, assuming I was referring to the dire commercial album Willis launched in the eighties, trashing soul classics like Under the Boardwalk! Apologies to the man, for I’d archived that album to the back of my mind and wasnโ€™t referring to it at all!

I hope he reads this so I can correct the tit I made of myself! Because last night’s gig was sublime; I never had any doubts, and my concept Ian Siegal is cool, however I express it, sticks! Plus, of course, there will be plenty of other opportunities to make a tit out of myself, Iโ€™m sure!

As for Ian, he seems to be on a permanent tour, find dates on his website, and news of an new album, Stone by Stone, due in April, HERE.

For Long Street, John Otway & The Big Band arrives next Saturday, 16th November, promising to be something different, and with Billy in the Lowground in support. Then, Thomas Atlas Band plays with Two Smiles, A Bang, and a Legend in support, for a Christmas Party on Saturday 21st December.

False Allegations Against Wiltshire Hunt Sabs About Drone Fly Zones is Unapologetically Reversed By Illegal Hunt Supporting Facebook Group

Due to my real job making regular home deliveries I get to know when folk are away on their holibobs, and when they plan on returning. I could, if I wanted, start a โ€œresidents watchโ€ Facebook group for burglars, to ensure those pesky homeowners donโ€™t return early and cause good honest thieves to be inconvenienced while ransacking their homes!

But Iโ€™m unlikely to, really, arenโ€™t I? Because, even if I had no moral standards, someone is bound to grass me to the police who would force me to shut down the group, and perhaps rightfully arrest me. Perplexed by the audacity and with a lump in my throat, Iโ€™m driven to rant about a Facebook group which Wiltshire Hunt Saboteurs today made us aware of in a post, for the group is not so unlike the bizarre scenario of my introduction; different context, same concept; you canโ€™t make up vindictive stupidity on this levelโ€ฆ..

The group is called โ€œSouth Coast Sab Watch,โ€ therefore I presume thereโ€™s regional others. Alas, it does what it says on the tin, and condones and promotes illegal hunting to boot. So, letโ€™s just run through the concept here, shall we, so there can be no mistaking? Itโ€™s a group for criminal hunters, whether they genuinely believe the baloney theyโ€™re maintaining the natural balance of the countryside, or have a sadistic fetish for animal cruelty (as disgraced former Prime Minister and lockdown party animal, Bojo, enlightened us about,) to keep a beady eye on self-organised non-profit collectives out in the field attempting to curb and highlight their illegal activities, and to inform police of said sab groups, if they were ever to incriminate themselves in the pursuit of such.

Is it just me, or can anyone else see a slither of hypocrisy here?! Reminds me of security guards at a factory I once worked at where smoking was banned, who would prowl the site at night looking for staff smoking, with fags on the go themselves!

Itโ€™s been drawn to our attention because of a disagreement over CAA rules when the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs flew drones over a SSSI watching the notorious Tedworth Hunt. The South Coast Sab Watch claimed it was illegal to do this in a statement on their group, and wasted the rural crime teamโ€™s time with the matter.

The hunt sabs responded, stating โ€œDrone Assist, which anyone can check, confirms that the Kings Play Hill SSSI is not a CAA โ€œnon-flyโ€ area for drones at all.โ€ Seems it was perfectly legal to do this, and as a result, the sab watch group fact checked, and updated their post to admit they were wrong and the sabs were right, there was nothing illegal in what the sabs did. They apologised, but only to the followers of the group, not the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs who deserved the apology, which kinda suggests their motive is driven by hateful vengeance; tell us something we don’t already know!

โ€œWe hear the same stupid nonsense from the Beaufort who donโ€™t understand the difference on the maps between barred areas (red areas) and areas where you can fly with caution (yellow areas),โ€ Wiltshire Hunt Sabs explained. โ€œWhat is an offence, the illegal hunting of wild animals with a pack or dogs on ANY location.ย  Also what can be an offence is the disturbing of wildlife on an SSSI which is exactly what a pack of dogsย  and a bunch of horses chasing them through the SSSI constitutes.โ€

Itโ€™s laughable, should you like laughing at the idiocy of a knee-jerk reaction from barbaric snobs so desperate to twist a narrative, but Iโ€™m like, hey, is no one mentioning the elephant in the room? Probably not, itโ€™s likely theyโ€™d much prefer to be on a big game hunt for some ivory. Look, being the hunters were so quick to pick a potential mistake from the sabs in their surveillance of them, before checking the facts, doesnโ€™t it look rather obvious theyโ€™ve something to hide? On a discussion about CCTV in Devizes, a point was made that this is not big brother, if youโ€™re not doing crime then youโ€™ve nothing to worry about; surely itโ€™s the same thing here?

But, more to the point, if they weren’t suspected of illegally hunting, on the grounds many hunts have been caught in the past illegally hunting, and promote and condone it on their social media, the hunt sabs wouldnโ€™t have needed to fly drones in the first bloody place, you utter, utter numpties! For crying out loud, how stupid can you possibly get?!!

It’s with great curiosity as to the defective mind of a fox hunter which caused me to browse their group, where there’s shockingly blatant posts to admit to and pathetically justify their illegal and barbaric activities.

