Brighton Tubthumpers was invited to take part in a Poetry Army performance of a Heathcote Williams‘ poem. We sang Bread & Roses. this was the first performance for Brighton Tubthumpers and it was well received.
Here is a review from Michael Kemp – read to the bottom for his praise of the choir’s contribution.
20/11/2015 Poetry Can F*ck Dress Rehearsal
In Autumn 2014 – my raggle tangle group of choral troubadours Hullabaloo Community Quire worked with folk rock protest singer Robb Johnson! The project culminated in a joint performance. I am currently working with Robb to put together another project, this time with Brighton Tubthumpers!
Summer 2014, I ran a fantastic project called Daily Choir at the very wonderful Wickham Festival. With the support of Festival Boss Peter Chegwyn, we put together an exciting collaboration with Brighton Radi-Belle Naomi Bedford and her folk rock legend comrade Paul Simmonds. Working in cahoots with Naomi, we decided on a few of her songs for me to arrange into glorious harmony for the Wickham warblers, and I got to work. The Daily Choir was a roaring success – we had three sessions with about 40 festival going singers, learning the songs ‘Raise these sails’ and ‘Gypsy Davy’ – both songs on Naomi’s new album ‘A History of Insolence’.
The Daily Choir then joined forces with Naomi and Paul for a small but perfectly formed gig to kick start the last day’s music at Wickham. Great fun!
I have been invited back to run Daily Choir next year, so if you are heading to Wickham – see you there!
This is what the Daily Choirs singers said:
“Magical teacher in Kirsty – don’t know how you managed to get such a ‘wow’ sound!”
“Really nice sound – you did so well!”
“Fantastic time, what a wonderful experience.”
“A must at every festival, surely. Fantastic teacher – thank you”
Naomi, Paul and I are making plans to work together next year – more details coming soon!
Naomi’s current album ‘A History of Insolence’ is storming the folk and Americana charts at the moment and you can check her out here: http://www.naomibedford.co.uk and you can of course catch up with the incredible body of work from The Men They Couldn’t Hang here: http://www.tmtch.net
Hullabaloo Community Choir collaborated with Canadian band Po’ Girl.
The Moulettes are a folk rock band. Hullabaloo collaborated with them. The gig at the end of the project rocked!
The collaboration between Lucy Ward and Hullabaloo was a favourite for choir members. She travelled to Brighton for some brilliant rehearsals, and a couple of performances at the Unitarian Church. Some Hullabaloo members travelled to Derby, in snowy January, to take part in the Derbyshire volunteers charity event in Derby. The pictures in the slides how below are from that event.
Lucy Has written about the project on her website.