Mary Coughlan: Songs of heart and soul and survival on Life Stories
GALWAY jazz and blues chanteuse Mary Coughlan is moving her Pocklington Arts Centre show for a third time in these pandemic times.
“Ireland’s Billie Holliday” twice rearranged her gig during 2020, and now she is doing so again, switching from April 23 to October 19.
At the heart of Mary’s concert, fourth time lucky, will still be Life Stories, her 15th album, released on the wonderfully named Hail Mary Records last September.
As the title would suggest, and likewise such song titles as Family Life, Two Breaking Into One, Elbow Deep and Twelve Steps Forward And Ten Steps Back, these are songs of heart and soul and survival, steeped in reflection on family, love, loss and an extraordinary life of the blues wherein Mary has overcome childhood trauma, alcoholism and drug addiction.
Mary has never hidden her battles – 32 times she ended up in hospital with alcohol poisoning – as indicated by calling her first three albums Tired And Emotional (1985), Under The Influence (1987) and Uncertain Pleasures (1990), and later entitling her frank 2009 autobiography Bloody Mary: My Story.
The cover artwork for Mary Coughlan’s 2020 album, Life Stories
Life Stories emerged in the wake of Women Undone, her 2018 fusion of theatre, music and dance at Projects Art Centre, Dublin, in a collaboration with the Brokentalkers and Valgeir Sigurðsson, that told the story of a young woman who endured abuse, addiction and mental illness and whose discovery of art and music was her redemption.
Coughlan appeared alongside female quartet Mongoose, performing an original score by Sigurðsson that fused electronic music with live instrumentation and a haunting vocal score.
“On the back of that show, I asked Pete [guitarist, songwriter and producer Pete Glenister] to make this album with me, in 2019, going over to his house, working on the songs,” recalls Mary. “I’d sing him the lyrics, he’d work on the melodies, and then we had all these songs ready.”
Glenister and Coughlan recorded Life Stories at No Name Studios in London in the summer of 2019, applying the finishing touches in February 2020, before the first lockdown.
“Wonderful long summer days of collaborating on songs,” says Mary in her album sleeve-notes. “Singing and making music all day and eating wonderful food and spending the evenings in the garden sipping mint tea.”
Alongside the Glenister and Coughlan originals is the album-opening cover of Family Life, a Paul Buchanan composition from Blue Nile’s 1996 album Peace At Last. “He liked it!” says Mary. “I had to run it by him, though I don’t think Paul is the kind of person that would stop me doing it.
“I had all these stories, so these songs are autobiographical,” says Mary Coughlan
“There’s a Blue Nile fan club and they follow me everywhere, always turning out in force at my shows, and I started singing that song more than two years ago. I sang it for the first time the day my mother was buried, so it means a lot to me.”
Mary has always been a noted interpreter of songs, not least on her 2000 album Mary Coughlan Sings Billie Holiday, but Life Stories largely moves away from that template.
“I’ve always hid behind other people’s songs that meant something to me, but then, looking at the calendar, I was turning 64, and it was pointed out I had all these stories, so these songs are autobiographical.
“That made it a more difficult process and much more difficult for me, because maybe it was too raw.”
The resulting album has been met with critical acclaim and chart-topping success. “I nearly passed out when it was made Album of the Week in Ireland, and then it was number one in the Irish iTunes…at 64…as a grandmother!” says Mary. “Number one anywhere is great!
“It’s so exciting but also scary when you bring out a new record,” says Mary. “You don’t know how people will receive it”
“It’s so exciting but also scary when you bring out a new record. You don’t know how people will receive it. Who knows! But there’s a lot of different styles on there. I needed the balance that people could relate to on there, and they have.”
Last year had promised to be Mary’s “best for a long time”, but then the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to her appearances at Glastonbury and Galway Arts Festival, gigs in Norway and 15 sold-out shows across Britain.
She did, however, perform a series of socially distanced open-air album launch concerts in Ireland, in September, and one in her Wicklow home when the rain forced her inside to sing surrounded by 100 candles and fairy-lights.
She brought a personal touch to the album too, distributing signed copies, each with a drawing of flowers enclosed, from her house.
Those songs, those stories, will flower anew when Mary plays her autumn shows. In the meantime, do seek out Life Stories, an album from a year when Galway City’s mayor presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Hurricane Promotions presents Mary Coughlan at Pocklington Arts Centre on October 19. Box office: pocklingtonartscetre.co.uk.
LOCKDOWN cabaret streaming duo Velma Celli and Jess Steel are going on location to the Earl Grey Tea Rooms for their Showbizzy Shambles show in York tomorrow (5/2/2021).