Starter for ten, they love to highlight this wonky idea that they do what they do in order to maintain the balance of nature in the countryside, which poses the question how this is relevant to what they claim to be doing; legally chasing a tea towel garnished with the fake scent of a fox , that will not affect the balance of nature, only cause disruptions for residents. Ergo, they inadvertently confessed to committing crimes against the hunting act.

They home in on our affections for the lovable creatures like hedgehogs, to play with our emotions, claiming badgers are the reason for their apparent decline. Again, in the decade of my nocturnal outside job, it’s not the hedgehog I see in decline at all, in fact there’s an abundance of them, but rarely do I see a badger these days, and I could count the times I’ve seen a fox on one hand. When I do, they’re generally running for their lives, and I futilely plead to their fleeting shadow not to tarnish all humans with the same Basil Brush; boom boom!

Another post called to arms the might of the hunters when millionaire farmers set out to protest in London later this month, against having to pay their fair share of inheritance tax. Not to open another Pandora’s box here, it simply took to mind they are planning to join in the fun whether they’re wanted there, or not. I mean, does every farmer agree with fox hunting, or will they be like the unwarranted gatecrasher at a party? Humm, I could only answer this one with speculation. History repeating though; when farmers protested over fuel rises in 2002, it was hijacked by pro-hunters who changed the objective to suit their whim.

But what amazes and disgusts me most in equal measure, is how social media groups promoting illegal activities and creating falsehoods against those campaigning against it are allowed to continue. Police should shut them down for spreading misinformation, surely, as they would if they were condoning a different crime.

Again, it seems it is up sab organs like our hard-working volunteers of the Wiltshire Hunt Sabs to call them out. Well done once again to Wiltshire Hunt Sabs, you got them lying, hook, line and sinker! As we move closer to the Boxing Day incongruous pageants, we need and support them as much as we can, so find them here and buy them a coffee.ย 

Wiltshire Music Centre Announces New Joint Leadership

Wiltshire Music Centre is delighted to announce the new appointments ofย Danielย Clark as Artistic Director, andย Sarahย Robertson as Executive Director.ย Danielย andย Sarahย join Wiltshire Music Centre in a new co-leadership model. They will join the team in late January 2025, to strengthen the Centre’s role as a culturalย andย creative spaceย andย Arts Council England NPO for Wiltshire.

Sarah is currently working as Director of Communications and Special Projects at Bristol Beacon, where she led on marketing for the rebranding and reopening of the venueโ€™s ยฃ132 million transformation. Sarah’s had a long involvement with Bristol Beacon where she has worked for the past 17 years and been a pivotal figure in the organisation’s evolution.ย During this time, she has also commissioned and managed transformation projects funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and was a Clore Fellow in 2021. Sheโ€™s also held positions on a number of Boards as Chair for Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory in 2021-2023, and more recently as co-Chair at Turner Sims.ย 

Daniel has worked in the arts and music industry for over 25 years as a Creative Director, composer and musician. He currently leads the Creative Programme at multi-arts venue, The Story Museum in Oxford, which welcomes over 60,000 visitors a year and delivers a varied programme including learning, exhibitions, events, and participatory activities. Previously he worked as Creative Director for Libraries Unlimitedโ€™s Evolve programme – an imaginative programme of live music, theatre, film, interactive artwork, and workshops supported by Arts Council England, was Founder and Artistic Director of EarFilms, a company exploring 3D audio storytelling for blind and blindfolded audiences, and Music Programmer for After Dark & Dartington Live โ€“ a series of โ€˜secretโ€™ events and concerts on parts of the Dartington Estate.

Speaking of her appointment, Sarah said, “I am delighted to be joining Wiltshire Music Centre as Executive Director in the new year. It is a special place, much loved by audiences and artists, integral to the local community and with a team who are talented and passionate. I am looking forward to working with new Artistic Director, Daniel Clark, to build on its fantastic heritage, keeping the music and musicians at the heart of everything we do.”

Daniel commented, โ€œI’m thrilled to be offered the opportunity to join the team at Wiltshire Music Centre during such an exciting time. This world-class venue has a rich history and an exceptional, dedicated staff and volunteer team. I look forward to working alongside the team and the community to shape an exciting new direction for the centreโ€”one that is deeply connected to the passions and interests of the people it serves, bringing world-class music and musical opportunities to the residents of Wiltshire and beyond.”

James Wetz, chair of Wiltshire Music Centre added, โ€œThe Board are absolutely thrilled to welcome Sarah and Daniel to the team. Their wealth of experience and passion for the music and the arts, will provide the Centre with the right blend of innovation and expertise needed to shape the next chapter. Working with the team, we’re confident they will both be able to build on our strong foundations and move forward our ambitious plans to strengthen and reimagine our place at the heart of music and cultural life in the South-West, helping to keep music accessible and live for young people and the wider community.โ€

We double, triple, quadruple love Wiltshire Music Centre here at Devizine, and would like to wish Sarah and Daniel all the best for their new venture.

