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2025 on Devizine; Review of the Year; Part 1, Jan-June

If past years seem to be racing by me on roller-skates, now they’re in Formula 1 cars! 2025, in a word, was “average,” though the Devizine annual stats fell for a second year, at 6% lower than 2024; you lot still here?!

I’m not concerned about that, you filthy traitors; you’ve been digesting the clickbait of that Gazelle & Herod again, haven’t you?!! Ah, truth is I have been staying home, hibernating a lot like a lightweight couch potato; probably an age thing, most likely a financial thing too; we’ve got hyperinflation to make Robert Mugabe envious. But we keep a stiff upper lip as the world plummets into chaos, our little corner of it remains a pretty nice place to live (if a bit Tory,) where you can block pavements with hoarding or nick a cardboard sheep from a church and get away with it. None of which we are here to highlight, we focus on the best bits, and slag off the worst with a sprinkling of satire; if you don’t like it, you know where to go!

Hits took a hit because I bit my tongue on many local political or social issues this year, to concentrate more on arts and entertainment, but folk love a good shit stir rather than being told about some talented locals doing good. Plus, I’m sick to the back teeth with any dependence on Facebook shares, it’s become a toxic playground for so-called adults and AI bots pretending to be human to boost propaganda. I think I’m going to be one of those smiling insanely old men, content to feed the ducks in the park, rather than ranting at anyone younger than me within range, but I’ve the right to change my mind on this!

They also took a hit because I’ve been actively engaged in two fantastic major events, RowdeFest and The Wiltshire Music Awards. The latter in particular used up much of my time, but hey, I think they were worth it. The Awards really brought together a wealth of people involved in the Wiltshire music scene, caused me to wear a suit, and we hope to build on this with future years.

The other contributing factor to the downfall of hits to the website might have been me writing a new book, something I rarely get the time for, but was certain I wanted it published by Christmas. I made that deadline and Murder at the Scribbling Horse is officially out; you read it yet? No, didn’t think so!

But lots more happened in 2025, and those we featured are briefed below; we could’ve done more but I think we put out a lot of content; you have to give me some time to play pointless block puzzle games on my phone. Thank you to all our contributors, Ian, Andy, Lois and the few guest writers who have submitted this year. We always need more writers to make this as comprehensive as possible; it is about as flexible as it can possibly be, you can be a fruitcake, we don’t mind, so do get in touch if you can help.

Please continue to support us, we thank you all for your dedication to Devizine; here’s to 2026; try best to avoid the fascist division, millionaires triggered by being disallowed to rip wild animals to death, the US or Russian bombs heading our way, the complete disregard for funding environmental projects while they spend billions fighting for the last scraps of oil, any world leader kidnapping, painting roundabouts, and the usage of anti-terror laws to arrest pensioners peacefully campaigning against genocide.

Just follow us instead, enjoying a pint in a pub and listening to live music, played by real people, focus on youth projects rather than fables of hooliganism, focus on talented individuals doing good rather than bitter clickbait and national headlines, and be here, in the warm and truth, with Devizine; we tell it like it is, and don’t purvey bullshit!

January

Just as this year starts with a review of the last, so did 2025, but not before I took a visit to the Swindon Story Shed. Forestry England invited dog walkers to Nightingale Wood, apparently to celebrate Walk Your Dog Month; surely every month is walk your dog month?! The second feature film for director Keith Wilhelm Kopp and writer Laurence Guy, First Christmas entered development. We covered how My Dad’s Bigger Than Your Dad Festival raised £11,500 for Prospect Hospice, and there’s more….

Jamsters began at Devizes Southgate, an initiative to provide a Friday night platform for loose groupings and associations created at their regular jam sessions each Wednesday. We announced The Beat were to headline Devizes Scooter Rally, that Nick Hodgson formerly of the Kaiser Chiefs’ new band, Everyone Says Hi had an instore at Marlborough’s Sound Knowledge, and we unfortunately said goodbye to the now disbanded People Like Us; sorely missed.

We had new singles from Nothing Rhymes With Orange, a new album from Illingworth, and fuller sessions from Kaya Street. Andy reviewed the first Devizes International Blues Festival, Ian covered Jerusalem at the Mission Theatre, and Veronica’s Room at The Wharf Theatre.

We previewed OakFest at the Royal Oak in Pewsey, La Belle Hélène, White Horse Opera’s Debut at The Wharf Theatre, Devizes Musical Theatre’s Beauty & The Beast, Henge at The Cheese & Grain, and Bradford-on-Avon Green Man Festival which unfortunately this year is in jeopardy, and we welcomed Caffe Vialottie to Devizes, our most popular article of the year.

February

It may be topical now, but we’ve always been supporting the hunting ban, and in February reported how Beaufort Hunters attacked Wiltshire Hunt Sabs’ drone. We sadly confirmed Devizes Street Festival was cancelled for the second year in a row, and The Emporium in Devizes was to close, but Devizes would get a new youth centre.

Previews included, Marlborough School of Languages’ Summer Fiesta, Jazz Sabbath at the Corn Exchange. We announced The Brand New Heavies were to headline Minety, tickets for DOCA’s Winter Ales were running out, and that I was to organise the music for Rowdefest in May, probably my favourite memory of 2025.

We featured Melksham’s teen band Between the Lines, reviewed JP Oldfield’s debut EP Bouffon, Jamie Hawkins’ short film Teeth, and new singles from I See Orange and Sam Bishop. Swinterfest broke me out of my hibernation, and I also got out to see the fantastic Static Moves at the Three Crowns, plus Cephid’s Sparks in the Darkness at The Rondo, which was mindblowing!

March

We announced that Devizes auctioneers Henry Aldridge & Son were relocating to the Old Emporium, Soupchick was to take over The Hillworth Park Cafe, that after the fire in Northgate Street Devizes Kebab Van successfully relocated to Folly Road, that Devizes was to have a new festival, Park Farm Festival, and of course the very first Wiltshire Music Awards.

We featured the Belladonna Treatment, had a wonderful local reflection on the Trump & Zelenskiy meeting from a Ukrainian living in Wiltshire, and it was one of my all-time favourite interviews with eighties legend Owen Paul ahead of a Devizes gig.

We reviewed The Killer & The Catalyst, Devizes author Dave McKenna’s novelette, Gecko’s new album, and singles by Chloe Hepburn and George Wilding.

Previewed Devizes Arts Festival, Exchange Comedy in Devizes, Swindon Palestine Solidarity’s Charity Iftar, CUDS’ Devizes Town Litter Pick for GB Spring Clean, and Hells Bells AC/DC tribute coming to Devizes! We listed the results of Salisbury Music Awards.

I managed to make it out to see The Devil’s Doorbell and JP Oldfield at the Cellar Bar, Ruby Darbyshire at the Southgate, and Cracked Machine with Tom Harris in support, too. Ian gave us Blood Brothers at The Mission Theatre and Flatpack at The Rondo, and Pip Aldridge reviewed our Fulltone Orchestra at Tewkesbury Abbey.

I ranted on the state of the roads, and for fun ran a Take Our Wiltshire Pothole or Moon Crater Quiz Challenge!!

April

Ah, All Fools Day, a golden opportunity for us, in which last year we told the fib that funk godfather George Clinton was exiled to the Wiltshire village of Urchfont, created funk music there and it was covered up by their parish council! You might assume it was hardly viable, but some fell for it, and messaged in their outraged reports of “fake news!”

We looked into DOCA’s new youth initiative Yea Devizes, and while we published our usual extensive list of Easter holiday activities, we also previewed DOCA’s Junk Street drumming workshop.

I visited The Hillworth Park Cafe, where Soupchick took over, hailed Devizes DJ Greg Spencer, the creator of Palooza house nights, who made the prestigious bill of Fatboy Slim’s All Back to Minehead festival, and reviewed the now sadly defunct No Alarms No Devizes playing at the Three Crowns. Discovered Fran Daisy at Swindon’s Plough, and Henge at the Cheese & Grain was a high contender for my gig of the year; out of this world!

We had a guest review from Melissa Loveday on Devizes Music Academy’s Something About Jamie, which though I’m sorry to have missed, I did catch them playing it out at FullTone Festival in the summer. I did attend Devizes Musical Theatre’s Beauty & the Beast at Dauntsey’s School and the opening of Un/Common People, Folk Culture in Wessex, a fascinating exhibition at Wiltshire Museum.

Reviewed Hannah Rose Platt’s album Fragile Creatures, probably the best album we covered last year. The website for Wiltshire Music Awards went live and people held on to cast their votes in May.

We exposed Reform candidate Calne Violette Simpson for her Facebook profile picture showing her hunting antelope in South Africa, and Devizes South Conservative candidate Sarah Batchelor, who committed election fraud, up and left with her tail between her legs and almost running Bishops Canning’s Crown into the ground. Thankfully it seems the new owners are turning it around and recreating the village hub it once was.

May

I was honoured and delighted to organise the music for our village fete, which has in the last few years been run by a lovely independent committee, safe from a questionable parish council. It was a wonderful sunny day and the highlight of my year. I called in some favours and presented an amazing lineup for a free fete, featuring, in order of appearance, The Jubilee Morris Dancers, Andrew Hurst who brought bassist Lucianne Worthy with him, Talk in Code, The Sarah C Ryan Band, Thieves, and Burn The Midnight Oil. Being it was the last day of the month, I didn’t write about it until June.

I paid a Sunday afternoon visit to Devizes amazing record shop Vinyl Realm, when Deadlight Dance were attacked by wasps and still managed an amazing unplugged acoustic set. Ben Niamor reviewed Jake Martin at Swindon’s Castle with SOP, and Ian gave us his views on Sweeney Todd at St. Augustine’s Catholic College in Trowbridge, and the Diary of Anne Frank at The Wharf Theatre in Devizes, which was so good I had to go myself. Lois covered newcomers Kingston Media’s Bands at the Bridge in Horton.

I previewed the Bradford-on-Avon Live Music Festival, despite it clashing with our Rowdefest! Also, Ruby Darbyshire who performed at Silverwood School’s open evening. Andy provided a preview of Chippenham Folk Festival, and Lois provided us with previews of Australian Folk singer Ernest Aines at Swindon’s Deanery Theatre and David Olusoga at the Cheese & Grain.

Announced the opening of voting for Wiltshire Music Awards, that Devizes-based The Big Sound Choir was to perform with Aled Jones at St George’s in Bristol, and that Bird is The Word were taking over music organisation at Bradford-on-Avon’s Boathouse.

We featured how Lucas Hardy was collaborating with Rosie Jay, and Frome’s James Hollingsworth, who was bringing his solo recreation of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album to the Devizes Southgate and elsewhere, and reviewed his album with Griffiths, Lost in the Winds of Time.

I reviewed Clock Radio’s album Turfing out the Maniacs, Ruzz Guitar’s Between Two Worlds album, Playing Solitaire; Phil Cooper’s first solo album for five years, Thieves’ debut EP, a new single from George Wilding, and one from Auralcandy featuring vocals from Sienna Wileman. A feature of a Melksham marketing expert launching AI training courses was met with controversy, yeah, I get that!

June

If we were all busy with the Devizes Arts Festival, we were previwing summer events like a new festival for Devizes, Park Farm, clashing with an amazing day at the Three Crowns for an air ambulance fundraiser, and I finalyy got over my hangover and ego, and gave coverage of Rowdefest; highlight of my year!

Andy reviewed White Horse Opera’s Cosi Fan Tutte and The Lost Trades at the Piggybank, Ian did The Mikado at the Mission, The Taming of the Shrew at the Rondo, and of course we all did our bit for the Devizes Arts Festival. Andy also covered an extensive weekend when The Lions were on the Green in Devizes, we had Crammer Watch Day too, and Devizes Arts Festival did a fringe gig at the British Lion; summer lovin’. The highlight of this had to be Where’s the Cat, the Wharf Theatre’s writing group’s hilarious reenactment of the Moonrakers fable at the Crammer, which I felt obliged to cover too.

Eddie and I were guests on Peggy-Sue’s Don’t Stop the Music show on Swindon 105.5, chatting about the awards. We met Henry the chocolate duck raising funds for cystic fibrosis at HollyChocs, previewed Supergrass headlining Frome Festival, a genderqueered Shakespearean performance at Bath’s Rondo, and Swindon Palestine Solidarity events. Lois did Idles at Bristol’s Block Party.

I reviewed The Hotcakes of Wildfire’s album Shoes & Acid, ranted on vocal minorities triggered by events of cultural diversity, and did a No Surprises column promising to return the feature, but promises are made to be broken! There’s simply too much to whinge about, and for my health, I need to see the glass half-full.

That’s all for now, folks. Do not fear, it’s still summer in our minds, and we’ll kick off in July for the second part. I know, our goldfish attention spans cannot take in a whole year in one article, what with so much brilliant stuff which happened over the year, so come back when I’ve officially emptied the Quality Street tin and completed the last half of this review of 2025; but I must say, I think the first half was better!!

Awesome! Talk in Code Immortalised as Lego Minifigures!

Ah, let’s talk about Talk in Code one more time this year, because we’re secret Talkers here, and everything has been awesome this year for them, but now they’re being immortalised as Lego minifigures!

Surely, the piece of resistance of local merch, it doesn’t get better than this! Lego minifigures have become something of a collectors item over the years, and the finest local indie popsters have a Lego inspired fan reward scheme they’re calling TICBRIX; genuine awesomeness!

Now open, all you’ve got to do is attend their gigs, which is a pleasure in itself, collect stamps on a loyalty card, and collect the band figures. Pick up the cards at the merch desk at any show, get it stamped, and after every two Talk in Code shows, you can claim your FREE minifigure and badge from the merch desk.

With four members in the band, it’s going to take you eight shows to complete your collection, but that’s not all. At the halfway point, you’ll be eligible for a bespoke, Lego stage set for them to all play on, complete with a bass guitar, extra guitar, drumsticks and even a Snedds’ luxury beard upgrade!

Personally, I feel inclined to hotfoot it up the loft to find my bricks and build a spaceship for them to gig on because they’re out of this world! Spaceship!!!!

Some early 2026 performances from the guys include 17th Jan at The Kings Arms in Amesbury and also at Devizes Winter of Festive Ales at The Corn Exchange on 28th February. On the 28th of March, there’s a Talkers Show by personal invite only at The Hop in Swindon. Join the Talkers WhatsApp group to get in on that and be in the know of other gigs by texting ‘add me’ with your first name to 07725 138077. All welcome unless you’re from the planet Duplo!

Daphne Oram; Devizes’ Unsung Pioneer of Electronic Sound Part 3

read part 1

read part 2

Oramics and its Place in the Progression of Electronic Music

In 1997 I was a 24 year-old factory worker, keen to learn all tasks on the production line to work my way up, but suddenly the run of the ladder was pulled too high for me to reach. Shift managers who had were axed, were replaced by “team leaders,” that of precisely the same duties and responsibilities, though you needed a diploma to apply.

The government tried to thwart my only other life objective three years past, to party; they had failed. I worked in the factory now for one reason, to fund this escapism. Once free, the Criminal Justice Bill ensured someone profited from our jollity, as rave culture was pushed into nightclubs and legal paid events.

If The Prodigy were right, this was music for the jilted generation, perhaps so too was Luigi Russolo in his 1913 futurist manifesto L’arte dei Rumori (The Art of Noises,) when he argued that the ear would become accustomed to a new sonic palette of industrial soundscapes, and musicians would require a new approach to instrumentation and composition. Though I’d not have contemplated the noises of the factory manipulating my music perceptions at the time, I was aware of how Kraftwerk were influenced by the sounds of traffic for Autobahn.

Neither would I have given much thought to the development of electronic music; my time with analogue pop of punk and Two-Tone was short-lived. Through new wave post-punk and electronica to American hip hop and electro, and the rebellion from the hit factories exploiting it; rave culture, I had grown up with electronics as a staple to music and knew no different.

Pre-internet research on the subject would’ve been a needle in a haystack, even if I’d the motivation to study it. In my naivety I assumed one thing, that Kraftwerk created electronic music, because I’d seen a clip of them on the BBC program Tomorrow’s World. Though the show made no claim to this, I was only two on the 25th September 1975, when it originally aired.

Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider’s Kraftwerk were certainly pioneers who popularised the krautrock genre worldwide. The industrial links between Dusseldorf and Detroit and creative ones between Berlin and New York were influences reflected, which turned the cogs of hip hop and house. And now, here I was, in a meadow near Luton, at Universe’s Tribal Gathering, where I figured we’d come full circle.

Kraftwerk played their one and only festival, it was monumental. The once monocultured rave phenomenon had divided into copious subgenres, Universe were the first to fully embrace this with a tent dedicated to each division. Yet from each tent masses united at the main stage, some DJs refusing to play their set because they’d miss this performance. Reflecting back on it now, I cannot deny it was something to behold, but I’ve since discovered they wasn’t the complete roots to electronic music I assumed they were. Its complex international evolution includes too many names to mention, but this fascinating insight has been encouraged by my study into one important innovator largely uncredited, born here in Devizes, Daphne Oram.

We outlined her work briefly in the introduction to this series of articles, and with help from Daphne’s niece, Carolyn Scales, we delved into her upbringing in Devizes, and how influences in engineering meshed with her love of music. Now we need to fit her role into this vast evolution of electronic music, by looking at Oramics, discovering how that influenced the progression, and why it is not as well documented and I believe it should be.

Once Daphne left the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1959, she coined the term Oramics, a name for her studio in Tower Folly, a converted oast house at Fairseat in Kent, her technique for creating graphical sound, and the Oramics Machine which spawned from it.

Carolyn described The Oramics Machine as, “an early synthesiser,” but as with Russian engineer Evgeny Murzin who created photoelectronic instrument the ANS synthesizer, historical records rarely reference them. The first commercial synthesizer is credited to American engineer Robert Moog a few years later in 1964. Precursors to Moog mentions Harald Bode who laid the groundwork for separate sound-modifying modules used in the Moog design, the Hammond Organ Company’s Novachord in the late 1930s, Canadian engineer Hugh Le Caine’s Electronic Sackbut, Herbert Belar and Harry Olson’s RCA Mark I and II Sound Synthesizers, and some cite Thaddeus Cahill’s Telharmonium, an electromechanical sound generator from 1897, which weighed in over two-hundred tons.

The original Oramics Machine was the size of an office photocopier, so was also too cumbersome for the average musician. By its definition, it’s a synthesiser but worked differently; the composer/musician drew onto a set of 35mm film strips which ran past a series of photo-electric cells, generating electrical signals to control amplitude, timbre, frequency and duration.

The reason for the omission, Carolyn suggested, was because The Oramics Machine was lost after her passing. “Dr Mick Grierson’s team tracked it down to France in 2008. Working with the Science Museum. Grierson’s study provided the first full contextualisation of the machine, an assessment of its historical importance, and a detailed description of its workings. The machine became a central part of the Science Museum exhibition Oramics to Electronica, originally planned to run for six months in 2011. The show’s press and public uptake saw it extended a further four years.”

Perhaps inspired by Moog’s development of the Minimoog, Daphne worked on a Mini-Oramics, but never completed a prototype. Goldsmiths’ PhD student Tom Richards, who pored over the unfinished project and built it over forty years later, suggested “there were a lot of reasons why she didn’t launch Mini-Oramics. She was working on her own, and wasn’t affiliated to a large organisation or university. She had ups and downs in her life, and at the time she was working on Mini-Oramics, she also worried that her approach to musical research was out of fashion when compared to chance-based and computerised techniques. She was unable to secure the further funding she needed and she eventually moved on to other research.”

If funding and the ferocity of music technology’s progression at this time surpassed Daphne, both her music and written works were visionary. If you thought Pete Tong’s Heritage Orchestra was pushing new boundaries in 2004, Carolyn noted, “in 1948, Daphne created a piece for double orchestra, turntable and live electronics called Still Point, long thought of as the earliest composition to include real-time electronic transformation of instrumental sounds.” Again, Still Point was never performed and was considered lost. “Dr James Bulley found fragments in the Oram archive,” she continued, “and working collaboratively with Dr Shiva Feshareki, began a reconstruction, later finding the full score in the belongings of composer Hugh Davies.”

“A performance was commissioned by BBC Proms and performed by turntablist Shiva Feshareki, Bulley, and the London Contemporary Orchestra in 2018 at the Royal Albert Hall, reaching a substantial audience live and via BBC Radio 3,” Carolyn explained. “The reaction was one of awe, with the piece described as “thrilling”. Critical responses suggested that this realisation of Oram’s previously untested ideas represented a challenge to electronic music’s received history.”

The more I research the more I find examples suggesting Daphne’s work was so avant-garde, abstract or insistent on anthropological creativity against trending dehumanised mathematical methods, she was set apart from the contemporary canon of self-generating computer music, positioning her work in a kind of unique scientific-spiritual space, combining technical rigor with a romantic model of artistic expression. This would frustrate her, when projects were either underfunded or too radical for others to follow, and they were consequently lost in time.

In 1971 she authored a book titled An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics, wherein lies a quote often cited in discussions about music technology: “We will be entering a strange world where composers will be mingling with capacitors, computers will be controlling crotchets and, maybe, memory, music and magnetism will lead us towards metaphysics.”

It was also her dedication to authorial control, while cybernetic-influenced composers embraced self-generating systems with indeterminacy, which caused Oram’s approach to differ from the era’s prevailing trends, despite this cybernetic orientation. Exemplifying the generosity of her father, James, Mayor of Devizes, Daphne actively supported composers’ rights to royalties while she was a Trustee of The Performing Rights Society in the 1970s.

Daphne Oram suffered two strokes during the nineties, and passed away in Maidstone on the 5th January 2003. Yet on Daphne’s centenary, where much of the world remains dubious about the ethics of artificial intelligence, we must debate her legacy, for my final part of the series.

Oh, and if you were wondering, all I saw of Kraftwerk at Tribal Gathering was the fluorescent outlines of their boilersuits!

Daphne Oram; Devizes’ Unsung Pioneer of Electronic Sound: Part 2

read the first part here

Daphne’s Family & Childhood Connection to Devizes

Celebrations of Daphne Oram have been building in London since the beginning of December, for those in the sphere of electronic music and music technology. On the first Thursday of the month The Barbican held a concert commemorating Daphne’s centenary, where sound and music fair access partner, Nonclassical, in partnership with The Oram Trust and Oram Awards played commissioned reimagined works from various contemporary electronic artists, inspired from tapes in Daphne’s archive. This has been released as the album, Vari/ations: An Ode To Oram.

London university Goldsmiths acquired Daphne’s archive in 2006, bringing her work into the wider public domain, after decades of relative obscurity. In the male dominated realm of electronic music, this has presented a better understanding of Daphne as a visionary in the early development of the genre, and in turn inspired female musicians and producers.

But our story begins rather differently, in the late nineteen-twenties, at Belle Vue House, Devizes, where a much younger Daphne is caught trying to climb inside the family piano! Daphne’s niece Carolyn Scales explained, “she was asked ‘why are you doing that?’ and Daphne replied, she wanted the piano to make a sound between the notes on the keyboard.”

I’m grateful to Carolyn for providing some fascinating background into Daphne’s family and childhood in Devizes, something overlooked by the insurmountable information available regarding her work.

“All the siblings enjoyed listening to classical music but only Daphne had the ability to create music,” she told me. “Ida’s sisters often joined her to play trios and quartets at Belle Vue House while James did learn to play the cello but was happy to stand aside for more competent players. In his defence James’s father’s diaries only mention one musical instrument at their home, a piano declared by a piano tuner as not worthy of tuning. Maybe we underestimate the strength of our Oram artistic genes.”

Daphne at five months, with mother, Ida, brothers *Arthur and John*

Daphne Blake Oram was born on the 31st December 1925, to James Oram (1890-1964) and Ida nee Talbot (1887-1972.) “Ida ,” Carolyn explained, “who at heart seems to have been a natural party goer, was plagued by ill health. Daphne was born in Ivy House Nursing Home not because of a fear of losing Daphne but because of Ida’s problems with her legs. In the first photograph of Daphne she is being held by Ida who is sitting in a wicker bath chair with Arthur and John in front of their new home of Belle Vue House.”

“Ida was born in Braintree, Essex into a family of drapers,” Carolyn said, “who soon moved to a shop on Maryport Street, Devizes, opposite the top of The Brittox, which they ran from 1888 until 1914. Unfortunately Ida’s father Alfred died in 1896 leaving her mother Alice nee Blake to run the business.” She continued to describe Alice’s six children helping at the shop, and its failure, though Ida was in charge of the millinery department, and how later there was a room in Belle Vue House devoted to her hats. Carolyn told of Ida’s painting hobby, in watercolours, oils and other mediums.

Talbot family with parents. Ida on swing with her twin

Daphne’s father, James, was known in Devizes as “Jim” or “Jimmy.” He was not Irish but proud of his upbringing off the coast of County Mayo, and “never lost his soft Irish brogue.” His father Arthur Oram was a farmer and land agent in one of the most deprived parts of rural Ireland, hit hard by the famines of the early 1800s, and as such it was a natural breeding ground for agrarian discontent, later producing some prominent members of the IRA. This caused James to be keenly aware of local injustices.

“In 1961, when James took us to see where he was born,” Carolyn expressed, “he told us he was upset that he was not allowed to go to school with his friends. They were Catholic and he was a Protestant and to highlight the differences James and his siblings had to travel to school in Newport by pony and trap, rather than walk to the local school.”

“I feel sure that our father John was correct in saying that if James had stayed in Ireland he would have become a renowned barrister. Unfortunately, just as James left school there was a change in the family’s fortunes as The Congested Districts Board on behalf of the British Government were, quite rightly buying estates and redistributing the land among farmers living on tenanted, uneconomic smallholdings.”

Therefore, instead of attending university at sixteen James travelled to Devizes, to help his uncle (by marriage,) Alfred Hinxman, the manager of the Devizes branch of a Salisbury coal merchant. James lived in Devizes for the rest his life, managing the coal merchant until his retirement. Overseeing the distribution of coal in the southwest during the Second World War, James was so horrified by the profiteering he didn’t take a penny for his efforts and received a MBE.

“James soon became a trusted member of the community,” Carolyn said, “active in its civic life, as a magistrate and a school governor. This included being Mayor of Devizes during The Abdication and coronation of George VI.”

“James also successfully became involved in many businesses including The Devizes Brick and Tile Co. Somehow James also found time for his interest in local history and was a member of various local societies. He could have become wealthy but instead gave away his excess income after ensuring that his family lived in a comfortable style. Every Sunday dinner during the depression of the 1930s they would discuss the families that the brickworks supported, carefully working out if they would have the money to feed their children. The discussion would end by choosing someone who was struggling to hire to cut the Belle Vue House lawn during the following week.”

*The Devizes Brick and Tile Co.* Photograph by HR Edmonds

James’ generous nature rubbed off on his children. Daphne actively supported composers’ rights to royalties while she was a Trustee of The Performing Rights Society in the 1970s. “In particular,” Carolyn noted, “Daphne helped to set up the PRS Members’ Fund that continues to support those registered with the PRS and their families when they are in need of financial help. During the 1980s Daphne arranged Christmas hampers for these families.”

Before Daphne was born the family lived in rooms above the coal merchant’s office at 7 High Street, Devizes. James wanted Belle Vue House, empty at the time but out of his price range, until the state of dilapidation dropped far enough, which was just as Daphne was being born. The house would have been at the end of Belle Vue Road, now replaced by Waiblingen Way housing estate.

Retired designer Paul Bryant, who still resides locally told me he grew up close to Belle Vue House, and recalled her returning to the family home and, “the excitement that was generated when she was awarded grants from the Gulbenkian Foundation.” Paul expressed “it is heartening to see the ancient horse chestnut tree, then at the end of the Oram’s garden, still surviving in Waiblingen Way.” Meanwhile, local musician Peter Easton has written in request for a blue plaque to be erected in Daphne’s honour.

Daphne, with the grass roller at Belle Vue House, Devizes

Carolyn explained how the sibling’s engineering abilities can also be traced to the Oram side of the family. “Their great uncle John had designed machinery to make barrels for Rockefeller’s oil, and their uncle Arthur oversaw many civil engineering projects in the Indus Valley, now in Pakistan.”

“Arthur, aged 9 and John, aged 5 were to share a bedroom with an adjoining dressing room that James agreed they would turn into a workshop,” Carolyn said. “They had already started their own tool kits and Arthur was delighted when James added a foot controlled fret saw.”

In a letter to John dated April 2003, Arthur wrote it would be the 77th anniversary of their move from the High Street to Belle Vue House: “Every 20th April was the day of an annual fair on the Green, and Hitler’s birthday. That one in 1926 was a very special wet Tuesday for us. Our mother was taken the half-mile in a big closed Bath Chair drawn by a man holding the long handle in front, because of her illness with a bad knee. She was helped into their old oak bed in the drawing room, on the right of the door towards the fireplace. In that room there was placed, near the door, the old radio that our mother had bought some years before from proceeds of her Barbola work, with its two bright emitter valves and six volt battery, from which we had news through the general strike of 1926.”

“Later the workshop became home to John’s lathe and of great interest to Daphne. John told me that he was sometimes very mean to Daphne when she came to the workshop. At first she had to stay outside the open door and be silent, if she passed that test she was allowed to stand just inside the door for a while before coming closer to John and even helping when possible. John taught Daphne to use a lathe and she had one of his old lathes at Tower Folly, albeit by then worn and no longer a precision tool. John also admitted to teasing Daphne over his Meccano set that she wanted to play with. Daphne had to watch John make, say a crane ,then he would tighten all the nuts and bolts before walking away leaving Daphne to dismantle his work.”

Carolyn said, “there were three main early influences on Arthur, John and Daphne namely their father James, mother Ida and their home which gave them space to both work together and follow their own particular interests.”

I’m eternally grateful to Carolyn Scales, Daphne’s niece, for a fascinating insight into Daphne’s early years and family life, and for the photographs too. It seems her curious childhood nature was focused on what makes music, and her engineering skills were honed early, enhanced by her intrigue and not being allowed to assist by her elder brothers. This led her to create the Oramics Machine, her early synthesiser, built in the 1960s, but lost after her death. We should concentrate our efforts on Daphne’s work in the third part, and how it shaped modern music……

Burning the Midday Oil at The Muck

Highest season of goodwill praises must go to Chrissy Chapman today, who raised over £500 (at the last count) for His Grace Children’s Centre in Uganda, with a little help from talented friends….

Years back as soloist singer-songwriter One Trick Pony, Chrissy organised annual fundraising gigs at the Southgate around Christmas time, but now tuned up a notch with her incredible Americana band Burn the Midnight Oil behind her it was a high noon lock up and load for a Sunday afternoon hoedown at the Muck and Dunder rum bar in Devizes. The better half, Mrs Devizine, has been asking me to take her somewhere tropical, so given such an opportunity, we bused it to The Brittox.

With Burn The Midnight Oil rightfully grasping the top slot with the same intensity as me holding my pineapple vase of piña colada, all kicked off at half-two with Gary Hewitt-Long performing a rare acoustic set. New to the game, and while I obviously cannot condone a satirical song aimed at a certain rogue local councillor, Gary was unnecessarily bashful, as he acoustically played out some great originals to warm the crowd!

Perhaps it was the crowd which, understandably nerved him; it sure was building, as Martin Rea sauntered through them, sporting a fashionable bum bag and dishing out raffle tickets.

A Wiltshire duo new to me, One Plus One may offer sums even I can handle in name, but their performance was delightful. A proficient and lovable pop cover duo to please any event, One Plus One is guitarist Dave, and Emily on vocals, confident to take on an Amy Winehouse cover or two and come up trumps. Chapel Roan’s Pink Pony Club also got a superb makeover, and they polished it off with the seasonal Fairytale of New York; why not?

Maybe only because our modest local folk legend Vince Bell, who followed, also planned to finalise his sublime set with the UK’s best loved Christmas song, with his wife Lisa as Kirsty MacColl. Though more musical theatre, no stranger to the limelight, Lisa nailed it, and the handsome, pretty, and the queens of New Devizes City crowd never minded the doubled up cover and sang the chorus.

Vince also offered Chrissy the accompanying chair for a spellbinding middle duet they supposed they should record, and they should. But beginning his set with his divine self-penned melancholic earworms, garnished in percussive rhythm guitar mastery akin to flamenco, and raising the spirit with the more spritely Spiderman Pajamas, Vince is a local treasure and never fails to charm.

Exactly a year after we first interviewed the original lineup, Burn The Midnight Oil came bursting on and delivered their awesome set with unified passion and precision, seemingly lapping up every minute. You’d be excused for assuming this band has been playing together for decades despite it being less than a year in the new format.

They appeased the audience with a taste of what they’ve been working on, looked fantabulous, and, most importantly, put 210% into their show. Yet it was arguably the sum of all these parts and the community festive spirit, which made it the wonderful afternoon it was.

Daphne Oram; Devizes’ Unsung Pioneer of Electronic Sound

Part 1: An Introduction

March 1936: newlywed French telecommunications engineer Pierre Schaeffer relocates to Paris from Strasbourg and finds work in radio broadcasting. He embarks on early radiophonic experiments. Fifteen years of his research, his inventions of various electronic instruments, and collaborations with Pierre Henry would lead them to found Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète. Musique concrète would be the root of the utilisation of modified recorded sound through audio signal processing and tape techniques.

Across the channel, it’s the St. Clement’s Fair in Devizes. The town hall is decorated with a foliage of oranges and lemons, and the “Bells of St Clement’s” was recited with handbells to declare the fair open. Devizes Congregationsts arranged a small eisteddfod, which would be the origins of today’s Devizes Eisteddfod, founded ten years later to raise funds for the Congregational Church, opposite Wadworth’s Brewery.

The connection? Well, two cups were awarded by the minister Rev. W.S.H Hallett; one for Ruth Mead for a vocal solo, and the second to eleven-year-old Daphne Oram, for a pianoforte solo. The daughter of James and Ida Oram, Daphne was educated at Sherborne School for Girls in Dorset, where she was tutored in piano and musical composition.

Daphne Oram as a young girl dressed as Alice in Wonderland with family, for the Devizes Carnival: Source Wiltshire Museum

At seventeen Daphne moved to London, turned down a place at the Royal College of Music, to become a junior sound engineer at the BBC, where she would “shadow” concerts with a pre-recorded version, allowing the broadcast to continue despite interference or blackouts due to air raids.

Throughout the 1940s Daphne devoted herself to the pioneering of electronic sound, labouring into the night composing various pieces, most far too avant-garde for the traditionalist BBC bosses to consider publishing. Promoted to music studio manager after a decade, she eventually convinced the BBC to the benefits of electronic music and musique concréte for use in programming; particularly for The BBC Third Programme, replaced by BBC Radio 3. By 1957 they caved, and Daphne was appointed the original co-director of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop with Senior Studio Manager Desmond Briscoe.

Their early efforts were for radio: radiophonic poems, effects for prevalent sci-fi serials like Quatermass and The Pit, and comedy sounds for The Goon Show. Yet Daphne’s motivation remained in electronic music production, and she resigned in 1959 to freelance, moving again to Kent.

Daphne Oram was way ahead of her time, a visionary frustrated with the direction The Radiophonic Workshop was heading, because electronic music was still in its infancy, especially the acceptance of it. The workshop continued without her and eventually branched into music, as television took over.

A trainee assistant studio manager called Delia Derbyshire joined the workshop, creating numerous scores and effects for television programmes. Most notably in 1963, when Derbyshire electronically modified Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme, hailed as the pinnacle moment in the advancement of electronic music in Britain. Though, BBC bureaucracy as it was, Delia was never credited on-screen for it until twelve years after her passing, in a 2013 fiftieth anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor. Her work has since been acknowledged and revered, whilst Daphne Oram remains a relatively unsung heroine in the development of electronic music.

Futurist Luigi Russolo argues in a 1913 letter to composer Francesco Pratella, a manifesto referred to as The Art of Noises, that the ear will become accustomed to noises of urbanisation and industrial soundscapes, and thus mankind will develop a new sonic palette as technology progresses. A fascinating and accurate theory into the evolution of sound, in which Russolo encouraged musicians to listen to city sounds, which will putatively be the cymatics of future music.

I find myself reasoning if this explains why electronic music today is most popular in urban environments rather than rural. Due to music famed promoter Mel Bush, Devizes retains an affection for the blues, using authentic analogue instruments. Producers of electronic music are rare here. If you want dance music, which greater acquires the usage of technology than rock, blues, or folk, you may need to head towards Bristol, Swindon, or Salisbury.

But coming from a more urban background and growing up in the eighties and nineties, personally I’ve never outcasted electronics in music. Even if a musician is using analogue methods to create music, they will at the least use the internet to promote them. With eclectic tastes, I also love electronica, hip hop, dub, and dance music, and I love to explore the origins of it. So, this research project has me fascinated, the life and work of Daphne Oram, and her growing up in Devizes. I wondered how she became involved.

A graphical sound technique where shapes etched into filmstrips are read by photo-electric cells and transformed into for various parameters of sound is called Oramics, after its creator Daphne Oram at her Oramics Studios in Kent. She expressed hope that her work on Oramics would “plant seeds that would mature in the 21st century.” Her legacy is commemorated in the annual Oram Awards, and the 2022 BBC Masterbrand Sonic, was internally known as “Daphne,” but still in her hometown she’s not widely known, neither are her early years spent in Devizes well documented.

This month, Daphne would have celebrated her one-hundredth birthday. So, join me in an exploration of her life and work in a series of articles. We will talk with Daphne’s niece, Carolyn Scales, about her early years in Devizes, explore her work further, and talk with a local producer of electronic music about her legacy and the impact her work has on them. Because one thing is certain, without Daphne Oram music today would sound vastly different, at least it would in the UK, and during the boom of pop, as you should be aware, Britain led the way. I believe that it is worth commemorating and honouring her here in her birthplace, Devizes.

read part 2 here

Wiltshire Council “Update” on Northgate Street Lane Closure

Yesterday Wiltshire Council published an “update” on the lane closure on Northgate Street in Devizes as the fire which caused it reaches its first anniversary. Only, it’s more a “reminder” than an “update!”

It begins, “the fire, in November 2024, caused significant damage to the Grade II-listed property and since then the council has had to install a single lane closure to keep people safe. The council recognises the inconvenience this is causing and is committed to reopening the road as soon as possible.” Yeah, knew that bit already.

It continued justifiable, stating “the council has no legal powers to compel the building owner to take further action.” Then the Deputy Leader of Wiltshire Council, Mel Jacob, said how frustrating it all was, and how they were “keen to get the road reopened as soon as we can.” Knew that bit as well.

Fair enough, red tape and all that baloney I get, but the remainder of the information simply says what an inconvenience it’s been, and its impact on the community; who knew that bit?!

It suggests they’re in talks, but pledges “more positive news on the road early in the new year.” If the word “update” needs replacing with “reminder,” the word “more” here should be swapped out for “some,” for as of yet it seems there isn’t any news about it at all, let alone “positive” news; just some chatting, possibly over tea and cake. You’ve got a new bus shelter, be happy!

But hey, even if I cannot confirm about the tea and cake, it’s 14 sleeps until Santa, so let’s keep our glasses half-full, and hope he miraculously brings a resolution in his sack. For there’s been a few advantages, such as free town centre parking for the most daring and cheeky!

And think of it this way, the serious risk of turning right into Station Road from the mini-roundabout has been lessened by its more consistent usage; it seems now the occasional driver coming from the town direction acknowledges it as a roundabout, actually observes and obeys that technical hitch in the highway code known to others as “the right of way!”

Before all this a right turn there was a white-knuckle ride only for the daredevil stuntman or those on the school run; there were more bumps there than on the road to Potterne.

But one roundabout up into town, immortalised as “The Brewery Roundabout,” has been a fascinating study into levels of human kindness in Devizes. As whilst drivers can exit the Market Place there, there’s no traffic crossing the roundabout in which to allow them their right of way. At peak times this can be challenging and a smidgen annoying. My last count of human kindness, as traffic flows at a snail’s pace from the congested New Park Street, was a fantastic new record of eighteen inconsiderate to one thoughtful driver!

Those in the know about levels of human kindness in Devizes will nip down the Station Road junction from the Market Place, if they wish to ever exit the town westward, and being this road is narrow with parking spaces, it’s become a two-way rat run, whereby the 20mph limit is considered only for “snowflakes.”

All of which could’ve been avoided if there was a thing called “planning,” whereby Station Road could’ve been reduced to one way coming out of the Market Place, and the single lane from the Brewery roundabout was used for coming into the Market Place. But no worries, because Wiltshire Council are talking about it. It’s not progress, is it? It’s more like poking a dead dog with a stick, hoping it might get up and run.

St John’s Choir Christmas Concert in Devizes

Join the St John’s Choir and talented soloists for a heart-warming evening of festive favourites, carols, and candlelit Christmas atmosphere this Friday 12 th December at 7.30pm…..

The spectacular, and oldest church in Devizes, St John’s Church has a Christmas Concert on Friday with All proceeds go to Julia’s House and St John’s Church.

Tickets are £10 for adults, free for accompanied children. Tickets are available via Ticketsource, Devizes Books, or by scanning the QR code in the poster below.

Devizes Assize Court Saved; A New Home for Wiltshire Museum

This afternoon I find myself contemplating what the future holds for historical discovery and learning for all ages, fun and educational exhibits and events in Wiltshire; and it looks positive! Devizes is blessed to have Wiltshire Museum already, but the future looks even better, the future is…. Assizes!

Wiltshire Museum announced today, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded £8.5 million towards the £14.8 million Assizes for Devizes project to transform the derelict Assize Court building into a spectacular new home for the Museum. Derelict for decades, the once huge court house of architectural distinction, on the Heritage At Risk register, The Assize Court has been a sour issue for too long, and in its current condition is sadly an eyesore. The project will restore its historic features, and breathe new life into the building; Wiltshire Museum and in turn, Devizes will thrive.

Since 1874 The Wiltshire Museum has been delighting visitors at Long Street in Devizes, and is home to nationally important designated collections, including stunning treasures from the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site landscape. It also hosts many exhibits, educational events and lectures for all ages, children’s craft workshops and so much more.

Director of Wiltshire Museum David Dawson said, “we are delighted that the Heritage Fund has demonstrated its confidence in our plans to transform the former Devizes Assize Court into the new home for a reimagined Wiltshire Museum. At last we will be able to give the museum’s internationally significant collections a fitting home, while rescuing an important at-risk listed building and providing a focal point for town centre renewal. We are grateful to National Lottery players, our loyal members and our other funders, existing and future, for their commitment and support.”

Peter Troughton, CVO CBE, Chair of Devizes Assize Court Trust, which initially saved the building by purchasing it in 2018 with the support of generous donors, said, “the National Lottery Heritage Fund award to the Wiltshire Museum is fantastic news! It will transform the museum, save the historic Assize Court building and give the people of Devizes a community hub like no other. It will be an enormous help to the campaign to achieve the vision for the award-winning museum, already supported by the town, Wiltshire County Council and leading charitable foundations.”

Read More HERE

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 event” at the weekend, (spelling mistake included) in Great Cheverell. Am I the only fifty-something who’s thinking “great, let them be?!” Not according to Facebook comments…..