After the camply nautical, naughty fun of their water-themed Fabulously Flooded online gig last week, they are vacating the riverside abode of Ian Stroughair, drag diva Velma’s creator, by Lendal Bridge for light relief and camp cabaret belting.
“We’re getting the keys to the Earl Grey Tea Rooms in Shambles and filming it there,” says Ian/Velma. “We’ll be going vintage, so join in with your apparel, peeps, if ya feel like it. Not essential but fun.”
Tickets for Showbizzy Shambles grant access to the streamed show any time from 5pm tomorrow to Sunday evening (7/2/2021). Go to http://bit.ly/3pAtBAF for all the details. “Please feel free to invite all your mates,” says Ian/Velma.
Here, everything stops for tea questions and more besides as Charles Hutchinson grills Ian Stroughair/Velma Celli.
How is your house now, post-flooding? Fully recovered?
“Yes! Thank RuPaul (God)! It took a lot of scrubbing, but I got there!”
Where did you end up recording your January 22 show when water had seeped in through the front door and back door?
“Still in the house. The kitchen is lower than the living room, so we were cool.”
What songs on a water theme did you perform in last week’s Fabulously Flooded show? Something by The Waterboys? Peter Gabriel’s Here Comes The Flood? (Lendal) Bridge Over Troubled Water, maybe? So many possibilities!
“Ha ha, so many! It’s Raining Men (obvs). Waterloo. River Deep Mountain High. Cry Me A River. You get the drift.”
No! No song by The Waterboys featured in Velma and Jess’s water-themed cabaret show
How has the streamed gig at the Earl Grey Tea Rooms come about?
“Clare and Howard [Proctor] are very good old friends and they’re fabulous supporters of all my Velma and Ian appearances.
“I adore this place as much as its owners and it’s been a real struggle over the past year, as you’d imagine, so I wanted to raise them up.
“Not only because it’s such a fabulous tea room – to get you all chomping at the bit to visit, as soon as we move tiers – but also to highlight just how hard it is right now, not just in my sector of live performance but in the hospitality industry too!
“Clare and Howard have worked so hard for years, so I wanted to use my platform to shine a spotlight on them.”
Velma Celli and Jess Steel’s social-media artwork for their Fabulously Flooded show last week
In which room will you record the show?
“Undecided. Each one is so quaint. Will depend on lighting, darling.”
Water theme last week. Any tea and cake songs this week? Can’t think of a crumpet song….
“We are going vintage. From the 1940s, but all the way up to Lady Gaga and everything in between.
“Why not prepare yourself an afternoon tea with scones, finger sandwiches, tea pots filled with fizz, and let us entertain you, direct and safely in your own home.”
What is your perfect afternoon tea and where?
“Earl Grey Tea Rooms of course! Best scones ever. I love their Coronation Chicken jacket, followed by a cream tea with English brekky! You must all go as soon as they reopen. Such quality and atmosphere.”
Jess Steel: Showbizzy Shambles will be the sensational singing hairdresser’s last streamed concert with Velma Celli “for a few weeks”
Earl Grey, Darjeeling or Lapsang Souchong?
“All. But my favourite is English Breakfast in the morning and Orange Pekoe on an afternoon.”
Cream first or jam first on a scone?
“Cream!!!!!!!!”
Favourite cake?
“Traditional Victoria Sponge.”
Have you ever left a cake out in the rain, a la MacArthur Park?
“No. Come rain or shine, Velma never neglects confection.”
What’s coming next?
“Tomorrow is the last show with Jess and me for a few weeks as I have some solo live- stream bookings to perform.”
Socially distanced seating at an autumn event at the Milton Rooms, Malton, before the imposition of Lockdown 3
THE Milton Rooms, Malton’s community and arts venue, has had its Covid-safe accreditation extended for 2021 by UK tourism body Visit Britain.
Venue manager Lisa Rich says: “When the pandemic began, we put a whole range of measures in place around cleanliness and social distancing, which meant people could feel safe coming back to visit us, either for performances or community events.
“We managed to run a number of successful events last autumn, and we are working on a diverse and dynamic programme for when we can fully reopen.”
The Milton Rooms is run as a charitable company, mainly by volunteers, and the Market Place venue has been working hard behind the scenes on refurbishing and refreshing the building ready to welcome the public back in when allowed.
In the meantime, the Milton Rooms is appealing for support from the public in the wake of income from events and hire fees being reduced hugely since the pandemic began last year.
