Music and comedy in equal measure

Can a musical note reach so high that it gets stuck in the rafters? And can you play tennis with a musical note? (apparently you can). And what happens when a 'live' video feed of a band starts playing a different tune to the band itself?!
These and other questions were answerd by the New Rope String band when their Pythonesque view of the world was brought to Florence Mine, Egremont, Cumbria. And to a full house at Florence. This band obviously has a huge following with people coming from all over Cumbria to see them. It was easy to see why. Yes, they're accomplished musicians but it's the comic way they use the music that makes them so entertaining.
At one point they set up a video camera apparently showing a live feed of them performing on stage - but then their video selves started mucking about and going 'off script'. A fight even broke out between the real musicians and the video ones! Quite surreal but terrific fun.
Pete Challoner, Tim Dalling and Jock Tyldesley make up the band and demonstrate that being able to sing or play an instrument is only the first step in 'putting on a show'. This was live theatre at its best and a tremendous, energetic, mind-boggling night of entertainment.
The show was put on with the help of Arts out West and the New Rope String band are performing at other venues in Cumbria throughout May. Find out more at www.arts-out-west.co.uk.

Capturing the soul

PRIMITIVE civilizations used to believe that a photograph would capture part of your soul. It turns out they were right.
Proof is given at an exhibition at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont where  photographer Donna Brookes and others have put work on display.
Making The Usual Unusual is the title – and it does precisely what it says on the tin. Something as simple as a portrait of a young girl has been turned into something much more dramatic.
Donna – a Whitehaven photographer and, it would seem, part-time witch – does indeed appear to have captured some of the soul of her subjects. There’s a haunting, mesmeric quality about them. These are eyes that don’t just follow you round the room but stalk your mind for days afterwards.
Most ‘smiling family’ pictures today are tediously dull. You know the ones: taken against white backgrounds and with the requisite giant red ball in the foreground. They are pictures that tell you what everyone looks like but reveal absolutely nothing about the real person behind the smile.
One look at Donna’s work and her subjects shout their emotions at you with just a single glance.
Artists Fliss Watts and Iain Taylor are also exhibiting at Florence. These too are works that help you see the world in a new way. It’s an exhibition of breath-taking originality. Thank goodness. 

• Making The Usual Unusual runs at Florence until March 31. See www.florencemine.org

Boden bewitches at Cockermouth

Jon Boden and The Remnant Kings
Kirkgate Theatre, Cockermouth
Sunday, March 10th

MUSIC gigs rarely get any better than this: Cracking songs, bewitching arrangements and performed with aplomb.
It was not surprising - though a little bit worrying - that Jon Boden revealed during the show that two of his fans in the Kirkgate audience had been to all ten gigs on this current tour.
This was the last date of the tour and, as always, was a sell-out show. Jon Boden, Sam Sweeney, Paul Sartin, Rob Harbron and Rick Foot also appear in the folk big band Bellowhead as well as various other folk outfits so each have their own fan base.
As the Remnant Kings, the band retain something of the 'big band' sound compared to the more traditional folk set-up of fiddle, accordian and flute.
The dictionary defines folk music as music passed on from one generation to the next and Mr Boden covers tunes not only passed down from the 18th and 19th century minstrels but also looks to the future and what songs might survive - and in what form. Hence Kate Bush's Hounds of Love and Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust made an appearance in enchanting arrangements.
The use on stage of wax cyclinders hauntingly relay some of the music from the past during the show and Mr Boden - shaped perhaps by having been brought up in Winchester during the cutting of the M3 through Twyford Down - speculates on a purely acoustic post-apocalyptic future. The eclectic choice of acoustic instruments by the band all add to the evocative atmosphere.
It all makes for a fascinating and bewitching soundscape which was well received by the Kirkgate audience.
The good news is that Jon Boden and John Spiers return to the Kirkgate on Tuesday, May 14. But there's barely a handful of tickets left so hurry up and book your seat. Phone 01900 826448 (10am to 1pm).

Review by Alan Cleaver

Poet Laureate wows them at Keswick

Carol Ann Duffy
Words by the Water, Keswick 
8 March 2013

POET Laureate Carol Ann Duffy read several of her poems to a packed house at Keswick's Theatre by the Lake.
And despite suffering from a cold she still managed to do so with a swagger which shows Duffy is very much at the top of her form.
The audience enjoyed a good giggle at poems from her 1999 anthology, The World's Wife which, appropriately for International Women's Day - looked at the wives of the world's more famous men.
There was humour and clever word play in many of her poems, The Counties demonstrated the rich heritage of county names which the post office has deemed unnecessary in this age of the post code. And there was a wry smile from Duffy when she reached the line claiming she wanted to write to the Queen at Berkshire in praise of Slough.
But there was also pathos with a reading of Last Post - honouring the death of World War I veterans Henry Allingham and Harry Patch. And a beautiful reading of Christmas Truce supported on stage by musician John Sampson. 
Mother's Day was just a couple of days' away and Duffy has acknowledged how her mother's death 'deafened' her to poetry for a couple of years. She read from Premonitions, the cathartic poem which - thank goodness - finally broke down the psychological walls stopping her writing poetry.
This was an entertaining, educational and inspirational night which topped off a week of events at the increasingly popular annual Words by the Water Festival.