UME they called it. UME? It was a rave, wasn’t it?! Perish the thought calling it a rave might encourage a resurgence of nineties skullduggery, when we partied without a care in the fields of England. Freedom of expression and the need to take a moment to enjoy life I favour to deem it, during an era of hyperinflation, playing the blame game after committing financial suicide, with media promoting a facist uprising, and a government labelling anyone who campaigns against genocide a terrorist. Can we let our hair down here, mate? Not on your Nelly, I’m confiscating your hi-fi!

“Officers were called to reports of the event at approximately 12.50am on November 30th,” they said. In other words, some comfortable living, curtain-twitching huckmucker got their knickers in a twist that they might not be able to hear a pin drop in their chocolate box village, for one lone night out of a kazillion.

“There were approximately 100-150 people present and a moderately advanced set up with generators, large speakers and stage area,” the Devizes Police report informed Facebook users, and G&H reporter Jason jumped the bandwagon for further hopeful outcry and clickbait. Hold on a cotton-picking minute; didn’t they call it “large?” At the summit of the rave era in 1992, 40,000 revellers attended Castlemorton; let’s keep this in perspective, eh? It wasn’t a rave or a “large UME,” it was some friends throwing a party, wasn’t it?! You can fit more people into the Devizes Conservative Club!

Sensationalism continued upon the announcement, “three people have been arrested for drug related offences.” Hold the front page. Police could make more arrests for drugs on a single night in any of our town centres, and you know this.

Though it is with great respect for the police, we gratefully hear externally that they turned up three times but the event was allowed to continue. “Due to the event taking place on MOD land, officers liaised with the military, and an effective plan was put in place to minimise the disruption to the local community and address the illegal gathering,” the Police continued.

And that’s the correct action to take in my honest and experienced opinion. Police providing a presence is usually welcomed for the need of safety and advice. No one really wants to piss off the neighbours, they just want to party.

“On this occasion, we seized a large amount of sound equipment and generators from the site,” they also said, which is a shame, because such equipment is expensive and it undermines the motivation to put such events on. Do police confiscate the horns and hounds of the Beaufort Hunt as they rampage across the countryside slaughtering wildlife for kicks?

I raved through acid house and into jungle, and no matter how many years rack up between those happy daze and now, I can never comprehend how or why the authorities concluded we were doing as much harm as they claimed we were. Sure, it was rebellious, it was unlicensed, and uncontrolled, but we policed ourselves, we tided up afterwards, we respected the land and the residents too.

It was only later, post Castlemorton, when the government clamped down, restricted us, and forcibly closed down parties that anarchy and anger against the system ensued, just as did in the early eighties with the free festival scene. Let’s learn from our mistakes and prevent history repeating, again.

The trick surely is then, to call a compromise, accept that people want to party and not all can afford festival tickets, and allow these events some leeway. For there’s a lot worse they could be doing. Judging by the positive comments on these reports’ shares on Facebook, I’m not alone in that notion.

Being honest with myself though, I’m unsure if I’m more hacked off with police confiscating the equipment or the fact I didn’t go myself, but really, who needs an Uncle Albert in the corner, reciting his memories of parties of yore?!!

Walking at the Devizes Winter Wonderful Festival

Oh…a slice of onion from my bratwurst plopped into my mulled wine; where does one go to complain about this?! Other than that, Devizes Town Council and DOCA’s Winter Festival was the best one for many years, officially opening yuletide in Devizes…..

Over time the simple premise of switching the Christmas tree lights on has become a large-scale event which differs in traditions from town to town, possibly competitive even. Some here envy the Sham’s monstrosity of an electronic tree sculpture, others favour our real tree. Wotton Bassett hosts great lively rock bands, like Barrelhouse this year. But while I love those guys, nothing says Christmas to me more than Devizes Town Band brassing off the seasonal Shakin Stevens classic. And, face it, Trowbridge’s lantern parade was an idea they nicked from us, which we may/may not have pinched from Chinese New Year, but who’s splitting hairs?!

In the modern era I’ve no experience of other town’s shenanigans in which to compare Devizes’ efforts with. I just know and am more than content with the spectacular show we stage here. A massive well done and thanks to all involved, it was a magnificent occasion, much better than last and other previous years.

To start at the end, fireworks were welcomed back after last year’s dubious light show replacement. Despite them being dubbed “silent fireworks” the effect was near equally impressive. Perhaps Fantasy Radio blasting out the decibels made up for the lack of explosions, and everyone’s dogs could join in the fun. I thought the radio could’ve been turned down a notch, during intervals of the Devizes Town Band playing, to enhance them when they did, but there’s no telling radio DJs!

And as for light shows, St John’s looked absolutely magnificent. It’s one thing to project images onto a wall, it’s another to use it to compliment a 900 year old beautiful church, where children and PTAs usually just collect their lanterns and wait in relative darkness!

The Market Place was also transformed into a visual feast, a bustling market with plenty of food and drink options. Devizes Town Band proudly showcased on a grand stage was a new great idea, and excited faces of all ages gathered to watch the lantern parade. It is a wonderful, popular family occasion, this year being one of the very best.

The town came out to play. Folk gathered at the end of the lantern parade by The Corn Exchange, though, were unfenced and naturally pushed forward so Santa’s sleigh on a trailer was forced to stop there and let the lantern bearers pass behind it, rather than park sensibly by the stage. This was the only technical error, as their view of the lanterns were now obscured by Father Christmas and the Mayor offloading with a stepladder! But Devizes is Devizes, and we retain our astute sense of humour regardless. As Santa dismounted and the lanterns passed behind, folk shouted in jest, “get out of the way Santa!” “You can’t park there!” and “it’s not all about you!!”

And from the basic children’s lanterns to the regular spaceman, chickens and even the odd Minecraft Ghast, the parade swept through the Market Place gloriously, and we cheered Father Christmas as we counted down the moment the tree lights would glitter and Christmas in Devizes begins for another year.

But it’s not just about wandering through the stalls, deciding what food and drink to treat yourself to and perhaps buying fudge, or auntie a jar of chilli jam, because while you did, entertaining street theatre and glittery ladies on stilts (who I failed to pick up the phone numbers of) bustled through.

The best had to be those giant stockings moving around and charming the kids with puppet bears chatting; that was a stroke of genius. I know if I was five and saw that I’d probably have wet myself with excitement, but now I’m fifty-something…well, best check for a wet patch just to be certain!! No, that was a mulled wine spillage as a piece of onion plopped into it; thought I’d told you that?!

I did bump into Santa though who was off-duty and, at the time, mysteriously carrying a stepladder. Being as I’ve been good-ish all year, I acted like I’d met Mick Jagger and posed for a photo with him; a quality occurrence which made my night!

But it wasn’t any one element of the event which made it, it was the colossal show they staged, all the elements so well coordinated and coming together in unity which caused this to be so magical. The expressions of joy on children and drunk’s faces was priceless and from the maker’s market to the teacup rides, everyone seemed to be having fun, even the weather was agreeable!

If I was triggered in the week by Facebook whingers witch-hunting DOCA, the newspaper reporting it, or anyone else they could blame, (like, bizarrely, Americans) for their own agitations at the name of this event, for not, apparently, being religious enough, and I said I hope they don’t come if they were only to wine-hole, I’ve changed my mind. I wish they did come now. They’d have seen for themselves the evening had plenty of Christmas spirit and Christmassy elements to it, whilst embracing many other aspects of winter too, and nobody really gave thought or the slightest botheration to its name, they just wanted to enjoy the moment. And they did.

The work that went into this by all involved, mostly volunteers, was absolutely incredible, and I hope it will pave the way for a new chapter in the work of DOCA, of which Devizes should be grateful and proud.

So, until next year we’ll be rockin’ around the Christmas tree, letting the Christmas spirit ring, having pumpkin pie, later, and possibly doing some caroling; if that’s still not Christmassy enough for disgruntled keyboard warriors next year I’ll dress up as the Archangel Gabriel, if they so wish, so they can winch me up and suspend me across the Market Place where everyone below will see my Grinch boxers….don’t tempt me!!

trending….

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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 Parade opens in the Market Place; excited?! Well, I say magically, it actually takes a lot of hard work to put on; thank you to DOCA and all the volunteers. A spokesperson for DOCA was confident things were all good last week, and was only worried about the weather forecast…..

At present my thoroughly unreliable weather app suggests a 43% chance of rain, but keep your glass of mulled wine half full at least, that’s considerably less than 50%, and going on current climate, the rain is sporadic and light. DOCA promises the festival to be “our most enchanting yet, with a full day and evening of festivities, creative workshops, stunning street performances, and a mesmerizing lantern parade.” Looking into it with a bit more detail and including everything else going on might yet put me on the good list!

The grand finale, the Lantern Parade & Fireworks details firstly. Father Christmas will be making a special appearance at St. John’s Churchyard from 5:30pm to 6:10pm. At 6pm the parade gathers at St. John’s Church Gate. 6:15pm the parade starts, winding through the town centre. 7pm is the Light Switch-On at The Market Place. 7:05pm there will be silent fireworks, best viewed from The Market Place; I’ve not seen silent fireworks before, certainly not heard them!

As is tradition, Devizes Town Band will entertain while the Market Place will be alive with market stalls, tasty tucker and drinks, and shopping opportunities. The Makery Market will be showcasing unique, handmade treasures from local crafters and makers from 12 noon to 8:30pm Friday, and from 11am to 6pm on Saturday, at the Corn Exchange.

The beloved winter warmer, DOCA’s famous mulled wine stall will be running on Friday only, from noon to 8:30pm. Of course, lots of our shops, cafes and bars will remain open. Someone did post a request for a list of shops staying open on local Facebook groups, like they can’t do this without Google Maps! You got legs? Use them! Be like Dora and explore! But hey, here’s what we know…..

The Shambles is a magical place at Christmas, with projections by Young Urban Digitals & PF Events, a specially created animated light artwork made by local young people. Savannah Sweets, Biddles, SoupChick and Sunabody Care pottery and bodycare will be open. Cositas Bonitas, The Healthy Life and many other shops will stay open late across town. Cafes too, including the new beauty salon come cafe, Velvet & Bloom, and hot rum totty outside The Muck and Dunder.

There’s a mystery “live band” outside The Pour House, and a choir concert at St Andrew’s Church. The Unpredictables at The Three Crowns comes highly recommended, DJ Random at The Southgate too, and a Lantern Parade Disco Party at The Pelican Inn. Snow White is the running panto at The Wharf Theatre, and it’s brilliant!

From 5pm onwards, find some spectacular street performances around the Market Place. Bristol’s infamous roaming band, The Ambling Band will bring infectious energy with their blend of pink and brass. The Glitter Belles are dazzling high-rise performers with sculptural creations straight from the 1970s disco era. Keep your eyes peeled for Stockings Up, a pair of gigantic Christmas stockings bursting with presents and magically strolling around town, two women on stilts covered head to toe in glitter ball costumes and silver glitter, a woman in a red coat talking to a puppet bear in a larger than life sized Christmas stocking and The Flying Buttresses, an illuminated tree with books that light up attached.

From 4 to 8:30pm find, at St. John’s Churchyard, an Illuminated Garden, an enchanted world of light and magic with stunning lanterns created by DOCA community workshops. Another light installation will be Chirp & Drift by Kathy Hinde, a mesmerizing installation where illuminated instruments chatter in Morse code messages, accompanied by gentle harmonies from accordion reeds hidden within. After a few glasses of mulled wine you might also be chattering in Morse code!

Also look out for an old piano also by Kathy Hinde, a kinetic sound sculpture with videos of birds projected onto the strings, and Emergency Exit Arts’ Giant butterflies; but remember, a giant butterfly is for life, not just for Christmas.

Creative Workshops also feature. Wellard & Wild Botanical Workshops on Friday 28th at various times. From Kokedama to terrariums, epiphytes to festive wreaths, learn traditional methods to create beautiful botanical designs. Contemporary Wreath Making on Friday 28th from 2pm to 5pm at The Ceres Hall of the Corn Exchange, where you can create your own stunning, brightly-coloured wreath using repurposed plastics, berries, and sequins. Learn millinery flower-making techniques with accomplished maker Nancy Rose Stott. And there is Tin Can Brooch Making on Sunday 30th from 2pm to 5pm, at The Southgate Inn, where you can design and sew a unique brooch using reclaimed materials.

Don’t forget the Window Wanderland Trail, running from Friday 28th November to Monday 1st December. For more info on all this and to book workshops, check out DOCA website. For everything else going on locally, keep this frequency clear and love Devizine!

Other stuff going on: Saturday there’s a jumble sale in St Andrew’s Church. A clothes swap in The Shambles. Lights Switch On in Waiblingen Way. Innes Sibun is at The Southgate, the Buzzing Fridges at The Three Crowns, and The Liverpool Echoes at The Conservative Club.

Let’s get Christmassy; cue the Shakin’ Stevens, children playing, having fun, it’s the season, love and understanding, but not too much snow falling please, Shaky!

The Lost Trades & Half of One at The Hop, Swindon

One part of Swindon was in perfect harmony last night, and I don’t mean the traffic circumnavigating the Magic Roundabout. Rather The Lost Trades were at the Hop in Old Town, honouring a postponed gig from September…..

SoP Live, who run a regular Thursday night music club at The Castle, plenty of other gigs, and coordinate the Swindon Shuffle and Swinterfest, arranged this evening’s entertainment at The Hop, the largest of pubs on the Devizes Road area of Old Town with the perfect upstairs function room to turn into a temporary folk club.

A slight music appreciation collective gathered, seated and respectfully keen to value live music of this calibre. On previous occasions when the Lost Trades played here, organiser Ed Dyer explained, “were packed out,” and factors of the lesser crowd were discussed; it could’ve been because it was rescheduled. While free pub gigs thrive equally to overpriced pop star concerts, add even the smallest price to less mainstream acts, as this gig did, sadly seems can reduce its attraction. What we all need to be mindful of is the safety net; dedicated and erudite promoters like SoP guarantee tried and tested acts, ergo paying a small ticket stub is worthwhile for a better class of live music than a pub throwing any old band in for peanuts. Ah, you get what you pay for, but to disregard this notion is to lose venues and promoters. The saddest thing is, that is happening….now. Support them, or become a skint Swifty, your choice.

Whilst Jamie R Hawkins and Phil Cooper of The Lost Trades are no strangers to playing a pub gig solo, the key to the Lost Trades works best at folk festivals and clubs, and arts centres. It is fantastic to think this local export is nationwide now, and judging on their performance last night, something I’ve not caught for what seems like an age, it’s thoroughly deserved. There’s a sense of elevation in their delivery of these soothing vocal harmonies, a consistent strive of improvement, which if it isn’t at its peak now, the summit would be on an angelic level.

Such a while it has been, Tamsin Quin left the trio and has been replaced by Jess Vincent, and I was yet to see that working live, despite fondly mentioning their latest single, Float Me On Your River. As well as performing some other new songs, they opened with this, and notwithstanding Tamsin has a distinguishable voice, Jess makes the quintessential substitution, an exemplar to the ethos of The Lost Trades. Her wonderful vocal range and proficient percussion complement Phil and Jamie’s expressions on equal terms as Tamsin’s, and so The Lost Trades are once again at the top of their game.

And a sublime performance it was, but not before a support act new to me played a divine set of fiddle, guitar and occasional loop pedal folk covers. Half of One is a Swindon duo, fiddler Geoff Roberts and guitarist Neil Mercer, and they’ve played together in folk band SGO who recently disbanded, and who I’m well aware of, and dance band Cowshed Ceilidh Collective. We were treated to some gorgeous English folk pieces, others from the likes of Sam Sweeny, Show of Hands’ Steve Knightly, and a wonderfully delivered Great War song for Remembrance I missed the name of and cannot find online! It was a spellbinding support, which could’ve been the headline for any folk club.

As folk, The Lost Trades have always stated it’s “modern folk,” and with electric guitars and some subject matter I see this, but there’s something uniquely captivating about them which makes it timeless and conjures images of The Carter Family. I may not have been lucky enough to have seen The Everley Brothers or Simon & Garfunkel, but The Lost Trades are vocal harmony perfection to me!

Available at Devizes Books, or message Devizine for a copy!

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Snow White Delight: Panto at The Wharf

Treated to a sneaky dress rehearsal of this year’s pantomime at Devizes’ one and only Wharf Theatre last night, if forced to sum it up in a word, the word would be “delightful…..”

With Ian dedicated to all things theatrical here on Devizine, panto is reserved for my tuppence; that has become as much a Christmas tradition as Brussel sprouts! Snow White is the choice to loosely base the crazy and fun shenanigans around this time, and while I usually attend just to announce what a treat you’ll miss out on unless you’ve a ticket, this time the Wharf has doubled the run to a fortnight, so it’s not sold out … .yet. The question remains, is it worth your while?

The answer is not hiding behind you. Oh, yes it is! Of course it’s worthwhile, silly!

The time, dedication and professionalism which goes into each and every pantomime at the Wharf is something the team behind them should be proud of. This year sees some unity with various local theatre groups, and their talents bless the show. “This year we see people coming from Stagecoach, Potterne Panto, Pewsey Vale Amateur Dramatics Society, Centre Stage Dance Academy, Devizes Musical Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, and Melksham Music and Drama,” director and chairman of The Wharf Theatre, Pete Winterton informed, and with additional scriptwriting from Helen Pritchard, Pete wrote and directed this year’s panto.

Helen plays the face of the magic mirror, brutally honest yet cheeky with the Evil Queen, played with passion and skill by Georgina Watson, from PVADS and who undoubtedly performs the best solo. Yet a truly magnificent antagonist is never a thing without a trusty sidekick, and, no stranger to the Wharf and Stagecoach, twelve-year-old Gigi Underwood takes that role superbly.

Georgina Claridge, perfect to play Snow White, choreographed the show, which, even at the dress rehearsal stage, looked polished. Archer Lee plays the prince, Rory Lee is his chaperone Dandy. There’s a delightful team of seven young dancing villagers, Kira Drezanics, Maisie Lee, Bea Stacey, Myrah Williams, Madeleine Newman, Phoebe Newman, and Coco Fuller, ranging from nine years to thirteen years old and bubbling with talent.

Of course there’s also seven, only slightly smaller people, a running copyright infringement gag, which mysteriously fades after time, and they’re returned to being called dwarfs without explanation, or hopefully, lawsuit, but does a panto need explaining?! If the show is loosely based on Snow White, the seven “associates” of Snow White are a unit of parodies, the most bizarre being Corrin Bishop, who plays a politician version, wittily just waving and shaking hands with the audience akin to a silent film star. Jessica Bone as Nurse seems the natural leader, but Jenni Prescott and Ben Byran add humour with roles called Misery and Snorey, respectively. Kelly Williams and Cameron Williams are either shy and throaty, but the icing on this cake is the youngest and smallest, Smiley, played by Stagecoach student Ella Cook, whose natural flair for dramatics charms.

Then, even more important than any plot, for there is a basic runoff narrative from Uncle Walt’s adaptation of the Brothers Grimm’s Sneewittchen, is the comical Dame and their sidekick. There can be no other team better chosen from these wild woods than Adam Sturges, who dons the drag so divinely, to play Dolly, and his partner Oli Beech to play their son James. Oli and Adam are stalwarts at the Wharf, playing apart they both shine but as a duo they are comical genius, naturally proficient at improv and breaking the fourth wall to take these essential roles, delivering them with hilarity, and binding the panto with joyful audience participation.

If panto at the Wharf follows its own methods which bucks traditions of pantomime, Snow White is no exception, and that is what makes it unexpectedly fun. Nitpicking, I thought it unorthodox to not end the first half with a song, though they right this wrong with such a fantastic musical finale it makes up for it. But, I’m left wondering if slapstick is a thing of the past. Because, cliche or perhaps not politically correct, there was a lack of visual humour in this show; is it too risque for modern kids to see a custard pie in the face?!

Though little ones will not tire of this, it’s fantastic, yet summarised, and doesn’t extend to unnecessary proportions. The humour rests majorly on gags, many of local direction; mocking neighbouring towns, etc. But there are the customary encouraged singalongs, games, and fun pop song adaptations for all ages to love. There’s amusing treats, like the mysterious characters appearing from the woods, and the ingeniously adapted characters’ traits.

Pantomime is the golden opportunity to introduce young people to the theatre, and is the one occasion when those not regular theatre-goers will take a chance. Snow White is a delight, an enjoyable family treat; go see it and start Christmas. The children will be delighted; I was and I’m a 52 and three quarters-year old kid!

Snow White opens on Tuesday 25th November and runs until Saturday 6th December. Curtains at 7:30pm, two matiness at 2:30pm on the Saturdays. Tickets HERE or at Devizes Books.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas at The Rowdey Cow!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Rowdey Cow cafe and ice cream parlour; their Christmas Tree Light Switch On is this Friday, the 21st November…..

If you thought an ice cream parlour was restricted to summertime, think again! It’s the first time the Rowdey Cow near Devizes has held a Christmas light switch on event, and we wish them all the best with it. The fun begins at 5:30pm, and the lights will sparkle at 6pm.

Ice cream might only be for the daring, but they’ve marshmallow toasting and festive food & drinks, plus gift stalls, Christmas crafts, and a cozy Christmas film of which they’re asking children to vote for their favourite on their Facebook page; I’m voting Arthur Christmas, hands down!

Free mince pies and mulled wine if you turn up before the big light switch on at 6pm. They promise a very special guest too. I think I might be able to guess who it might be, and I’ve been good all year, well, good-ish!

And if you cannot make it, there’s lots of chances to have Breakfast with Santa at various dates in December, see HERE.

The Rowdey Cow is at Lower Farm, Devizes Road, Rowde, Devizes, SN10 2LX 01380 829666 info@rowdeycow.co.uk

Steatopygous Album Marks Pinnacle for Sketchbook Records

Raging expressions of angered feminist teenage anguish this month, perfectly delivered by Steatopygous via their mindblowing debut album Songs of Salome, I hail as the pinnacle of Sketchbook Records to date. But it’s only been a year since Simon formed the label. It’s DIY, a contemporary local counterculture ethos; welcome to the Wiltshire underground of the now; there’s more to discover….

There was me, showing my age, assuming Gen Z required Google to know “cassette tape!” But, due to the expense of pressing vinyl and burning CDs, Sketchbook’s Simon looks towards this affordable format, with digital downloads also, to showcase the upcoming talents he finds working at Trowbridge’s Pump.

December marks the label’s first year. A demo by Steatopygous was put onto hand-designed cassettes to punt to Pump visitors last year, but Simon has taken on other bands to feature. Yes, we must praise Steatopygous’ album, but we must also highlight the others too, as they’re released onto Bandcamp for all to access….and buy, people, buy!

“Vinyl has gotten way too expensive and takes way too long to manufacture to make it feasible for short runs,” he explained when chatting about the Steatopygous demo. “For this release, Kieran recorded the band for free, it cost less than £80 for the blanks which I’ve dubbed at home myself. Eliza’s making the inlays by hand and we’ve been able to turn it around in 3 weeks. A 7″ would be, like, £800 for 100 copies and take months to arrive. A cassette means I can just give the band twenty or so tapes to sell themselves, knowing I can make the money back on the rest, and even if I don’t, it’s been such a fun thing to do that it really doesn’t matter. And that’s punk rock, right?!”

Take it from someone who contributed to more punk zines than I care to recall, that is precisely punk! The trading of tapes was the pre-internet equivalent of file sharing, and similarly with photocopied zines, with good intentions variably more sharing or swapping, their distributors sucked it up as a labour of love. I know I did, but I’ve a cathedral of tapes, vinyl, zines and comix, which hold sentimental value, mostly from swapsies.

It may seem surprising to note the DIY ethos remains today, and I’m glad to hear of it. In reviewing them I take into consideration these are produced on shoestrings, that they’re young upcoming acts, and it’s going to sound raw. But just like Ol’ Dirty Bastard in more ways than one, I like it raw!!

Working backwards through the discography then…..

Steatopygous: Songs of Salome

Recorded and mixed in summer 2025 at Nine Volt Leap Studios with Dominic Bailey-Clay, and released this month, Songs of Salome, is a brave and stupendous collection of six outrageous riot grrrl screamo punk tracks, from a Devizes-based female-fronted young band named after the state of having substantial levels of tissue on the buttocks and thighs! Implying, not only a running theme on the psychoanalysis of body image and society’s expectations, but also that they don’t give a flying fuck if you think they create nothing more than a “screamy noise,” will twist any such misdemeaning negatives into positives, and post them as stories on their social media; just one of the two-fingers up at the status quo aspects I love about Steatopygous!

Yet it’s not only the idea if they’re not pissing someone off they’re not doing it properly which makes them punk, there’s solid riffs of what I shouldn’t describe as “traditional punk,” because that’s surely an oxymoron to be spat at; nothing about punk was ever traditional, but I guess what I mean is, it reflects punk’s origins honourably, while still pushing the anger it conveyed to future generations. And in this, I cannot compare them to another of the same subgenre and ask them to excuse my ignorance of nineties riot grrl bands, like Bikini Kill or Bratmobile, though they’ve inspired me to listen to them now, and my finding is, if Steatopygous strives to be an English equivalent, they’re not just on the right road, they make them look tame by comparison.

No one I know of is expressing their poetic frustrations quite like Steatopygous, these six songs prove it. If you identify, if you rethink, it’s in your face if you want it or not. Wall Plug Slug is self-harm themed, depressing in ballad, but still easing us in gently. Cassowary takes no prisoners of patriarchy and sexual relationships, something which rings throughout the album. Marie’s Wedding Song takes us to riffs and themes The Slits might have, but Little Boy is the most poignantly contemporary…. and screamy, making grunge sound like easy listening!

Sceptic really raised an eyebrow when I reviewed it earlier this month, Female CD simply thrashes out till the end of this monster; it’s breathtaking, doesn’t come up for air, and overall, Steatopygous are provocateurs against what’s acceptable, and Songs of Salome launches it back at you in a desirable frenzy, and I don’t believe they care.

It’s an outstanding debut of which I encourage them to drive more in the same direction, avoiding any requests to sell it out.

Until the Last Sunflower: Between Maturity

If mainstream labels require a textbook style artists are contracted to adhere to, the beauty of counterculture is there are no barriers. Until The Last Sunflower is Trowbridge’s Joshua Allen. Between Maturity was recorded in a bedroom early 2025, released in May, and is so vastly different from Songs of Salome it’s at the opposite side of the scale.

It includes tags unfamiliar to me, but “sadcore” and “slowcore” speak for themselves. Lo-fi ambient rock, I’d best pigeonhole it; poignant shards of thoughts and observations from a young eye, dubbed with basslines, piano or acoustic guitar, sometimes building layers, harking back to Spiritized or even the mellowed nu-cool of Bristol’s nineties trip hop scene at its jazzier moments.

Yet its eight tracks literally require horizontal listening. With the deep prose of Syd Barrett being dumped at sixteen years old, I’d have to have had a really shit day to totally appreciate this, but shit days aplenty and Morrisey is a prick anyway; this is melancholy done smoothly!

The lengthy lowercase track names attend to the curious: perks of being a wallflower, please let me forget this memory; just this one, i miss my selfish and ignorant youth, and particularly, cupid vs disgusting men who take advantage of little children. And it certainly takes a gulp of melancholic dejection in an ambience more provoking than chilling. For this, it bucks positivity like raindrops, happy to watch them dribble down a window pane; sombre, emotive, mindful music, I like, on a particular day.

Hurts Worse: Love is Death and Death is all that’s Left

Released last April, Hurts Worse are Mikey and Emma, from Nebraska. A not so sober Simon messaged them to ask if they wanted to do a tape, “and somehow they said yes,” he explained!

This is a collection of eight from their various singles and EPs. Again, dark slowcore, you might gather from the title. Death, graves, bleeding hearts and the one tune most commercially viable called “if you love me please check yes next to the skull carved in my desk,” give an overall of morose subject matters, but it rolls so smoothly, gloomy and angry but not bad tempered in sound. It’s romance at its most bitter, Coldplay gone sour, and for such it’s unique and moreish.

Kurt Alexander: I stepped out into the world and it no longer exists and all was good.

Also released in April, this is a compilation of two albums, originally released late in 2024. Again, best pigeonholed as slowcore punk, though there’s moments upping the tempo, akin to folktronica. It’s dreamer than the others and breaks for some refined bridges of funky bass guitar, electronica and voice samples of poetry or recordings of phone calls.

It’s seventeen tracks strong, often short, experimental in that one blip is the previous tune backwards, and in production I get vibes of Money Mark’s Keyboard Repair. Though I think the downtempo Bristol nineties scene also takes an influence, probably why I’d favour it over the previous two mentioned, personally. But there’s rock here too, crashing metal guitars and acoustic guitar tunes over violin, but so subtly dubbed, it really is an interesting melting pot. If there’s emotive prose like the past couple mentioned it’s done soulfully, and less bitter. Think; Tricky was an indie kid.

Nobody’s Dad: Mixtape

“Not a dad?” this band asks on their Insta account, “don’t worry, neither are we,” leaving no explanation what to do if you are, but you still love this band! I reserve my right to play this mixtape on the school run in dad’s taxi; see how they like that!! The thing is, age is only a state of mind, I absolutely love this, so does my son!

Released in January, this is undoubtedly the most universal and commercially viable of Sketchbook’s back catalogue. That enthral shoegaze sound, female-fronted, drifting and dreamy with hints of grunge. Angel opens the four tracks, with a kick, and I’m contemplating The Cranberries as a comparison. Margo is a please return to me ballad, and is sublime.

You Don’t Communicate, and You’re all I Ever Wanna Be rock it back out, smoothly with those gorgeous grunge layers, akin to I See Orange, and leaving you aching for more. I think I’ve found a new favourite thing. Nobody’s Dad deserves a renowned producer to refine this, as it’s yeah, raw, but booming with so much potential, and that’s the nature of a DIY label like Sketchbook, opening eyes to upcoming talent without the professional angle of “how can I make money from this?” Nobody’s Dad, huh?! Topping this dad’s playlist now.

Kurt Alexander’s cassette covers are individually unique hand-dubbed with green or orange paint and they used a typewriter for the text. Eliza from Steatopygous hand designs their covers and a number of others too. There’s a timeless and individual charm about DIY punk culture which Sketchbook embraces, and in days of AI this is wonderfully personal, genuine, and uncommercially dedicated to a fashion of yore.

I look forward to hearing what’s next, and of course, Sketchbook presents gigs at The Pump, the next is a Christmas party with Nobody’s Dad, Parkii and Kurt Alexander on Saturday 13th December; the kids are alright.

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Chatting With Burn The Midnight Oil

It’s nice to hear when our features attract attention. Salisbury’s Radio Odstock picked up on our interview with Devizes band Burn the Midnight Oil and they gained air time, but the interview was published short of year ago now, and the band have had significant changes to the lineup and their style. So, I the time is nigh to poke my bulbous nose in and interrupt their rehearsal again…..

Formerly a trio, bassist Chris Lane remains with Chrissy Chapman up front, but guitarist Andy Jacobs sadly passed away this year. “Andy was an amazing musician and really helped carve out our initial sonic signature,” Chrissy told me. “We’ve always wanted to acknowledge his creative contributions, given that music ran through him like the letters in a stick of rock. However, for reasons I can’t discuss out of respect for everyone involved, the band collectively decided that it was no longer suitable for Andy to remain involved. We’ve made every attempt to show him grace since that decision but there was a negative backlash. Regardless, we were all very sad to hear he passed away shortly after, and our sympathies remain with his family and loved ones. We’re committed to remembering him in the best light.”

“There was definitely concern about doing the songs justice after we parted ways with Andy,” Chrissy continued. “Eventually, though, we made a conscious effort to develop a new sound that honoured the music while allowing John the creative freedom. The core of our sound now focuses on doing the songs justice rather than trying to replicate what Andy originally brought to the table and embracing the natural evolution of our sound that draws from all of our influences.”

The Original Trio of Chrissy, Chris and Andy

John Lane joined as guitarist, but was making me a cuppa while I was chatting with Ron Riordan, the new drummer. They’ve both been instrumental in forging a new direction for the band, literally! John said of Andy’s passing, “as part of getting through that phase the band has grown,” and Ron added it had “evolved.”

Turning to Chrissy I jested that when we did the original interview, she had suggested they didn’t need a drummer! “Well,” she explained, “we always needed a drummer, but we were able to perform at the time without a drummer because we were percussive enough. And it went down really well. A couple of venues, we did three gigs before we got Ron, a brilliant drummer!”

Ron stepped in immediately at a crossover period between Andy and John, a proficient drummer who told me he had played in a few ska bands in Swindon, “I started playing drums when I was about nine, in orchestras and learnt to read music, that type of thing.” I smiled; he looks like he can blast a Two-Tone riff. “That’s the thing though,” Chrissy said, “because straight away we had DOCA’s Winter of Festive Ales booked. So it was like, everybody had to jump on really, really quickly. And we wanted to use that as an opportunity to do the originals.”

It was on the strength of the demo I asked them to play RowdeFest, I hadn’t seen them performing before. But the committee was encouraging me to find a covers band. “We followed your advice about doing the covers,” Chrissy said, though it wasn’t really advise, rather a way to get them booked! I’m so glad they did, they were dynamite and feedback was overwhelming. The kind of band you’d think had been on the circuit for years. “I felt that we were at the party at the end of the day!” John remarked, and they certainly was.

“What was nice about that is it the focus was about ‘let’s give people a show’ rather than it just being about ‘let’s get our songs out’,” Chrissy explained. “Your influence was about getting a show to give to people, keeping people up on their feet, so and not allowing those breathers.” I did encourage them to ensure they blasted some originals out too, though, which they did!

“We tried to dress it on different levels of the visual,” John stressed, “wearing the outfits, the recognition of known songs, and the come on, party time!”

“Yeah, it worked, didn’t it?” I replied, a template to liven up a pub gig, and Burn the Midnight Oil are certainly getting them. The Queen’s Tap in Swindon and Kings Arms in Amesbury their recent outings, but how do they feel about how far they’ve come?

“Given that the new face of us being coming up a four piece with Andy’s departure in January, to get that in the space of a year, well, less than a year,” Chrissy said, “as a new lineup, I think it’s quite incredible.”

It’s the added drums which changes it, I supposed, surely essential for a harder rock feel.

“It changes the scale of the presentation,” John added. “It’s now got drive and rhythm rather than being listening for the lyric. It’s actually motivated, it hooks into people’s natural sense of rhythm, and you can’t help it. First thing people take in is rhythm, then melody, last of all, lyrics. So if you hook the first bit, you don’t get the second one, then they come back for the lyrics. So we’re attacking it from the best angle.”

Here was were I felt a healthy division between John and Chrissy’s perspective, as she began to speak on where she drew inspiration from in the writing and a change in direction from intrapersonal to interpersonal. She drew from personal relationships and her faith, implying her writing was key, but the difference was never confrontational and a good blend of opinion is surely necessary to compose the elements of a song professionally.

“I had a tsunami of a creative spell, and wrote twenty songs in as many days. So we’re now, everybody’s having to play catch up, trying to get them polished!” Chrissy explained. She labelled her past songs as an “angsty teenage phase,” and felt her songwriting about “good guy/scumbags” had evolved and matured into “something more universal. It’s not so much like a diary, it’s definitely becoming more cryptic. It’s pulling in a different kind of imagery and symbolism. And then, because I’m faith-based as well, I’ve given a lot of inspiration taking verses from the Bible that have really helped me through difficult times. I’m weaving them, not to be preachy, but just to be like, this is my story.”

“We’d like the two songs we did at the award ceremony, to polish it up more, get a scratch track done, and then we’re going to go back to Matt Miller’s Dusty Shed, who did the original three.”

“We can’t really use the original EP anymore. And also, it’s fair to say with John’s influences, and the way that we’re allowing space for his creative flow to come into it, it just sounds different.”

John pointed out his mixer was adequate when I pondered if they needed a producer. Chrissy replied while it would be “fantastic,” she crunched numbers and said they, “really want to get onto the festival circuit, and that means having tracks done ASAP.”

Captivating to listen to Chrissy delving deeper into the inspiration behind her songwriting and the maturity she felt it levelling to, in which she exclaimed with much delight, “it’s definitely been refreshing having John’s influence, him sharing how he sees it as a viewer. Because you write what you know, and unfortunately, I’ve been exposed to quite a lot of things that I don’t think many people would ever want to be exposed to. And being able to find hope and joy in some of the songs and being able to write happier songs. For the first time ever, I’ve written two love songs! I’ve never written love songs before! So, there definitely seems to be more universal themes.”

Yet as fascinating as it is, hearing Chrissy’s writing motivations, John revealing the technical side to their development, Ron adding splices of drummer-fashioned wit, and together them trying to summarise their change in direction whether it be a more rock-blues or dark-country, only to finally decide it unnecessary to pigeonhole it anyway, it makes for a laborious read, so I thought I’d inject a light-hearted, more physical observation with Chris, who otherwise, I suspect, would’ve remained silent, save occasionally strumming his bass!

It was that I heard Jimi Hendrix had extremely long fingers, I noted so too did Chris, and wondered if he considered it an asset to playing guitar! John jested, “it’s like watching a spider running up and down a hot plate!” Ron pointed out his stumpy fingers, “I’m a drummer; I’ve just tried to learn the bass guitar and I can’t get my hands anywhere round the neck of the guitar like Chris can!”

Chris exampled pianists’ tendency to have stumpy fingers. “You look at Elton Joh or Les Dawson, they’ve all short fingers, but they can play like crazy! I can get away with some stuff, but some of it’s more, arguably, bad habit than good! But I can get away with having long fingers rather than good habits!”

A fellow of far fewer words than the front girl, evidently, but when he does its witty self-mocking is worth it’s weight in gold and sparked a humorous angle to the interview in which, while Chrissy justified his dexterity and nimbleness, Ron favoured to joke about Chris’s dancing on stage, “which is brilliant. I love it!”

John praised the firmness of Chris’ bass, “you’re methodical, you’re listening. I’m done wondering if he’s bored to death as I explain something to him, as he’s sitting there taking it in. It’s not till you go and think he’s got it.”

They all seemed content with each other, and John effectively “keeping them in line,” and this brought up the subject that they abstained from drinking while performing. “One rule I was pretty adamant about,” John explained while Chrissy and Ron laughed about being “hyper,” “is drink and music don’t mix. If you’re going to load it up, don’t expect to be any good at the music. Because we’re there to make the party for everybody else.”

“Yeah,” Chrissy joshed, “so I’m not allowed to have a pre-shot of tequila, which is really good because I definitely noticed a habit where I needed the Dutch courage in order to get up and I started realising, this is a bad habit that I don’t want to become dependent on. So it’s two-wayed. You were definitely enforcing it. And I tried to be more mindful of it and just get up despite feeling nervous. And I get nervous every single time still.”

Aside the notion everyone gets butterflies, we moved between passionate subjects like the local circuits and venues and getting further afield, and we ventured back into songwriting inspirations, but I wanted them to nail it into a summary. “In a nutshell,” Chrissy said, “we’re focusing on rhythm and melody so that the lyrics can shine through. And we’re drawing inspiration from real life. Trying to make them more universal and a punchy sound. Rocky, bluesy, layers musically and lyrically; say that, Darren!”

Okay, I will! And if you want to hear this band progressing, follow their socials for gig updates. They’ll be in Devizes on Sunday 14^th December, at that tropical holiday resort in the Brittox, The Muck & Dunder, with a fundraiser for Ugandan orphanage His Grace Children Centre Bugiri, which they’ve organised themselves.

In true Christian spirit Chrissy annually organises a fundraiser around the yuletide, which she did as a soloist ironically titled One Trick Pony. Ironic because, she lent her vocals to drum n bass tracks, returned to town to learn guitar and perform acoustically, and now there’s Burn the Midnight Oil; a proficient four-piece who, merging experiences in varied genres, refuse to pigeonhole their developing style, and has an angelic vocalist with a penchant undaunted to delve deep into her psyche and faith for inspiration, and oh yeah, a bassist with long fingers!

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Local Author’s Book Reveals Why Devizine Isn’t Funny Anymore

Devizine can reveal how a new book by a local author might possibly be the reason why Devizine isn’t as funny as it used to be….

Devizine, it used to be funny, but sadly it seems it’s not so much anymore. Who took the banana skin from under its flip-flop? Who failed to give it a raspberry on the bouncy belly? Editor and creator of Devizine, Darren Worrow might have discovered why.

He said, “It’s a disgrace. This so-called author Darren Worrow has channelled all his pathetic attempts at humour into his new book Murder at the Scribbling Horse, and hardly bothered sharing anything the slightest bit amusing here on Devizine, as he once did; typical liberties from a loony leftie! And now he expects me to blow my own trumpet and sing his praises; what a pretentious twat! Shamelessly plugging his own book on his own website is surely proof.”

“Set in the fictional Wiltshire market town of Slapam-on-the-Fye, which is nothing like any real Wiltshire market town you might know of, it claims to be a murder-mystery, but the only true thing it murders is English literature.”

“Neither is there any subtlety in it either, like there is with Devizine,” Worrow waffled on sorrowfully wallowing. “Worrow takes no prisoners, has gone all out and created an absolute work of filth; an offensive joke book with a sham narrative, just so he can say disgusting things about various celebrities, politicians and anyone else he doesn’t like, despite the good honest work they’re doing to keep Britain free from logic and empathy.”

“With the mouth of a sailor, it downright disregards any level of intelligence locals might possess, and paints them all as so utterly idiotic the narration of the story has to be conveyed through the point of view of the pub dog; I don’t think that’s funny at all. The dog is a depressing nihilist, who uses the opportunity to put the human world to rights, rather than getting on with telling the story, that’s why it stacks up over 500 pages. 500 plus pages of meandering woke filth, I might add.”

“Using a facade of a murder mystery, in which the frontman to a tribute act is murdered in the pub whilst they organise a fundraising music festival, as the plot thickens like moulded yogurt around his genitalia, it goes as far as disgracefully making a mockery out of petty local politics too. It’s the biggest crime against pop since David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s cover of Dancing in the Street. I’d rather lick that yogurt off than buy this book, but that’s probably what this sick perverted tyrant wants us to do.”

“You’re not going to enjoy reading it, as tea can scold you if dropped in your lap through laughing too much. Therefore I call upon Steer Karma and the government to ban this book for health and safety reasons.”

“This thing wouldn’t have been published under Farage, you know? And thousands of flagpoles will now have to be erected to counteract the unpatriotic damage done, at the taxpayer’s expense too.”

The author of the book, Darren Worrow, rebukes comments made by the Devizine editor, Darren Worrow. “That guy is as thick as a Boxing Day turd and pissing into the wind,” he said. “Other than the fact I have released a new book, the rest is slanderous lies and Devizine will be hearing from my lawyers. Murder at the Scribbling Horse is a fascinating psychological study and critique of the modern world, questioning our nonacceptance of aging and the social and political issues it raises; with added knob jokes.”