Hence the launch of Keep The Curtain Up, a Go Fund Me appeal to help to fund the substantial continuing overheads, such as utility bills, heating and insurance costs, until the building can reopen as a venue.
GLENN Tilbrook will play The Crescent in York on March 13…next year.
As far away as the gig is, nevertheless tickets have gone on sale already for the solo show by the Squeeze singer, songwriter and guitarist, now 63.
More than 45 years after he first answered an ad placed by Chris Difford, looking for like-minded sorts to form the Deptford band that became the evergreen Squeeze, an ending is nowhere in sight.
Squeeze made their recording bow with the Packet Of Three EP in 1977 and a multitude of hits ensued: Take Me I’m Yours; Cool For Cats; Goodbye Girl; Up The Junction; Pulling Mussels; Another Nail In My Heart; Tempted; Labelled With Love; Black Coffee In Bed; Is That Love and Hourglass, complemented by such albums as Argybargy, East Side Story and Some Fantastic Place.
A series of solo albums have ensued, kicking off with 2001’s The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook, followed by 2004’s Transatlantic Ping-Pong and 2009’s Pandemonium Ensues, made with his solo touring band The Fluffers. In 2014 came the mostly acoustic Happy Ending, his most personal work to date with its series of evocative portraits of time, people and places.
Presented by The Gig Cartel, tickets for Tilbrook’s show cost £20 at seetickets.com.
On the charge: York band Bull announce spring release for debut album
STILL sworn to secrecy in December, York band Bull have now confirmed the long-mooted name and release date for their major label debut album, no bull.
Discover Effortless Living – a title abbreviated for last year’s single Disco Living – will be out on March 26, launched on EMI Records in conjunction with York music hive Young Thugs.
To celebrate, here comes the York alt-rockers’ fifth single, Eugene, released today on the back of Disco Living, Green, Bonzo Please and the Love Goo EP that closed out a year when Bull became the first York band to sign to a major label since Nineties’ chart regulars Shed Seven.
“I wrote the song when I was feeling dissatisfied with what I was doing,” says singer Tom Beer of his mini-symphony of self-flagellation that trips through the various stages of feeling down on yourself.
Moods of lethargy, frustration and anger are captured in the tempo changes of a song that is melancholic yet spritely simultaneously: typical tropes of Bull’s idiosyncratic song-writing.
“It’s kind of a self-hate song. You know when people talk about self-love? It’s not that. I’m slating myself,” reveals Tom. “It moves through the key changes and different moods and ends in a way that mocks the sadness, another form of self-deprecation!”
The accompanying video is again a collaboration with artist friends of Bull that reflects the song’s ever-changing moods. Guitarist Dan Lucas and bassist Kai West kick everything off with some DIY Claymation before handing over to artists Jack Iredale, Rory Welbrock, Roxy Linklater and Holly Beer, who each tackle a different animation style.
Discover Effortless Living promises a “cornucopia of alt. rock sounds, the band having refined their song-writing style into 13 indie bangers”.
“It features songs written and rocked on between the years 2012 and 2018, with Love Goo being the newest one on there, the freshest,” Tom says. “The album title is taken from the opening lyric to the final track Disco Living. We wanted to use a lyric from the album and felt like this was a good one.
“I first saw the words in London written on the side of a mansion being built on the Millionaire Mile and thought it was hilarious.
“I was on my way to Hampstead, got off somewhere wrong, which usually happens to me in London, and that’s when I saw the billboard – and the tune came to me immediately!
“The billboard was advertising what was going to be built behind: homes for ‘effortless living’, and that led to lyrics that tie in with ideas around class, new beginnings, a golden era of prosperity, and hoping to have life ‘in the bag’.”
Bull hope that 2021 will see them returning to the stage to promote their debut album, although December’s talk of an April tour, taking in York and Leeds, is yet to be set in stone amid the ongoing Lockdown 3. On Twitter today, however, they tantalise: “World’s largest Bull party at The Crescent as soon as.”
In the meantime, the track listing is rubber-stamped as: Bedroom Floor; Love Goo; Green; Shiny Bowl; Eugene; Eddie’s Cap; Serious Baby; Perfect Teeth; Find Myself A Job; Bonzo Please; In A Jar; Smoke and Disco Living.
Looking ahead, “we’ve written lots of new songs, progressing towards the next album,” says Tom.
“The general sentiment breeds happiness and optimism, which is something I wasn’t particularly familiar with thus far,” says Billie Marten of her single Garden Of Eden. Picture: Katie Silvester
RIPON singer-songwriter Billie Marten releases new single Garden Of Eden today, to be followed by third album Flora Fauna, her first for Fiction Records, on May 21.
