Category: talks

Things to Do During Halloween Half Term

The spookiest of half terms is nearly upon us again; kids excited, parents not quite so much! But hey, as well as Halloween, here’s what family fun and activities we’ve found locally to pass the time, save on Haribo and prevent wine 0’clock overloading…..

There’s a list of pumpkin patches at the end! What more do you want?!

Have a fangtastic 🎃 fortnight, and oh, and come back to spook this list again soon, as I’m sure more will be added!

Wed 15th

Okay, let’s kick off early, Wednesday 15th, school gates still open, but St Thomas’ Church Trowbridge has a Brownie Trail session from 6:45, find the link below…..

Brownie Trial Session

Rag and Bone Arts CIC‘s recurring event in Chippenham for ages 12+.
You can do art and design or acting improvisation, delivered in 10 week blocks. Taught by professional actor Rebecca Osborne, learn how to think on your feet, respond and listen and make up scenes using just your brilliant mind and spontaneous ideas.

https://onechippenham.org.uk/event/youth-acting-improvisation/2025-10-15/
Youth Art & Design

Pete Firman: Tricks & Giggles @ The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

With over 4.5 million social media followers and countless TV appearances under his belt, Pete Firman is the UK’s top comic magician. Join him for an evening of ‘Tricks & Giggles’, as Pete brings his trademark blend of magic and comedy from the small screen to stages around the UK with this brand-new show. Expect impossible feats, sleight of hand and big laughs from one of magic’s most exciting performers! As seen on Amazon’s Good Omens, ITV1’s Tonight at the London Palladium and The Next Great Magician, BBC1’s The John Bishop Show and The Sarah Millican Television Programme. He’s probably also popped up on your social media feeds with his mind-boggling and regularly viral magic videos. Age restriction: 11+.

Fri 17th

Rock the Tots: Spooky Fun@ The Rondo Theatre, Bath

Steph & Craig Mitchell presents a spooky and ghouly edition of their Gigs for little ones… and their grown-ups!

We’re edging closer to Halloween, and Steph & Craig are back with all things spooky and ghouly! Don’t worry – nothing too scary for the babies and Littles… or grown-ups for that matter! But there will be some seasonal bangers – think Monster Mash, Ghostbusters and The Cranberries to name a few.

Get into the mood and come in spooky fancy dress. Who ya gonna call? Rock The Tots!

Sessions are approximately 1 hour long, without an interval.
Suitable for children aged 0-6, and their adults. Under 1s go free!

Journey to the Centre of the Earth @ Pound Arts, Corsham

Standard: £15

Lamphouse Theatre presents … Journey to the Centre of the Earth!

Take a break Rick Wakeman, back to your trailer Brendan Fraser, watch and learn Jules Verne, Lamphouse are going on a journey all the way to the centre of the Earth! Two intrepid explorers, one impossible mission (featuring at least one joke about a big hole), and no special effects budget whatsoever. What could possibly go wrong?

From the makers of War of the Worlds (On a Budget) and Frankenstein (On a Budget) this new comedy take on Jules Verne’s classic novel will be one epic night out, full of belly laughs, brand new music and really impressive* dinosaurs.

Featuring Tom Fox and Becky Owen-Fisher, the familiar faces behind the On a Budget series, Journey to the Centre of the Earth will be another fan favourite. Expect silly jokes, catchy tunes, ridiculous costumes and lots and lots of cardboard.

*not actually that impressive

Suitable for 10+

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Sat 18th

Devizes Halloween Bingo

Come along to the 1st Devizes Halloween Bingo for an afternoon full of treats and spooky fun at 1st Devizes scout hall 29 Southbroom Rd Devizes SN10 5AD. Eyes down 4pm–6pm. Bingo games for everyone. Fancy dress – come in your best Halloween costume! Prizes & goodie bags. Yummy food and refreshments. Raffle with lots of surprises. The perfect way to enjoy Halloween with the whole family!

It’s Trowbridge Carnival, see the link below for details!

Trowbridge Carnival

Brick Creative Club with Trowbridge Library

A recurring feature for Trowbridge Library, for all those little builders.

Brick Creative Club with Trowbridge Library

Sun 19th

Storytime: The Dinosaur That Pooped A Monster!

Join Waterstones, 29 Borough Parade, Chippenham SN15 3WL for their Sunday afternoon storytime where they will be reading the slimy ‘The Dinosaur That Pooped A Monster’ by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter. All are welcome.

Mon 20th

Rock the Tots: Spooky Fun @ Pound Arts, Corsham

Steph & Craig Mitchell presents a spooky and ghouly edition of their Gigs for little ones… and their grown-ups!

We’re edging closer to Halloween, and Steph & Craig are back with all things spooky and ghouly! Don’t worry – nothing too scary for the babies and Littles… or grown-ups for that matter! But there will be some seasonal bangers – think Monster Mash, Ghostbusters and The Cranberries to name a few.

Get into the mood and come in spooky fancy dress. Who ya gonna call? Rock The Tots!

Sessions are approximately 1 hour long, without an interval.
Suitable for children aged 0-6, and their adults. Under 1s go free!

Rock The Tots: Spooky Fun

Tues 21st

Online 1 Year GCSE Food and Nutrition Courses

GCSE Food and Nutrition

Know Your Chalk Horse!

Our friendly historian Brian Edwards has a talk on white horses in Pewsey. I’m not sure how family-friendly this will be, but budding historians might find it of interest.

(-25th) Blood Brothers@ The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

Running until Saturday 25th. Written by Willy Russell, the legendary Blood Brothers tells the captivating and moving tale of twins who, separated at birth, grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with fateful consequences. Few musicals have received quite such acclaim as the multi-award winning Blood Brothers. The production ran for more than 10,000 performances in London’s West End, one of only five musicals ever to achieve that milestone. It has been affectionately christened the ‘Standing Ovation Musical’, as inevitably it “brings the audience cheering to its feet and roaring its approval” (The Daily Mail). The superb score includes Bright New Day, Marilyn Monroe and the emotionally charged hit Tell Me It’s Not True. Age Guidance: 12+

Wed 22nd

(-25th Oct) SIX: Teen Edition@ The Rondo Theatre, Bath

Wed 22 – Sat 25 Oct • 3pm & 7:30pm • Admission £15 • Community Theatre

By Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss
Presented by Merriman Productions

His-story’s about to get overthrown… again! Back by popular demand, Merriman Productions present SIX: TEEN EDITION; a full-length adaptation of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ international phenomenon SIX, modified for performance by teen actors for family audiences.

Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. From Tudor Queens to Pop Icons, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a euphoric celebration of 21st-century girl power! This new original musical is the global sensation that everyone is losing their head over.

Thurs 23rd

Kid’s Spooky Half Term Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

All children must be accompanied by one adult per child. If you have multiple adults coming (parents/grandparents), we kindly ask that they wait in the café for the workshop to finish.

Numbers are limited. Booking is essential and due to limited spaces please book early to avoid disappointment. Sessions are £9.50 per child. Refreshments will be available from our coffee shop to purchase. Our age recommendation for our Art Clubs is 3-11.

Fri 24th

Lunchbox Buddy is back in Devizes!

Devizes Ghost Walks – October 2025

I’m not sure how child-friendly John’s famous ghost walks are, bit if you dare!!

Kid’s Spooky Half Term Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

All children must be accompanied by one adult per child. If you have multiple adults coming (parents/grandparents), we kindly ask that they wait in the café for the workshop to finish.

Numbers are limited. Booking is essential and due to limited spaces please book early to avoid disappointment. Sessions are £9.50 per child. Refreshments will be available from our coffee shop to purchase. Our age recommendation for our Art Clubs is 3-11.

North Bradley Pumpkin Trail 2025

North Bradley Pumpkin Trail 2025

Sat 25th

Autumn in the Park @ Hillworth Park, Devizes

Autumn in the Park | Sat 25th October

Our awesome Parks and Open Spaces crew is rolling out their tractors, electric vehicles, and cool machinery for you to explore – talk about a joyride!

This year, we’re joined by Arty Kids Pottery Painting, Crazy Cheeks face painting and Chloe’s Mobile Farm. And don’t forget to flex those brain muscles with our Halloween themed word search – go on a letter hunt around the park and see if you can conjure up the spooky words!

👻 Dress to impress in your Halloween finest! The Deputy Mayor will be on the lookout for the best costumes at 1:30pm right outside the Café – and there are prizes up for grabs in these categories:

Ages 6 and under

Ages 7-12

Ages 13+ (adults, unleash your inner ghoul!) 🧟‍♀️🕷

Come for the fun, stay for the spooky vibes – see you in the park!

Woodbridge Inn Halloween Fest, North Newnton

This October half term, The Woodbridge Inn is bringing the community together for a spooktacular celebration—and everyone’s invited!

📍 Dates:
🗓️ Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th October
🗓️ Thursday 30th & Friday 31st October
⏰ Fest opens at 12PM | Fun until 6PM

✨ What’s waiting for you:
🎃 Pumpkin Picking
🛍️ Craft & Produce Market – handmade gifts, bakes, jams, plants, sweets & more
🍰 Sweet & Cake Stalls
🎨 Arts & Crafts Activities
👻 Face Painting & Hair Braiding
🌭 Burgers, Hot Dogs & Autumn Eats
🔮 Fun Tarot Readings
🎶 Live Music & Autumn Vibes
🍺 Beer, Wine & Seasonal Sips from the Bar

Whether you’re here to shop, snack, sip, or simply soak up the spooky atmosphere, this is a celebration for all ages. We’re proud to support local businesses and bring our community together for a few days of festive fun.

The Parade Cinema Marlborough Family Halloween Trail 🎃

Our annual halloween trail makes it’s return on Saturday 25th October at The Parade Cinema Marlborough!

Each ticket purchase for Corpse Bride or Hotel Transylvania on the 25th October gives a child a free spot on our yearly Halloween Trail around Marlborough, open from 11am to 2:30pm. We expect the trail to take around 45 minutes to complete, so last entry for the trail will be 1:45pm.

Book your tickets now… if your dare! www.theparadecinema.com 📞 01672 646232 (Between 10am & 7pm)

Longleat Ghost Tours

This October Half Term, Ghost Tours are making a spooky return during Longleat’s Great British Autumn event. Longleat House was built between 1567 – 1580, and it is believed to still have people who featured in its history making their presence felt. Discover the supernatural stories as expert guides reveal the tale of Lady Louisa Carteret, known as the Grey Lady, who is said to still walk the corridors searching for her lover.

 https://www.longleat.co.uk/events/ghost-tours

Trowbridge Musical Theatre presents Robin Hood – A Pantomime Adventure!

Robin Hood – A Pantomime Adventure!
Brick Creative Club with Trowbridge Library
North Bradley Pumpkin Trail 2025

Kids’ Halloween Spooktacular @ Broadtown Brewery – Hop Chapel and Hop Gardens, Lydiard Tregoze

Bring the kids along to The Hop Chapel on Saturday 25th October from 1 – 3pm as we transform The Old Brewhouse into The Old BOO-house!!

🎃 We’ll have two whole hours full of Halloween fun, with pumpkin carving, ghoulish games and more (all treats no tricks, we promise – we don’t want to scare your little ones!)

👻 We’ll have a prizes up for grabs for the best pumpkin design, best pumpkin carving and the best dressed, so don’t forget your costumes!

https://allevents.in/lydiard-tregoze/kids%E2%80%99-halloween-spooktacular/200028572175743

The Three Little Vikings @ Salisbury Arts Centre

Presented by Wrongsemble. Salisbury Arts Centre. Tickets from £12 (£10 for children) Family show suitable for children 3-9 years olds.

October half term bug trail at Dyrham Park

from 25th Oct to 2nd Nov 2025, get out into the great outdoors this October half term for an insect-themed trail around the 270 acres of parkland. £2.50 per trail (normal admissions apply). Booking not required. Running 10am to 4pm, with last entry at 3pm.

Sun 26th

Robin Hood – A Pantomime Adventure!

Mon 27th

Half Term Chocolate Experience@ Hollychocs, Poulshot, Devizes

Autumn Half Term Chocolate Experience at Hollychocs
A cosy, hands-on chocolate-making adventure for grown-ups and children aged 5 & up to enjoy together

Looking for a fun and creative way to spend time with your child or grandchild this October? Our Autumn Half Term Chocolate Experience is the perfect school holiday activity—designed for adults and children aged 5 & up to enjoy side-by-side.

Hosted by The Southwest’s Chocolate Champion, Holly Garner, this joyful and cosy experience is all about making sweet memories together as the autumn chill sets in.

🍫 Start with a hot chocolate treat
Warm up with a choice from our Ultimate Hot Chocolate Menu—featuring 12 indulgent flavours to begin your chocolate-filled day.

🌍 Discover where chocolate comes from
Taste raw cocoa beans, sample our signature blends, and learn how chocolate is made—plus how we support small, ethical cocoa farms around the world.

👉🏻Make & decorate your own chocolates
Roll up your sleeves and create your own delicious chocolate treats to take home (if they don’t get eaten first!).

🎁 Enjoy a special shopping discount
Take home even more chocolatey joy with an exclusive Hollychocs discount on the day.

Rowdey Cow Halloween Festivities

Perfect for parents, grandparents and carers looking for something memorable to do with their children this autumn. Whether it’s bonding time, a school holiday treat or a special birthday surprise—this is time well (and sweetly) spent.

Join us at the Rowdey Cow for our halloween festivities 🕸🎃

Pick a pumpkin from its patch & come in to carve your spooky artwork!

🎃27th – 31st October

🎃9.30am – 11am

🎃£5 per pumpkin

***No need to book

The Farm Cookery School Halloween Holiday Club

4+ OCTOBER HOLIDAY CLUB – HALLOWEEN FUN
9+ OCTOBER HOLIDAY CLUB – HALLOWEEN FUN

Arty Pants in Sutton Veny

Lights Up, Sounds Down Days at the REME Museum

Join us for a more relaxed visit at the REME Museum during this special opening outside of our regular hours.

We have designed these ‘Lights Up, Sounds Down’ days to reduce sensory input for individuals who would prefer a quieter experience. These sessions are primarily for, though not limited to, anyone who has sensory processing disorder; autism; social, emotional or mental health needs; dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or any other sensory needs.

During these days we will have:

Lights On – our overhead gallery lighting will be turned on, without spotlights, to create a brighter environment in which to explore.
Sounds Down – we will reduce sound effects throughout the museum as much as possible by turning off most ‘surround sound’ interactives and reducing volumes.
Sensory maps – we have marked out any areas around the museum where you may find louder interactives or visual effects that we cannot turn off. This means you can choose your own route and avoid any areas as you wish.

If you would like to bring any sensory items (including but not limited to ear defenders, magnifying glass, book, squeezy toy) that will help you or your loved one to enjoy their experience better, please feel free to do so, just make sure you hold onto it and take it home with you!

Lights Up, Sounds Down – Quiet Opening

Wonder Gigs: Bigger Kids @ Pound Arts, Corsham

Child: £6 Adult: £6 Under 1s: FREE

Join Filskit Theatre for an uplifting and relaxing hour with a talented live musician playing beautiful acoustic versions of well-known folk, jazz and pop songs. Enjoyable for both big and small ears alike there’ll be beautiful, atmospheric sensory visuals perfect for even the youngest audience members. And, as it’s halt term, bigger kids are welcome too so bring them along for this hour of fun and sensory play for the whole family.

Wonder Gigs: Bigger Kids

Tues 28th

October Holiday Activities @ Wiltshire Museum Devizes

October Holiday Activities Lecture Hall  28th October 2025 10:30 am – 12:00 pm  10:30 am – 12:00 pmCome along to our spooky Halloween activities for ages 3 to 11: pebble skulls spooky ghosts paper pumpkins and puppets…

 Book OnlineOctober Holiday Activities Lecture Hall  28th October 2025 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm  1:30 pm – 3:00 pmCome along to our spooky Halloween activities for ages 3 to 11: pebble skulls spooky ghosts paper pumpkins and puppets.

Art Workshop in Rowde

On Tuesday morning, the 28th of October, from 9am to 12 noon, an Art Workshop takes place, at The Mind Tree Cafe in Rowde. It’s creative fun with collage and mixed media, hosted by Nancy Rose. It’s £30 for the session, and you must book in advance by emailing nancyrosehats@yahoo.com

This October Half Term, join us at the REME Museum for spooktacular STEM and crafts activities for all the family to enjoy.

https://www.rememuseum.org.uk/

‘Rocket Powered’ – Tuesday 28 October
Drop-in, Education Suite

Design and launch your own bottle rocket or air powered car, using the same principles of engineering in rocket science! Led by our Education Officer, Andrew.

