Broadside News and Events
September 2010 - 'The Day of the Rabblement' play at the Broadside
The Portsmouth based folk band 'The Day of the Rabblement 'gave us a great evening of entertainment. Their mixture of traditional folk and self-penned numbers went down a storm.
This talented trio gave us a spelling binding performance and I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about this band.
Catch their MySpace pages at
http://www.myspace.com/thedayoftherabblement/
15 August 2009 - Beach BBQ
A good turnout for the beach barbeque at Eastney. Thanks to all who helped organise (especially Jon and Pete for laying on food, drinks, plates ...). Not the best of summer's days but we soldiered on. A number of members went to the Eastney Tavern Pub afterwards to warm up. See photos here
Anyone like to do a full report? Send to info@broadsidefolk.co.uk
August 2009: Barry works on his song writing skills with Harvey Andrews
The Harvey Andrews Song-writing and Performance Skills workshop
At La Grande Gennerie, Carelles Mayenne, Northern France
I attended a workshop from 29th June to 3rd July 2009 held by Harvey Andrews.
I have long been an admirer of Harvey's work going back to the folk clubs around Birmingham in the '60s. I had know that Harvey carries out a summer workshop and I finally summoned up the courage, after many years of prevaricating, to book for the week's course.
Thanks to Barry for providing this report - remember - all Broadside members are encouraged to contribute to this web site.
Well done Barry
I was unsure as to what I expected to gain from the experience but a week in the summer French countryside with other, like minded, enthusiasts sounded like a good opportunity to get away and maybe come back with some new abilities and ideas.
The location for the course, and others run during the year, is a delightful farmhouse and buildings in the rolling countryside a couple of hours easy driving from the ferry port of Caen.
We found that the GPS in the car was extremely useful and we arrived at "La Gen" in very good spirits ready for the coming week.
Alison Benn, who organised the course, the fabulous Gites style accommodation, and the truly superb daytime (and some evening) food met us along with her daughter, Harriet and their friendly dog Alma.
We began with a barbecue on the Sunday evening to meet and get to know the other members of the course in a relaxed atmosphere.
Disappointingly there were no ladies on the course but other attendees wives made up for the lack of female company.
The course, for real, began on Monday morning (not too early) and after Harvey had got us to introduce ourselves, our influences and demonstrate our performance skills, we began to explore the knack and mechanics of song-writing.
It soon became clear that the members of the group were very diverse people with varying levels of skills and experiences. This was a huge advantage for me as it gave me the opportunity to convince myself that what little talent I had was of value and was actually enjoyed by comparative strangers.
That evening we all went to a local Folk club attended by many ex-pat. Brits and had the opportunity to perform in front of them, under Harvey's watchful eye.
Tuesday morning was hot and cloudless and we spent the day in further work on our song-writing.
Harvey gave us a scenario to write a song about and we had the rest of the week to hone our attempts into a valid work ready for the concert that was to be held on the Friday night.
Harvey held individual sessions with each of us, to discuss our songs, and anything else that came to mind.
The later part of the week was spent in perfecting our performance skills. Again it was very interesting and illuminating to see how each of us tackled this aspect of the course.
Some of the attendees were at a semi-professional level of performance whilst others, including me, were nervous of the experience.
Harvey began by demonstrating the basic 'do's and don'ts' gained from his vast experience and, to utter beginners like me, it was an immensely valuable experience to learn the art from a past master.
Just a few tips boosted my self-image massively and I did my bit with more confidence that I would have thought possible.
I have to say that the support and friendship from Harvey and the others lifted my outlook amazingly.
During the whole of the week Harvey was there to talk to, either as a group or individually, and he always made time to give each of us the support, understanding and advice we sought.
All too soon it was Friday evening and time to put our week's lessons to the test.
Again it was impressive that, although we had all be given the same basic scenario for our songs, each of us had written our offerings from an entirely different perspective.
Alison's voluminous kitchen provided the venue for our audience, her many friends invited for the occasion,.
After Harvey had opened the evening with a couple of his songs each of us performed our work and our audience were both supportive and appreciative.
After the concert we said our au revoirs with true regret and I'm sure I speak for all that we thoroughly enjoyed all of the aspects of the week.