We’vee uploaded some of the pictures taken at our Review night which took place in Londonderry’s Guildhall on Friday 5th February. This brought the best of many of the performances from the Festival 2009 to one place on one night. The Review/Revue provided an opportunity for those not around in the first week of August to see the full variety and diversity of the Festival’s programme. You can go to FLICKR here.
Pictured here are the Victoria Line Dancers getting ready for their exhibition. This and other videos from the night are available on our YouTube Channel. All links are available on the right hand side of this page.
The Maiden City Festival held a review eveing on 5 February 2009. It was an event were we could showcase the variety and diversity of the Festival to many from the community or business sectors who would not be around in August: August is the traditional holiday period in Londonderry much as the first two weeks of July are in Belfast. It was a great night of drama, music and dance.
It is not fair to pick one of the performances for special attention, but as editor I will anyway. The Henry Girls have been a long-standing feature of our lunchtime events at the Verbal Arts Centre each August and they were more than happy to be available for our review night. There are two songs from them up on YouTube from the night. This one silenced Londonderry’s Guildhall. It is available on their latest CD called DAWN, which can be found on their website www.thehenrygirls.com
There are a number of other videos on the website including dance from the Sollus Highland Dancers from Bready and the Victoria Line Dancers. Apologies for the video as the digital struggled to cope with the changing lights: though the result has an impact of its own. More photos of the night on Flickr very soon.
We’ve been busy since the last post. At the end of November we launched a new mini website containing a Tribute to William Love. This was a selection of original compositions and arrangements by Londonderry man William Love, who grew up in the Fountain and played in many of the bands around the City. The Festival was delighted to have the Black Skull Corps of Fife & Drums playing these tunes and more at a a very special concert in the Memorial Hall. More can be found by clicking on this photo’s caption. This was taken when we unveiled a commemorative plaque close to where his home once stood on Wapping Lane.
Then, just this past weekend a new site was launched in time for the Anniversary date of 18th December, the Shutting of the Gates, when apprentices closed the gates against soldier’s loyal to King James. The impact of this spontaneous defiance was to lead to the siege of Londonderry 1688-1689, the consequences of which were of European importance. The Festival’s presentation of the Siege Story in St Columb’s Cathedral, itself of great historic significance to Siege times, is a ‘promenade’ style performance as each actor leads us to the next step along the Siege Story. We hope you enjoy, and perhaps even think about coming to see a live performance at the Maiden City Festival 2010.
On the Three Cheers for The Derrys! site Eamonn Baker mentions the forthcoming launch of a new book, planned for November. The book was launched on Wednesday evening, Armistice Day.
Remembering has grown out of research conducted over the past few years by Trevor Temple, staff member of the North West War Memorial Project. The following is the description of the book provided by Yes Publications for the launch:
“Remembering is a tapestry of stories created from edited interviews with families who lost loved ones during the First World War. Without the generous commitment and openness of all twenty eight interviewees, this book would not have been possible. Each interviewee has shared precious family stories which previously had remained hidden from our collective view.
While Spike is joined by the rest of the Siege Story cast on YouTube we present the very lovely distraction of Eilidh Patterson. Eilidh performed beautifully as part of our Culture Bite lunchtime menu of artists within and around the Walls of historic Londonderry during the Festival.
Here she is with one of her own compositions ‘That Leaves Me’ which is on her new CD available from all good record stores in Northern Ireland. I bought mine in HMV, though I had to go to the back and find it in the ‘Irish Section’ – surely this music deserves to be front of house HMV! A wonderful collection of songs from a very talented singer/songwriter. We’ll let you know when the album appears online.
Work continues on the development of the series of microsites around the Maiden City Festival. The Derrys site was launched for Remembrance Sunday. For the Commemoration marking the 321st Anniversary of the Shutting of the Gates in December the Festival will launch The Siege Story, recordings of the five part ‘promenade’ performance of the story of the siege of Londonderry. We are hugely appreciative for the support of the Dean and Chapter of the historic St Columb’s Catherdral for hosting this event.
On this Remembrance Sunday the Maiden City Festival has launch a small website dedicated to the ‘The Derrys’, the 10th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. This is the final part of the Festival programme which was based on the book was first published in 1991 and published as an updated second edition in this past year. The book has the benefit of reminisces of two old soldiers, Jim Donaghy from Londonderry and Leslie Bell from Moneymore.
Our video provides a short introduction presented by the author at the launch of the project in the Playhouse, though this was followed during Festival week by a full multi-media presentation. The Launch also drew attention to how the interest in the story of The Derrys sparked wider interest in the history of the First World War, and how that led to interest in the names of the Fallen on the City’s War Memorial.
Throughout Festival week, a number of young men explored the story within the book and on the Friday of the Festival week, these workshops provided a dramatic interpretation the books themes. It is a distinction of this project that the young men from Londonderry who explored the story of The Derrys are of the same age as those who volunteered for the Great War.
The week’s project is wrapped up in a song first performed at the launch of the project, by Josh Goforth. He had been thinking for some time of writing a song about soldiers serving abroad, with contemporary conflicts in mind. When he was a lad he would ask his grandfather about time served in World War Two. When he asked his grandfather where he fought, the answer was ‘Far Across the Sea’. The words seem as apt for our own generation as it was for his grandfather’s.
There are a number of web additions we are working on, but its taking some time.
During the Culture Bite lunchtime performances we tried our best to capture some video of each of the performances, but didn’t always manage to get around everyone. One of the performers we missed was Fiona Scott Trotter. We only managed a 30 second snippet at the very end of her session. Not to miss out, we have captured some video of a more recent performance at No Alibis Bookshop in Belfast, where it seems there is always some great jazz each month. Fiona was the first jazz vocalist at this intimate little venue.
We’ve put up three pieces from her No Alibis set on the Maiden City Festival Website, of which this is the smoooooothest.
Hope to have more news for you in the next few weeks.
One of the programmes running along in the background of the Maiden City Festival is Fowk Foundation. The idea of the Fowk Foundation is to explore the roots of music, poetry or storytelling. We have started with music and specifically the tradition of ballads. Within the next few weeks or so, we will be launching a web space dedicated to the Fowk Foundation, which we hope to develop over years to come.
The concept for the Fowk Foundation started in conversation with Josh Goforth on a previous visit. Later, some research was undertaken at the English Folk Dance & Song Society’s Cecil Sharp House, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, specifically the Cecil Sharp collection of songs from the Appalachian Mountains annotated in the early part of the 20th Century. The songs of the Appalachians were locked in time due to the closeness of the communities in the mountains, and their distance from external influences. Our interest lies in the fact that many of the songs would have had their roots in the cultures of the original mountain settlers, many of which were Scotch-Irish. Along with Josh Goforth, John Trotter was able to identify essences of Scottish and English roots in the music collected by Sharp.
The song featured here is one from the Cecil Sharp Collection which was collected in Madison County, North Carolina, the home county of Josh Goforth. It is a taste of what is in store once the web space is organised. For updates on the progress of the Fowk Foundation, keep an eye on this weblog or join the Maiden City Festival on Facebook which you can access from the website.
Josh Goforth is joined by Fiona Scott Trotter on vocal and John Trotter on accordion. Beautiful song.
A great little trio of Bluegrass tunes have been uploaded today, the last of the Bluegrass on the Walls pieces from the opening Saturday of the Maiden City Festival. Two from the Knotty Pine String Band (featured below), and one from Woodbine with guest mandolin player Jan Michielsen from Belgium.
Here’s a quick one from the Knotty Pine String Band.
You’ll find the all latest uploads on http://www.youtube.com/user/MaidenCityFestival