The author became irate, claiming, “for eight long years I’ve been tirelessly promoting everyone else for peanuts. I’ve not even had the opportunity of taking a bath since, and I look like a Yeti past its sell by date. It’s about time I thought about myself for a change, and everyone can bloody well return the favour by buying my book!”

Eighties post-punk sensations Johnny Bunion and the Verrucas’ most successful album, The Legend of Castle Grey Scholl, 1981.

Whatever happened to Johnny Bunion? His legend burnt out long before his candle ever did.

But the more pressing question must be, was it connected to the murder at the Scribbling Horse public house in the narrow-minded Wiltshire market town of Slapam-on-the-Fye, some forty plus years later? And if so, how?

To answer this you’ll need to research, and my book, Murder at the Scribbling Horse will be the only way to do that.

If there’s ever any proceeds from the book, they will go to a much needed new Lynx Africa deodorant set, and a Brazilian back, sack and crack wax for the obnoxious author; the twat needs it, he looks like Posie from the Flumps’ rustic vajazzle.

Seriously though, being funny is the only thing I’m serious about. If you laughed at any part of this internal press release you’re a bit weird, and the ideal target audience for my book! You’re going to laugh a kazillion times (that’s a zillion zillions) more with a copy Murder at the Scribbling Horse in your grubby mitts. And even if you’ve no sense of humour, you know a good Christmas present idea when you see one!

You can buy the paperback online here. And the e-book here. It’s out for global distribution but buying direct from Lulu cuts out the middle man and gives the best royalties to the authors.

Not for sale to children or the over sensitive, though; as if I needed to say!

Murder at the Scribbling Horse is available at Devizes Books for a reduced price of £20, and next Saturday 22nd November, I’ll be in the shop praying to the Norse god of biscuits someone might stop by and purchase a signed copy at the super reduced price of £20!

If you cannot make it, you can message me and I’ll personally deliver you a copy if you live locally. I still need to work out posting & packaging costs, so message me if it needs posting and I’ll let you know about that asap. Happy reading…well, I say that but do I really mean it, I mean, really?!

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Barrelhouse are Open for Business with New Album

Rolling out a Barrelhouse of fun, you can have blues on the run, tomorrow (7th November) when Marlborough’s finest groovy vintage blues virtuosos Barrelhouse release Open for Business, their third studio album indicative of their astounding live show…..

Tim and Stuart’s dramatic guitar riff from the off, Dave Growcott’s drums kick in and Open for Business doesn’t wait around for you to hang your barn jacket on the juke joint’s hall tree. Nick’s growling harmonica strides into the room next, all guns blazing, and we’re like a greyhound out of the traps when Martin grits his teeth and presents his deep encapsulating howl.

If the black cat bone mentioned as the title of the opening tune is a hoodoo lucky charm for protection and luck, it’s unnecessary, expeditiously it magically assures you’re in for a rocky ride to the dusty crossroad, with minimal pitstops and without the need of any such luck.

It doesn’t calm the zest frenzy until the third track either, an absolutely sublimely haunting cover of The Beatles’ Come Together, where Hedi’s backing vocals compliment Martin’s with such unbelievable harmony it smooths out the pace welcomingly.

Things go country for a ballad to Lydia, which I snooped through the interweb searching for an original version only to be informed by Nick Beere, more than just a mouth organ, rather the producer and engineer behind the album via his studio Mooncalf, that guitarist Tim wrote the song. Reason for my research being, it’s magnificence is instant, it simply sounds like a singalong country classic akin to The Band’s The Weight, which is also superbly covered penultimately on the album, btw. Then it’s back to full steam blues workout when they repropel Muddy’s mojo, a second Muddy classic into the melting pot, and belt the living daylights into Canned Heat’s On The Road Again.

Classic Americana come edgy blues rock cover choices, the ambience of Barrelhouse I’m illustrating you might wrongly convey in generalisation as “they’re a serious bunch of hard rock dudes,” but there’s a subtle frivolousness in their delivery which charms a crowd. Their labour of love is reflected joyfully outward to an audience without a pretentious mood, and fondly thrown back at them with an enthralled response, making their shows atmospherically interactive and thrilling. The experience in comparison to your atypical morose blues band is one rather of danceable merriment; a tick from me.

If a song is original it’s hard to distinguish them from classic covers, Barrelhouse combines them into a seamless show, and makes an irresistible party album. A party appealing to Mantonfest’s youthful fanbase, who’ll invade the dance area when Barrelhouse mount the stage, and impress the matured Devizes blues aficionados with equal measure.

A Bo Diddley beat polishes this album as a grand finale, but if polished ramped serious blues cuts melds with an effervescent delivery is their working formula, its true beauty rests in the simplicity of its production. There’s no technical studio skullduggery here, no manufactured overdubs; what you hear is what happened in real time. Each song is recorded in a single take, making it not just authentic but the perfect representation of their energetic and entertaining live show. Something the band pride themselves in. If you’ve ever seen an amazing band live, only to be disappointed by the CD you brought because it didn’t match the splendour rawness of their performance, this is not the case here. Open for Business is taking the Barrelhouse show home with you. That’s why it’s a keeper.

But don’t take my word for it, next Saturday (15th Nov) sees the album launched at St Peter’s Marlborough, with support from 7pm. It’s free and copies of the album will be available on CD and vinyl. And if you can’t wait for that, this coming Saturday (8th Nov) Barrelhouse will turn the Devizes Southgate into their own juke joint, a legendary occasion blossoming in modern folklore, as Devizes loves the blues and word got out via a toothless milkman.

Failing these options, they’ll be donning Santa hats and bringing out the tinsel at the Bear in Marlborough on 20th December, when you can almost taste the pigs in blankets in the ether.

Misinformation Alert: Wiltshire Council’s Lift on Paid Disabled Parking Will Not Affect Your Council Tax

Confirmation on the lift was published on the Wiltshire Council website, 22nd October 2025, stating “with full Council now backing the change, Blue Badge holders are once again able to park free of charge in all Wiltshire Council car parks.” The scheme forcing disabled blue badge holders to pay for parking was introduced by the former Conservative-led council in 2022.

Cllr Martin Smith, Cabinet Member for Highways, said, “I’m delighted that Full Council has supported this important change. Reinstating free parking for Blue Badge holders is a significant step towards making Wiltshire a more inclusive and accessible county. There are more than 30,000 Blue Badge holders in Wiltshire, many of whom face mobility challenges or rely on others for transport. This policy recognises the barriers they face and promotes fairness, independence and dignity. We know that many Blue Badge holders also experience lower levels of income, and this policy change will help them financially, too.”

But it was matters of finance which sparked debate on local social media groups last week. Devizes Town Councillor Iain Wallis published a statement on his own-managed Facebook group Devizes Issues, claiming Wiltshire taxpayers will foot the bill in their council tax. I thought I’d fact-check this because I pondered that simply lifting the charges surely wouldn’t incur too much cost, if anything.

It seems the ‘subsidising’ of Blue Badge holder parking comes out of the general car parking revenue account, NOT our council tax.

M&D Lib Dem Campaign Organiser Nathan liaised with some councillors to provide some clarity. It seems the ‘subsidising’ of Blue Badge holder parking comes out of the general car parking revenue account, NOT our council tax. “Any surplus from that account is reinvested into transport schemes,” he continued to explain, “so if anyone is subsidising it, it’s other car park users. However, what it does is allow blue badge holders better access to shops and other facilities, which should lead to better profits, so more corporation tax is paid in.”

The Wiltshire Council press release stresses, “we’re updating the signage as soon as we can,” so obviously there’s a small cost there, but otherwise, it actually stands to potentially generate revenue via corporation tax gained by better retail profit. But aside, the bottom line is, the cost to update signage wouldn’t have been necessary at all if the previous Conservative-led Wiltshire Council hadn’t enforced parking charges on disabled drivers in the first place.

Dammit, Janet, this is going to backfire on the Tory ex-councillor with a reputation for banishing users of his Facebook group who spread apparent “misinformation,” but then, he should not be spreading misinformation himself, surely?! Ooh, could I speculate the spread of misinformation on Devizes Issues is acceptable if it fits a certain narrative approved by the admin? Who’d have possibly imagined it?!

Looky here, the last thing I want to do, or would ever do, is make verbal personal attacks on anyone. Though, when calling out the spread of misinformation concerning local matters, this one town councillor and ex-Wilsthire councillor’s name pops up frequently. While he may favour playing the victim card, as he has done with us in the past, this serves only to fact check claims made, and is not intended to be a personal attack. It never was personal and it certainly isn’t now.

It is simply that, even if you are fit and able to walk or travel by bus, and you think disabled people paying for parking doesn’t affect you, it might one day not be the case. Ergo, if you are fit and able, you are perfectly within your rights to find free parking elsewhere even if it means a short walk and you pay nothing towards the small cost of changing some signage; storm in a teacup!

Disabled people may not have that option, and therefore the introduction of parking charges for blue badge holders was an unjust stealth tax by the former Conservative-led Council. In conclusion, it is evident and unfortunate that you should take what you read on Devizes Issues with a pinch of salt. The move by Wiltshire Council should be viewed as a benefit to the communities it serves, and they should be congratulated for reversing the decision to charge disabled people for parking fees.

Kirsty Clinch’s Fundraising Christmas Song Racing Up iTunes Charts

Wiltshire country singer-songwriter Kirsty Clinch released a Christmas song only yesterday, raising funds for the Caenhill Countryside Centre near Devizes, and it’s already racing up the iTunes country music charts….

It’s one thing to get your song out locally, but Kirsty was excited to announce that she, “woke up this morning, and we are still in the top 10 of the iTunes country music charts and 180 in the overall charts, not only that, last night I saw we hit 7!”

In collaboration with the Caenhill Countryside Centre, a charity project which brings countryside learning to children and communities west of Devizes near the Caen Hill locks, The Best Christmas Ever was mastered by Peter Lamb, with Kara Robertson and Lorna Carroll. Kirtsy describes it as “cheesy but addictive, cute but meaningful, and it definitely has a twist dance and country vibe to it!”

Founder of First Melodies Music School, Kirsty has even choreographed a fun dance routine to learn too. A video of Kirsty showing us the moves is on social media, (Facebook – Instagram) and encourages children to send their own video of them doing the dance.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kirsty Clinch (@kirsty_clinch)

The preferred way to buy it is on iTunes, because it’s raising funds for the charity, and will go towards the future of the farm project and the animals there. “It makes me incredibly happy and proud as an independent artist,” Kirsty said, “that’s always been told they are not good enough!” No idea who would’ve dreamed of saying this, but they deserve a sack of coal from Santa this year!

“Let’s keep the hype going until Christmas,” Kirsty says; we agree and send you Christmassy blessings! Christmas number one, I say, with your help: download the song HERE.

Joyrobber Didn’t Want Your Stupid Job Anyway

A second track from local anonymous songwriter Joyrobber has mysteriously appeared online, and he’s bitter about not getting his dream job…..

If this mysterious dude’s August invective track at racist talk show host Jeremy Kyle, and his patronising attitude, it feels like him telling me he’s “not one for holding a grudge,” might have a smidgen of irony too! His grungy pop-punk response to his career rejection might be biting satire, but amusing with it.

Eight and a half years ago, he claims, he was cruelly denied his dream job by what appeared to be a corrupt interview process. Perhaps it was to take over from Kyle, but Joyrobber reveals nothing, even after I badgered him for a clue to his identity.

What we do know is it was produced by Sugarpill Productions, a parody of hip hop pioneering label Sugarhill, has the vocal engineering talents of Jolyon Dixon, and is rather catchy with a highly amusing hook. I Didn’t Want Your Stupid Job Anyway is indicative of how we all might feel after a failed interview but being British, we bit our tongue. A bolshy after-contemplation with dry implications, in a Weezer skater-punk two-fingers up fashion.

I don’t believe for a second he’s pleading for sympathy, just to get the frustration off his chest by thrashing a guitar at it. If you’ve been there too, you’ll identify, making me like this more than the debut single, because I’ve an incalculable history of bodged job interviews, likely because they were all knobs as well!

It’s up on Spotify, downloadable from Bandcamp with a “name your price” option, and it’s Marmite, love it or hate it, it remains a sticky spreadable extract to get over your dysphoria, but not sing at the Job Centre.

Devizes Chamber Choir Christmas Concert

It’s not Christmas until the choir sings, and Devizes Chamber Choir intend to do precisely this by announcing their Christmas Concert, as they have done since they were founded in 1978…..

Devizes Chamber Choir is a group of around thirty singers, with a broad repertoire from acapella, through chamber works to major choral masterpieces including The Creation and Elijah. Their programme comprises of three seasonal concerts annually, a spring concert of standard classical works, a summer concert of lighter music and a seasonal Christmas concert of carols, and obviously it’s the latter which is coming up next; deck the halls!

The Devizes Chamber Choir’s Christmas Concert of Seasonal Carols and Songs will be held on Saturday 6th December 2025 at St. Andrew’s Church, Long Street, Devizes, with Music Director and Conductor, Shaun Holley.

Concert evenings offer a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere with refreshments available during the interval. Tickets can be purchased by clicking HERE.

They are a non-auditioned choir, so there is no singing test, but they do expect an ability to read music and of course an enthusiasm to sing. If you are interested in joining the choir, come along to a rehearsal to meet them. Look at them on the featured photo, it doesn’t look like they bite, (though Devizine cannot be held responsible if I’m wrong!) They rehearse on Tuesday evenings between 7:30pm and 9:30pm, at St. Andrew’s Church, Long Street, Devizes.

More information on Devizes Chamber Choir HERE.

A Positive Week After Wiltshire Music Awards

All Images By Helen Polarpix

Best part of a week since Stone Circle Music Events’ Wiltshire Music Awards and I’m still at one thousand feet about what we achieved, and dealing with a cascade of feedback. While some of it has been appreciated constructive criticism, that crazy playground called social media is such that some comments have become unfair, misinformed or even blatantly untrue. I prefer to remain positive, thanks all the same! And here we are, beginning to see positive after effects of the whole grand shebang……

I’ve loved seeing winning and runner-up acts, if not just posting pictures and videos of themselves proudly grasping their trophies, but using their win as an accolade on gig posters and bios. If that’s not a positive outcome in a time when the whole hospitality industry is at its knees, I frankly don’t know what is. Try proving me wrong on this, I double-dare you and might even throw in a Twix for first prize!

There was also the whole “convention” side to the event too, which saw networking between musicians and venues, radio stations and promoters, and the general get-together of folk usually individually dispatched to their respective gigs on a weekend. I have already seen gig posters with added support acts who didn’t know each other before last Saturday, and radio plays for bands featured.

From my good friend Charlotte reuniting with Lifetime Achievement winner Peter Lamb, the producer who took her hopeful nineties girl band under his professional direction, to Fantasy Radio DJ, Mark Lister, who mentioned the awards on Scott Mills Radio 2 morning show, the attention the awards are seeing is phenomenal and the after effects are beginning to flourish.

If Sunday’s piece was a reflection on the night as a whole and a statement of the issues we unfortunately faced. Let today be about our fantastic acts who performed, for that’s where sparks flew and obviously the nature of what we were celebrating.

Ruby Darbyshire

In order of appearance. Go on, admit it, you didn’t know the sublime Miss Ruby Darbyshire would be present, did you? I managed to not let the cat out of the bag about our opening special guest, despite my excitement!

At eighteen, Ruby is as her name suggests, a gemstone on our circuit. A multi-instrumentalist with bagpipes under her championship belt, a singer-songwriter with an exceptionally soulful voice which puts expression into her diligently crafted writing. Originally the plan was for Ruby to blow a tune of her own choice from her bagpipes and scoot off to another gig in Bradford-on-Avon, returning later in the evening. But we couldn’t let her go without at least another song, her magnum opus to date, Crowded Lightbringer, and then she played a second. It was the best opening ever, even if I was blindly operating the curtains like a bell ringer!

The Britpop Boys

Hey, honestly, I was a raver in the nineties and viewed Britpop as regressive, but I now see its worth and respect the succeeding generation who see them as classics. Being such, we see a lot of cover bands performing Britpop anthems, with varying degrees of skill. The Britpop Boys have been on my must-see list for donkeys but our paths hadn’t crossed before. I’m glad that’s sorted and sound, for they were off the scale brilliant and totally ‘avin’ it are kid.

I was sitting on the stage’s sideline in awe of The Britpop Boys, it could’ve been Madchester in 1996. The sound and appearance held me spellbound, and I felt I should write to The Oxford Dictionary to redefine the word “cool” as “see Britpop Boys!” Yeah, they did Wonderwall, of course they did, but if it’s a cliche cover choice for most, it’s because it’s a beautiful crowdpleaser, and had to be done given only three songs. The ultimate thing about this was, they knocked it out of the Corn Exchange and into the stratosphere; I’ve never heard it done with such attention to detail and precision to honour the original.

Burn The Midnight Oil

If I’ve seen one new band begin wobbly and develop over time I’ve seen a hundred. But Burn the Midnight Oil is one of my most favourite newcomers to the Wiltshire music scene, for the simple reason that it feels like they’ve been here forever, as their ability to deliver crisp blues-rock originals and stamp covers with their own divinity is something to behold. Like mobile phones, you think, how did we ever survive without Burn the Midnight Oil?!

It’s as if they honed their skills over decades and perfected the harmony of a classic rock band in their eighties which toured since their twenties, even if they might have, they did so individually, but that seam never shows. Their perfect performance proved this, it was nothing short of brilliant, fresh and invigorating, showing us what they’ve been working on, a beguiling harder rock sound; they look the part, they sound it too, I have high hopes for them.

Matchbox Mutiny

Ben was great as a soloist, Pat was too, together it’s a magical connection to charm the pants off a donkey. This cover act could easily work anywhere, from crusty cider festival to wedding reception, it’s got universal appeal. Their set was amazing, Ben might have accidentally hit me on the head with his guitar but they were awesome, and I’ve had worse on my rock n roll journey!!

It might’ve knocked some sense into me, but I know what I liked anyway, and Matchbox Mutiny are high on that list.

George Wilding

George went next, and yeah, this is where we had technical sound issues. Professional till the end, George worked through it, and as a stalwart spirit on our circuit, George is modestly legendary, for his back catalogue of sublime originals and new songs flourishing to his entertaining interactive solo covers show. See our mention of the warm up gig from Friday at the Three Crowns, if you don’t already understand why we love Mr Wilding!

Lucas Hardy

With various issues arising the evening was in need of a reset. I apologise, I announced an interval, thinking Lucas could prepare and we could hold a team talk. Just like George Wilding, Lucas is professional and motivated to the core. He came out like a boxer for a championship belt fight, psyched up for it and couldn’t wait for the bell! Therefore I attempted to recall the interval idea as quickly as possible, because Lucas Hardy was like a greyhound out of the trap! And what an outstanding performance, rinsed with sheer brilliance, Lucas is no stranger to award winning, it’s easy to see why.

Nothing Rhymes With Orange

As it was it was impossible to estimate how much time the award giving and other acts would take, I apologise if we wrongly assumed time was against us and lengthy speeches were deemed something unpredictable enough to encourage people to keep them short if at all. The original plan therefore was that our Devizes homegrown heroes, the teenage band which shook the rafters of this market town and deployed their exceptional talent to Bristol to further the phenomenon of Nothing Rhymes With Orange, were to play out until the end.

We finished earlier than expected, the barriers broke down, and there to help create a needed frenzy of excitement, ready and eager, was this successful Devizes export, for a hometown return like no other. Nothing Rhymes With Orange were mindblowingly fantastic before they left for Uni, now it’s a monster.

I was ecstatic to see the guys again, and they threw everything into their solid performance, as they always do. They return to Devizes for the Arts Festival, something we would’ve been singing from the highest tree about anyway, but after last Saturday, it’s surely unmissable.

I’ve given my thanks already, I’d like to do it again, to all our performing acts, for you made the ceremony, you furnished it with your brilliance, and that was what the night was always supposed to be about; cheers!

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 anxiety and mental health concerns, I might take your point as marginally valid, but I’d add politely as I possibly could, “have you, perchance, had the pleasure of listening to Steatopygous? They’re from Devizes, don’t you know?!” Then I’d await the pending detonation of a shocked expression…..

That’s punk, and what it set out to do decades ago, and that is the quality hidden within the rolling drums, raging guitars and screaming vocals of this homegrown riot grrrl four-piece who with their latest single Septic will shake the foundations for as far as it’s willing to travel. Septic, if anything previous from Steatopygous will be the baseplate on how they move from here. Whilst it remains DIY, as it should, it has the produced balance of natural progression and leaves you anticipating what’s to come from this emerging band.

It’s punk on a SmallTown Tigers level, in your face and demanding you pay attention.

On the theme of body image, it takes no prisoners. Fronted by Poppy Hillier with bassist Eliza Brindle, drummer Ewan Middleton and an additional Rufus on guitar who wrote the song, Steatopygous, you’ve really gone and done it now; this is a pinnacle track to your development as a force to be reckoned with, this is outrageous, and I love it!

The Wurzels To Play At FullTone 2026!

If Devizes’ celebrated FullTone Festival is to relocate to Whistley Road’s Park Farm for next summer’s extravaganza, what better way to give it the rustic feel than The Wurzels, who have just been announced on the line-up?!

If Somerset’s Scrumpy and Western genre has fermented longer than a cider press from folk roots, it’s surely The Wurzels who brought mass attention to it with their number one parody of Melanie’s Brand New Key, The Combine Harvester. The staggering thing about this is, it was in 1976, but what’s more staggering, is people are still singing it today, and likely will be at FullTone Festival on 11th & 12th July 2026!

Organiser of FullTone, Jemma Brown said of the booking, “there’s not much more we can say to that!” But you know me, I’ve always got something to say, and I’m saying that is a fantastic surprise which only remains to add to the already brilliant show the orchestra and guest acts will deliver.

What else we do know at this early stage, is the huge fifty-piece orchestra will play through sets of Holst’s The Planets & Star Wars, a Symphonic Queen with Ricardo Afonso, The Best of Motown, an eighties spectacular and Devizes-own BBC radio DJ James Threlfall will be on the dance anthems.

If I wonder what songs the Wurzels will play, top choice has to be I’ll Never Get a Scrumpy Here, which contains the line, “’Cos you never get surprises livin’ in Devizes,” and spurred my rant column of the same name, you might remember it. I did write to them to ask permission, they were too busy drinking cider to be in any way concerned. I asked if it was sly stab at our brewery, or that Devizes was as far eastward they favour to venture, but they explained it was used because it rhymed! Well, they’re venturing here in July, and if they give us the key, we can all have a brand new combine harvester.

Wiltshire Music Awards: Results and Ups and Downs

Well, we did it! I sincerely hope you had a great night at the first Wiltshire Music Awards as we filled the Devizes Corn Exchange with a cross-section of people involved in the music scene of Wiltshire, musicians and fans. Positive feedback already, and a few teething issues, noted, which we must take onboard and learn from….

But for those who unfortunately couldn’t make it, I guess you are eager to hear the results. Let’s do this easy bit first! But before we do, I ask you, please, to take a few issues into consideration. Firstly, there was a monumental process to arrange, coordinate and launch during and also months prior to the ceremony. From the voting process and organisation of a panel of judges, to decorating the tables and corresponding all those trophies to each category.

So many volunteered their time to help with this, and we are extremely grateful to them. Overall, the management of the whole process and ceremony was carried out by Eddie Prestidge of Stone Circle Music Events. Eddie worked arduously on this project, and was dedicated to creating an extravagant event to be remembered. With the help of so many volunteers, myself included, stage tech and the staff of the Corn Exchange, I believe we achieved this to the best of our abilities, and a fantastic evening was had by most.

There should have been one more trophy, it should’ve been big, extra shiny, and presented to Eddie for his dedication and the tireless work he put into this. Exhausted, Eddie fell ill a few days before the ceremony, but strode through it the best that he could. The end result of this was that he was rushed into hospital a few hours prior to the conclusion of the ceremony. I have heard from him this morning, and he’s doing okay.

If you witnessed me on the sideline, rushing up and down the stairs like a headless chicken, it wasn’t my step aerobics workout, it was because I was honouring my part as co-host on stage but attempting to coordinate the floor as well, as best as possible, as Ed seriously needed to take a step back. Whilst the beginning therefore went to plan, as the evening progressed we stumbled on issues, but I ask you to please take this into consideration if you’re intending to criticise the evening on social media. I apologise for any breakdowns in communication, but the condition was out of our control and we strived through best we could.

Results

The results, then. Congratulations to everyone who bagged an award, commiserations to those who did not. To those unable to attend, we have trophies reserved for you and will arrange the best way to get them to you as soon as possible.

Best Venue. Sponsored by Pat Robertson of Trowbridge Motor Supplies ltd.

Runners Up: The Royal Oak, Pewsey. The Vic, Swindon.

Winner: The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon.

Best DJ: Sponsored by Mark Anthony Burdge.

Runners Up: Maurice Menghini – DJ Mister M. Mark Lister of Fantasy Radio.

Winner: Paul Alexander of Solstice Sounds, This is How We Do It Entertainment.

Best Drummer.

Runners Up: Tom Gilkes. Callum Rawlings.

Winner: Jamie O’ Sullivan.

Best Bassist. Presented by Alex Morgan of Waldrop Salisbury Sounds.

Runners Up: Nick Gorman. Nick Beere.

Winner: Mark Turner.

Best Guitarist.

Runners Up: Alastair Sneddon. Nick Beere.

Winner: Jolyon Dixon.

Best Duo.

Runners Up: Jolyon Dixon & Rachel Sinnetta. The Sylvertones.

Winner: Matchbox Mutiny.

Best Covers Band. Sponsored by Simon Woolley of The Three Crowns, Devizes.

Runners Up: Pinky & The Slapcats. The Unpredictables.

Winner: The Brit-Pop Boys.

Best Original Band: Sponsored By Peggy-Sue Ford of Don’t Stop the Music on Swindon 105.5 Radio.

Runners Up: Nothing Rhymes With Orange. Burn The Midnight Oil.

Winner: Talk in Code.

Best Tribute Act.

Runners Up: Painted Bird. BC/DC.

Winner: Mick Jogger & The Stones Experience.

Best Female Artist.

Runners Up: Sammi Evans. Rosie Jay.

Winner: Ruby Darbyshire.

Best Male Artist. Presented by Lesley Scholes of Fantasy Radio.

Runners Up: Lucas Hardy. Vince Bell.

Winner: George Wilding.

Best Original Song.

Runners Up: I Don’t Give a Damn by Rosie Jay. Do I Really Have The Blues by JP Oldfield.

Winner: All In by Talk in Code.

Best Instrumentalist.

Runners Up: Ruby Darbyshire. Andrew Hurst.

Winner: Jolyon Dixon.

Rising Star New Comer.

Runners Up: Ruby Darbyshire. Rosie Jay.

Winner: JP Oldfield.

Best Vocalist.

Runners Up: Chris Stevens. Lucas Hardy.

Winner: Rachel Sinnetta.

There were four special awards given out on the evening which didn’t receive runner-up places as according to the information given to the hosts. If there was an oversight about this, we apologise.

Outstanding Contribution to The Wiltshire Music Scene was won by Colin Holton of Salisbury Live.

Outstanding Contribution to Music in the Community was won by Jo Baines Robbins.

A Special Award was given to Wiltshire Hop & Harmony, The Wotton Bassett Dementia Choir. The Second Special Award was presented to Brian Mundy of BMS Stage Tech.

A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Peter Lamb.

Ruby Darbyshire opened the evening with a bagpipe song and two others, as a surprise special guest.

We also had live performances from Nothing Rhymes With Orange, Burn The Midnight Oil, Lucas Hardy, Matchbox Mutiny, George Wilding, and The Britpop Boys. Due to technical issues, Jolyon Dixon and Rachel Sinnetta were unable to perform.

I would like to sincerely thank our panel of judges.

And, Ruby and Brian Darbyshire

The Britpop Boys

Burn The Midnight Oil

Matchbox Mutiny

Lucas Hardy

Jolyon Dixon & Rachel Sinnetta

George Wilding

Nothing Rhymes With Orange

Sponsors:

Val Bewley VB Arts Studios

Alex Organ Wardrop Salisbury Sounds

Colin Howton Salisbury Live

Pam Robertson – Trowbridge Motor Supplies

Simon Woolley – Three Crowns, Devizes

Peggy-Sue Ford – Swindon 105.5 Radio

Mark Jones & Lesley Scholes- Fantasy Radio

And a sponsor and our host DJ Mark Anothony and wife Sandra.

Thanks to Anya and Marc of Soupchick.

To Ian and all the staff at the Corn Exchange

To Brian Mundy and BMS Stage Tech.

To everyone who got behind this, I thank you.

Anthony & Jemma Brown for helping us set up.

Charlotte & Moray MacDonald for help on the front desk.

But massive thanks goes to Eddie Prestidge and Stone Circle Music Events

And finally, thank you for coming, supporting the local live music scene.

Wiltshire Music Awards Begins with George Wilding at The Three Crowns

This afternoon sees the inaugural grand ceremony of Stone Circle Music Events’ Wiltshire Music Awards taking place at the Devizes Corn Exchange. It’s a sellout show celebrating our county’s music scene, with a lot of local acts performing between the announcements of the results of a public voting system. The legend who is Mr George Wilding kicked off proceedings with what was supposed to be a warm-up party last night at The Three Crowns…..

The temperature dropped and the rain came in, and if that didn’t make the term “warm-up party” seem a smidgen dubious, I’m not sure if anyone else attending the awards other than myself, Jolyon Dixon setting up the PA and George himself made it to the evening; best guess they’re saving themselves for the big day today! Nevertheless, it was a fair turnout and those who did come were treated to Geroge’s human jukebox show and came up trumps, singing and dancing the October chill away.

Equally ambiguous as the warm-up is the term “human jukebox” to describe Geroge’s show, for if a jukebox doesn’t have the song you want it cannot play it. George has a plethora of classics in his repertoire, the audience are encouraged to shout them out, and should they request something George hasn’t a handle on, he’ll attempt it anyway, play a riff of it, and declare he doesn’t know it in his droll way. He might try a medley of the parts he does know with other songs of the same artist, he might look to the audience to help with lyrics, and if all this fails it becomes part of his amusing and interactive show.

Far from a man with a guitar and a setlist who frowns at the idea of requests, does his shift and pulls out. George took no break, played overtime, and seemingly adored every minute. I gather this was his mainstay while working the cruise ships and imagine the cruisers delightedly returning each evening, but such voyages for George are on the backburner and while he doesn’t mind running a covers show, he’s otherwise in the studio with producer Jolyon Dixon building a catalogue of original tracks in which he is toying with the idea of releasing as an album.

But the Three Crowns love a covers show, and George delivered such in this interactive way there can be no arguing his brilliance to entertain and his skill as a musician. So, should an audience member request, as one did, The Eagles’ Hotel California and he ponders it’s a bit slow to fit with the pace of previous songs, he’ll up the tempo. An apt Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head opened the show, and George will set the ball rolling, but once the audience catch the drift, he’s never without a request, and will either attempt the most obscure or tell them in the most charming way that they’re really testing him!

As it was I requested The Ronnettes’ Be My Baby, aware the soulful doowop earworm was a personal favourite George used to regularly put in his set and put his own stamp on. He nodded in fond remembrance, and the regulars approved, dancing on the cobblestones. But I only asked for one, the rest left up to the modest crowd, really feeling they were part of something unique and special, because that’s George’s ability and that’s what has made him one of our fondest favourites on the circuit for many a moon. “Total ledge,” I understand is the gen z terminology!

I cannot tell you if he is to receive an award tonight, but I believe he deserves to; I will announce the winners here as soon as I recover tonight, for those who cannot make it! If you’ve not got a ticket for the awards, there’s a whole list of events happening on our event calendar; just look at it! Just look and see how many are music gigs, and realise the strength of our local music scene. That is what we celebrate tonight, and yeah, George will be singing a song, along with many others. I’m on curtain duty! See you there!

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 years olds….

It’s an introductory session on video mapping and projection mapping, hosted by PF Events and run by a professional video engineer. These sessions will cover the basics of projection mapping and introduce attendees to the software used to create beautiful works of technological art.

These will be preliminary sessions used to build the content for the final video map that will be projected onto St Johns Church on the night of the lantern parade on the 28th November.

This is an opportunity to gain an Arts Award certificate while training and learning. You’ll produce a record/log to tell the story of your journey through the process of making this work of art. You’ll learn about relevant artists who create similar work, and share your journey with others.

Training will be at The Lounge on 25 Sidmouth Street, Devizes SN10 1LD, on dates 15th, 22nd and 28th of November, from 09:30 – 13:00 and 14:30 to 17:00, 16:30 to 20:20 on event day, 28th November. Ages sixteen to twenty are welcome and up to twenty-five for SEND participants.

There are limited places available so enrol quickly to avoid disappointment!

Enrol HERE

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 first notes ring out. Quite familiar with Swindon’s beloved Dylanesque singer-songwriter Jol Rose, Ragged Stories is another notch in his sublime discography you simply have to listen to on repeat….

Similarly there’s many attempting Americana, a few leave themselves open for criticisms of cliché or authenticity while others refine it with a certain level of finesse, then there’s Jol Rose. Prolific writer and recording artist, but a perfectionist with that defining quality to paint mind masterpieces through his music.

Though Jol has no standalone anthem, there never seems to be a magnum opus and fans select a wide range of his songs as their personal favourites. His portfolio is never samey, nor completed. Euro ballad Meet me in Berlin makes an appearance on this new album, and is one of my favourites from last year’s album, Peace, Love & Americana. But this is a stripped back acoustic version, and that’s the thread through a variety of themes and temperaments; this Jol, raw.

There’s other stories of travels; two songs venturing over to the USA it wouldn’t be Americana without, and some Road Boogie to boot. But it’s not without ditties of homebased subjects too. If Springsteen writes romantically of New Jersey gangland warfare, why can’t Jol humbly justify Swindon’s attractiveness with a certain beguiling jollity?! But if Swindon Saturday Night is tongue-in-cheek, Not My Cherie takes cheekiness to a whole other level, as a jokey French rejection from Swindon Conservative Councillor Cherie Adams.

Yet if Not My Cherie doubles-up as his social political observations and Liars & Thieves, makes its political stab humorously, the others on this sixteen songs strong album are far more poignant than satirical. A battle with corruption, Eucalyptus Lullaby opens the album, with the lines, “As I lie on a bed made of ashes, and ponder the wreckage below, I survey all the things brought upon us, by ignoring what we should have known,” which confirmed we’re in for brilliantly constructed anti-establishment prose.

Perhaps none more than Day & Night Collide, underlining our anger and ignorance hiding our fears in regards to immigration. If you only listen to one song before going to a polling station, make it this one.

Afternoon Nightmares, is relationship bittersweet, the most Dylanesque, and yes, Jol tackles romance themes with equal edge. In its simplicity Beautiful Denial is gracefully wonderful, but my biggest surprise came via Love Story, a simple title which does what it says on the tin, and you might recognise it, but Jol stamps his mark, and makes this Taylor Swift cover his own.

Just man and guitar, the pure essence of sole quality, and in Jol Rose it is exceptional, this album showcases it without pretence or ignorance. He’s a figure of reality in a world gone sour, and he expresses it sublimely.

CD of Ragged Stories is available from Jol Rose’s website HERE.

Trending…….

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“Antony and Cleopatra” at the Rondo Theatre, Larkhall, Bath, October 18th 2025.

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Vince Bell in the 21st Century!

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Vince Bell in the 21st Century!

Unlike Buck Rogers, who made it to the 25th century six hundred years early, Devizes’ most modest acoustic virtuoso arrives at the 21st just short of twenty-six years late! We’re looking at Vince Bell‘s EP, Songs, Poetry and Motivation, as it makes off for a futuristic online adventure…..

Devizes knows “our Springsteen” Vince, loves Vince, unless they’re selling tickets for “The Bin.” “It’s three quid to get in,” Vince jests in a song popular with locals, as reasoning for not attending the town’s only nightclub, which is actually quite reasonable these days! Its references strictly imply Devizes, but the concepts could relate to another market town, that song of his. Composed of contemporary scuttlebutt and twisting it into urban legend for intoxicated natives to chant the chorus’ self-mocking punchline about never leaving, back at him, if Vince is, (and deserves to be leaving at least on a national tour,) branching worldwide, this one rightfully doesn’t appear on the EP.

When plugging his new Spotify account to me, we meandered onto the better between the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, after he confessed his family encouraged him to put his songs online. A self-deprecating retrospective attitude relayed in Spiderman Pajamas, which also doesn’t appear on the EP, and was likely the reasoning behind the world waiting so long for Vince to give into the virtual realm.

Vince doesn’t have stars in his eyes, he’s an unassuming musician who sees it as an eternal labour of love. Yet in true folk fashion, his guitar finesse is equal to his delivery of some genius wordplay, and that love for more universal observations are of those five tracks which made his own exceptionally high level of EP grade. Songs of local satire or retrospective are adored here, but concentrated observations are more universally acceptable.

Though the opening title Lisa’s Kitchen has obvious personal, homely connotations. It’s a five minute sketch comparing the cliche places of solitude to the simplicity of a family kitchen, and an apology for casually acting on promises made in the freedom of this daydreamy oasis of ménage calm.

The guitar riff rolls intensely after this, and things aren’t so calming. Haunting like embers randomly sparking from a campfire, for First Fire of Winter. This song is a summary of the contemplating sentiments evoked by a fire; of trust and conviction, weakness against strength, pain of loss and fire in a heart of longlost boys homecoming. When Vince mentions “submissive machines in a world that’s gone too far”, and “God’s own simulation,” it’s a vehemence against war, yet while the poetry is poignant enough, it’s the urge in his delivery which drives the sentient home.

With a more lighthearted and playful muse, Monkey Puzzle Tree is a metaphor for the progression of time and the difficulty in the acceptance of ageing. Whereas in Preacher, Leaders and Dealers, the contentment in delivering fear are compared and contrasted from all three classifications, and is delicately expressed with perfect pathos.

We’re Between Earth & Paradise for the finale to this outstanding EP. There’s an instrumental two-minute opening where intricate guitar-work sets a scene of seemingly encapsulating the beauty of nature. Despite the title, there’s still dark pressure in the narrative in the form of bleak news stories, but it offers an escape with a virtually heavenly premise. And in this, it sums up the EP and Vince’s impressive ability to conjure and project vivid images and lucid ideas within his music, a rare gift.

Though this is commonplace in the celebrated artist, so too is modesty and undervaluing of one’s own work, risking it falling into obscurity unless we take it upon ourselves to shout about how engrossed, entertained or enthralled we were, on their behalf. Vince has, and here I am, advising you to take heed, not because he’s a friendly guy locally gigging on my circuit, though he is, but because Vince’s music is breathtakingly brilliant and deserves a far wider accolade than that which a Wiltshire market town can provide. This EP proves it.

Oh yeah, catch him down the Southgate, Devizes, on Thursday 30th October 2025 for a session with Tamsin Quin; see what I’m on about if you don’t know already!

Stone Circle Music Events Wiltshire Music Awards 2025: Programme

Less than a week to go until the first ever Stone Circle Music Events’ Wiltshire Music Awards at the Corn Exchange, Devizes. We’re not printing a programme of events, so here’s everything you need to know about the ceremony this coming weekend….exciting, isn’t it?!

Firstly, all tickets have now sold out, sorry! But if you’re coming or not, there will be a free warm up party on Friday 24th October at the Three Crowns Devizes, where we will be entertained by the incredible George Wilding. Everyone is welcome!

And now onto Awards Ceremony on Saturday 25th October 2025.

The doors open at 17:30pm. The bar will be open, and we have scrumptious tucker available from Soupchick. Chilli beef or vegan alternative with rice, with nachos, cheese, sour cream and guacamole toppings; £7:50 for a bowl, I’m in!

Please arrive as soon as possible so we can get everyone seated. There will be music in the hall. I’ve come over all Jive Bunny, and created a mega-mix of local music! I’ve tried to display the diversity and quality of the Wiltshire Music Scene and cram as many songs as I can into one hour; it’s been no easy task.

Being I accept you’ll all be chatting rather than listening, I’m kinda proud of my virtual DJ skills, so for prosperity I’ve leave the mix here so you can listen at your own risk!

Tracks are listed here; apologies if your song isn’t there, I tried to include as many as possible.

Jamie R Hawkins – Not Going Anywhere, Gaz Brookfield – Tale of Gunner Haines, Tamsin Quin – Home, Griffiths & Hollingsworth – Ocean, Andrew Hurst – Tower of Fallen Heroes, Timid Deer – Shallows, Kirsty Clinch – Stay With Us, Deadlight Dance – Samurai Sunset, Will Lawton & Ludwig Mack – Atlantic ‘O, M3G – Waiting, Phil Cooper – Bijou, Concrete Prairie – I Wish You Well, JP Oldfield – Magpie, Jol Rose – Make Some Hay, Thieves – I’m Coming Back, S’Go – King of The Fairies, Sarah C Ryan Band – Woman in White The Worried Men – Manacle Alley, Junkyard Dogs – Suzie Q, Deadlight Dance – Love Will Tear Us Apart, The First Book of English Magic – Richard Wileman, Barrelhouse – Mainline Voodoo, Aural Candy & Sienna Wileman – Mirrorball, Jon Amor – Peppercorn, Daisy Chapman – Waterloo Sunset, Canute’s Plastic Army – Hollow Children of Men, George Wilding – Dirty Dream Balloon, Ruby Darbyshire – Don’t Give Up Now, 41 Fords – Emily, Liddington Hill – Maid of Mayhem, Ursa Way – Chasing the Sun, Boot Hill All Stars – Night Bus, I See Orange – Doll Guts, The Belladonna Treatment – Bits of Elation, NervEndings – Democracy Manifest, Nothing Rhymes with Orange – Monday, Talk in Code – All In, Cephid – Terminus, Subject A – Paradise.

Now, the Awards Ceremony begins at 18:30…. on the dot!

Please make sure you are seated by 18:20. If this sounds all a bit like orders barked at you from your cub scout leader, there’s good reason: We’ve got a lot to squeeze in, and secondly, you don’t want to miss the opening of the show, believe me!!

We’re not revealing our very special guest opening the show, so don’t even try bribing me with booze! Then you’ll meet the hosts, DJ Mark Anthony and myself.

Stone Circle Wiltshire Music Awards Event Schedule

18:30: Opening Act (Nope Still not Telling!)

1. Best Music Venue

2. Best DJ

3. Best Covers Band

Live Performance: Britpop Boys

There’s a champagne supernova trip back to the nineties with The Britpop Boys, renowned for blasting those sing-a-long anthems across the county and beyond.

1. Best Drummer

2. Best Bassist

3. Best Guitarist

4. Best Duo

Live Performance – Match Box Mutiny

Ben Borrill and Pat Ward, aka Matchbox Mutiny, will be there, the lively Devizes-based duo who never fail to charm.

1. Best Original Band

2. Best Tribute Artist

Live Performance – Burn the Midnight Oil

Devizes own Burn The Midnight Oil will be playing. They’ve come so far in such a short space of time with their own brand of breezy blues-rock, and they’ve a new song to play us; we’re excited to see them perform.

