Penkhull Mystery Play

Posted on June 25, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 13 July 2019, Art, Circus skills, Drama school, Fun, Good day out, Humour, Music, Penkhull, Penkhull mystery play, Scenery, Tower of musicLeave a comment

IMG_20190620_231146_684_optimized

A minton tile design turned into 3d by Bret Shah

Penkhull Mystery play is on again this year. This is the 15th year that we have held it up at Penkhull Church Yard and I’ve been asked to publicise it.

Penkhull Mystery Play is being held on Saturday 13th July. The play starts about 2pm.
The play is based on a book about the children of the Potteries and how a family’s life changes from working in pot banks, being forced into the workhouse to the building of the first school at Penkhull in the 1840’s.

There will also be Harpers Titchy Theatre with stories written by locals, stalls, a circus skills workshop, a tug of war competition, a tower of music, a music morning in the church and lots of other activities. This is one if the largest community based art events in Stoke-on-Trent.

It would be great if you can come along.

Pirates of Penzance

Posted on June 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chorus, Cinema, Comic opera, English National Opera, Fun, Humour, Music, Opera, Pirates of penzance, SingingLeave a comment

sketch-1560973460669 Last night we went to see the Pirates of Penzance. The comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan was a live broadcast from the London Coliseum by the English National Opera shown at cinemas throughout the country.

The story is about Frederic, a pirate whose nurse took him to the sea to learn to be a ships pilot. Unfortunately she mistook the word pirate for pilot so he was indentured to be one until the contract ran out. The story starts when he is leaving the pirates. He tells them his duty will be to stop their piratical reign when he is free of them.

Later he meets a daughter of a Major General who he falls in love with. As the opera continues he is caught in a dilemma, whether to persue the pirates or rejoin them.

Many memorable songs made up a wonderful night out. The song ” I am the very model of a modern major general” and ” A policeman’s lot is not a happy one”.

I won’t give the end away. But it is very enjoyable. The twists and turns of the plot hold your attention. Excellent.

Music and singing

Posted on June 18, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A capella, Blogging, Choir, Education, Enjoyment, Fun, Learning, Life, Music, School, SongsLeave a comment

IMG_20190225_163440_optimized

I’ve been to a choir workshop on Sunday where we learnt songs and short pieces over a four hour period, then tonight I was learning songs for the penkhull mystery play which is being accompanied by Clay Chorus, a choir I’m part of. I’m a member of the cast of the play, so I might not actually be singing all the songs but it’s good to learn them.

It is quite tiring doing so much singing. It takes concentration and the ability to listen closely to your fellow choir members and the choir leader. We learn a capella so we often don’t have any accompaniment.

I also went to a concert on Saturday night and later today I will be watching a live broadcast of the Pirates of Penzance at our local cinema.

Music can transport your mind, calm stress, but also excite and enthral. Music can be raucous, noisy, loud, rhythmic and ugly. It can also bring tranquility and peace.

I think music should be taught more, to all ages and abilities. It should not be elitist and should not be for the privileged few. Music broadens the mind and the senses.

Night out at Keele

Posted on June 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Classical music, Evening concert, Keele Bach choir, Keele University, Music, Night out, Parking problems, SingingLeave a comment

Keele University not Keele in Germany!

There is a choir called Keele Bach choir who do regular concerts of music by Bach and other composers each month or so.

We arrived on time but struggled to find a parking space. There are lots of spaces for approved permit holders only. Plus ones for electric vehicles, spaces for thirty minutes only and of course disabled spaces (which I would never park in) in the end we parked in a permit holders space, only to find out they are not policed after 5pm!

To the Chapel where the concerts are held. Lovely music, wonderful singers and beautiful organ laying. I didn’t get the titles of the short peices because we didn’t have time to get a programme, only getting there a minute before the performance. But there was an Ave Maria and then later an Ave Maria Stella.

During the interval I tried drawing the asymmetric windows in the Chapel above where the choir were singing.

When we came out the clouds were looming again. Pink edges to the clouds did seem to signify a slightly better day.

Canal festival at Etruria.

Posted on June 1, 2019June 1, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Barges, Boats, Bubbles, Canal, Etruria canal festival, Fun, Life, MusicLeave a comment

From bubbles and paradise gardens to bubbles and canal boats. Etruria festival whuch started today and continues tomorrow was abuzz with fun and frolics. There were human fruit machines and storytellers, lions and bonzai. The place was having fun.