Miniature Assault Course – Every day 28-31 October
Drop-in, outdoors

Take on our miniature army-style assault course! Race your way across the course or take your time and enjoy the challenge! Please note: This activity is weather dependent.

Princess Pirate @ Pound Arts, Corsham

Adult: £10 Child: £10 Under 2s: FREE

Pirate Princess is a heartwarming story of hope against adversity told with physical theatre, clowning and circus. This brand new solo show by circus performer and professional idiot Gemma Bond tells the tale of poor shipwrecked Princess Poppy. Can she overcome a big dress, extreme weather and the ultimate test of strength to see her way to safety?

Inspired by strong and inventive women of history, Poppy must transform physically and mentally if she is to have any hope of rescuing herself from eternity on an island in the ocean. The show encourages all to reuse, repurpose and recycle as Poppy reinvents her outfit and her mindset to overcome her predicament.

A visual feast of colourful costume and a unique crow’s nest on a pole prop, this is a fun filled show for children aged 5 to 11 and their families.

Princess Pirate

Wed 29th

October Holiday Activities @ Wiltshire Museum Devizes

Come along to our spooky Halloween activities for ages 3 to 11: pebble skulls spooky ghosts paper pumpkins and puppets…

+11 Holiday Club @ The Farm Cookery School

11+ HOLIDAY CLUB

Pumpkin Painting @ St Peter’s, Marlborough

Pumpkin Painting at St Peter’s

Pumpkins in the Park, Warminster

Pumpkins in the Park 2025

This October Half Term, join us at the REME Museum for spooktacular STEM and crafts activities for all the family to enjoy.

https://www.rememuseum.org.uk/

LEGO® Engineering – Wednesday 29 October
Pre-bookable sessions, Education Suite

Unleash your inner engineer and build a vehicle from LEGO® that will actually drive! Recommended for ages 7 and above.

Thurs 30th

Kid’s Spooky Half Term Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

All children must be accompanied by one adult per child. If you have multiple adults coming (parents/grandparents), we kindly ask that they wait in the café for the workshop to finish.

Numbers are limited. Booking is essential and due to limited spaces please book early to avoid disappointment. Sessions are £9.50 per child. Refreshments will be available from our coffee shop to purchase. Our age recommendation for our Art Clubs is 3-11.

The Sheep Ate Up The Fairies @ Trowbridge Museum

3 days of captivating talks, hands-on crafts & engaging activities start today!

The Sheep Ate Up The Fairies
Wonderful Wands and Quivering Quills – Neurodivergent/Quiet Session (ages 5+)

This October Half Term, join us at the REME Museum for spooktacular STEM and crafts activities for all the family to enjoy.

https://www.rememuseum.org.uk/

Meccano Makes – Thursday 30 October
Drop-in, Education Suite

Get hands-on with Meccano construction sets to engineer your own vehicle, equipment and more! Recommended for ages 7 and above.

Fri 31st

Kenavon Venture (Halloween Children)

Kenavon Venture

A one hour boat trip on Friday 31st October at 16:00 and 18:00 along the canal packed with fun and games for the children. Fancy dress welcome. 

Please Note:
Dogs are accepted at the discretion of the Skipper on the day who will check with other passengers first. Family tickets not available. 

Children must be accompanies by at least one adult.

Kenavon Venture is a wide beam boat, seating up to 38 passengers, operated by volunteers of the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust.
To book a private charter of this or any other trip, please send an enquiry via the main website.

Devizes Halloween Ghost Walk – October 2025

Cook Together with The Farm Cookery School

COOK TOGETHER (ADULT & CHILD) – HALLOWEEN

Halloween Disco at Trowbridge Civic Centre

Halloween Disco

This October Half Term, join us at the REME Museum for spooktacular STEM and crafts activities for all the family to enjoy.

https://www.rememuseum.org.uk/

‘Build a Tank’ Junk Modelling – Friday 31 October
Self-led, Creation Station

Come and create your own special REME-inspired vehicle to take away with you! Get creative and see what you can make from recycled materials. The only limit is your imagination!

Pumpkin Patches

Farmer Mark’s Pumpkin Patch

4.9(21) · Pumpkin patch

Marlborough”Lovely variety of pumpkins and gourds to pick, at very reasonable prices.”

Lotmead Pick Your Own

4.5(750) · Farm shop

Swindon

Closes soon ⋅ 5 pm · 01793 790137″Great small farm, we picked a good piece of pumpkin for Halloween.”

Pumpkin picking patch

5.0(10) · Farm shop

Chippenham

Closed ⋅ Opens 8:30 am Sat”We visited early this year and grabbed us a nice variety of pumpkins.”

A Parsons & Son Farming/Pumpkin Picking Patch

4.9(19) · Farm

Salisbury

Closed ⋅ Opens 9:30 am Sat · 07887 642801″Great valve and a massive selection of top quality pumpkins“

Easton Farm Pumpkin Patch

5.0(4) · Farm

Pewsey

Closed ⋅ Opens 10 am Sat · 07964 860741″Farm beef also available to purchase.”

V & P Collins Farm Shop

4.5(170) · Farm shop

Chippenham

Closes soon ⋅ 5 pm · 01380 850228″A great farm shop, they have a massive amount of pumpkins on off right now.”

Pomeroy Pumpkin Patch

5.0(6) · Pumpkin patch

Trowbridge

Closed ⋅ Opens 10 am Sat”Bring wellies!!”

Roves Farm

4.5(1.1K) · Tourist attraction

Swindon

Closes soon ⋅ 5 pm · 01793 763939″Entry fee was nearly &60 for 3 Adults and two toddlers.”

Allington Farm Shop

4.5(419) · Farm shop

Chippenham

Open ⋅ Closes 5:30 pm · 01249 658112″The kids get so excited it helps getting them up and out early!”

Ansty Farm Shop

4.5(186) · £1–10 · Coffee shop

Salisbury

Closed ⋅ Opens 10 am Wed · 01747 829072″Fun place to go with super friendly staff, loved the pumpkin picking.”

Pound Farm

4.7(82) · Farm shop

Chippenham

Closed ⋅ Opens 10 am Thu”My boys enjoyed picking out their own pumpkins.”

Bath Pumpkin Patch

4.4(63) · Farm

Bath

Closed ⋅ Opens 10 am Wed”… recommended well organised friendly good quality pumpkins“

Stourton Farm

4.4(7) · Farm

Trowbridge

01380 870484″Great excuse to pick up a dozen duck eggs.

Allington Farm

4.8(4) · Farm

Chippenham“Lush coffee and walnut cake!”

Pick of the Patch

5.0(7) · Pumpkin patch

Devizes

Temporarily closed · 07970 781828“A fabulous few hours picking pumpkins with kids.”

Swindon Branch of Your Party is Growing

Following the excitement and success of the first meeting of ‘Your Party’ in Swindon, a second meeting has been arranged for 18th September 7.30 – 9.30pm at Broadgreen Community Centre…..

Almost double the expected amount of people attended the first meeting. There was so much to discuss and the organisers ensured that everyone had an opportunity to share their thoughts. This resulted in the last session on the agenda being pushed over to the next meeting.

Ed Colton, one of the organisers said “We ran out of time because so many people had so much to say! For anyone who missed the first meeting, we’ll be giving a short presentation of what happened, what people’s main concerns were, and what local issues were most pressing. Then we’ll continue where we left off. This next session is all about filling roles, deciding on local actions and discovering the skills, experience and connections people have, to build ‘Your Party’ and become part of the landscape in our communities.”

At the first meeting, cards of welcome were signed for asylum seekers in Swindon, which were delivered the week after. This act of humanity, solidarity and friendship has prompted the group to organise a collection of sweets and fruit for them. Please bring a small gift along to the meeting if you are able.

Strange Days Festival Brings Brian Blessed and Henge to The Barge on HoneyStreet in September

With your standard festivals two-to-a-penny, some consisting of not much more than a bloke with a guitar in a pub selling undercooked and overpriced hotdogs, folk are hunting for the unique and often quirky exceptions. Accept The Barge at HoneyStreet always goes the extra mile as a fact. With camping and weekly events so good it’s like a little festival there most of the time, and their homemade HoneyFest still looming on our calendar this September one caught both my eyes and ears; it’s not just unique, it’s otherworldly…..

Our legendary and beloved Barge Inn, long considered a nexus for crop circles, cosmic curiosity, and canal-side wonder, will host the inaugural Strange Days Festival, a bold new gathering of curious minds, music, and mystery; intrigued huh?!

And leading the charge into the unknown? They’re truly blessed to have none other than the inimitable Brian Blessed, Britain’s booming-voiced national treasure. As a headline speaker on the Saturday afternoon, Blessed, known for his larger-than-life presence and deep fascination with both earthly and cosmic exploration, not to mention his own real-life cryptid investigations, is surely worth the ticket stub alone. If “Gordon’s alive,” let’s hope he’s not moored at the Barge in September!

“Strange Days Festival is a celebration of the unexplained, rooted in the Fortean tradition: a space where the strange is taken seriously, but not solemnly,” organiser Matt Page of Area 51 explained, and he should know. Area 51 Design provides world-class performances, costumed characters, and cutting edge themed decor to events worldwide, from Glastonbury to the Seychelles.

I had a gander at their Facebook page and was left in awe at their quality bizarre installations, pioneers in this art movement to create feasts for the eyes of festival-goers. But back to Strange Days, indeed.

There’s talks and panels on cryptozoology, folklore, the paranormal and other such shenanigans. This includes legendary underground cartoonist Hunt Emerson, an inspiration to me in my scribbling days of yore, cryptozoologist Richard Freeman, Ian Simmons, editor of Fortean Times, and various other podcasters, artists, authors and researchers.

The festival’s ethos invites attendees to question the world around them, with curiosity, critical thinking, and a sense of cosmic humour. But we’ve only just got started, for when day turns to night, the mystery turns to music. With an electrifying line-up of live bands, DJs and performance art, our interstellar heroes Henge headline. 

If you’ve not witnessed their high-energy, intergalactic spectacle before, what planet are you on? I trekked to The Cheese and Grain to investigate them, here’s my take on it, and the bonkers support I mentioned, Paddy Steer is also playing Strange Days. With their message of peace, rave, and galactic unity, Henge are the perfect sonic ambassadors for the spirit of Strange Days.

Plus, naturally, if QTV’s Quentin Smirhes and Comfrey aroused your unnatural senses and turned your head towards social distancing worm helmets during lockdown, you’ll be concerned Sean Reynard will be there, along with Calne’s Real Cheesemakers, with or without their tortoise.

“This isn’t a conspiracy circus or a sci-fi cosplay,” Matt promises. “It’s a space for real inquiry, meaningful discussion, and a very good time. We’re bringing together the serious and the surreal, the cerebral and the celebratory.” Okay I get that, but you know those human fans of Henge will bring the plasma ball hats anyway!!

If aliens are to visit us, this is surely the best weekend to do so. Therefore I’m going above and beyond our usual local network, calling all galactic lifeforms, space cadets and fortean fans, for this, on our doorstep, looks more like a porthole to another world rather than the typical half-baked efforts at a festie!

Strange Days Festival is at The Barge on HoneyStreet from 5th to 7th September 2025. Tickets and info HERE, or at your nearest interstellar space port, located near Alpha Centauri.

Trending….

Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward “E”) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy tunes…

Keep reading

Striking Photographic Portrait Exhibition Celebrates Five Years of Impactful Creative Work with Older People at Wiltshire Music Centre

If you’ve popped into Wiltshire Music Centre recently; for a concert, workshop, screening or even a meeting, you might have noticed changes in the foyer: recorded music, the cafe-bar open at peak times during the day, and currently, a striking photographic exhibition of black and white portraits…..

The ‘Men in Conversation’ exhibition presents portraits of members of the Trowbridge Creative Conversations Men’s Group, a creative arts and heritage group for men aged 65+ held in Trowbridge Library. Facilitated by professional artist practitioners, Creative Conversations sessions bring together isolated older people to share their experiences and creative ideas in a friendly and welcoming environment. So, when Stuart Brook, one of the members of the Trowbridge men’s group shared his interest in photography, it wasn’t surprising that it inspired the participants to take portraits of each other. The results were so impactful, uplifting and moving, that they’re now on display at Wiltshire Music Centre until the end of July, before moving to Trowbridge Library, all made possible by funding from The Trowbridge Town Trust.

The free-to-visit exhibition contributed to a Celebration event, marking the impact of the Celebrating Age Wiltshire partnership from 2020-2025. The event, attended by partners, funders, artists and community champions, showcased some of the many outcomes achieved through this project, funded by the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund. Artworks, as well as the exhibition included songs, spoken word, and art and heritage pieces, introduced by Creative Producer, Rebecca Seymour.

It was an opportunity for Wiltshire Music Centre to thank everyone that has contributed to this project to this point, including funders, The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, Wiltshire Council Area Boards, Town Councils, Wiltshire Community Foundation, Arts Council England and other Trusts and Foundations. Partners, Pound Arts, Wiltshire Creative, Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, AgeUK, Wiltshire Council and Libraries and Community First, Creative Producer Rebecca Seymour and our staff team, volunteers, community champions and community organisations past and present, and, of course, the sixty-five artists!

In August, Wiltshire Music Centre will hand over the leadership of this award-winning, county wide project to AgeUK Wiltshire, who will continue to reach isolated older people through creative arts and heritage events and workshop groups. We look forward to continuing to partner in this incredible project, as it continues to grow. 

More Information HERE

Trending….

For Now, Anyway; Gus White’s Debut Album

Featured Image: Barbora Mrazkova My apologies, for Marlborough’s singer-songwriter Gus White’s debut album For Now, Anyway has been sitting on the backburner, and it’s more…

Film maker, author and a future star of celebrity traitors, David Olusoga OBE comes to Frome…

This summer David is returning with a brand-new show “History’s Missing Chapters”, a show made to uncover why, throughout history, some people and events have been remembered and some have been completely forgotten.…

He’ll be taking examples from the world wars, the Industrial revolution and many other pivotal moments throughout history in an attempt to find history’s missing persons and to share them all with the world.

Olusoga is a big name in the media, he’s written or co-written eight books – one winning two awards – he’s often presenting and writing on the BBC show ‘A House Through Time’ and he writes for more newspapers than I can count on one hand amongst many other impressive achievements and projects, many of which I’m sure anyone reading this article would know.

And for anyone who likes reality TV, he’s also recently made the headlines after announcing that he’s set to be starring on Celebrity Traitors a little later this year.

In other words, he’s a big deal and I’ve heard this isn’t a talk to miss. His tour is taking him all across the UK this summer, but luckily, he’ll be down at the Cheese and Grain in Frome on the 4th of June (tickets can be found here – and grab them quick!).

Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex; Latest Fascinating Exhibition at Wiltshire Museum 

Stuffed my dinner, scanned the brief, headlonged out the door, forgot about the road diversion into the Market Place, made a u-turn, arrived at Wiltshire Museum only two minutes late for the preview evening to their latest exhibition, convincing myself it’s often more interesting to go in blind to what the show is all about anyway!

There’s graffitied skateboards in the exhibition, embroideries, an abstract canvas, a jester’s uniform, old ledgers, ships in bottles, straw sculptures, a video of Stonehenge at summer solstice, and many other fascinating items you’d be excused for misunderstanding how they all relate if the rooms was stripped of the information boards and the exhibition’s title, Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex.

The exhibition opens at Wiltshire Museum from today, Saturday 5th April and runs until Saturday 6th September 2025; plenty of time to pay it a visit, and I recommend you do. 

Fortunately for my ignorance, external curator Mellany Robinson of The Museum of British Folklore was on hand to provide a brief speech explaining the reasoning behind it. All the items on show here are bonded by one concept, that they “tell local, political, expected and entirely unexpected stories to reframe the rich heritage and vibrant present day folk cultures for modern audiences.” And as being folk culture, all the items are created by folk without the disciplines of their craft via official training or education.

Now I can relate! Although I don’t wish to discuss my short-lived art college days, my creative labours are all self-taught, save some advice from cartoonists and writers in my younger days. One piece in the exhibit in particular caught my fascination, as a punk-paste zine-maker of yesteryear; an amateurishly hand-drawn flyer for the 1979 Stonehenge Festival. I strongly suspect, whatever angle you come at this from, whether historian, antique dealer, or folk musician, counterculture artist, or possibly more simply, you hold a passing interest in the origins of local folklore, you will find many objects here on display to fascinate you.

I left feeling enlightened, and perhaps a smidgen abashed by the many things I didn’t know. A Hob-Nob is not biscuit, rather a horse-like costumed fellow in the Salisbury Giant, a midsummer procession first recorded in 1572, for example! I now understand why Great Wishford has Oak Apple Day, and what it means to proclaim, “Grovely, Grovely and all Grovely!”