1. Best Solo Female Artist

2. Best Solo Male Artist

Live Performance – George Wilding

Our lovable legend George Wilding is a name most of you should know, and he’s coming to play a few songs, of course he is!

1. Best Original Song

2. Rising Star Newcomer

3. Best Instrumental

4. Best Vocalist

Live Performance – Jolyon Dixon and Rachel Sinnetta

Then there’s Salisbury-based Joylon Dixon and Rachel Sinnetta – a duo who raised the roof off the Three Crowns recently, but I knew it was coming as Rachel’s supreme vocal range and Joylon’s professional accompanying will enthral all.

1. Outstanding Contribution to the Wiltshire Music Scene

2. Outstanding Contribution to Music in the Community

3. Special Awards (1)

Live Performance – Lucas Hardy

Award winning Lucas Hardy is coming too. Loved on the Salisbury circuit, Lucas will delight you, for what will be, I believe, his first time playing in Devizes; I could be wrong!

1. Special awards (2)

2. Lifetime Achievement Award

Live Performance: Nothing Rhymes with Orange

Devizes homegrown indie-rock phenomenon Nothing Rhymes With Orange will polish off the evening. They created a storm locally a few years ago as a teen sensation, the likes of which I claimed to be the “Beatlemania of Devizes!” Now studying together at Bristol Uni, their popularity has spread nationwide. Back home they have inspired a new generation to form bands, and we welcome them back delighted.

Evening closes around 11:30pm, when you have my permission to drag me down to the Exchange nightclub below and buy me a Bacardi Breezer!

I look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday, and I hope you all enjoy the evening.

I would like to thank our sponsors: Stone Circle Music Events. Trowbridge Motor Supplies. DJ Mark Anthony. VB Art Studios. The Three Crowns Devizes. Don’t Stop The Music Radio Show. Our guest announcers, Ian and the staff at the Corn Exchange, Devizes Books, and Fantasy Radio.

Deadlight Dance New Single: Gloss

You go cover yourself in hormone messing phthalates, toxic formaldehyde, or even I Can’t Believe It’s Not Body Butter, if you wish, but it’s all the same soap but in a different bottle to me. Lab mice with slap and economical slaves in sweatshops, so unethical multinational bastards can prey on your vanity, when unless you can photoshop yourself for real you’re never going to look like the girl in the magazine; the actual girl in the magazine doesn’t even look like the girl in the bloody magazine! Ah, our dynamic gothic duo Deadlight Dance are onto them, with a brand new single out today….

Edgy and with synths heavy enough to make New Order blush, Gloss attacks the beauty industry, its harmful lies and unrealistic standards, in an era most pop stars are encouraging it; good on them…. Deadlight Dance that is, not the pop star!

Punk enough to meet the Stooges, yet the dark electronica of Joy Division mostly, it comes in laden for its three and a half minutes entirety. Nick and Tim state it’s not strictly typical of the forthcoming album that the band is releasing in 2026, yet they always apply a unique and innovative narrative, so we look forward to whatever direction it takes.

For now, though, Gloss is a storming dark sound, with Nick’s howling vocals somewhere in the distance, sighing the same thought-provoking lyrical content we’ve come to love Deadlight Dance’s for. It’s a monster in Dior.

The duo have held our attention only last week with a great gig at Devizes’ Cellar Bar with JP Oldfield. But if the live show is blossoming, Gloss does likewise for recordings. Ah, top production again from that purple-bearded legend Nick Beere at Mooncalf Studio.

Out on Ray Records and streaming worldwide across all platforms from Friday 17th October 2024. Gloss is accompanied by a video on the band’s YouTube page, another collaboration with Haunting the Atom.

Deadlight Dance suggests it’s a new chapter for the self-styled Wiltshire Gothic; I welcome it, and as I’ve said before, whilst I was a mere window-shopper to gothic rock in its heyday, Deadlight Dance caused me to realise what I missed.

Right, review done, I’ve got to go shave my eyebrows off, and draw them back on with a Sharpie…..

“A Bunch of Amateurs” at the Wharf Theatre, Devizes, October 13th-18th 2025.

by Ian Diddams
images by Chris Watkins Media and Ian Diddams

Whilst probably best known for his editorship of “Private Eye” magazine and thirty-five years as a team captain on the BBC’s wonderfully satirical “Have I Got News For You”, Ian Hislop has also over time turned his focus to screen and playwriting. Amongst the five plays he has co-written probably the widest known is the one that has also been made into a film which starred Burt Reynolds, “A Bunch of Amateurs”. This week the Wharf Theatre, Devizes, performs the stage play albeit without Burt Reynolds!

The general plot of the play is a simple one – ageing, fading, Hollywood ex-A lister signs up to star in Shakespeare’s “King Lear” at “Stratford” to find that in fact it isn’t the Royal Shakespeare Company he will be performing at, but a village hall one hundred and seventy miles away at “Stratford in Pigshit”, where the local amateur dramatic society are trying one last dig at surviving by attracting a celebrity to perform with them to boost ticket sales.

The play’s style and plot follows in the grandest traditions of British comedies of creating a nonsensical scenario and running with it as if it was thoroughly possible, with the usual hilarious misunderstandings, fallings-out and fallings-in along the way before a glorious finale where everything pans out perfectly and everyone is happy ever after.

Directed by Lyn Taylor, there is a delicious irony – or indeed really homage – in a play about an amateur company being put on by an amateur company… and here we can look at that label “amateur”. As an adjective to the noun “dramatics” the combined term often has a negative inference amongst many, but the reality is such consideration is to malign high standard productions and consummately skilled performances. To quote from a google search on the etymology of “amateur”

‘The word “amateur” comes from the French “amateur”, which in turn comes from the Latin “amātor”, meaning “lover”. It originally described a person who loves and practices an activity for the passion of it, rather than for money.’

And there is the nub of it all – in this play, “King Lear” is being performed by a group of people that are doing so through love for the art form, and of course Lyn’s direction and perfect casting has brought together a group of amateurs performing this play for love of the art form. And talking of cast …

Gary Robson plays the allegedly professional Jefferson Steel, contracted to play King Lear himself, encapsulating the arrogance and insouciance of the Hollywood star in self denial to his waning star. He embraces the personality shift of his character’s journey from self centred egoist to life embracing acceptor bringing a palpable warmth to Steel’s persona. Steel’s daughter, Jessica, is delightfully and impishly played by Megan Hughes who herself moves her character’s unforgiving, surly teenager to loving offspring while taking the opportunities presented her with aplomb, as we can see mirrored in her deserved inclusion in the cast.

The inevitable ultimate love interest is superbly provided by Ange Davis as Dorothy Nettle, director of “King Lear”. Ange really drives the show along as the pivotal character for decisions and actions within the plot and she delivers this smoothly and thoroughly believably, with warmth and understanding when portraying Dorothy’s insecurities allied to the protagonist’s passion. Dorothy’s total opposite within the company is Nigel Dewbury, excellently represented by Matt Bragg as the loathsome, self promoting and supercilious solicitor with pretensions. Its kudos to Matt that he has created a perfectly toe curling portrayal of Nigel, as well as sporting an extremely fine collection of bow ties during the show!

Two more depictions of lovers of their art, both full of over the top keenness and desire to become closely associated with Steele are from Steve Brookes as handyman and low key jobsworth Denis Dobbins, and Claire Abraham as local B&B owner Mary Plunkett. Steve’s comic timing for Dennis’ daft ideas is sublime, and his mobility scooter driving skills are thoroughly fine tuned to boot! Claire is simply brilliant with her initially gushing and fawning spinster acting, turning to surly and spurned grump!

But all productions need finances and so enter stage left Louisa Davison as the slightly slimy, cocksure marketing type Lauren Ball whose husband’s brewery is bankrolling Steel’s visit, with appropriately named bottled beers including “King Beer”! Louisa encapsulates Lauren’s executive-going-nowhere-slowly persona with ease and aplomb.

The whole show is kept smoothly on the rails by Stage Manager Jess Sneider who also arranged the genuine beer bottle labels mentioned above, with tech delivered perfectly as ever by “The Tech Team” on the simple but highly effective set built by John Winterton and his team and all wrapped up with music by Sam Warner.

“A Bunch of Amateurs” is a simple to follow, laugh out loud, gentle and inoffensive comedy that will appeal to everybody – it’s easily worth the two hours plus interval of your life to sit back and enjoy the silliness in the lovely Wharf Theatre, Devizes.

“A Bunch of Amateurs” runs from October 13^th to 18^th at 7.30pm each evening, and tickets are available from https://www.wharftheatre.co.uk/show/a-bunch-of-amateurs/

JP Oldfield & Deadlight Dance Down The Cellar

I mean, Devizes own contemporary blues throwback, JP is getting bookings, and rightly so. He’s off to Trowbridge’s Lamb next Saturday for a double-bill with Joe Burke. Likewise our favourite Goth duo Deadlight Dance too, Tim showing me some fetching snaps from Friday night’s gig at Frome’s Tree House. But sometimes it’s nice to play an intimate home gig you DIY, so we’re down The Bear Hotel’s Cellar Bar, reviving a once beloved venue with alternative options to Devizes’ status quo…..

And it was; Nick Fletcher and Tim Emery were on the cobblestones first, attired marvellously macabre with whitewash faces; All Hallows’ Eve comes early for goths, and they don’t require Haribo! Equally terror-fically tenebrous was their set, sublimely shadowy synths, then their gloomy guitar rhythm fragments darkened by Nick’s howling vocals. When they came for air you could hear a pin drop.

Deadlight Dance found my inner-goth and devoured it some years ago, still their show improves like a fine Dracula’s blood-wine ….with age and nightly kills! They worked precisely through several tunes from their three albums, concentrating particularly on Chapter & Verse, last year’s gothic literary inspired outpouring. They sprinkled the set with covers, a synth-driven Cure’s Just Like Heaven, for example, quite different from the acoustic version on their breathtaking homage album, The Wiltshire Gothic.

They finished on their ghostly reverberating post-punk makeover of Heartbreak Hotel, because if you’re a goth duo planning to cover an Elvis Presley song, one about a lonely man jumping from a hotel window is apt. Then they stripped it back for an acoustic wandering through the crowd encore.

Herein lies the connection which made a double-bill of post-punk goth and rootsy blues work; JP Oldfield duties the plaintive projection of original southern blues, often termed gothic. Therein the expression of rural, economically disadvantaged African-American communities, and through his gorgeous bass vocal range, the metallicity of his resonator and pounding suitcase drum, it’s about as authentic as you’re going to get on our local circuit.

Yet if JP’s writing is foreboding and disquietude, in line with its influences, some of the darkest corners of his debut Bouffon wasn’t inclusive at this live show, and replaced by some outstanding, intricate and rightfully resonate guitar-work; plus there’s always the kazoo and his natural banter to brighten things up.

His latest single polished off an amazing set, No Rest, indeed. It embodies everything progressive about this rising star’s skill and bittersweet panache; a fellow who can hold an audience spellbound despite being, perhaps, an acquired taste. But I challenge anyone critical to stay whilst JP thrusts out House of the Rising Sun, making it his own, as it’s so befitting to his encapsulating style. Yet the broadest evaluation of JP Oldfield is simply that, through his dedication and blossoming experience he continuously improves. It is this then which encourages me to call this gig in, slight in attendees which it unfortunately was as the chills of autumn blast through, the best and most passionate I’ve seen JP play.

Mind you, I groaned about the weather shift to Nick of Deadlight Dance, who replied with positivity. Apparently, he likes Autumn, I joked, “that’s because you’re a goth and I’m a milkman!”

I do hope we can find more gigs down the Cellar Bar, and bring it back to its former glory, a sentiment I believe will be reflected by the live music hunters of Devizes.

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CrownFest is Back!

Yay! You read it right. After a two year break, CrownFest is back at the Crown in Bishop’s Cannings. So put a big tick onto the 4th July 2026 in your diary, and maybe jot down 1st November this year down too, because that’s when the first set of fifty early-bird tickets will go on sale, a snip at just twenty quid….

With an iffy weather forecast for July, one Saturday in 2023 I found myself waiting for bus 49 in Devizes, and met with a group of kindly but disorientated folk attempting to get to Bishop’s Cannings for the second Crownfest. I assured them I was heading there too, so all they needed to do was follow my lead.

As it was you couldn’t miss it; the bus stopped right outside. On the journey a number of people were wondering which stop to get off at and so I assured them too. It was at that point I addressed the entire bus, as everyone looked up for a party, “is anyone here not going to Crownfest?!” Seemed only the driver wasn’t, and probably would have if he wasn’t working!

That poor bus driver would’ve loved it, as it was a far better attendance than the inaugural one the previous year. Even torrential downpours didn’t stop the fun, as its fully deserved outstanding reputation had blossomed. It was a fantastic event, check my words on it HERE. Unfortunately due to a change of ownership Crownfest wouldn’t see its way to a third this sumner. But every cloud, literally, has a silver lining. Crownfest is back and recharging for 2026; Bishops Cannings has never had it so good!

Save the date and Stone Circle Music Events will save the day. With camping available, this is a golden nugget on this summer’s local festival hotlist. The only returning act will be Kinisha, the Tina Turner tribute act called (and undoubtedly is true) Simply The Best. Kinisha turned my head around about Tina Turner tributes; we don’t need another hero if we’ve got her headlining, oh, but we have…. lots of heroes.

Firstly, while we’re on tributes, this one is my recommendation; someone listens to me! It’s Ant Trouble, the Welsh Adam & The Ants tribute which I’ve been dying to get a gig locally since I witnessed their lively and precise volcanic eruption at Swindon’s Vic in February 2023. This is so good when some Facebook wombles prompted AI to write a piece on the real Adam Ant, it nicked my photo of Ant Trouble! I dunno, who do I sue for that, The Terminator?! Nevertheless, prepare for some ant music.

The remaining lineup consists of only the toppermost acts on Stone Circle’s books. If I say indie-pop darlings Talk in Code will be there, that’s surely enough to entice you. But there’s pioneers of ukular fusion with Mother Ukers Ukuele Band, The Tipsy Gypsies will enthrall with lively folk goodness, and it’ll get all Celtic when the sublime Publicans get on that stage. Five-piece Salisbury rock band Innovator will be there, alongside acoustic goodness from George Wilding and Lucas Hardy.

Fantastic lineup, wonderful pub with great tucker, camping, or with that trusty 49 bus running later now, you could potentially bus it there and back, provided the bus driver isn’t Tina Turner’s number one fan, feels an uncontrollable compulsion to dance like there’s no tomorrow, and shouts “end of the line!” What more do you want?!

Does Pop Music Really Stand The Test of Time? Sixties Tribute Night at Devizes Corn Exchange Could Be Our Only Hope!

All Pop Master T-shirt wearers would like to think it does, but will the music of an era stand the test of time? Make a record, seal the deal, surely? True, your songs will be immortalised, but will they be remembered, or will they sadly be sadly archived, to slowly fade through generation gaps…. unless Ed Sheeran covers one?!?

Growing up in the eighties we ransacked our parent’s records. Ergo, I know my fair share about the music of the sixties, despite only being an itch in that decade. Similarly, my daughter can name a whole list of groups, singers and songs from my era, the eighties, but can she go further back? Can the younger generation even begin to imagine their grans and grandads frolicking at a love-in with eyes the size of saucers and wearing nothing but flowers in their hair, racing helmet-free on motorbikes into the night, drinking whiskey from a bottle until they dropped, then waking up in Mick Jagger’s bed with four others?!

With three teenagers loitering on my sofa I thought I’d get all Tony Blackburn on them, and distract them from TikTok to find out. That’s the knives’ edge I live on in order to provide you with such engaging content! Being there’s a triple headline sixties tribute act bonanza forthcoming at the Devizes Corn Exchange on the 31st October, with tributes to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the Who, I thought I’d ask if the Gen Z of my family were remotely aware of any of them, or if they were more Gen Zzzz!

The result, though far from surprising, was a smidgen disheartening. My daughter knew of The Beatles, and named one averagely obscure song which happened to appear in a Marvel movie soundtrack. The boys didn’t have the foggiest, so I wasn’t holding any chances for the others. My daughter’s fella had heard of the term “rolling stone,” but didn’t realise it was a band name. My son shrugged at the lot, and all asked “who?” when I name-dropped The Who; unsure if that was clarification or coincidental!

Incidentally, they all knew the 2010 Maroon 5 song, “Move Like Jagger,” but only my daughter guesstimated Jagger might’ve been the frontman of one of the bands I was referring to!

Without getting any satisfaction, unless I resolve to forcibly thrusting pop history down their throats like it was on the GCSE curriculum, yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away, as it seems all of them will get fooled again, know not of the pinball wizard’s supple wrist, Ruby Tuesday or Lucy in the sky with diamonds, and I wouldn’t even attempt to explain why I’d like to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden in the shade. Where’s Jack Black and his school of rock when you need them?!

Streaming music might affect future generations from becoming aware of music before their time. Without physical copies who knows where this will end, music will be throwaway, and maybe the nineties welcomed that concept in. But everything is online, even if Sgt Pepper might have adverts for Marks & Sparks Food Hall, it has to be worth trying to educate our youth that pop music would sound a whole lot different if it wasn’t for the sixties and bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who!

So, here’s food for thought; though you might presume this Ceres Promotions triple headed sixties tribute show might be something for the Saga holidaymakers, perhaps you should reconsider, and see it more family outing, a vital history field trip?! Musicians of the sixties fired all their guns at once and exploded into space like a true nature’s child, whereas ours are content browsing Instagram with a bag of Haribo. We cannot stand idly by and allow this to happen!

Tickets are HERE fill your boots made for walking, that’s just what they need to do, and march them to the Corn Exchange on Friday 31st October rather than trick or treating, or one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!

Fantasy Radio to Attend and Broadcast from the Inaugural Wiltshire Music Awards

As the excitement continues to detonate to an exploding point for our very first Stone Circle Music Events Wiltshire Music Awards on 25th October, we are thrilled to announce that Fantasy Radio, Devizes’ own beloved local broadcaster, will be joining us on the night in a special media partnership role…..

Represented by Lesley Scholes and Mark Jones, Fantasy Radio will be interviewing winners and nominees throughout the evening, capturing the stories, emotions, and celebrations as they unfold. These exclusive interviews will be broadcast on Fantasy Radio after the event, giving listeners across the county a chance to share in the fantastic moment.

In addition, Fantasy Radio will proudly display promotional banners inside the Corn Exchange on the day of the event, further cementing their support of local music and community talent.

One of the event organisers Eddie Prestige, UK Director for Stone Circle Music Events expressed his delight at the collaboration. “We’re honoured to have Fantasy Radio involved in our inaugural awards. Their passion for local talent aligns perfectly with our mission to celebrate the incredible music scene here in Wiltshire. We’re especially grateful for Fantasy Radio’s offer to assist during the evening. It’s this spirit of community that makes the event so special.”

The Wiltshire Music Awards will take place on October 25th at the Corn Exchange, Devizes, bringing together musicians, industry supporters, and local media for an unforgettable night of recognition and entertainment. All tickets have now sold out, unfortunately, but the demand continues and excitement builds.

To add my own tuppence as one of the organisers, “it’s great to see Fantasy Radio onboard with this project, and I’m over the moon to watch the attention for this event blossom, from our early planning stages with Eddie and myself, to the point we’re at now, with a sold-out Corn Exchange, seven live acts performing for the evening, plus lots of surprises and guest appearances. I’m also delighted to say as well as the bar, Devizes-own Soupchick will be preparing a few delicious dishes for attendees to tuck into.”

Stay tuned to Fantasy Radio in the coming weeks for updates, and after the event to hear the exclusive interviews with Wiltshire’s rising stars! Obviously we will be reporting live from the scene too, as much as possible in-between hosting and presenting!

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Six Reasons to Rock in Market Lavington

Alright yeah, it’s a play on band names and there’s only really two reasons to rock on Friday 17th October at Market Lavington Community Hall; Six O’clock Circus and The Reason. See what they did there? Genius! But, they’re two of the heaviest heavyweight headline acts you should discover on our local cover circuit, so, as for the sum of the entertainment you’ll receive by attending, you could deservedly multiply them by at least three, and make six! (I do maths too!)

Big time Calne mod-Britpop loving lads Six O’Clock Circus will raise the roof, and Westbury’s The Reason, with a penchant for timeless rock classics only intend to double it. Fronted by Nicky Davis, formerly a member of People Like Us and co-founder of the Female of the Species fundraising supergroup, find The Reason gigging locally and strap yourself in for a party! Not usually a function band, likely because they’d upstage the reason for the actual function, (ambiguously the story behind their name?!), they recently performed at Melksham’s proudest country-rock singer-songwriter Becky Lawrence’s wedding, where the bride simply had to join in!

Likewise with Six O’clock Circus, find them gigging locally everywhere. A longstanding band of friends knocking guitar frenzied indie-mod-pop-rock favourites out of any park they care to stop by, and a few others along the way! I appreciate there’s already been a lot of maths for a Sunday article, but this is simple; tickets are £12 a pop. The show starts at 7:30pm (NOT 6′ o’clock like the circus) at Market Lavington Community Hall, next Friday 17th October for a highly recommended party!

Jon Amor & Friends; Juggernaut at Long Street Blues Club

Oh yeah, invite me to a place with a bar, throw some of the best blues this side of New Orleans at me and then hope I’ll articulate some words about it next morning, why don’t you?! It’s okay readers, it’s become standard protocol for me, I’ve got this…with help from Ben and Vicky!

…Here goes my bit; it was the opening of the new season at Long Street Blues Club in Devizes last night. Homegrown blues legend Jon Amor paid it a visit, bringing along his proficient drum and bass section, Tom Gilkes and Jerry Soffe, respectively, a handful of special guests wise in the ways of instrumenting sublime blues, and an intention and motivation to pull an extravaganza from the anticipation in the ether. Irresistible prospect, had to witness, savour, and shake my tail feather to, like it was going out of fashion. Ol’ Frankie Valli couldn’t describe it better, oh what a night.

Four to the floor electric blues was the order they marched out to, each one a showstopper yet the show didn’t hang around for the audience to contemplate. Musicians aplenty popping out of the stage door, grabbing instruments and jamming on a rotation akin to an ice hockey game. Johnny Henderson seated at the Hammond organ, Tom Jones guitarist Scott McKeon strumming with Will Edmunds, Craig Crofton blowing that sax, and precision sound engineering all enhanced the usual trio’s show, elevating it to a phenomenal stance.

There were times Jon smoothed it with rarely played ballads, such a superbly protracted Happiest All-Time Low, from his 2018 album Colour in the Sky, but for the most part the Juggernaut and his overload appeased the crowd with expeditious renditions of his beloved sprightly favourites, and newer The Turnaround album tunes he recorded last year with Jerry & Tom, easiest to pick out being the swinging Rideau Street and the hard stomping riffs of the explicit Miss James. I don’t know who Miss James is, but the passion Jon puts into this, and every song, leaves you wondering what her phone number is!

If this Indian summer is subtle outside it was a furnace inside. Ex-Hoax guitarist Jon, a testament to Devizes’ Mel Bush effect, an immutable adoration of blues, is a stalwart on stage, delivering blues in a style only he could. The aforementioned gubbings only added to the trio’s splendour, and a truly fantastic opening evening for The Long Street Blues Club’s new season.

But don’t take my word for it, here’s what Ben Romain and Vicky thought about it, as we got our wires crossed and both wrote about it, but it was such a gig it deserves two reviews anyway!

Stand up and shout! Blues is what it is all about, laid back and loving Blues in D-town!

In my many years as a fan of Jon’s music I’ve seen him play many venues in Devizes and nearby. We are blessed of course with a monthly residence at The Southgate Inn, where the majority of this ensemble has at some point graced the stage. This evening was a change of a little more space to get some friends together, at our very own Blues Club.

A fine opening set from Leonardo Guilliani, a rapidly rising star, hailing from Southampton. No stranger to the club, having opened for Watermelon Slim previously.

Some great original songs from his album, and new songs from an upcoming release recorded at Abbey Road Studios! I particularly liked the new song ‘Angel’, a soulful reflective song, with a gentle tone, blues of a sort but melodic and soothing in a contemporary Blues vein. A few well-chosen covers too, with some resounding classic electric blues. Overall, a perfect opener for this gig! I look forward to seeing him again along the road.

As Jon introduces the extended band to the stage, I am reminded of countless gigs in Devizes and beyond, where I have enjoyed all these musicians. This ensemble has between them played an unbelievable range of genre defining big names, and it shows……with the confident ease they poured into this session.

There are the Jon Amor Trio set regulars like ‘Miss James’, ‘Juggernaut’ and ‘Birds Nest on the Ground’, some less regular but great additions such as Jon’s ‘Red Telephone’ and ‘Happiest All time Low’. This entire two hour plus set revelled in and resounding with the connectivity of the scene.

When Will Edmunds and Jon share ‘Lovin’ Cup’ a rousing dance friendly classic we get to enjoy the best of this sense, a classic in the sets of Jon and Will in their regular haunts, sharing as they do, many gigs the might of Gilkes and Soffe.

We’ve enjoyed Jonny Henderson guest slots here in Devizes and with another Devizes and author’s favourite Elles Bailey amongst others, we’ve seen the wonderful Scott McKeon guest with Jon, and for a bonus Devizes point with Jon’s former bandmate Robin and Beaux Gris Gris and The Apocalypse and most commonly known for playing with Tom Jones.

I could ramble enthusiastically all day about the good vibes of this gig but there’s a wider point to acknowledge before I run out of type space….that of the community and connectivity both with musicians and audiences.

We have an unusually high level of gigs, especially blues leaning gigs in our town. We have some pretty heavy hitters in the UK blues past and present around here which doubtless helps, but we are also blessed with venues born of passion, people who support those opportunities as much as they can, so we are known in Devizes for putting up a good audience.

Our little world faces challenges like all venues and scenes across the UK, yet on the whole we are bucking the trend and attracting fine music from the brave upstart to the big established names and something to be rightly proud of.

There’s weekly amazing music at the Southgate and these incredible seasons of blues at Long Street, pub gigs, even occasionally music in bars and coffee lounges!

Key to the future of all of it, is people getting involved. I could name around a third of the crowd last night, and know most of the band from past gigs, with all of the craziness of the world, when many conscious or not are affected by loss of community, unity and shared positive experience….we have all that right here at home, every week.

I am now twelve years or so into my passionate support of local live music, it offers so much more than huge mega money gigs, and it supports through shared venues other aspects of our towns offer.

So, if you missed this incredible gig look at listings here, Facebook or wherever, message venues, talk to friends, there’s always a solid welcome, and you may find your new favourite band or next best friend in the crowd!

Thanks Ben, that is exactly what it’s all about! And now a “further reading” related rant to finish on!

When I published a preview of Long Street’s new season I highlighted this gig in particular, because Jon is loved by the residents of Devizes as this native hero. It was inevitable, and something I had discussed with both Ian, organiser of Long Street, and Dave at the Southgate, that someone would comment on the social media shares of it, questioning why they would pay to see Jon at Long Street when his monthly residences at the Southgate are free. Being I suspect there’s others that share this understandable view, and that money is a benefactor to deciding what to and what not to attend in these trying times, I thought I’d answer it with my opinion, for better or worse.

Starter for ten, we love the Southgate, we love the fact they host these regular sessions with the Jon Amor Trio and usually a special guest, and we’ve covered them many times. In fact, The Southgate has probably had more reviews from us than anywhere else. Dave and Ian are friends, they attend each other’s gigs and liaison to avoid clashes of similar gigs. The Southgate will pay what they can for an artist from money they make at the bar, most pubs operate this way, it is up to the artist to accept this or decline to play. The Southgate, like others, will hand around a tip hat, to top up the performers’ earnings. That is the way we get free gigs, but it is not how it works with event organisers who must pay for acts from the revenue of ticket sales. No matter how great this residency is at the Southgate, they are on Sunday afternoon when gravy is tipped onto your roast! Personally, due to work commitments I’m unable to let my hair down over more than a pint, like I can do on a Saturday night; that’s the time they let me out! I’m sure others find themselves in a similar situation.

Aside this, with the capacity of the club greater than the pub allowing folk room to move, the enhancement of the show via additional guests forming an eight piece band at times, the perfection of the sound engineering, and the uninterrupted presentation, are all benefits you are unlikely to get in any pub environment. Saturday night proved this, for it was a cut above what any performer would be capable of in any pub. It was a fantastic night, if you were there you would know it was and accept it was total and utter class. If you weren’t, well, you only have my and Ben’s words it was so.

And with that notion we can put the final slither of their comment to bed, that Long Street has “zero” atmosphere. Yes, I understand there are a few longstanding devotees who favour to remain seated and silent, the root to my little regular jest labelling them “the Devizes blues appreciation society!” But the atmosphere is what YOU make it! We danced the night away, I loved it, Ben and Vicky clearly loved it, people around us loved it. No one bothered us in doing so and no dancer bothered those who opted not to. When compromise is necessary, no less punters at Long Street adhere than might in a pub.

There’s no hard feelings, the comment remains as we don’t delete fair opinions. I’m no Nostradamus, but I suspected someone might suggest this, just a little irked to understand the reasoning for posting it. If it was to encourage others to side with them I genuinely think that’s a shame, as it risks the continuation of this wonderful club. No one is forcing anyone to go anymore than anyone is forcing anyone else to write such a comment.

Hey, I might see them at the Gate sometime, but they should note some regulars there attended this one, and others who might not frequent the Southgate, they did too; why deny their chances to see an act they claimed to love themselves, like most of us in Devizes? Because, and here’s the killer line, when Jon and his extended team blasted out the customary Juggernaut finale, feet were stomping, sweat rinsed shirts, and expressions of sheer joy blessed the faces of those in attendance. It was blissfully brilliant, the best night in Devizes I’ve had for a long time; long live Long Street Blues Club, but yeah, other options, such as The Southgate are available and come highly recommended too. What a petty fiasco!

Shearwater: New Single From Nothing Rhymes With Orange

There’s a new single from Bristol-based Nothing Rhymes With Orange out tomorrow (Saturday 20th September) which takes the band to a whole new level, and it has got me thinking back to their Devizes roots…..

You know, I really cannot remember how this thing started, if they contacted me or if I found them. It was three years ago, at a time when local media seemed rampant with scare stories sensationalising teenage hooliganism. Folk jumped the bandwagon, naming and shaming wayward youth on Facebook like it was modern gallows, and making fearmongering sweeping generalisations, classing every child as a psychotic delinquent.

I figured this wasn’t the same picture I was seeing. That there’s always been a handful off the rails, but in comparison to previous generations, most Gen Z were passive, thoughtful, and creative. So I set out to prove this wonky narrative wrong, and in doing so found many aspiring teenage bands to use as examples, but none so accomplished and motivated as Nothing Rhymes with Orange.

There was always something staunchly between the members of this Devizes School band, frontman Elijah Easton, Sam Briggs, Fin Anderson-Farquhar, and drummer Lui Venables, an unequalled camaraderie which combined their honing skills harmoniously. Their calculated sagacity writing painted a blithe picture of Gen Z, equal to how punk bands like The Newtown Neurotics summarised life for generation X, and it spawned a zeitgeist.

Moments after reviewing their debut single, Chow for Now, they launched an equivalently impressive EP called Midsummer. I figured it was overdue to check them out live, as they organised their own gig at West Lavington Village Hall. Divided between parents and youth I witnessed the birth of a local phenomenon. I dubbed it “Beatlemania in Devizes.” Teenage fans chanted the chorus of Manipulation back at them, as Elijah jumped from the stage relishing in the moment.

I encouraged teenage budding writers and photographers to record this blossoming movement for us, as alongside bands like Melksham’s The Sunnies, they were inspiring a new generation of musicians too. And for the adults, I wanted them to quit whinging about youth, by showcasing NRWO in an environment free from age division, where they could see for themselves this emergent youth fandom and the local band which created it. I urged our carnival committee that their annual “International” Street Festival in Devizes should showcase such a local act, and pride overcame me as I introduced them to the masses gathered in the Market Place, because alongside their excellent self-promotion, Devizine expressed with honesty that townsfolk should support this spectacular homemade band, and they did.

The lads released several new songs, all of which were tiny progressive steps to a maturity in their sound. At a gig at The Three Crowns in May 2024 Devizes-own BBC DJ and presenter, James Threlfall gave me constructive criticism regarding their production levels, suggesting it wasn’t quite to the level necessary and in comparison to upcoming bands across the southwest. I also worried at this time, moving along that adolescent rocky road generally was the make or break of a young band, usually the latter.

Delighted that they planned to study together in Bristol Uni, I finished off our local angled reporting of them with a parting interview, safe in the knowledge both the uni and bustling life in Bristol would open new doors for them and hopeful it would perfect their skills to the level James so honestly pointed out. A huge festival touring summer at Dot 2 Dot, Golden Touch, 110 Above and Camper Calling, returning to Studio 91 for the session which produced their new ear-invasive single, Shearwater, out at 6pm on 20th September across all streaming platforms, surely proves they have.

Shearwater signifies a hotly-anticipated next chapter, one of huge guitar sounds, jacked up drums and Elijah’s desperate vocals, evoking stories of fiery lust and explosive aftermaths. This is the single which will do for an international audience what Nothing Rhymes With Orange did locally three years ago. The spritely frenzy is replaced by the concentrated rhythmic flow and evocative ambience of the kind of timeless indie-pop anthem a multitude of audiences will shine their phone torches too. The layers are divine, the composition professionally crafted.

I’ve never needed to exaggerate my appraisal nor flatter NRWO for encouragement. I saw this potential, as did their local fanbase. And tomorrow you can hear the fruits of their labour in full bloom, a categorical advancement of Devizes export to the world, and it makes me feel proud to have backed them to this point, what the future holds is answered in this track, and it looks orange!

But don’t just take my word for it; chatting to James Threlfall just yesterday, I pointed out this single felt like the entry level we were talking about last May, and he agreed, telling me they’ve landed a featured artist spot on BBC Introducing South and West, which is live at 8pm tonight (Thursday 8pm.) The single will be debuting live at their upcoming headline show, 26th September, at The Old England, Bristol. There’s also an exciting word on the grapevine: an album is the pipeline. Oh, and don’t forget they’re playing our Wiltshire Music Awards on 23rd October here in Devizes, and will be at Devizes Arts Festival next summer like Bruce Springsteen returning to New Jersey!

For me, I’ll always have those early moments, like blagging a Sharpie from the sound engineer at street festival, so teenage girls could have their T-shirts signed (not by me, you understand?!!)

All Back to Sidmouth Street: The Olive Pizza & Grill

We are creatures of habit here in old Devizes. We’ll stand in the Market Place wearing a vacant expression, wondering where we can bag ourselves a good kebab in town now the Kebab House is sadly no longer. I urge you to think Sidmouth Street, think The Olive….

Yeah, I get you. Save the longstanding New Pacific Chinese, the previous takeaways in Sidmouth Street didn’t receive great appraisal, causing the street to be considered a no-go zone for the peckish. Well, times change. With Mustafa Suna, the once owner of the Kebab House content to be relocated a hefty trek away at the Garden Trading Estate, the new option is The Olive Pizza & Grill; you best believe it.

It was newly opened a couple of months ago. By name, it sounds fresher and natural, but does it live up to its name? I thought I’d drag my tastebuds there to find out…..

Shenol Redzheb is the owner of this tidy little takeaway where Acropolis once toppled. He cut his teeth at Chick-O-Land, where he spent thirteen years, but was adamant about building his own new legacy here. It certainly was spotless and hospitable, with everything freshly prepared right before your eyes.

The range is fantastic, too. The standard range of kebabs, combo or wraps, burgers, and chicken, but with a pizzeria too, choices are ample for the most fussiest of families, like mine! One apple of my eye opted for a cheeseburger, the other a pizza, and the wife and I went for the donor kebab, though she favours garlic mayo on hers; sacrilegious! I say this because the homemade chilli sauce here is to die for, really rich, perfect level of hotness and tomatoey; yummy, yummy, yummy, love in my tummy.

In fact, everything was well received. The boy’s burger was apparently “ummm,” and despite explaining I needed a bite for the purpose of the review, he wasn’t giving it up without a fight! The daughter praised the pizza, and she’s the Jay Rayner among us, but she especially adored the chips, describing them as crisp, and they were, I concurred. Perfectly cooked little beauties, and cut just the right size to be best considered “chunky fries.”

The kebab was lovely too, meat, tasty, a good range of fresh salad, and oh, did I mention the chilli sauce?! It’s worth mentioning twice!

Portions generous, all at a competitive price, the family were happy. I’ll be back faster than Schwarzenegger for an uzi 9mm. You should give this local owner’s new enterprise a try. There’s vegetarian options, phones, and an online ordering website HERE, and they deliver right out to the sticks, at around a four mile radius; dinner sorted!

The Olive Pizza & Grill is at: 26 Sidmouth Street, Devizes, SN10 1LD, UK

Opening Hours
Mon-Sat: 4pm-11pm
Closed On Sundays

Website

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All Back to Sidmouth Street: The Olive Pizza & Grill

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Wiltshire Music Awards 2025 Partnership with Stone Circle Music Events

The Wiltshire Music Awards are delighted to confirm a new headline partnership with Stone Circle Music Events, who will sponsor the Awards for 2025 and into 2026.

As part of this agreement, the event will be rebranded as: Stone Circle Music Events – Wiltshire Music Awards.

This collaboration reflects Stone Circle Music Events’ ongoing commitment to supporting music in Wiltshire, and across the wider UK and Ireland. Their involvement will provide significant opportunities to raise the profile of the Awards, enhance the experience for participants, and strengthen engagement with the wider music community.

Benefits of this partnership include:

• Brand Visibility: Prominent placement of the Stone Circle Music Events name across all event materials, press releases, and social media campaigns.

• Audience Reach: Direct engagement with a diverse audience of musicians, industry professionals, and the public.

• Prestige & Influence: Recognition as the headline supporter of one of Wiltshire’s most anticipated music events.

• Networking Opportunities: Closer ties with event partners, sponsors, and stakeholders.

• Catalyst for Growth: The presence of a strong lead sponsor encouraging further sponsorship and increased scale for the Awards.

Eddie Prestige of Wiltshire Music Awards said, “we are thrilled to welcome Stone Circle Music Events as our headline sponsor. Their passion for supporting music and culture perfectly aligns with our mission to celebrate and elevate the incredible talent across Wiltshire. This partnership will allow us to grow the Awards and create an even more impactful event in 2025 and beyond.”

Darren Worrow of Wiltshire Music Awards added, “This is great news, and we hope it secures a future for the awards.”

Managing Director of Stone Circle Music Events, Patrick O’Sullivan said, “Stone Circle Music Events are proud to support the Wiltshire Music Awards as headline sponsor. Music is at the heart of what we do, and this partnership reflects our commitment to nurturing local talent and strengthening the live music community in Wiltshire, the UK, and Ireland. We are excited to be part of such a vibrant celebration of creativity.”

This partnership represents an exciting step forward for the Wiltshire Music Awards, helping to secure its long-term success and cement its place as a key celebration of musical talent in the region.

No Rest For JP Oldfield, New Single Out Today

It’s been six months since Devizes-based young blues crooner JP Oldfield released his poignant kazoo-blowing debut EP Bouffon. He’s made numerous appearances across the circuit since and created an impressive following. Today sees him on the next leg of his musical journey, a brand new single aptly titled No Rest…..

If the kazoo created a unique identity for Josh, quirking up otherwise darker themes than the novelty songs you’d except the instrument to be found in, this idiosyncratic move may have caused some criticism from traditionalists who simply didn’t get it. Not me, inherent in the belief rules are made to be broken, I’m of the reckoning JP Oldfield is a contemporary rarity, a misunderstood genius finding his feet. A dedicated axemen with an axe to grind, and a singer-songwriter unafraid to explore and expose every detail of the melancholic mind maze in the encapsulating way blues legends did before him.

With this in tow, I’d argue the jukejoint authentic sound created with his haunting grizzly vocal tones, that steel guitar and beaten up suitcase pedal-drum is Marmite. Love it or hate it, JP forged an imitable style, ranging from Cash to Tom Waits and Nick Cave in comparison. I’d draw any critic’s attention to a track like Last Orders, a heart-wrenchingly honest tune which takes on the drunkard’s misery of a relationship break-up in true mellowed delta blues fashion, without kazoo. But hey, now we’ve got No Rest, a level up certainly in production and indicative of all the greatness he’s already achieved; it rocks.

There’s the sombre spiritual blues theme we’ve come to expect, but it’s a foot-stomping pace with a killer rolling riff, kazoo-less yet a perfect balance of everything else JP throws at his music. It’s deliberately raw, perfectly hard-hitting and undoubtedly JP on the best form we’ve ever seen.

In our interview a month short of a year ago, Josh gave me the impression he was something of a perfectionist. A lot of work has gone into this full bodied five minute marvel, and it shows, in its crisp sound, this composition of elements making said perfect balance, and also a enlightening video accompanying it, by Jamie R Hawkins’ Side Owl Productions. This cones out around 6pm tonight, I’ll add the link to it here, so return after your potato waffles.

The video has a different narrative from the song, rather ‘the story of the song;’ a fascinating showcase of JP’s session at Mooncalf Studios, where Nick Beere engineers the kind of tune which we might suggest JP’s feet have been found. We look forward to hearing the other songs from this session in good time, but for now this is plenty to indicate this Devizes bluesman is heading in the right direction. But Nick brought out the best in musicians while I was still doodling boobs on my school rough book!

He’s JP Oldfield, I’m just old, but I know what I like. I could dance barefoot in a barn grasping a bottle of bourbon to this, and when it gets to that irresistible bridge I’ll procrastinate my repent, letting my sins roam free for a day; though I haven’t drawn a boob on a school book for quite some considerable time!

DOCA’s Early Lantern Workshops

Is it too early for the C word?! Of course not, Grinch! With DOCA’S Winter Festival confirmed for Friday 28th November this year, there will be a number of creative workshops and makery sessions, not forgetting the creation of those wonderful handmade lanterns for the parade; here’s some early sessions in which you can get creative…

A number of lantern making workshops in the run-up to the Winter Festival Lantern Parade have been allocated. Including open-to-all workshops at different venues with materials provided – all they ask is a small donation. DOCA suggests £5 for a small lantern, which requires one light, but you are welcome to pay as you feel.

Come along to one of their open public workshops to make a lantern in preparation for the parade. All materials are provided, and all are welcome.

Held at Wiltshire Museum, Long Street, Devizes, the workshop Schedules are:

Saturday 20th September – 10:15am – 13:15pm, 14:00 – 16:30.

Sunday 21st September – 10:15am – 13:15pm, 14:00 – 16:30.

More info HERE!

Book your session HERE

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 them at The Vic in Swindon just last week? And now The Southgate in Devizes? Isn’t that his second home anyway?!

Hold back your keyboard warrior typing fingers from those vicious comment sections, critic, I will attempt to answer these burning questions I falsely imagine straining from your lips, in a short piece about a Sunday gig well worth mentioning…..

Yes, again, it is another article about Talk in Code. It’s either that or I risk playing a brain training game on my phone; it’s Monday, and my brain refuses instruction.

