More videos from the 5th anniversary party
Summer All Year Long and Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd with contrasting lullabies to introduce Kate Foley’s reading from The Don’t Touch Garden
#Arachne5 lullabies, gardens and elephants
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Tag Archives: Summer All Year Long
#Arachne5 Taking Liberties
More from the Arachne 5th Anniversary Party – Summer All Year Long singing songs of protest, Liberty, and Bread and Roses, followed by Carolyn Eden reading from Free White Towel, her story in Liberty Tales
#Arachne5 Party: videos for Stations
We had so much fun at the party on Friday. The quality of the live video (find it on Facebook) is a bit ropey so here is some better quality!
Here are Summer All Year Long singing the song from the original launch party for Stations, Sweet Train Roll Softly based on (the much better) Sweet Thames Roll Softly, by Ewan MacColl. We had a different arrangement originally, by Peter Morgan, but an almost entirely different choir membership and very little rehearsal, so this is Melanie Harrold‘s arrangement (more or less) which we learnt more recently.
And Bartle Sawbridge reading the middle section of Rich and Strange, the story he wrote for the Shadwell stop on the journey the anthology takes from Highbury and Islington to West Croydon.
As part of our 5th anniversary celebrations Stations is available for a bargain £5 from our web shop.
We are crowdfunding for Solstice Shorts Festival 2017 DUSK. help us reach our target!
#Arachne5 Anniversary celebrations
This is the hashtag we are using for the 5th birthday celebrations so if you post to Instagram or Tweet anything about our 5th, say #arachne5 as well! Ta.
(Hello all those people saying WHAT? I know, I feel the same, but we have to try to move with the times)
This is where we are having the party. Manor House Library. IN LEE SE13 5SY, not the North London Manor House!
6.30-9.30 8th September, which is the 5th anniversary of the publication of our first book, London Lies
We’ve decided to be INSIDE. No matter how lovely the day, it will be cold and dark by the time we finish!
Current line up (Not in this order):
Poems from
Jeremy Dixon (The Other Side of Sleep and Liberty Tales), Reading from both titles
Sarah Lawson (The Other Side of Sleep, A Midsummer’s Night in the Garden) reading her poem from the Midsummer event last year
Kate Foley (The Other Side of Sleep, Liberty Tales, The Don’t Touch Garden), reading from The Don’t Touch Garden
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- Jeremy
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- Sarah Lawson
Short Stories from
Ghillian Potts (The Old Woman From Friuli, Brat) – OWFF, read by an actor
Carolyn Eden (Liberty Tales) reading from Liberty Tales
Liam Hogan (London Lies, Liberty Tales, Shortest Day Longest Night, Happy Ending NOT Guaranteed) reading from Happy Ending NOT Guaranteed
Nichol Wilmor (London Lies, Lovers’ Lies, Weird Lies), Reading from Weird Lies
Katy Darby (London Lies, Lovers’ Lies’, Liberty Tales, Shortest Day Longest Night.) reading from London Lies
Cherry Potts (London Lies, Lovers’ Lies’, Liberty Tales, Shortest Day Longest Night, Mosaic of Air, The Dowry Blade) reading from Lovers’ Lies
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- Ghillian
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- Liam Hogan
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- Nichol Wilmor
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- Carrie Cohen
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- Cherry
Music from
Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd
Summer All Year Long
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- Sarah & Ian
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- Will Evererett singing with Summer all Year Long
Get your free/ donation ticket here:
Liberty Tales Video
Magna Carta was well and truly celebrated in Greenwich last night, with a substantial and enthusiastic audience, vigorous singing and fine readings.
I don’t know whether it was a comment on the standard of stories, reading and singing but the video camera overheated last night. As a result I am gradually piecing together our records, from recovered video, audio files and other people’s video (Liam, thank you.)
So the beautifully crafted links between stories and songs aren’t quite as neat as I’d hoped. Here’s as far as I’ve got:
Jim Cogan reading his story Lag
Stuart Crossman reading Nick Rawlinson’s Into the Blue
and Owen Townend’s Stopped by a Busker
Carrie Cohen reading Sarah Evans’ Bothered
Summer All Year Long singing fit to bust, a number of songs, listed on the video apart from the title and credit ones which are The Almanack by Richard Brown, and Step by Step by the wonderful Anon. Thanks to everyone who gave up their time to read and sing it was very definitely worth it!
More tomorrow, when I’ve worked out why the sound and pictures on Liam’s video won’t sync.