A handcrafted Wiltshire sweetheart pin cushion made by a World War I veteran, a rare ship crafted entirely from straw linking to Poole’s maritime heritage, and a poignant portrait by a Nigerian artist created while seeking asylum in Swindon, are items the Museum hail are the highlights, but depending on your personal interests, I believe what will constitute the highlight will be open to interpretation, being such a timeless mixed bag of tricks held together only by this theme of folk art; I have plenty of musician friends of whom, I guess, would be fascinated by the instruments, artists who would love the artwork from a community project, and others who would cherish this Wessex folk calendar feel to the whole exhibit, from the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge to the May Day celebrations in Cerne Abbas.

Now I’m concerned by my overuse of the word “fascinating,” but the boot fits, that’s what it surprisingly is!   

Curator Mellany Robinson told how the The Museum of British Folklore doesn’t have a fixed venue, and it started because founder Simon Costin was, “passionate about what museums call intangible cultural heritage, the heritage of folklore which has historically been suppressed, and overlooked. So, when people die, their works get chucked, because it isn’t considered financial value, but it is of huge personal and historic value.” 

Simon Costin founded the The Museum of British Folklore by “buying an old caravan on Ebay in 2008, and travelled around the country for six months turning it into a museum, to test the response. And we need a Museum of British Folklore because we are one of the very few countries which doesn’t have one.”

This project, a collaboration with the Wessex Museum’s collections and the Museum of British Folklore, is more anti-museum than museum in the traditional sense. With many items by unknown creators and certainly all of them unprofessional, it’s more of a hobbit-hole of hidden treasures and curiosities.  

“We had to share what we thought of as folk culture because lots of people think certain things of folk culture,” Mellany explained, “but our definition is; something creative not necessarily tangible, produced by someone who doesn’t have formal training in that medium.” 

Again, we find Wiltshire Museum bucking the preconceived stereotypes of what constitutes traditional aspects of a museum exhibition, and we should consider ourselves lucky to have them on our doorstep here in Devizes, putting the “muse” in “museum!”

Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex opens today, and runs until Saturday 6th September. Summer Opening Times are from 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday. Entry to the exhibition is included in the admission ticket. Tickets cost from £8.50 (concessions available,) and it’s free for under 18s. Director of Wiltshire Museum David Dawson has an online talk introducing the new exhibition on the 8th April.

Do check the Museum’s website for there are many great events upcoming, including the Curious Kids workshops for ages 3-11 and the Museum Explorers Club for 5-7 year olds, lectures, walks and stone carving courses.

Trending……

One Of Us; New Single From Lady Nade

Featured Image by Giulia Spadafora Ooo, a handclap uncomplicated chorus is the hook in Lady Lade’s latest offering of soulful pop. It’s timelessly cool and…

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 “large unlicenced music…

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 DOCA’s Winter Festival, and…

Devizes Winter Festival This Friday and More!

Who’s ready for walking in the winter wonderland?! Devizes sets to magically transform into a winter wonderland this Friday when The Winter Festival and Lantern…

Swindon Palestine Solidarity’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 7.30-9pm…..

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. 

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 Friday’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: ‘I opened my eyes at sunrise, weariness gnawing at my mind and soul. Yesterday’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.’ (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.

Marlborough School of Languages to Hold Summer Fiesta

Pot pourri, Rodney, mange tout! If we’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 Tutors’ 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. Valérie 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 García Val from a town in Zaragoza, Nacho Panadero Carroceda from Vigo, newest member Ignacio Vargas online only from Cantabria, and the founder María González.

“After 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,” María explained, native Spaniard from Lugo, in the beautiful Galicia who has lived in the UK for twenty-five years, teaching at Marlborough’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.

María González

Maria said, “We 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.”

“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 £100 deposit HERE. The cost overall is £345 per person. Book now at: www.marlboroughsol.com

Contact Marlborough School of Languages at info@marlboroughsol.com or call 07940910821 for more information…. or información, con su permiso mi amigo… okay, there’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!

Tickets for Calne Music & Arts Festival on Sale Now

Running from the 4th to 13th October, The Calne Music & Arts Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary, and tickets for the varied events are on sale now….

Arts Festival President Carole Browne said, “in the year that we celebrate our 50th anniversary, our Patron, Dame Judith Weir, who was composer in residence at the 1975 festival, will be handing the baton to another prestigious composer, Brett Dean, who will take up the position in 2025.”

“We are indeed fortunate to have so many musicians and artists who have made their home in Calne. This is a year of many anniversaries. 40 years ago the iconic Harris factory, established in 1770, which dominated the centre of Calne and became its biggest employer,was demolished. Joseph Priestley ‘discovered’ oxygen in Calne 250 years ago. We will mark these anniversaries with special concerts and a community art project featuring over 500 pigs, painted and decorated and on view all over the town.”

“An exhibition in the Heritage Centre throughout October will catalogue, with brochures and press cuttings, the past 50 years as well as featuring a selection of chosen piglets.”

As usual there will also be the art exhibition at Marden House, presenting hundreds of pieces from beginners to internationally exhibiting artists from in and around Calne. The exhibit is open at various times throughout the festival.

Festival week starts with a free family day at Marden House, on Saturday 5th, with a 360-degree immersive Theatre Dome experience, Calne Samba Band, Clare’s Circus, a variety of activities by Calne Wordfest, Music and Art workshops throughout the day, an art treasure hunt, stilt walker and more.

Irish Soprano Michelle Sheridan Grant and Scottish Bass-Baritone Peter Grant bring you an eclectic musical evening, also on the 5th. A Gala concert which will be followed by tea, The Ridgeway Ensemble – ‘Walk in Beauty’ on Sunday. There’s also a free life drawing session, and Evensong at St Marys. 

Accomplished soloist, passionate chamber musician and repetiteur for Opera Ddraig, George Fradley will perform Beethoven’s Sonata Op.109, Chopin’s Ballade No 4 and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D Minor, on Monday 7th October. Also The ‘Major Minors’ is a community choir bringing together children from primary schools in Calne and surrounding villages under the direction of Bethan Fryer. They will be joined by Cherhill Youth Theatre and the school choir of Heddington school on Monday. There’s “drink & draw” sessions, and Calne Wordfest Writers’ group joins the celebration of Priestley 250.

Tuesday 8th sees Music Scholars of St. Mary’s School, Calne, then some banjo with the Leon Hunt Trio. Wednesday an Art Talk by Gail Brown and Isla String Quartet. Thursday,  Music Scholars of Marlborough College and world music with Eastern Strings and Nabra Trio. Friday 11th sees a clarinet recital with local clarinettist Simon Parker, Opera Anywhere’s Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience.

Saturday 12th sees Australian now Calne artists Brett Dean and Heather Betts in conversation with Genevieve Sioka, an evening of traditional Andalusian Guitar and Flamenco dance with Flamenco Loco, Calne Choral’s Cloud Messenger from Gustav Holst Gloria-Vivaldi, and a grand finale party!

The Calne Music & Arts Festival box office is open now, you can see the full program and book tickets from HERE.

What else is occurring, dudes?!

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Wiltshire Council Leader Weeps Over The Scrapping of the Stonehenge Tunnel!

Tory tears welled at County Hall this week, when Cllr Richard Clewer, leader of Wiltshire Council threw his teddies from his pram over the Government’s motion to cancel the A303 Stonehenge tunnel project, while The Stonehenge Alliance welcomed the announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to cancel the £2.5bn scheme as a “low value, unaffordable commitment.”

Clewer whimpered, “We are extremely dismayed and disappointed at the Government’s decision to cancel the A303 Stonehenge tunnel project. These improvements are needed now to ease traffic congestion on the A303 and reduce traffic in our communities, and also ensure economic growth in Wiltshire, unlocking jobs and investment in the wider south-west region.”

The Stonehenge Alliance alongside supporter-organisations such as Ancient Sacred Landscape Network, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Friends of the Earth, Rescue, the British Archaeological Trust, and Transport Action Network, believe the road should have been binned in 2020 when it was recommended for refusal, after a six month examination, for the damage it would cause to the World Heritage Site. The Examination Report, written by five planning inspectors, who presided over a six month examination, recommended that the application be refused.

Yet Cllr Richard Clewer continued, “It has taken many years of lobbying and working closely with partners, including National Highways, to bring this major infrastructure project to Wiltshire, and so it is a huge blow to get to the stage when construction is ready to begin, only to have this taken away from us at this late hour,” despite it seems these studies and a refusal from the High Court, the Conservative government at the time simply ignored them and continued to award contracts to construction companies regardless. So when the WC leader states, “There has already been £160m spent on this project, and cancelling it now wastes that huge investment,” who’s fault is that?! If I didn’t get planning permission to build a shed in my garden but paid a bloke to carry out the work anyway, I would bear the cost for my misjudgement, surely? It’s called acting responsibly!

John Adams, chair of the Stonehenge Alliance said, “This is a vindication of all the work of so many people over so many years from supporters around the world. National Highways’ misguided project was called out for what it was: low value and unaffordable. It was also highly damaging. Now that it has been scrapped, we need to move on. As soon as the budget is there, we need to ensure, as a priority, that local traffic is better managed and rail access to the South West improved.”

Tom Holland, historian and president of the Stonehenge Alliance, expressed his enthusiasm for the cancellation. “This is wonderful news,” he said. “This entire monstrous project, a proposal to drive a gash of concrete and tarmac through our most sacred prehistoric landscape, should never have got off the drawing board. That cancelling it will also save £2.5bn is obviously an additional perk.”

The councillor proposed the ‘monstrous project to drive a gash of concrete and tarmac through our most sacred prehistoric landscape,’ would “return the Stonehenge landscape to something like its original setting.”  

He’s certainly done his homework, young Dick, because it’s a lesser known fact the ancient Britons built a gurt concrete motorway tunnel underneath Stonehenge, and it even had a Little Chef. The Egyptians built a flyover over the Pyramid of Giza too, to ease 4th dynasty congestion in Cairo. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was just a multi-storey car park decorated with a few hanging baskets, and the Mohawks made a giant plug to plug up Niagara Falls, so their canoes could cross the sea five minutes quicker!

Its original setting is impossible to recreate now, unless you’re Dr Who, and it’s as close as it ever will be, with the mounting campaign to wreck it, which the councillor is promoting and cannot see the hypocrisy in his outburst! But to further the gibberish, Clewer finished this sentence with the unbelievable, “and allow local communities greater access to the ancient stones and the surrounding World Heritage Site.” Greater access, really? I beg to differ, it’s been fine for five thousand years, now, all of a sudden, it feels like they want to hide it, unless you cross their palms with silver; typical Tory all round.

They’ve already rerouted traffic on the upper road, so you cannot access it unless you cough up £37 for a ticket, and should the tunnel have been constructed you’d never know it was there at all. The next generation of locals would be like Tess of the d’Urbervilles, despite living close they’d be oblivious to its existence.

Face it, his last paragraph was simply a smokescreen, when really the focus of his whinge was more about reducing “rat-running in our communities, to reduce journey times to the wider south-west, to boost economic growth in Wiltshire, and to unlock jobs and investment across the region.” 

It may’ve eased congestion, but destruction of the environment to do so would have been certain. We risked losing our World Heritage Site, its status as such, the appeal to tourism, the capital this brings to the county, and its historical and sacred connotations, and let’s face it, for nothing more than to get Gareth and Diane from Shrewton to Andover five minutes earlier. And that’s the real truth about this vanity project, a complete disregard for our environment and the financial benefits obtained from it to small businesses relying on tourism, simply so colossal building contracts can be backhanded to Conservative donor bum chums.

There never was a thought given to the elephant in the room, that the area is littered with undiscovered sites of archaeological importance, which once discovered by digging there, potentially wrecking, would halt the process and massively increase the cost of the project, spiralling it billions over budget. It would have been a horrorshow for future generations to frown upon us and ask “what the hell were they thinking?”

The Stonehenge Alliance explains the original budget of £1.7bn is from around 2017 and is clearly out of date. In an answer to Danny Kruger MP’s Parliamentary question on the 12th March 2024, which admits that even in 2018, the construction cost was estimated to be £1.9bn with maintenance costs of £8m a year. With construction inflation being so high since then, it is likely that the combined total cost of the scheme is over £2.5bn and that’s before it runs into any difficulties tunnelling in phosphatic chalk.

Regardless of the facts, Cllr Richard Clewer concluded, “We will remain committed to this project and will continue to work closely with all stakeholders to try to bring this project back to Wiltshire.”

But who is the proverbial “We” here? The Wiltshire Council press release suggests all the councillors are behind Mr Clewer on this one. Rather I favoured to ask our shiny new MP, Brian Mathew, also on Wiltshire Council, a penny for his thoughts, not that I gave him a penny, but still he replied, “I have been against the Stonehenge Tunnel since I first heard about it in around 2009. I was the only Councillor to speak out against it in 2017 when I was first elected to Wiltshire Council.” 

When Rachel Reeves outlined her proposals to Parliament, she said Labour would not go ahead with the A303 Stonehenge scheme, but she didn’t say it was cancelled. However, in the published policy paper the scheme is listed as cancelled, therefore Clewer’s claims to remain committed to a project definitely cancelled is wasting time in office and even more taxpayer’s money; they failed to fix the existing roads from defects the size of moon craters for years, let alone engineer a project as technical as this!

It surely then serves as an example of how this immature response to the results of the general election in many of our Conservatives remaining in positions of power is simply going to hinder progress, and it’s time, now the deed is done in parliament, to eradicate this Conservative ethos which values the financial gain of multinational companies over that of smaller businesses and the aesthetics of our communities, across the board, once and for all.

Much less, we suffer from hairbrained vanity building schemes such as this, destroying our heritage, wildlife and tourist attractions just for the sake of easing congestion without the need for the drastic environmental measures necessary to be sustainable. It’s time to improve public transport in Wiltshire, so Gareth and Diane can get from Shrewton to Andover by choo-choo train. Get with the program, silly boy! 

A Chat with Melksham-Devizes Labour Candidate Kerry Postlewhite

Here comes another slice of tree through my letterbox, I receive two or three per day, all from the Conservatives; I love the overkill of desperation in the morning! This time, apparently, Keir Starmer wants me to vote Lib Dem, yesterday it he wanted me to vote Reform; just what does Keir Starmer want me to do?!

The answer to this cannot be found on a publicity pamphlet from his opposition, and the audacity of the author of it to assume we’re foolish enough to think that it could is an insult to our intelligence, and one damn good reason not to vote Conservative, amidst a kazillion others. No, I’m having a cuppa again, this time with our Labour candidate Kerry Postlewhite.

It was the chat I was most anxious about, as my belief as working class the Labour Party is the party for me, seems contradictory to modern assumption which sees our poorest voting blue, ignorant to how they’re shafting them, and this postulation there’s turmoil in Labour dividing them between the leftwing opinion of Corbyn and the middle-ground of Starmer. I questioned Kerry of the latter, but she denied such matter, assuring me, “I’m not sure the Labour Party is divided. I think it’s quite clear we’re all united behind Keir Starmer, our shadow cabinet and our programme for government. I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for a long time, and I think the sense of unity and the sense of purpose is strong this time because we know what the last fourteen years has meant to ordinary families, to working families, and it is our duty to unite. It isn’t about leaning into the left or right, it’s about leaning into where the British people are and the change they need right now. And I think that’s exactly where we are now.”

Oh dear, have even I succumbed to the propaganda machine of Tory cronies?!

“I think the results that two general elections showed you, that the programme the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn was offering to ordinary working people then was not the programme they were prepared to support.” I supposed she was right, even if I thought he was fab and groovy!!

You should note this interview took place before the hustings in Devizes, where the mighty clashed, and Noel’s camcorder flashed! Whilst I salute Noel and the organisers, I favour to chat, and get to know them on an individual basis, therefore while these transcripts are lengthy, they’re insightful and worth persevering with should you wish to really get an in-depth angle on who you’re voting for. And there’s the thing, Kerry instantly quashed my anxiety, and her charismatic persona made me feel I was gassing with an old friend.

We spoke casually for longer than the others because Kerry had ordered food to fuel her busy day on the campaign trail, and I waited for her to finish. She had sat downstairs for this, though I requested we move upstairs where it is quieter. Assisting her with her coat and clipboard broke the ice and stood us on an even level I only teetered on with Brian. Though he was professional till the end, and magnified the perfect host with interesting anecdotes, Kerry would do similar once we got down to business, such was skill in her demeanour to switch between expertise and friendliness. Clearly, Labour have not just posted any ol’ oddball into the job, to fill a lost cause in this historically Tory haven, and Labour is far from a helpless wounded animal as the opposition may have you believe.

