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(Updated
16.11.09)
The
Blyth Power Ashes 2010

After
an unprecedented flurry of early activity we have filled all the
available slots for next year's Ashes Festival and full details
can now be found on the main Ashes page. Many thanks again to all
the bands signing up. For those of you not in the know the venue
has moved once again, and this time festivities will take place
at the jolly splendid Goat Inn, in Skeyton in darkest Norfolk. Well,
it keeps Mr Cooper happy so you know it makes sense...
Women
and Horses, Power and War

The
selection of songs for the next studio CD is now complete, and lyrics
will be creeping onto this website over the next week or so. TDL
is so pleased with the way the trilogy turned out that the plan
has grown out of all proportion, and now features a trilogy of trilogies...
Luckily due to the usual financial restraints it is unlikely Green
Grow the Rushes will see the light of day until the usual years
interim between releases has passed. There are new songs, there
are songs previously done with other formats, and even two live
favourites from the 80s, tragically overlooked by the Stalinist
revision programme before now...
Having said that, given the rate at which the old man is currently
churning out new songs this may all be subject to change.
Friends
& Neighbours
Loathe
as we are to talk about anyone other than ourselves, here are a
couple of news items concerning colleagues of ours. Firstly, we
are very pleased to be able to pass on an invitation to the launch
of a new Pressgang CD. The band are back with the definitive line
up including George, Damien, Cliff, and Tony, and a new recording
Outlandish will be launched at the After
Dark Club in Reading on November 28th. Anyone turning up with a
previous Pressgang CD or T-shirt can get the new one for a fiver.
We were listening to Fire on the way back from the studio back in
the summer. It rocked utterly. Nice to have you back chaps, and
have a good one.
For the many of you who enjoyed Tres Y El Ingles at Lumb Farm this
year, and have been asking for further information, we can now advise
that the band have a My Space page, with preview mixes of the band’s
new recording. This can be found at www.myspace.com/tresyelingles
and they will be back at the Ashes next year, so keep watching Dora
the Explorer, and you might be able to tell them yourselves how
much you enjoyed them this time.
Limited
Run of T-Shirts For The Ashes
Our
old chum Aston has knocked up a very limited edition 25th anniversary
t-shirt, printed front and back, which is now available in the Blyth
Power Shop. There were only 30 XL and 30 L made so do be quick to
avoid disappointment. As they are printed front and back and are
such a limited run the price is £10.
Land
Sea & Sky

So, we finally have it! Land Sea & Sky, and jolly marvellous
it is too. Playing time is in excess of sixty minutes, so think
of this as Blyth Power's 'Happy Hour'. It's certainly no slim volume,
and we enjoyed unleashing the finished CDs on you all at Lumb Farm.
Look out for a couple of very special guest performances from Mick
Tyas and Fred Purser.
Track list is: Fleurs du Mal, Heart of Me, Ass in the Oak Tree,
Follow the Band, House of War, On Top of my Lot, Devil and Sister
Helena, Battle of Naseby, I Who Came in from the Cold, The Mermaid,
Probably Won’t be Easy and Land Sea & Sky. Mr. Porter
is delirious with excitement at the prospect of giving some of this
stuff the full band treatment, especially the tracks off Death Went
to Bed, which has otherwise gone by the board. Blasts from the past
are The Mermaid, with revised lyrics, and Probably Won’t be
Easy, which missed the boat on Bricklayers Arms and currently languishes
in the bowels of our unfulfilled past. Battle of Naseby is the Macaulay
poem set to music – the one which Mr. Porter used to recite
during guitar string changes, and which almost got his legs broken
at Warwick University by a demented monarchist.
Bricklayers
Arms

Finally,
the book is at the printers. Here’s the blurb from the back
of the cover:
In
this fictional autobiography Benjamin Jonson, poet of Westminster,
tells of his rise from obscure birth in 1572 to the position of
Laureate at the court of James I, as the foremost man of letters
of his age. Scholar, actor, bricklayer, soldier and playwright,
no other figure of the Elizabethan stage has seen life from so many
angles, or written about it with such authority, but Jonson’s
star is fading and he is determined that if no one else will record
his fame for posterity then he will have to do so himself.
Set against a background of discord, as James’ grip on the
kingdom slackens, Jonson’s narrative traces his experiences
through war and imprisonment, vice and lechery, to accusations of
treason, murder and popery, and ultimately to the questionable honour
of a king’s favour, from which lofty heights he reviews his
successes, and, most notably, his failures.
Bitter, jealous, and with scarcely a good word for any of his peers,
Jonson’s disapprobation extends from the highest to the lowest
in the land, and none are spared as his acid tongue paints a vivid
picture of the vanities, wickedness, and folly of what history has
recorded as a ‘golden age’ of literary culture.
With
a page count around the 520 mark, price direct from us is £16.00
and of course available now for preorder. Watch this space for availability,
ISBN, and all the other stuff you’ll need to know to buy a
copy. Interested parties are directed to the sample chapter elsewhere
on this site, and if we sell enough there are two other finished
books in waiting. No wonder there aren’t twelve previously
unrecorded songs on the new CD. The blighter’s used all the
words up here…
John
Palfrey Sabbatical Appeal

Many
of you reading this will be aware of our colleague John Palfrey
(Vicar to most of you), but you may not be aware of his plans for
the coming year or so. Here then is all you need to know:
'In
September I’m going to Cambodia (one of the world’s
poorest nations, following a devastating civil war) for 6 months
as a volunteer marketing officer for a small but enterprising orphanage
in the town of Siem Reap. My task is to tap into the country’s
burgeoning tourism industry, creating child sponsorship opportunities
and worthwhile training for the children. So – I need to raise
sponsorship to cover my basic living costs.
Thus I request the gracious fans of the legendary Blyth Power to
visit my appeal website Cambodia
Appeal and if you are able make a small donation. From
there you will find links to our work in Cambodia, and my blog which
will bring you witty and amusing dispatches from Mid September.
If you run a business you can advertise on my supporters page, linked
to the blog which will run throughout the project. Or you can give
directly to the orphanage via the weblink on my supporters page.
Cambodia Orphan Fund is a registered charity in Cambodia, and UK
registration should follow. Please check my webpage for more details,
updates and a mission statement.
Thank you.'
Public
Exposure

Thanks
to Mr Simon Sweetman for affording us more publicity than we've
had in the last twenty years when he did his stint on Antony Gormley's
Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Not since a Blyth Power t-shirt appeared
on Countdown have we been such aa household name...
Strummer
Bummer

Who
would have thought that Mr. Joseph Porter, noted fascist swine,
money-grabbing business man and multi-media tycoon would have been
thrown out of a band for being too much of a po-faced little anarcho.
Sadly, this is precisely what happened, and as a result he was no
longer a member of Null & Void by the time they came to record
with Joe Strummer at his studio in Camden. Bugger!
He did record some material with them, though, and this is now available
on a CD called All Burnt Out, which re-issues most of the band’s
recorded works, and includes some of the best songs that Mr. Porter
ever played on. Songwriter Andy Barker is responsible for all the
material on the CD, and we recommend it wholeheartedly. Look for
more at NULL &
VOID
Cider
On Parade

Film
making chaps Ben Burgess and Frank Wall have added their superb
interpretation of Cider Dreaming Time to YouTube, where it can be
viewed along with the previous film based on Cynthia’s Revels.
Follow this link Cider
Dreaming Time
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