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Monday, 18 December 2023

Football and Literature - Writers Kingston


SJ Fowler and Jules Sprake

Jules Sprake and SJ Fowler
Tom Jenks
Peter Dunkley and Ian Brady
Matt Sokulsky
Marcia Knight Latter
Julia Rose Lewis
Safia Kamel

Kingston University Town House
Courtyard Space
12th December 2023

Matt Sokulsky

The game of games, the great game, the beautiful ball game - a night of weird and heartfelt literary celebration! Writers of all kits shared poetry, fiction, non-fiction and performance on the world’s most popular sport, in all its facets, from the abstract to the obvious. With local and visiting writers alongside students and staff of Kingston University, it was a memorable night in the RIBA award winning Town House in Kingston. 

Marcia Knight Latter and Julia Rose Lewis

This event will also saw the launch of the collaborative poetry pamphlet, by Sprake and Fowler, A Seasons of Seasons from Sampson Low publishing.
https://sampsonlow.co/2023/12/12/a-seasons-of-seasons-sj-fowler-jules-sprake/ 

A Seasons of Seasons

A unique document in experimental poetry that celebrates the bone deep passion and pain football inflicts upon its followers. Written ostensibly to follow the turbulent 2022 / 2023 premier league season from the perspective of two lifelong fans of Crystal Palace and Everton respectively, A Seasons of Seasons then spirals out in the mass language ether of the world’s most popular game. Unusual for it’s methodology as well as its content, dragging in British poetry revival stalwarts alongside Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roy Hodgson and Sean Dyche, this book is a fusion of poetry, found text, collage, illustration, redaction and ground up collaboration.

Tom Jenks

“Football, like poetry, is an artform that not so much encourages obsession as demands it. The back and forth between Fowler and Sprake perfectly captures this baroque particularity. Talking about football with a poet is usually like talking about tofu with a mountain lion: they know what it is, but they don’t see how it applies to them. So it’s a pleasure to read A Seasons of Seasons, a text, at last, for the intersection of the Venn diagram, perfect for a cold, wet Tuesday night in Stoke.”
Tom Jenks

 Ian Brady and Peter Dunkley
Julia Rose Lewis
Safia Kamel

Wednesday, 6 December 2023

Katie Spencer - Twickfolk

Katie Spencer

Katie Spencer

Floor spots
Paul Vile
Amrit Sond

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

3rd December 2023

Katie Spencer‘s visit to a wintery TwickFolk rounded off a fabulous year of concerts in impeccable style. Beautiful, haunting and tender, her music transported us through the glistening landscapes of the North of England.

Guitarists like John Martyn and Michael Chapman come to mind, Beth Orton’s voice and touches of Joni Mitchell. Katie’s first album was the aptly named Weather Beaten, which summed up the inhospitable Twickenham streets outside, but just like Katie's words and heart, inside the Cabbage Patch there was a warm welcome. Katie was raised in Yorkshire, and the county's topography is conjured through the lush simplicity of her music. Delicate and un-rushed, her songs drift by like ships on the horizon, yet an intimacy and introspection still remain.

Paul Vile

Amrit Sond



Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Jack Rutter - Twickfolk

Jack Rutter

Jack Rutter: The voice of young Yorkshire

Back of a Length
Mark Worledge and John Mannel

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

26th November 2023

Jack Rutter has established himself as one of the standout voices of the folk, roots and acoustic music scene in recent years. The Yorkshire folk singer has enthralled audiences from the largest festival main stages to the most intimate folk clubs. His soaring vocals, powerhouse guitar and bouzouki playing contribute to masterful arrangements of traditional songs and contemporary covers.

Following on from his critically acclaimed second album Gold of Scar & Shale, 2022 saw the release of a brand new EP, with 2023 bringing the successor to Gold of Scar & Shale in the form of a new album of traditional songs.

John Mannel 


Back of a Length are John Mannel and Mark Worledge, who play tradition, contemporary and original acoustic folk material. Mark writes beautiful, well-crafted songs and is an excellent guitarist. John plays guitar, flute and harmonica.

Mark Worledge

Thursday, 9 November 2023

Dave Ellis & Boo Howard - Twickfolk

Dave Ellis

Dave Ellis & Boo Howard

Melanie Crew & Ross Palmer

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

5th November 2023

Boo Howard

The eagerly anticipated return of Dave Ellis & Boo Howard with more great songs. Performed with their unique imaginative and stylish arrangements. Two musicians, completely in tune.

In the early 2000s Dave and Boo developed an acoustic act which returned them to their folk club roots. Their debut album as a duo, Maybe I Might Fall, was critically acclaimed and featured a simple acoustic performance. Several albums have been recorded since then, from 2002’s Amber through to Facebook Friend in 2015. The songs are intelligently constructed, elegantly articulated and never less than entertaining, drawing on influences from both the folk world and the rock scene they were involved in for so long. Their latest album is last year’s Time.