It was something in informal chatting afterwards which really won it for me, wondering why Kerry didn’t bring this up before. We were dismissing this delusional, tarnishing with the same brush idea Gen Z were demonic hooligans, and I mentioned my view on lowering the voting age. Kerry delighted by informing me it was in Labour’s manifesto to lower it to sixteen. While it matters nothing to me personally, being in my fifties, I’m not such a grumpy old fart to be ignorant giving youth a say on how the country is managed is far fairer than not and sending them off for slave labour camouflaged as National Service. 

In our chat with Brian last Tuesday, I said if he could win this it would be as historical as the Battle of Roundway, being the last time the Conservatives lost this seat was to a Liberal in 1923, but if Kerry wins, it would be greater in significance, being no Labour candidate has ever won here.  I asked Kerry how she felt about the possibility, giving her multiple choices of extreme optimism, excitement, dread, or something else!

“I guess a mixture,” Kerry said. “How amazing would it be. It’s a new constituency, so it’s an opportunity for a fresh start and a new Member of Parliament. It will be an uphill fight, but we’ve been out, talking to people, and one of the things we are hearing repeatedly is people who have always voted Conservative and never done anything else here are not prepared to do it again because of everything that’s happened over the last fourteen years, the last five years in particular, I think.”

“So it’s up to us, I guess, to convince them they can place their trust in the Labour Party for the first time in this area, and that we are offering change in a way that is meaningful to them and their lives and their families, and it will be different from everything they’re now turning their backs on, so that is exciting. It’s also quite humbling, because we’re not in a situation where we’re able to take anything for granted. We do have to go out and really win those votes.”

“There was a report published yesterday, I think, which we’re talking about on the radio this morning, about general mistrust in politics. I think this is a real opportunity to win back that trust. It’s going to be a slow process, and people are going to have to see you walk the walk, not just talking the talk. And I think for me, a lot of it is genuinely listening to people and not making assumptions that everybody who lives in the Melksham and Devizes constituency is a Conservative, or thinks in one way, or votes in one way; genuinely listening to them, meeting them where they are and hearing their stories and experiences, and connecting those to politics, policies and the way forward.”

Kerry talked on a different approach to the current, thankfully, comparable to her ten years in the European Parliament, “where people with different political parties and political families, different beliefs must work together to make the best law; there isn’t an inbuilt majority, that’s the nature of the beast. You must find common ground and you have to work together to find the best solution, because it is divided by countries, languages and all sorts of different interests. I think that’s even more important here, in an area that traditionally has supported one party. It’s not about saying you’re different. We’re different. It’s about saying we find common ground and do politics differently.”

Modernising Westminster, “maturing it in a progressive way,” Kerry continued onto, transforming the House of Lords, ridding it of “archaic barriers, that literally put people on one side of the room and on the other side of the room, and chat to each other. I don’t think that’s how people want politics done. I think they want it done in a grownup mature and cooperative way; the way that we solve problems at work or in life, you know?”

“We work together to find solutions and I find that an exciting way of doing things. I’m excited by this, which isn’t a manifesto, this is my personal view. I’m really excited by some of the experiments which have happened with citizens assemblies, so bringing representative groups of people together in communities to find solutions to local problems and talk them out. How are we going to further the agricultural industry in our area, for example, how are we going to make sure this housing development works for us, the community, how are we going to mitigate climate change, and doing such together with representatives of the people is what excites me; a new way, I think, that fits in the never having had a Labour MP here. It’s how we could be in different scenarios, so let’s use that different scenario to do our politics differently.”

See? I like Kerry, surely even the most traditional locals cannot deny we’re overdue a change. I asked Kerry how she felt about the Devizes-Melksham Primary, and the strategically voting ideal they promote.

“I think maybe let’s separate the two things. The idea of the Devizes-Melksham Primary, I would always welcome active citizens who want to organise themselves, who want to get involved in local democracy and have a say over local democracy, that’s fantastic. We need more active citizens. So the concept of having an organisation like the Primary I think  is laudable. When it comes to strategically voting or tactically voting, I think people must vote in the way that they think is right for them, for their families and for their communities, and that should be the deciding factor.”

“Personally, I think there’s a strong case for looking at our electoral system, so people don’t have to make those decisions about what to do, So that every individual’s vote counts whatever the electoral geography. Because everything that has happened over the last fourteen years, because of the situation that this country is now in where nothing works, literally everything is broken and we have volunteers and communities like this one holding vital services together means it is a once in a generational election, and when it is a once in a generation election, you do have to vote with your head and your heart and put your cross in the box for the person and the party that you think is going to represent you best at Westminster. And play a part in shaping laws so that they work for small towns and rural communities and people here have a have a voice in shaping those laws, and, I think, that’s another reason why Westminster needs modernising. One of the things that I do professionally is work to influence laws, most recently in animal welfare, and it’s an arcane process at Westminster. It’s not transparent.”

I likened it to the bickering brawl of a school playground. Kerry referred to the pros and cons of having “the mother of all Parliaments,” and told me how she volunteered in Zambia for several years, comparing their government to ours for being stuck in the past,  exampling “the adversarial set of the building to the chanting at prime ministers questions, to the way in which bill committees work, for example, where only a number of amendments are accepted by the speaker, the committee reflects the proportions of Parliament and it’s therefore the Minister and the bill committee and the Government of the day that decides whether an amendment is accepted or not, goes through or not, to trooping through two lobbies to decide how you vote. I think there are a lot of things that could be done to modernise Parliament to make it more accessible to the electorate, to make it more transparent and more accountable and more fit for purpose.”

Never say never was the approach of the last Labour candidate Rachel’s hopes of winning here, and Kerry agreed.  “I think the thing that really stands out in in this election in this area, is we put our faith and we have always put our faith and our families have always put their faith in the Conservative Party but that has been abused, and we cannot, and will not do that again. I think I must demonstrate that the Labour Party will deliver for areas like this one and deserve those votes. One of the problems with strategic tactical voting issue is that, for me, it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So if people do that one time, they do it the next time, the next time, and they never then have the opportunity to allow themselves to change and vote for the other.”

Kerry was born in the North-East of England and moved to Trowbridge at primary school age. She studied in Yorkshire after living just over the border in Somerset , took a job in local government in London and worked in education. She moved to Brussels to work in the European Parliament, then went over to Zambia to volunteer with an NGO, coming back again to Radstock for family needs Kerry and her partner now live near  Ross-on-Wye but she has many family connections here. She talked about one of her earliest smelly memories of the Harris Bacon factory in Calne when she spent summer holidays with family there! I ask this question to all because Danny Kruger being hoisted in for the Conservatives never bode well with locals, and him never relocating here doubled it. I think people like to know the MP has local connections, and Kerry said that if she won the seat she would of course move here. But what of local policies? The health centre cropped up again.

Just as with Catherine and Brian, the failing of local health infrastructure, the closing of the hospital in Devizes, and improving the lack of facilities at the new health centre was high on their election pledges. “There did used to be A&E, and beds for the elderly, but all of that has now gone; you must make a journey to Chippenham, Swindon, or Bath and the time that takes, a difficult bus journey, particularly for older people and the cost too. The fact that if you are then hospitalised, you are a long way away from family and friends. So I think that would have to be a huge priority for me. And I’m quite excited by the fact the Labour Shadow Health Secretary was talking about community-based healthcare, be that physical health or mental healthcare, and I think this is a huge priority for this community, to make sure we have this kind of provision, that it’s more accessible, particularly for the elderly.”

Prime time to play devil’s advocate in line with the common criticisms of Labour, how do we how do we fund more money for the NHS? “The Labour Party has been clear that there are no plans to raise taxes for working people and that the money will be found in a range of ways. For our immediate priorities of cutting waiting lists, doubling cancer scanners, a dentistry recovery plan and the return of the family doctor we’re going to make sure that those with the broadest shoulders, non-doms for example, pay. We are going to stabilise and grow the economy to invest in public services.  So, for example, for Great British Energy, we will put in place a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies who’ve been looking at huge profits whilst our bills have been skyrocketing over the past years, so we can get clean power and lower bills. One of the things we’ve been clear about is that we’re talking about a decade of national renewal; none of these problems are going to be solved overnight because of the situation we’re inheriting, which economically is not great.”

 And education, I asked, which is where our chat will end, but progressed unofficially onto this voting age reduction I mentioned at the start. I put it to Kerry that the education system in the same place as the NHS, it needs an overview, a review.

“I think we need to do both, so we need to make sure that we’re retaining the teachers that we have, but one of the things that we have committed to in our first six steps is to introduce 6,500 new teachers, particularly in those subjects that currently are seeing insufficient numbers of teachers in those STEM subjects, for example, and hopefully the recruitment of those new teachers will help to support those existing teachers who currently are being spread too thinly. I think the other thing that is exciting is our commitment to broaden education the curriculum, so it’s fit for the 21st century, looking at some of those modern skills children need. Look also at the cultural industries, so the cultural industries are a major engine of economic growth in the UK, our curriculum needs to reflect those things.”

My annoyance flared with the current conservative system whereby schools are being run like businesses and I welcomed such a consultation, hoping to unify and implement a national system of equality in schools. But in this, a change in our methods in general, with Labour, will we be moving away from privatisation?

“We have committed to a new rail system, so when current franchises expire or if the companies are in breach of contract, we have said that they will now come into a new arm’s length public national rail body that will run our rail services in a way that works for passengers and taxpayers

I didn’t want to talk about poo in our rivers, fun as it might be, people were eating their lunch, but while it may be scatological subject of mirth, it’s also a nail in the coffin for Tories. Does this include water companies as well?

“So for water companies,” Kerry expressed, “it’s an outrage that they have been able to dump sewage in our waterways and jeopardise health and environment. The figures here are appalling. Under Labour, the situation will be, not paying bonuses to chiefs of water companies where it’s been shown that they have broken their terms and there is pollution going into our waterways. We will also strengthen the regulator and give it real teeth to fight back, on behalf of the public to make sure we clean up our rivers and our waterways.”

Kerry’s answers were defined by professionalism despite her capability of making you feel she was honest, earnest and pleasant. This doesn’t help my dilemma of where to put my cross, being Brian and Catherine I also liked. But one thing I’m certain of, a vote for either one of these candidates is a vote well spent. As for the strategic vote against the voting with your heart debate, I think it’s not so important now, because whichever way you decide, in either of these three candidates we will have a fine MP prepared to embrace honest and necessary change.

I thank Kerry for her valuable time to chat with me and wish her all the best in what could be an exciting, interesting and historic election, especially locally.

Our Chat with Brian Mathew of Lib Dems
Our Chat with Catherine Read of Green Party

Trending….

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

A Chat With Lib Dem Candidate for Melksham & Devizes, Brian Matthew

You know I’m a lady’s man but nestled between chats with Green Party candidate Catherine and our forthcoming one with Kerry of Labour, I’m with the Liberal Democrat candidate for Melksham-Devizes, Brian Mathew. So no flirting this time, straight political chat!

Obviously not as handsome as me, but Brian is one wise gent with a fascinating backstory, and he’s highly likely to be our MP! He can talk for England, but rather than Fishy Rishi’s desperately inane whimpering, everything he said warmed me to the idea of putting my cross in the yellow box. It was intelligent, reflective and held an air of compassion.

Fresh from a previous interview where he expressed their questions were rather standard, he was off waffling policies like a greyhound out of the trap before I even poured the milk into my tea! Imagine his surprise when I interjected, “so, question one; you’re going to win this, right?!”

“Well, it would be amazing if I did, wouldn’t it? Yeah!” was his response, perhaps wishing he’d gone on Newsnight instead. I didn’t waiver, continuing with the thought it would be as historical as the Battle of Roundway! Brian believed there was a previous Liberal who won; story checks out, albeit the last time Conservatives lost the original Devizes constituency it was to a Liberal called Eric MacFadyen, in 1923!

Clearly there’s work to be done, but after a few minutes I was convinced, Brian was the chap to do it, and he added the fact this was a new constituency. “I mean whereas in the past it was one Devizes and the hinterland to the East, now it’s the West, stretching all the way to Box and Colerne,” he said, “which is where I’m butcher councillor, down to Bradford-on-Avon, which is pretty solidly Lib Dem across to Melksham where we’ve won the last five town council elections, and then over to here and the Lavingtons.”

He discredited my suspicions it was a Tory strategic moving of the goalposts. “The Boundary Commission are independent, right? So their priority is to get every constituency in the UK to have the same number of people. You know, seventy-odd thousand. So that’s why they’ve done this shift.” But is Brian happy with it?

“I was to start with. Everyone was up in arms in Box, thinking ‘we don’t want to lose where we were.’ In that neck of the woods, of course, they see themselves as part of the Cotswolds, which they are, but now I’ve got selected, I’m rather enjoying this new constituency. In fact, I’ve never had so much fun in an election! Hope I’m allowed to say that?! But seriously, I’ve stood several times before; first in 2010, against Liam Fox in North Somerset.”

He continued, “after that I disappeared and went back to what I do for a living.” Brian is an engineer, and he told me about running Water Aid in Tanzania, “but they wanted someone to help with their programme in East Timor, so I went for a year and a half, and it was just delightful.”

A lengthy yet fascinating story he relayed, about putting in water schemes through the mountains with World Vision, their ongoing political struggles, their brief independence and invasion by Indonesia, and how he returned to see how the project had helped the mountain farmers there. “People would walk down into the valley,” he informed, “it was usually the children and mothers who would do this, and then walk all the back way up carrying water on their heads, which was usually filthy, and they’d end up with kids with diarrhoea and all kinds. We were putting in water supplies through the mountains to reach communities that had never had a tap before. And what was lovely was going back there six months later and talking with one of the farmers.”

If my intentions of these chats are informal, with a focus on the candidates rather than the national politics you can read anywhere, I hadn’t suspected such an engaging and inspiring background, and it confirmed Brian was altruistic and respectable. Ergo, towards the end of our chat, when I asked him for his thoughts on a ceasefire in Palestine, here was chap who knows oppression and genocide firsthand. As an undergraduate Brian took a year out, to research herb and spice production in Egypt and Israel, the latter he resided in. “A lot of the time I was based on a kibbutz close to Gaza, which was attacked on October the 7th last year. I knew the families and the children that were murdered.”

Moving onto local affairs, healthcare was at the forefront. Brian is on Wiltshire Council, “although we haven’t run Wiltshire Council because we’ve been the minority,” he expressed, “we’ve been the opposition, we’ve been the tail that wags the Tory dog. So we we’ve come up with promising ideas; that’s the day job! This morning I was in Colerne, trying to sort out the problems with the surgery. I’ve collected the last of the signatures for the petition and this is to save a surgery up there. The doctors have been getting less and less money, and the costs have been going up and up. So they’re now faced with the horrible prospect of having to close one of their surgeries. But to show how committed they are, they have foregone two months’ worth of salary. They’ve not taken the money to keep the surgeries open. Now this is wrong, and this is a big part of the manifesto pledge, helping rural surgeries, and this is a rural area.”

The facilities in both Melksham and Devizes are hot on every candidate’s agenda. “The Melksham hospital has been closed. It’s now certainly been turned into houses. In Melksham a hospital is still there, but essentially what it’s become is an outreach place for mental health services for Oxford. You’ve got a rather ridiculous situation where people are turning up at the hospital, sometimes with quite bad injuries and expect them to be treated and they there’s no one to help them. So what I would like to see is an injuries unit.” I’m going to throw in the ‘how do we fund it curveball!’

“Our manifesto means new spending around 28 billion on areas, health, education, housing, child poverty, and reversing cuts to the army and aid. So that’s what we want to do. And we said we would raise 28 billion through measures such as reversing the cuts to tax on banks. The banks have benefited the tune of something like 50 billion, right? We’re talking about four billion of that, please. But it’s not everything, taxing oil and gas firms, and that’s really to look at the issue of dealing with the changing way people deal with energy. So it’s a one-off tax on them.”

Brian also spoke of taxing social media. “Specifically we’d like to see a mental health expert in every school. Look at the harm that social media does to kids,” and frequent flyers too, “basically, to encourage people not to fly so much. And reforming capital gains tax.”

As with the Greens, eating the rich might force multinational companies to move away, I put to Brian, and thought it was tremendously conservative for me! He used a comparison to post Second World War relationships between employer and employee, and today’s. “The differential between them, was something like ten times. You look at the amount bosses are getting paid now and it’s just ridiculous. So you’re talking about thousands of times more than the people at the bottom; you know that’s all wrong. And when you’ve got a situation like that, it’s wrong for society. It’s not healthy. So I don’t have a problem with seeing that.”