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The Soul Sessions from Bristolโ€™s Kaya Street

In 1985 Tenor Saw toasted the lyric, โ€œanother sound is dying,โ€ in Ring the Alarm. It implied his sound was the contemporary champion, yet while it’s true reggae is competitively progressive, this particular tune’s dubplate derived from the Stalag riddim created by Ansel Collins twelve years earlier, as did Sister Nancy’s Bam Bam and numerous others. I appreciate the ethos of dubplates, for a musician to lay down a track and various singers to interpret it, but favour, if you want a true contemporary champion sound, itโ€™s not to regurgitate existing riddims, but to use past influences to create original composition; the more the merrier! I may have opened a Pandora’s box upon receiving The Soul Sessions EP from Bristol’s Kaya Street, but it’s certainly a refreshing and interesting original soundโ€ฆ..

In a promotional shot advertising their latest single Wild Child, getting spun on Daniel Pascoe’s BBC Introducing show, Kaya Street’s main man, Kaya, is shown wearing a Trojan Records logo on his T-shirt, it connotes awareness of their roots. I beg to differ from their accompanying quote, โ€œlike nothing we’ve heard before,โ€ while perhaps not recently, the fusions Kaya Street experimented with here, reggae, soul, and afrobeat, have indeed been tried before, in abundance.

I could cite bands from Misty in Roots to the Clash, and even Bristol’s own Massive Attack. I could point to the logo on the shirt and suggest many discs sought for distribution by Trojan in the sixties experimented in such a manner; take Lord Brynner’s 1966 single Congo War as one of many examples, or even predate this with the notion mento is rooted from African rhythms. Yet, it’s not the ingredients in Kaya Streetโ€™s melting pot which makes it prominently interesting and beguiling, rather the way they stir it, the method in the composition and production. Either that, or I’m an ageing trainspotter beyond the years of all at BBC Introducing!!

The single Wild Child is an enchanting one-drop steppers march, steeped in conscious vocals akin to Marleyโ€™s Get Up Stand Up, denouncing the violent crime epidemic in the UK.

It’s bravely brassy too. In an electric modern world taken for granted, it will wake you up to the roots of reggae, when brass sections ruled the day, something which trends throughout the EP. Iโ€™m more than happy for the EP to flow throughout like this, but, imagine, a pleasant surprise when the second tune, Alfie proves Kaya Street are no one trick pony.

This is positively alive in an uplifting, paced soukous-inspired sound, while the last song Sway sounds more south than east African; funky township jive, reminding me somewhat of Thomas Mapfumo, with such a saxophone solo to rival Hugh Masekelaโ€™s trumpet, least as near as dammit! The penultimate song Be Mine is more commercially western, the offbeat is slight, the theme is romance, the overall vibe is soul, with its silky backing vocals, and again with this consistent concentration of saxophone.

But the best example to highlight my opening point is Low. Low certainly wasnโ€™t my favourite on the EP, to begin with. It starts very lounge jazz, again with the prominent sax and silky vocals, but then subtly and unexpectedly twists into a dubby rockers riddim, so smoothly I had to rewind just to identify when and how this occurred. This alone caused my first impression to alter from, โ€œyeah, this is good,โ€ to โ€œactually, this is a stroke of genius,โ€ and for me to take it back to the beginning and reassess it.

Kaya Streetโ€™s sound, like anything progressive and experimental, is a grower, it creeps up on you. Thereโ€™s narratives to each song Iโ€™ve yet to analyse fully, but the more you listen, the more you detect an element from this vast melting pot of cherry-picked influences, and comprehend the story behind each, and I love it for this!

Being I was digging into the archives to find examples of similar past fusions, a subject I could chew your ears off about, if Brynner’s Congo War is a specimen to skaโ€™s African roots prior to the commercial blossoming of Rasta, as opposed to the more commonly cited jump blues influence, derived from US troops leaving radio masts in Jamaica after the second world war, try The Paragonsโ€™ lesser-known If I Were You for soul train size. Itโ€™s so funky it could be in the Stax catalogue, and is something Be Mine reminded me of; thereโ€™s so much going on here.

Yet as many examples of where and how the melting pot has been stirred, none are apogees; it takes Jamaican born Bronx DJ Kool Herc to reach that climax, when he maintained the procedures of King Tubby and applied it to funk and soul to appease the multiculturalism of New York, and created hip hop. Bristol in the nineties was a kingpin to pioneering a UK hip hop formula, which returned influences full circle and incorporated reggae again. Kaya Street continues this Bristol epoch, reviving it freshly. The Soul Sessions is a revisit, recorded in three sessions in 2012 at Exeterโ€™s Valvetastic Studios, with prolific award-winning producer and musician Jolyon Holroyd.

If I am to find some niggly, itโ€™s a lack of intro; the songs tend to jerk right in, but I guess itโ€™s because I have the single edits here, and Kaya Streetโ€™s impressive lineup is plentiful to convince me they know the formula to extend and polish. It consists of Revelation Roots drummer Dan Salter, bassist Mark Lee from Hot Dub and Kolo, and that gorgeous sax is provided by Ray Beavis of The Clash, Suzy Quatro, and Katrina and the Waves. Kaya himself has previously worked with dub producers The Vibronics and Dubmatix. Herein is an insight to how the influences meld so professionally, so absolutely sublime.