Ross Palmer 

Melanie Crew
and Ross Palmer have been making music together for years, but began releasing material as a duo during that strange spring of 2020. Melanie has released three solo EPs, receiving radio play from BBC 6 Music and BBC Kent, as well as numerous local stations.​ Ross has released three EPs and a digital-only single, playing sessions on BBC Essex and BBC Kent, and gaining airplay on a host of local and independent stations.

Melanie Crew

Following their 2020 debut EP as a duo, Away from the City, Melanie and Ross released their first full-length album, Quiet After Midnight in March 2023. Self-produced and recorded in their South London home across 2022, Quiet After Midnight also features instrumental contributions from Adam Beattie, Nick Frater, and Ross’s Watertown Carps bandmate Yo Zushi.


Thursday, 2 November 2023

Poetry Camarade - Kingston University Town House

Benedict Taylor and SJ Fowler

Pairs of poets and writers presented new collaborations, all made especially for this event! Works of live literature, from the literary to the performative, marked a night that showcased the energy and potential of collaboration for writers. Drawing from staff, students, alumni, local and visiting writers, this event continued the grand tradition of the Camarade, which has seen over 500 events of it’s kind across the world. 

Featuring : Katerina Koulouri and Alban Low / Cameron Wade / Safia Kamel and Marcia Knight Latter / Emma Jeremy and Simon Tyrrell / Matt Sokulsky and Martin Wakefield / SJ Fowler and Benedict Taylor / Virna Teixeira and Mark Rutter / Jieyi Sun / Tim Atkins

Benedict Taylor works in contemporary composition, modern string performance and improvised music in the British and European new music world. The central focus of his work is in new composition for live performance, film, theatre, contemporary dance, art installation, and electroacoustic composition. In performance, he predominantly works within improvisation, new composition and 20th/21st century music. SJ Fowler is a contemporary English poet, writer and avant-garde artist, and the founder of European Poetry Festival. He has produced a diverse body of work across poetry, performance, experimental theatre, visual poetry, concrete poetry and sound poetry, short stories and non-fiction. 

Virna Teixeira and Mark Rutter

Virna Teixeira is a Brazilian poet, writer, translator and publisher based in London. She is the editor of independent poetry project Carnaval Press and the literary magazine Theodora. Her poetry books and poetry pamphlets were published in Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and the UK. Virna has presented her work in several poetry festivals in South America, U.S. and Europe, and has experience as a curator in international poetry festivals in São Paulo and Lisbon. The poems of Mark Rutter have appeared in magazines throughout the English-speaking world. He lived in Maine from 1990-2002, and two collections of his poetry were published during that time. In 1995 he began collaborating with book-artist and printer Walter Tisdale, of Tatlin Books on a series of artist’s books, illustrated folios, and broadsides. Their most recent work is Homage to Andrei Tarkovsky, and they are currently collaborating on a new artist’s book, Swimming in Spruce Cove.

Emma Jeremy and Simon Tyrrell


Emma Jeremy poems have appeared in Poetry London, Magma, Rising and Poems in Which. In 2018 she was a winner of The New Poets Prize, and her pamphlet Safety Behaviour was published by The Poetry Business in 2019. Her debut collection sad thing angry is forthcoming in 2023. Simon Tyrrell has participated in exhibitions and performances at the Poetry Society Café, Westminster Reference Library, Rich Mix, Willesden Gallery, and at The Museum of Futures with Writers’ Centre Kingston. He published his debut poetry collection 'Presently' in 2022. He is part of the PoPoGrou collective.

Martin Wakefield and Matt Sokulsky

Martin Wakefield is a poet from London. He has published books and pamphlets with Hesterglock Press (Jungle Gym / Poems You Can't Colour In), Steel Incisors (Handsfree with Bob Modem) and Sampson Low (Emptpy Poems). Matthew Sokulsky is poet and writer, born in Muswellbrook, New South Wales in 1999. He currently lives in London, having studied at Kingston University. Commissioned by The National Gallery, he published his debut pamphlet The Book of Matthew in 2023.

Marcia Knight Latter and Safia Kamel

Marcia Knight-Latter is a poet and writer, who studied Creative Writing with Psychology at Kingston University. She published a chapbook with Sampson Low titled ‘Ramblings External’ in 2019, and has performed her poetry at venues such as Rich Mix, Rose Theatre and The Museum of Futures. Safia Kamel published her debut pamphlet Smrt with Sampson Low in 2022, and has performed her work across London, including at the National Gallery.

Cameron Wade

Cameron Wade recently launched his debut pamphlet, I Smell Metal, at Waterstones in Kingston upon Thames.