You can go and see the flint mill in steam, buy candyfloss and look at the Sculpted Steel blacksmith. I’ve taken photos but not too many. Just enough to give an idea. Good to see Etruria artists and their stall. I’m a member but things have been a bit busy lately.

Anyway it’s on again tomorrow.

Singing at Audlem

Posted on May 27, 2019May 27, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Audlem music festival, Canal, Canal wharf, Cheshire, Cheshire ring, Choir, Loud mouth women, Music, Shroppie fly, Shropshire, SingingLeave a comment

Today I went singing with a choir I am in called Loud Mouth Women. We were at a place called Audlem which is in Shropshire or Cheshire I think. We managed to avoid a couple of heavy showers and stayed dry. We sang twice. Once on the canal towpath and then outside a pub called the shroppie fly.

We sang a mixture of songs, from Polynesian to Zulu with a smattering of Latin and Hindi. We learn songs by repetition and also sang a Spanish song called ‘DeColores’. I do like our groups multinational ethos. We also sang ‘Nana was a Suffragette’ and ‘Do it now’ which is a green song about doing something about the Climate Emergency.

A very enjoyable day out at Audlem annual music festival.

Timothy Trow memorial day

Posted on April 13, 2019April 13, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choirs, Life, Local archives, Local hero, Memorial, Music, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Stoke-upon-Trent, Timothy TrowLeave a comment

Timothy Trow was a tram conductor who tried to save a young girl who had fallen in a local canal, he drowned while trying to save her. He is recognised as a local hero. Today, 13th April is the anniversary of his death.

I sang with two choirs to commemorate his death by the Memorial stone laid near to where he died on London Road, in the West End area of Stoke on Trent. Singing a song about his life by a local song writer. We then had went over to the local Methodist church, a decendant of the girl who was saved read a piece about the incident. The choirs then sang three more songs.

There were images selected by the local archives department on display inside the church. In all it was a very poignant day.

Dawn chorus

Posted on April 9, 2019April 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Birdsong, Blog, Car alarm, Cars, Garden, Joy, Life, Melody, Music, Noise, Traffic, TrillsLeave a comment

Untitled43_001

I came downstairs about an hour ago and the sweet, loud, melodious song of birds was filling the air. At this time of year in the spring it seems louder and more beautiful than ever. Fizzing through the air like ripe electricity. A great pleasure to listen to.

Then cutting through it the insistent alarm call, not of a blackbird, but a ruddy car alarm! The bird song quietened for about five minutes, a car engine started up in the street, and traffic noise commenced. But soaring high above it the melodies of a Blackbird and its mate have resumed. Liquid notes rising and falling in complicated trills… And that ruddy car alarm again!

The Beatles

Posted on March 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Documentary, Help, Life, Memories, Music, The beatles, TV6 Comments

_20190316_223035

I was bought up in the 1960s so although I was there I don’t remember a lot about the Beatles – I was too young.

But even now after over 50 years if a Beatles song comes on the radio or TV I can pretty much sing along with the lyrics.

I remember hearing them, some of my favourites are:

Love me do

Help

Can’t buy me love

Hey Jude

Eight days a week

There are others but I’m useless at remembering names of songs!

I loved their harmony, I loved their funny ways, I loved their experimental music as they evolved.

I’m just watching the Ron Howard documentary about them and it’s bringing a few memories back but as I say because I was a child I missed anything about them on late night TV so I’m learning a lot from the documentary.

Singing New Light

Posted on March 13, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Anthem, Learning, Music, New light, School, Sing up, Singing, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, TeachingLeave a comment

FB_IMG_1551749983971

Today one of the choirs I am in sang at a local school for “sing up day”. We sang some a capella songs from Loud Mouth Women’s reportoir and also “New light ” a new anthem based on “this little light of mine” composed and written by Greg Stephens and Steven Seabridge (the potteries poet laureate).

It was a pleasure to sing infront of a full school assembly. The children joined in and even did some of the gestures for the song. I hope they enjoyed it, although some of the little ones seemed a bit perplexed by what we were doing at first.

One of the teachers is a member of the choir and enthusiastically explained what we were doing, and Penny Vincent (who helped organised Stoke Sings choir festival in February) and Kate Bardfield, our choir leader, helped teach the children some of the song including sections of”this little light of mine” and adapted versions of this and a section about the six towns, Burslem, Tunstall, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.

The anthem talks about coal mining and hard clay. It talks about regeneration and a feeling that the city of Stoke-on-Trent is worth fighting for. It was a very enjoyable occasion.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Music