A few months ago I was sat in Spokes coffee shop in Gainsborough chatting to Nicola, the Gainsborough Town Manager, about the Lincolnshire dialect.
It’s a particular passion of hers, and a chance meeting between my Mum and Nicola had led to Mum saying I’d been doing some work with recordings of Lincs dialect poetry in my music.
I’d found some old records in a crate at a record fair of some recording of people reading poetry in the Lincs dialect. Turns out that Tennyson, who lived in Lincolnshire, had written a bunch of poems phonetically in the old Lincolnshire dialect. Of course, to a Yellowbelly with an interest in electronic music and sampling like me, the records were gold dust. I bought them, then hit Discogs to pick up other recording in the series. They were wonderful. Full of character – beautifully laden with history. Felt like a little bit of my heritage.
That said, they sat on the shelf for a while as I wondered what to do with them. Grab samples, of course. But could I get more creative? Or simply put some of the poems to music…
I recorded them all digitally, and as a sort of test I grabbed a couple of samples and popped them into a work in progress tune I had. That turned into Days End…
https://gribbles.bandcamp.com/track/days-end
Anyway, back to Spokes. Off the back of the chat she had with Mum, we agreed to meet up and have a natter about what I was doing and also Nicola’s interest in the dialect. Was a lovely chat – it’s always great to talk to someone who is deeply knowledgable and passionate about something.
One of Nicola’s goals as Town Manager is to increase footfall in the Market Place. To do this, she puts on special markets and other events. That was where her and Mum met and got talking – at a market that had a ‘Literature Village’ (my Mum writes…). Nicola had an idea of doing a literature and art festival/market in September 2024. And as we were chatting about Gainsborough, the Lincs Dialect, electronic music and all points in-between, the idea of an evening of something at The Old Nick Theatre in Gainsborough emerged. And somehow I found myself agreeing to curate it.
And that, really is what this blog post is about.
On Thursday 12th September, there will be an evening of electronic music from three musicians who have all lived in Gainsborough. I’m provisionally calling it Gainsborough Voices.
There’s me, of course. I’ve threatened to play live for long enough and bottled it too many times. There’s no way I can get out of this, so I’m going to have to knuckle down and do it! 30 minutes of new material using the Lincs Dialect poetry. Bosh. (I’ll post updates on how the new stuff is going in due course)
Then we have one of my oldest and best friends, Dan Doughty. A really talented musician and producer, we’ve done stuff on and off for many years – but most notably was the stuff we did as Quiddity. Dan is currently putting out some beautiful electronica under the moniker Duty. He’ll be writing new material specially for the Gainsborough Voices event, but here’s a taste of what he does:
https://dutymusic.bandcamp.com/track/memory-bells
I’m so pleased Dan is part of this – it feels right.
The final musician is really exciting. She’ll need no introduction to folks in my electronic music circle. That she lived and went to school in Gainsborough as a girl was a bit of a ‘small world’ moment. But once we realised that was the case and I told her that this event was happening, she was so keen to be involved. I’m so very pleased to tell you that Rebecca Denniff will be playing. Rebecca is a fantastic singer, composer and musician. And runs the fantastic Flowergate Hall in Whitby to boot, which does some wonderful things using art and the arts to provide community building and community services. And, like Dan and me, she’s writing some new music for the event. Songs about her time in Gainsborough. I can’t wait to hear it. We’re so lucky she’s making the trip down…
https://subphotic1.bandcamp.com/track/cathedral
I’ll post more as things develop, but before I finish I want to give a quick mention to the venue. It’s The Old Nick Theatre. The Old Nick is the old police station, cells and courtroom in Gainsborough. A grade II listed building, Gainsborough Theatre Company Patron Douglas Parkinson leased the venue to the company for a nominal rent back in 1979, and they transformed the premises to create a Bar, Coffee Room, Costume/Props stores and a unique 55-seater theatre-in-the-round where the courtroom had been. This is a really special place, and it’s taken some real hard work and dedication by the various teams over the years to keep it open, though some challenging times. I’ve acted in there in my youth a couple of times, and seen plenty of other performances – that theatre in the round is really special.
Having them host this night of music is a real honour. It’s going to be fab.
A few links:
My Stuff (and quiddity)
https://gribbles.bandcamp.com
https://quiddity.bandcamp.com
Dan’s Stuff
https://dutymusic.bandcamp.com
https://kosmischeboy.bandcamp.com
Rebecca’s Stuff
https://subphotic1.bandcamp.com/
https://bonfirehill.bandcamp.com/
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