Jieyi Sun

Jieyi Sun is a contemporary jewellery artist-researcher and multidisciplinary maker. Her artworks are based on experiential life, placing the self in the social-cultural context to be investigated, and thus obtain the inner-outer connection of "dialogue", meanwhile, exploring the value of art and survival, whose artworks reflected the philosophical consideration and future foresight.

Tim Atkins

Tim Atkins is a Poet, Playwright, and Prose Writer, and his work has been widely published in the USA, Canada, UK, and Europe. His writing has been studied at postgraduate level in Harvard University and at the Sorbonne.




Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Craig Joiner - Twickfolk



Craig Joiner

Craig Joiner

Asher Mohr

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

29th September 2023

Craig Joiner has been a professional musician for over 25 years, writing songs recorded by the likes of Heart, Bonnie Tyler, Eddie Money and Steps.  Craig’s musical journey began in 1987 as a member of Romeo’s Daughter. Their self-titled debut on Jive Records was produced by the legendary Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange (Def Leppard, The Cars, ACDC, Shania Twain) and spawned a whirlwind tour of the USA and an appearance on the Billboard charts.
https://www.craigjoinermusic.com/


Asher Mohr 

Asher Mohr has been playing on the Indie and folk scenes of Bristol and London since his late teens and quickly moved into penning his own lyrics and tunes. He’s big on lyrics and likes his songs to tell chronological stories. The folk influences are there, Simon and Garfunkel and Tracy Chapman; but a love of creating hooks that stay with you once the record has stopped, like those of Bill Withers, has imbued Asher’s music with a contemporary urgency set on a backdrop of timeless storytelling. The result is a lyrically driven, melodically rich timbre comparable to Novo Amor, Bear’s Den or Flyte.
https://www.facebook.com/ashermusicpage/

Thursday, 19 October 2023

Sean Spicer, Seb Stone & East Corner Trio - Twickfolk

 

Sean Spicer

Young Folk: Jennie Higgins hosts an evening of up and coming folk artists

Sean Spicer
Seb Stone
East Corner Trio - Danny Marshall, Elye Cuthbertson and Mia Iles Perez

TwickFolk presented a young performers’ showcase, hosted by the outstanding folk musician, Jennie Higgins. Jennie personally chose three talented acts who are currently lighting up the UK scene.

Sean Spicer is a harmonicist, whistler and flautist from Bristol, performing largely in the English and Irish traditions. Sean specifically aims through his performance to explore and propagate the English harmonica tradition, and is recognised as a modern-day proponent of traditional English harmonica in Roger Trobridge’s online archive.

Danny Marshall, Elye Cuthbertson and Mia Iles Perez

Hailing from various corners of London, the East Corner Trio create a unique sound through their eclectic musical influences and unusual combination of melodeon, banjolin, and flute and pipes.

Seb Stone

Seb Stone
is a traditional singer, whistle player and uilleann piper from the Peak District. In 2022 he won the Future of Folk Award and Shantyman of the Year Award at Bromyard Folk Festival.

Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Suntrap - Twickfolk

Sue Graves - "Surrey Nightingale"

Suntrap
Sara Byers - Vocals, Guitar, Accordion, Banjo, Whistle
Mary Wilson - Vocals, Violin, Mandolin,
Sue Graves - Vocals, Guitar, Ukulele
John Sandall - Violin, Viola, Cello, Vocals
Tom Evans - Double bass, Accordion, Guitar,

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ

www.twickfolk.co.uk

17th September 2023


Tom Evans 

Suntrap are a five piece English folk band, offering a unique musical experience of folk inspired original, traditional and contemporary songs, featuring entrancing vocal harmonies and lush instrumental arrangements.

Sara Byers

Sara Byers and Mary Wilson are two of the three original band members, and over the years, they have been joined by John Sandall, Sue Graves and Tom Evans.  Instruments played by the band include fiddles, viola, accordions, guitars, tenor guitar, ukuleles, banjo, double bass and whistle.

Mary Wilson

Suntrap launched their album, Northern Lights, at TwickFolk in September 2019.  Since then, they have used their lockdown time to write some new songs and to learn some carefully selected cover songs.  So a mixture of old and new music is to be expected this evening.

Quotes about the Northern Lights album:
“Suntrap manage to blur the lines between sublime music and dreams.  The lines between the fantastical and the possible are likewise blurred.  This album is pure indulgence”  Catherine Hume for Shire Folk

“Full of intelligent original songs, this comeback album is an immensely satisfying listen.  The ‘in the round’ style ensures the supple vocal harmonies are to the fore”  Keith Ames, Tom Short and Clive Somerville for The Musician.