And sublime is a word Iโ€™ll happily use to sum this up, save me waffling further! The initial project was a limited run of CDs for gigs, now for the first time, they are being remastered and released online. Wild Child was released 1st of November, the rest, I believe, will follow, and you need to be there to hear them when they do; Don Letts is raving about this, so hereโ€™s the socials to follow.

LinkTree . Facebook . Insta .

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El Toro Fundraiser at The Old Road Tavern, Chippenham

Over to Chippenham for my dose of live music this Saturday. I didnโ€™t see any chips nor ham, there were some pasties passed around a lively and hospitable โ€œproperโ€ pub, and whilst meeting some favourites old and new, there were also opportunities to cross some must-sees off my list. It was a fundraiser for El Toro, Chippenhamโ€™s music suppliers faced with a fire which destroyed their premises in July. Henry Ray, the shop owner, completed the eveningโ€™s entertainment with his own band, also conveniently called El Toroโ€ฆ..

But letโ€™s get chronological, for itโ€™s unusual for me to head Chippenhamโ€™s direction for a night out, of which Iโ€™m apologetic to the natives for; unintentional, que sera, sera. Though itโ€™s been widely brought to my attention that if I ever was to tread water in the Ham, The Old Road Tavern, aptly on Old Road, is the best place to bookmark; regulars corrected me that it was, apparently, the โ€œonlyโ€ place.ย ย 

Supportive of grassroots music, home of Chippenham Comedy Club, and Brain Reidโ€™s popular open mic session, itโ€™s akin to Swindonโ€™s Beehive, or Devizesโ€™ Southgate, a tucked away treasure, a promiscuously welcoming and traditional watering hole with a nonchalant ethos; fits me like a glove. That was, after Iโ€™d fussed with parking. Iโ€™m not paying six quid or downloading an app when thereโ€™s free on-street a walk away, though Iโ€™m flustered at the fiasco, hoping to catch Will Lawtonโ€™s set already underway.

Eloquently poised at his keys, without backing from The Alchemists Willโ€™s sound is obviously rawer than usual, yet equally as euphoric and harmonious. It is, undoubtedly, always a pleasure to hear his original outpourings in whatever setup he delivers them with. In contrast to the next act, Chippenhamโ€™s young folk singer-songwriter Meg, whoโ€™s divine and insightful observations are so utterly unique, only she could deliver them the way she does, solo with guitar in hand. Itโ€™s a wholesome listenerโ€™s show, delving deeply and honestly into her psyche, identifying her audience with meditative reflections.

This is all taking place in โ€œThe Barn,โ€ exterior to the pub, amidst a fitting outside area, the Barn is a modest venue with low stage, one comfy sofa and school chairs, in fitting with the causal attitude of the boozer. Again in contrast to occurrences at the Barn, a bulky chap called DD is entertaining the troops at the bar with banjo-led ditties and drinking singalongs of the scrumpy & western variety. And he does so with bells on. The lively bar will be central to the event hereafter, at least while El Toro set up their full band in the Barn.

Sharpie, aka, Ollie Sharp, was up next in the bar. Pleased to catch up with Sharpie, itโ€™s been years since mentioning him on Devizine, as frontman of the now defunct indie-popsters Longcoats, from Bath. We fondly reviewed their releases at the time, but never actually caught them live, so it was good to finally meet him. Sharpie records and tours the local circuit with a backing band, but tonight, being a volunteering fundraiser, heโ€™s solo, still equally as engaging. Fusion of indie covers and originals, Sharpie delivered them with passion and professionalism, adding essential banter and stage presence amidst a crowd of regulars seemingly accustomed to having original musicians play their splendid pub.

The showstopper for me was Harmony Asia Thomas, Chippenham singer-songwriter key to organising this event. Though said regulars appeared to know what they were letting themselves in for; this is her local too. Much praise Iโ€™ve heard for Harmony, seen a rather aged video of her performing in Trowbridge, and have been looking forward to catching her live. None of these fully prepared me, as while Harmony passed off a few technical guitar hitches with good banter in a familiar environment for her, and in the excitement at how well the event had traversed, coupled possibly by drinks sheโ€™d had for Dutch courage, she absolutely held me spellbound! Her guitar is an accompaniment, the thrill is in her voice.

The subject matter of her self-penned songs are defined and thoughtful prose, if somewhat customary in comparison to Meg. They involve relationship worries, and tales of fatigue working a busy bar, yet they are never without an inspiring twist. Vocally, itโ€™s as if Ella Fitzgerald came after Kate Nash. I humbly and honestly declare, Harmony can hit those powerful and soulful notes of jazz greats like Nina Simone, loudly and proudly, expressively and defined, yet it is not without the contemporary twist, accented in the kind of feminine pseudo-rap akin to Nash or Lilly Allen. Delivered so utterly passionately, it becomes a joy to hear her, as she glides through expressive vocal arrangements like they are childsplay.

