KentFolk News July 2007

So I have been putting that question to various people who promote and make live music in Kent - If you are one of these, and I have not got to you, please do not be offended, the whole video, which hopefully will go on the web : www.bbc.co.uk/kent/videonation/index.shtml will only be about 3 minutes long.

Re: Google adverts
- these are picking up, and getting better targetted - if people keep clicking through to the advertisers' web pages, KentFolk hopes to get a small but useful payment from Google by the end of the year, to help with the running costs of the web-site.

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ...
recognise that music and dance should not be restricted by burdensome licensing regulations." :

An increasingly fast erosion of pubs in Kent, but the music seems to be hanging on in there, with some potential new venues being tried out.
What is your perception of the effects of the new licencing laws ? In particular, how do they seem to be affecting the music ?
There was an official e-petition regarding these laws, see the entry in the Jobs, Auditions, Funding + Licencing section, as well as this text below.

This e-petition shows signs of being a possibly very influential petition - the number who signed grew rapidly - when the letter was sent by Doug Bailey the petition had accummulated 2,800 signatures, and was in position 19 - as of Sunday evening, 4th February, with 7,738 signatures and in position 12 - in mid March it had over 50,000 signatures, and was in position 3 - now in mid April it has nearly 70,000 signatures and is in position 2. By in early May it was in position 1, but the rate of increase was dropping off. The deadline to sign by was 11th June, and by then it had achieved 79,873 signatures. This appears to be the third highest of all the e-petitions to-date - The government have just (at the start of July) published an interim response to this petition : /www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page12238.asp.

The Live Music Forum (LMF) was established in 2004 following the passage of the Licensing Act, 2003, to monitor the impact of the Act on live music, and to promote live music performance. It comprises representatives from across the industry and non- commercial sectors, as well as local government and the hospitality industry. Steve Heap of FAE has been sitting on the Live Music Forum.

The Department for culture media and sport, in association with the Live Music Forum contracted Ipsos-MORI in July 2006 to carry out a survey focused on the experience of smaller venues in applying for new licenses following the introduction of the new Licensing Act 2003. The research brief and the resultant reports are discussed on the department's website. The results of the Live Music Forum investigation are due to be published in July 2007, and the government say they will then review the Licencing Act in the light of this report.

If you like live music - as opposed to just canned and pre-prepared entertainment, which is un-regulated - and believe that live music and dancing should not be treated as though they were dangerous to the public, then this e-petition to the prime minister was your chance to make your views known : http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/

For the monent, if you want to put on nearly any form of musical or entertainment event - even for charity, or in a school - then, for single events you probably need to fill in a Temporary Events Notice (TEN) form, pay £21, and tell the police. Even for private events it could still be worth checking with the council first, particulary if there is alcohol.
The Temporary Events Notice (TEN) forms should be available from your local area council - for Canterbury, go to their page on : Serving A Temporary Events Notice, and download the form.