Cherry Potts talks about Liberty Tales at Croydon Radio
Here’s a podcast of Cherry talking about Liberty Tales on Glenn Lawrence’s show on Croydon Radio yesterday. It’s at 1:38:50ish after a section of War of the Worlds – what you can’t hear is me teasing Glenn about the fact he played this the last time I was there…
Hope to see you at West Greenwich Library at 7pm on Thursday!
Liberty Tales coming up
7pm 18th June 2015
West Greenwich Library, Greenwich High Road, SE10 8NN
When we first had the idea for Liberty Tales, (chance meeting at Canada Water Station, it’s a long story) we thought we would be celebrating 800 years of Magna Carta, with, perhaps some historical fiction, and some rousing songs
Well, no, not exactly.
That’s the fun of an open call, you get what you get; and what we got in response to the call out for stories about Liberty, was mostly about living outside the system, and self-expression and choice; and the songs have turned out to be about making things work by not judging others, and working together to get the bright fair future, although they fit surprisingly well with the stories – you’d almost think we planned it!
So we’ve called in some favours to vary the flavour, and now have a rather bleak piece of fantasy, and a story about very much being IN the system…
Our line up of stories are from:
Liam Hogan The King’s Computer
Carolyn Eden (aka Carrie Cohen, when she reads for us) Promotional Samples of London Town
Jim Cogan Lag
Helen Morris Poppies (read by Carrie Cohen)
Nick Rawlinson Into the Blue (read by Stuart Crossman)
Sarah Evans Bothered (read by Carrie Cohen)
Owen Townend Stopped by a Busker (read by Stuart Crossman)
Thanks to our friends at Better Libraries for hosting us!
Bright Morning Stars Solstice Shorts Video
Video
Two takes on celestial bodies for our time themed festival – Nicky Diss reads Emma Timpany‘s story Stars in which a failed relationship is likened to a comet passing (among other brilliantly imagined connections).
This story is one of sixteen read at the festival and featured in the book Solstice Shorts: Sixteen Stories about Time
and Summer All Year Long singing Bright Morning Star, a traditional spiritual arranged by Lester Simpson
These were actually programmed together at the festival – we had such great plans for curating the songs and stories to match, but in reality we had to programme based on who could get where and when, so it was particularly satisfying when song and story matched up, and at least we get to have another go at the curation lark with the videos.
Disclaimer from the BSL Interpreter, who would have liked to rehearse with the performers, so treat interpretation as indicative rather than inspired.
Solstice Shorts Folk Music Videos (with a nautical influence)
Video
Possibly being in Greenwich and so close to the National Maritime Museum turned our musicians minds to the joys of the sea, but there were quite a few songs about or influenced by the sea and ships. These are just some of them.
Pepper & Shepherd play Another New World (Josh Ritter)
Summer All Year Long sing Padstow Farewell (Traditional Sea Shanty)
Shadrack Tye sing Quiet Joys of Brotherhood (Words Richard Fariña Tune Traditional arranged by Sandy Denny)
Summer All Year Long at Solstice Shorts Festival – videos
Some more music from Summer All Year Long. And All Year Long is right – SAYL started thinking about songs for Solstice Shorts back in January last year, looked at hundreds and discarded almost as many,
The Year Turns by John Tams was already in the repertoire, and we each found and championed at least one other song and curated (meaning anything from finding existing recordings, to arranging parts or arranging for an arrangement, to stamping a foot and insisting a song stayed in the set list). Some fell by the wayside as too complex, or not quite ‘us’, the rest were rehearsed twice a week for what seemed like years while we took turns to get a particularly nasty throat infection, which meant we have only ever sung these with everyone there ONCE before!
The Ladies Go Dancing at Whitsun, written in the sixties by Austin John Marshall and known to us through Shirley Collins’ recording, was under Alix’s care and we felt that something about WWI was appropriate for 2014. We are very grateful to the lovely Lester Simpson for arranging it for us.
Cherry remembered Roll Turn Spin from Play Away which featured Toni Arthur and Julie Covington doing an amazing version of it. A LOT of research was needed to track down a recording, particularly as in fact it is two songs sandwiched together (RTS and The Green Man by Alan Bell), and only the chorus of Roll Turn Spin is used, the rest of the song (by Len Chandler) is about something else ENTIRELY. (If you are looking for the Play Away version its on the LP Hey You!) Peter worked out the arrangement from listening to the recording over and over and over. It was a labour of love, and as far as we were concerned it was the theme tune for the festival.