Yes, they’ve been showered with love from us, but being this an opinion based blog, I reserve my right to express my honest opinion; they deserve it! I have succumbed to being a T-shirt embossed “talker,” a more family fashioned classification than fanbase.

If the idiom of enlarged heads implies they have a conceited, exaggerated sense of self-importance due to our consistent splatters of flattery, that’s the biggest untruth you could suggest about them. I only said it in ironic jest; woe is me for my fractured sense of humour; pinch of salt, please!

Whilst their performances are showy, that’s pop; they’re the most down to earth bunch you’ll ever have the pleasure to meet … .especially musicians!! Observe them engaging with their audience, young to old. Observe the attention they attract wherever they happen to play as being a product of their universal brilliance. If they appear excitable about this, it derives from their dedication, motivation, and the deserved positive feedback from their audience, not a two-bit blogger!

So what, yeah I was at the Vic last week for their awesome single launch gig, when I said it was the best I’ve ever seen them play, suggesting perhaps because it was on their home turf. I’m considering taking this back after catching them yesterday, for two reasons, firstly but less important, Swindon is only home to two of them, Snedds is home here in Devizes, or as near as dammit. Secondly, pop grows on you, the more you listen the more the hook catches you, and they have this down to a T, so maybe the level of skill they’ve attained has now become standard as more fans amass; it certainly seemed that way Sunday at the Southgate. They rocked it with professional ease, just as they did the Vic, as they always do, and it was only a Sunday afternoon at Devizes’ answer to the O2 arena. Given the actual O2, I predict they’d rock that one, too!

Matter of fact, I’ve not been down the Gate for what feels like ages, honest, mum! This occasion was purely circumstantial; I was in town to attend the dress rehearsal of an emotionally sobering play at the Wharf. It is fantastically evocative and reflects a sad time for me personally. See the review to understand, and go see the play. I needed cheering up, and being that it ended when the gig was kicking off, I thought I could sit in the back row and scribe some thoughts on my phone with a pint. It didn’t quite work out this way, not for the want of trying, because Talk in Code’s sound is irresistible, and yeah, it cheered me up a treat.

I’ve not been down The Gate recently, what with a summer season of festivals, a family holiday and inflation mugging us all off. But being the Southgate is so insatiably irresistible, friendly, and affordable too by comparison, I slip back into its gorgeous rustic appeal like a glove, anyone would.

I’ve stated numerous times how my honest opinion casts it as the best pub locally, these facts stick more than mud, and perhaps it hasn’t been that long, it only feels like it has! George seemed to remember me as a gullible accessory to doggie biscuit snatching crimes. Autumn drawing in, save me the cosy chair.

All hail Talk in Code and The Southgate too. The first play top class indie-pop within a more humble local scene than following a national pop star and praying you can mortgage your home for a ticket to see. The latter is a cathedral to our humble scene, and lively pub culture too, with a rich history of showcasing local musical talent, one all our writers have been disciples of since day dot.

There’s so many artists still to mention, pinky promises I will, all in good time, but a Talk in Code gig at The Gate, despite catching them only last week, was still too good not to drop into!

Still Alice at The Wharf Theatre Raises Dementia Awareness

Valedictorian graduate of Bates College in Maine, and with a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard, neuroscientist Lisa Genova self-published her debut novel, Still Alice in 2007. Acquired for publishing two years later, Still Alice made The New York Times Best Seller list, was adapted for the stage by Christine Mary Dunford of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, and spurred a 2014 movie by Memento Films, winning Julianne Moore an Academy Award. Under the direction of John Winterton, The Wharf Theatre brings this poignant play to Devizes……

It’s lovely to be back at Devizes’ cosy and communal theatre. Ian assigned himself our theatre critic and while his brilliant inside knowledge is gratefully appreciated, I figured I fancy this one, as I have a personal angle on the plot. Alzheimer’s Society suggests “every 3 minutes someone in the UK develops dementia,” therefore I imagine many others will find relevance in it too, and if not, might one day.

We found it amusing at the beginning, my Nan in Dad’s car still wearing her slippers for a party, and other trivial mishaps. But the last time I saw her I was saddened to note she didn’t remember me, as she spoke to me of her “husband,” rather than address him as “grandad.” My children were young and understandably apprehensive about going into the care home. But when they plucked up courage my boy stood before her and she was delighted to be face-to-face with who she assumed was me. Here was the relieving point; I realised she hadn’t forgotten me, she just didn’t recognise me because thirty-plus years was missing from her memory; thank you genetics!

The journey between these two points in time was arduous for her and our family. For her it went from confusion to frustration and onto an immune state of obviousness. Lisa Genova wrote Still Alice in first person narrative from the point of view of Alice, a university professor at the height of her career who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease; it mirrors what we went through, and sheds a fascinating light onto what my Nan must’ve gone through too.

The play honours the narrative perspective by an ingenious method of a personification of Alice’s psyche. With a dual-Alice on stage, the real Alice, played sublimely by Linda Swann, says what she believes she should say, while her conscious shadowing her, equally delivered with skill by a younger version of Alice, Sophie Kerr, offers the audience an insight into what she is thinking. Just as I suggested, with the lost time of my Nan’s mind, Alice perceives herself as being younger, so this age gap works as her sense of reason, until reason runs short in her mind and her consciousness is reduced to the childlike drawing of pictures.

There are many elements to the happenings in the play which anyone who has experienced a loved one going through Alzheimer’s or dementia will recognise, and tears might trickle. There’s periods of thought-provoking awkward silence, intense confrontation at others, when the confusion turns to frustration. There’s poignant reality and touching scenes as the family come to terms with Alice’s deteriorating mind. There’s thought processes from Alice exposed, causing you to identify with her greater than that of her family; a window into the mindset of anyone suffering with this terrible condition.

Overall, akin to a film like Schindler’s List, this is a play you might not want to face, oh, but you must, and you should.

Still Alice is evoking brilliance, you will leave impelled to discuss the subject further. It raises awareness of this horrifying condition and doesn’t meander from this for any purposes of entertainment. On the impaired particularly, the sentiment is pragmatic, but also in her relationship with her family and their emotions, all poignantly represented and acted with believable precision by John Myles, as the calm under pressure husband, Adam Sturges as the solicitude son, and Kezia Richards as the estranged daughter.

Still Alice raises awareness about Alzheimer’s or dementia in a similar way as Barry Levinson’s Rain Man raised awareness of autism, but only if we could have seen into the mind of Raymond would it be any more comparable. That’s the beauty of theatre, this is a play with the power to change you.

Still Alice runs at The Wharf Theatre, Devizes from September 1st until September 6th 2025, Tickets HERE or at Devizes Books.

World Alzheimer’s Day is Sunday 21st September. You can find more information about local dementia groups at Alzheimer’s Support, and sign up for their Walk to Remember at Wilton House, HERE.

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The Next Season at Devizes’ Long Street Blues Club

The lawn is still frazzled but the apples and leaves are falling; the weather might not know what season it’s supposed to be running, but all is not lost as we look at what Devizes blues appreciation society, Long Street Blues Club has to entertain us throughout the next season, or three….

Their season doesn’t end until January, actually making it more like half a year, and we’ll find John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett on stage, kicking off the summer season in June, but there’s a lot to get through heading up to that, gigs and a number of specials.

Jon Amor & Friends

Firing on all cylinders for a grand start, doors crash open on Saturday 20th September 2025 when Leonardo Guiliani supports homegrown Hoax member Jon Amor at the Conservative Club. A local legend who needs no introduction to Devizes blues aficionados. You can rest assured Jon will be bringing his trio, drum and bass comrades Jerry Soffe and Tom Gilkes, and an abundance of special guests cherrypicked from his vast circle of legendary friends, including John Baggott, pianist for Portishead and Robert Plant, organist Johnny Henderson, Scott McKeon guitarist for Tom Jones, guitarist Will Edmunds, and Craig Crofton on sax.

What a way to begin, but predictably popular, so early booking is advised. Advance Tickets are £18.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £20.00 on the door. The deal is the same for all Long Street Blues gigs at the Conservative Club, unless otherwise stated.

October sees three entirely different gigs. On Saturday the 4th The Dirt Road Band returns, by overwhelming popular demand. The brainchild of guitar legend Steve Walwyn, mainly known as the longest serving guitar player in Dr Feelgood, The Dirt Road Band recruited the services of Ted Duggan, a professional since the 60s, including stints with Badfinger and world techno giants Banco de Gaia, and bassist Horace Panter, better known as a founding member of The Specials.

Saturday 18th October Ben Poole is back. A young act to watch, Ben Poole and his band return to the club after a sensational night in April. Jeff Beck called them “f***ing amazing,” need we say more?!

Rock & Roll Circus

Observing all health and safety regulations, on Friday 31st October Long Street Blues Club members march girl-boy, girl-boy across to the Corn Exchange for a special trip back to the sixties. Unusual to see tribute acts organised by the club, so while it might be a wildcard, it’s not to be trifled at, because a Rock & Roll Circus is promised; the gig that never happened!

The very best tributes to three British rock giants, The Who, The Beatles and The Stones, namely Who’s Next, The Beatles For Sale and The Rollin Stoned, will surely wriggle you down memory lane!

With the aid of authentic stage wear and instruments, Who’s Next recreates a magical point in time in the early 1970s when many believed that The Who were the greatest pop and rock group on Earth. Similarly The Beatles For Sale pride themselves on replicating the Fab 4’s onstage image, sparing no expense with their equipment and outfits, with the ultimate intention to recreate the magic of the Beatles in their sixties heyday.

The Rollin Stoned have toured their affectionate tribute to The Rolling Stones for over 27 years, sharing billing with the likes of Dr John, Status Quo, Suzie Quatro and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Advance Tickets are £30.00 for this great night out, from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £35.00 on the door.

Into November, no hanging about, as Last Train Smokin’ pulls into the station to support The Ian Parker Band on Saturday 1st November 2025. Another returning favourite.

Aberdeen’s finest are back on Saturday 22nd November, The Gerry Jablonski Band with support from Firekind.

Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse

Then, an early Christmas present. Yes, it’s a California-Devizes crossover, with favourites Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse at The Corn Exchange on Friday 5th December. Hoax member Robin Davey returns to his hometown with Louisiana born and bred, award-winning vocalist Greta Valenti and their band, and it’s something to behold. I strongly suggest you get in quickly with this one if you wish to start winter in style.

Advance Tickets are £25.00 from usual outlets or book online (online booking fee applies) Tickets £28.00 on the door.

If that doesn’t warm your winter cockles nothing will, but their Christmas party is actually on Saturday 20th December 2025 when the “perfect band for our Xmas party” Dino Baptiste & Night Train appear. A highly energetic London soul and boogie-woogie pianist, Dino Baptiste has a smattering of Ray Charles, and will get the club jumping.

And into the new year we find Oregon harmonica player Curtis Salgado, the man who taught John Belushi the blues while on set at the filming of 1977’s Animal House, team up with European multi award-winning blues harmonica virtuoso Giles Robson.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest blues and soul singers to have emerged in the last fifty years, Curtis Salgado is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Long Street Blues is one of only three dates he is playing.

That’s Saturday 17th January 2026; work off some Quality Street, because the next gig isn’t until Monday 8th June, with John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett on stage. Yet one thing is for sure, Long Street Blues Club are quenching the thirst for blues in Devizes folk, and they usually have a big appetite for it!!

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Black Rat Monday at The British Lion; Not Just For Lions and Rats!

There was a geographical population imbalance this bank holiday Monday in Devizes which risked the entire town conically sloping into the back of Morrisons; no one seemed the slightest concerned! It’s Black Rat Monday at The British Lion, the stuff of Dorothy House fundraising burgers, potent beverages and contemporary folklore….

Recorded here for prosperity, as it’s dubious that other accounts of the event would be recited with much precision when passed through the generations, that once upon a time in ye olde Devizes, natives satirically dubbed their annual street festival ‘Black Rat Monday.’

The name derived from a scrumpy brand popular at a bar run by CAMRA award-winning and stalwart Devizes freehouse, The British Lion. Contractual matters one year caused a breakup between the carnival committee and the pub. Being ‘Black Rat Monday’ was a folk eponym, ergo in the public domain, and the committee likely never appreciated it anyway, The British Lion adopted the name for an occasion of their own making, and the rest is history.

It’s a fable of self-reliance, apolitical empowerment, and mass consumption of scrumpy, though other drink options are available! Leading to a meek event of anti-consumerism, save the Black Rat Monday t-shirt and drink, community-driven subversion, and a crowded beer garden full of merriment, whilst it would seem the elaborate original festival has fallen by the wayside due to arts funding cuts.

This particular year saw the event blossom to bursting point, attracting townsfolk en masse, under the simple premise, it’s now as much of a “Devizes thing” as raking barrels of contraband brandy out of the Crammer or annually lobbing confetti at each other in a peculiar frenzy.

Reasoning why roots to the pub itself, because while other taverns change according to trends, else end up as antique shops or housing estates, the simplest of systematics of The British Lion stand firm, equable and imperishable. And Devizions love ‘gurt’ tradition. If it’s not broken…..

But what helps, and always does, is acquiring the most suitable entertainment; usually locally sourced, not this time, but equally as welcomed. Long-standing and living legend landlord Mike Dearing revealed his heuristic thinking was to provide an act we’ve likely not seen before on our circuit.

For the universal audience the conventional is best, therefore, primarily a function party band, Bristol’s The 789s made a perfect choice. They were lively, proficient, exceptionally accomplished and seemingly pleased to be there. With a vast repertoire spanning every corner of classic singalong pop, they joyfully delivered them all, for sweaty hours, and until Sweet Caroline finalised the cumulation, by which time the crowds were chanting it back to them and dancing on whatever small patch of sun-bleached grass they could suitably fit into.

A punk cover band planned to follow, which duty-bound as Dad’s taxi, I had to miss unfortunately. But The 789’s had roused the audience to a conclusion that there was little doubt anyone could now falter this year’s Black Rat Monday; I’d go out on a limb to suggest it was the best one to date.

There was Parklife, there was Red, Red, Wine, The Proclaimers’ marching song, I’m Gonna Be, and every crowd-pleaser sublimely covered by both male and female vocalists, but only one of them sporting butterfly sunglasses. I don’t want to get all decimal on you after such a strenuous scrumpy surfeit, but The 789’s truly turned it up to ten, at least. For which they were rewarded a gallant cheer of Devizes-fashioned appreciation as they sauntered through the crowds back to the pub, akin to newlywed couple they had undoubtedly performed for many times before!

This respectful display of gratitude, and the whole shebang in general genuinely makes me honoured to document what happens in our lovely, lovely town. For you can bicker on Facebook pages all you want, you can thrash out the rights or wrongdoings of graffiting flags on mini-roundabouts, or pin the blame on someone for a road closure, but Steve Dewar’s brilliant popup youth cafe had kids enjoying a climbing wall on the Green, the sun was shining, and humble folk in the British Lion were laughing and singing, for we all live under that same sun, and that captures the true Devizes spirit, right here in The British, surely?!

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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 too…..

Easy bit first for our glitzy and glamorous night, there will be professional sound and lighting provided by Brian Mundy and his team at BSM Stage Tech, and a bar, in which you won’t have to buy me a drink because I’m hosting and I don’t want to slur my words, word my slurs or anything along those silly lines!

It makes us all very proud to announce this wonderful lineup. Devizes own Burn The Midnight Oil will open the evening’s entertainment. They’ve come so far in such a short space of time with their own brand of breezy blues-rock, we’re excited to see them perform.

Our lovable legend George Wilding is a name most of you should know, and he’s coming to play a few songs, of course he is! Award winning Lucas Hardy is coming too. Loved on the Salisbury circuit, Lucas will delight you, for what will be, I believe, his first time playing in Devizes; I could be wrong!

Ben Borrill and Pat Ward, aka Matchbox Mutiny, will be there, the lively Devizes-based duo who never fail to charm. Then there’s Salisbury-based Joylon Dixon and Rachel Sinnetta – a duo who raised the roof off the Three Crowns recently, but I knew it was coming as Rachel’s supreme vocal range and Joylon’s professional accompanying will enthral all.

There’s a champagne supernova trip back to the nineties with The Britpop Boys, renowned for blasting those sing-a-long anthems across the county and beyond.

And here’s our last big secret exposed, Devizes homegrown indie-rock phenomenon Nothing Rhymes With Orange will polish off the evening. They created a storm locally a few years ago as a teen sensation, the likes of which I claimed to be the “Beatlemania of Devizes!” Now studying together at Bristol Uni, their popularity has spread nationwide. Back home they have inspired a new generation to form bands, and we welcome them back delighted.

Make no mistake, all these acts have had a tremendous year, and deserve to be nominated for awards, as are the many other names hiding in our golden envelopes too. Myself, DJ Mark Anthony and possibly a few guest names will be announcing the winners and runners-up, and these wonderful acts will perform just two or three songs each between the announcements; it’s going to be a show!

A show which, we hope, showcases, highlights and celebrates the wealth of musical talent we have here in Wiltshire, in a manner more celebratory than competitive. While many others and not just those performing have high chances of bagging a trophy, by no means is it exhaustive. There are so many others, producing music, promoting, hosting and creating amazing initiatives to fundraise and to teach, we know this, and I intend to highlight as many as I can at the ceremony, because the list is lengthy enough already to cram into one evening, making it comprehensive is a minefield!

The results of the awards was set by public votes and a panel of expert judges, which we genuinely believe to have been a fair system, causing it to be agonising for us to see the entire county trimmed to this much, but if everyone supports this we hope there will be subsequent years of Wiltshire Music Awards to follow. Years in which we will continuously review in order to improve on.

One point, whilst feedback has been overwhelmingly supportive, one niggly raised was tickets. We have to fund this one way or another. We are asking for sponsorships, many have helped and we thank them. In order to make this work, yes, we are asking everyone who wishes to attend, including those nominated, to buy a ticket, of which we have made as reasonably priced as possible. If you have been nominated for an award within our top ten, you are cordially invited to attend, but along with everyone else we do ask you to please purchase a ticket; there is no other expense asked of you other than this.

As much as we would love to see all the winners and runners-up in person, or a representative on your behalf, on the night to be presented with an award, if you cannot make it due to other commitments we understand, and your award will be given to you at a suitable date thereafter. Important point then: You DO NOT need to attend the ceremony to receive the award if you do not wish to, but please consider that we have to fund this, that we have worked hard on getting this off the ground, and would appreciate your support with it. Wiltshire Music Awards has been created by a genuine team dedicated to the local music scene. Allow me to get all Charles & Eddie on your ass at this conjunction, “would I lie to you, baby?!!”

Whoa, back on the positives; thankfully I won’t be singing but the experts will, this is going to be cracking night, one for the history books, and I hope to see you there! Saturday 25th October at Devizes Corn Exchange, tickets HERE.

Wiltshire Music Awards 2025

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 Oliver shared his social media posts…..

Has the media exposure gone to his head?! He modestly agreed with me, that it was nice, “it shows I’m being acknowledged,” he smiled, and continued to help children decide what sandwiches they fancied. And therein lies the magic, there was never a feeling in meeting Buddy that he was here for prestige.

“He’s not doing it for media attention,” Buddy’s mum Emily clarified, “in fact he finds that quite overwhelming. He’s doing it because there’s families who need it, and that’s the reality of it. And if he can help those families to make it a little easier then that’s all he wants to do.”

There were sandwiches with various fillings, crisps, biscuits and fruit, even some toys. Folk gathered, no questions asked, no condescending notions, just a brilliant idea being put into motion by a teenager and his family. I asked Buddy if it was his idea, and how he came up with it.

“It was my idea,” he replied, still handing out apples, “and it originated from seeing some friends who were on free school meals, needing that extra help during the holidays too.”

Buddy and his family began funding it themselves and now it relies on sponsors and private donations. There may be a few charity-led organisations doing similar in other areas, but Buddy is the first person we’ve heard of individually taking this gesture of goodwill on themselves. I asked Buddy, not if he wanted to head a national charity doing this, for we joked he might end up sitting in an office! Rather if he feels he has, or will, inspire others to do likewise in other areas.

“Yeah, I could inspire some people, I hope so,” Buddy told me. “I’m doing it as an individual. I’m here three times a week, every week for the summer holidays, and there’s a thought I could do it at Christmas time.”

“It would be lovely if he did inspire other people,” Emily explained, “but his primary goal is to make sure that anyone who needs food in Devizes has food.”

In these trying times, I forever find myself shocked at rising supermarket prices. Accepted, I cleaned my rose-tinted specs declaring how big Wagon Wheels once were, and how they were ten pence, but this inflation issue is not showing evidence of slowing anytime soon. “Yes,” Emily agreed, “some schools and councils do provide ten pounds for the school holiday, but you cannot buy much for ten pounds, so what Buddy is doing really does make a difference.”

It really does. I left with a lump to the throat, and somewhat lost for words; rare for me, I know!! What a thoroughly decent, philanthropic and selfless way for a fourteen-year-old to spend their summer holiday. What an absolute legend, Buddy! Thank you.

Two things remain: firstly to any family in need, Lunch Box Buddy is outside Haine & Smith, next to Cafe Nero, in Devizes town centre, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for the duration of the summer holidays, from 11:30-12:30. Follow him HERE for updates, Facebook HERE.

Secondly, to Devizes Town Council; you know I love you all, (wink!) this lad deserves a Civic Award, imho!

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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 Newsquest (who haven’t even bothered mentioning this crucial local extravaganza, I might add!) Truth is, I don’t know the results any more than you do, as I kindly requested to remain in the dark for the genuine element of surprise on the night, and it’s the night I want to remind you of!! Because, if you want to find out the winners you need to grab yourself a ticket to the presentation ceremony, the Awards Evening on Saturday 25th October at Devizes Corn Exchange; proper job!

There’s table tickets as groups, and single tickets available for our gurt lush Wiltshire Music Awards, the first of its kind. A night of music, celebration, and unforgettable moments. Bring your family, friends, and supporters! We’ve some top local acts confirmed, all performing a song or three, with intervals where I and special guests will be announcing the winners. There’s seventeen categories to get through, wine to drink and partying to be done in honour of all the amazing musical talent we’ve got hiding in our rural county; please, help us to achieve this.

Ticket and info HERE, I look forward to seeing you on the night.

Musicians: please use our top ten to see if you’re nominated, and good luck to all!

Crowned Lightbringer; New Single From Ruby Darbyshire

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby! So good the Kaiser Chiefs wrote a song about her, or if not, at least brilliant enough to silence the most rowdy venue into an utter state of jawdropping awe! A video of a new tune, a metaphorical sea shanty, Crowned Lightbringer teasing us for a forthcoming EP, is out today…..

A diary jam-packed, gigging across the South West to Scotland and beyond, her natural talent is off the scale, and deservedly gaining attention. With youth on her side, raw determination, and a twinkle in her eye, whatever avenue she might choose to take to get there, everything screams future legend about Ruby Darbyshire. I predicted this from day dot, Crowned Lightbringer confirms.

They whisper, “oh, I’ve not heard her play yet,” and not wishing to present them with a spoiler, I reply, as Ruby tunes up, “just, don’t go anywhere.” Seconds later, another instant Ruby Darbyshire fan has spawned!

For her most treasured song to date, Insomnia, uses the inventively crafted metaphor of a blankie to represent a relatively adult issue, even breaks the solemnity with a comical line, it remains the simple premise of an intelligent childlike product in comparison to Crowned Lightbringer.

A rowing boat in a storm, a race against sea monsters, the lighthouse diverting ships from a bay; this is multi-layered and richer metaphorically than anything we’ve heard from Ruby in the past, and projects a maturing sentiment, with a fleshed, lost character and a sombre, inspiring narrative. The mood is chilled in darkness and euphorically hopeful to be guiding towards light. It’s a sublime voyage of discovery, and overlapping looped harmonies echoing Ruby’s soulful vocal range insists you come aboard.

The tempo mellowed to ghostly, the sentiment interwoven into this rich theme of the implications of maturing; blues, in essence, with silk and steel strings? I’m no expert, but I do know the result is breathtaking, perfection on every level. It feels personal yet outwardly reflecting, and leaves you longing for this forthcoming EP.

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Devizes Scooter Rally; Best Yet, Ranking Full Stop!

If there’s been hearsay and ballyhoo about the date clash of two major but individually different events in Devizes this week, I hold my hand…

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Jul 27, 2025

FullTone Gets Underway With Devizes Music Academy Showcase and Something About Jamie

Devizes annual orchestral festival, FullTone got underway yesterday afternoon with a showcase of local talent from Devizes Music Academy, and finalised Friday night with their…

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Jul 26, 2025Jul 26, 2025

Static Moves Crawling Back With Debut Single

In a way it’s more intriguing when a cover band sends an original song than one already producing originals. For if original bands can sometimes…

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Jul 25, 2025

Salisbury Musicians Record Fundraising Single in Memory of Thom Belk

A feast of Salisbury musicians have recorded the single Edge of Reason, a powerful tribute to the irreplaceable Thom Belk, a champion of Salisbury’s music scene…

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Jul 24, 2025

Devizes Food & Drink Festival Programme of Events Released

Devizes Food & Drink Festival launched their 2025 programme of events today. Running from Saturday 20th to the 28th September, the Box Office opens online…

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Jul 22, 2025

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,…

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Jul 22, 2025

Schools Out For Summer: Here’s Some Things to Do in Wiltshire!

Schools out for summer, yelled a man called Alice, but that was in 1972. We’re about what you can do THIS school summer holiday with…

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Jul 20, 2025Jul 22, 2025

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…

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Jul 19, 2025Jul 20, 2025

Announcing The Top Ten Nominees of Wiltshire Music Awards 2025

Yeah, I hear you! An update on our inaugural Wiltshire Music Awards is overdue. So my partner on this monumental project and the guy doing all the work while I take the credit, Eddie Prestidge of Wiltshire Music Events, has taken off his shoes and socks and provided a top ten shortlist for each category….drum roll, and perhaps a generous spray of Febreze!

Excited? I know I am, but then I’m easily excitable. Firstly you should know by now, despite the umpteen “where can I vote” questions still fired online at us daily, that the voting has closed; closed, people; pay attention!

We are now in the process of collating those thoughtful public votes, and handing the top three winners of each and every category to an expert panel of judges either selected for their keen involvement in the Wiltshire music scene, sporting a purple goatie, or both.

We thank those who took the time to cast their votes. We had over 700 votes, proving the music scene of Wiltshire is vast and enjoyed by many, has more talented people than a night out with The Venga Boys, and there’s a few Swifties and generally silly people who didn’t get the memo that this is Wiltshire Music Awards and not the Pennsylvania one….unless you can find me a suitable connection between Wiltshire and Taylor Swift?!

Hey, look, let’s be honest, I’d be happy to hand her an award, perhaps in exchange for her phone number, but we have to keep things in perspective.

On our Facebook group over the past week or so, Eddie has been listing the results, precisely as they were written in the boxes by the voters, so you can see, warts, spelling mistakes, and those spoiled ballots by a minority of silly sausages were included. We’re aware, due to stage names, variations, and the state of the education system, some names appear twice or more, and it’s been a task to collate them.

The thing is, and always was, that the voting boxes should be left blank rather than those annoying drop-down option thingies. While the combined minds of Ed and I is both something to behold, and a virtual encyclopedia of the Wiltshire music scene, we can’t pretend to know everyone, and therefore some of the choices made by you, the voters, we were unaware of. And that’s the beauty and ethos behind these awards, networking foremost. Making the scene competitive is the bottom of our priorities, Wiltshire Music Awards is about recognising and celebrating local talent, and showcasing it.

Personally I reckon anyone with the guts to get out there and entertain Wiltshire folk deserves a big shiny medal of bravery, and perhaps one of those right posh giant Toblerones! There’s a number of artists and bands missing that I’d personally liked to see up there, I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

So, enough of my warbling, cue the Gregory Isaacs song, “Though she isn’t in my top ten, still she is on my chart, Sitting in the back bench still she’s a student of my class,” or not perhaps; political correctness! Here, anyway, is the Top Ten from each category; fill yer boots, no squabbling, and the very best of luck to everyone mentioned below….

Listings are alphabetical. Those eagle-eye Action Men might notice not all categories contain ten; where the final one or two contains multiple entries with the same amount of votes, they’ve been omitted.

Come and help us celebrate the winners and runners up with a star-studded lineup of music, announcements, perhaps even yours truly as host (a polished turd in a tuxedo,) and a special celebrity guest or three, by grabbing some tickets for the grand ceremony at Devizes Corn Exchange on Saturday 25th October.

Best Male Solo Artist

Vince Bell

Giles Halski

Lucas Hardy

Josh Kumra

JP Oldfield

John “Illingworth” Smith

George Wilding

Adam Woodhouse

Best Female Solo Artist

Harmony Asia

Ebony Bell

Chrissy Chapman

Sammi Evans

Ruby Darbyshire

Chloe Hepburn

Rosie Jay

Tamsin Quin

Rachel Sinnetta

Best Originals Band

All Ears Avow

Be Like Will

Burn The Midnight Oil

Dark Prophecy

Deadlight Dance

Cephid

The Jon Amor Trio

Nothing Rhymes With Orange

Talk in Code

Best Covers Band

Be Like Will

The Britpop Boys

Marty’s Fake Family

The Midnight Hour

No Alarms And No Devizes

Pinky & The Slapcats

Static Moves

The Unpredictables

Best Duo

Deadlight Dance

Fly Yeti Fly

Illingworth

Jolyon Dixon & Rachel Sinnetta

Lauren & Hardy

Matchbox Mutiny

Millers Daughter

Rackham

The Sylvertones

Best Rising Star/Newcomer

Sam Bishop

Burn The Midnight Oil

Cephid

Chole Hepburn

Sammi Evans

Fran Daisy

JP Oldfield

Koerie Willsdon

Rosie Jay

Best Tribute Artist/Band

The Bowie Show

BC/DC Breakcover

The Britpop Boys

50 ft Queenie

Mick Jogger & The Stones Experience

Just Elton

Painted Bird

Plastic Fantastic

Rebjorn

Best Music Venue

The Pump, Trowbridge

Qudos, Salisbury

The Royal Oak, Pewsey

Stallards, Trowbridge

The Southgate, Devizes

The Three Crowns, Devizes

The Three Horseshoes, Bradford-on-Avon

The Victoria, Swindon

Best Original Song

The Bitter Mass – I’ll Wrap You

Burn The Midnight Oil – Lock Up

Butane Skies – Innocence

Gaz Brookfield – Hook Village Hall

Lucas Hardy – The Below

Rob Sadler – I Wrote a Country Song

Rosie Jay – I Don’t Give a Damn

Talk in Code – All In

The Vivas – Saint Swithens

Best Vocalist

Amber Coleman

Tom Corneill

Elijah Easton

Lucas Hardy

Chloe Jordan

Rachel Sinnetta

Chris Stevens

Tom Thornton

Best Guitarist

Jon Amor

Nick Beere

Joe Burke

Jolyon Dixon

Andy Hill

Howard Hughes

Jack Lowe

Innes Sibun

Alister Sneddon

Best Bassist

Mark Turner

Nick Gowman

Nick Beere

James Hinsley

Lucianne Worthy

Jerry Soffe

Ed Docherty

Richard Hunt

Thomas Noke

Best Drummer

Dean Creighton

Ed (Solar Bird)

Tom Gilkes

Andy Naish

Jamie O’Sullivan

Thor Porter

Callum Rawlings

Jane Truckle

Best Instrumentalist

Mike Barnett

Nick Beere

Jolyon Dixon

Claire Hopkins

Cailien Hunt

Andrew Hurst

Chris O’Leary

JP Oldfield

Sara Stagg

Wade (from Brakelight)

Best DJ

Paul Alexander

Mark Anthony

Chloe Grist

Guy Griffiths (DJ Bong)

Kevin – (Odstock Radio)

Mark Lister

Maurice Menghini

Andy Saunders

James Threlfall

Lifetime Achievement Award

Jon Amor

Nick Beere

Vince Bell

Jolyon Dixon

Colin Holton

Ruth Jones

Michael Johnson

Pete Lamb

Darren Simons

Talk in Code

Outstanding Contribution to the Wiltshire Music Scene

Jo Baines

Nick Beere

Colin Holton

Ian Hopkins

Tom Mallard

Solstice Sound Music Studio

Talk in Code

The Three Horseshoes

Darren Worrow

Outstanding Contribution to Music in the Community

Jo Baines

Robb Blake

Jemma Brown & Fulltone Orchestra

Saun Dobson & The Three Horseshoes

Ross Gooding

Colin Holton

The Royal Wottonn Bassett Dementia Choir

Talk in Code

West Wilts Radio

Darren Worrow

That’s all folks, save the most important part for you; come and help us celebrate the winners and runners up with a star-studded lineup of music, announcements, perhaps even yours truly as host (a polished turd in a tuxedo,) and a special celebrity guest or three, by grabbing some tickets for the grand ceremony at Devizes Corn Exchange on Saturday 25th October.

To make this as glitzy as we want it to be, you can help us also by sponsoring a category, more information about this and everything else to do with Wiltshire Music Awards, see HERE.

Wiltshire Music Awards 2025

Devizes Rising Star Jess Self in Final for West End Kids

If you’ve seen Jess Self performing at the Wharf Theatre, singing at the FullTone Festival or elsewhere I’m certain you’ll agree with us; Jess has that star quality which lights up the stage…..

At 13 Jess won Vernon Kay’s Talent Nation, studied performing arts at Trowbridge’s Stagecoach and has appeared in many productions including Devizes Music Academy’s Six:Teen, The Railway Children and lead roles in more pantomimes at The Wharf Theatre than I could name!

We’re delighted to hear Jess has made the final seven hopefuls for West End Kids, the UK’s renowned pre-professional company for musical theatre training and elite performance. From hundreds of entries, the final seven young contestants are decided by public vote, to win a scholarship for their training programme.

Jess said, “the first show I ever went to watch was Matilda when I was 9, after the show I said I want to do this’ and I haven’t stopped singing since. This would be a dream come true for me!”

Now, this is where you come in, interactive which we are! Please help Jess reach the dream, vote for her and support local talent. Vote HERE by entering your name, and confirming by email. Voting ends this Sunday, 3rd August, so don’t delay.

We wish you the very best of luck, Jess!

WEK: Star National Singing Competition – Final 7

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 to cover Devizes Scooter Rally, Trowbridge Festival and My Dad’s Bigger Than Your Dad festival in Swindon as well! I either need cloning technology or more people willing to write for peanuts; apply within, monkeys!

What I did discover on the Devizes Green was the usual exceptionally high standards of entertainment, amidst the equally usual quality of sound and light engineering.

Friday night was great, and showcased students of Devizes Music Academy. I’ve covered it here, Saturday I caught another glimpse of the magnificence; The FullTone Orchestra playing out Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with glitter-faced violinist Katy Smith, and was held spellbound, other than perhaps sipping my delicious Muck & Dunder piña colada!

I’m sorry I cannot bring you more, as I dropped into the Rally afterwards and stayed until the finale. The date clash of these two monumentally important Devizes events is a dilemma I’ve mentioned before. But no longer!

I’m glad to hear FullTone has announced a new date for 2026, 10th-12th July, as it cannot possibly clash with the rally,, as it’s being moved to the same site as the rally and recent inaugural and aptly named Park Farm Festival, at Lower Park Farm off the Whistley Road.

It’s a splendid site, plentiful for camping, and this will mean big changes for the FullTone Festival we can only speculate right now….and I’d get in even more trouble with Jemma then I already am!!

Devizes Scooter Rally; Best Yet, Ranking Full Stop!

If there’s been hearsay and ballyhoo about the date clash of two major but individually different events in Devizes this week, I hold my hand up for stirring the pot, yet try to attend both and find fair balance. But at the dawning of them, as magical as the FullTone Festival is, it cannot be argued, Devizes Scooter Rally was the success story this weekend…..

My afternoon was spent, Muck & Dundar piña colada in hand, in the magnificence of FullTone’s mighty stage, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons striking out with the acoustics of the gods, in awe at glitter-faced violinist Katy Smith and the orchestra behind.

It is unquestionably a fantastic event. Though Devizine isn’t my employment, neither a public service, it’s a hobby, its opinions driven by the personal preferences of the authors. As much as I pretend to be classically cultured, there’s another gig I’m impelled by preference to explore; Devizes Scooter Rally.

Handbags and gladrags for a cider guzzling retrospective camping adventure on the future site of FullTone, Park Farm. The scope for expansion for FullTone is available here, even if townsfolk accustomed to a freebie from their deckchair on the small green might whinge, at least the date will not clash and Devizions can enjoy both next year, if they so wished. Yet if the clash must remain, my devotion is towards the Rally, because it’s more my cuppa.

I’m standing upfield with the “Colonel” of Devizes Scooter Club Adam Ford and his partner Lauren Gibbs, watching the sun setting across the vast expanse of tents, campers and scooters; neither sure nor fussed over stats, but the site is at least 25% fuller than last year, which was recordbreaking too. They, club members, and volunteers have been here all week, setting up this magnificent spectacle, now feeling the fatigue but maintaining smiles, and the bar staff continue regardless of lost voices and aching feet. The club built the fantastic bar themselves, and once the rally is opened this testament to their conscientiousness never creates a dull moment.

The sound reputation the rally has built, both locally and nationwide has boosted attendance figures, the headlining of Ranking Jnr’s incarnation of The Beat assisted. A bold move to introduce a renowned name, but the Club needs to discuss just how willing they are to expand the rally, the issues it may raise, but in general the consensus seemed to be that in fear of losing the communal and hospitable atmosphere, this year’s Rally might be as large as they are willing to take it. I like this, for the atmosphere is sublimely buzzing, yet it retains a friendly, family vibe.

The spirit of the attendees, or the overall “vibe” is key to its success, and something no matter how much dosh you throw at the mechanics or promotion of an event, you can’t manufacture. It just happens, via the altruism and motivation of the organisers, presenting an affordable occasion welcoming all. The scooterists flock here from every corner of the country, the locals are now keen to come too, because there’s no boundaries or prejudices dividing them. It is also, undoubtedly the nostalgia they all love, a merger of youth cultures of yore, and, for the younger attendees, its influence on today. This, and the certitude ska, reggae, and soul is irresistibly danceable, and for the locals, genres something rarely provided here.

Devizes Scooter Rally is top of its own class. Other largescale rallies have debatably lost their communal atmosphere through their expansion, and those at the lower end of the scale do not pack the same powerful punch. Five bands are booked, there’s lengthy breaks between them filled with the renowned DJ Terry Hendrick, and no one batters an eyelid in botheration. This isn’t exactly a festival even though it might appear so, more a gathering of likeminded, out to party like there’s no tomorrow! They gather to chat, drink and be merry; that’s the motto reflected.

The Butterfly Collective, the penultimate Saturday night act seemed far more polished and diverse than last year, and took us on a grand historic musical journey of covers, relevant yet era-spanning and anthemic. What would finalise the live acts was bubbling the anticipation and excitement of the crowds jamming themselves into the marque.

Two-Tone pioneering bands striving towards chart success in the early eighties attempted it in different ways. The Specials upheld politically-motivated teenage anguish, The Bodysnatchers used their frontgirl for feminist awareness, Madness locked into a carefree fairground sound to appease the youngest, but The Beat achieved it by combining musical styles which would change the nature of pop. Punk, ska, soul and reggae, even Latino influences were not off the cards for The Beat. Though, as seemingly mandatory of the Two-Tone style, an Afro-Caribbean toaster was provided, and his unforgettable name was Ranking Roger.

2019 Ranking Roger sadly passed away aged just 56. We heard a heartwarming homage to him in both speech and song from his son Matthew Murphy, aka Ranking Junior, and though subtle not to sombre the mood, it was emotional. The remaining time was spent absolutely and categorically rocking the crowd with a combination of self-penned songs in the skanking fashion of The Beat yet updated with subtle dancehall and obviously classics from the original lineup when the concentration leaned on his father rather than Dave Wakeling. In so much we weren’t treated to tunes like Can’t Get Used to Losing You, but at the height of the party mood, Mirror in the Bathroom, Full Stop, Hands Off…She’s Mine and an updated Stand Down Margaret did more than suffice.

It was off the scale, a perfect balance of testament to his father and his own progression, akin to Ziggy Marley, a high but deserved accolade. Through his youthfulness was the drive in the show, the same zest and raw energy his father would’ve delivered in his prime, and that was simply delicious, respectful and infectious.

Once the steam had lessened and the night bit in, Terry would supply the other end of the musical difference of contemporary scooterists, Northern Soul. So if the soul dancers were persuaded by genre to hover outside while Ranking Junior’s The Beat took on this timeless extravaganza, the dancefloor was now theirs to show off their fancy moves, and they did!

What a fantastic, peaking blinder on our doorstep, I only hope I’ve done it justice trying to express how bloody marvelous it was, especially the afternoon after the cider I consumed! Devizes Scooter Club, friends and family sure know to throw an unforgettable shindig, and maximum respect to them for the diligence and efforts they put into putting this rally firmly on the map, again. It just gets better each time!

Static Moves Crawling Back With Debut Single

In a way it’s more intriguing when a cover band sends an original song than one already producing originals. For if original bands can sometimes be critical of the desire of pub venues to value cover bands over them, yeah, your average cover band is heeding the call for their bread and butter, but are often equally passionate about music, and turn to recording some of their own wares. And when they do it’s natural to pay homage to the particular style they play in, as guaranteed, that’s their calling and influence…..

Certainly true of Marlborough-based Static Moves, who released a debut single today, full of the retrospective energy they’re celebrated for at live shows. They turned a cold February night at the Three Crowns in Devizes into a volcano, as they regularly warm crowds at a plethora of local venues with a repertoire of welcomed new wave to Britpop covers.

The concern is that the raw energy doesn’t transfer to the recording, but you have no worries here; it’s the dog’s bollocks. Crawl Back, as they’ve called it, belts out an accomplished potential anthem of precisely what they’re loved for on the circuit. A matured and modern indie-rock spliced “Turning Japanese” by the Vapors, with a carefree attitude of the Merton Parkas. It’s got the new wave mod-punk crossover of the early eighties splashed across it like two-tone trousers and Fred Perry T-shirts never went out of fashion. And it didn’t, because you can hear its influence crying out for attention in contemporary indie-rock bands, ergo, the appeal of Crawl Back reaches beyond nostalgic middle-aged to youths today.

With a theme of the tail between your legs sympathy vote, forgiveness is key when you still fancy the wrongdoer, forget the three minute hero, this weighs in at four and a half, and it waits for no man to catch up with it. In a way the length of this whopper is more indicative of modern punk bands, but you cannot help but imagine you’re at a musky gig in 1981, it costs two quid to get in, you’ve only got one and half a packet of fruit Polos to trade with the glue-sniffers hanging outside drinking tins of Tennents!

Static Moves promises more of their, indeed, moreish raw energy captured, and if there’s more in the pipeline, an EP would be welcomed, an album worth would be knockout, because they could, and should, slip this into their covers set and no one would be any the wiser it wasn’t an album track from Modern English or a nineties influenced crew like The Coral or Supergrass; it’s on that level of excellence too, and that’s why they’re all over our local circuit like Dr Martens were in 1981.