I point out my socialist trait to my daughter, that there’s enough money to go around, it’s the unjust distribution of it. “Yeah,” Brian replied, “absolutely.” It was all going so well, then I put my foot in it with the B-word, and my teapot was empty! If we’ve become right and left-wing extremities, Brexit has driven the divide, and perhaps middle-road Liberal unity is what’s required. “Yeah,” Brian said, “there’s a lovely phrase which I really like, and that is when will people realise that the leftwing and the right-wing belong to the same bird? We are one society and can’t be divided. We have been divided, and then you mentioned Brexit, and what a horrible thing it was, you know, in terms of the way it’s absolutely driven a knife through the middle of us.”

Brexit stance surely divides Liberal from Conservative, and while there’s another far-right option with Reform, I’d consider dangerous, does Brian think they’ll take a certain number of Conservative voters? “On the issue of Conservative voters, what we are finding is a general disgust amongst people who traditionally always voted Conservative.” He highlighted the PPE scandal. “People were making hand over fist money within the government. Those things stick in the throat of decent people. And I think because of that, we’re now seeing a lot of Conservatives flipping to us, and they are doing it in the way that a smoker who gives up smoking becomes evangelical about it. It’s wonderful. It’s quite something to see!”

And Brexit? “We’re a pro-European party, right? We are Europeans whether we it or not, and that’s a fact. Personally, I think Brexit was a was a mistake, but it’s happened. It created horrible divisions in society, but we must work our way forward. Farmers now are faced with a situation where they can’t export to Europe. our manufacturers can’t export to Europe. Our food processors can’t export to Europe. That is just ridiculous. And at the same time, well, the government has kind of been allowing a lot of stuff from Europe to come through. And now they’re starting to tighten up. On that, we’re not with them. These are our friends, and we should be trading with them.”

Strategic voting to get the Tories out, we talked on next. Is every goal a goal to Brian, or does he prefer voters to vote with who they support?

“It’s not good for this country to have them there anymore,” he said of the ruling party. “But the only way for that to happen essentially, is for people to pull together in this constituency, that means you’ve got look at the whole of Wiltshire, right? Look where the Wiltshire councillors are. You’ve got three Labour councillors in Salisbury: that’s it. If Labour was so popular across the whole county, you’d find them all over the place, but you only find them in Salisbury, and of course in Swindon, which is in its own borough.”

Again, the idea of coalition felt alien. “The problem with coalitions generally, and you can see this right across Europe, is wherever you’ve got a big party and a small party, the small party is the one that gets the blame.” Dammit, I brought up Nick Clegg, now I’m never getting the next bus home!

“Totally. And we were destroyed. A lot depends on the amount of influence that we’ll have. If we managed to win enough seats and we form, if you like, the bridge between in the middle, then we might have something called confidence and supply, which means we will vote with the government when we agree with the government. And we will vote against them when we don’t agree. But it would also mean that we wouldn’t have any cabinet ministers. Then you’ve got collective responsibility, and then you end up with horrible battles going on within government. And apparently that’s what happened when we were in bed with the Tories. There were arguments every day.”

Trying to turn the tide back local, Brian told me about a project he was proud as a councillor to have achieved, called Shared Lives. “It’s adoption for adults,” he explained, “specifically for adult social care that could be for retired people, or people with learning difficulties. Adult social care is the one of the biggest things that we all spend our Council tax on. It’s not the roads, it’s not other things, it’s adult social care and indeed, social care for kids as well. That is a massive part of what Wiltshire Council does now. So the idea behind Shared Lives is that a couple of carers can take them into their home, and they get paid by the Council.”

Although Brian would and could talk politics in layman’s terms, and had a convincing argument in each case, it was throughout our chat I felt he favoured discussing these varied and often extreme projects and charity-based motions he both supported and actively engaged in. We rapped Universal Credit, how they’d like to see proportional representation, and how he didn’t think a PCC was needed, though he praised Wilkinson for targeting hair coursing. Housing, well, that’s another story.  

“What we’re saying is increasing new homes to 380,000 new homes a year and including in that is 150,000 social homes a year, through new garden cities and community LED developments. We’re talking about banning no fault evictions. Making three-year tenancies a default. And creating a National Register of licenced landlords. So we want to see where people do have a landlord. The landlord doesn’t treat them badly.” Young people getting on the ladder, right to buy, got us onto Margaret Thatcher, Pandora’s boxers!

Yet it was a surprisingly brief hurdle, Brian saying she “got” climate change, and thus I could swiftly move onto this. Brain wrote the motion which got Wiltshire Council to acknowledge the climate emergency. Against the sewage leakage scandal, he acknowledged but also praised Wessex Water for installation of “a massive tank system for example, brought from Maven. So that means that, when you’ve got heavy rainfall, when water is going into the sewer, it’s held in the tank before, and gets processed and then it goes into the river.”

He was up on environmental issues, had worked with Wilshire Climate Alliance, and even Extinction Rebellion, I even liked his take on education reform. Brian slipped on nothing, I could’ve thrown a banana skin under his loafers, and he’d probably glide around it telling me a story of how he once saved a jungle of monkeys from deforestation!

School trusts need a kick into touch, it’s ludicrous to even call them Trusts, and yet again, Brian had a supportive take on how to solve the issue, but not without mentioning, “when I worked in Zimbabwe, I remember visiting a school in the Eastern Highlands that was supported by German Stiftung, which was an Education Foundation……!!” I wondered when the last bus home was, but was kind of in awe of the guy, and found his stories relevant and fascinating. Brian has the experience and compassion to walk into an MP role like Heston Blumenthal could a job in McDonalds, it’s just a case of putting your faith in a middle-road party amidst the pandemonium of a divided country and a government corrupt to the core, which people here are still putting up posters for!

That said, I’m remain in a dilemma, and I’ve got Labour’s hopeful, Kerry Postlewhite to chat with next, which incidentally, I’ve already done, and I really liked her too; I’m such a suck-up! Still, a consensus of a “who do we vote for” Facebook debate on a rare freedom of expression Devizes group, suggested they were all the same “shit.” I beg to differ, now I’ve had the honour of chatting with them personally. A vote for either Brian, Kerry or Catherine is a vote well spent; deciding on which one is the trickiest part.

Trending……

Steatopygous go Septic

If you believe AI, TikTok and the rest of it all suppress Gen Z’s outlets to convey anger and rage, resulting in a generation of…

Keep reading

DOCA’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 to twenty…

Keep reading

Jol Rose’s Ragged Stories

There’s albums I’ll go in blind and either be pleasantly surprised, or not. Then there’s ones which I know I’m going to love before the…

Keep reading

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Discovering Antarctica: Heroic tales of Shackleton, Crean and Scott; at the Wharf Theatre for Devizes Arts Festival

John Winterton

For the first time in a great number of years the Wharf Theatre was host to a show in this year’s Devizes Arts Festival. Unlike a number of other shows in this year’s programme, this one was sold out, and quite early on, so did the good people of Devizes have prior knowledge of this show?

Aidan Dooley’s one-man show about discovering Antarctica from the perspective of Tom Crean are stories of adventures with both Scott and Shackleton, which if my basic recollection of history is anywhere near accurate, would be both a unique and fascinating tale.

On entering the theatre the sounds of the arctic winds were the only noise, and although initially sounding like sea, maybe both, along with the stage littered with all manner of items and clothing you may have needed for an expedition lit with a nighttime rich blue highlighted with a small warm glow, it set the scene for the upcoming tales. 

Aidan came onto the stage and with a rich Irish accent introduced us to Tom, and the apparel that any good arctic explorer would have with him at the turn of the last century. With a witty, chatty delivery you very quickly felt like Tom was talking as if either to an assembly of wide-eyed children or to a group of acquaintances in a local bar, sometimes more like one, then moving to the other.

You did, however, feel he was talking to you, telling you his story, letting you into his world of cold and wind. A world where crying with your head down is given away by the steam from your tears, a world where working with too many layers on would make you sweat only for it to freeze should you then stop working and cool down any. For those that went with him we were treated to stories about being left out of the five who would attempt to reach the South Pole because of a cough, a cough that was to prove fortuitous as those who did not go on were sent back along the supply route to the base camp, even if they did go slightly in the wrong way back resulting in a very well described ride on a sled down a hill, quite a steep hill at that. 

Aidan totally embodies Tom, so much so that you forget that they are not his stories that he is telling you. Stories that carried you through the hour and a half as if it was only a matter of minutes. I genuinely was lost in the story telling and would not have been surprised if on leaving the theatre we were feet deep in snow and surrounded by penguins.

An evening well spent and testament to the hard work obviously put into the research put into the script and the characterisation of Tom, by Aidan. 

A great find by the Devizes Arts Festival and well worthy of the full house. 

Trending….

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 onto…

Keep reading

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

A Chat With Green Party Candidate For Melksham-Devizes, Catherine Read

Over the coming weeks I’m having cuppas with candidates of the Melksham-Devizes constituency crazy enough to indulge my political ignorance and endure my inane waffling; it’s funnier this way! First under my spotlight is Catherine Read, standing for the Greens….

Bulked with other scoops the night before I was short of time to put in any research. Luckily Krishnan grilled Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay on Channel 4, which inspired! Steadfast in New Society I planned to be ruthless like Krishnan, but it turned out Catherine is such a friendly person I couldn’t bring myself to! At one point I whimpered I was playing Devil’s advocate, to which she replied, “oh, was you? I thought it was a perfectly reasonable question!”

Not the guts to be Paxman, I love the Greens, with their radically leftwing ideas and knitted jerseys, but fear their popularity is dwindled, not only by the misconception they’re a one trick pony, but also by those who, whilst accepting the importance of climate change, or not, might not sway so far left: truckloads of ‘em around ‘ere!

There’s an angle I must ask in line with the Melksham-Devizes Primary’s strategic voting idea, if Catherine understood the dilemma some feel a vote for a party lesser in popularity like the Greens is dividing the votes against Conservatives.

“I can understand why people might worry and why they might want to get the Conservatives out,” Catherine told me. “But from all polls across the country, we’re thinking it’s going to be a Labour government. I know here we’re a very conservative county, and even if Michelle Donelan did get in, she’s not in power. She’s just going to be a backbench MP with no influence at all. So what’s important is we get the votes to put pressure on who’s next in, to say, look, a lot of people voted Green because they are concerned about the environment, and that will send a message to the Labour government then as well.”

Story checks out nationally, according to the MRP the Greens are predicted to keep seats in Brighton, and Bristol Central, with 50% of the vote, and it shows Greens coming second in 46 Labour seats, which puts them in position to apply pressure on Labour. But this is not a Labour safe seat by any stretch of the imagination.

“I also think if you look at the percentage vote for the Greens it isn’t that high, where is that really going to make a difference? So I’m saying to everyone, vote for whichever party represents your values, because, you know the Conservatives aren’t going to be in, so this is your opportunity. And I would also ask; why vote for a different party which you don’t really like or want, and by doing that there is money attached to votes? I’m not sure whether a lot of people are aware of this. It’s called short money. What happens is it’s given to the opposition parties, and the amount they get is dependent on the amount of votes they get. Being optimistic here, if we get four Green MPs, we get money to help them through their parliamentary staff and produce policies. But that’s dependent on the amount of votes they get, so I would appeal to any Green voters not to give your vote and your money to a different party that you don’t agree with and try to support the Green Party.”

Catherine explained they were hopeful for at least four MPs in Parliament, mentioning Bristol and Brighton, but also Waveney Valley and one in Herefordshire. “I’m certain  Waveney Valley is between Greens and Conservative; they’re like us over there. It’s rural, and very farming,” she clarified. “I think what’s driving it is protecting the local environment and nature, and farming as well. The Greens stand up for farming.” Catherine continued to tell me about local butterfly camps and tree and hedge planting projects on Morgan’s Hill. “It’s great; you meet people out there and they’re not necessarily from the Green Party, just people who are concerned about their environment.”

And while inevitably the conversation will turn to national politics, I prioritise local issues and getting to know the candidates on a personal level.

Catherine has lived in Bromham for over twenty-five years and worked at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. Her only political background is parish council level, but hey, Liz Truss read philosophy, politics and economics at Merton College, Oxford, was the president of the Oxford University Liberal Democrats, and look how that panned out!

I take people at face-value, it’s not the party nor the policies, it’s the expression of excitement when Catherine told me about submitting her nomination papers the day before, “and our Chippenham candidates’ going today,” she furthered. “We cover three or four constituencies, and then there’s the other two of the South, West and Salisbury. I believe they’re putting up candidates across Wiltshire. It was the Green Party’s ambition, to stand candidates everywhere.”

Surely such excitement transfers to motivation, to perform an honest job? Though, I asked what I will ask them all; “in a sentence, why should we vote for you?”

 “I care about people, and I want to make people’s life better, basically. And I would put, climate change is what drives me to be in this position now.” Caring about people? A politician?! Now that’s a looney leftie concept beyond our fathoming around these sewage infested backwaters where we’d sooner just vote for the ‘circus of thieves’ with a blue rosette (enter winking emoji!) Yet the answer felt sincere, as everything Catherine said did. So we talked about her association with climate groups like Sustainable Devizes and Wiltshire Climate Alliance.

“They aren’t political at all, but I’m a member of them personally. They are great, they raise awareness and do good things. It’s good to be involved in your community to try and make it better, more sustainable,” Catherine said, enticing us to rap about the Sustainability Fair and pedestrianisation of the Market Place, Catherine said, “it doesn’t have to be a carpark, we can do something great with the space; that was the idea behind the fair.”  Leading me to waffle about the boater band Devil’s Doorstep who played, but it allowed us to roll the chat into cycling and public transport, as they came up from the canal on bicycles, somehow carrying their recycled washtub bass!

Obviously, Catherine, a keen cyclist herself, was keen to see environmental improvements such as a better public transport system, cycle lanes, et al, but she also talked on enhancements at Green Lane’s Health Centre. “I’m passionate about the NHS. Devizes had the hospital, that hospital was lovely, and convenient, so you didn’t have to travel too far, and I think everybody misses that. So they put in a replacement, the health centre. It’s an environmentally friendly building. It doesn’t have a lot of things that a hospital has. It doesn’t have A&E or any wards. You can’t do a walk in service. We don’t think it’s offering as much to people that it could. Because if you need minor injuries, you go to Chippenham. I think people like community hospitals, but we don’t have a good transport system. It’s not easy for people to get to these places. I think you need to bring it into the communities.”

This is not going the callous way I planned so I told a story about a neighbour of a customer of mine who, one spring morning when the temperature had dropped, suggested with a shiver it was cold, and jested, “so much for all that bloody global warming rubbish!” It’s alarming, his thinking being just because it’s colder today in his village, a pinprick on the world map, climate change is a hoax, not forgoing we don’t refer to it as global warming anymore, it’s climate change! It’s not such an uncommon jest, but my point was, if Greens want in, least be able to persuade government on environmental issues, how do we go about convincing people with this mentality, how do we get this guy onboard with a leftist philosophy he’s not going to warm to?  

“So they think what’s in it for him?” Catherine asked, talking environmental and social justice in one. “Obviously we want to reduce global heating or cooling because it’s overheating the planet. We want to reduce carbon, so maybe we put solar panels, insulate homes, because it reduces the amount of carbon energy they’re using. But that has a knock-on benefit for them, because they’re saving money, you know, they’re literally getting free electricity when the sun shines. If you insulate it, they’re going to get warmer homes as well.”

“It is strange,” Catherine replied to my rant about doughnuts who think it’s a hoax. “But when I’m trying to make things better anyway, so if somebody believes it was made-up, we’re only trying to make their life better. We’re trying to reduce the pollution and we’re trying to keep their homes, homes warm. They’re going to benefit from that. You know, we want to increase public transport too, and make it cheap.”

The Green Party are due to release their manifesto on the 14th of June, and like other party’s promises, it will bait the question how we will pay for these initiatives, the ones of the Greens being radical, like a national wage. With higher taxes? It seems the Greens think it’s all about eat the rich.

“A universal basic income, so everybody gets a set amount every year,” Catherine confirmed, “can help with poverty, because everyone’s getting an income, young people don’t even get the minimum wage. These things they will help everybody who’s really struggling now, and what they’re saying is, tax the wealthiest people. We’re not talking middle-class, we’re talking the top 1%, if that, you know, so it’s not going to affect us. This tax is just coming from those that can really afford it.”

I’m with this, there’s enough money to go around, it’s the unjust distribution of it, especially when it comes to taxes and the misuse of public spending. But common immediate reaction to the Green Party is they’re just going to whack our taxes up, and how do you convince folk otherwise?