Raised in the rolling hills of North Yorkshire on the songcraft of Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading and Kate Bush, Billie made her studio debut, Writing Of Blues And Yellows, at the age of only 17 in 2016.
Feeding Seahorses By Hand followed in 2019 and Garden Of Eden ends the recording silence since then, accompanied by a video created with Lydia Poole.
“It’s a song of growth and competition to evolve as individuals in an increasingly suffocating and vacuous society,” says Billie. “I liked the idea of humans growing up like tomatoes in the greenhouse, needing water and oxygen and space, but not getting any of it.
“The idea of seeking the natural elements and needing only that to survive plays into my constant dichotomy of living urban or bucolic. The choruses act as a burst of relief to allow space to breathe and to express that want of living right.
“The name Flora Fauna is like a green bath for my eyes,” says Billie Marten, introducing her new album
“This was one of the first pivotal songs for me as the general sentiment breeds happiness and optimism, which is something I wasn’t particularly familiar with thus far.”
Recorded with Rich Cooper in London, Flora Fauna blends Billie’s signature hushed, resonant vocals with a rapid pulse and rich instrumentation, her inspirations now stretching from Krautrock pioneers Can to Broadcast, Arthur Russell to Fiona Apple.
Built on her trademark minimalist acoustic folk foundations, Billie’s third album is a more mature work, fostered around a strong backbone of bass and rhythm. Shedding the timidity of past recordings in favour of a more urgent sound, the songs mark a period of independence for Marten as she learned to nurture herself and break free from toxic relationships.
Returning to nature has played a significant role. “I wasn’t really treating myself very well, it was a bit of a disruptive time. All these songs are about getting myself out of that hole; they’re quite strong affirmations.
“The name Flora Fauna is like a green bath for my eyes. If the album were a painting, it would look like flora and fauna: it encompasses every organism, every corner of Earth, and a feeling of total abundance.”
The track listing will be: Garden Of Eden; Creature Of Mine; Human Replacement; Liquid Love; Heaven; Ruin; Pigeon; Kill The Clown; Walnut and Aquarium.
Salter of the earth: The ever-candid, sometimes apocalyptic, other times fantasy-seeking York poet Miles Salter
YORK poet, storyteller, journalist, songwriter and radio presenter Miles Salter has come up with his Fix for a seven-year hiatus.
He has released a poetry book of that name on his own new imprint, Winter & May – “it’s a way of saying ‘for all seasons’, reasons Miles – after a burst of writing in the pandemic ended the lull since his second collection, Animals.
In his apocalyptic, sometimes discomfiting yet hopeful miniature narratives and prose poems, Miles’s observational writing spans climate change; the rise and fall-out of love; loneliness and grief; rock’n’roll; the rites of passage through childhood, adolescence and beyond, and life’s flow being put on hold in pandemic lockdown, his tone ranging from deeply dark to darkly witty, quizzical to surrealist.
CharlesHutchPress fixes it for Miles to answer Charles Hutchinson’s frank questions on Fix and more besides.
Why the seven-year hiatus between volumes two and three: had it become a seven-year glitch or itch over that time, Miles?
“I’m a bit of a tortoise. I find that, generally, it takes a while for a project to come to fruition. I can be a real perfectionist. I always think I can do better.
“But the long gap wasn’t intentional. I went through a seismic mid-life crisis. That really slowed everything down. My life was a mess for a while. Some of the poems came out of that. I had a couple of years where I didn’t do much at all, no writing or anything. Just tried to look after myself and keep going. It was very grim.”
At the epicentre of that crisis was the end of your marriage in 2016…
“It took a long time to recover. I was devastated, and suicidal for a while. One of the poems that wasn’t included in the book was about looking for ways to end my life. There was a period in 2017 when I wanted to die. A friend of mine said, ‘You cannot do this to the kids’, and they were absolutely right.
“One poem, Said, details exchanges between me and my ex-wife at the time of our separation. It was a very difficult time; I wanted to save the marriage but it wasn’t possible. That poem reflects what happened. Let’s say I was trying to capture two different voices.”
Simon Armitage: Poet Laureate has been a major influence on Miles Salter
Given your frankness about your marriage coming to an end, and your subsequent suicidal thoughts, is there anything too personal for poetic expression?
“Fix is very confessional. It’s a risk to write about personal things. Some people have read the book and found it a little uncomfortable, because of the subject matter, although they also said it was moving.
