SCOTT does love a bit of live music. Whilst bouncing around at gigs and festivals he thinks he’s discovered there are new potential live music venues in the heart of our communities.
I ’VE LOVED live music for as long as I can remember. I grew up in the Tropics (a tiny archipelago in the Pacific) and there they found any excuse for a celebration with a band and a feast. I remember that I loved the energy the dancers created, and the atmosphere of the busy field. When I found that similar feeling here in the UK, stood in Wembley Stadium as a teenager watching Queen, it started a lifelong love of watching bands (many of them not particularly impressive live). Since then I have been regularly attending live gigs as well as hundreds of festivals over the decades. Since the last issue I appear to have spent a fair bit of time in old churches with cobwebs in their eves. No, not praying that I can meet the print deadline (here’s hoping I can though, or you’ll be reading this at Christmas), but to enjoy live performances from some great musicians. The first of these was a visit to Kingskerswell Church to get the old circulation moving with the upbeat Land Of The Giants. Even though they were billed as acoustic, their infectious sound soon had the crowd (and me) rocking in the aisles. I’ve not been to the venue before and it’s clearly doing a great job providing live music to the local area. There was a great selection of teas and homemade cakes too, definitely a venue worth revisiting. They welcome Sheelanagig, Sam Green, John Smith, FolkLaw, Winter Mountain and more in the next few months. (See our Going Out section for a full list of who they’re hosting). A few weeks later and I was just across the Tamar at Port Eliot. It’s one of my favourite festivals offering such a mix of talks (about hydropower for instance), a great healing area, workshops, arts and crafts, food and chef showcases, and of course some live music. The weather deteriorated (it was the holidays), so I took refuge in the church that offered a programme of music including a wonderful set from Martha Tilston. The following month Totnes was my destination for Drift Records’ Sea Change Festival. This time the whole town baked in heat (it was the bank holiday), and I found St Mary’s Church a welcome cool venue. The line-up featured captivating performances from vibraphone playing Masayoshi Fujita, kiwi Nadia Reid, and rising folk star Jim Ghedi. All this reflecting under stained glass got me thinking about these ‘houses of god.’ They’re all built in stone and able to keep cool even in mid-summer, they have wonderful acoustics, and they bestow a degree of quietness to the audience that makes for a more reverential appreciation of the performance; something often missing at gigs, in this age of mobilephones and short attention spans. They have stood within their community for centuries, and have brought the community together within them. Often this community facility hosts a variety of local happenings like keep fit, martial art or dance classes, hobby clubs and the like. Churches have traditionally hosted music and singing in worship. It does seem strange to me that often these buildings are under utilised in our villages and could benefit from the income from the community by hosting popular music. Every time I sat in a pew and watched a live act, I couldn’t help but think of those many churches in rural areas, used just for services, marriages, blessings and funerals. They’ve always had classical and choral live music in churches but it’d be great if a bit more of a variety of music could be showcased. Think of all those large capacity airy, acoustically rich venues Devon has. I think they’d attract a wider audience too. Families would be more likely to attend with kids, as churches are a bit less the domain of grown-ups like traditional music venues. Plus, how many gigs have regular gig goers enjoyed where there’s been tea and cake on offer, rather than weak lager? In recent years I’ve been to Exeter Cathedral to see the likes of Levellers, Jethro Tull, and Seth Lakeman. Clearly there’s an appetite to host live music acts in religious buildings. Gentrification is, we’re reading in the music press, resulting in the loss of many of the classic old live music venues, not only in the South West but across the country. Perhaps a thriving new music scene could be cultivated within our old cobwebbed stone churches? southwesterlies… Scott