John Sandall 


David Gunawardana, Friction Farm & Paul Solman - TwickFolk


David Gunawardana

David Gunawardana
Friction Farm
Paul Solman

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

17th September 2023

David Gunawardana
The light touch on his Martin guitar, his other-worldly songs, his mellifluous voice, this is David Gunawardana. A new favourite at Twickfolk and The Invisible Folk Club. His songs tell of beguiling tales, of far-off forest glades, caves and towers, happy tribes challenged or dancing spirits. With the whispers of Gillian Welch and Anne Briggs hovering around him, he casts a spell with every performance.
https://www.davidgunawardana.com/

Aidan Quinn

Friction Farm
Modern-folk duo Friction Farm is a husband and wife team of internationally traveling troubadours. Aidan Quinn and Christine Stay combine storytelling, social commentary and humour to create songs of everyday life, local heroes, and quirky observations. From ballads to anthems each song is filled with harmony and hope.

Christine Stay

September Tour Dates
Sun Sep 24th at Woodies Acoustic (Angmering Village Hall Station Rd, Littlehampton BN16 4HL, 7:30 pm)
Wed Sep 27 LATR:3Hounds (57 Beckenham Road BR3 4PR, 8:00 pm)
Thu Sep 28 Uxbridge Folk Club (388b Long Ln, Hillingdon UB10 9PG, 8:00 pm)
https://frictionfarm.com/

Paul Solman

Paul Solman
Paul Solman is a lecturer at City, University of London's Department of Journalism and a former national newspaper journalist. He is a folk music enthusiast and an integral part of the team at Twickfolk.






Thursday, 14 September 2023

Mike Silver + Steve & Julie Wigley - Twickfolk

Mike Silver

Mike Silver

Support
Steve & Julie Wigley

TwickFolk - The Cabbage Patch Pub, 67 London Road, Twickenham, TW1 3SZ
www.twickfolk.co.uk

10th September 2023

Mike Silver is a force to be reckoned with. Having just celebrated fifty years recording; taking his music far and wide through many European countries and further to the Falkland Islands, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, he is still gigging and touring with as much skill and enthusiasm as ever.

Mike Silver

With a career spanning nineteen studio albums, he is a highly respected musician for the initiated, and a rewarding surprise for the uninitiated. Some exciting highlights pepper Mike’s musical career, having been immersed in music full time since his twenties. For a while he was signed to Elton John’s illustrious label Rocket Records in 1973. This led to two appearances for Radio 1 in Concert supporting Randy Newman and Annabel Lamb respectively. One of his compositions –  “Maybe it’s Just Love”, was covered by Justin Hayward. In 2003 his song “Not a Matter of Pride” was picked up first by Bob Harris and then by Terry Wogan and featured no less than 14 times on Terry’s Wake up to Wogan BBC Radio 2 show and on Breakfast TV.

Julie Wigley

Steve & Julie Wigley are a duo from Derbyshire. Julie is the songwriter and they perform many of her songs, along with songs by some of their favourite songwriters such as Gordon Lightfoot, Hugh Williams and Ralph McTell. They are twice finalists in BBC Song for Lincolnshire.

Steve Wigley


Thursday, 7 September 2023

Julian Costello Quartet - Twickenham Jazz Club

Julian Costello

Julian Costello – Saxophone
John Turville – Piano
Andy Hamill – Double Bass
Tom Hooper – Drums

Andy Hamill

Twickenham Jazz Club
6th September 2023

John Turville 


Julian Costello returned to Twickenham Jazz Club with a bag full of new tunes which he will be recording this November. An intrinsic part of the relaunch of Twickenham Jazz Club post lockdown, his music invites the listener to close their eyes and open their soul to a world of warmth, laughter, kindness, frustrations, wistfulness. All expressed by a distinctive musician, a lyrical optimistic man, and his saxophone.

Tom Hooper 



Monday, 21 August 2023

All Vinyl A to Z of Africa (Season 2 - Ep.12) - Tunisia to Zimbabwe


Welcome to our final All Vinyl A to Z of Africa (Season 2) with Natalie and Alban Low. Our aim is to track down a vinyl record from all 60+ African countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe, and everywhere in between. Each week we feature 5 countries, this week it is Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Our final episode starts with the African singer who played percussion at the Folies Bergère, and finishes with the ‘father of social services in Zimbabwe’. This programme is part of the A World in London family of radio programmes. Listen to the 1st series on SOAS Radio.

Listen to episode 12 here - https://www.mixcloud.com/AlbanLow/all-vinyl-a-to-z-of-africa-season-2-ep12-tunisia-to-zimbabwe/



Tracklist
1. El Kahlaoui Tounsi - Smeira
2. Ganda Tribe - Ganga
3. Mariem Hassan - Legneiba
4. Yandikani Lungu - Ku Chongwe Kwaina - Part 1
5. Jairos Jiri Sunrise Kwela Band - Take Cover

This is our final All Vinyl A to Z of Africa. We don not know if they'll be another. Alban will be hosting the jazz show on Brooklands Radio for the foreseeable future, and Natalie is concentrating on her creative writing, and the family allotment.