Devizes Food & Drink Festival Programme of Events Released

Devizes Food & Drink Festival launched their 2025 programme of events today. Running from Saturday 20th to the 28th September, the Box Office opens online and at Devizes Books on August 11th; can you wait that long or is your tummy rumbling already?!

The free Street Food and Artisan Market will take place in the Devizes Market Place on Saturday 20th, opening the festival. There’s tales and food of Greece, cheese & wine tasting, a teddy bear’s picnic, an exploration of the culinary traditions that have bound French and Russian cuisine together, lunch in the Men’s Shed, local nutritionist and personal trainer Matt Fruci, lunch of Indian street food at Indigo Antiques, Polly’s lunch on the Water Gypsy, The great Foodie Quiz, a Wadworth tour, a murder mystery dinner, Come Dine With Us, and lots more.

The festival ends with the usual World Food Day, something I very much enjoyed last year when I got my fill! That’s free entry at the Corn Exchange on Sunday 28th September. 12.30 they say, but get there early as the queue will be huge and so might your appetite!

More info on the events HERE.

Schools Out For Summer: Here’s Some Things to Do in Wiltshire!

Schools out for summer, yelled a man called Alice, but that was in 1972. We’re about what you can do THIS school summer holiday with those little munchkins; here’s what we’ve found…

Please note as soon as we publish this we’ll be bombarded with events we have missed; at least that’s what usually happens! So, bookmark this article as it will update, as will our event calendar, as soon-(ish) as they come to us! Do not fear, we’ll help you through this period, parents, and prevent you having bored kids and compulsory wine-o’clock!

WC says school hollibobs begin Thursday 24th July and parents are freed on Monday 1st September, but we’ve found stuff from Monday 21st, so let’s get this ball rolling from there…..

Ongoing throughout the summer hols….

Boomerang, Melksham

Kids Activities at Bowood House

Longleat Summer Carnival

Friends of Jesus Children’s Summer Holiday Club @ Southbroom School, Devizes

Mon 21st July

Wed 23rd July

BSO On Your Doorstep Concert @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Fitzgraham Academy of Dance – Mythos @ The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

(26th July) The Jungle Book @ Salisbury Playhouse

Fri 25th July

Sat 26th July

Mon 28th July

Tues 29th July

Summer Chocolate Experience (Adult & Child/Teen) @ HollyChocs, Poulshot

Thurs 31st July

Wiltshire & Bath Air Ambulance Teddy Bear’s Picnic @ Semington Base, Trowbridge

Fri 1st August

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

Threads: Clothing, Memory and Identity

Origami Aeroplanes Workshop @ Trowbridge Museum

(-6th Aug) Devising Drama @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

(-8th Aug) PLUK Song-Writing Club @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

(-8th Aug) LEGO Stopframe Animation Workshop @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avo

The Most Perilous Comedie of Elizabeth I @ Old Town Bowl, Swindon

Sat 2nd August

Brick Creative Club with Trowbridge Library

The Arc Open Day

Ice Cream & Bubbles Festival

Circus Skills Workshop @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Friends Summer Tea Party @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Mon 4th August

Lights Up, Sounds Down – Quiet Opening

Tues 5th August

COOKERY CLASS FOR ADULTS & TEENS WITH COMPLEX NEEDS

Summer Holidays: Autism Friendly Quiet Time

Trio Paradis Family Concert: Planes, Trains & Automobiles

ATBShop Warminster Skate Park Event

Craft Day @ The Shires, Trowbridge

Wed 6th August

Drama Tots @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Little Piccolos @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Exhibition On Screen: Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition

Thurs 7th August

Summer Pirate Cruises From The Wharf, Devizes

COOK TOGETHER (ADULT & CHILD) – ITALIAN FEAST

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

Children’s Tie Dye T-shirt Workshop @ Trowbridge Museum

Rock The Tots Summer Party @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Fri 8th August

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

Mermaid Dance Party @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Paddington’s First Concert @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Sat 9th August

Curious Kids: Under the Sea @ Wiltshire Museum, Devizes

Seend Fete

Story Time @ Trowbridge Library

Swindon & Wiltshire Pride

Tues 12th August

Make your own musical – (14-18’s) with Emily Malcolm

Writing (and performing?) your words – (11-14’s) with Saili Katebe

Wed 13th August

Junk Modelling (ages 5+) @ Trowbridge Museum

Thurs 14th August

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

Balloon Modelling @ The Shires, Trowbridge

Pewsey Moviola at the Bouverie Hall

(-14th-16th Aug) Annie @ The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

Fri 15th August

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

Fearlessly Taylor @ Town Gardens Bowl Town Gardens, Swindon

Sat 16th August

Colour Rush

Confetti Battle

Sun 17th August

Mon 18th August

Holiday Club at Southbroom St James Academy, Devizes

A Churches Together in Devizes Holiday Club is taking place from Monday the 18th to Friday the 22nd of August at Southbroom St James Acadamy in Nursteed Road. The sessions are from 9.45am to 12.30pm each day, and it’s for children going into school years one to seven in September. Go along and make new friends this summer. There’ll be Bible stories, games, activities, crafts, songs, drame, and much more. There’s a suggested donation of £1 per day. Email devizeschurches.holidayclub@gmail.com for further information and booking details.

(-22nd Aug) Musical in a Week! @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

Tues 19th August

Crafting with Leather @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

11+ 2 DAY COOKERY CAMP – AUGUST

Make-up for stage – (11-14’s) with Anna Randall

Wed 20th August

Horrible Histories: Gorgeous Georgians and Vile Victorians @ The Wyvern, Swindon

Thurs 21st August

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

COOK TOGETHER (ADULT & TEEN 14+) – ASIAN FEAST

Comedy writing (and performing?) – (14-18’s) with Angie Belcher

Costume design/making – (11-14’s) with Lottie Bywaters

Fri 22nd August

Meet Stitch & Bluey at Hillworth Park! | Fri 22nd August

Kid’s Summer Art Club @ Wiltshire Scrapstore, Lacock

https://thefarmcookeryschool.co.uk/event/cook-together-adult-child-pastry/

Bat & Moth Evening at Baydons Meadow

Vicky Jackson as Pink

Sat 23rd August

Summer Fete at Devizes Scout Hall

The Last Baguette: Bin Rat at The Corsham Almshouses

In The Night Garden Live@ The Wyvern, Swindon

Sun 24th August

Crofton in Steam – August Steaming weekend

Mon 25th August

Balloon Modelling @ The Shires, Trowbridge

Tues 26th August

4+ SUPERSTARS

7+ SUPERCOOKS

Acting improvisation and creating scenes (14-18’s) with Deepraj Singh

Instruments and DJ’ing – (11-14’s) with Mark Lodge

Wed 27th August

11+ HOLIDAY CLUB

Flowers And Friendship Bracelets – The Ultimate Pop Concert @ The Wyvern, Swindon

Thurs 28th August

COOK TOGETHER (ADULT & CHILD) – SUMMER TREATS

Fri 29th August

Hot Air Balloon Weaving (ages 5+) @ Trowbridge Museum

Sat 30th August

Devizes Carnival Parade

Kennet & Avon Summer Floating Fayre @ the Barge, HoneyStreet

MELKSHAM FOOD & RIVER FESTIVAL

Calne Food Festival

Malmesbury Carnival

West of England Youth Orchestra with Leia Zhu @ Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon

The Amazing Bubble Man

That’s all Folks! Back to school. Parents, breath out and relax!

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 peacefully contain two major events on the same weekend, and, potentially, everyone comes up smiling because they attract different target audiences. But if the practicalities and ethos of both events differ enough for townsfolk to calculate a decision on which they’d prefer to attend, when you think about it there’s also some striking similarities between the two….

Next weekend sees two major Devizes events happening simultaneously, FullTone Festival and Devizes Scooter Rally. Me? My eclectic tastes and desire to impartially cover as much goings-on as possible puts me in a dilemma, but for most it’s a no-brainer which they’d rather go to. FullTone, central in town, celebrates our homegrown orchestra, with classically trained and theatrical musicians and singers. Though it leans towards representing pop too, classical is the root, and you can chill among friends on a deckchair absorbing the magnitude of something akin to Last Night of the Proms, whilst close to both home and some lardy cake!

Whereas The Scooter Rally, out on the Whistley Road, appeases scooter enthusiasts from near and far, though not exclusively, but either usually have a retrospective penchant for soul, reggae, and dancing to it like there’s no tomorrow! If production is slighter here, it’s ample for its needs; technically engineering sound for ska bands with a brass section, keys and all other gubbings can be nearly as challenging as an orchestra, but the Rally has never failed us yet with precision and high quality output. You. Will. Have. A peaky blinder, guaranteed!

Slide and Decide!

On cost, yes, FullTone comes at a price, but as I’ve stated many times before, when you’re held spellbound in the epicentre of that domed stage, captured by its acoustic magnificence, you’ll soon see where the money is spent; on matchless production, coordination, planning and the highest quality performances. The Scooter Rally prides itself on affordability, but somehow doesn’t skip on quality, which is miraculous in itself. There you will feel like part of something really rather communal and will never be left feeling anyone is out to rip you off; similar to FullTone under the premise “you get what you pay for.”

The ambience this creates at the Rally is second to none; drinks prices match the fairness of the ticket stub, camping is included, showers are provided free, and unlike any preconceived notion, mods and skinheads would rather cuddle you than nick your purse!! As an orchestral event it goes without saying, Fulltone also has the hospitality Hagrid would get returning to Hogwarts. Still, the music offering and type of crowd are vastly different, we could suggest by social class, but again, there’s a good mix at both too.

Fulltone Festival 2023 Day Two Image: Gail Foster

So, where’s the other similarities, you ask, or I’d imagine you might, as they sound completely different kettles of fish, agreed.

I’ll tell you the easiest comparisons first, both are in Devizes; yay! Secondly, both are blooming fantastic, worthy of your hard-earned cash. Both are about the same age, and have become stalwart and beloved annual occasions, both locally and further afield. The attraction nationally of both benefit the town financially.

The other major similarity is uniqueness; if there’s nothing else quite like either in Devizes, it’s fair to argue there’s not much quite like either nationwide. Where else would you find an entire magical weekend covering every aspect of the capabilities of a seventy-piece orchestra, theatrical productions and additions catering for a wider demographic? I cannot think of another event anything like FullTone.

Similarly, scooter rallies tend to only come at two ends of the extreme. There’s long established overpriced rallies of glorious magnitude, and then there’s a pub selling undercooked hotdogs for a tenner, with an uninspiring local mod band perpetually playing Wonderwall. Devizes Scooter Rally sits between the two. You might pay the same price as the lower end of the scale, but you’ll receive all the glory of the upper end, and with a hospitable, local feel to it. I’m not making this up. I’ve spoken to folk who travelled up from Cornwall and folk who trekked down from Manchester to attend Devizes Scooter Rally simply because, and I quote “there’s nothing quite like it.”

And “highest quality performances,” did I state about FullTone? This year Devizes Scooter Club has only gone and booked The Beat! Yes, The Beat, the legendary Two-Tone popsters remembered for hits like Mirror in the Bathroom, Hands off She’s Mine, and Can’t Get Used to Losing You. Although Ranking Junior, son of the late Roger Charlery, aka Ranking Roger has settled into the shoes of his father and fronts a reformation of The Beat, it’s a welcomed addition for the Rally to pull in a big name. They are joined by four other bands including Specials and Small Faces tributes, and top northern soul DJs. Devizes Scooter Rally has the space to expand, booking such a renowned headliner suggests they’re willing to take it on.

Meanwhile, FullTone this year has concentrated efforts on exhibiting the orchestra’s projects, which they’ve exported to other towns and cities, such as a homage to Enya’s Watermark album, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, rather than introducing local acts outside of the sphere of orchestral music. Although Friday offers a youth showcase and organiser Jemma Brown’s Devizes Music Academy production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Saturday hosts the Big Sound Choir, and Sunday finds the Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra on stage at 1pm. If FullTone feels a tad more inclusive this year, it doesn’t need nor has the capacity to expand, it is an incredible experience within itself, as it is.

Tickets for FullTone next weekend (25th-27th August) are HERE. For Devizes Scooter Rally, also next weekend (26th-27th July) Facebook message the Devizes Scooter Club, or call 078088 49965.

Not forgoing both The Trowbridge Festival and Swindon’s My Dads Festival are also next weekend and come highly recommended from us. Wiltshire Soul & Blues Club have Owlfest at their secret Lacock location on Sunday, and Tidworth have a freebie festival. And if you cannot make your mind up, or gawd bless you cannot afford any of these, on Friday 25th find The Elvis & Orbison at Devizes Corn Exchange. Saturday sees The Reason at The Three Crowns, Barney Kenny is down The Southgate, there’s an Elton John tribute in Potterne, and Verdi’s La Traviata at Seend Community Hall….but you’d know all this if you checked the Devizine event calendar, and you’d be informed of everything going on!

Clashes over summer months are inevitable, we’ve a busy schedule around here and it is an honour to bring them all to your attention. Yeah, there’s similarities between these two giants, but at the same time, they’re different enough to not affect the sales of each in these trying times, I hope, and whatever you choose it’s better than staying home, crying into a bag of cheap cheesy puffs and watching “Pointless Celebrities;” (there’s a clue in it’s very name!!)

Or am I being too nice and impartial for Devizes with this article?! It’ll never get a Facebook share without some conflict. No, the secret is out, we all know which is the better of the two, “there can be only one;” let the fight to the bitter end commence!

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 in Poulshot, near Devizes….

Founded by award-winning chocolatier Holly Garner, Hollychocs has become a much-loved fixture in the local community, known not just for its handcrafted chocolates but for creating a warm, welcoming space for chocolate lovers to connect, indulge and experience the very best chocolate in the Southwest.

“This decision hasn’t come lightly,” said Holly. “Sam and I have poured so much into the café—working long days, championing other small businesses and suppliers and welcoming thousands of people through our doors. The support from our community has meant everything.”

The closure comes amidst rising costs that have impacted many small businesses across the country. “We’ve tried everything—from constantly creating new menu offerings, to introducing special offers,” Holly added. “In the end, the increased labour costs paired with price increases across the board, have made it time to focus our energy on a future that’s sustainable for us, our chocolate, and the people behind it.”

Yet this opens a new chapter for Hollychocs. Although the café will no longer offer drop-in visits, Hollychocs will continue to host a wide range of bookable chocolate experiences from their studio just outside Devizes. These include guided tastings, chocolate-making workshops, and sit-down afternoon teas—already popular with locals and visitors alike.

Hollychocs’ full product range will also remain available for UK-wide delivery and click & collect. She’s just released a Hollychocs version of the viral sensation Dubai Bar and has plans to increase her postbox-friendly chocolate gifts which are an increasingly popular way of sending a thoughtful gift.

They will also be focusing more on Corporate Gifting and Wholesale opportunities both locally and nationally.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Holly assured. “We’re simply shifting focus—putting our efforts into the parts of the business we know can sustain us in the long term.”

The final day of trading at the Beanery Café will take place on Saturday 23rd August, and the team welcomes the community to pop in for one last drink or treat.

“We’d love to see some familiar faces before we close the doors,” said Holly. “We’re so proud of what we’ve built—and incredibly grateful to everyone in Wiltshire who’s supported us on this journey.”

Devizine wishes Holly and the team all the best with progressing this delicious brand. It’s a shame to hear about The Beanery but I believe they’ve made the sensible decision.

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“The Mother” at The Mission Theatre, Bath, July 16th-19th 2025.

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Pitstop at Air Ambulance Fundraising Mini-festival at The Three Crowns Devizes

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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 unfortunately miss Marlborough’s gem a fortnight ago…..

Weather and festival organisers aren’t besties. Organisers quiveringly check forecasts months prior, usual concern being moisture. Daytime at the inaugural Park Farm Festival just outside Devizes, where they positioned a professional looking stage some distance between where punters took shelter in beer tents and sun-shaded tables, Southwest’s premier Chicago blues replicators, aptly named Chicago 9 blasted a wonderful set to distant onlookers whilst the zone between better resembled an African savanna where no man dare tread from fear of being frazzled!

I suspected many events this weekend subtly suffered from the heatwave despite the prospect favoured over torrential downpours, and one look during the day might suggest placing the stage so far away was an error. But by sunset that area will be filled with a selection of locals particularly from surrounding villages, heavy rock or grunge fans, regular Mantonfest attendees knowledgeable these guys have 25+ years of experience at hosting the most hospitable and welcoming local festival we could namedrop, or perhaps those who ticked more than one of those multiple choices. It was at this point you realised, despite July’s event clashes, a flooding of the festival market, and Park Farm being a first timer, numbers in attendance was averagely high and everyone was up for a good time.

I met with Mantonfest’s organisers some months ago where I was concerned replicating Mantonfest this side of Devizes might have a dubious impact, yet it seemed all was alright on the night, tribute acts are welcomed once the beer flows and Park Farm Festival set a high bar, recreating the friendly atmosphere expected at Mantonfests of yore, where everyone had an amazing day. It now takes me to blow the secret, this intends to return annually and I would seriously consider jotting it onto your calendar.

If Lower Park Farm will be a camping site for freewheeling soul and ska mods and skins in a fortnight, when the Devizes Scooter Club’s celebrated annual rally takes hold, this weekend is dedicated to a range of rock aficionados. Sadly I missed Essex’s finest Jamie Williams & The Roots Collective, welcomed regulars to The Southgate, though, I’m safe in the knowledge these guys know what strings to pull.

Barrelhouse followed Chicago 9, keeping the blues flow with the unique yet highly entertaining hoedown of groovy vintage blues, standard issue at Mantonfest now adored throughout the county.

Double-booked as usual, at this point I took advantage of the free shuttle bus, headed into town to poke my nose into The Three Crowns’ fundraiser, details set to follow. Meanwhile here, Josie & The Radiotones played and I returned for sixties heroes The Swinging Blue Jeans.

Seen these before, legendary rock n rollers who make universally entertaining a crowd look like childsplay, blasting their timeless hits and others which influenced them, as even the younger dared to dance under the beating sun.

Legends ticked it was time for the evening’s tributes, and judging the amount of Nirvana t-shirts against those of AC-DC ones was tight. A sudden quantum leap forward three decades and Nirvana UK did the most accomplished task of recreating those pioneers of grunge, loudly and proudly. Yet if you came here for authenticity in a tribute, AC/DC.UK might’ve thrown contemporary sound engineers with their usage of original eighties amps, but they sublimely recreated the heavy metal sound of the period and knocked it out of Park Farm!

Personally, heavy metal was never my bag, and through Swindon’s modern grunge scene, bands like I See Orange, The Belladonna Treatment and Liddington Hill have turned my head onto something I also sorely missed in the ravey nineties. Therefore my preference lay in Nirvana UK rather than the headliner, but judging on doing what it says on the tin, AC/DC.UK absolutely rocked that finale.

Yet the whole shebang must be hailed as putting this inguinal festival on the map for following years. For anyone who winces at the price tag, it’s standard in this era of hyperinflation, blame a government not organisers, and know, just like big sister Mantonfest, you’ll see where your money was spent if you attend; quality tried and tested acts, the highest quality production and nice touches like clean toilets and the shuttle bus.

For Grist and his team, financial risk is a thing in any competitive market and it can be surprising how narrow festivals can be; it’s a five-year plan minimal where research is crucial, and the reward is you’ve created enjoyment. Hats off to them, for this was an amazing beginning.

Pitstop at Air Ambulance Fundraising Mini-festival at The Three Crowns Devizes

Rude to walk into an event sporting another event wristband but the welcome was friendly as ever at the Three Crowns in Devizes. It’s mid-afternoon, Park Farm Festival‘s shuttle bus took me into town, cheekily I used it to poke my nose into the Air Ambulance fundraiser here, their first real multi-act day, I believe, save perhaps my 50th birthday, which if you remember any details of, you could always fill me in!

It was a necessity, if only to see Ruby Darbyshire, as it’s been a while, not a long while, but long enough for me. First time playing the venue and she went down a storm, unsurprisingly. Such a rich, natural talent, vocals made from silk, expressive and forever a joy to listen to; be they either covers, a Portishead one being a particularly breathtaking one, or her intelligently constructed originals, of which she dropped a couple of new ones I’m eager to review here in good time.

There were hugs all round upon my entrance; Ben Borrill and Pat Ward finished a set as Matchbox Mutiny, a shame to miss, because those gorgeously talented guys pull a crowd and hold them. At the moment I did arrive I was delighted to catch Rachel Sinnetta & Jolyon Dixon doing their thing with Andy Fellows accompanying on guitar, as it’s always impressive and highly entertaining. It was a stellar lineup with cupcakes, lollipops, children’s face-painting, and tried and tested acts at the Three Crowns, save Ruby, who I’m assured would be welcomed back.

Rumour was Devizes Male Choir was intending to do a flash mob bit between Ruby and the grand finale, the ever lively Funked-Up. Unsure if this happened, as unfortunately, I was duty bound to return to Park Festival, but you can rest assured Funked-Up got the crowds dancing the night away. I wish I could’ve stayed.

The spirit of The Three Crowns remains toppermost in town; the go-to pub in Devizes for a good night, an unpretentious, friendly atmosphere with the widest age demographic which never clashes. It’s trouble-free fun, it’s live music program set to enthral, and not forgetting gourmet burgers; it’s an all-round winner on any night, but more of this all-day stuff, please kind sir!

Henry Aldridge and Son to Move Into Devizes Old Town Hall

Family run premier auctioneers of antiques and collector’s items, Henry Aldridge and Son announced a move into The Old Town Hall on Wine Street, Devizes; a move which will see them return to their roots…..

Alan Aldridge started Henry Aldridge and Son from the first floor of The Old Town Hall thirty-five years ago. They’re delighted to be coming home having completed the freehold purchase of the property. “It means so much to us as a family,” Chrissie Aldridge told us.

“The Old Town Hall, a stunning Grade II* neoclassical property will serve as the principal location for the collation of our Titanic, Liner and iconic memorabilia auctions. We will also host weekly free valuation days on Thursday market days.”

“The first stage of our move will take place next month with our main operation relocating to the Old Emporium in October.”

Henry Aldridge and Son host free valuations in Devizes every Friday with their Head of Valuations, TV’s Paul Martin. Paul, who hosted BBC’s Flog It for nearly twenty years is available to cast his expert eye over your prize possessions.

The Old Town Hall dates to 1752, first commissioned as a market hall, the ground floor was the town’s cheese market. By 1785 the first floor was an arsenal for the Royal Wiltshire Militia, and has also been the mess hall of the Devizes Loyal Volunteers, and a Sunday school.

Why is it called Wine Street? By 1836 the building was leased for commercial use, acquired by wine merchants, Messrs Cunnington, who used the basement and the vaults below for storage. The building has also been the museum, library and reading rooms of the literary and scientific institution. But many will remember its use by TSB, Hen House and the Wine Street Gallery.

Free Charity Fundraising Festival at The Three Crowns Devizes

With the Three Crowns being the liveliest pub in Devizes for some years now with live music every weekend and the Brewery Shop as a new neighbour, it seems sensible to upgrade the idea to a free Wadworth mini fundraising festival ….yay!

On Saturday 12th July The Three Crowns will pull all stocks out, with a free mini-festival supporting Wiltshire Air Ambulance and Julia’s House. Wadworth has a beer tasting table, Chirton School is doing a cake sale, and they promise other stalls. The music starts at 11am with a children’s disco and face painting until 1pm.

The best tried and tested locally sourced music lineup includes Matchbox Mutiny, who starts the music proceedings at 2pm, followed by Jolyon Dixon and Rachel Sinnetta at 3:15pm. Ruby Darbyshire at 4:15pm. Headliners Funked Up at 7pm.

Agreed, there’s a gap between Ruby and Funked Up – maybe there’s something they’ve forgotten to tell me, maybe it’s a surprise, or maybe it’ll be time to grab one of their fantastic gourmet burgers?!

REVIEW – White Horse Opera’s Cosi Fan Tutte @ Assembly Rooms – Saturday 21st June 2025

Another Triumph for WHO

Andy Fawthrop

Following the excellent recent production of La Belle Helene at Devizes’ Wharf Theatre back in March (see here), White Horse Opera (WHO) have triumphed yet again by bringing their production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte to D-Town.

Così fan tutte is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte (who also wrote Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni). Così fan tutte, literally means “So do they all”, using the feminine plural (tutte) to indicate women. It is usually translated into English as “women are like that”. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Mozart and Da Ponte used the idea of “fiancée swapping”, which is a recurring theme dating back to at least the 13th century; notable earlier versions are found in Boccaccio’s Decameron, and Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline. Elements from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew are also present. Whilst it’s likely that nowadays we’d see such an idea as somewhat “problematical”, in opera terms such unacceptable behaviour is seen merely as a comic problem to be resolved with a neat and happy ending.

So it was that White Horse Opera (WHO) brought this sparkling jewel to life last night in the elegant surroundings of the Assembly Room in the Town Hall. Unlike many operas requiring a large cast, chorus and orchestra, Cosi Fan Tutte can be played with only six singers and a pianist, and this made it a perfect piece to transport into a smaller, intimate atmosphere. Using a simple backdrop, a few screens and virtually no props, the production was allowed to breathe. The spoken dialog and the songs (all in English) were straightforward and easy to follow, allowing the comedy to shine through (although there was a helpful synopsis in the programme too). This minimalist approach, thanks to Lewis Cowen’s staging, and Roland Melia’s musical direction, kept it all as light as a feather.

All six singers excelled in their roles, and it would be invidious to single any one of them out. Seriously – they were all on cracking form. The solos, duets and ensemble pieces were all well-delivered, glittering like jewels in a crown. And the “seventh” member of the cast, pianist Tony James, who was on-stage throughout every scene in this two-act production, provided exactly the right supportive, yet under-stated, musical platform for the singers to really shine.

I loved this production – it was a chance to get up close to the stage and the mechanics of the performances, and to chat with the performers during the interval and afterwards. It was as far as it was possible to be from the “grand idea” of opera – i.e. a big cast production in a large gilded opera house with all the social trimmings and conventions. It proved, if proof be needed, that such a stripped-back delivery can provide all of the good things about opera, but without the concomitant fripperies.

To take such themes as love, trust, fidelity, deception, betrayal, forgiveness and reconciliation, to say nothing of the supposed “weakness of women”, and the cynical view of Don Alfonso that (to quote someone more contemporary) “if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with”, and to deliver all this up in less than two and a quarter hours, was no mean feat. Leaving aside the dubious morality of testing fidelity by swapping girl-friends, using (deliberately risible) disguises, the manipulation if others by the main character, and the portrayal of women as weak characters who simply can’t help themselves, sits uncomfortably with a modern audience. But, hey, this is comic opera, and you need to join in with the joke. Yes, it’s all very contrived and very silly, but that’s how comic opera works. And you can see exactly where Gilbert & Sullivan were coming from when they unleashed their satirical take on many of these devices.

So – an absolutely spiffing and hats-off production by WHO. Sparkling staging and singing, and all completely accessible. Do go and see them whenever you get chance. We’re so lucky to have such a talented outfit working in and around our town.

Bravo!

CAST

Fiordiligi– Barbara Gompels

Dorabella– Paula Boyagis

Guglielmo – Jon Paget

Ferrando – Robert Felstead

Despina –Toni Johnstone

Don Alfonso – Robin Jukes

Musical Director Roland Melia, Stage Director Lewis Cowen, Pianist Tony James

White Horse Opera are based in Devizes and regularly perform operas around Wiltshire and beyond.

Find out more HERE

News & Chat About Wiltshire Music Awards on Don’t Stop the Music Radio Show

Despite being a tad under the weather last week, I was delighted to join Eddie Prestidge of Wiltshire Music Events on Swindon 105.5 radio to discuss the next stages of our Wiltshire Music Awards…..

For those not in the know, though I suspect many are, presenter Peggy-Sue Ford produces a weekly show on the long-established station called Don’t Stop the Music, dedicated to showcasing signed and unsigned acts, particularly locally-sourced. What better place to explain our plans for the awards? I cannot think of any, because there’s few radio shows locally as thoroughly dedicated as Peggy’s, who brings acts into the studio to perform live and has become such a popular catalyst for upcoming local musicians.

This week Peggy-Sue was talking to Rich Swatton of a gem on our event calendar, Minety Music Festival, so it was the second week absent of live music; I did offer to sing for our turn on the show, which was swifty and understandably avoided and the topic diverted! Other than this, I think it went rather well and Ed and I made a bit of a duo, in the vein of Laurel & Hardy!!

Peggy-Sue uploads the shows on Spotify, so you can catch up with the shows if you miss them; here’s ours, should you wish to listen. Despite no live music, there’s local tunes from many already on our radar, Talk in Code, Deadlight Dance and JP Oldfield, and others new to us, Swindon crossover rapper Brandon Clarke, who goes under the pseudonym Weather, and Kate X, an upcoming RnB singer; both worth looking up.

With the voting process now closed, Ed and I explained what happens next. The votes will be counted and the top three of each category will be put before a panel of judges, all with professional experience and loyalty to promoting the local music scene. The reason for this, so we can find a balance across the entire county and represent countywide fairly, ensuring the results are not centralised in one area. Whereby some results appear to be close to call, judges will decide the winner, but in all cases, especially those results where one has walked the category, this accomplishment must be considered by the judges as priority.

The judges were announced as being, subject to their own availability: Claire Grist of the Facebook page Bird is the Word, Ed Dyer of Swindon Shuffle, Roger of Sound Knowledge in Marlborough, Ronnie Laurie of Marland Music, Salisbury music producer Joylon Dixon, Nick Beere of Mooncalf Studios, and Peggy-Sue Ford herself. We have advised, now the judges are announced, bribing them with sweeties, kisses, or anything of the kind will be frowned upon!

This is the first Wiltshire Music Awards, and we’re learning and planning as we go, but we are dedicated to presenting the results in October with a grand ceremony at Devizes Corn Exchange. In order to do this effectively we require sponsorship for each category, for which is affordable and details of which can be found HERE. Tickets for the ceremony can also be found there, starting at just ten pounds, and there’s some FAQs.

We strive towards that date crossing the Ts and dotting the Is, and look forward to presenting the awards with lots of live music acts on the night, perhaps a celebrity presenter alongside me in a tux, the latter of which is worth the ticket price alone!

I’d like to thank Peggy-Sue and Swindon 105.5 on behalf of myself and Eddie, for allowing us to visit the studio last week, to chat about the awards, and test the swing chairs for squeakiness, which I report was minimal. What a great show!

REVIEW – The Lost Trades @ The Piggy Bank, Calne – Tuesday 18th June 2025

Five Have An Out-of-town Experience

You can’t always get that live music experience you crave by simply staying within the walls of D-Town. Sometimes, and especially when there’s a band playing that you simply have to see, you just need to get the gang together and pile into a motor to visit the wilder Wiltshire provinces. And so it was last night that we ventured over the hill to Calne. We found the border post un-guarded, and so we slipped into the town and found our way to The Piggy Bank micro-pub to see The Lost Trades……

The Piggy Bank has been a surprisingly good little venue over the past year or two, featuring some great nights with, among others, The Rob Lear Band, The Black Feathers, Jess Vincent, and Jinder, as well as pop-up dining nights, quiz nights and (a big favourite of mine) Crazy Bird comedy club nights.

Just in case you don’t know them, The Lost Trades are a trio who play folk/ Americana with a cool Laurel Canyon vibe. With a sound that is reminiscent of the California folk scene of the late 60s/early 70s, (we’re thinking here of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), their three part harmonies have been previously described as “flawless”, “spine tingling” and “magical”.

Formed in late 2019, the global Covid hoo-hah cut short their first tour after just a single sold out gig. The band shrugged their shoulders, and retreated to their respective song-writing rooms to work on what was to become their debut album, “The Bird, The Book & The Barrel”, released in June 2021. The follow up album, “Petrichor” was released in March 2023. Both are highly recommended – trust me!

Then, just last year, one of their founding members, Tamsin Quinn, decided to leave the trio to pursue other interests. Bit of a shock. Was this the end for The Lost Trades, we all wondered? Not a bit of it! Tamsin has now been replaced (if replaced is really the right word) by the very talented Jess Vincent, who had recently returned to the UK after a few years away in Bulgaria.

The result of all that is that The Lost Trades now consist of:

· Phil Cooper (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric bass), a performer not unknown in the local area for many years, both as a solo performer, as well in various bands, and a guy who knows his way around a recording studio and the producer’s job;

· Jamie R Hawkins (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric bass, ukulele), also massively well-known locally, especially in venues around D-Town, for his wonderful solo performances and some great songs. Indeed a bunch of us had slipped over to The Pulpit (ex The Little Hop) in Old Town, Swindon only last week to witness a really excellent solo performance at that new musical venue;

· Jess Vincent (vocals, guitar, percussion, shruti box). Jess first came to notice singing with Penny Red, before branching out into a solo career that produced several albums (Time Frame, Seesaw Dreams, Shine, and last year’s Lions Den)

Between us five we’d seen The Lost Trades in their old formation many times before, but this was to be the first time with new band-member Jess. How would this all work out? Would the sound and the dynamic have changed? And if so, for better or worse? Well, in sum, we need not have worried. Despite a massive learning curve for Jess to pick up the band’s performing repertoire in just a few short months, to say nothing of having to re-blend all of their trade-mark close harmonies, the end result was spectacularly good. It was neither better, nor worse, just slightly different and more developed and mature. Right from the first number we knew that the magic had remained intact.

All the old stuff was still there – the constant and easy interchanging of instruments (including guitar, ukulele, bass and percussion), the close three-part harmonies, the well-worked song material, and the light-hearted intimacy, with the group engaging in comfortable repartee with each other and the audience like a group of old friends. And there were a lot of old friends in the audience to help them along. And, of course, the many familiar songs.

But there was some great new stuff too – new songs, a different female vocal line, new instruments, and (obviously) a new personal dynamic between the three performers. All of them had played The Piggy Bank before, and all to packed houses, so there were no nerves about any of that. And last night, in front of yet another packed house, they managed to produce a truly spell-binding performance once again.

My only (very slight) reservations about the evening were that I needed slightly less chat (some of the introductions were as long as the songs!) and I would have liked slightly more of Jess (the two boys tended to dominate proceedings at times). But, hey, these are very simple things to be fixed and developed, and didn’t in any way detract from all the superb quality of the music they delivered in their three sets (or “spasms” as Phil nicely put it).

There were no lashings of ginger beer, but the music flowed, the craft beer certainly flowed, and a jolly good time was had by all. Then, under cover of darkness, we fled through the night back to the safety of D-Town, our out-of-town mission successfully accomplished.

Hopefully there’ll be more music dates to come at The Piggy Bank in the autumn. But, meanwhile, if you want to see The Lost Trades live in concert (and I strongly recommend that you do!), they’ll be appearing locally as below:

Future dates for The Lost Trades:

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 @ The White Bear, Devizes

Friday 25th July 2025 @ Trowbridge Festival

Friday 26th September 2025 @ The Pump, Trowbridge

Saturday 27th September @ The Hop, Old Town, Swindon

For more information go to thelosttrades.com/

Devizes Arts Festival Relive the Eighties with Riviera Dogs

Together in Electric Dreams…. at The Corn Exchange

Fashionably late for Devizes Arts Festival, I’d like to thank Andy and Ian for informative coverage of some complex events to review, whilst I took the easier route; rocked up for the last Saturday evening party like I was Prince, stole a fluorescent trilby and dad-danced around my bum-bag until they switched the final disco ball off…..

I’ll be honest, with my diddy-boppers cover band radar on high alert and leg warmers in the wash, I wasn’t expecting to stay until the final curtain, for what seemed from the outside to be a refined generation X school disco. I could also get as pedantic as Mary Whitehouse; the band promised eighties, but the name Riviera Dogs is obviously a play on a 1992 Tarantino movie title; quibble when compared to the fantastic night they delivered.

As bang on cue as waiting for Top of the Pops each Friday, Riviera Dogs fired their flux capacitor and dropped Devizes Corn Exchange into the middle of the decade they’d pay homage to, with an exemplary cover of Go West’s We Close Our Eyes. From the off it was obvious this five-piece were some way above your average function band. Attendees wasted no bashful time finding a spot on the floor and dancing like it was 1985 again, even those few not old enough to recall it the first time around, (like me, a-hem!)

From there, everybody wanted to rule the world with Tears for Fears and I just died in Cutting Crew’s arms as Riviera Dogs played their trump cards early. Mid-eighties power ballads were their calling, they were proficiently and professionally good at them. Seems they tour the nationwide retro circuit rather than play functions, for if they were to play a wedding it’d overshadow the attention the happy couple would receive!

This said, many function bands use both male and female vocalists for songs, respectively according to the gender of the front person, and I wondered, if eighties pop hits were truly to be covered comprehensively some Madge, Cyndi Lauper and Kylie, to mention but a few, wouldn’t have gone a miss with a female singer as proficient and entertaining as the existing male counterpart.

But as it was, it was a highly entertaining show, full of lively play, relevant and amusing nods to eighties trends which roused the crowds and caused them to reflect on their heyday; that’s nostalgia on top form. They rolled out smash hit after smash hit like you were listening to a Now album, Chesney Hawkes to Don Henly and beyond. Perhaps the more rock tunes, like Springsteen’s Dancing in the Dark, which though I welcomed, wasn’t as precisely executed as the electronica power pop ballads, but with those so sublimely fulfilled, and the evening in full swing, the crowds simply lapped it up, and twas so subtle no one cared to notice.

At one point though, we went from one end of the decade to the other too suddenly, for me. One minute we were dancing to Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star next it was Bros. The scant warning being a gag about wearing Grolsch bottle tops on shoes wasn’t enough for me to prepare for the paradox! This stark contrast midway may’ve corrupted my timeline but didn’t seem to bother most of the audience either, exposing quinquagenarian Brosettes in the crowd!

As a homage to eighties music several elements were missing; feminine and queer insurgence, and rebellious tenets either side of that mid-eighties march for unadulterated pop mush; punk and Two-Tone at one end, hip hop in the middle, and acid house at the latter. The eighties was about more than the pop they played so well, it was also about advances in music technology and the vast variety of sound experiments it developed. They got as close as covering The Police brilliantly, but j’mon, they never even dared to account for Wacko Jacko, dammit!

It may have reflected only pop commercialisation rather than covering the entirety of a generational divide of consciousness, but this wasn’t supposed to be a history lesson nor comprehensive representation, it was about having a party to celebrate the close of another glorious Devizes Arts Festival, and for that it shone. The vibe was electric, the crowd letting their hair down (or perhaps up with hairspray) for a final night to what’s been a successful and varied programme of events for Devizes Arts Festival. Well done to all involved, you are the one and only, nobody I’d rather you be, you are the one and only, I can’t take that away from you!

Long may Riviera Dogs image the eighties in Matey’s bubble bath, for it was a Bigtrak loaded with fun, and to assume from my minor critique they didn’t stray from their trump card of electronic power ballads, would be unfair, they did. The finale was a Queen medley and in their own way, they made a fine job of such a difficult trick. For what we must judge this night on is not my personal feelings of commercialisation, rather the expressions of pure delight in the crowd, and if you saw me on the night shaking my tail feather like I was thirteen again, you’d be right to suggest I lived among the creatures of the night, like Laura Branigan, and loved every moment of it too!

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REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival– Mark Watson – Corn Exchange – Friday 13th June 2025

Welsh Favourite Comes to Devizes

Andy Fawthrop

The Devizes Arts Festival came up with another of its heavy hitters last night with a packed house at The Corn Exchange, all ready to welcome comedian Mark Watson to the town.

Mark Watson is an English comedian, novelist and producer. Born in Bristol of a Welsh mother and English father, he has adopted a somewhat Welsh lilt in his delivery. He’s won a number of comedy awards and is well known from his frequent appearances on TV, as well as being a Radio 4 regular.

Introducing himself, Mark climbed on stage to do an introductory 10-15 minutes before bringing on his support act for the night – Vicky Slater. Projecting a slightly larger-than-life persona, Vicky delivered her material well, but I’m not sure that quite all of it landed. Her tales of coming out as gay were delightful and amusing, rather than particularly hilarious. She at least avoided the current lazy habit some up-and-coming comedians have of trying to pick on audience members in order to prompt some witty improv, and instead stuck to her own original material. Respect for that. She was slightly rambling and incoherent in places, but she gradually won the audience over.

After a slightly short first half and an early interval, the main man was back to deliver his set. Mark kicked off with comparing how difficult it was being a stand-up comedian versus, say, being a brain surgeon or, prompted by an audience member, a menopause therapist. His key criteria for the comparisons were, aside from the training and basic aptitude, the amount of sheer stress and anxiety that such an activity could induce.

This was all by way of introduction to his first main theme – stressful situations in ordinary life. But this was no feeble Michael Macintyre “observational comedy”, laughing at “isn’t it funny when…?” type comments. This was full of little anecdotes of his own personal experience that everyone could easily relate to – flying with a small airline, getting into a car thinking it was an Uber (when it wasn’t), asking for help in Tesco (from someone who wasn’t even an employee), dealing with a homeless man (who began to take advantage), interacting with chat-bots online (who seemed very concerned for his continued welfare after once buying some towels a few years previously), and coping with his son whose only apparent language capability seemed to be through frequent WhatsApp messages. The situations were carefully crafted and set up before the always droll and almost exasperated punchlines.

His second “theme” (if I can call it that) was around the “corporate” gigs he’s sometimes had to do, particularly the waste-processing and meat-processing industries. The latter’s “Meat Management Awards” provided a rich vein that he mined repeatedly for jokes about sausages and how he’d become “an advocate for natural casings”.

Against his own better judgement, he’d been persuaded to use ChatGPT to create a self-description, and it had come up with “a breathless delivery by a neurotic personality”, and even he had to admit that it wasn’t too far from the truth. And I’d agree. Watson came across as genuinely curious about the world, bemused by modern technology, amazed by other people, and surprised by how much of modern life created stressful situations for him. And out of this melting pot there came a genuinely funny man. He was self-deprecating, very natural and – no doubt about it – absolutely hilarious.

Absolute top marks to Mr Watson and to the Devizes Arts Festival for booking him. Top notch. Find out more at www.markwatsonthecomedian.com/

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until the night of Sunday 15th June at various venues around the town. Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival– Julian Costello Quartet – Assembly Room – Thursday 12th June 2025

Nice place. Nice music. Nice.

Andy Fawthrop

The Devizes Arts Festival has almost run its course, with only a couple of days to go, but still seven events left. But it’s not going quietly, and last night in the Town Hall’s Assembly Room was no exception……

British jazz saxophonist Julian Costello, a superbly gifted musician, composer and teacher from London, and who writes for various ensembles, was the Festival’s guest. Playing tenor and soprano saxophones, he was joined by John Turville on piano, Andy Hamill on upright bass and harmonica, and Tom Hooper on drums.

