Below- a track to listen to whilst scrolling down. I was living in Bishops Way, Bethnal Green, London E2. 14/15 years, the longest so far, that I have lived anywhere. Fond memories. Sad that I left…. Leaving friends is always hard.
Romney Marsh recording. Common Ground. More information at the end.
Recorded Sing Voices at St. George’s Ivy Church On Romney Marsh. May 19th 1989. l-r Charlie Izikia, Brian Abrahams, Mary Fagin, Simon Sumner, Jan Ponsford, Hannah Wilson, Ian Shaw, Carol Grimes and Sami El-Salahi. Released as part of the Common Ground disc. Unknown Public. Photo Jo Nelson.
Like my Singer’s Tale, the title is inspired by Chaucer. He told tales of Millers and others, but not a Singer’s Tale!
This has a first line.”I wandered lonely as a ? Yes! The famous Lakeside poem, Daffodils by the mile..
© Sing Voices. Carol Grimes.
‘Sing voices, sing stories, tell it like it is.’
I wandered lonely as a cloud – but the cloud was full of electrical lightning
I was fried alive, but kicking.
Ooh, it really was frightening.
I screamed like a Cockatoo – very loud. I howled.
Am I in a dream? Somebody wake me.
I’m taking a high dive. I’m splitting.
Is this gonna break me?
Is this a real day? Is this a nightmare? ‘
Sing voices, sing stories, tell it like it is
‘Sing voices, sing stories, tell it like it is.’
I wandered lonely as a cloud –
But the cloud was full of electrical lightning.
I was fried alive, but kicking.
Ooh, it really was frightening.
I screamed like a Cockatoo – very loud.
I howled.
Am I in a dream? Somebody wake me.
I’m taking a high dive. I’m splitting.
Is this gonna break me?
Is this a real day? Is this a nightmare? ‘
Sing voices, sing stories, tell it like it is.
Photos by Jo Nelson during recordings on Romney Marsh
UP02 Common Ground
Sound with a sense of place. One of the conceits of Unknown Public is that creative music shares a common ground staked out by the recording medium. We imply that music, whatever its provenance, can be made equal in the ears of its listeners. Once the ‘wiggling air molecules’ have been frozen on tape or disc, their origins as marks on paper, improvised gestures, found sounds or memorised lore become immaterial, more anecdote than essence. But in an increasingly interconnected world, this can only be part of the story. When musicians on five continents use the same scales, beats, computer keyboards and clichés there is a need to cherish and celebrate the distinct differences between musics, to resist the temptation to package and homogenise consistency so that music can be sold like hamburgers and carbonated sugar water. That’s why the aims of the remarkable UK organisation called Common Ground have a force that will be felt far beyond the little islands that produced this quarter’s music. Menter’s Slate Voices, Grimes’ Ivychurch tapes and the location recordings by Carr and Duggan are projects that owe their sound and nature to an inspiring sense of place. Heath angrily defies the ‘Eurocentric’ tradition to create a sound that is, to many ears, quintessentially English. Virji, Mercier and Ó Súilleabháin draw on aspects of Indian classical music to create entirely original and personal pieces.
Of course you’re correct in your assumptions about modern music being homogeneously processed and packaged to a targeted mainstream audience of profoundly modified and manipulated sheep. Hence Romney Marsh being the prime choice of venue for the singers tale. Thanks for doing things differently.
Thank you so much c