Harmony is young, with time on her hands, telling me she has pinned an albumโ€™s worth of songs down, which is due out shortly, yet I cannot help but attain high hopes for her after finally seeing her perform; as, if she was located in London, sheโ€™d reach an Amy Winehosue level, at least front a professional funky band. But here we are, in Chippenham, and right now Harmony is rightfully loving the attention. If our county contains these small local circuits in which one may be central in one but merging into others isnโ€™t so simple, I tumbled into a Chippenham one last night, and it contains boundless potential talent, friendly bonds and devoted fans, talkative and lovable crazy ones, but devoted nonetheless!

Once unbinded from the spell, I made my way back to the Barn, driven by the accomplished blast of a doubleheader of Led Zeppelin covers. Are El Toro a Zepp tribute, I pondered, as they appeared to have nailed Rock and Roll and Immigrant Song sublimely? Crowds gathered inside, seemingly expectant of greatness, and as far as pub circuit rock bands go, El Toro is on a pegging way above average. Matured rockers against the plethora of younger talent earlier, felt theyโ€™re doing it for the love, and have been for many a year.

Ah, teasing me in, I reckon, as they then delivered a great original next, which could have slipped into the eraโ€™s driving electric blues scene unnoticed. It was within the hard-rock homage, El Toro shine, simply and effortlessly. Their matchless ability to rouse a crowd was paramount, with comical timing set against a tight four-piece which set the ball rolling by fusing a medley of Lynyrd Skynyrdโ€™s crowd-pleaser, Sweet Home Alabama with Warren Zevonโ€™s Werewolves of London, though they adapted the location to Wiltshire, and plonked in an amusing and unsuspected nod to Will Smith, with Getting Jiggy With It, and the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, being a prime example; it had quickly become obvious, El Toro wasnโ€™t a Led Zepp tribute, nor tribute to anyone particular, rather legends on their own circuit, who know precisely what buttons to press to create a great night for tipsy revellers, and such it was.

Unsure if donations made much of an effect to the campaign, kind of think now, by the culmination it didnโ€™t seem so important as hosting a lively party in a pub, and the Old Road Tavern is the perfect place for it. Open mics here happen on the last Sunday of each month, 7:30-10pm. Devizes-own JP Oldfield supports those banana washtub bassist, kazoo-tooting boaters Devilโ€™s Doorbell next Saturday, 9th November. Comedy Club is monthly, most weekends thereโ€™s something going on here, and even if there wasnโ€™t, it still feels like the place to be for the mild-mannered, open minded alternative in Chippenham; bloody loved it! 

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What’s Happening During November in Devizes?

Remember, remember, weโ€™re moving into November; leaves, loads of โ€˜em! Being as we are no longer doing weekly roundups, hereโ€™s some highlights of events in Devizes during November, but do pay attention, thereโ€™s lots more listed on our event calendar, from all over our county, and itโ€™s always updating, so keep checking in HERE too!

Daveโ€™s birthday beer festival at the Southgate, for the entire weekend and into Monday. Find Sammi Evans, Josh Oldfield & Gordon Thompson there on Friday 1st, and Courting Ghosts, I believe, are there on Saturday; not sure about the rest, but I think the focus is on the beer; if you can focus on beer! Happy birthday, Dave!

Talking taps, we send our best of luck to The Pour House, taking over the old Vaults in St Johnโ€™s Street, Devizes. Itโ€™s their grand opening on Friday 1st.

On Saturday 2nd, there’s a tap top sale in Couch Lane, we have the Lions Club Arts Coaching Day, and Quakers Walk Community Biodiversity Group are bulb planting and preparing wildflower beds. Sunflower Events host a Christmas Market at the Corn Exchange from 11am to 6 on Saturday, 11am to 4 on Sunday.

While those Roughcut Rebels return to the Three Crowns, and Dave’s birthday beer fest continues at the Southgate, Mississippi MacDonald Band kicks off a long month of gigs at Long Street Blues Club, with Sons of the Delta in support. Isosceles Theatre Company are at the Wharf Theatre on Saturday, with a performance of Murder; Just What the Doctor Ordered. In aid of Swindon & Devizes Sands, thereโ€™s a Back to School disco at the Wyvern Club.

Sunday 3rd, itโ€™s Devizes Fireworks at the Football Club. Jon Amor Trio residency at the Southgate. A concert in Chirton too, see poster below!

Monday 4th, The Opening of the Garden of Remembrance at the War Memorial, 10.45hrs.

Wednesday 6th, the regular acoustic jam night at the Southgate, of course!

Thursday 7th, Devizes Film Club is at The Wharf, with a screening of Finnish film Fallen Leaves.

Friday 8th, Muck & Dunder have a DJ set from Dub Pistol Barry Ashworth. Devizes Arts Festival presents a night of comedy at the Corn Exchange. And The Devizes Eisteddfod opens for Music, Speech & Drama, and runs until 17th November 2024. 

Saturday 9th has the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Associationโ€™s Book Fair at the Corn Exchange from 10am. Stone’s Throw are at The Three Crowns. And while Swindonโ€™s amazing folk ensemble SGO are at the Southgate, The Ian Siegal Band are at Long Street Blues Club with Ruby Darbyshire in support, both unmissable!