The quartet has recently released their third album, ‘And All The Birds Were Set Free’ on the acclaimed label 33 Jazz Records, and their two sets last night featured many tracks from the album. The album’s title is a reference to Costello’s idea that the musicians should be free to express themselves and able to fly. The pieces they played, including the title track, The Gecko, London Blue, Song For Anna and Sunflowers, were all good examples of this open, loosely-structured approach. Each musician took his various solos easily, improvising on the scenario, but slotting into the structure laid down at the start of each piece. The particular highlights of these for me were provided by John Turville’s piano passages.

The original material was tempered with a leavening of jazz classics, including material from John Coltrane, La Rosita by Benny Goodman, and Carlos Jobim’s If You Never Come To Me. Costello himself, leading the quartet very much from the front, moved over from tenor to soprano sax for his composition Connections, based upon the structure of an Indian raga. And bassist Any Hamill strayed onto a very welcome harmonica during the encore Song For Anna (written for Costello’s wife Anna Stearman).

Costello’s personal style was laid-back and chatty, bonding easily with the audience using dry humour, and the quartet were clearly very comfortable in each other’s company. Their enjoyment on stage was very evident.

After an absolute dearth of live jazz in D-Town, it was like drinking at an oasis after a long crawl through a musical desert. But, parched as I was, I was left very slightly wanting. The sets needed more variation in tempo, more contrast between light and shade. Each number they played was very good, but it was slightly one-paced across the whole programme. Don’t get me wrong – this was a hugely enjoyable affair, featuring some great music in a beautiful room. Sound and lighting were spot on (as usual). But I was left wanting just that little bit more. More jazz please!

Find out more at www.juliancostello.co.uk/

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until the night of Sunday 15th June at various venues around the town. Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

Meet Henry, the Hollychocs’ Chocolate Duck Helping Cystic Fibrosis

Poulshot’s Award-winning chocolate studio Hollychocs is proud to launch a heartfelt charity campaign in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust UK, with a charming chocolate duck leading the way…..

The star of the campaign is Henry Duck – a handmade chocolate duck crafted from Hollychocs’ signature 45% cocoa milk chocolate and decorated in yellow and gold cocoa butter, in tribute to Cystic Fibrosis Awareness.

For every Henry Duck sold, £1 will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust UK, helping fund vital research and provide life-changing support to families across the UK.

“Our family has seen the impact of cystic fibrosis firsthand,” says Holly Garner, chocolatier and founder of Hollychocs. “Henry is named after my nephew, and this campaign coincides with their “Wear It Yellow” campaign and is our way of giving something back while sharing a little joy through chocolate.”

Awl, look at him. I’m quackers about Henry!

To add to the fun, every purchase in her Beanery Café and Chocolate Shop between Thursday 13 and Saturday 15 June will come with a free, numbered mini duck. One lucky mini duck number will win a full-size Henry Duck!

Customers can treat themselves to Holly’s limited-edition Henry Duck Sundae, an indulgent dessert of half a Henry Duck filled with vanilla gelato, and topped with her award-winning honeycomb and lava salted caramel sauce. As with the Henry Duck, £1 from every sundae goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

Customers can take part by purchasing a Henry Duck online or in store, stopping by The Beanery Café in Poulshot (Thu–Sat, 10am–5pm) for the special sundae, along with all their other delicious treats, or by entering the mini duck giveaway with each purchase in the café & chocolate shop

“Henry Duck is a small treat that makes a big impact,” Holly adds. “Whether you’re indulging yourself, treating a friend, or visiting our café, you’re helping support families like ours—and being part of something bigger.”

About Hollychocs:

Founded by award-winning chocolatier and chocolate engineer Holly Garner, Hollychocs produces ethically sourced, handcrafted chocolates in small batches from their Wiltshire studio. Known for blending scientific precision with flavour-led creativity, the business has earned multiple accolades, including Great Taste Awards and the title of Southwest’s Chocolate Champion.

About Cystic Fibrosis Trust:

The Cystic Fibrosis Trust is the UK’s leading charity for those affected by cystic fibrosis. Through research, advocacy, and frontline support, the Trust is working to ensure a brighter future for everyone living with the condition.

Various venues in/around D-Town – Saturday & Sunday 7/8th June 2025

Just How Big Is That Fringe? Or Two Go Myth-Busting

Andy Fawthrop

We’ve always held that D-Town is a great place to live, and one of the many reasons is that it punches well above its weight in terms of the arts and cultural events. Just speaking to musicians and artists who visit the town for gigs and festivals, the feedback is always the same: they’re in awe of just how much we’ve got going on here.….

Do we need to recite the list? Oh go on then – two/ three Beer Festivals (DOCA Winter Ales, Seend, CAMRA DBF), an arts festival (DAF), a food and drink festival, Fulltone on The Green, our own theatre, two opera companies (WHO, DMT), Devizes to Westminster canoe race, Long Street Blues Club, the DOCA events (Street Festival, Colour Rush, Lantern Parade, Carnival, Picnic In The Park)….I could (and usually do), go on. There’s pubs with regular live music (White Bear, Three Crowns, The Southgate), fairs and circuses on The Green, book clubs, sports clubs…(you’re really going on a bit now…Ed).

But somehow that old refrain of “Nothing Ever Happens In Devizes” has been making a come-back of late on social media, yet it just ain’t true. But like all myths, it refuses to lie down and die. Despite this revered organ (ooh, matron) laying out the many, many choices you might have every week, and bringing you previews and reviews of everything and anything arts-based that we can get our sticky little fingers on, some folks seem to persist in apparently finding “nothing” to do. So it’s time to, yet again, challenge that myth and have another go at laying it to rest for once and for all.

Anyway…..at the moment of writing we’re right in the middle of the Devizes Arts Festival fortnight, with plenty of variety to please all tastes. But, admittedly, some of these events can command ticket prices that are unaffordable for some. So, inspired somewhat by last weekend’s wonderful free Rowdefest (thank you Darren!) and, admittedly, a bit of a “robust discussion” in the pub, I decided to see just how much fun and entertainment you could enjoy over this weekend at next to no cost. It’s a challenge I decided to take on by getting off my luxury sofa, and propel myself out “into the field” (as it were).

Armed with only a stout pair of walking boots, an inquisitive and open mind, and a supportive girlfriend, I headed out into the local area to see what I could actually come up with on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. The results are below:

1. Devizes Farmers’ Market in The Market Place Bar (Saturday 9 am)
· What it was: monthly gathering of local suppliers
· What was it like? Plenty of choice – venison, bread, honey, olives, cheese, bread & fruit, flowers and plants, fresh coffee, cider, cakes. Plenty of good fresh stuff from suppliers within a 30 mile radius of D-Town. Added to stalls in the Shambles, this is worth a half hour of anyone’s time, either for shopping or simply browsing.
· Cost: £FREE
· Children’s rating: 1/5, Adults’ rating: 4/5

2. K&A Canal Walk towpath, any old time
· What it was: a c. 4 mile walk down the towpath from D-Town to Poulshot
· What was it like? Lots of people out strolling or cycling, boats passing up and down the flight (an opportunity for some gomgoozling). We also saw many species of birds, including four, yes four, different grey herons – such elegant birds.
· Cost: £FREE
· Children’s rating: 1/5, Adults’ rating: 5/5

3. Poulshot Medicine in Nature Herbal Walk at Poulshot Village Hall (Saturday 10.30am – 12)

· What it was: a short walk led by Katherine Baldock & Simon Parkes (ecologist) around the village to explore the wild and naturalised medicinal plants growing thereabouts, and an opportunity to make some herbal vinegar after foraging the local hedgerows.
· What was it like? Way too slow for me, it was part talk, part very gentle amble around the village green and woodland, part discovery of a number of wild plants. We discussed culinary and medicinal uses. At least I found bits of Poulshot I didn’t know about, including the pond, the specially-created woodland, and some country paths (useful for getting over to Whistley Road later on).
· Cost: £5/ person
· Children’s rating: 0/5, Adults’ rating: 2/5

4. Wiltshire Steam & Vintage Rally Lower Park Farm, Whistley Road (Saturday & Sunday 10 – 5)
· What it was:. An event organised by WAPG (Wiltshire Agricultural Preservation Group), featuring static displays of steam traction engines, tractors, miniature steam engines, heavy horses, trade stalls, fairground, military vehicles, classic cars.
· What was it like? As it was chucking it down with rain as we arrived, the most welcome thing for the first half hour was the (well-stocked) beer tent. I could have done without the loud piped music but, hey, it was dry and there was beer! When the rain slowed down a bit we did the full circuit and there was plenty to see, the most impressive of which were the full-size old traction engines in steam (some also seen later driving through D-Town). There were pop-up food outlets, fresh coffee, craft stalls and tents, a 1940s-themed tea and cakes tent, bouncy castle for the children etc. The site was large with plenty of parking but, because of the rain, getting increasingly muddy.
· Cost: £10/ person + drinks
· Children’s rating: 4/5, Adults’ rating: 4/5

5. Pete Robson & J P Oldfield in The Bear, Cellar Bar (Saturday 8pm)
· What it was: foot-stomping blues from two solo performers
· What was it like? Each performer used steel guitar and stomp box to deliver some hard-cutting blues. CDs for sale. Not very well attended, which was a shame. Perhaps it needed to be better advertised. For me Pete Robson was the better performer of the two, taking a slightly less hard-edge approach to his vocals, and mixing up the tempo, giving more light and shade to his set. The cellar bar is an OK venue at best, being a rather odd shape, with very low ceiling and an only partially-stocked bar. I suspect it needs to be used much more often if it’s going flourish as a venue.
· Cost: £FREE + drinks
· Adults’ rating: 3/5
· Note –we could have also gone to see either Matchbox Mutiny/ Tom Harris in The Three Crowns or The Duskers in The Southgate (both FREE entry), but there’s only so many hours in the day!

6. Crammer Watch Day on the Small Green Devizes (Sunday 11am onwards)
· What it was: a chance to meet those involved in celebrating and preserving the Crammer. RSPCA, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Wessex Water, Friends of The Crammer, Lawrence Society of Artists, Sustainable Devizes + The Moonrakers Legend (performed at 12 noon and 1pm), photography competition, charity tombola
· What was it like? We missed the Moonrakers performance, so as an experience I found it a bit thin on the ground. There was little to see and do, unless you wanted to stand and chat to someone about the issues which the Crammer faces. Several stands were just offering information leaflets. Although a worthy attempt, for me personally it was just not very engaging.
· Cost: £FREE
· Children’s rating: 1/5, Adults’ rating: 1/5

7. Lions on The Green on The Green (Sunday 10am -4pm)

· What it was: organised by Devizes Lions Club, a vehicle display (cars, bikes, scooters, military etc) and family fun day (lots of stalls, bar, food outlets)
· What was it like? Covering the whole of the large Green, this was really excellently-well organised. The central area was given over to the displays of antique, rare and sports cars. Stalls had cakes, plants (from Plot 35), metal signs, honey etc. There was a bouncy castle and fairground rides for children. A licensed bar, coffee shop etc. Lots to look at and plenty of photo opportunities. Fantasy Radio were broadcasting live from the site.
· Cost: £FREE (donations to the Lions collecting buckets) + drinks
· Children’s rating: 4/5, Adults’ rating: 5/5

8. Devizes Arts Festival Free Fringe: Whiskey River (@ British Lion garden Sunday 2 – 5pm)
· What it was: Roots Music From the Welsh frontier
· What was it like? The trio Whiskey River played Americana, Cajun, Zydeco, Folk, Country, Blues and a smattering of Celtic music. Using guitar, fiddle, flute, harmonica, mandolin and concertina, these guys provided an excellent and enjoyable afternoon of music in the (occasional) sunshine. The bar was open, and there was a BBQ going on throughout. People sitting out enjoying a drink, dogs, children, good music – perfect!
· Cost: £FREE + (a large, undisclosed) drinks bill
· Children’s rating: 3/5, Adults’ rating: 5/5

9. Wood & Steel (@ The Southgate Inn Sunday 5-7pm)
· What it was: an acoustic duo playing blues, jazz and ragtime
· What was it like? This duo were new to me, but I was very impressed by what I heard. Two very good musicians, clearly comfortable in their own skin, played two excellent 50-minute sets and got a very well-deserved encore. Lots of covers from many ages and genres, using dobro, guitar, upright bass and vocals. Excellent musical accompaniment to a late, lazy Sunday afternoon. Great atmosphere too.
· Cost: £FREE (donations to “the hat”) + more (undisclosed) drinks
· Adults’ rating: 5/5
· Note – we could also have gone to see Bodge It & Scarper at The White Bear (Sunday 5-7pm) playing acoustic music, but didn’t hear about this until quite late. Also can’t be in two places at once. This event was also FREE.

In summary:

· Miles walked – about 10
· Bird species spotted – about 20, including swans, herons, jackdaws, mallard, moorhen, starlings, robins, great tits etc;
· Friends met – loads – far too many to mention!
· Total cost (for two) – £27.80 (of which £20 was for the steam fair) + the drinks (but let’s not mention that bit!);
· Fun and entertainment had – loads and loads and loads;
· Well-being – absolutely knackered, but very happy. Looking forward to next weekend!

Yes it all took a little bit of planning, but it wasn’t that difficult really. We walked to/ from most venues, so we got lots of other good D-Town stuff (Caen Hill locks, the towpath etc) and took only one short (cheap) bus ride when the heavens opened. So there was plenty of exercise and fresh air to mitigate the various bits of eating and drinking. Did I mention that the odd libation was partaken of? And I’m not saying that EVERY weekend is quite this packed, but it certainly can be if you put your mind to it. Bear in mind that there’s LOADS of other stuff going on – these were simply the things we happened to pick out. There were choices – and we made them!

Nothing Ever Happens In Devizes??? Don’t make me laugh.

Lions, KITT, Moonrakers and a Whiskey River; Sunday Stroll Around Devizes

If it’s good enough for Knight Rider it’s good enough for me. I see the Hoff ditched his Knight Industries Three Thousand on the Green for a stroll around Devizes on Sunday. He probably found a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent in a world of criminals who operate above the law, whereas I ended up at the British for a scrumpy or three….

Unlike some guys who act like Spongebob Squarepants on his tenth bag of Haribo at Chessington World of Adventures, I can only get yay excited about a car show. But Devizes Lions do it with cherries on… and debatably false advertising. There were no lions on the Green, but it was Lions on the Green this Sunday past, an annual free fete/car show crossover which never fails to appeal universally; kids nag mums for Rowdey Cow ice cream while dads furiously argue for three hours with a total stranger in sandals that the Mk2 2.8 Injection Granada handles better than the Mk1 with a 3.0 V6 engine.

I browse unacquainted with such matters, unfazed by contemporary cock extensions, but in admiration of vintage, retro cars and those with a movie reference attached. Every local from MP Brian Matthews to Pete of Vinyl Realm, and outsiders like Marty McFly have brought their big boy toys along to display, as Fantasy Radio blast Gary Numan. It’s a sunny morning, it’s a lovely occasion, it’s raising funds, and there’s nothing to dislike about it.

Cars ticked off, hot dog and an extended conversation with a detectorist who’d discovered a variety of civil war shots and cannonballs on Roundway, if the Lions on the Green is a great and unbroken walkthrough event it coincided with Crammer Watch Day further along on, at the Little Green.

With long term solutions outstanding for unsafe conditions for wildfowl on the Crammer, there appears to be a far more communal tenet between concerned residents and the council compared to the outcry a few years ago, and this day was intended rather to celebrate the Crammer than address expensive possible solutions. As it stands, the simple fix is to raise public awareness that the only escape route for swans is across the roadside and they should apply caution when driving through….please.

With live painting from the Lawrence Arts Society, stands from the RSPCA, Sustainable Devizes and hosts Friends of The Crammer, conservation was a topic, if overshadowed somewhat by historical tomfoolery, which was something new to the day and personally my highlight.

A random team of amateur thespians, some from the Wharf Writers Group and others along for the giggle and wearing of knitted beards, staged a short promenade satirical play “reenacting” the fable of the moonrakers, aptly at The Crammer. The premise didn’t sound so inspiring to me, and I thought I might have to hold my tongue. The actuality surprised me, it was absolutely brilliant!

Pythonesque humour delivered with skill on a local legend, deliberately naff props such as a paddling pool for the pond, and astutely scripted silliness, it was indigenous and hilariously original.

Authenticity deliberately skewed for amusement; they couldn’t have done this anywhere else but here, the setting of the beloved fable, which is amusing enough without the added gags. Francis Grose was a witty Victorian chubster and nothing more needs to upset the applecart about the origin of the moonrakers, as this wasn’t intending to proclaim historic fact checking rather to amuse, which a country gent in Harris Tweed with a carrot in his mouth pretending to be a donkey will inevitably achieve.

I don’t know where the Hoff got to, but he missed a rarer treat than reuniting with Pamela Anderson for a titillating slow-motion beach jog. Oh, and a whistle stop to Morrisons was a let down culturally compared to what was outside. Along the road I shrug at a classic bus, for its appearance would’ve been more expected trekking the Sahara than parked outside the faithfully traditional British Lion, and there was no explanation for it being there.

Nevertheless I’m one step away from the bar, pondering if there’s one thing expected in Devizes: it’s that The British Lion doesn’t change, because it doesn’t need to. With Devizes Arts Festival is full swing, they’ve arranged a Cwmbran roots trio called Whiskey River to play us some of their sublime classic rock covers, Celtically, with a deep southern Americana twist, as a free fringe event; I cannot argue with this.

Devizes live music aficionados amassed and were thankful, as if they needed an excuse for a pint and fundraising burger from the barbecue. The British Lion is a fond institution, Whiskey River was a great break from our usual circuit, The Lions put on a brilliant and well organised family event, Crammer Watch added to an already great day and those awesome actors with rakes did make us laugh as promised.

It was all too much for me, the White Bear and Southgate continued the music, but I needed a little lie down, while our roving reporter Andy outdone me, partying like Prince in 1999, so I’m also putting up his account of weekend adventures for it’s fuller, far more informative and factually accurate than mine, even if it doesn’t mention Pamela Anderson, because really, she didn’t show. Devizes though, doesn’t need Pam, the fun never stops here, Sunday proved it.

REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival– Anna Ling – St Andrew’s Church – Thursday 5th June 2025

Another Little Sweetie In The Jar

Andy Fawthrop

Well the Devizes Arts Festival is in full swing now, with several events already under its belt. There’s stuff cropping up every day, so I took the chance to pop in to a much-underused venue in the town St Andrew’s Church on Long Street.….

After several big-ticket shows in the programme, it was a pleasure to settle down to something a little more modest, a more bread-and-butter item if you like. Mid-week lunchtime isn’t going to be a time to attract a particularly large audience, even on market day, but a good few hardy souls turned up to at least create a good audience atmosphere.

Anna Ling, a performer I’d not personally come across before, is a guitarist and singer/songwriter. Her creative work and sense of purpose are deeply rooted in her love of bringing people together through song. This passion shapes her life, guiding her from leading community choirs to performing at venues, care homes, and world-class festivals.

In a concert co-promoted with the charity, Live Music Now, Anna delivered a professional and engaging 50-minute set which featured both her own material along with a few covers. She worked hard to engage the audience right from the kick-off, inviting us into her world. The performance was light and humorous, heartfelt and intimate. And she was determined that we were not just going to sit back and listen to her, but to join in as well. She had a lovely clear, strong voice, and used it to particular effect when she came down from the stage and abandoned her guitar in favour of an unaccompanied song right from the middle of the audience.

Her lyrics were simple, her guitar chords straight-forward. This was not a set filled with new arrangements or presenting anything particularly challenging, but an opportunity to listen to a set of songs simply delivered and largely unadorned. She filled the gaps between the songs with little stories and anecdotes, never lifting her voice very much, and thus drawing you in.

Plain, simple, and thoroughly enjoyable. Just another little sweetie in the jar from Devizes Arts Festival. And there’s plenty more to see and hear yet, so do make sure that you get along to experience something soon. It’ll all be over before you know it!

Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 15th June at various venues around the town. Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online HERE

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“The Last Act”, Devizes Arts Festival at The Wharf Theatre, June 4th and 5th 2025

by Ian Diddams
images by Ian Diddams and from Devizes Arts Festival

The pea souper smog swirls in the dark. A small light illuminates a bare room – hatstand bare but for a bowler hat, chair, side table with various bric-a-brac. A rug. Music plays in the distance. London, 1916. And The Wharf Theatre stage, 2025… the lights drop to darkness… and the show begins.

Such is the picture provided at the outset of “The Last Act” by David Stuart Davies, on the first of two nights’ shows brought to us by Devizes Arts Festival, performed at The Wharf Theatre, Devizes by Fringe Management. A ninety-minute single hander performance by Nigel Miles-Thomas, directed by Gareth Armstrong, providing a potted history of the lives of Sherlock Holes, “Consulting Detective”, and Dr. John H. Watson – formerly of the parish of Marylebone.

Nigel plays Holmes, of course, and also Watson… but into that also covers Inspector Lestrade, Stamford, Mrs. Hudson, Inspector Hopkins and… arch enemy Professor James Moriarty. This potted history, or timeline of Holmes and Watson’s friendship begins at the occasion of Watson’s funeral, followed by Holmes’ recollections of their partnership marked by key stories in the Sherlock Holmes case history; “The Adventure of Abbey Grange”, “The Speckled Band”, “The Final Problem”, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and “His Last Bow”. Nigel’s delivery skips nary a beat as his voice changes and facial expressions per character float in and out seamlessly from Holmes’ character as the carefully woven tale even foreshadows itself. We gain an insight into Sherlock’s childhood and brotherly relationship, of his mother and father mirroring the Abbey Grange lead characters, and his father’s death mirroring in portrayal that of Moriarty’s. A description of the wind – “… cried and sobbed like a child in the chimney” is used both in Holmes’ praise of Watson’s descriptive writing and that of his family home.

It is a story ultimately of loneliness and love – Holmes’ solitary lifestyle – but also his attachment to his brother, but especially Watson. And a story written with affection for Conan Doyles’ character, delivered with care by Nigel Miles-Thomas, packaged with fondness by director Gareth Armstrong. Truly a “Last Act” with love for the subject.

The Thursday 5^th June performance of “The Last Act” is already sold out, but Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 15^th June with a wide range of differing genres and arts to enjoy, with tickets just still available. To see what is available and tickets, browse https://www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk/events/

One Week Left to Cast Your Votes for Wiltshire Music Awards

That’s right, lovers of local live music countywide, you have less than a week now to cast your votes for your favourite acts in our prestigious, one-of-a-kind Wiltshire Music Awards!

The closing date for voting is Tuesday the 10th June, so get your thinking caps on and VOTE HERE NOW.

Who’s tickled your fancy the most? Who’s brought tears to your eyes with their self-penned ballad? Who’s dragged you off your seat and commanded your feet to the dancefloor, like nobody’s watching?! Who’s provided that ideal space for you to shake a tailfeather? And who deserves to be recognised for their outstanding contribution to local live music in your honest opinion? We need to know, but don’t tell us here- keep it secret and cast your votes now!

We’ve already had way over seven hundred ballot papers sent into us, and I’ve not taken one sneaky peek yet, but I’m informed the results are close to call, so your vote might yet tip the balance.

So don’t procrastinate on me now, will you? Not for your favourite musicians’ finest hour. They need you; this is important, dammit!

And here’s an added special message to all musicians, bands and promoters, we love you all, so, please help us to help you, by sharing this news with your fans, as there’s nothing wrong with shameless self-promotion; order them to vote for you, offer them custard creams if they do, tell your mum you want her to vote for you, tell them all you wanna win a shiny medal for all you’ve done to entertain them. You deserve this, goddammit, everyone creating music around these backwaters does, but there’s only so many awards we can give out on the night – make sure one of them is yours, yay!

I’m so excited, I just can’t hide it, and I am officially about to lose control…and, guess what? I think I like it. At least, those are my inspirational words to motivate you into the groove.

Wiltshire Music Awards 2025

Are We Still in Rowde?! RowdeFest 25 Sunny Overview

Images by Hans Shell, Ruth Wordley, Helen’s PolarPix and Bird is the Word

If you’re going to write on a subject you must research it, but if you’re going to write well about it you need to get involved in order to understand the details often hidden to outside observers….

I learned this a year into creating Devizine, when I decided to hold an anniversary gig. Event organiser Dean Czerwionka basically held my hand through it, as I hadn’t a Scooby-Doo of the immensity of variables involved. Since then, I’ve dug myself deeper into the practical, to understand those obstacles and overcome them, so when being critical, I’m aware of how much work goes into putting events on.

Did you seriously buy that baloney?! Really, I’m an attention-seeking party animal who loves to showcase, whenever feasible, the talents of those I spend hours tapping my keyboard to review, then steal all the credit for it! The whole balancing on a learning curve stuff is only a bonus ball! But it is a delight, whenever the opportunity arises, to witness the actualities of my labour, and one such opportunity occurred yesterday, a short walk from my home.

Rowdefest happened Saturday in my village, an idea to retain aspects of a traditional fete yet modernise it to reflect a mini-festival, in which I had to get my foot in the door of.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, but for myself and the committee, Rowdefest 2025 started months ago, with tea, cake and planning at Barbara’s house. Then, an amount of WhatsApp messages, a Facebook chat coordinating the band’s specs with Simon Stockley, the solo sound engineer worth an entire team of professionals.

Then there’s the mountains I didn’t climb; Clare’s tribulations to provide a bar, Liz’s organisational skills to provide food vans, sponsors and collect raffle prizes, Kirsty creating a book stall, Geraldine and Angie tying things together, tea, cake and a photo exhibition in the church, chairperson Sue binding our meandering meetings into some kind of order, and so much more from many villagers and parish councillors mucking in, till the point on Friday I was driving a milk-float down Rowde Court Road with a huge tent on it and it all suddenly felt real!

Event organising with a team is wrought with disagreements, problem solving, worries which drag you to examine speculating weather apps daily, and fingers-crossed assurances everything will be alright on the night….thankfully it was, so Rowde was blessed with a hugely successful, beautiful occasion. An equally huge thanks and congratulations must go to all involved in its making, but none so much as our chief, Barbara. Even if one of them was me, I still reserve the right to report on it, for there is no flattery necessary, feedback from others gives me the confidence to say this was as fantastic as I perceived it as!

For me personally, it was all about community merriment, and of course, the entertainment. Under the premise we wanted lively bands I took to organising a lineup consisting entirely of tried and tested locally sourced talents, and calling in a few favours! Opening the event then, the Devizes Jubilee Morris Dancers arrived, did their thing literally with bells on, and got the blossoming crowds engaging in a final routine.

Between the two Morris dancing sections, Mat Fucci of Fucci Fit teased the crowds with a workout, and under the beating sun they got as physical as Olvia Newton-John in 1981, or near to it!

Then the live music started with my wildcard, the experimental imaginations of music scholar and tutor, Andrew Hurst. With exceptional bassist Lucianne Worthy, they whisked the audience through multi-instrumental tangents, wonderfully.

Usually a headline act next, and it was only 3pm, with the crowds still on our village’s own delicious Rowdey Cow ice cream rather than ciders! Wiltshire’s finest indie-pop darlings, Talk in Code kindly pepped it up, making a pitstop on their way to Swindon’s Castle venue. Blasting their eighties pop flavoured originals gorgeously across our small playing field was an indicator this was going to go off rather different from your average village fete!

That was my doing, and apologise if it came as a shock to some sensitive residents. What attendees didn’t witness was me, once being informed about their complaints, slightly sulking in guilt behind the scenes. Yes, what started as a village fete had now gone full-blown festival, which I believed was the intention and well advertised as such. My resolution was, other than gorging on biscuits, that, in times like this, we have to go with the majority. As the huge crowd gathered, of all ages, appeared to be lapping it up, dancing and cherishing every moment, coupled with the expressions of delight I witnessed on the faces of some disabled children in wheelchairs when I held the gate open for them, well, they counteract a billion complainers for me, and I’m certain there was far, far fewer of them than that!

Talk in Code with Peggy-Sue Ford of Don’t Stop the Music radio show

Talk in Code shines like a beacon to everything dedication can achieve on our local circuits, and their reputation builds with every appearance; I was overjoyed to see them, as, like anyone they meet, they’ve become my friends. The second act tends to be more modest with their skills, but The Sarah C Ryan Band will always be one of my most favourite bands. They deliver a sublime melodious panache in style and sound, the kind I liken to Fleetwood Mac, but my daughter suggested Florence and The Machine; either works.

Through cooler originals and the odd cover, Sarah and her band held the crowd spellbound, after wondering if anything would equal Talk in Code, now they were assured I had many more tricks up my sleeve!

WIth the crowd simmered, time to allow Thieves to do their thing. Semi-acoustic vibes, I’d go out on a limb and suggest this is the finest Americania you’ll find around these waters. Authentic bluegrass to rootsy blues, this wonderfully accomplished four-piece vocal harmonise on a level which left our unsuspecting attendees around the hay bales spellbound and those in the know nodding impressively. It was the set to end all sets, setting the scene to bliss, as I wandered receiving everyone’s approval, but I had one more band yet to introduce.

Given the chance, Talk in Code might’ve headlined, safe in the knowledge of what they will deliver. Despite knowing front-girl Chrissy Chapman for many years, and fondly reviewing her vocal collaborations on drum n bass tunes, when she put together Burn The Midnight Oil I met with the original lineup to interview them and hear a little rehearsal, but regrettably, I still hadn’t had the opportunity to tick them off my must-see list.

Okay, so, I took a chance here, suspecting they’d be good, and heard all the good reports, but I didn’t begin to imagine just how good. Burn the Midnight Oil totally rocked the finale, with fantastic originals slipped unnoticed into a set of covers, they made the perfect end to the day. Dressed in a divine white dress of sentimental value to Chrissy, she took her accomplished band and the audience on an elevated hour plus expedition of bluesy rock which no one wanted to ever come to an end. It was total and utter dynamite!

Alannah Myles’ Blue Velvet rang out across our playing field, as we gathered the committee and volunteers to be cheered before an encore. Chrissy has a confident stage presence. Her interactions with the audience were so professional, I had to take a double-look to check if it was still my dear friend up there!

But, that’s the magic right there, to take our talented locals and celebrate their skills as they deserve to be celebrated, allow them to shine with the freedom of expression to deliver works they’ve written and composed, disperse them with classics if they wish to, and introduce the quality of local talent to audiences which may not have the opportunity to follow our local live music scene. That was my objective, as that is alway my objective, and I thank the Rowdefest committee for allowing me to do that in my own village, rather than hiking up Dunkirk Hill again, or trekking further afield; Bradford-on-Avon had a town music festival on, at a level our village couldn’t compete with, but those at RowdeFest wouldn’t have cared at that point; it was magical.

Okay, I’m still at one thousand feet about what we accomplished yesterday, but I don’t believe time will water my excitement down. This should go down in the village history books, and if not, it will always be remembered by me. Again my sincere thanks goes to all involved, the committee, the attendees which included MP Brian Matthew, and our media friends Bird is the Word, Peggy-Sue Ford and Alan Watters of our village magazine, but especially the acts and Simon, who came to my rescue; thank you all, for your time, dedication and for superbly rocking my village!

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REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival– Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri – Corn Exchange – Friday 30th May 2025

Still Got The Music In Her

By Andy Fawthrop

It’s been a while coming a-round but at long last Devizes’ very own Arts Festival finally kicked off last night for its two-week run. And we started off, as is usual now, with a real belter of a concert in the Corn Exchange, this time featuring veteran performers Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri…..

If you were after star quality, Kiki Dee has it in spades. Recently celebrating her 60th year in the music industry, she has now released a whopping 40 singles, three EPs and 22 albums. She is one of the UK’s finest and most revered vocalists, and she’s sung with and for just about anybody who is anybody in this industry.

Pauline Matthews (as was) was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1947. At the age of 10 she won a local talent contest, and at 16 she had her first paid job as Kiki Dee in show business. She worked briefly as an apprentice hairdresser (she did my mother’s hair once – my feeble claim to fame!) and at Boots in Bradford during the day, while in the evenings she sang songs with a dance band in Leeds. Initially with Fontana Records, known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown’s Tamla Records. She’s best known for the hit singles “Amoureuse” (1973), “I’ve Got the Music in Me” (1974) and “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, her 1976 duet with old Reg Dwight (Elton John), which reached Number One on the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her 1981 single “Star” became the theme song for the talent show Opportunity Knocks when it was revived by the BBC in 1987.

During her career she’s sung backing vocals for Dusty Springfield, was one of the backing vocalists on Love Affair’s 1968 UK number one single Everlasting Love, sang backing vocals on various Elton John recordings, such as “All the Girls Love Alice” from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and various tracks on Rock of the Westies, played as support act to Queen at their Hyde Park concert in front of a crowd of 150,000 people, and performed at Live Aid in 1985, reprising “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with John, and performing backing vocals on the other songs in his set. On top of that she’s won awards for her Musical Theatre roles in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers, in which she took on the role originally played by Barbara Dickson for the 1988 production and recording, and received an Olivier Award nomination in 1989 in the Best Actress in a Musical category.

But all of that is history! Nowadays, or at least for the last twenty years or so, she’s continued to move forward with the music that she creates with Carmelo Luggeri. Kiki says Carmelo is her favourite guitarist and he co-writes and produces all their songs.

Dee released the live album Almost Naked, a joint effort with Carmelo in 1995, followed by the studio albums Where Rivers Meet (1998) and The Walk Of Faith (2005). In September 2013, Dee and Luggeri released their third studio album, A Place Where I Can Go, on Spellbound Records. They have been touring together ever since and have played alongside such musical luminaries as Roger Taylor, Jack Bruce, Fish, Paul Young, Tom Robinson, Graham Gouldman and Madeline Bell.

Carmelo Luggeri’s abilities as a guitarist, composer and producer have taken him on a rich and interesting musical path over his career. Born in England of Italian parents, Carmelo was mainly self-taught with some classical training. Working with comedian and television personality Billy Connolly he created the “Watzin’ Matilda” re-work used for the hugely successful 1995 “World Tour Of Australia” TV series. In 1998 Carmelo produced the track “Stealin” for the film “Still Crazy” starring Jimmy Nail. Carmelo has also worked with US singer Andy Williams, Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company), Ray Cooper (Elton John band), Gus Dudgeon, Stuart Epps, Romy Haag and singer songwriter Ralph McTell.

Carmelo and Kiki’s paths first crossed when he produced a collection of bonus tracks for “The Very Best of Kiki Dee” album, and, under the guidance of their manager Steve Brown they took on a new musical direction together, playing acoustic concerts, starting with an appearance at The Royal

Albert Hall for World AIDS Day in 1994. It was quite a departure for Carmelo at this point as he was essentially an electric player but this marked the beginning of their now 25 year collaboration where acoustic guitar is at the foundation of their sound.

Sorry for the long introductory pre-amble, but just wanted to reprise the careers of these two wonderful musicians. And I guess you’d have to say that represents as good a musical pedigree as you’re ever going to get, so the expectations for the large crowd were, to say the least, pretty high.

And we weren’t to be disappointed one bit. Kicking off with “Get What You Wish For” and the first of several musical career anecdotes, we were suddenly there at “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”! Like most people I thought this would be the wrap-up song or the encore, but Kiki clearly wanted to get the song on the table early. Using, not unexpectedly, a completely different acoustic arrangement, with a rather slower tempo, her rendition allowed the lyrics to really shine through, and to deliver some really pathos.

Cracking on with anecdotes about meeting David Hockney in Malibu, and working with Dusty Springfield, we had the self-penned “Small Mercies”. She then mined a rich vein of beautifully-arranged covers – Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, Robert Palmer’s “Every Kinda People”, and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon”.

Following “a nice glass of red” and a costume change, the second half continued in much the same vein, with Kiki interspersing the songs with more anecdotes. Early up we had her big hit “Amoureuse”, partly sung in the original French, a jazzy cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me To The End Of Love” (featuring a touching cameo when she danced with a member of the audience whilst Carmelo commanded the stage with some fabulous guitar work). We then had a run of the pair’s own compositions – “Amen and Goodbye”, “She’s Smiling Now”, “You Can’t Fix The Maybe” and “Until We Meet Again” – before finishing with an upbeat and rousing version of “I’ve Got The Music In Me”. Getting an encore was a mere formality by this stage, but their choice was a strange one – a very quiet number entitled “If You Ever Need Someone”, and a harmonised version of The Beatles’ “Blackbird”. Cue lots of cheering and a great ovation.

Kiki showed us that, at 78, she’s definitely still got it. Her voice is, expectedly, not as strong and pure as in her youth, but it’s still bloody good, hitting all the notes perfectly, and still delivering plenty of soulfulness and meaning. Carmelo demonstrated throughout to be no mere prop or accompaniment to the big star on his left, but a real guitar craftsman in his own right. His subtle and effective use of loops and pedals to add depth and colour to every number, coupled with several changes of guitars and tunings, proved a real revelation. His introductions and solos were beautifully crafted, drawing much applause, and plenty of genuine praise from Kiki.

As a duo they harmonised well, and were very clearly extremely comfortable in each other’s company on stage. Their rapport with each other, and with the audience, added considerably to the quality and the professionalism of the show.

This was the third or fourth time I’d seen these guys, and I’d have to say that they only get better and better. A really solid two and a half hour show, filled with great songs, hilarious anecdotes and superb guitar work – what more could you possibly want? I absolutely loved and, it seemed, so did the packed audience.

A cracker of a concert to kick off this year’s Devizes Arts Festival!

Learn more at www.kikiandcarmelo.com/carmelo-luggeri/

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 15th June at various venues around the town. Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk

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The Bradford on Avon Live Music Festival- This Weekend!

Bradford-on-Avon Town Council’s annual festival, aptly titled The Bradford on Avon Live Music Festival is back this weekend, championing local talent with an eclectic line-up…

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May 29, 2025

Clock Radio Turf Out The Maniacs

The first full album by Wiltshire’s finest purveyors of psychedelic indie shenanigans, Clock Radio, was knocked out to an unsuspecting world last week. It’s called Turfin’ Out The Maniacs, which perhaps should be fact-checked as it sounds to me like they’re letting them all in, as they arrive on yellow submarines and check into Frank Zappa’s 200 five-rhombus rated motels…..

Self-described as “easily triggered, dishonest, cryptic yet flirty deluded jangle rockers,” Clock Radio have produced a string of catchy slacker pop wonders here, as they continuously reach inside the box, like they’re four elfish Rowan Atkinsons all cast as Paul Atreides. But one thing is for certain, Chris Genner, Oliver Daltrey, Gary Martin and Fraser Wilson will entertain you.

Turfin’ Out The Maniacs sound like the results of the Coral offering The Divine Comedy a hashpipe in a moulded teenage boy’s bedroom; that’s a compliment by the way.

The opening tune Blood on Chrome certainly reeks of that breezy retrospection of Merseyside garage bands or sixties surf-rock, with an added preliminary Quo guitar riffs. Stoned at the Dojo, which follows emphasises the mock lounge style of The Divine Comedy. It’s vaudeville throughout, all Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s twirling circus, and an accordion welcomes in the next song, yet the tempo is upbeat indie rock. Handsome Weeping Man might leave you questioning if it’s necessary to connote the narrative, but it will leave you amused.

Clock Radio knows precisely what buttons to press to evoke a mood, and press them with free will. To say it’s a tad bonkers, it’s only a tad, and Mountains Beyond the Sun kindles a gentle side, drifting surf-rock, sunny side of the street vibe.

There’s ten three minute heroes on this impressive debut album, recorded, mixed and mastered by Dominic Bailey-Clay at Nine Volt Leap Studios, with Fender Rhodes piano, percussion by Dominic and a triangle by Shoshi B. If we’re content with getting halfway through and assuming they’ve calmed slightly, No Death takes us back onto the weird and wonderfully expressed if questionable muses of the opening.

Turfin’ Out The Maniacs is a comfy yet nippy prank, like being stung in the bottom but launching away from it to splash into a chocolate lake. Not so unlike Noël Coward playing a Bond villain, with Bowie as Bond; something you couldn’t imagine happening, but being Marie-Georges Méliès directed it and it’s on FilmFour at 3am, you might as well grab a bag of cheesy puffs and thirty grams of Amber Leaf, stay up watch it in your pants. “Cactus is cooler, I’m no Ferris Bueller, I do as I’m told,” is just one line I’m cherry picking to illustrate my point, you’ll be amused and rocked in plentiful equal measure.

It has an acoustic ending called Complex 5 which will leave you incarcerated in the meandering yet meticulous peculiarly pulp portrayals of Clock Radio, as if you melted into a bubble sofa. It is available now on the streaming platforms, or buy the digital album from Bandcamp.

Ruby Darbyshire to Perform at Silverwood School Open Evening

The phenomenally talented Ruby Darbyshire is performing at Silverwood School in Rowde on 27th June. Ruby has kindly offered to support Silverwood School’s open evening…..

Silverwood School near Devizes, has an ambition to provide a truly integrated system of outstanding education for those with special educational needs and disabilities in Wiltshire up to 19 years old.

Silverwood Charity Trust supports the school by fundraising to enhance the educational experience and advance the abilities of the children and young people at the school. A plea…We are looking for donations for a raffle that we will hold at this event. Any offer will be much appreciated and we thank you in advance for your generosity. We can collect donations at your convenience.

The Trust has made grants across the Chippenham, Trowbridge, and Rowde Campuses totalling £20,000, built a multi-use sensory walkway at the Rowde Campus to allow wheelchair access to the woodland areas, and has submitted a planning application for an Animal Resource Centre (ARC).

With the new building work at the Rowde Campus complete, the Trust is delighted to hold an open evening at 6pm on Friday 27 June 2025, to which they hope you can join them to learn more about the School and Trust, and support the young people at Silverwood School by raising vital funds for the ARC.

The event is free, but please reserve tickets HERE

Contact: Georgie@NutwoodHouse.co.uk or Tim@NutwoodHouse.co.uk for donations

The Big Sound Choir to Perform with Aled Jones at St George’s Bristol

Devizes-based The Big Sound Choir will take to the stage at St George’s Bristol on Wednesday 4th June as part of Aled Jones’s nationwide Full Circle tour – and audiences are in for a real treat….

Known for their dynamic energy and uplifting sound, The Big Sound Choir will open the evening with a rousing set of feel-good songs before joining Aled Jones live on stage for a powerful finale.

Aled, the beloved boy treble who captured hearts with Walking in the Air, is back with a brand-new show that’s packed with songs, stories, and surprises. “It’s time to come Full Circle,” says Aled. “I’ll be telling stories about how it all began, then taking the audience on a journey through my career – from meeting Royalty, singing all over the world, to being sat between Elton John and Billy Connolly at Bob Geldof and Paula Yates’s wedding!”

The concert promises previously unseen photographs, live performances of Aled’s favourite songs, and the chance for the audience to ask him questions. It’s a warm, funny, and nostalgic evening that celebrates a remarkable career – and for The Big Sound Choir, it’s a chance to shine alongside one of Britain’s most recognisable voices.

SPECIAL OFFER: 50% OFF TICKETS Book now HERE and use code: 50ALED at the checkout!

Don’t miss this joyful collaboration – a night of beautiful music, heartwarming memories, and one unforgettable finale!

