A Life In Music: Joe Broughton. From child prodigy to the peerless UFQ, the Folk Ensemble, and much more.

The Conservatoire Folk ensemble will be back!
Power Folk at the Spotted Dog will be back!
UFQ will be back!
Proper lessons at the Conservatoire will be back!

... but Lockdown's a bitch, now ain't it?

Joe Broughton is a non-stop phenomenon. From his days on the Folk circuit as a teen prodigy, his ebullient approach: nothing should be passed by, cos you never know what might come up. 

This podcast is a companion piece to go with Lives In Music podcast Series 3 - the tenth in the series. After which I lie down in a darkened room and plan series 4. The podcast is here, or you can scroll down and play it off the blog post. 

Years and years ago, I navigated the dusty corridors in the old Birmingham Conservatoire building, to write a blog post about the Conservatoire folk ensemble. It was a thrill, ducking and weaving through that old building, getting closer and closer to the explosive NOISE that Joe was whipping up. 50 or 60 students of all shapes and stripes, contributing to an exhilarating blast of music. Now, of course, under lockdown. the Folk Ensemble can't perform. But here's hoping they will, in a year's time. And many's the Conservatoire graduate, now making their way in music, who passionately missed the time they spent with Joe.  

So, there's been a steady, if exhausting to put together, stream of YouTube work, and you can catch a lot from the Links, which joe sent over. 

I've talked to Joe lots, been to several Urban Folk Quartet gigs, caught the Folk Ensemble in person and on YouTube and it's always been a complete pleasure. This is the first podcast he's done with me, and of course, a lot of the chat revolved around lockdown, which has stopped a lot of Joe and co's work in their tracks. It's not all doom and gloom, though – a chat with Joe is always a huge pleasure. 

Links (largely recommended by Joe)

Urban Folk Quartet
More about the Conservatoire Folk Ensemble
Tank and The Bangas on NPR Tiny Desk

Trimukhi Tala  Clap/ Clap/ Little /Ring /Middle /Clap/ Clap/ Wave/ Clap /Clap/ Wave/

UFQ remix from Josh Wunderlich: Waterbound Conservatoire Folk Ensemble remix from John Wunderlich: Sleep Talk
Jeff Beck live: Cause We're Ended as Lovers 
Bach Cello Suite No 2 in D minor / Paul Tortelier  
Joss Stone & Urban Folk Quartet - Solsbury Hill (Quarantine Live 2020)
and most important - Support the Urban Folk Quartet

The Podcast

A footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher who is featured in this series, along with Loz Kingsley, here. I asked him for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Lives in Music Podcast series has been running for about two years now. These are interviews with local musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3
also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. To see all the artists, here's a link to every episode.

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.
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A Life In Music: Stephen Duffy: a proper non-stop music career

40 Years of hits. Really. But 'Kiss Me' doesn't go away...

Stephen Duffy straddles different genres in a way that few have ever done. He grew up in Birmingham; our conversation is littered with local references covering legendary studios, musos, and people. While still in Birmingham, he scored his first huge success as Tin Tin. In due course he went solo as Stephen Duffy, and later with his group the Lilac Time.  

During that time, he has worked with some of the absolute biggest names in the business. Stephen has a pop past he can't erase – and he doesn't really want to, despite the elegant folk stylings he embraces with the Lilac Time. And he is still cooking up some major new projects.

The first half of this chat is a who's who of Birmingham Rock and Pop in the 80s, anyone who knocked around the Birmingham scene then will find much to enjoy. After that, there is a torrent of huge names. And massive, massive success arrived when Stephen was in his 40s... which also seemed to escape us all. But the most fascinating aspect of our chat is how calm, polite and witty Stephen was. It was hugely enjoyable, and I am most grateful.  

Links

Stephen's website   
Kiss Me (version 1) on YouTube   
Kiss Me (version 2) on YouTube
Icing On The Cake on YouTube
The monstrously detailed StephenDuffy Wikipedia page
First result of the Robbie Williams collaboration: Radio. A #1 hit. 

 

The Podcast

A footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher who is featured in this series, along with Loz Kingsley, here. I asked him for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Lives in Music Podcast series has been running for about two years now. These are interviews with local musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3
also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. To see all the artists, here's a link to every episode.

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.
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A Life In Music: Mick Howson.

 A 21st Century Hurdy-Gurdy Man, with a damn good 20th century track record 

On the Lives in Music podcast this week: someone who's been key to Birmingham Music History over the past 50+ years. Over that time, he's been in some of the town's top, top bands: Ricky Cool and the Icebergs, The Destroyers, and Terry and Gerry, just for starters. 