“I feel that vulnerability is important in all art. Otherwise, how are you going to touch people? Overall, I think the balance is about right. Those poems are a record of something traumatic. There are funny poems in the book too!
“I talked about it with Carole Bromley, who’s a friend and mentor, and I reeled off a list of confessional poetry books like Stag’s Leap (about the end of Sharon Olds’ marriage), and Carole said, ‘Well, you’ve just listed my favourite poetry book’. That was very heartening.”
How have you changed as a poet over the past seven years?
“I think I’m becoming more careful in the writing, perhaps a bit more lyrical and subtle. I like to think that is a sign of maturity. I always liked muscular writers like Philip Larkin, Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage. They all were ‘zero bullshit’ in their writing. But you can have impact without raising your voice too loudly. I think I’m getting better at that.”
How have you changed as a person in that time?
“Good question. There’s a very long answer to that, but a succinct response would be: more mature, a little older, a little less naive about the world. I know myself better. A bit more determined to not mess about, and keener to be more successful than before. Life is short. I want to make the next few years count.”
How do you define what constitutes a poem: once it was rhyme and rhythm; is it now line breaks and a sense of timing for the content’s maximum impact?
“There are a lot of definitions of poetry; I’m not sure I have a definitive one. For me, it would be ‘tell a story with heart and precision, as fast as you can’. But that reflects my tendency to write stories in my poems. A lot of the poems in Fix are miniature narratives and prose poems.”
Poetic licence to drill: the cover artwork for Miles Salter’s third collection, Fix
Does being a songwriter have an impact on your writing of poetry? How do poems differ from lyrics?
“I do find them to be very different things. My songs are more sloppy and more impressionistic. The poems are more crafted. Paul Simon sang once about ‘words that tear and strain to rhyme’, and he was spot on.
“With songs, you’re trying to match ‘rain’ with ‘pain’ or ‘again’. My poems dispense with that, most of the time, so the poems are much more liberated. I’d like to get closer to Del Amitri’s Justin Currie and Leonard Cohen in their song-writing, closing the the gap between poems and songs.”
Why did you choose “Fix” for the title? The word has multiple meanings: to mend a problem; to fasten; to “fix” a sports result; to be “in a fix”; to decide or settle on a date; to fix your eyes on someone; a drug “fix”. Which “Fix” is it for you?
“The big theme of the book is living in an imperfect world. The title was an allusion to addiction, to being in a fix, to trying to make things better. I liked the ambiguity. [Fellow York poet] Antony Dunn had a book called Bugs, which has three meanings. Maybe that was in the back of my mind.”
If you could fix one problem to improve the world, what would it be?
“Climate change. We’re all in big trouble. I have two children and I am scared for them. It’s very frightening. I keep writing about it, as if warding off a bad dream that keeps coming back.”
Dark humour has its place, but what else drives you in your writing. Is it cathartic?
“The humour is important, because life is funny and ridiculous as well as difficult and sad. Thomas Merton once said, ‘I want to write a book that contains everything’. I know what he means.
“There’s a Justin Currie song called At Home Inside Me, which has a similar feeling. As an artist, you want to encompass everything. There’s something universal about art. It’s funny, beguiling, unsettling, inspiring…”
Does something make more sense to you by the end of a poem than at the beginning?
“The best poems, usually, are the ones where you don’t know where you are going. You just follow an idea, and it takes you down a little rabbit warren. It’s a very exploratory thing. Was it Picasso who said ‘If you knew what you were doing at the start, what would be the point?’ Can’t remember. Somebody like that!”
When do you know a poem is finished? Artists often find it difficult to decide when a work is complete. What about you?
“Fix was exhausting at the end. Multiple revisions and then more, and more. It went through 16 drafts. I’m a bit of perfectionist. I just want stuff to be really, really good. Some of the poems I thought were finished, but I showed them to writer friends and would always try to revise them in light of what people said. I’ve learnt that a dodgy phrase is ‘That will do’. Revision is important. Do it again!”
“I always admired Philip Larkin for the way he was so honest about the more unpleasant aspects of life,” says Miles Salter
Writers are outsiders, whose observations make us look differently at the world around us. Discuss…
“Yes, absolutely. Writers are outsiders, and sometimes they are difficult, prickly people. But we need their perspective, the way they hold a mirror up to the world. What would literature be without George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Philip Larkin, D H Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway? We need outsiders sometimes. They show us how life is, and how it could be different.”
You name your influences as Larkin, Duffy, Armitage. Why that trio?
“They didn’t pull any punches; they talked about life in such an uncompromising way, and they were all brilliant with language. Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings is one of the greatest poems of the last hundred years, I think. It’s so moving.
