Pig News Sep'05
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G'day
All Hallows Eve,
Yuletide Yodel,
Folk Ale 2006,
eFolkMusic,
CD Track Names,
Kentish Horse Sessions each 2nd Sunday,
Beryl's memories of evacuation,
etc
Day:+44(0)7770.503.241
Eve:+44(0)1732.864.206
Fax:+44(0)1732.864.996
G'day,
Well, clearly I spoke too soon!
Last Pig News in April I looked forward to things brightening up during 2005. And it is true we did have some highlights during May and June.
The Rochester Sweeps Festival was a great success… and we did get to see our friends in Blackmore Morris and the Wild Hunt dance on Saturday, before our own gig in the Castle grounds. Sunday was good too. We met some good people, heard some great music, played a few tunes, sang some songs.
The Pig's Ear Kentish Horse Folk Ale in Cow Lane also went very well, we thought (but you tell us - feedback of all kinds is always welcome). Our thanks are due to all the artists who kindly volunteered their services and are too numerous to mention, to Dave the Pub, to Charles Laver for the lights, to the chap who donated the hay bales for seating, to the 1st Lingfield Scouts for erecting and dismantling the marquee so efficiently, to the Kentish Horse locals for putting up with the folk invasion with their usual equanimity, to Sue Rule for all her planning, organisation, coordination and publicity… and of course to you, the audience, for turning up and enjoying yourselves. We appreciate this is a tough job, but someone's just gotta do it. So it may as well be you.
Lyndsey managed to achieve a 2.1 BSc Hons degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Hertfordshire. Well done! She's finished at university now, and is back living at home with mum and dad, so with luck we shall find more time for rehearsal this coming Autumn. Luckily, Lyndsey has obtained a short contract with the Kent Biological Records Centre, which is keeping her out of trouble ("one sparrow, two wood pidgeons, a cabbage white, three mice, a vole, another sparrow, five frogs… … … a mouse, one starling… … … a coffee… … … two moths, a dragonfly… … …"). Meanwhile, back in Pig World…
Unfortunately, a few weeks after the Folk Ale, Sue had to go for her annual MOT and, although she was given an 'all clear', she was asked to take some further tests… so a couple of weeks later, Sue got the results of those tests. Again, we got an 'all clear but…'. So yet more tests… and so it went on. Well you can imagine, this is not conducive to a happy, carefree summer! Meanwhile, back in Tonbridge…
Keith is taken to hospital for an emergency apendectomy. They didn't want to do it. Keith didn't want them to do it. They tried to find some way not to do it. But, in the end, they did it. It was nasty. It was difficult. It was apparently only just in time. But they did do it and it was successful. As I write this, Keith is recovering well, is back on his feet, and will, with a following wind, be ready for action mid-September.
This is just as well, 'cos we're trying to remaster, remix, double the number of tracks, and release a CD version of Christmas Cracklin' in time for, well, Christmas. We're also trying to compile a non-seasonal CD to be released in 2006, but we have a way to go with that as yet.
Meanwhile, back in Edenbridge… Sue finally got a final, for real 'all clear' in mid-August. What a relief. Life starts again.
To celebrate, we've arranged with Dave the Pub to stage an All Hallows Eve Folk Ale on Saturday 29th October (the closest we could practically get to Halloween) at the Kentish Horse. See the Gig Guide for details.
We've also scheduled a date for a Sunday afternoon Yuletide Yodel on 18th December. See the Gig Guide for details.
The Kentish Horse staff have also offered to support another Folk Ale over the weekend of 2nd through 4th June 2006 (Note: that's the weekend after the Spring Bank Holiday, so no excuses). This will be 4th Pig's Ear Kentish Horse Folk Ale, if we count from the Gathering of the Rulingas in 2003. All have proved enjoyable and have been well received by folkies and locals alike. We hope we will see even more friends there next summer. Watch the website and snailmail for more details as they develop.
On another topic, I'd like to draw your attention to the eFolkMusic website. These folk seem to have been early pioneers in the distribution of music in digital formats such as MP3. They were offering legal downloads at 99 cents per track way back in 1999, long before the iTunes/iPod revolution made popular by Apple Computer Inc. What is more, and more importantly, they are dedicated to folk music and are doing their best to provide digital distribution of folk music from independent labels. They fill the massive hole in most other offerings, which completely neglect folk music. Support them. Help them round out their catalogue with British folk music.
If you are at all interested in digital media, you may care to know that I have now updated Gracenote CDDB - the database that holds details of most commercially available CD and the tracks they contain - with details of all the tracks on all CD albums released by Pig's Ear. So anyone that plays a Pig's Ear CD on their PC or Mac (e.g. using iTunes) while connected to the internet, should now find all the track names and details download properly.
Our friends Travelling Folk have been making their usual rounds and, earlier in the year, visited the Kentish Horse in Markbeech. I gather about 30 musicians turned up to the latest event and it was so successful that Dave the Pub has agreed they can run a folk session during the evening of the 2nd Sunday of each month, commencing in September. The dates through to the end of the year are: 11th September, 9th October, 13th November (St.Brice's Day, if you are at all interested in reviving the ancient Saxon-Danish conflicts of Athelraed II 'the Reedless' in 1002 AD ), and 11th December. The sessions kick-off around 20:00 and all comers are welcome (including Danes, just for clarity).
The BBC, to commemorate the various ends of World War II, have set up a process for collecting the memories and stories of anyone who participated, in whatever capacity. This is a pretty good attempt at documenting the 'people's history'… and of course it is a replacement or extension to the aural histories and folk tales that are the basis of folk music. Sue's Ma, Beryl Donaldson, was a 14 year old child at the outbreak of war, and so was evacuated… to the South Coast (doesn't sound all that safe to me!). She has now written up some of her memories of the period and they have been added to the BBC website. If you are interested, you can read them at the BBC Website.
Best regards for now, Grant. St.Clare's 25-Aug-05
Our latest gig dates can be found in the Gig Guide page on this website. We're now open for bookings after taking an enforced 'rest' during the summer. Please contact any of the band (contact details above) if you are interested in hearing from 'an eclectic family folk band playing the folk music of the British Isles (and 'Colonies'), both traditional, modern and self-penned'. Phew! Is that what we do?
Copyright 2004-2005 PG Rule. All rights reserved.