Sunday 10th: Remembrance in Devizes. 09.15hrs Muster in the Marketplace. 10.00hrs Church Service at St Johnโ€™s Church. After service Reform in Long Street. 11.00hrs Last Post-Two Minutes Silence- reveille Wreath Laying and Parade Marches Back to Marketplace.

Mr Griff & The Grifters play The Southgate, Devizes, from 5pm.

Monday 11th: Remembrance in Devizes. At the War Memorial: 10.45hrs for The National Two Minutes silence.

Wednesday 13th, sees the regular acoustic jam at the Southgate.

Friday 15th find the brilliant Siren at the Three Crowns.

Saturday 16th thereโ€™s a Mynt Image Craft Fair at the Corn Exchange, from 10am. Free entry and a great range of superb quality products.

John Otway makes a welcome return to Devizes, at the Long Street Blues Club, and Billy and the Lowground in support; a different night for the club, highly recommended this one!

Wednesday 20th, sees the regular acoustic jam at the Southgate. Devizes Flower Club is jingling all the way to the Corn Exchange.

Thursday 21st and thereโ€™s an Evening of Mediumship with Psychic Medium Nikki Kitt at the Corn Exchange.

Friday 22nd Queen tribute act, Qween UK at the Corn Exchange, no excuses for spellings from us, that is what it is, lets hope they will rowk you!

Saturday 23rd you can find The Sylvertones at The Three Crowns, but not a lot else I’ve heard about as of yet. Time maybe to pop over to Lavington for this….

Wednesday 27th, sees the regular acoustic jam at the Southgate.

Thursday 28th head down to the Pelican, where Fantasy Radio presents a Live Lounge with Ruby Darbyshire. Also, itโ€™s open mic night at The Cellar Bar, Bear Hotel from 7:30pm.

Friday 29th is DOCA Winter Festival, lights switching on, lantern parade, mulled wine, Devizes Town Band playing Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and all the gubbings; and thatโ€™s when Iโ€™m officially in the Christmas mode! Window Wanderland runs from here until 2nd Dec, and the fun continues into Saturday too!

Double-whammy, the Hazel & Gretel panto opens at the Wharf Theatre on Friday too. Note, due to popularity theyโ€™ve added dates, and it runs until the 7th December now. I will be going to see it long before you, and Iโ€™ll be here to tell you about it; what? Perks of the job!!

Also on Saturday 30th, ever popular covers unique trio People Like Us will be at the Three Crowns. White Horse Opera at Market Lavington Community Hall.

That’s all for now, folks! Did I miss something out? Did you tell us about it?! We update all the time, so, rest assured more will be added when they come in, and if you cannot find something to entertain you here, you can leave town! In a nice way, you understand, we do have roads and Devizine lists events within range of Devizes as well as in Devizes; so remember, remember, to check the EVENT CALENDER!!

And Here is December; Lynx deodorant sets time!

La Bruja; New Halloween Single From I See Orange

There’s a trick and a treat for Halloween from Swindon’s finest alt-rock trio I See Orange; new single, La Bruja, or The Witch translated from Spanish, and it’s certainly cast a spell on meโ€ฆ.

If you’re still unaware of I See Orange, it should be considered folklore cunning craft to overlook them after this; you’ll find yourself sinking in a river! Reviewing them at the Pump at the beginning of the year, I made a beeline to catch them again at Minety during warmer climates. In retrospect I should’ve reviewed their debut four-track EP Lonesome Joy released around the same time as the Pump gig, but missing that window I figured I’d await something new. And here it is, creeping up on us!

Lonesome Joy and a separate song from the same session are generally formulated like all good hefty grunge; rising and falling mood layers, and the single Simply, tended to take a commercial blues angle, as if a metal Cranberries. While these are all positives, with promising roots and truckloads of potential, La Bruja is a constant, progressive, and it doesn’t wait for you to attach yourself to the ambience; it’s a beautiful monster, stomping through a dark forest, chasing you, from beginning to end.

Yards ahead of their previous outpourings, I’d say, its theme perfectly captures the unique identity of the band; a grunge-riot grrrl-garage punk fusion. Charlie Hart and Cameron Hill proficiently drive a hard rock drum and lead guitar arrangement, respectively, behind bassist Giselle Medina, who plays out an ironic kawaii character, a kind of post-goth shลjo kogal, akin to Mieruko-Chan, or Ling Xiaoyu for the Tekken players!

It’s a spookily seductive look, therefore so is this song. It’s as if it’s a direct response to Kip Tyler’s She’s My Witch, with a contemporary edge; lots of haunting, rocking edge. Giselle’s divine, evocative vocals are like a non-stigma emo Greek siren, crying out either an enticement or warning, depending on your fixation for paraphilic disorders; scratch beneath her innocent superficie to discover how deep her โ€œweird shit,โ€ delves, only at your own risk!

And it rocks sublimely, is risquรฉ and unearthly; nothing Monster Mash about it! Here’s their Linktree, and Bandcamp page, Spotify too. If you pop it on your pumpkin playlist, you’ll be grateful I told you and hopefully fill my bucket with Haribo!