“He has a bad reputation as a human but the writing is wonderful. I used to stand outside his house in Pearson Park in Hull and go ‘that’s where he was’.
“I always admired Larkin for the way he was so honest about the more unpleasant aspects of life – he wrote beautifully but was never sentimental. Like him, I try to balance the dark elements with some humour, too. I didn’t want Fix to be unremittingly bleak. I really wanted it to feel life-affirming.”
…and Duffy and Armitage?
“I worked with Carol and Simon when I ran the York Literature Festival. I put Carol on three times. That was a buzz.
“Armitage’s Seeing Stars was a big influence on me; it’s an amazing book. He walks a tightrope between humour and horror. Beyond Huddersfield – a bear in a recycling plant. It starts light and funny and gets really dark. Brilliant.”
Your candour within Fix takes in expressing frustration with men being portrayed in a negative light in the poem Shed. Over to you, Miles…
“In the wake of Me Too, there’s been a lot of anger about male behaviour. Some of that is entirely justified – abuse is unacceptable. However, I also see lots of comments that demonise men, and some of that takes place in the poetry world.
“I’m optimistic about what we can do in the future,” says Miles And The Chain Gang frontman Miles Salter, pictured, second from left, with fellow members Billy Hickling, Tim Bruce and Alan Dawson. Picture: Jim Poyner
“Shed is about toxic masculinity, but there’s a redemptive aspect to it: men can be better, we can move on. I’d like to see that reflected in the discourse, instead of ‘aren’t men awful?’ I feel very strongly about it.
“The highest risk category of suicide in the UK is men aged 45 or under, and I was nearly one of those statistics. Voices that demonise men are not helping, frankly. There’s a lot of shame – and shaming – going on out there, and we need to find a more rounded way of talking about things.”
Your poems stretch from realism to surrealism. What draws you to fantasy: a need to escape; a wish for change?
“I like that space where you take a real situation and twist it a little, so it becomes more surreal. I like to have one foot in the real world and one in a place that is much less familiar.
“I always had a slight feeling of guilt about fantasy and escapism, until I saw [artist] Grayson Perry talk about escapism, and how it’s OK and important. That really helped me a lot. I think imagination is hugely important. We need, as a culture and society, to be more imaginative. I hate the way technology is making us less imaginative, I find it really depressing.”
Is that why you have given your book imprint Winter & May the tagline “Books for Humans”?
“In an age of technological dependence, the motto stands as an attempt to reach for human creativity and independence. It scares me how we’ve all been sucked into thinking like machines.
“Part of me longs for a Utopia where we’re much closer to the earth, and much less attached to technology. One of the apocalyptic poems in the book, Witness Statement, foresees a society where machines take over from humanity.”
“He’s so good at wearing different hats, but it’s always about communication and connecting with people,” says Miles Salter of Barnsley Bard Ian McMillan, a guest on his Jorkik Radio programme, The Arts Show
Despite the stultifying frustrations and uncertainties of the pandemic cycle of Government-enforced lockdowns, how have you been keeping artistically busy, aside from publishing Fix?
“My band, Miles And The Chain Gang, released a couple of videos in 2020, When It Comes To You and Drag Me To The Light, and we’re working towards making an album.
“We’ve been going two years, and it’s been a slow burn. That’s partly because of Covid, but the songs are really strong and the band are brilliant. I’m optimistic about what we can do in the future.”
How is your regular Wednesday night slot on Jorvik Radio, hosting The Arts Show, going?
“I’ve interviewed luminaries such as cookery book writer Nigel Slater, young adult author Melvin Burgess and Barnsley bard Ian McMillan.
“Talking to Ian was great. He’s one of those writers who really inspired me; he’s so good at wearing different hats, but it’s always about communication and connecting with people. That’s where I feel happiest. Communicating makes me feel more alive.”
How do people respond when you say you are a poet?
“Ha! I don’t really say that. I say I’m a communicator.”
Musician, poet, broadcaster, communicator: why is communication so important to you?
“I just feel happy when I’m using words or music to make a connection with people, tell a story, create an atmosphere, impart information. It makes me happy. I’m getting better at it. It’s taken a while, but I’m improving.”
Should you be wondering…
Why has Miles Salter called his publishing imprint Winter & May?
“It was a joke. It was a way of saying ‘for all seasons’. It’s a made-up name, I just liked the way it sounded. Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Winter and May.”