“We’re not whacking up tax, we put tax on the richest people.” Catherine reaffirmed. “The reason we don’t seem to get services that work is, where does all that money go? That’s a question to be asked. We’ve paid our taxes. And like you say, the tax burden is the highest. But where has it all gone? And I think we’ve seen an example of why.” Catherine went onto example the PPE contract scandal during the pandemic. “It seems to me they don’t have any balances, any value for money, and we have the scandals with Lady Michelle Mone, and you know that I was quite upset and angry about all that, because that was our money. That should have gone into NHS services and protecting us, and it was an excuse to literally give away our money. It’s just not being put back into our public services. It’s being put into different things, and I think that’s the problem. I think that’s what needs to be addressed.”

And that’s where we are. While environmental issues should so obviously be top priority, though rarely are in other manifestos and folk’s day-to-day minds, and I vow never to be that spanner calling it all a hoax just because it’s a bit chilly today, I’m willing to consider the Greens and love what they say, but my fear their other policies are either vague or too radical for the majority will affect my vote being lost from the beloved ethos of getting the Tories out.

Lovely as our chat was, and interesting, it hasn’t helped my dilemma of what box to put my cross, it’s just reaffirmed my affection for the Green Party, and my prayers the others standing will have an eye on environmental issues too rather than just perfidious piffle; Lib Dem’s Brian Matthew is up next, we’ll see what he has to say on it!

The key, I think, is a coalition with Greens, to put the cat among the pigeons. But in the past election I found every time I mention coalitions to prospective MPs of yellow and red, they pull the expression of looking into the eyes of Medusa! Catherine though seemed keen on the idea, or at least to work with other parties. “I think they would work with the government on topics that we agreed we had common ground on.” Catherine said. “But I don’t think they would commit to supporting everything that the Labour government say, because obviously there’s differences. So I think where there’s overlap, yes, they probably would. But I can’t speak for the National Party, that’s just my opinion. I’m fairly new to politics. I think working with your community is what it’s about. I don’t think it’s about bashing heads all the time; it’s about just doing the best.”

It was a lovely chat, and I am thankful to Catherine Reed for her time; she’s an inspirational person, and as she said, if you’ve faith in the Greens, which you should, consider not giving your vote to someone you don’t fully agree with.

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Belinda Kirk @ Cheese Hall 11th June 2024

Right Out Of The Comfort Zone

by Andy Fawthrop

Following a lively few days of entertaining and varied events over this last weekend, we’re now into Devizes Arts Festival’s second week. 

I decided to trundle along to the Cheese Hall earlier this afternoon to find out what Belinda Kirk might have to say for herself.  Stuff about being adventurous, I’d heard.  I settled down into my seat and awaited a comfortable afternoon chat.  But an hour later things had changed somewhat.

Belinda Kirk is a world-record holding explorer, researcher and a leading campaigner promoting the benefits of “adventure” on wellbeing. She’s written the best-selling, award-nominated, book “Adventure Mind: Transform Your Wellbeing By Choosing Challenge”.  She’s led dozens of international expeditions, numerous youth development challenges, and pioneered inclusive adventures for people with disabilities. She established the Explorers Connect organisation and website in order to spread the word about the life-changing impact of adventure. She’s encouraged over 30,000 ordinary people to engage in transformational outdoor challenges. And most recently she’s faced her greatest challenge: to continue to live adventurously since becoming a parent.

Belinda spoke for about 45 minutes before hosting a Q&A session.  In her talk she emphasised that she was not just talking about “being in Nature” (the benefits of which are now well documented), but about engaging with the world in a much more vigorous way by taking up personal and/ or team challenges.  She was talking jungles, deserts, remote places, open seas, and I was just beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable.

Outlining how participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme as a sixteen year-old had been a complete sliding doors moment for her, she described how she got the bug to get “out there”.  Over the next few years she joined, and later led, several expeditions, worked for five or six years with that Big Softie Bear Grylls, worked as a diver for a year, and took part in a row-round-Britain challenge.  I was fully awake by now and starting to feel how exceptionally lazy I’ve been all my life.

She discovered how impactful it was to undertake both large and small adventures.  She saw with her own eyes time and time again how people of all ages found these challenges to be, literally, life-changing. And it was then that she began to research the psychology of what was actually going on here.  She described in great detail a major expedition she’d led to cross Nicaragua coast-to-coast with a group of severely disabled youngsters, including (incredibly to me) climbing to the summit of an active volcano.  And there were many other examples and stories too.  Much against my will, I was actually on the edge of my seat listening to this stuff.  And I wasn’t alone either – the rest of the packed audience seemed pretty enraptured too.  She’s an enthusiastic, energetic and very articulate speaker.

Belinda spoke of moving from your “comfort zone” to your “stretch zone” and heading towards your “panic zone”.  It sounded like jargon, but it wasn’t – I was definitely on the same page by now.  Pushing yourself has many benefits in enriching your life – giving yourself new skills and confidence, finding out what you’re really capable of, and (crucially) having some fun.   I’m having some of that!

She finished with a lively Q&A session, before signing copies of her book “Adventure Mind: Transform Your Wellbeing By Choosing Challenge”.  But I couldn’t wait around for that – I needed to get outside into my “stretch zone” to swim the K&A Canal, sort out the problems in The Crammer, and single-handedly remove all the traffic-lights across D-Town.  Then I might sit down with a well-deserved cup of tea and a biscuit.

A solidly entertaining afternoon, and another absolute gem from DAF.

You can find out more about Belinda’s adventuring at www.explorersconnect.com/

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 16th June at various venues around the town.  Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

Trending….

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Adam Rutherford @ Corn Exchange  5th June 2024

Andy Fawthrop

It’s All In The Genes

Today Devizes Arts Festival presentation took on a more serious and talkative tone with another marquee signing taking to the stage.  And it was another good audience with plenty of trade at the bar and at the merch desk.

Adam Rutherford is a geneticist, author and broadcaster who frequently appears on science programmes on both radio and TV. He presents Radio 4’s flagship programme Start the Week and was the host of Inside Science for eight years. His popular series The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry has been on air for a decade. He’s written extensively on race, genetics, evolution and trust in science. As an honorary senior research associate at University College London, he teaches courses on genetics and communication.  A self-confessed “science nerd” he’s a Professor of Evolutionary Genetics.

It’s a long time since I last attended a formal lecture, with a full Powerpoint deck to get through, but that’s what we got.  Taking station behind a pulpit-like lectern, Adam quickly went into professor mode and quickly taught us all a LOT about genetics, DNA, descent and the various trees of life.  It sounds slightly dry and boring, but it was very far from that, as he casually dropped in one amazing fact after another, along with amusing anecdotes, and debunked many myths about the whole business of human evolution and descent.

We were fed some lovely gobbets along the way, such as: it’s believed that 97% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are now extinct, that 2% of the DNA of all modern humans is Neanderthal and that Danny Dyer is not alone in being able to claim direct descent from Edward III, since the mathematical probability of anyone/ everyone being descended from that same monarch is 100%.

We learned that there’s a lot that we don’t know.  Ignorance begets (misplaced) confidence, and confidence begets a lot of (incorrect) speculation and theorising. “Popular science” has a lot to answer for, including the use of inappropriate comparisons, metaphors and illustrations.  There’s no such thing as genetic “progress” (in the sense of improvement), only continuing change.  Using a series of “trees” (tree of life, tree of human life, the family tree of Charles II of Spain, the tree of Charlemagne and the Who Do You Think You Are? tree), Adam progressively illustrated how many of our ideas and assumptions are often some way from the truth or scientific evidence.

There was plenty of amusement too.  The more complex theories and illustrations were summarised as “clusterfucks”.  The act of sexual congress became “a gene flow event”.  And multi-generational in-breeding was “sub-optimal”. 

The takeaways from all this were that this whole genetics and human descent issue is a lot more complex than we think it is, that racism and eugenics are concepts that defy any logic or evidence you apply to them, and that mathematics can teach us a lot about what’s really happening. We learned about the “isopoint”, where the entire population at a certain point/ date is the ancestor of the entire population of today.

It was half time and, boy, did everybody need a drink to think about all that lot.  It must have been inspiring, as the book-signing desk was overwhelmed with willing customers, and the second half (which consisted of a prolonged Q&A session) was fully engaged by fascinated punters.

Adam fielded a range of questions, despite some mic problems, including those on DNA Testing kits (largely a waste of time and money, and a rip-off monetisation of the world’s most valuable datafile), Artificial Intelligence (useful for data mining), and our African origins (we’re all African and 100% similar at the DNA level).

Like I said earlier, it sounds dry.  But it really wasn’t.  Despite the serious subject matter, it was informative and absolutely fascinating.  Adam is no comedian, but he does have a light touch, and just like on the radio, he was able to bring science very much to life, to engage his audience, and to leave everyone a little richer in understanding.  His passionate dismissal of racism and eugenics owes little to morality or emotion (although I was sure that was there too), but to simple cold-hearted scientific data, evidence and analysis.  That gets my vote every single time.

His new series will be on BBC Radio 4 Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics and his new book, out now Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics. More information on Adam is available at www.adamrutherford.com/

Another great night at the Arts Festival, and thanks (once again) to DAF for having the vision to bring these types of entertainment to our little town. 

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 16th June at various venues around the town.  Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

Trending….

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 wasn’t quite dying,…

Keep reading

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 Swindon…

Keep reading

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Dr. Phil Hammond @ Corn Exchange  3rd June 2024

by Andy Fawthrop

The Doctor Will See You Now!

Devizes Arts Festival has already got off to a storming start over this last weekend, with performances on Friday from Jolly Roger, Saturday from Lady Nade, and on Sunday from Adam Alexander and Eddy Allen. Some of these we’ve already reviewed here.

So now it’s rolled round to Monday, and it’s time to head out into the first mid-week dates, with a whole variety of stuff to choose from.  Last night, and first up of the spoken word big hitters, it was the turn of Dr. Phil Hammond at The Corn Exchange.

I wasn’t sure if was a comment on the current difficulty of getting a GP appointment, but Dr. Phil’s waiting room was pretty full, with people eagerly awaiting a consultation with the famous doctor.

Phil is an NHS doctor, journalist, broadcaster, speaker, campaigner and comedian. He currently works at the Bath RUH in a specialist NHS team for young people with long Covid.  Born in the NHS (a slogan emblazoned on his t-shirt, and frequently referenced throughput the set), and brought up in Australia (the Ozzie twang was unmistakeable), he worked in general practice for over twenty years, and has also worked in sexual health. A familiar voice on BBC Radio 4, he has also presented five series of “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” on BBC2, encouraging patients to be more involved, assertive and questioning. And finally (a major feather in his cap in my book) he’s also Private Eye’s medical correspondent, where he broke the story of the Bristol heart scandal in 1992.

Phil’s “surgery” consisted of two sets – “How To Fix The NHS”’ and “The Ins And Outs Of Pleasure”. 

The first half consisted of both commentary on the NHS, and Dr. Phil’s ideas on how it might be improved.  Using both his own and patient-generated ideas, the best of which was “force all MPs and Health Service professionals receive all their treatment in the worst-performing hospitals”, and plenty of enthusiastic audience participation, he addressed current issues in a positive light.  His key messages were “prevention rather than cure” (more investment needed upstream) and our individual responsibility for personal health.  His model, and mnemonic for the night was (of all things) CLANGERS, which provides daily prompts on healthy behaviour.  I might be making it sound a little dry, but it was very far from it.  He often had the audience in stitches (is this allowed? – Ed. Ed’s note; any passing tumbleweeds are your own responsibility, Andy!), with his “hierarchy of cricketing euphemisms” for death (“taken the short walk to the pavilion”), and a gob-smacking tale of “euthanasia by cling-film”. 

The delivery was fast, yet calm, with a take-no-prisoners attitude.  He was self-deprecating, often admitting to his own mistakes (predicting that Covid would cause less deaths than people falling down the stairs) and failures (pronouncing a patient to be dead, who subsequently turned out to be very much alive).  There were plenty of anecdotes from his times as a trainee and a junior whilst at Medical School, quite enough to shock the bejesus out of the audience.

If anything, the second half was even better.  Having posted a trigger warning that it would be quite a bit more graphic and near the bone, it did not disappoint.  “The Ins and Outs of Pleasure” did what it said on the tin, and addressed issues of sex, orgasms, masturbation and self-pleasuring.  The language was fruity and devoid of euphemism, and soon had the audience squirming with embarrassed nervous laughter.  Being a consummate professional performer, the doctor correctly “read the room” and sensing that he was perhaps pushing a Monday night audience in D-Town a little too far, very subtly applied the brakes to some of the tougher stuff.  Side-stepping his material via some more personal history, we were soon transitioned into the slightly safer territory of “consensual cannibalism”, the value of having a dog for good mental self-pleasuring, and the joy of “fuck-it Fridays”.  But there was still plenty of time on the side for useful medical advice on the use of cock-rings (get the ones with handles), and things not to put into human orifices.

The general prescription issued last night was for taking control of, and responsibility for, your own mental and physical health.  And my personal takeaway arrived almost at the end of the set– “laughter is the best medicine – unless you have syphilis, in which case penicillin is a better bet”.  Priceless.

A cracking night’s entertainment – informative, interesting, and absolutely hilarious.  Another great choice by DAF to bring such performing talent to our town.

If you’d like more info, you can find it at www.drphilhammond.com

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 16th June at various venues around the town. 

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk 

Trending…..

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?!  Didn’t that crazy toothless editor catch…

Keep reading

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Devizes Arts Festival Reveal Full Line-Up for 2024

After a larger quantity of social media teasers than previous years, Devizes Arts Festival has today revealed their full line-up for 2024. Better take a peaky sneaky gander at it, keep in their good books, because it looks rather special! Based on previous experience they usually range from pretty awesome to super-duper lights are gonna find me awesome…so here goes……

The festival runs from Friday 31st May to Sunday 16th June, and never fails to bring us a diverse programme of separate events within the arts, music and theatre, but also takes in talks and walks. Some come with a worthy price tag, but there’s lots of free fringe events also. All it takes is for you to support it.

I don’t know about you, but the first one I got excited about when I heard, was Bristol’s soulful indie-folk singer-songstress Lady Nade, who plays the Corn Exchange on Saturday 1st June. I put this Lady on my must-see list after fondly reviewing her album Willing back in 2021. I’ve not yet had the opportunity to see her live. Yet it is not for that reason I’m grateful to the Arts Festival for booking Lady Nade, rather in contemplation of the elevated sentimentality channelled through her Americana-fuelled songs.

I summed up the album at the time, with “written during the pandemic, there’s a secluded ambience echoing through these eleven sublime three-minute plus stories of friendship, love and loneliness lost and found, reflecting the fact it was recorded in multiple studios and engineered by all the musicians in isolation. Yet to hear it will hold you spellbound in a single place, till its conclusion.”

If that doesn’t tempt you I don’t know what will! But Lady Nade is not before a high-energy Penzance sea-punk grand opening to the festival, with Golden Gnome award winning Jolly Roger, at the Corn Exchange on Friday 31st May; blistering barnacles, Captain Haddock, that sure sounds like some swashbuckling shenanigans.

History of Market Lavington, anyone? Sunday 2nd has a festival walk, followed by the first two free fringe events, consummate story-teller Adam Alexander’s Seed Detective at The Peppermill from 2pm, and a solo loop pedal show with Eddy Allen, 7pm at the Cellar Bar.

Likely the best known name on the roster, comedian Lucy Porter comes to Devizes on Thursday 6th June, and I’m sure you’re all aware of her distinctive, bouncy, feel-good comedy from TV and radio panel shows, and being victorious on Celebrity Mastermind.

Lucy Porter

Prior to this headliner, NHS doctor, journalist, broadcaster, speaker, campaigner and comedian Dr Phil Hammond on Monday 3rd June presents ‘How to Fix the NHS’ and ‘The Ins and Outs of Pleasure…’ I’ve my own suggestions on the subject, don’t get me started, but maybe add Prime Minister to Phil’s already impressive résumé!

Wiltshire based multi‐instrumentalist, the Edward Cross Quintet at the Assembly Rooms on Tuesday 4th June. Liz Grand’s superb, funny, moving, sensitive and informative portrayal of Clementine Churchill, also on Tuesday at the Merchant Suite.

Wednesday 5th June sees English naturalist, ecologist, author and broadcaster Mike Dilger, known as the wildlife reporter on The One Show, doing a talk on One Thousand Shades of Green, his quest to find 1000 different British plants in a calendar year and assess how our flora is faring in modern Britain. Geneticist, author and broadcaster, Adam Rutherford, who frequently appears on science programmes on both radio and TV, also gives an engaging, provocative and informative talk the Arts Festival promises to be unmissable.