Thieves Debut EP

Adam Woodhouse, Rory Coleman-Smith, Jo Deacon and Matt Hughes, aka Thieves, the wonderful local folk vocal harmony quartet of uplifting bluegrass into country-blues has a four track debut EP; who knew?!

I only found out through talking with Adam about a merch table at our forthcoming RowdeFest, where you can, incidentally, find Thieves playing, but at any gig you’re lucky enough to catch them at, I suggest you pick up a copy of this little showcase disc; they’re our very own resident Carter Family….

Opening with Calne’s Jo Deacon on lead vocals, who also sings solo and with soul function band the Midnight Hour, Coming Back For Me is beguiling and uptempo, refreshing bluegrass fashion. Yet Working Man, which follows, slides the divine ambience into mellowed country-rock. With Adam on lead vocals, I’m thinking Neil Young, the Byrds, and all those irresistible Americana classics, which imagines you’re heading west through Oklahoma on a Harley with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda.

Probably the highlight of this EP is the penultimate, Now You’re Around. Five minutes of total bliss, with Jo back on vocals and some seriously intricate melodies, combining the talents of Rory’s resonator, Adam’s mandolin, and Matt’s upright bass, you can sense Jo’s soul experience, as it rings out as authentically Americana as Janis Joplin playing Woodstock with Crosby, Stills & Nash. And still I hear something decidedly UK folk here too, of Fairport Convention, perhaps. I’m no connoisseur, just know what my ears like; it’s all a melting pot, and Thieves stir it with delicate precision.

And in that, I’m unsure about the name Thieves. Certainly the genuine sound of America is pinched if not more agreeably heavily influenced by, but it might suggest there’s something edgy going on, when this is dinkum, universally appealing sunny side of the street melodies; the kind of folk the eldest in the crowd will tap their toes to while children will merrily twirl barefoot on the grass.

It was a series of coincidences when I first saw them at Bradford Roots Festival a few years ago. From a distance I thought ‘that guy looks just like Adam Woodhouse,’ (and maybe a smidgen like MacGyver too!) but upon hearing them perform I thought of The Lost Trades, turned to tell the person standing next to me, who just happened to be Phil Cooper of the Lost Trades, who nodded his trilby in approval; a fine accolade indeed. “It is Adam,” Phil replied! Oh, yeah, so it is; I didn’t need to go to Specsavers, because their wonderful sound pulled me closer.

We finish the EP with a ballad called Lately, which Adam and Jo duet, and it’s so beautiful and moreish, leaving you suspended on what’s to come from Thieves, but rest assured, here’s a wonderful quartet which can hold a crowd spellbound.

Find where Thieves are playing on our local circuits by following socials Facebook Insta for gigs, and hopefully catch them at Rowdefest on Saturday 31st May? It’s free, bring me a haslett and cucumber sandwich, I’ve arranged the acts, I won’t let you down.

iTunes Link

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“Sweeney Todd” at St. Augustine’s Catholic College, Trowbridge May 28th-31st

by Ian Diddamsimages by Chris Watkins Performing Sondheim isn’t the simplest of tasks. Or, rather, singing Sondheim isn’t the simplest of tasks. With his dissonant…

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May 28, 2025May 28, 2025

Ruby Darbyshire to Perform at Silverwood School Open Evening

The phenomenally talented Ruby Darbyshire is performing at Silverwood School in Rowde on 27th June. Ruby has kindly offered to support Silverwood School’s open evening…..…

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May 28, 2025

Shoot Me, A New Single From George Wilding!

I loved it, but if the jury was out in March over Isn’t She Lovely, the last single from George Wilding under the production of…

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May 23, 2025

The Big Sound Choir to Perform with Aled Jones at St George’s Bristol

Devizes-based The Big Sound Choir will take to the stage at St George’s Bristol on Wednesday 4th June as part of Aled Jones’s nationwide Full…

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May 22, 2025May 22, 2025

Thieves Debut EP

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

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May 20, 2025

Between Two Worlds with Ruzz Guitar

He might be between two worlds but he can also be in your home, in your very own ears, and that’s the best place for…

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May 20, 2025

All the way from the land down under, Australian Folk singer Ernest Aines is coming to Wiltshire….

On his fourth tour of the UK throughout May and June, Ernest’s tour coincides with the release of his new single, “Just Once”, coming out…

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May 20, 2025May 21, 2025

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…

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May 19, 2025May 20, 2025

Bird is the Word Take Over Live Music At Bradford-on-Avon’s Boathouse

Under the new management, live music will be making a triumphant return to The Boathouse in Bradford-on-Avon and that Cracking Pair, Claire and Chloe of…

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May 19, 2025May 19, 2025

Deadlight in the Daytime; Vinyl Realm’s Acoustic Saturdays Return….

Always a happy place, our traditional record shop Vinyl Realm in Northgate Street Devizes is back in the game of hosting some live music afternoons.…

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May 17, 2025

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Deadlight in the Daytime; Vinyl Realm’s Acoustic Saturdays Return….

Always a happy place, our traditional record shop Vinyl Realm in Northgate Street Devizes is back in the game of hosting some live music afternoons. First up was the dynamic duo and purveyors of all things goth, Deadlight Dance….

Owners Pete and Jackie were glad to announce the return of some live music afternoons at Vinyl Realm, and between us we couldn’t recall how long it’s been since they last did this. A welcomed visit then, where you can leave your penny-farthing outside, browse some records while you’re there, and take in some locally sourced, unplugged acoustic sounds.

From 2:30pm Deadlight Dance played through stripped back versions of their originals and plenty of classic covers of the eighties new wave and gothic scene, claiming it was World Goth Day, though Google reckons it’s next Thursday, but who’s arguing? Deadlight Dance were covering these songs when Google was an itch in Ask Jeeves’ web crawler.

Always a pleasure to hear Nick and Tim play, though attired in their black jackets, white shirts and shades, it seems Tim drew the short straw and stood window-side with the sun beating in and a wasp groupie hovering overhead! Mandolin and guitar Echo Beach rinsing through the rafters though, while everyone outside is shopping for a birthday card for their pet cat, or Iceland hot dog stuffed crust pizza; plenty of time that malarky afterwards. I found a 7” of Chaka Khan, and another from Neil from the Young Ones, so there.

Next up is our wonderful Devizes singer-songwriter Sammi Evans, next Saturday 24th May from 2:30pm. I’ve asked Jackie for a list, but this was vague at the moment; watch this space. Of course JP Oldfield is on for a suitcase drum and kazoo sesh at some point, so if you’re an acoustic performer I suggest you pop into Vinyl Realm and put your name down!

Frome Multi-Instrumentalist James Hollingworth Recreates Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here Live

Oh hear ye, for a foretelling I behold. A prog-rock shamen of extensive knowledge and sorcery will enter our sacred vale during the moon to cometh.…

A mysterious lone traveller stands at the Trow Bridge, as steadfast as the mist surrounding him. Behind him, the home he departed, the market Frome across the Somerset border. In front as he strides barefoot across the downs, resides the unsuspecting kind folk of the White Horse. He arrives clasping under his cloak, a magical multi-track looper known as a Boomerang III Phrase Sampler, a gatefold sleeve album of yore in his other hand he holds high above his brimmed kappell, and he hath a celebration to bequeath….

….or he might have a van, I’m not 100% certain! But James Hollingsworth returns to Wiltshire to pay homage to Pink Floyd’s ninth studio album Wish You Were Here, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. With loop pedalboard and other such tech, he bravely attempts it solo, but if any one can, he can.

In our writer Andy’s extolled words of a review long past, when James did similar at the Devizes Southgate on Dark Side of the Moon’s fiftieth birthday, Andy called him a “tour de force, a stunning effort of both musical versatility, but also of concentration. It’s the music he loves, and it really showed.”

Unlike Andy, I’m not of that era, being only two when Wish You Were Here was released, and as a result I’m more critical about prog-rock. Though Floyd are a timeless band, whose lyrics we chanted on the playground, inciting us not to need education or thought-control. And of James I said in a 2022 review, again at the Southgate, “for any music lover from folk to prog-rock, from the era of mellowed Floyd-eske goodness, James Hollingsworth works some magic,” so, I must have loved it!

To make sure, James sent me his latest outpouring, an intense collaboration with keyboardist Steve Griffiths called Lost in the Winds of Time. With tolkienesque charm, swirling soundscapes and whimsical storytelling, Lost in the Winds of Time is a sea shanty rock opera, nine lengthy tracks strong, each flowing beautifully like the whistling winds, into a narrative, mystically.

Though Lost in the Winds of Time might be better comparable to the album Meddle, with its gorgeous circulating psychotropic-inducing effects and riffs which roll over like waves on a calming sea caressing the shore. James’ silky vocals drift across the ether, like Wiltshire’s own Justin Hayward narrating a Victoran fantasy adventure, or Harry Potter Goes to Sea with Gandalf!

It’s an impressive trip, to me, as I’m one who, during the intervening period between undesirable commercialised electronica and the more welcomed acid house, sought the archives for lost psychedelia to suit my blossoming journey into the psyche’s nirvana (I was at art college, it was part of the curriculum!) The older Floyd albums were an inevitable discovery I revelled in, horizontally in a moulding bedroom. Wish You Were Here stood out, for its vivid masterpieces of alienation and mental health, attributing original Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett, and paying their respects to him in such sublime manner reflected by listeners to anyone they once loved and lost.

Not to be confused with a tribute act, James Hollingsworth more simply pays homage to his influences in his own manner, and plans to play some of his compositions alongside. How will he do it? Bet you wish you were here to hear it… (see what I did there? I’ll get my fur-lined Afghan coat!)

He takes his show to Melksham, at the Grapes on Saturday 17th May. At the Southgate in Devizes on bank holiday Monday, the 26th May, which are both free, and as part of the Bath Fringe on Thursday 29th May at The Ring O Bells, ticketed event. Also at The Creative Innovation Centre in Taunton on Friday 23rd May.

Progress Made for the Wiltshire Music Awards

A week into the voting process for the Wiltshire Music Awards and things have been moving forward fast. We’ve had the best part of 500 voting forms already submitted and we’re busy spreading the news about these new awards…

The voting process for the Wiltshire Music Awards went live on the 1st May, and if it was overshadowed by some other voting thing going on that day too, this far more important election is gradually gathering pace. And unlike the other elections, no one is jumping on anyone’s back, making up stories to derail other candidates!

Cast Your Votes HERE

Eddie Prestidge of Wiltshire Music Events UK and I have been busy promoting the concept, and we’re delighted and extremely grateful to everyone who has helped us with this. From visiting Castledown FM to meet Kev Lawrence and waffle on his drive-time show, and future such gigs like Peggy-Sue’s Don’t Stop the Music Show on Swindon 105.5, to features in Swindon Link and Salisbury Radio’s blog, and everyone who has shared our news on social media, word is getting around thanks to you all.

Of course individual musicians, bands and studios have taken to their social media platforms begging for their fans to vote for them, and, don’t worry, this is encouraged! It’s also our most treasured venues such as The Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford-on-Avon who are sharing our news. I believe this is all vital, to ensure we’re making it comprehensive and spanning across the entire county. If you can help us with this, please do get in touch.

Nominations will close on 10th June 2025, so we need your picks by then! It’s not easy, I know; Eddie messaged me a few hours into the voting process to say he hadn’t seen my submission yet, and I had to tell him I was still making my mind up!

There’s so many talented musicians around here, it is difficult to decide who’s name to put in those boxes. But, in this I feel is a point worth making about the Wiltshire Music Awards; we are doing this to promote, encourage and celebrate everyone creating music locally, from DJ and cover band to original artists and sound engineers. This isn’t intended to make our circuits competitive in any way, as we all enjoy the communal and friendly ethos of our local circuits, and vow to maintain this. The hard work they all do to entertain us is recognised and appreciated; while some of our many friends on the music scenes in Wiltshire might not pick up an award, it doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten them!

Eddie says, “these awards recognise the individuals and groups whose efforts make a real difference. If you know someone who deserves recognition, or want to showcase your group, now is your chance to give them the spotlight they deserve.”

We’ve just opened a Facebook group for the Awards you can join HERE. People have joined and are making connections there already, which is great and exactly what we want to achieve with this venture; it’s not the Oscars!

There’s loads of questions which have been fired at us over the week about how the awards work, despite many of them being answered on the FAQs page of the website! Some others have come up, and we thank you for raising some valid points. One good one I had by Rich of Minety Music Festival, who asked if we could have a category for festivals. We pondered how we could do this as the categories have already been set, there’s 17 of them already, and feeding it into the venues category might not be fair on the smaller grassroots venues. So, we decided to add festivals as a category for next year, and make a list of festivals in Wiltshire for the judges’ perusal. I mention this to say, hey, we’re open to ideas and things we might have overlooked.

The most frequent question I’ve been asked is “can I vote for myself?!” To which the simple answer is a big fat YES! Why not? Show off your ego, you’ve earned it, go for it! The less frequent but similar question I’ve had is, surprisingly, “can I vote for you?!” The answer is, yeah (blush,) if you must!

We’ve been browsing trophies and medals from a catalogue by Avon Trophies like we’re kids drooling over the lingerie section! And over the next couple of weeks we will be sending invites for people to be judges. Choosing experienced people with dedication to promoting music in the county and trying to set one in each area, we have a list of possibles, but if you’re interested in this let me know this coming week. It is also vital that this event receives sponsorship in order for it to work as well as what’s in our minds. Please contact us if you would like to sponsor an individual award or the whole shebang!

The award ceremony will take place in Devizes at the Corn Exchange, on Saturday 25th October 2025, tickets are here. We hope it will continue annually, this all depends upon your input and support, which has so far been so encouraging I might even be moved wear a dickie-bow at the event, and that’s worth the ticket price alone! Please vote and share our news, thank you!

Bands At The Bridge

Organised by Kingston Media – to raise money for Dorothy House and Wiltshire Air Ambulance – the 3rd of May saw Bands At The Bridge come to the Bridge Inn, Horton …

With the sun peeking out and the rain clouds temporarily parting I had the opportunity to head on down to Bands on The Bridge, a mini festival-style event at the Bridge Inn on the outskirts of Devizes. Organised by Kingston Media – in a step away from their usual publicity/catering work – the event saw eight bands and solo performers stretched across the afternoon and evening of the Bank Holiday Saturday, all in aid of Dorothy House and Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

From the moment of entering, you could feel a strong sense of excitement, and although the crowd wasn’t big, they definitely had the enthusiasm side nailed as each of the performers was met with cheers and dancing.

The first band I had the opportunity to see that evening was Burn the Midnight Oil. They started with a cover of Dreams and soon had everyone singing along, before launching into a set of original songs, which saw dancing, cowboy hats and even people howling like wolves for a short time (there was more context to it than that, I promise!).

Although all songs they played – other than one – were originals, they played them which such skill that without knowing their setlist beforehand you wouldn’t have known that they weren’t just covers of songs that you just didn’t know, which can take a lot of skill to do right. All their songs were great, but I’d like to give a mention specifically to Scapegoat and Werewolf, which were my two favourites of the evening. It was clear their focus was on well played and polished originals, which they were fantastic at and which the audience clearly appreciated.

Dreamcatcher came quickly next, a band that originally started as a Fleetwood Mac tribute, but their tastes broadened to encompass a load more songs of the same sort of style – although rest assured, they still had a healthy dose of Fleetwood throughout. Their 45 minutes setlist saw a variety of different songs, broken strings and even the sun (for a short appearance, which had everyone cheering) with a main focus on stuff from the 60s and 70s, the sort of songs that everyone would know and have a little dance to.

The Dreamcatchers played well, and despite the small crowds, it was clear the audience enjoyed their material and it fit in well for that kind of event.

By far the most appreciated band of the evening were The 789s, a Bristol based events band. It’s fair to say they were some of the most skilled players of the evening, with their four-person line up seeing drums, bass, guitar and vocals. Once again, their setlist focused on well-known and easily danceable songs, seeing performances of Come On Eileen, Don’t Look Back In Anger and many more that had everyone excited.

I had a quick chat with their lead singer Ally who said a lot of the songs she enjoys performing are 70s funk and disco style numbers and that that was what she grew up with around the house. Their high energy songs soon had everyone up dancing and singing along and it seemed that 45 minutes wasn’t enough for the audience, after two back-to-back encores at the end of their set leading to a few extra songs, which were just as impressive as – if not better – than the rest of their set.

With their skilled instrumentalists, incredible talented singers and a well-polished setlist I thought it was perfect for this kind of event and clearly the rest of the audience agreed. Ally went on to say that the energy people gave her made it a really fun gig to be playing at.

The last performance of the evening saw headliner Almost Elton take to the stage. By this point the audience were invested in whatever performance would come next, so he was met with a great reception after setting up a keyboard and mic followed by a quick outfit change into a feathered coat and a not entirely convincing wig.

He had a longer set than others, and being an Elton John tribute act ran through all the favourite songs of Mr John – even bringing some random audience members on stage to ‘help’ with the vocals on Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. It was a good way to round off an event like this, everyone knew the songs, everyone sang along and everyone danced.

All in all, Kingston Media pulled off an enjoyable event with some fantastic performers throughout the evening. As well as the four I’ve babbled about above I’ve heard great things of both Jane Bennet’s and The Sitting Ducks’ sets (and actually all of the rest of the performers) and was sad to miss them.

Although the crowds were a little small, that is completely normal and to be expected for the first year of this sort of event (and in fact, their first ever event of this type). They had the traditional festival atmosphere nailed and a great venue to go along with it. So, here’s hoping for it to be done again next year, maybe with a bit more sun though?!

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PREVIEW – Chippenham Folk Festival – Friday 23rd May through to Monday 26th May 2025

One of Wiltshire’s Best by Andy Fawthrop Looking for something to do next weekend? One of Wiltshire’s biggest festivals is happening just up the road…

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May 17, 2025

Jake Martin: He’s a king, and it was in the Castle, with SOP Swindon

By Ben Niamor It’s been way too long since I saw the irrepressible Jake Martin, and he did not disappoint, classic songs as ever, open,…

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May 16, 2025

Frome Multi-Instrumentalist James Hollingworth Recreates Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here Live

Oh hear ye, for a foretelling I behold. A prog-rock shamen of extensive knowledge and sorcery will enter our sacred vale during the moon to…

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May 16, 2025

Melksham Marketing Expert Launches AI Training Course

So what if it paints six fingers on a human hand?! AI is here to stay, love it or lump it; I’ve known manually run…

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May 13, 2025

Just a Mirrorball; Auralcandy New Single With Sienna Wileman

If we’ve had a keen eye on Swindon’s Sienna Wileman’s natural progression as an upcoming singer-songwriter since being introduced to her self-penned songs via her…

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May 13, 2025May 13, 2025

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Voting Now Open for the Wiltshire Music Awards

The voting process for the Wiltshire Music Awards goes live today; there might be some other voting thing going on too, but this is far more important!

In conjunction with Wiltshire Music Events UK, I’m delighted Devizine will be actively assisting to organise this new county-wide music awards. We’ve mentioned it a few times now, but today the moment has finally arrived for you to cast your votes. Nominations are open for the ceremony from 1st May 2025, and will close on 10th June 2025.

Cast Your Votes HERE

Please Share this News

The award ceremony will take place in Devizes at the Corn Exchange, on Saturday 25th October 2025, tickets are here. We hope it will continue annually, this all depends upon your input. Please get voting, and we call upon everyone actively involved in music scenes across the county to get involved too.

Here’s some FAQs about the process, and other than to say I’m mega-excited about it all, and to please share this news far and wide, there’s not a lot else I can waffle on about it for now; everything relies on you all to help us find the talented in Wiltshire, so get voting!

Who can be nominated?

Anyone involved in music based in Wiltshire or primarily active within the county can be nominated. This includes solo artists, bands, DJs, instrumentalists, music promoters, and venues.

Can I nominate in more than one category?

Yes, you can submit nominations in multiple categories. However, each artist, band, group, DJ, or venue may only be nominated in one category overall, so please choose the most suitable one.

Who decides the winners?

A panel of music professionals from across Wiltshire will review the shortlisted entries and select one winner per category. The panel’s decision will be final.

Theatre Review: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie by Devizes Music Academy

An effervescent musical, full of promising young talent

Written by: Melissa Loveday

Images by: Gail Foster

After the success of SIX last year, Devizes Music Academy is beginning to make a name for itself with its second musical production, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which featured two electrifying performances on 19th April at Devizes School….

And wow! What an incredible show it was! Bringing this musical sensation to life – including Northern accents, multiple set and costume changes and complex dance numbers – was ambitious. Yet after only a week of rehearsals, 23 talented young performers, aged just 13 to 18, poured their hearts and souls into a performance that was dynamic, professional and full of impressive talent. It had heart, humour and heels so high I wouldn’t be able to walk in them, let alone dance!

From the opening scene, it was packed with raucous energy and perfectly delivered sass that immediately transported us to a gritty Sheffield comprehensive, where Year 11s contend with the wonderful and frightening possibilities that lie ahead of each of them. Jamie New, an openly gay 16-year-old who dreams of becoming a drag queen, was instantly likeable as he and the rest of the cast swept us into his pop-fantastic daydream ‘And You Don’t Even Know It’.

Inspired by the BBC Three documentary Jamie: Drag Queen at 16, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie was written by Tom MaCrae with music by Dan Gillespie Sells, from an idea by Jonathan Butterell. First produced by Sheffield Theatres, the show took London’s West End by storm in late 2017 and has brought infectious joy to audiences ever since.

But this is a story about more than a boy wanting to wear a dress. It’s a multi-layered tale of family and friendship, and having the courage to step into the person you were always meant to be. Set in a working-class area of South Yorkshire, England, the story is grounded in a world that’s relatable, keeping it from becoming overly sentimental. Instead, it feels edgy and vibrant, whilst not shying away from the struggles individual characters face.

What made this amateur ‘Teen Edition’ so special was the thrill of watching real teenagers bring these teen characters to life. Under Jemma Brown’s expert direction, with vocal coaching by Teresa Isaacson and choreography by Sarah Davies, the cast delivered a level of talent that could easily hold its own on a West End stage.

The whole ensemble was brilliantly cast, with every member delivering a believable storyline through genuine and multi-dimensional acting, powerful vocals and sharp choreography.

Jacob Leggett was made to play Jamie. At just 15, he brought the perfect mix of camp charisma and youthful innocence to the role, whilst also capturing Jamie’s wit, cheekiness and vulnerability. His rendition of ‘Wall In My Head’ was captivating, building beautifully into an emotional crescendo that gave me chills!

Meanwhile, Ruby Phipps gave Pritti, Jamie’s loyal, studious best friend, a quietly headstrong presence. Her solo ‘Beautiful’ was sung with elegant control, allowing each phrase the space and diction needed to feel both precise and spontaneous. Although she and other cast members weren’t Muslim, the production honoured the spirit of diversity by respectfully representing the Muslim community, complete with hijabs.

As a parent, I was moved by Lisa Grime’s portrayal of Jamie’s mum, Margaret, especially her song ‘He’s My Boy’. It was heartfelt and mature, with excellent vocal range, and had me reflecting on the bittersweet truth that while we strive to shield our children from pain, life will inevitably hurt them, and yet we thrive on seeing them live authentically. Our children, in all their brilliance and vulnerability, are our greatest accomplishments.

Another standout came from Cory White, who doubled as the school bully and Jamie’s dad, who’s harsh lines stung, but showed subtle remorse that added depth to his characterisation.

Ted Maughan was commanding as Hugo and playful as Loco Chanelle, offering a refreshing contrast with his confident spoken-word delivery style and lively American accent.

The set design was simple but effective, with props such as a balloon arch for the prom scene creating a party feel. Transitions between classroom, kitchen, bus stop and prom seemed to happen as if by magic, enhanced by effective lighting and seamless costume changes, from school uniforms to dazzling prom gowns. The spotlight reveal of Jamie’s red dress was especially powerful, leaving the audience wanting more.

Dynamic choreography and colourful harmonies elevated the production, from coordinated group numbers to breakout moments allowing individual characters to shine. Particularly memorable was the schoolgirls’ clapping routine in ‘Spotlight’, reminding us of the characters’ young age, while a dance duet between Cory White and Chloe Whitcombe during Margaret’s ‘If I Met Myself Again’ added a poignant, dreamlike quality to the song. But I especially loved the title number ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’, which kicked off Act II, with its excited, gossipy feel, as multiple characters bounced their individual lines off each other before erupting into an energetic and synchronised dance sequence that had the whole room buzzing!

It’s genuinely hard to believe this was amateur musical theatre. The level of professionalism, emotional authenticity and pure talent displayed by every single cast member absolutely blew me away. These young performers truly brought a little bit of glitter to the grey.

With so much promising young talent on our doorstep, it begs the question: what’s next Devizes Music Academy? Whatever it is, I can’t wait!

You can catch an abridged version of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Fulltone Festival, The Green, Devizes, on Friday 25 July. For tickets, visit www.fto.org.uk

Devizes Palooza DJ on the Bill for Fatboy Slim’s All Back to Minehead

Big congratulations to Devizes DJ Greg Spencer this week, the creator of Palooza house nights at The Exchange nightclub, for he made the prestigious bill of Fatboy Slim’s All Back to Minehead festival in November at Butlins; we have to celebrate him, baby, and praise him like we should!

Palooza launched in March last year, to bring back regular house nights in Devizes, and fantastic they are too. A year later and Greg excitedly messaged us with the news he was potentially booked for Fatboy Slim’s annual shindig at the Butlins in Minehead, we just had to wait for confirmation, which he now has. “I’m a bit overwhelmed by it,” Greg told us at the time, describing the news as one of the best days of his life when he announced it last week.

Goldie, K-Klass and a DJ set from Leftfield are among the highlights of who will be largin’ it with Norm at this annual dance music extravaganza; we wish Greg all the best with it. But if you want to get Palooza’d closer to home, they’re back at the Exchange nightclub this Friday, 2nd May. And we’re leaking future dates for Palooza nights to put in your diary, the 27th June, 29th August and 19th December.

This Friday sees the crew playing house, old skool, techno and tech house with DJs Floormover, Leggy, Rodj, Eldridge and Grit. Pay on the door, Facebook event page is here; let them know if you’re going!

No Alarms No Devizes, Aptly in Devizes!

If I’ve been galavanting recently, gorging on other local town’s live music scenes, what better way to return to Devizes than a visit to the liveliest watering hole, The Three Crowns, to see a band with our town’s name all over it, No Alarms And No Devizes? How apt!

I’ll confess, while I know most of the members of this five-piece as individual musicians in their own rights or as members of various other groups, I was yet to see them in this setup, despite them forming the best part of a year ago. Naughty of me, I accept, but I’m overly glad to finally tick them off my must-see list, and on the strength of last night’s performance, it won’t be the last.

Aware of their talents as individuals my only pre-gig apprehension being it can sometimes be a case whereby groups formed of members who’ve met at open mics sadly don’t equate to the sum of their counterparts. This minor angst I quashed before arriving; I could hear them from the carpark as they rang out Steve Harley & the Cockney Rebel’s Make Me Smile with gusto. “Come up and see me,” the song suggests, yeah, I’m nearly there, and already glad I did. Again, how apt!

But it’s not just in the word-playing a Radiohead song’s band name to give it a local spin, nor the coincidental meaning of the song they were covering when I arrived which makes me happy to report that they know exactly what buttons to press, rather on the tightness of the band and their comradeship too. Frontman Tom Harris, known for also fronting extreme-metal band Kinasis and a stalwart locally as a blues solo artist, is a force to be reckoned with. His lively vocal range knows no bounds, and there’s joyful connotations within his energy and often amusing facial expressions which rub off on the audience.

If, as it suggests, ‘extreme-metal’ is too extreme for me, it’s in his lighter fashions which makes me smile, and during lockdown the few funky tunes he created really brought Tom’s natural talent to entertain to my attention. With No Alarms No Devizes’ varied range of cover choices in their arsenal, Tom is free to explore his funky side or whatever fancies his tickle, and I loved this about the No Alarms And No Devizes show the most.

Tom is backed by proficient guitarist Pat Ward, once modest about his abilities, today moving through the audience whilst strumming, like a pro! Bassist Jonny Jam, who’ll you see blessing his skills in many local bands. A new drummer, Nick Wood, who sure found his feet and sticks last night. And with the additional Matt Pryor on keys, the lineup gives them the scope to nail a vast range of pop songs into their repertoire, and they do them all with impressive confidence and showmanship.

Keyed in to precisely what the varied crowd at the Three Crowns want, they ventured through anything and everything from Nina Simone and the Beatles to the obligatory Radiohead, the Proclaimers’ crowd-pleaser, and eighties pop such as my personally most welcomed Men at Work’s Down Under, with a gradual fade from melodic to a frenzy. They slipped in a few great originals too, but whatever direction they took themselves into they did so with flow, precision and enthusiasm, making for a universally highly entertaining night I cannot fault. Even their break was no longer than a wee-stop!

I do ponder if the band’s name implies it’s just a bunch of guys from Devizes when they arrive at other town’s venues. They played Swindon’s Rolleston recently, they played HoneyFest at the Barge and Salisbury’s Coach & Horses, among others, but Matt assured me they’re welcomed wherever they play, leaving me only to assure venues outside Devizes, they may be announcing they’re guys from Devizes within their very name, and banter between towns might be a thing, but once No Alarms And No Devizes are in full swing, you’d be glad you booked them!

Another wonderful night at the Three Crowns, then. It never fails to please. With the Brewery Shop opening next door, seeing visitors stopping into the pub, the live music and gourmet burgers, The Three Crowns is surely a testament to what a pub can achieve if they put their heads into what punters want, particularly in these uncertain times. It was as busy as ever in there, hospitable and lively, with a varied age demographic out to party and nothing baleful.

We clashed events with the wonderful Facebook page dedicated to promoting local live music, Bird is the Word, which had to happen at some point! Go give them a like if you do Facebook, they’re doing good things over there, with higher quality photos and video streams than my tiddly tries of getting into focus while dancing and balancing a cider!

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Yea Devizes; The Future of Events in Devizes

The premise is really quite simple, the prospect is positively glowing with brilliance, the result remains to be seen, but on Sunday the 4th May Devizes will know for sure where the future of events in the town rests ….. No pressure Devizes Yea team!!

It was never a nice thing to have to announce our beloved Street Festival had to be cancelled due to arts funding cuts, but being as the Market Place was booked for an event on the date, Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts are determined to put on a show regardless.

The fantastic part to all this is that DOCA has brought together teenage volunteers to create a new annual festival in Devizes Market Place, under the name Yea Devizes. The most important thing for all to note about this is, this is not the street festival, nor a replacement for it, it should not be compared to it, and most important of all, it is NOT just for teenagers. Even if the committee of organisers are youths, this event welcomes everyone, of all ages.

DOCA say they “noticed very few young adults attended traditional local events and therefore sought out youth ambassadors eventually creating Devizes Youth Event Area (Devizes Yea). The youth volunteers wanted to represent their own interests, making local events appeal to our young adults. They’re using their skills and collaboration to create this festival, with an aim of bringing together all generations of our community.”

I met up with the team at their weekly planning meeting, and over a massive map of the Market Place, plastered with sticky notes highlighting all the great ideas they’ve collectively worked on, I was mightily impressed. Under the direction of DOCA expert Annabel, Elsie, Bea, Jo, and Sam are the Devizes Yea core ambassadors, learning the tricks of the events trade, and likely how much hard work goes on behind the scenes to create large scale events…. and there’s more than you imagine.

Jess, my daughter, just joined as press officer, (which puts us ahead of the game of telling you about it!) But Devizes YEA are still looking for teenage volunteers to help in the build-up to and the event itself. So, if you are a young person living in the local area and want to get involved contact: yeadevizes@docadevizes.org.uk or find out more on the DOCA website or Instagram.

“There will be something for everyone at this outdoor event,” Devizes Yea promises, “with a range of live music, circus acts, poetry open mics, plot35 Devizes community gardening, cooking demonstrations, food traders and more. There are also chances for teenagers to get involved on the day with sound tech and learn from professional sound engineers who will be setting up the main stage.”

We think this is a great idea, and look forward to seeing the results. Oh, and wish them all the best of luck with the first event on 4th May, obviously. This could be the start of something amazing, and I must stress the point once again, that this day is designed and intended to be for everyone, not just our younger residents. Even middle-aged young-at hearts, duty bound to show them how it’s done on the dancefloor; Dad-dancing mode switched to crazy legs… and I’m off, nobody attempt to stop me!!

Devizes South Conservative Candidate Accused of Election Fraud

Melksham & Devizes Conservatives released a statement on the 7th April explaining an internal audit revealed one of their candidates was “not qualified by residence as they believed they were,” and claimed it was a “genuine mistake.” Devizes residents have gathered on social media to express their concerns that electoral law has been broken and the affair is quietly being pushed under the carpet….

Conservative candidate Sarah Batchelor moved to the area in July last year, to take over as management of the Crown Inn in Bishops Cannings and therefore has not been resident in the area or on the electoral roll for the legal minimum requirement of twelve months to apply for a councillor role. Melksham & Devizes Conservatives said in their statement they have informed the Electoral Registration Officer and the candidate will “take no part in the campaign process nor take up their seat if elected.”

But residents are angered by both the belief this was not a genuine mistake as claimed, is an incident in which media attention is deliberately being avoided, and hypocritical when Melksham & Devizes Conservatives caused a major outcry at a local by-election, when a Devizes Guardian candidate accidentally breached election law. Another sour point was that the Melksham & Devizes Conservatives make no attempt to apologise for the mistake and any potential cost to the taxpayer if a reelection is necessary in the process which will follow. “You’d thought they’d have learnt after the PCC debacle a few years back,” the original poster stated, “is this what you want from local councillors?”

Announced on the MDCA X account, because everyone looks there!!!

“The qualifications and rules are clearly stated on the form, and an individual knows if they meet them or not,” one resident pointed out on the Facebook group, Devizes Issue (But Better,) where the debate is causing a storm. “If the individual completed the forms,” they continued, “they have falsified an application. If someone else completed them on their behalf – they have not carried out due diligence or have ignored the clear rules. So which is it?”

The group were informed by former Labour councillor Noel Woolrych that “this is actually a police matter and is in their hands. However, I least believe that the name will still appear on the ballot paper as they had already been printed.” This raises the issue if she will be replaced, and as another commenter stated, “even though the election will still go ahead and the Conservatives have distanced themselves from the candidate, her presence on the ballot could still influence the outcome. Votes cast for her could impact the overall vote share and potentially alter the result, even if she’s not officially endorsed. That in itself raises concerns about fairness and electoral integrity.”

**Sarah Batchelor** (far right) pictured with other Conservative hopefuls, including Jordan Overton

A reliable source informed us these forms will have been checked prior to submission by Conservative Wiltshire Councillor Iain Wallis, who also controversially runs another Facebook group, Devizes Issues. It is a fact that this councillor is head of promoting all Conservative candidates for Devizes South. Sensitive enough to question the overall honesty of the Melksham & Devizes Conservatives it appears then, that the issue here has been deliberately avoided on said group, and elsewhere by Melksham & Devizes Conservatives, despite Councillor Wallis creating his own storm in a teacup at a by-election last year when a Devizes East Guardian candidate made a minor omission on a leaflet, falsely claiming the candidate had been arrested.

“I see it as fraud on both parties,” another resident said, “First party being the person who completed the forms and stated in the declaration that they are correct knowing they are false. Second, the political party who vetted the form knowingly didn’t complete the due diligence process to ensure that their candidate was lawful and correct.”

Again, we suspect the desperate local Conservatives are playing dirty for this local election, as they do for national politics, yet clearly claiming on their social media posts they are “local people with the community as our focus, with no central party control and our focus is not on national politics,” to divide themselves with the downfall nationally of their party. Yet, we discover them clearly using national party funds to campaign, and boy, they certainly are influenced by their national party tactics!

On a banner produced by the Devizes Conservatives it is claimed what makes candidate Iain Wallis “stand out” is that he “believes that every resident should feel their voice is heard.” Shamefully laughable considering this debate has to appear on groups he does not administrate and will no doubt be excluded from his own popular Facebook group. A group which has seen opposition candidates, councillors, support groups, upstanding citizens and charity organisations, and anyone who dares to challenge his opinion with a differing one be rewarded with lifetime bans.

We also find ourselves in said club of “disregarded dissidents,” for stating the facts, are proud to say it has been this way for a long time, and consider it a badge of honour!

Although, I strongly suspect, as it has been in past times when we have been caused to be critical of Devizes Conservatives, Mr Wallis will bleat like a hurt lamb, hold up a victim card, claiming all manner of falsehoods that we are attacking him personally. This simply isn’t true, and never has been. We only intend to highlight scoops that, for some strange reason, no one else is willing to risk their backhanders or potential advertising revenue to cover with the clarity needed to expose fraudulent candidates, which this is clearly as a case of. Is it my fault the same name appears to crop up each time? A case I rest there.

As the original post creator asked the group, “is this what you want from local councillors?”

Soupchick in the Park

And there was me thinking nothing good comes out of a Monday! Today local bistro Soupchick, popular in the Devizes’ Shambles opened their second branch, transforming the Hillworth Park café. I felt the need to poke my nose in, for the sake of a tea and toastie….

A slight cooling of temperature didn’t prevent a busy opening day for the team. Owner Marc told me how customers were lined up at the doors before they opened, and supposed the cooler climate wasn’t a bad thing, as they were still finding their feet!

Hillworth Park was much the same as usual, scenic yet functional, with a sprinkling of families passing through and children playing games. This is a welcomed addition, though, as Soupchick is renowned locally for quality homemade tasty tucker, though the customer base might change slightly. What then, is different from the Soupchick of the Shambles and the new café, and what’s the same? I hear you ask!

Easy. The ethos is the same, from the hospitable welcome to fresh quality produce and homemade food, with Anya’s exceptional attention to flavours that compliment each other; it’s all sooo scrumptious!

There’s two of their delicious soups of the day options, naturally, and there’s toasties of similar variety as before. But with a view to more family clientèle, there’s simplified versions of the toastie, such as plain cheese with ham, tomato or onion, as well as those favourites at the Shambles, such as The New Yorker with pastrami, Swiss cheese, red onion and American mustard, the tuna melt, or Smokey Spanish Chorizo.

While I’m personally partial to a New Yorker toastie, the greater welcomed element will surely be the essential ice cream from Marsh Farm, and a greater concentration on teas, coffees, smoothies, milkshakes and salads. From quiche to baguettes and falafel wraps, it’s a wider variety, but everything retains the fresh quality we’ve come to love Soupchick for.

They’re open for breakfast too, with granola bowls, fruit salads, porridge, toast and wraps, and everything on the menu all day is very reasonably priced; when considering how tasty it all is; you can’t go wrong with a toastie for six pounds, or sandwiches from £5.50.

It was a shame, for years past, the Hillworth Park café perhaps wasn’t reaching its full potential, and selling chocolate bars and drinks which could be found cheaper at the Hillworth Road store a short walk up the street. Soupchick has truly turned the facility around, it offers now something unique with a personal touch, and something, while Devizes residents have become accustomed to through their time spent at the Shambles, a wider appeal than before.

Though, I must stress, Anya, Marc and the team are determined to keep both cafés open, and The Shambles one will continue as before. You could, potentially, buy a takeaway soup at one and walk to the other for a refill!!

We wish them all the best with their new venture, and look forward to the possibility of perhaps having a few events there too some sunny day and meeting you there, of course!

Family Easter Holiday Events

Devizine isn’t only about music and gigs for grownups, y’know? It’s about events for everyone. This Easter we’ve lots of things to do over the school holiday, you just need to scroll our event calendar to find them!

Oh, okay yeah, wine o’clock already and it’s only the first day?! I’ll list what we’ve got so far below, make it easy for you, but you should keep an eye on the calendar as it updates daily with more stuff to do! And, it should go without saying by now, if you’ve know of anything else let us know and we can add it!

Imber Village open days – April 7th to April 9th

Monday 7th

Wonder Gigs: Under The Sea

Thursday 10th

Saturday 12th

Young Curators Club: April – Prehistoric Sea Creatures @ Wiltshire Museum Devizes

Little Pickles Market

Sunday 13th

Messy Easter at Bishops Cannings School

Monday 14th

Official Opening of Hillworth Park Cafe with Soupchick

Easter bonnet decorating @ Caffe Vialottie, Devizes

Rock The Tots: Transport

Tuesday 15th

Wednesday 16th

Thursday 17th

The Noise Next Door: The Adventure Academy … For Adventurers!

Saturday 19th April

Natural History Museum Presents Dinosaurs Live! @ The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon

Sunday 20th

Mini Ravers – Easter Special

Mon 21st

Bradford-on-Avon Duck Race

That’s all folks! But do come back here in a day or so, I’m sure there will be more added! Happy Easter!

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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.

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Beauty & the Beast; Devizes Musical Theatre at its Best

It was a fantastically successful opening night for Devizes Musical Theatre at Dauntsey’s School for their latest show, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and I returned home still singing Be My Guest and Gaston; they’re still stuck in my head now truth be told, and I’m not usually one for musicals!

Remaining faithful to Disney’s 1991 adaption of the French fairy tale by Barbot de Villeneuve, widely regarded as one of the greatest animated films of all time, new director Georgia Watson and the entire team at Devizes Musical Theatre pulled out all the stops last night; amateur dramatics has never been this good, surely?!

Already clued up on the plot, as my daughter had a “thing” for the film when little, didn’t prevent me thoroughly enjoying this show, rather it’s likely it aided it; familiarity transformed from film to stage is kingpin to a universally welcomed musical, which this is. Aside from the stellar performances, it was arduously and thoughtfully produced with attention to detail, especially the costume design; they were brilliant. Easy for a cartoonist, but how do you recreate inanimate objects such as a clock and teapot as characters on stage, I wondered beforehand, but not now!

And in this, commendations in particular go to Tia Shafee and Oli Beech, also Sarah Williams, Natalie Angus and Claire Abraham, all for adding those comical elements as candlesticks, clocks and teapots. Yet it was up to Georgia Saunders to add the sparkle, as the compassionate bookworm protagonist Belle, and her relationships with Samuel Phillis as the troubled Beast, Gareth Lloyd as the bawdy egomaniac Gaston, and Graham Day portraying her troubled inventor father, all of which were played confidently and rapturously.

Interactions between Gareth and his literal sidekick LeFou, played with camp hilarity by Adam Sturges were comedy gold, as was the “silly girls” fighting for Gaston’s affections, Georgia Claridge, Mimi Martin, Laura Bartle, and Bronwyn Hall. With special shout to Pip Emm who was last night’s Chip, a role which takes on a different young actor each performance, everyone on that stage looked to be loving the spotlight and this enthusiasm shone through, reflecting back off the audience in awe.

It never fails to amaze me how much work and effort goes into Devizes Musical Theatre’s shows, and how professional they are. Beauty & The Beast runs until Saturday 5th April, with a matinee performance on the final Saturday. Ticket holders are in for a real treat, anyone looking for a ticket should act fast as the last rose petal is about to drop; last look there were some left for tonight, the rest is already sold out. At £16 a pop, you’d pay more at the bar in a West End theatre for a glass of fizzy pop, or for parking.