And now, if you ever wanted to learn about the Hurdy-Gurdy – a fantastical ancient stringed instrument – Mick just happens to be a leading expert. 

You can jump to the podcast using the link at the top of this page, or simply scroll down, where you'll find it embedded in this blog post. 

The Howson tapes

Mick is meticulous in his approach to music. He also is working hard on documenting some of the powerful work he has been involved in.

Of particular interest to 70s veterans are the recordings he made with the late Jim Cleary. It turns out he has a positive stash of these, and other recordings, and, while they are all on cassette or aged reel to reel tape, they are being meticulously and patiently restored by a pal in Cornwall. The pal is also a veteran of the 70 Birmingham music scene: Rod Hudson. They should see the light of day...soon.

The Hurdy Gurdy

There's a clip featuring Mick on Hurdy Gurdy in the podcast, and you can do a lot of research following some of the links below. I think the instrument is a thing of wonder. I've always been fascinated by ancient instruments, but I've never had the gumption to actually go buy one and master it. If you study some of the Destroyers videos, from the Paul Murphy era, you can see Mick bashing away. But while I always loved seeing Mick doing this, it was sometimes difficult to hear his work above the torrent of brass and percussion that the band deployed.

There are hundreds of different types of Hurdy-Gurdys. The instrument evolved differently in different countries, and for different purposes. This very lavish instrument dates from 1764, made by Parisian instrument maker Jean Louvet. Photo Credit: Carlo Raso, on flickr. 

Links
Here's the Hurdy Gurdy Wikipedia page. Exhaustive.
Mick currently plays with The Burdock Band...
...and the freshly reformed Terry and Gerry
Here's a clip of vintage Ricky Cool and the Icebergs with Mick on guitar.
And here's the Destroyers with Mick at Moseley Folk in 2012
Here's another restored tape (and new video) of Jim Cleary
And last but not least, Mick's recent release, Dunroamin'

The Podcast

A footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of the Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher who is featured in this series, along with Loz Kingsley, here. I asked him for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Lives in Music Podcast series has been running for about two years now. These are interviews with local musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3 also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. To see all the artists, here's a link to every episode.

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.
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A Life in Music: Tom Hyland, currently band- and festival-free, is keeping busy

Tom just doesn't stop. Ever.

Some years ago – the thick end of a decade - I first came across Tom Hyland, who was then strutting his guitar stuff with an early version of a now long gone but much-loved band, the Alternative Dubstep Orchestra.

This podcast was recorded as Tom was setting up not one but several projects, from collaborations to solo work, with the help of a very well-subscribed Kickstarter appeal. With the help of tech, people have been working with Tom both in person - socially distanced, or course - and remotely. There are links to some of Tom's co-conspirators a little further down. 

I've followed Tom since, first talking with him on the Radio To Go blog about the risky steps of going fully pro with Electric Swing Circus, as he dove head-first into ElectroSwing. From the band came his Birmingham-based festival, Swingamajig, and a host of collaborations. 

And then lockdown hit us, There's a twist to this series of Lives in Music. We're all stuck in lockdown, and so I am asking each guest about how it affects them. Tom has been hugely pro-active and has taken steps forward, from setting up that  Crowdfunder to cover costs, to collaborations recorded in a fabled Moseley Birmingham venue which currently can't host music events. Some very interesting approaches seem to be emerging, as you'll hear.

A chat with Tom always throws up lots of references. To follow these. best to double-check the companion Radio To go blogpost, which you can find here. 

Links

What's Electro Swing when it's at home? Exhaustive answers here
Punch The Sky website
Electric Swing Circus website with the latest plans
Swingamajig website (to be updated for when the festival can resume, but worth a look to get the flavour)
Tom's successful and now finished Kickstarter page

The Podcast

 

 A footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher who is featured in this series, along with Loz Kingsley, here. I asked him for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Lives in Music Podcast series has been running for about two years now. These are interviews with local musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3 also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. To see all the artists, here's a link to every episode.

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.
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A Life In Music: Kris Halpin. Massive obstacles, irrepressible creativity

A flat-out refusal to give up and stop, no matter what the obstacles.

Welcome to another edition of Lives in Music. I've been talking on the associated Lives in Music podcast with Kris Halpin, who also trades as Dyskinetic. And the Winter of 82. You can jump to the podcast here, or scroll down to the embedded player lower down in this post. 

You might be wondering what those things are on his hands? Well, they're MiMu Gloves: gyroscopically-controlled midi control units that allow users to make music by gesture alone. 

