Folk in a Box @ Stroud Fringe Festival

We're very pleased to announce that Folk in a Box (Britain's smallest venue...if not the world's!) will be arriving in Stroud this weekend to take part in the Stroud Fringe Festival.

We'll be set up on the Shambles Market (right by the cheese stall oh yeah) from 10am until 3pm on Saturday 3rd Sept.

And then on Cornhill by The Bird's Nest stage on Sunday from 1pm until 5pm.

For those of you who don't know, Folk in a Box is a small shed made of reclaimed wood and materials found in skips. It can be put up anywhere. One audience member is allowed in at a time. The door is closed behind them. They are given one song, performed by one musician.

This weekend we have the special help and fine musicianship of Herons! and Johnny Barlow as well as a host of other talented musicians.

Hope to see you there!

Emily

Catharina

My grandmother, Catharina Margaretha Capiteyns, emigrated from Rotterdam, Netherlands to Perth, Western Australia in 1952 with my grandfather Reiner Steens and their first born child Hedwig (or 'Aunty Heddy' as we fondly call her.)

I recently read two stories about emigration: 'Navigatio' by Alison Croggon and 'Lost in Translation' by Eva Hoffman.

Both described the scene of departure and it made me reflect on my grandmother's own. What must it have been like boarding a ship and waving goodbye to your parents, brothers and sisters...perhaps forever! Imagine heading to a new land, a place you'd never been to before, to live...forever.

It inspired a song which I named 'Catharina' and here is the first couple of verses and chorus...

The boat pulled away

painfully slowly

arms tired of waving

both of us trying not to break

Until you became

a part of the landscape

a blur on the coastline

not yet a memory

Will I ever see you again?

The wind whispered lowly

goodbye dearest kin

the waves will now pull me

to a land I've never been

but my love it'll return

in shoals across the sea

and wash up on your shore

will I see you again?

The Monday after Green Man Festival.

Green Man Festival is a winner even in the rain but with the sun shining, as it was most of the weekend, it was su-bloody-perb.

We played twice.

Firstly on the friday night at the Pub stage in the walled garden.

Despite Jo's cello falling off it's stand and breaking 5 minutes before we went on stage (thanks to Barney for the cello replacement!) and despite our sound engineer missing the gig due to closed junctions and bad traffic, our first set at Green Man was very enjoyable indeed. What a great crowd!

BBC Radio 1 recorded the show live and Rob da Bank broadcast it on his show the following morning. To listen again, head to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0137tbv at 1:17:35 mins.

Secondly we played in the Cinema Tent as part of Arctic Circle's programme. We played a more mellow set to the beautiful super-8 films of Patti Gaal-Holmes. Some of Patti's films I had written songs to: such as 'The Rains' and 'Despite the Snow' and other films were made to the songs. It was a really lovely atmosphere in there, in the dark, sheltering from the rain.

Bands we saw and loved included: Villagers, Rachel Dadd, North Sea Radio Orchestra performing the music of Vernon Elliott, James Yorkston, Explosions of the Sky, Fleet Foxes and Paper Cinema (incredible animation done live.)

Thanks to Nik Wakefield for snapping away at our shows and taking the pictures above and to

those who came along. We hope to see you again!

Best wishes

Emily & The Red Clay Halo x

Green Man Festival this weekend!

We're over the moon to be playing Green Man festival this weekend!

Our first appearance will be on Friday night on the pub stage at 9:45pm.

This is going to be recorded live by BBC Radio 1 and then broadcast the following morning on Rob da Bank's show between 5 and 7am (don't worry it'll be on the iPlayer for 7 days as well!)

Come down for merry times and cider : )

by Damian O'Hara

Then on Saturday 20th we'll be performing in the Cinema Tent courtesy of the ever-wonderful Arctic Circle. We'll be performing songs to the beautiful super-8 films of Patti Gaal-Holmes.

Details of Arctic Circle activities at Green Man can be found here: Cinema Circle.

And here is one of Patti's films to get yourself acquainted with...

Hope to see you there!

Monday's Muse

In a recent blog post I wrote about 'Home' being the inspiration and theme for the next album.

I've been reading a lot about Australian history told from the Indigenous perspective and have just finished a history book called 'First Australians.'

The book was written to accompany the SBS TV series and is edited by Rachel Perkins and Marcia Langton. It reveals true stories of friendship, revenge, loss and victory told by seven of Australia's leading historians including Bruce Pascoe- who also wrote an outstanding book called 'Convincing Ground' (amongst others.)

First Australians covers from 1788, when Governor Phillip arrived in Warrane (now Sydney) and befriended Bennelong, an aboriginal leader of the Eora people, to 1993 with Koiki Mabo's challenge to the federal government for Indigenous land rights- his campaign which overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius.

The book is an incredible insight into a history that has been buried, avoided in the school curriculum, distorted and silenced. I thoroughly recommend reading it.

It inspired a song which I named 'Spadeful of Ground' and here is the first verse...

What would you give for a spadeful of ground?

Would you sail over seas?

Would you almost drown?

For a pocket of dirt, you will lie, you will hurt

For a piece of this land you'll have blood on your hands

Memoirs of Lost Time

Ofelea & The Flying Balloons by Vikram Kushwah

Recently I got an email from a stranger whose name was Vikram. His email outlined a project that really sparked my interest. Have a read, I think you'll agree it sounds incredible...