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LilyPetals Debut EP

One of many young indie bands which impressed me at Bradford Roots Festival, and proof thereโ€™s more than the name suggests at The Wiltshire Musicโ€ฆ

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Chippenham Musicians Gather For El Toro Fundraising Gig at the Old Tavern

The end of autumn shows no signs of preventing there being lots of events locally. We move into November still with a packed event calendar, do check it out. One good way to kick the month into action is a fundraiser at the Old Road Tavern in Chippenham, the first Saturday of November, (2nd.) Itโ€™s raising funds for the townโ€™s El Toro Music Shop which was destroyed by fire damage in Julyโ€ฆ..

Owner Henry Ray reported his music shop had to be closed until further notice in July when fire from a neighbouring property caused a significant loss of products and damage to the building. El Toro was a much loved music store and was an invaluable asset to local musicians. While Henry continues to provide guitar lessons, from a temporary location, he has also had to take on temporary work to cover himself, due to not having fire insurance.

Henry has been fundraising with a new plan to move forward with rebuilding the shop, albeit it may be smaller, but incorporating other products and services to generate maximum footfall. He looks towards the possibility of a partnership, allowing music instruments and accessories to be aligned with anotherโ€™s existing business.

It makes sense Chippenhamโ€™s music community would get behind the project, and the venue will be split into two stages to accompany all those willing to provide a great day of music. I believe much of the organisation for the fundraiser has been done by Harmony Asia, who headlines the pub stage, whilst at the Barn stage the owner of the shop, makes a guest appearance with his band, also aptly named El Toro.

The fun begins at 6pm, with Ben & The Cowboy in the Barn, half hour later music begins in the pub with Chris Tucker. Then the pub venue has DD, and Sharpie, headed by Harmony. The Barn has a solo set by Will Lawton, Meg, and Mac Lloyd. A few names Iโ€™m aware of and all of which I highly recommend, and some acts Iโ€™ve yet to cross off my must-see list, particularly Harmony herself.

Harmony Asia

Tickets are a tenner, from HERE, all proceeds go towards El Toro and bringing back a vital service of music products to Chippenham. If you cannot make it but would still like to donate, there’s a Go Fund Me page HERE.

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter Meg said, โ€œit’s great to be part of an amazing community,โ€ and itโ€™s a sentiment which illustrates how this event will be played out, with a real sense of community spirit; and those are the best kinda gigs! We wish Henry all the very best with his fundraising efforts.

Meg

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Should we be Concerned Over Wiltshire Councilโ€™s Refusal to Engage with Melksham News?

The simple answer is yes, very concerned. Following the publication of an article in Melksham Newsโ€™s last issue questioning the councilโ€™s public notice policy, Wiltshire Council has refused to engage with Melksham News, effectively censoring the newspaper. This disgraceful decision could undermine local press freedom, accountability and local democracyโ€ฆ..ย 

Melksham News, part of the Wiltshire Publications Group, has served their community with integrity, providing factual reporting and holding public institutions accountable for over forty years. However, when recently it reported on criticism of the council for its policy of only using paid-for newspapers to advertise public notices, including the concerns raised by some councillors and the local MP after a motion to debate the issue was denied, Wiltshire Council halted all communications with the newspaper, declining to send press releases or respond to any enquiries. Is this Wiltshire, or North Korea?!

Melksham News claims it has received written confirmation from Wiltshire Council stating they do not feel able to engage with the publication. In a statement from Wiltshire Publications on behalf of Melksham News, they stated, “We are aware of a statement from Cllr Richard Clewer, leader of Wiltshire Council, in the press that raises concerns about our reporting and our supposed ‘campaign’ against Wiltshire Council.โ€

โ€œIn his statement, Cllr Clewer accuses Wiltshire Publications of running an ongoing campaign over the past two years to pressure the council into advertising statutory notices with us. He also claims that we have continued to present a negative narrative because the council has chosen not to advertise with us.โ€

โ€œWe feel these accusations are inaccurate and misrepresent our intentions. We have written only one article on the matter of public notices, published in our issue on 10th October. This followed the council chairโ€™s decision not to consider a motion from Cllr Jon Hubbard. We categorically deny the claims of an ongoing campaign lasting over two years. The issue of public notices was first raised with the council in September 2023, and we have published only this one article on the subject since then. To characterise this as an ongoing campaign is both misleading and unfounded.โ€

โ€œThe matter of public notice policy concerns taxpayers’ money and public access to information. Our role is to ensure that the public is well-informed, especially on issues of transparency and public spending. Any suggestion that we are highlighting these issues for personal gain is not only inaccurate but entirely inappropriate.โ€

The statement from Melksham News continues, claiming Cllr Clewer stated their reporting has not been impartial. โ€œIt is unfair to accuse us of impartiality based on a single article, especially one that was grounded in data obtained via Freedom of Information requests and included a response from the council,โ€ they said. โ€œWe do not feel it is the role of a statutory body to judge our editorial decisions. Editorial independence is essential to a free press, and it allows us to hold public institutions accountable. Our responsibility is to the public and presenting information based on fact. By refusing to engage with local media over a single article, the councilโ€™s actions undermine the principles of press freedom and open dialogue, which are essential to ensuring accountability and transparency in public institutions.โ€

Melksham News stated it stands by their reporting, remaining committed, โ€œto informing our readers in an accurate and fair manner, ensuring that the community has access to the information it needs to hold its elected officials to account.โ€ And here at Devizine, we stand by them too, believing we all should. On the last few occasions weโ€™ve published anything about Wiltshire Council it was in support of their recent actions; the extension of the bus timetables, permission for a graffiti wall in Melksham; all pragmatic motions which proves when the council get it right it will be reported positively, even by us!! It is a shame then, to have to spoil the run with this, but silencing constructive criticism is deeply concerning to democracy.