Kris is known for his work with the MiMu gloves, which were created by Imogen Heap. They are extraordinary things. The initial concept was to allow performers to dispense with musical instruments on stage and to then create a new way of performing. Dramatic? Yes? Impactful? Certainly. 

Creativity. Disability.

But there's another factor that informs Kris and his work, and that is disability. It led Kris to his involvement with the gloves, as he sensibly pointed out how useful they could be to Drake Music, who work with Imogen Heap on enabling musicians with disabilities. 

They promptly took him on as an artistic associate to help with their research, specifically with the gloves. 

In this podcast, Kris deals with his disability – a very serious disability, which absolutely won't go away - with jaw-dropping openness, and I am hugely grateful. 

But there's an awful lot more. Kris has a very clear eye on his situation, and it turned out to be a jaw-dropping conversation. Here's Kris at Abbey Road.

Links

Kris Halpin's website and Bandcamp page
MiMu Gloves  
Drake Music    
Imogen Heap  

The latest single - March 2021

The podcast

The Lives in Music Podcast  
These are interviews with local musicians, looking at how music has shaped 
them throughout their lives. Series 3 also looks hard at how lockdown has had 
an impact. There are some lovely stories. 

To see who's in the list of artists, here's a link to see every episode.

One further footnote: the intro and outro guitar flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher, who is also featured, with Loz Lozwold (aka Kingsley), in a podcast in this series. I asked Vo for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.
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A Life In Music: Sid Peacock and Ruth Angell - two music worlds collide

Well, lockdown screwed things up for us all... but there are ways around it.

This third series of Lives in Music Podcast doesn't just concentrate on peoples' music journeys.

It also has a consistent thread running through everyone's lives: Covid 19, the resultant 
lockdown, and the effect it's had on people's activities. 

That said, this has been a springboard to a range of different takes on lockdown creativity. The podcast is out now. You can listen to it here, or scroll down the post - it's embedded below.  

Lockdown grief

I recorded this talk for podcast some eleven months ago, just as Sid Peacock's Surge in Spring festival at Cannon Hill, the Midlands Arts Centre, was cancelled as lockdown came down on all our music activities.

Much later, I settled down to edit our chat. Sid and Ruth Angell, who make a formidable musical team, about what might still be relevant, or even taking place. And it turns out there is a lot. That's because they are, truth be told, absolutely monster musicians, who spend a huge amount of time working across different music genres.

But what shoots though this episode is the to and fro between the two of them: two very different musicians, with very different personalities, and even more different backgrounds, and how they collaborate. It also opens up a fascinating perspective on how some of the musicians in our town work together: it's a veritable list of great players. Over and above that, there is the sweet story of how two contrasting and brilliant people met, hung out, and fell in love. 

Two different backgrounds; new music worlds

Peaceful, settled Derbyshire; stressed and troubled Northern Ireland. Different backgrounds, different cultures. Music thrives and continues to emerge from both places. But the conditions that allow music to flourish are dependent on whether you are actually allowed to create. Sid has a lot to say on this issue. 

Music pulled these two together, physically at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and much more powerfully and independent from the Conservatoire, creatively. Both Sid and Ruth are contributors to each other's work. The trick is trying to define the range of music they work across  - because they cover so much ground.

There's a sample of new work from Ruth at the end of the podcast, and here's an example of what Sid can get up to with his Surge orchestra, from 2019:

Links
Sid's Surge Orchestra 

Sid and Ruths' band Peacock Angell 

The Podcast: Sid and Ruth on Lives in Music   

The Lives in Music Podcast series   

I've been doing these for about two years now. These are interviews with local 
musicians and music enablers, looking at how music has shaped them throughout 
their lives. Series 3 also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. 

There are some lovely stories. To see who's in the list of artists, here's a link to 
review every episode.

One further footnote: the intro and outro guitar flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher, who is also featured, with Loz Lozwold (aka Kingsley), in a podcast in this series. I asked Vo for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.

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A Life In Music: Ross Grant. Around The World In 80 Plays, and lots, lots more

Taking global collaboration to a new level

Ross Grant is a busy man. A very busy man. I'm going to touch on some of this activities in this post, and you can hear more from the man himself at his Lives in Music Episode, released this week. Or just stay here, and you'll find him towards the end of this blog post.  

Let me start with his fantastic current project, Around The World In 80 Plays. There's a link to the YouTube channel below.   