Is this new venture mere vanity publishing for you? “I really hope not. I always had an inkling that I might go into publishing, in some way. I’ve always adored books. The feel of them, the smell, the potential held inside pages. I’ve got ideas for possible projects with other writers, so I hope it’s not just a bit of ego.”
Miles Salter’s Fix is available via Ohm Books at info@ohmbooks.com, priced at £8.95.
Flood, mixed-media monotype, by Lesley Birch, from Muted Worlds, her joint exhibition with ceramicist Emily Stubbs, running initially online and then at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York
LOCKDOWN 3 plods on with no end in sight deep amid the winter chill, drawing Charles Hutchinson’s gaze to online events, a writing opportunity and the promise of live entertainment somewhere down the line.
Online lockdown exhibition at the double: Emily Stubbs and Lesley Birch, Muted Worlds, for Pyramid Gallery, York
CERAMICIST Emily Stubbs and artist Lesley Birch have teamed up for Muted Worlds, a lockdown exhibition of pots and paintings that has begun as a digital show from their studios before moving to Terry Bretts’s gallery in Stonegate, once Lockdown 3 strictures are eased.
Ceramicist Emily Stubbs: Muted Worlds exhibitor and York Open Studios participant
“This is a show with a more muted edge,” say Emily and Lesley. “Winter is here and with it, Covid, and another lockdown, so we feel the need for simplicity. We have collaborated to produce monochrome pieces inspired by the winter season.”
Looking ahead, Emily will be taking part in York Open Studios this summer, showing her ceramics at 51 Balmoral Terrace.
Rowntree Park: Hosting the Friends of Rowntree Park’s Words From A Bench project
Creative project of the winter season: Friends of Rowntree Park’s Words From A Bench project
THE Friends of Rowntree Park invite you to join the Words From A Bench project by submitting a short story or poem based around themes of the York park, the outdoors, nature and escape.
No more than 1,000 words in length, the works will be displayed in the park. Adults and children alike should send entries by February 15 to hello@rowntreepark.org.uk.
Mary Coughlan: Irish singer has had to rearrange her Pocklington Arts Centre concert for a second time
Gigs on the move: Pocklington Arts Centre re-writing 2021 diary
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre is re-scheduling concerts aplenty in response to the relentless grip of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Irish chanteuse Mary Coughlan’s April 23 show is being moved to October 19; the Women In Rock tribute show, from May 21 to October 29; New York singer-songwriter Jesse Malin, from February 2 to December 7, and Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph, from February 12 to December 2. Tickets remain valid for the rearranged dates.
A new date is yet to be arranged for the postponed February 23 gig by The Delines, Willy Vlautin’s country soul band from Portland, Oregon. Watch this space.
At sixes and sevens: The Gesualdo Six with director Owain Park (third from left, back row)
Early notice of online Early Music Day at National Centre for Early Music, York, March 21
THE Gesualdo Six will lead the NCEM’s celebrations for Early Music Day 2021 on March 21 by embarking on an online whistle-stop musical tour of York.
The Cambridge vocal consort’s concert will be a streamed at 3pm as part of a day when musical organisations throughout Europe will come together for a joyful programme of events to mark JS Bach’s birthday.
During their residency, The Gesualdo Six will spend almost a week in York performing in a variety of locations on a musical tour of the city that will be filmed and shared in March.
Monster and Minster beyond: A B-movie bridge drama on the Ouse by the alliteratively named Lincoln Lightfoot, one of the debutants in York Open Studios 2021, now moved to July
Better late than never: York Open Studios, switching from spring to summer
CELEBRATING the 20th anniversary of Britain’s longest-running open studios, York’s artists are determined to go ahead with York Open Studios 2021, especially after a barren year in 2020, when doors had to stay shut in Lockdown 1.
Consequently, the organisers are switching the two weekends from April 17/18 and 24/25 to July 10/11 and July 17/18, when more than 140 artists and makers will show and sell their work within their homes and workspaces in an opportunity for art lovers and the curious to “enjoy fresh air, meet artists and view and buy unique arts and crafts from York’s very best artisans”.
Midge Ure: Opening his Voice & Visions Tour at the Grand Opera House, York
Planning ahead for next year, part one: Midge Ure & Band Electronica, Grand Opera House, York
MIDGE Ure & Band Electronica will open next year’s Voice & Visions Tour at the Grand Opera House, York, on February 22, when the 67-year-old Scotsman will be marking 40 years since the release of Ultravox’s Rage In Eden and Quartet albums in September 1981 and October 1982 respectively.