In the midst of the past governmentโ€™s โ€˜circus of thievery,โ€™ we are surely all aware of press corruption, undermining press freedom at Conservative conferences and refusing entry to them, and the manipulation of the media to promote their ethos and obliterate opposing opinions. Most of us studied modern history and what happened in 1920’s Germany, don’t make me spell it out. And weโ€™ve even seen this on a local level via unscrupulous control of social media groups by power-tripping councillors, but weโ€™ve yet to realise this is happening to official media groups channelled by the county council, until now.

The shocking fact one lone keyboard warriorโ€™s comment on Melksham Newsโ€™ original Facebook post ludicrously pointed the finger at Prime Minister Keir Starmer, suggesting, โ€œthey are doing what Kier Starmer has told them to do as he doesn’t want the truth coming out so he is censoring all news and negative comments and newspapers telling the truth,โ€ is proof enough, I believe, of how deeply the effect of misinformation is ingrained into forming public opinion and causing hysteria with a false narrative; that an a better education system!

How anyone could link this issue with the new Labour government when thereโ€™s not a red tie in sight at Wiltshire Council is beyond belief. It retains a Conservative majority and the leader of Wiltshire Council, Richard Clewer, the councillor enforcing this infringement of the common law of freedom of expression is a Conservative too. Yet it is worrying evidence that we need a rebalance in media bias; people believe this shit!! Hey, I stubbed my toe on the wheel of my sofa this morning. It’s blatantly obvious what’s happened here; Keir Starmer broke into my house, and moved my sofa a quarter of an inch to the left! 

I shouldnโ€™t joke, this would be propaganda on an Orwellian level if it wasnโ€™t laughably from a Council boasting being named as the seventh-best council in England in the latest IMPOWER Index, judged by how efficiently it delivers core services in relation to their budgets, as I dangerously bounce over the umpteenth pothole pondering if I should follow up on bias and braggart press releases like this! Someone needs to inform Cllr Clewer we have only left the European Union, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights still stands in British law, giving us the right to freedom of expression. A right I will exercise, cheers me dears!

The newspaperโ€™s operations manager, Joe McCann said, โ€œlocal newspapers like ours are essential for holding public bodies to account and ensuring transparency in local government. By cutting off communication, the council is evading scrutiny and potentially controlling the flow of information, which is not just a concern for us as journalists but for the public as well.โ€ Melksham Newsโ€™s statement suggests similar; โ€œThis sets a dangerous precedent, where councils can silence critical voices instead of addressing legitimate concerns, ultimately undermining local democracy. This is an unprecedented move for a local council.โ€

Wiltshire Councillor Jon Hubbard, who represents Melksham South ward said, โ€œI am deeply concerned and disappointed by the recent correspondence sent to Melksham Independent News, stating that Wiltshire Council will no longer correspond with the newspaper until they approve of the coverage provided. This kind of stance sets a dangerous precedent and threatens the principles of a free and independent press, which plays a vital role in holding local government to account. I sincerely hope that this decision is not politically motivated, as it would undermine the trust between the council and the residents it serves.โ€

โ€œThe press should never be expected to tailor their coverage to meet the approval of those in powerโ€”it is their duty to provide fair and accurate reporting to the community. I call on Wiltshire Council to explain why such a step has been deemed necessary and to reaffirm its commitment to transparency, openness, and constructive engagement with all media outlets. Our community deserves nothing less.โ€

Emma Meese, director at the Independent Community News Network (ICNN), who represents the independent press community, added, โ€œThe role of a journalist has always been to scrutinise and provide news that is in the public interest. It is concerning when a local authority decides it will not engage with the largest news provider in the area, for calling it out on its actions. We have to question the motive behind this decision by Wiltshire Council to try and control the narrative.โ€

Allow me then to speculate, we are, quite simply, face-to-face with a county council desperately clinging onto a dying Conservative philosophy and running scared till the point it fears constructive criticism. Yet by attempting to silence it makes the dangerous assumption we are foolish enough not to conclude from this that theyโ€™ve something to hide, and are doing so via manipulation of the media. Either that, or they really did send Keir Starmer to stealthily shift my sofa quarter of an inch to the right causing me to be unnecessarily tetchy this afternoon. Now, excuse me while I go shout at some Gen Zers vaping in the park like the level-headed indoctrinated boomer the mainstream media has convinced me to be!!!

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