Here is a new compact direct-access Contents list for the News pages :
www.kentfolk.com/News/contents.html Total number of Current Month's News Items : 324
Is this new contents list page of any use to you ? ... Would you like it emailed to you ? Or the full index ?
The BBC is considering sweeping cuts, chopping its website in half and dropping TV and radio stations... all to appease corporate media rivals.
Sign the following petitions to keep the BBC strong!
KentFolk has just had a petition to the Prime Minister approved :
petitions.number10.gov.uk/Strengthen-BBC/
The petition to the Prime Minister reads:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ensure that
there is a funding mechanism so that the BBC is strengthened,
not cut, so that it remains a strong and independent
organisation capable of delivering advertisement free quality
news, documentaries and music, for both majority and minority
interests, by radio, TV and the web/internet.
More Details :
BBC documentaries, music programs and news reporting are of a
remarkably high standard on a world basis, and form part of
what it is to be British. We don't want to start losing this.
The BBC is considering sweeping cuts, chopping its website in
half and dropping TV and radio stations... all to appease
corporate media rivals. Instead we want the BBC to become able
to deliver even more of its high quality programming, to
represent fully the interests of all parts of the British
community, to be able to go confidently forward with its
digital radio and TV, to instigate yet more high quality music
(classical, modern and folk), and to keep developing and
exploiting the potential offered by the web and internet.
If you have a spare hour, read the report of the BBC Director General,
Mark Thompson, and its critique by the BBC Trust (65 pages in all) :
strategic_review.pdf
Either way, give your views of what you think at the :
consultation.
A most excellent gig by Chris Wood at Faversham Folk Club this evening (2010-03-10) to a deeply appreciative audience
- here are a couple of poor photos captured with very little light :
P1060522_Chris-Wood_en
P1060526_Chris-Wood_en.jpg
There are three new gig photo reports on KentFolk for February (click on the photos below to go to the rest of the photos) :
A really relaxed gig with a goodly number of friends.
Well, the first of the KentFolk Bluegrass / Southern` / Old-Time / Appalachian / Cajun gigs in the East of Kent went quite well, at least for a first gig -
See the above gig photo report and review.
The aim, if it goes well, will be to make happen various quality items of music with genres from the States - and yes, there will often be a fiddle in the mix somewhere.
The first few gigs I am targeting for the third Friday of the month, starting this month in February - but March is already oversubscribed with gigs, so we will be skipping March and continuing in April, with a headline gig in May (on the 3rd Saturday) -
I was heartened by the reponse to the first gig, so in May I have a booking for Allison Williams (clawhammer banjo, vocals) & Chance McCoy (fiddle, banjo, vocals), who will be over touring from the Southern States. On their 2009 tour they played the London Barbican; Chance has played the Kennedy Centre and Carnegie Hall.
The first gig was in February (3rd Friday) - The Biggin Hillbillies - 5-piece bluegrass with James Lin on fiddle.
There is a photo-report, and an excellent review posted by Leslie & George of Wild Sarsaparilla Old Timey Music :
Bluegrass 2010-02-19 - The Biggin Hillbillies - Photo Report & Review
The next gigs are :
16th April 2010 (3rd Friday) - KentFolk Bluegrass, A Band Like Alice - London 5-piece bluegrass with Bob Winquist on fiddle. £8 www.wegottickets.com/event/71358
22nd May 2010 (3rd Saturday) - KentFolk Bluegrass, Allison Williams & Chance McCoy, from the Southern USA. £10
www.wegottickets.com/event/73504
Both gigs in : The Boathouse, Grove Ferry Inn, Grove Road, Upstreet, Nr. Canterbury, Kent. CT3 4BP
For more info, map, etc. see :
www.kentfolk.com/bluegrass
Oh, also under the heading of Old Time music, the London fiddler Pete Cooper has just released an excellent book and CD :
"American Old Time Fiddle Tunes" - 98 traditional Pieces for the Violin.
KentFolk managed to obtain a review copy, and I have uploaded my review of this excellent resource to :
2010_Pete-Cooper_American_Old_Time_Fiddle_Tunes .