Hollie McNish. Image: Kat Gollock

Poet and author Hollie McNish presents her Lobster Tour on Thursday 6th June at the Town Hall; I’m just chatting about her with the legend who is Kieran J Moore, seems Hollie played Bath Komedia recently, he recommends, and you can’t get a better local recommendation than that. 

The weekend sees a blues, skiffle, calypso and rockabilly mesh, apparently with a sweeping vaudeville twist, which sounds like a beguiling and exhaustive blend I must say! Jo Carley and the Old Dry Skulls are at the Corn Exchange Friday 7th June.

Jo Carley and the Old Dry Skulls

London’s Cable Street Collective headline Saturday, an intriguing one, their sound mixes African-influenced guitars and beats with soulful female vocals, socially conscious lyrics and western melodies, creating an idiosyncratic alt-pop sound that’s all their own.

Sunday 9th June sees a Festival Walk into the West Woods; Sarsens, Soldiers and Sawpits. Two free fringe events, an Americana band from West Midlands called Rumour, from 2pm at the Three Crowns, and a fresh and lively approach to jazz at St John’s Church from 7pm with the Annie Parker Trio.

The final week of the festival sees world-renowned concert pianist, Ida Pellicciolo on Monday 10th June at the Town Hall. Belinda Kirk, world-record holding explorer, researcher and a leading campaigner promoting the benefits of adventure on wellbeing, talks at the Town Hall on Tuesday, along with intrepid Antarctic explorer Tom Crean’s story brought to life in a dramatic and humorous solo performance by Aidan Dooley from Play On Words Theatre Company, at the Wharf Theatre.

Two best-selling Wiltshire-based authors, Kate Webb and Jon Stock, discuss their craft at The Peppermill Hotel on Wednesday 12th June, and there’s a remarkable intimate solo guitar performance from Martin Simpson at the Corn Exchange.

Duo Tutti, a classically-trained flutist and pianist duo who combine well-known classical tunes with interesting sounds to create a unique concert that is accessible to all, at the Town Hall on Thursday. Terry Quinney’s Sound Of Blue Note accurately recreates jazz and the aesthetics which defines Blue Note Records, also on Thursday 13th June at the Town Hall.

Friday 14th June there’s an organ recital at St John’s with award-winning organist and conductor Huw Williams, and we have the intriguingly titled Slambovian Circus of Dreams at the Corn Exchange, an electrifying live performance of moody but upbeat alt-roots rock.

The final Saturday of the Arts Festival, 15th June, we have something altogether different, hypnotist Matt Hale presents an 80s Spectacular, where Matt promises to have you partying like it’s 1985, humm, whether you like it or not. I’m not sure about hypnotists, I might stand at the back!

Matt Hale. Image: DG-Imagery-3

Soulful and electrifying rhythm and blues band The Junco Shakers at the The British Lion on

Sunday 16th June at 2pm, and Clive Oseman and Nick Lovell, creators of Oooh Beehive, the number one spoken word and poetry open-mic night in Swindon, have a Wham! Bam! Poetry Slam 6pm at The Wharf Theatre; two free fringe events polishing off another spectacular Devizes Arts Festival. 

Box Office is now open, details and tickets HERE, hope to see you there! 

Trending……

Revealing the Line-Up For The Wiltshire Music Awards 2025

As a result of probably the most productive meeting yet, yesterday, about The Wiltshire Music Awards, we can now reveal the most amazing line-up of local music acts who will be performing between the announcements at our grand ceremony on Saturday 25th October at Devizes Corn Exchange, and a few other points we should mention…

Black Rat Monday and More! Live Music This Bank Holiday Weekend in Wiltshire

Never forget, there’s lots of other events on our calendar, for families and everyone of all ages. But this weekend is a bank holiday, and those local live music hunters will be out on the prowl, so here’s what we’ve found for them…. Thursday 21st August, Just Parsons plays the Foyer Sessions at Chippenham’s Neeld…

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 stand in the Brittox, which was busy dishing out free lunches for children during the summer holidays, as is Buddy’s mission. Then came an appearance on Points West, and even Jamie…

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 and aspiring Frome “a little bit emo, a little bit not” four-piece released a debut single Wither last month (while I was on my jollies.) So, even though this mention of…

Corbyn and Sultana’s Your Party Launch Swindon Presence

The excitement and hope generated by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announcing a new political party has reached Swindon….. A broad range of people have been keenly messaging and talking to each other and have decided to work together with everyone who supports this new party, to have a marked and positive presence in the…

Crowned Lightbringer: New EP From Ruby Darbyshire

If I was bowled over backwards by Ruby’s teaser single last week, its title, Crowned Lightbringer, now also belongs to this five-track EP, released today, and as you might guess, you’re in for a treat….. There’s so much incredible time, effort and adroitness pouring out of this it’s actually scary how talented Ruby Darbyshire is…

Find Out The Winners of Wiltshire Music Awards

Results of the public vote have been put to our expert panel of seven judges in our inaugural Wiltshire Music Awards, and now the judges have decided. I bet you’re wondering who has won and who the runners-up are, aren’t you? Well, I’m not going to tell you….yet! Ah, clickbait of ye gods; beat that…

REVIEW – The Pump Acoustic Club @ The Lamb, Trowbridge – Friday 8th August 2025

Pump Acoustic Nights Are Back!  Andy Fawthrop For those weird enough among us to be of an acoustic bent, particularly on the folkie side, the time since the Covid lockdowns has been a bit of a desert.  Several local clubs which once thrived before 2020, never actually opened again – Devizes Folk Club, Corsham’s Acoustic…

Swindon Palestine Solidarity Host Summer Fete

Swindon Palestine Solidarity will be hosting a summer fete on Saturday 23rd August, at 12.30pm – 3.30pm. They need volunteers from 11am – 4 pm. at The Broadgreen Community Centre, Salisbury St, Swindon SN1 2AN…. Bring the family to float a boat for Gaza, send a postcard to Gaza, or play ring toss, ball toss,…

Swindon Palestine Solidarity Hold Charity Dinner

On Saturday, people from across Swindon came to Swindon Palestine Solidarity’s charity dinner to raise funds for Medical Aid Palestine and raise awareness of the reality of life in Gaza……

Over 150 guests and 30 volunteers listened, often with tears in their eyes, as the guest speaker, Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq explained how over 21 of his family members have been killed in Gaza in the recent bombardments. Ahmed came with his new bride, who has also lost many family members and friends.

 Ahmed is the co- founder of an organisation set up in 2015 to provide English-language writing workshops for young Palestinians in Gaza, called We Are Not Numbers. He told how during the Israeli military attack against Palestinians in the summer of 2014, his 23-year-old brother, Ayman, was killed by an Israeli missile while simply walking on the street near his home in Dir-Al-Balah.

Ahmed sunk into depression from which he thought he would never return to normal life again.During this time, he met Pam Bailey, who encouraged him to write his story. The death of his brother and his friends was reported in the media as six Palestinians killed but didn’t use their names. Ahmed wanted his brother to be named and remembered, as well as all the other victims of the Israeli attacks. From there, We Are Not Numbers was formed to share the stories of young Palestinians in Gaza. Over 350 writers now contribute to We Are Not Numbers.

People from the Swindon community, young and old, from varied religions and none, and many different races, came to listen to his story, join in solidarity with the people of Gaza and raise money and awareness.

Swindon Palestine Solidarity are extremely grateful for the generosity of local businesses and individuals who contributed food, decorations, time, and money. Thanks goes to Biblop, Ruchi, Jully, DuDuzo Kitchen,Lalbagh, Pizza and Co, Tandoori Nights, Shupe, Grand Bazaar, The Jewel in the Crown, Kaspars, members of theTurkish and Muslim communities. With their help, the event has raised over £3,000.

Ahmed said, ‘I just wanted to say that I was very, very pleased to have joined you in Swindon. To have joined my friends and family, the freedom lovers and supporters of Palestine in Swindon. It was very lovely to meet all of you, people of all faiths and colours, and people are Muslim, Christian, Jews and of non-faiths. We shared the same values that we all agree on, the freedom of freedom and sympathy of the oppressed with the struggle against the oppressor and I felt like home, I felt like I was surrounded by family. The event was very powerful and the spirit of the people I found there was very high and motivating and it gave me a lot of hope because as someone who has lost all his family members I feel like these people who support Palestine and solidarity with Palestine are now my family, are of my people. And it gives me hope that as long as we have people like you who have continued to participate in events and protests for Palestine, believe that Palestine eventually will be free.’

This really was a great community event. Swindon Palestine Solidarity will continue to organise events, rallies, film shows, fundraisers, and marches in Swindon, as well as encouraging as many people as possible to attend the national demonstrations in London.

They invite people to join them for the next local march on Sunday 11th February at 12pm at Regents Circus, Swindon, and the next national march in London on 17th February.

 

BBC Historian David Olusoga Coming to Frome in January

Renowned professor and historian, David Olusoga will be heading to Frome’s Cheese & Grain on 12 January 2024 to speak on ‘the state of the British Union and why black history matters’….

History is now front-page news, and is contested as never before. Statues have fallen and the reputations of great men have been called into question. In the upcoming talk David Olusoga will examine why history matters, delve into the causes of the ‘history wars’ and question where they might lead us.

David Olusoga is an historian, writer and broadcaster. He is the author of ‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’, which was long-listed for the Orwell Prize, shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize and won the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. As Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, he is an expert at examining what history reveals about contemporary society and has regularly contributed to the Observer, The Voice, and BBC History Magazine. A BAFTA-winning filmmaker, he is also a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Black British History. In 2019 was awarded an OBE for services to history and community integration. 

He is known for presenting the BBC show ‘A House Through Time’ and has recently launched a new BBC series ‘Union’ which explores national identity, social class and inequality. Shining a light on our fractured modern society through the lens of the past, the series exposes the fault lines that still divide the UK.

Fans can catch David speaking at Frome’s Cheese and Grain this January, and he will also be signing books at the event. Full details below and tickets available now HERE.

Weekly Roundup of Events in Wiltshire: 11th – 17th October 2023

Here I am again, like Huey Lewis…..with the news. No national headlines though, no, that’s all too depressing, just the lowdown on things to do this coming week across our gurt lush county of agricultural rolling downs, neolithic monuments, and a seemingly endless succession of Greggs bakeries…..

Okay my little sausage and bean melts, please be aware this is not comprehensive and new events can and might yet still be added to our blossoming, occasionally updating EVENT CALENDAR; they might not be added here, so do check in as regular your digestive system after a vindaloo throughout the week, or you might miss something really up your street. You can also find links to everything mentioned there, and plan ahead.

One other really important thing before we get going, the thing everyone seems to brazenly browse past pretending it didn’t apply to them, we need donations to fund this, so, if you can, please donate a little something to keep us going; awl, thank you. If you love it, don’t lose it, like Bez on a nineties dance floor. For info on how, see HERE.  

Final days to pay a visit to Wiltshire Museum, Devizes, for the Anna Dillon exhibition; reviewed HERE, this ends on October 15th.

Oh, and this above, and this below, clowns, in Chippenham, a must-see!

Wednesday 11th

Regular Acoustic Jam at the Southgate, Devizes.

Calne Music & Arts Festival continues. The Avebury Vocal Ensemble, and a Calne Wordfest Writers’ Group at Marden House during the afternoon, and standup comedy with Graham Coulam introducing Paul Ricketts and Steve Gribbin in the evening.

There’s a lunchtime recital at Pound Arts, Corsham with pianist Simeon Walker.

Opening at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon and running until the 15th, Salos Presents Elf, The Musical…too early? Too late! 

Thursday 12th

Calne Music & Arts Festival has The Primary School Choirs in concert at Kingsbury Green Academy Hall, and Calne Speech and Drama School present ‘Sea, the Fool, the Devil and the Cats’ by Ted Hughes at Marden House, followed by some jazz with The Nick Sorensen Trio.

Sean Collins’ Smokin Funny arrives at Swindon Arts Centre, Andy Oliveri & Kizzie at The Tuppenny, Swindon.

Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri’s The Long Ride Home Tour comes to Chapel Arts, Bath.

Friday 13th

Join Devizes OpenDoors’s Big Sleep Out and help raise funds to support homeless and vulnerable adults in our community. You can sleep out at St James’ Church in Devizes, organise your own sleep out at work, at school, even in the garden at home, or pay to stay in bed by making a donation. Find out more and register at devizesopendoors.org.uk

Thud and Adam Woodhouse at the Southgate, Devizes, Mike Zito & Albert Castiglia with Band @ Long Street Blues Club.

Calne Music & Arts Festival has Ukrainian Jazz Harpist Alina Bzhezhinska in Concert at Marden House, followed by The Lost Trades.

Wilts & Berks Canal Trust Quiz Night at The Neeld, Chippenham.

My Octopus Mind plays the Pump in Trowbridge, with The Message in support.

Jazz at Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon, with Dario Napoli Hot Club. Start the Sirens & Ophella Waiting at The Three Horseshoes. 

An Evening Of Mediumship With Nikki Kitt at Swindon Arts Centre, Soulweaver Reigniting The Fire at Underground, formerly Level III, Bedrock at The Queens Tap, Evanescence of Fire at The Vic.

Rusty Shackle, Ninotchka and Concrete Prairie play Komedia, in Bath, Damien O’Kane & the Ron Block Band are at Chapel Arts. 

Saturday 14th

Marlborough Mop Fair. The Magnitones play St Michael’s in Aldbourne. 

It’s the Lions Arts Coaching Day in Devizes, and a first, I believe, for Danny & The Randoms who play at The Three Crowns, and The Unpredictables, Finely Trusler’s new ensemble play the Moonrakers. The Jack Grace Band is at the Southgate.

Pig Race night at Erlestoke Golf Club! Bring your own ketchup!

Dub roots reggae at The Barge on HoneyStreet with Jah Lion Movement.

Be Like Will play Stallards in Trowbridge.

Editor’s Pick of the Week is Amelia Coburn is at the Pump in Trowbridge, with Ruby Darbyshire and MEG in support.

There’s seven acts playing Hullavington Live at The Village Hall, and it’s free entry.

At Calne Music & Arts Festival, “Flowers in art from Botticelli to Hockney,” a talk by Gail Brown followed by ‘Meet the Artists’ with Cathy and Nick Pearce and ‘HMS Pinafore’ – presented by Opera Anywhere. 

Taylor Swift tribute Katy Ellis at The Pewsham, Chippenham.

Back to the eighties party night at Spencer’s Club, Melksham.

I’ve Every Whitney at Kingsdown Golf Club, Corsham.

Brodsky Quartet 50th Anniversary of the Shostakovich Cycle at Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon. Dreamwave at The Three Horseshoes.

Happy Dogs at HMV Bath at 3pm.

Carl Hutchinson – Watch Till The End at Swindon Arts Centre, David Flynn Memorial night at The Vic, Swindon, Concrete Prairie at Rodbourne Cheney Social Club, The BeatRoutes at The Castle, Rockabilly Rumble at The Queens Tap, Homer at the Rolleston, Dimensions at North Swindon Club, Vicky Jackson is PINK at Underground, and Swindon Ska Fest at The Moonrakers.

Sunday 15th

All About The Music Record Fair at Devizes Conservative Club from 10am-4pm.

PSG Choirs are at Marlborough Town Hall for an Autumn Concert. Starts at 6pm, tickets are £8.

Gothic Acoustic Matinee with Deadlight Dance at the Blue Boar, Aldbourne.

Calne Music & Arts Festival has Evensong at St. Mary’s Parish Church, and a Photographic Talk – ‘Arctica’ with Pam and Eddy Lane at Marden House.

Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon have Groove Baby Grooving With Pirates!

Below the Salt at The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon.

Waterlines at Underground, Swindon, an Elvis tribute at The Castle, and Damn at the North Swindon Club, and SGO at The Tuppenny.

Monday 16th

Sounds of the 60s Live with Tony Blackburn at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.

Tuesday 17th

Do You Believe In Ghosts at The Wyvern Theatre, while the Eric Mylod Okafo Quartet take the Jazz Knights at The Royal Oak, Swindon.

That’s all we’ve got for you so far, but remember to keep an eye on our event calendar for updates. I’m delighted to rap stats with you, and announce this week Devizine has hit level on the record-breaking annual hits from last year, and there’s still two and half months to go. Devizine is going out to over 100,000 local folk and listing your event will remain free, all you have to do to insure it is here is to tell us about it!

Have a great week!

Trending….

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…

Devizes, We Are Sustainable!

Bingo, someone came up to me in the Market Place while I was chatting with Devizes Greens chief, Margaret Green about all random matters of climate change, to offer us both a free vegan chocolate tiffin, and that’s plenty to swing this blogger to pen a decent review in itself!