Ure & Band Electronica last played the Opera House in October 2019 on The 1980 Tour, when Ultravox’s 1980 album, Vienna, was performed in its entirety for the first time in four decades, complemented by highlights from Visage’s debut album, as Ure recalled the year when he co-wrote, recorded and produced the two future-sounding records.
Tommy Emmanuel: York gig awaits for fingerstyle Australian guitarist
Planning ahead for next year, part two: Tommy Emmanuel at Grand Opera House, York
AUSTRALIAN guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, 65, will play the Grand Opera House, York, on March 6 2022 in the only Yorkshire show of next year’s12-date tour with special guest Jerry Douglas, the Ohio dobro master.
At 44, Emmanuel became one of only five musicians to be named a Certified Guitar Player by his idol, Chet Atkins. Playing fingerstyle, he frequently threads three different guitar parts simultaneously into his material, handling melody, supporting chords and bass all at once.
Steven Devine: Harpsichordist pictured when recording at the NCEM, York
Online concert series of the season: Steven Devine, Bach Bites, National Centre for Early Music, York, Fridays
EVERY Friday at 1pm, until March 19, harpsichordist Steven Devine is working his way through J S Bach’s Fugues and Preludes in his online concert series. Find it on the NCEM’s Facebook stream.
And what about?
STAYING in, staying home, means TV viewing aplenty. Tuck into the French film talent agency frolics and frictions of Call My Agent! on Netflix and Scottish procedural drama Traces on the Beeb; be disappointed by Finding Alice on ITV.
This will be the last time: The Stranglers’ bass player JJ Burnel and guitarist Baz Warne will play Leeds next February on their Final UK Tour
THE Stranglers are putting back their Final Full UK Tour for a second time, moving their April 26 gig at Leeds O2 Academy to February 12 next year.
In a statement from the veteran punk-era alumni, they say: “We are, once again, incredibly saddened to confirm that we have had no alternative but to reschedule the planned 2021 spring tour.
“This decision has not been taken lightly, especially as the tour has already been moved back, but the ongoing issues surrounding the Covid pandemic are continuing to play havoc with live music.
“Due to the uncertainty around the tightening of lockdown regulations in the UK and the rollout of the vaccinations over the coming months, it was decided that the tour should be postponed until early 2022.”
The statement continues: “It has been an immense challenge to move the tour again but ultimately we are determined to make it happen as planned from the outset.
The poster for The Final Full UK Tour 2022 by The Stranglers, taking in Leeds O2 Academy on February 12 and Sheffield City Hall on February 24 next year
“After almost a year of inactivity on the road, the band are all chomping at the bit to get back to playing live but our safety, as well as that of the crew and fans, is of paramount importance.”
The Leeds concert already had been rearranged from November 12 2020, and tickets remain valid for the new date after the second delay.
“We hope you understand that we have been left with no other choice and, believe us, we share your disappointment,” say the band, led by bassist and lead vocalist JJ Burnel. “Look forward to seeing you all on the road next year.”
The Final UK Tour 2022 will be In Memory of Dave: long-serving keyboard player Dave Greenfield, who died on May 3 last year, aged 71.
The Stranglers are promising an extensive, full-production tour on “the last time they play together in this format” on a 24-date itinerary, performing songs spanning their 45-year catalogue of 23 British top 40 singles and 17 top 40 albums. “Fans can expect to hear all the classics and get the full rock’n’roll experience for one final time,” they say.
Tour support will come from Ruts DC. Ticket information can be found at: https://academymusicgroup.com/o2academyleeds/events/1300610/stranglers-tickets
Let’s just hope Something Better Change soon on the Coronavirus front to ensure the final tour will finally go ahead.
The Felice Brothers: two brothers, Ian and James Felice, and two friends, Will Lawrence and Jesske Hume
THE Felice Brothers’ postponed June 2020 gig at Pocklington Arts Centre is now in the 2021 diary for June 23.
Ian and James Felice, who grew up in the Hudson valley of upstate New York, are self-taught musicians, inspired as much by Hart Crane and Whitman as by Woody Guthrie and Chuck Berry.
They began in 2006 by playing subway platforms and sidewalks in New York City and have since released nine albums of original, lawless Americana, country and folk rock songs.
In 2017, they served as the backing band for Conor Oberst’s album, Salutations. Two years later came Undress, an album whose stand-out songs were trailered by Ian Felice in a solo show at The Winning Post, York, in October 2018.
Undress, their first studio release in three years, will be prominent in their Pocklington set list, when Ian and James will be accompanied by drummer Will Lawrence and bassist Jesske Hume.
Tickets are on sale at £20 at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