Some very good news: the petition to the Prime Minister to exempt small venues from the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003 (see below) has finally had a positive effect :
There is now a
Consultation on a proposal to exempt small live music events from the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003
This consultation document seeks your views on a proposal to exempt live music events for audiences of not more than 100 people from the requirements of the Licensing Act 2003.
The consultation also seeks your views on the draft Legislative Reform Order and Impact Assessment.
It is vital that we all respond to these documents, if we are to free live music from the strangling effects of the licencing act;
to do so :
Please send your comments or if you have any queries about this consultation to: licensingconsultation@culture.gsi.gov.uk
or by post, to:
Shelley Mickleburgh
Licensing Team
Sport and Leisure Directorate
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
Closing date for responses is 26 March 2010, but please respond NOW!"
If you are short of time I have written a brief summary of the discussion document, that lists the questions that the consultative process would like answered.
This is below, in the KentFolk News section "Jobs, Auditions, Funding + Licencing" :
2010-01-05_Licensing_Exemption_discussion.html
I myself find I am happy with nearly all the proposals (i.e. answering YES to nrearly all questions), although I would consider there are reasonable grounds for saying that some outdoor music should be exempt (should a guitar, a whistle and an accordion on the green during the village fête be a criminal act ?) and some venues (village halls) with 150 audiences could be exempt.
The discussion is continued in that section in related news items - please send me your thoughts .....
2010-01-07_Licencing_Exemption_discussion-continued.html
If you have not yet signed the petition to the Prime Minister, please do so now :
Please sign the petition to the Prime Minister, to stop criminalising live music with the Licensing Act, and to support amendments backed by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and the music industry, which would exempt most small-scale performances in schools, hospitals, restaurants and licensed premises :
for more info and to sign this most important petition :
petitions.number10.gov.uk/livemusicevents/
If we can get sufficient attention paid to this petition we may be taking a step towards reversing the current catastrophic decline in live music.
and another petition :
If like me you have looked at the wonderful collections of instruments on display in places like Venice, and wondered if we had any such displays in England, well the answer is that we do, in the V&A, but they are often just locked up, and the plan is to take them off display permanently :
From: "john Byng"
jbyng_at_btinternet_dot_com
Date: 28 January 2010 01:31:56 GMT
Subject: FW: V & A Instrument Collection
I have three times tried to visit the musical instruments collection at the V&A and it has been closed. It seems that room 40 is always the one to be closed when there are too few staff. This is bound to have impacted upon visitor numbers to the collection and may explain why the museum want to replace it. It is also noticeable that the V&A web site gives no prominence to the collection.
As you may already know, the V &A are planning to put their extensive collection of historic musical instruments, currently on display in Room 40, into storage, to facilitate redesigning the gallery to show the museum's fashion collection.
Although instruments have been part of the collection since the museum's inception, there are no plans to reinstate the collection at any future date, and it appears that it will either be broken up or be confined to spaces which are not open to the public. Full details can be found in the 16 January 2010 edition of Classical Music (page 7).
A petition has opened today (19.01.10) on the 10 Downing St website. Please do add your name if you would like to register your regret at this action., by following the link below.
The Parrot in Canterbury (was Simple Simon's) are now doing music again,
See their Venue slot below, for their gig list.
All music is on a Thursday night at 9.00pm.
A KentFolk iGoogle Gadget
that you might find useful if you have an iGoogle home page :
Want rapid access to info on the Kentish music scene ? Add "KentFolk.com for Live Music in Kent" to your iGoogle page.
Click on the [+Google] button to add this KentFolk Gadget to your iGoogle homepage.
It will help take you into the depths of the KentFolk site, hopefully directly to the pages most relevant to your interests.
Scroll down on the Gadget to see the latest news item high-lights, without even having to leave your iGoogle home page.
Multi-level directories of News :
Do keep sending me items for both the calendar and this news section -
Please see the info at the bottom of the news pages for guidance as to
good formats to send me news items for these pages - large .jpg files are
not easy to use -
and also for suitable formats for event listings for the calendars.
cheers, Beau.