Fiddlers Various 2007 - Tommy Peoples : Master Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples from Donegal accepted an invitation from KentFolk to visit the South East of England in the Summer of 2007, as a Fiddlers Various special event. Tommy Peoples is, quite simply, a living legend, the greatest exponent of the driving Donegal style which is his hallmark. Catharine Kingcome, who has painted many Irish musicians in addition to a picture about Tommy, and is a fiddler herself, says of Tommy : "in my opinion probably the best trad Irish fiddle player there's ever been". With nearly a month to go, Valmai Goodyear of Lewes Folk Club in Sussex wrote : "A quick note to confirm that Tommy's daytime workshop and evening performance at the Lewes Arms are both sold out. I am keeping a waiting list in case of cancellations ..." In the run-up to Tommy's visit, on Sunday 27th Simon Evans of BBC Radio Kent gave a good mention of Tommy's tour, and played a track from the Bothy Boys album featuring Tommy on fiddle. On Sunday June 3rd Simon gave Tommy a further mention, and played a track from his album "The Quiet Glen" - Thanks Simon - Beau Tommy People's tour began with a concert on the Wednesday in Wales. The next concert was on Friday 8th, and was at the London Irish Centre, Camden, which was sold out to a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic capacity crowd of 120. Tommy was accompanied on the guitar by an old friend from Co. Clare, Mary McGannon who just happened to be down from Scotland at the time. Fiddler Danny Meehan (a fellow Donegal man who has been resident in London for many years) joined Tommy on stage for a few numbers. Saturday 9th saw Tommy Peoples giving an all day fiddle workshop to a capacity group of 20 advanced students at The Lewes Arms, Lewes, Sussex. Tommy started the workshop by working on his piece "Julia Devine" - complex, in I think 4 parts, with 2 of the parts having 2 different endings. By mid-afternoon, I, just a listener, was exhausted, and so were most of the students. The final part of the workshop was nominally on ornamentation, but mostly ended up as an interview of Tommy by the students. In the evening recitals, as part of the folk club (which included some fascinating pipe-work by a local piper Dirk Campbell, on two different Italian pipes), Tommy was again joined by Mary. Ben Paley - the best fiddler I know of on the South Coast - Appalachian and Swedish fiddle - who was at both the fiddle workshop and the concert, emailed me afterwards : "Beau, Thank you so much for organising Tommy's tour. It really was one of the most inspiring things I've heard ever, I only wish I could convey that to him!" - I passed this email on to Tommy - Beau Sunday 10th Tommy Peoples drove to the Littlebourne Thatched Barn, in Kent. There were 15 students at the Littlebourne fiddle workshop - Tommy commented afterwards that the standard was good. In no small measure this may at least partly be attributed to the fact that a number of the students were also at Saskia Tomkins' fiddle workshop at the barn in early April. There were just over 150 people at Tommy Peoples' evening concert. Tommy was visibly shaken by the experience of playing in the wonderful barn, but gave an exquisite performance. He was joined near the start of the second half of the concert by three of the workshop students. Near the end, one student of exceptional calibre was invited onto the stage with Tommy, and they played two remarkable duets - the first time I have heard Tommy play with a commensurate fiddle player, other than his daughter Siobhan Peoples. Local multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor is a man of few words, but he was moved to write : "Hallo Beau, there are many good fiddle players in Kent [and I've had the privilege of playing gigs with most of them] but last night was a real revelation, or rather a reminder of the power of solo traditional fiddling - thanks to yourself and Viv for staging these events, folk music in Kent would be poorer without your efforts! thanks, Chris & Jacqui " - I also passed this comment on to Tommy - Beau Tommy also played at The Barge in Gillingham on Monday 11th, - quite a while since the great man has played in a pub, but it made a relaxed evening for all as an end to the tour. The KentFolk Fiddlers Various events to-date are listed at : www.kentfolk.com/FiddlersVarious/ and to go direct to a full photo-report of Tommy Peoples' tour : www.kentfolk.com/gig_reports/2007/2007-06-08to11_Fiddlers-Various-2007_Tommy-Peoples_tour/

KIF 3002 Tommy-Peoples_rtct KIF 3021 Tommy-Peoples score-writing at Lewes KIF 3031 fiddle-workshop Littlebourne-Barn KIF_3074 Tommy Peoples Littlebourne Barn. KIF 3119 Tommy Peoples at The Barge, Gillingham

KIF_3058 Tommy Peoples, Littbourne river giants + audience in Littlebourne thatched barn.

There is also now a review at www.folkandroots.co.uk/ReviewsTp.html

So if I were to do a Fiddlers Various in 2009 - what fiddle genres would you like it to cover ? - answers to Beau@KentFolk.com

Selling individual MP3 tracks over the web :
For some time KentFolk has been using PayPal to sell local musician's CDs. A new technology that I have wanted for some time, is now in place: - KentFolk can now sell individual MP3 tracks, either directly from the KentFolk web pages, with paynent by CC or PayPal, or via the highly respected eFolkMusic in the USA.

If you are a band that would like to sell your tracks over the web, and of course this is particularly good for both CDs that have all sold out, as well as new tracks that are not yet on a CD, then please email me : Beau@KentFolk.com

I am limited in my time available to "turn the handle" on these, but will do what I can. As a preliminary offering, the 2003 Deal LifeBoat House shanty recording now has a few tracks on the web - all net profit to the NLRI, after the CC/PayPal deductions.

Multi-level directories of News :
Do keep sending me news and items for both the calendar and this news section - now that I have built this new format news section things are flowing much easier.
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, and for event listings for the calendars.
cheers, Beau.