It's a simple idea, but it's also, naturally, a huge amount of work. It also calls for a massive address book, which Ross certainly has. Most of us will have seen those multi-screen YouTube videos where musicians collaborate together at distance. This was a central feature of the Lives in Music episode with Richard March, who played on and produced most of the Tonight Matthew videos that gave a lot of people much joy last year in lockdown. 

But that series ran to 11 videos in the end. Ross is putting together 80 such collaborations. Musicians worldwide have joined in with him, from brilliant local and European folk players to Ugandan and Malian traditional players and more. The guest player takes central stage, and Ross chimes in with multiple tracks of backing, on fiddle, guitar and lord knows what else. 

A contacts list to end all contacts lists

To do this sort of thing, you need contacts, and Ross has them. His address book has grown, first through his life-long involvement with the Bromyard Folk Festival, and also through activities like working with Sistema England, which has taken its inspiration from the spectacular original El Sistema in Venezuela, as have hundreds of music organisations worldwide. Given this work, mainly in the Classical field, it's not surprising his address book has grown.  

But that's not the only area where Ross has people to call on. As a boy, Ross benefited from his dad's folk contacts (he was good mates with Ian Campbell), and of course work with the long-established Bromyard Folk Festival, where Ross is now a director.

Planning a major Folk Festival in Lockdown

This year, after a barren lockdown-flattened 2020, the Bromyard Folk Festival returns. It's not necessarily going to be easy, as despite the September 2021 date of 9-12 September, there's still going to be the need for Social Distancing. Quite the challenge. The previous weekend, Moseley Folk in Birmingham will have the same dilemna. At time of writing, Ross's group Inlay will play at Moseley on Sunday.

There's more, lots more. But I suggest you give the podcast episode a spin. It was a terrific conversation, and a delight to put together.

Links

Around The World In 80 plays on YouTube
Around the World in 80 Plays Tip Jar - show your appreciation!
Music Group: Ross plays in Inlay 
Going since 1968, the Bromyard Folk Festival
Classical Music project Sistema England

Ross Grant on Lives in Music 

 

The Lives in Music Podcast series   

I've been doing these for about two years now. These are interviews with local 
musicians and music enablers, looking at how music has shaped them throughout 
their lives. Series 3 also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. 

There are some lovely stories. To see who's in the list of artists, here's a link to 
review every episode.

One further footnote: the intro and outro guitar flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo Fletcher, who is also featured, with Loz Lozwold (aka Kingsley), in a podcast in this series. I asked Vo for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.

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A Life in Music Renny Jackson: from Birmingham to Sevilla

Spanish-British fusion: a long distance conversation

I assembled and edited most of the Lives in Music podcast episode that accompanies this post on the fifth anniversary of the death of a mutual friend, the great Paul Murphy, who both introduced me to Renny Jackson, and encouraged us both, as he did with everybody he worked with, in our different projects. 

One of the things Paul had me do on his Thursday Song Writers Café nights was to interview each artist about their own creative process.

How do songs arrive?

I asked that question of maybe a hundred or more of Paul's guests. I got a different answer each time. Everyone, it turned out, had a different approach. Renny was thoughtful, open and honest.

So it was that I talked at length with Renny, who originally came from Birmingham, before he delivered a charming and articulate set on his brief return to the city. 

To listen to the Lives in Music podcast episode, go here, or simply scroll down to the bottom of this post. 

Lockdown

There's a twist to this series of Lives in Music podcasts. We're all stuck in lockdown, and so I am asking each guest about how it affects them. Now, as you'll hear, Renny is now based in Sevilla in Spain, where the oranges come from. And they have hassles too, just like us. In fact, not quite as bad as us, but enough to put a stick in the wheel of new live projects. The two influences come together in Renny's music.

A 1500 mile conversation

Obviously, we recorded our conversation remotely. This is a step on from Zoom - radio-oriented  software, for a start - but it felt absolutely right chatting, in a very personal way, with someone who now lives fifteen hundred miles away. Tech may have messed us all up in its different ways, but little things like software that lets you straddle boundaries certainly help.

Renny's take on the lockdown in Spain is an interesting variation on what problems face musicians in the UK. We'll also hear the impact Spain has had on this Brit.

Links

Renny's facebook page
The River Roots single on YouTube
Renny Jackson on Spotify

Renny's Lives in Music episode  

The Lives in Music Podcast series   

I've been doing this for about two years now. These are interviews with local 
musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3 
also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. 

To see who's in the list of artists, here's a link to see every episode.

One further footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music come from Vo Fletcher, who is also featured in this series, along with Loz Lozwold. I asked Vo for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. I then expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts since then, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.

________________________________________________________________________

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