"Inspired by the romantic notions of childhood memories and the almost dreamlike nature they possess, ‘Memoirs of Lost Time’, fine art and fashion photographer Vikram Kushwah’s next ambitious project in collaboration with writer/researcher Trisha Sakhlecha, takes you on an enthralling photographic and literary expedition. A biographical documentation of sorts, of ten creative personalities’ childhood recollections, this book captures not only what was, but also suggests a very imaginative take on what could have been.

Stories evocative of the intimate moments and bygone days of these personalities will be embellished with wondrously staged pictures featuring the subjects themselves. Each chapter will take you into the personal and never seen before world of one of these personalities with a short story, an insightful interview and photographs, weaving in and out of reality, where you start beginning to drift into a realm of imaginative possibilities and yet remain attached to the facts that were."

There is a website to raise funds: http://www.indiegogo.com/Memoirs-of-Lost-Time

And a blog to keep you updated: http://caught-in-a-tale.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Vikram and Trisha and my involvement with the project begins. I'm looking forward to it!

The Stepmother's Daughter by Vikram Kushwah

Traquair Fair

We left Stroud at 1pm on Friday bound for Innerleithen. Google maps said 5hours 20minutes. We arrived at our destination at 12:45am! There were two reasons that it took us 12hours and 45minutes to make the journey...

1. Holiday traffic on the M6 on a Friday.

2. We forgot to get enough diesel prior to venturing into the wild remotes of the borderlands.

Luckily we stopped before we ran out completely at a wonderful inn where a young chap offered to syphon diesel from his car into ours. Alas, a stop gauge. Drinks were ordered, the AA were rang, the wait was on. Spirits were high despite the adversities largely due to a great, communal twitter conversation involving replacing keys words in band names with names of types of fish eg. Salmon and Garfunkel, The Small Plaices, Kylie Minnow-gue etc.

So we arrived eventually in the little town of Innerleithen with a morning off to potter in the shops including a brilliant antique/second hand book shop pictured above.

We played twice at Traquair Fair over the weekend, a quaint festival in the hills. Unfortunately it rained and rained and rained. During our second performance the power cut. We moved to the front of the stage, called the crowd forward and played acoustically.

So despite weather and traffic and lack of open fuel stations, we had a really special weekend.

Our big Autumn tour.

Hello there people,

We want to tell you about our big Autumn tour! It's our most extensive UK headline tour ever and we're really looking forward to it. We're very pleased to announce that support will come from the beautiful Gill Sandell whose music is well, well worth arriving early for. We hope to see you out there. Thanks, Emily & The Red Clay Halo x

October

Weds 12th- Komedia, Brighton 0845 293 8480

Thurs 13th- Bridport Arts Centre 01308 424 204

Fri 14th- Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth 01453 833 320

Sun 16th- The Jericho, Oxford 01865 311 775

Weds 19th- Phoenix Arts, Exeter 01392 667 080

Thurs 20th- Fibbers, York 08444 77 1000

Fri 21st- Guildhall, Gloucester 01452 503 050

Sat 22nd- Leadmill, Sheffield 01142 212 828

Sun 23rd- The Cluny, Newcastle 01912 304 474

Mon 24th- The Musician, Leicester 01162 510 080

Tues 25th- The Met, Bury 01617 612 216

Thurs 27th- Royal Albert Hall- Elgar Room, London 0845 401 5045

Fri 28th- Bodega, Nottingham 01159 505 078

Sat 29th- Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 01132 752 411

November

Thurs 3rd- The Fleece, Bristol 01179 299 008

Fri 4th- New Forest Arts Centre, New Milton 01425 612 393

Sat 5th- Salisbury Arts Centre 01722 321 744

Sun 6th- The Cellars, Eastney 02392 826 249

Tues 8th- Colchester Arts Centre 01206 500 900

Fri 11th- Swindon Arts Centre 01793 614837

Mon 21st- The Stables, Milton Keynes 01908 280 800

Frank Turner

We have the pleasure of then supporting and playing with Frank Turner on these shows...

Tues 22nd Nov- Bournemouth O2 Academy

Weds 23rd Nov- Newport Centre

Thurs 24th Nov- Birmingham O2 Academy

Fri 25th Nov- Barrowlands, Glasgow

Sat 26th Nov- Manchester Apollo

Sun 27th Nov- Hammersmith Apollo!

Monday's Muse

Yesterday Dom and I went to WOMAD festival for the day.

We had an amazing time wondering from stage to stage seeing music from all corners of the globe being performed.

Highlights were Amparo Sanchez from Spain whose voice is incredible, so deep and powerful; Ebo Taylor from Ghana, an Afro-beat legend who got the crowd moving and Chapelier Fou (translates as Mad Hatter) from France- a virtuosic electronica artist looping classical violin, guitar riffs and samples.

But what left us completely gobsmacked was the group The Creole Choir of Cuba or "Desandann" which is how they are known locally and translates as 'descendant.'

The songs are sung in Creole, Cuba's second language which was first created by slaves, fusing words from their different African languages with those of the Caribbean indigenous people, French, Spanish and English.

The ancestors of the group are a people who were doubly-displaced, first from Africa and then from Haiti and the songs have been passed down through their families since the early 19th century. They speak of lament for home and family lost, poverty, protest, stories of rebellious individuals, love and hope for freedom.

They left us with tears in our eyes and goosebumps. Absolutely stunning music, I hope you can see them one day.

Creole Choir of Cuba - Jools Holland performance from World Festival on Vimeo.