Though I didn’t need a tiffin to twist my arm, Sustainable Devizes set up an outstanding fair in the Market Place today. I believe it’s the second annual Devizes Sustainable Fair, an amalgamation of all the separate activities various groups of Sustainable Devizes and others engage in; sorry I missed last year’s. For if imagining a handful of environmental campaigners gathering in crocs and tie dye tees to draw some pretty pictures of the planet was your preconception, you’d be sorely wrong.

Many, of all walks of life, gathered to address concerns and present alternatives to make Devizes sustainable and environmentally friendly, under a festive feel, and it was a splendid occasion.

Children were encouraged by Keith Brindle and family of St James to draw pictures of ideas to create a better environment, on transport and the future of plastic usage, a clothes swap whereby you could donate or take whatever you needed, both encompassed the general idea that this was a community based interactive experience, an event free of commercialisation and profiteering. This extended to the general feel of the day; everyone focussed on the same goal in a polite and friendly way.

There was food, soup and so on, free knife-sharpening, a bicycle repair shop, and organisations were welcomed from the Meadow in my Garden community interest company, to Kennet Furniture Refurb, and it was also lovely to meet the community free for all social club Camerados Public Living Room, who aside regular meetings in the Cheese Room on Fridays, seem to set up a living room complete with sofas, coffee tables and lamps wherever they care to, and I love that the most, they even gave me a cup of orange squash the lovely lot!

But what places this firmly on the map, and diverts this from being any old climate change meeting, converting it into a festival feel is the area of benches in which to gather, and the live music too. I’m sorry to have been too late to witness an acoustic jam session, followed by resident musicians Tom Harris and Chrissy Chapman, but I did make a beeline for those boater’s royalty of euphemisms, Devil’s Doorbell. We reviewed the ingenious outpourings of this bonkers skiffle duo upon the launch of a live album recorded at Trowbridge’s Pump in February, and they delighted as much as suspected they would, with Nipper playing his tenor banjo and kazzumpet, while the colourful Jellylegs Johnson strummed her washtub bass, both with a jolly dedication to jazzy tunes of yore.

Had to inquire being Caen Hill Locks were closed and the Doorbell duo had to resort to bus journey here, how everyday folk reacted to taking a washtub and kazzumpet amoung their other gear on the bus! But that’s in a nutshell how this event played off, quirky, hospitable and welcoming, a true reflection on a community spirited goal to better ourselves when it comes to progressing with a greener, environmentally friendly manner, and for this alone you cannot fault it.

Brilliant job, Devizes, for together we are sustainable, least heading this way with gusto. 

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Clive Anderson 14th June 2023 @ The Corn Exchange, Devizes

Andy Fawthrop

The Scottish Play


Devizes Arts Festival headed towards the end of its second week last night. And here was another highlight…..

Clive Anderson is pretty well known household name, being seen on TV and heard on radio as a presenter, writer and interviewer over the past 30 years. He’s an award-winner, a versatile comic writer and, an often overlooked feature, a barrister by training. He’s fronted his own TV and radio shows, and has been a celebrity guest on countless others.

Last night, in a fairly packed Corn Exchange, he brought his own show “Me, Macbeth and I” to the stage. Appearing for the first half in full “Scottish” regalia, his opening assertion was that Macbeth (sharp intake of breath from the luvvies in the audience), sorry “The Scottish Play” was the greatest play ever written, and certainly Shakespeare’s best drama. Using this, and his frequently referred-to Scottish ancestry, as a thin framework on which to hang the rest of the show, he set off in pursuit of….I’m not quite sure what.

We had some wonderful, although sometimes rambling, anecdotes from his career in showbiz, name-dropping with gay abandon (Cher, Sting, Robin Williams, Peter Cook, Mikhail Gorbachev to name but a few), although this was rarely gratuitous. Anderson has interviewed them all, and had some great back-stories to relate. He covered his early start in comedy (Cambridge Footlights and Comedy Store), his learning path in presenting live TV, and the vicissitudes of coping with sometimes unpredictable guests. He also shared a number of theatrical anecdotes, milked from “Loose Ends” with Ned Sherrin, and concluded an overlong first half with the results of his researches into the truth (or otherwise) of the bad luck stigma associated with 400 years of productions of Macbeth. This allowed him to mention Gielgud, Beerbohm, Olivier and Orson Welles, as if in passing.

The second half picked up where he’d left off, although the Scottish outfit had now been abandoned for a more conventional lounge suit. The style was still the same however – occasionally incoherent, repetitious, going off on tangents and losing his thread. However we always seemed to get back to the point, which left me wondering if this method of delivery was a reflection of his natural style, or a slightly nerves-driven affectation.

Whatever – it was mostly interesting and funny, with a few topical depth-charges casually dropped into the comedy waters (Gove, Rees-Mogg, Prince Andrew etc). There was a discourse on his own Scottish heritage and of Scottish national stereotypes. The final section allowed him to revisit great interview disasters of others (Parkinson and Rod Hull/ Emu, Russell Harty and Grace Jones) and of himself – the famous Bee Gees walk-off, Richard Branson and (for me the best) Bernard Manning and National Prune Week.

It was funny, but not hilarious. It was interesting and educational, but not gripping. The audience mostly seemed to love it, but I found it difficult to warm to the man somehow. His comedy is more intellectual than human/ emotional, so that might be it. Anyway – a good night out, and another success for Devizes Arts Festival.

The Devizes Arts Festival continues for three more days until Saturday 17th June.

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

Trending……

Devizes Dilemma: FullTone or Scooter Rally?!

Contemplated headlining this “Clash of the Titans,” but that evokes the idea of a dramatic power struggle with fierce consequences rather than proof Devizes can…

Goodbye to The Beanery but Hollychocs Lives On

Popular award-winning artisan chocolate business Hollychocs has announced that its Beanery Café will close on Saturday 23rd August, marking exactly two years since its opening…

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Lois Pryce 13th June 2023 @ The Bear Hotel, Devizes

Revolutionary Ride

Andy Fawthrop


Devizes Arts Festival played a blinder this afternoon by cranking up the outside temperatures to a level suitable for listening to Lois Pryce talking about riding her motorcycle around the heated countryside of Iran in 2013 and 2014. .

The talk/ slide show/ video was entitled “Revolutionary Ride – One Woman’s Solo Motorcycle Journey Around Iran” and it did exactly what it said on the tin.

Lois Pryce, apart from picking banjo on Sunday as part of the bluegrass group The Brothers & The Sisters at The British Lion on Sunday, is a woman of many talents. She’s also an author of three books about her solo adventures in far-flung lands (Alaska to Terra del Fuego, London to Cape Town, and now Iran). She’s also a speaker and freelance writer and broadcaster.

Her latest book, Revolutionary Ride, is a memoir about her experiences in Iran, undertaken in two separate parts in 2013 and 2014. She covered over 3000 miles, did her own basic bike maintenance, camped out many nights, and (most importantly) funded the whole trip herself without the need for sponsors.

She freely admitted that before going, she was largely uneducated about the wider political situation then existing between Iran and the West, did not speak nor understand Farsi (including road signs), didn’t have a visa, didn’t understand the likely problems to be encountered by a lone female riding a motorbike (technically illegal), and that the only maps she had were pre-Revolution. Nothing daunted, she headed into all the technical, cultural, logistical and legal problems, and just kind of “got on with it”.

She drew many parallels and contrasts between the massive amount of hospitality and friendliness she received at a personal level from virtually everyone she met, and the official state-led political situation. She described it as a “chilling regime”, almost entirely cut off from the rest of the world’s infrastructure (internet, banking/ credit systems, foreign imports), with an extreme set of Islamic-led laws, customs and social structures. For women especially, this meant “a life behind the veil”. Nevertheless there was always a thriving “under the counter” culture in everything from motorcycling to music to alcohol.

There were many anecdotes and examples of her “helmet to hijab” existence on the road. And after the break (for book sales and signings), there were plenty of questions from the packed audience.

A highly entertaining session, and well-attended. Which just goes to prove that if you put on something interesting, even in the middle of the afternoon on the hottest day of the year, there are plenty of folk in D-Town with nothing better to do. Build it, they say, and they will come. Another Home Run by DAF!

The Devizes Arts Festival continues at various venues around town until Saturday 17th June.

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

Trending……

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 to…

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 Mathews…

Live in Pewsey, at the First Oak-Fest

Amidst another packed summer weekend’s schedule laid that lovable large village Pewsey’s turn to shine; always a law unto itself, things went off; if it’s…

Weekly Roundup of Events in Wiltshire: 7th – 13th June 2023

Trouble, troublemaker, yeah, that’s your middle name, oh-oh, sings my homeboy Olly, but really, I ask you, what kind of a parent gives their kids a middle name like troublemaker? Ah, well, sign of times; here’s the lowdown on everything we’ve found to be doing around these backwaters this coming week….

Don’t forget there’s more info on these, ticket links and irregular updates on our sparkly Event Calendar, so plan ahead. But this week we have…drum roll…..

Ongoing, Hail the Curious, the inaugural exhibit at The Forbidden Carnival in Chippenham; check it out by the end of the month.

 Wednesday 7th

Devizes Arts Festival still going strong, with Welsh, Polish and Belgian influences, the Aglica Trio explore exciting works by lesser-known composers as well as delving into the standard classical repertoire. 8pm at Devizes Town Hall.

Regular acoustic jam at the Southgate in Devizes.

Dragons And Mythical Beasts at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.

San Reetam at Komedia, Bath.

Thursday 8th

Devizes Arts Festival has cello and guitar duo Dieci Corde at 12:30pm in the Town Hall, and Lucy Stevens is Gertrude Lawrence in A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening, 7:30pm also at the Town Hall.

Meanwhile over at The Wharf Theatre, it’s the opening night for Watson and Brown’s Little Big Band, running until Saturday 10th.

Also running until the 10th, The Marlborough Players Presents Ian Hislop & Nick Newman’s A Bunch of Amateurs at Marlborough Town Hall.

The Overmorrow play The Tuppenny in Swindon, The Zoots are at Swindon Arts Centre with some Sound of The 60s, and Alan Fletcher’s The Doctor Will See You Now is at The Wyvern Theatre.

Comedy Drag Bingo with Charlie Hides from Ru Paul’s Drag Race at Komedia, Bath, Human Nature at the Rondo Theatre, Luke De-Sciscio is at Chapel Arts, with support from Ella Clayton.

Friday 9th

Major British comedy talent Marcus Brigstocke is at Devizes Arts Festival, 8pm at the Corn Exchange. Plan of Action plays The Southgate, Devizes, and Gaz Brookfield is at The Barge on Honey-Street.

Mobile Blackout at The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon, Quartetto Di Cremona’s Italian Postcards at the Wiltshire Music Centre.

Living Spit presents One Man and His Cow at Pound Arts, Corsham.

Celebrate Me at the Rondo Theatre, Bath, Mississippi MacDonald at Chapel Arts, and Kalopsia, Intrusive, Sharpie & Dreamcaster all at Moles.

Grunge Tribute Shades of Seattle at The Vic in Swindon, a change from the Chaos Brothers as previously advertised, Oasish at Coleview Community Centre, and 

An Evening And A Little Bit Of Morning with Mark Steel at The Wyvern Theatre.

Saturday 10th

Marden Village Fete. There’s an Antique Sale at Devizes Market Place from 9am-3pm, and the Devizes Arts Festival continues with a free fringe event at 2pm in the Condado Lounge, Jukebox James,  Tessa Dunlop, 3pm at the Town Hall, and folk-influenced Americana with Noble Jacks at 8pm in the Corn Exchange. Noble Jacks are a rip-roaring alt.folk band with roof-raising energy, whose warm electro-acoustic interactions fuse together a mixture of folky footstompin’ rhythms and engaging lyricism.

Elsewhere in Devizes, the Eric Bell Band Band play Long Street Blues Club, Lewis Clark is at The Southgate, Ben Borrill at the Moonrakers, a One Chord Wonders and The Killertones for a Cavalier special, see poster.

Time for The Famous Hangover Sessions at the Lamb in Marlborough, with Splat the Rat, The Station, The Vooz and of course, Pants.

North Wiltshire Symphony Orchestra Presents a Summer Concert at the Neeld Hall in Chippenham. John Morrissey memorial gig at the Consti Club in aid of Dorothy House.

The Stones, tribute at the Civic in Trowbridge, oh, and this….

Nadine Khouri at Pound Arts, Corsham.

It’s the Bradford-on-Avon Food & Drink Festival, Vonj at the Three Horseshoes. 

Boorish Trumpson at the Rondo Theatre, Bath, Untamed Burlesque at Chapel Arts.

King Awesome at The Vic, Swindon, Kentwood Choir t Swindon Arts Centre, and 

Elizabeth & Philip – A Story of Young Love, Marriage, and Monarchy at The Wyvern Theatre. 

Nearly Dan – The Spirit & Sound of Steely Dan at the Cheese & Grain in Frome.

Sunday 11th

Lions on the Green, Devizes Lions Club’s annual car show and fun day at Devizes Green. Devizes Arts Festival, Festival Walk – Wansdyke Wanderings. Briefing at 10.20am. There’s a free fringe event, 2pm at the British Lion, hard stompin’, bluegrassy, old-timey playing of The Sisters & The Brothers.

Friggit at The Tuppenny in Swindon.

The Jon Amor Trio play The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon.

Adam Giles Levy is at the Electric Bar in Komedia, Bath, Josh Berry’s Sexual Politics at Rondo Theatre, Flamenco Express at Chapel Arts.

Monday 12th

Devizes Arts Festival have An Evening with furniture restorer, Will Kirk, primarily known for his work on BBC’s phenomenally successful restoration programme The Repair Shop.

7:30pm at the Corn Exchange.

Rock The Tots: Whatever The Weather at Pound Arts, Corsham.

Wiltshire Schools Dance Festival at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.

Tuesday 13th

Devizes Arts Festival’s Lois Pryce: Revolutionary Ride – One Woman’s Solo Motorcycle Journey around Iran at the Bear Hotel, the Elles Bailey Band play the Corn Exchange at 8pm.

McCartney – The Songbook at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.

That’s all I got for you, trouble, troublemaker. I know you’re no good, but you’re stuck in my brain, or Brian, or whatever. So, just for you a reminder this list is not exhaustive, and more events will undoubtedly be added to our event calendar as and when we discover them. So keep an eye on it, just the one though, be safe and have a good week.

Trending….

IDLES’ at Block Party

With their only UK shows of the year quickly approaching, the 1st and 2nd August will see IDLES’ and music festival Block Party take over…

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Sue Stockdale @ St. John’s Assembly Room, Devizes 3rd June 2023

An Adventurous Mindset

Andy Fawthrop

On to Day 2 of the Arts Festival, and something a little different. That’s the good thing about a two-week festival like this – there’s something in there for everyone. And this afternoon’s offering featured a very adventurous soul, who was keen to relate what she’d learnt in the course of her travels.

Saturday afternoon in a church assembly room is not one of my usual haunts, but listening to Sue Stockdale was a very good reason to be here. Scot Sue comes with an enviable pedigree – not only is she a polar adventurer and motivational speaker, she’s also spent much of her life not only exploring the world’s most remote and hostile environments (including Greenland, Antarctica, and Chile), she’s also thought long and hard about what motivates her, and what the wider lessons are.

Her initial inspiration is excitement and adventure, but I guess anyone could say that. What makes Sue interesting is the way she’s translated that inspiration into solid and specific action, developing new skills along the way, together with both physical and mental resilience. The challenges have not always been obvious or straightforward – for example, how do you raise the money to fund your adventures? How do you deal with the ecological impact of what you do? How do you develop the necessary team-work skills to make an expedition work?

In 1996, Sue became the first British woman to reach the magnetic North Pole and, aside from sharing some of her photos and experiences, she was keen to relate how the team kept sane, conserved energy, developed working routines, and overcame the navigational challenges of such an undertaking.

It was at times an Old Skool slide presentation but, mixed in with video clips, and a light-hearted and engaging delivery style, she kept her audience enthralled right through until it was time for the Q&A at the end. Fascinating stuff – entertaining, interesting and, yes, motivating. For people like me, who struggle to get their act together to even get out of The Vize these days, it was a true lesson in how to really get one’s arse in gear.

Copies of Sue’s latest book EXPLORE: A Life of Adventure are available for purchase at Devizes Books.

The Devizes Arts Festival continues, with events every day, until Saturday 17th June. The full programme of events, times and prices is available online.

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

Trending…

Hotcakes, Wildfire, Shoes…. and Acid!

In the dead of night sounds in a rural environment are resonating singularities, a car in the distance or the farmer calling his herd. In…