- Alan Cleaver

The call of the Cumbrian Cthulhu

The remarkable work of Andrew Paciorek

FORGET William Wordsworth, dispatch Beatrice Potter into the waste bin and prepare to scare yourself to death with a collection of horror stories from the Lake District.

The pastel-coloured landscape and peaceful fells have been given a good dash of evil thanks to some enterprising  horror writers and their tales have now been published in Cumbrian Cthulhu.

For a start Cthulhu is pronounced Ka-thoo-lu. And for seconds it’s a monster created by science fiction writer HP Lovecraft in the 1920s. A monster that sleeps in the bowels of the earth but terrorises mankind through dreams. The creation inspired a number of tales including many written by other authors. And the mantle has now been taken on by this group of writers who decided to base their tales around the Lake District.
Both project founder Andrew McGuigan and illustrator Andrew Paciorek are Cumbrian born and bred.

McGuigan (born at Beckermet) runs the Cumbrian Cthulhu blog (http://cumbriancthulhu.blogspot.co.uk/) which first publishes the stories but there’s nothing like curling up under the duvet with a proper book to scare yourself to death with. And as an added bonus profits from the book sales go the mountain rescue service. Paciorek is one of Britain’s most remarkable artists and if the tales don’t give you nightmares, his illustrations certainly will.  You’ll find many familiar Lake District locations within the stories which give them an un-nerving patina of authenticity. Some of the tales are from published authors but many are by previously unpublished ones. It’s a wonderful introduction to some new talent.  All the stories will entertain – and some will scare you half to death. But then that’s what you want from a collection of horror stories.

There are two volumes available – both at £12.49 – from www.lulu.com/spotlight/CumbrianCthulhu

Last Writes - first announcement

The public library at Boot Mill, Eskdale, Cumbria

Last Writes

A Requiem for the Printed Word

Ebooks, Kindles, iPads – technology is transforming the way we write and the way books are published. But in the rush to grasp the digital future are we being too quick to throw away the rich heritage of 'real' books and the printed word? In a new exhibition at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont, freelance journalist Alan Cleaver celebrates 5,000 years of the written word and warns of relying too much on graphics and pixels.

Included in the exhibition will be:

• Cumbria's oldest piece of writing: a 6^th century lullaby that can still touch your heart
  
• Books for burning?: Not all books have been loved and some have been banned
  
• The art of calligraphy: Cumbria's finest calligraphers demonstrate how the written word can also be the beautiful word
  
• Libraries – an old-fashioned idea no longer needed or an valuable institution about to be reinvented and rediscovered? Cumbria's most beautiful library revealed – and what school libraries should look like.
  
• Hold the front page: Some of the best – and worst – headlines of the last 100 years
  
• The world's first ebook museum. You may think the ebook is brand spanking new. But meet the clumsy, cumbersome antique ebooks from the 1990s.
  

PLUS:

• Have a go at calligraphy – it's not as hard as it looks (although several years' practice won't go amiss)
  
• Remember typewriters? No nor do I. But come and have a go and rekindle the loving memory of crashing keys and end-of-line bells.

The exhibition will be at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont during April 2013. Admission free.

A Taste of Christmas

A Taste of Christmas with Taffy Thomas and John Crouch, Eaglesfield Village Hall.

Taffy Thomas (picture by Candy Schwartz)

The Bible neglects to mention that the Virgin Mary spoke in Cumbrian dialect. But it also forget to say about the 'clarty cat' that visited the stable on Christmas Eve.
Fortunately, the Grasmere storyteller Taffy Thomas was on hand at Eaglesfield village hall last Sunday to put the record straight and relate the almost forgotten tale. He did so with the usual twinkle in his eye and the expertise you would expect from Britain's first storyteller laureate.
The packed hall of children aged five to 95 were held entranced by his Christmas tales - and were delighted to join in when some audience participation was called for.
Between the tales, Cumbrian chef John Crouch entertained and educated the audience with some simple Christmas recipes. Cornflakes and marshmallows mixed together to make edible 'holly', turkey treats and cranberry syllabub were among the recipes that the audience also had a chance to taste. And John 'spiced up' the recipes by telling something of the history of the food stuff as well.
This was another of the Arts Out West events that are touring village halls, giving rural folk a chance to experience first-class arts and theatre.
Still to come is Carolling and Crumpets at Bassenthwaite Parish Hall on Sunday (December 16) at 7.30pm and A Victorian Christmas at the Kirkgate Centre, Cockermouth on Thursday, December 20 at 1.45pm. For more details see www.arts-out-west.co.uk.
Taffy Thomas can be seen in the weekends running up to Christmas in the Studio at Keswick Theatre telling some more festive tales. See www.theatrebythelake.co.uk.