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(Updated
25.1.12)
The
Blyth Power Ashes 2012

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 proved such a success that festivities will once more take place
at the jolly splendid Plough Inn, in Farcet Fen just south of Peterborough.
Please do note that this year the festivities will be on the bank
holiday weekend of 24-26th August, and will continue until 12 midnight
on the Sunday evening, with you all very welcome to stay and camp
Sunday night too. Do stick around. Ticket prices have increased
slightly due to spiralling costs, but we are hopeful this year showers
shall be provided.
| Tickets
are now on sale for a measly £20 |
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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 Women
and Horses, Power and War will see the light of day until the usual
years interim between releases has passed. There are nine new songs
finished, with three more part written.
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
Exciting
news reaches us from our friend and colleague Mr Paul Stapleton,
known to many of you as frontman of Ashes favourites Pog and Anal
Beard. Firstly comes the release of Undisputed King of Nothing,
a series of graphic novels set several months after a global pandemic
has wiped out the vast majority of the human race. Seen through
the eyes of one who is so far the only survivor, it will focus on
life in England through the weeks and months following. The first
in the series is out on release and details can be found here Undisputed
King of Nothing. Eagle-eyed Blyth followers may notice
something rather familiar about the title of each in the series.
Mr
Stapleton's second current project, BN1, is going to be a semi-occasional
comic strip based on conversations overheard and ideas certain people
have inspired in his little part of Sussex. For now this can be
found on Facebook here.
From
Ben Bailey, better known to many as Brother Bemps from The Lovely
Brothers, comes the long awaited follow up to Zombies in Brighton.
The second in his series of choose your own adventure books, Vampires
in Brighton is both bigger and longer, and further details can be
found on Facebook here Vampires
in Brighton or on The Lovely Brothers website here.
Land
Sea & Sky

Land
Sea & Sky is of course still available, 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 you should 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

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.
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…
After even further delays with this than can be experienced on the
Harrogate loop during leaf fall, we can report we fully expect delivery
in April. Anyone preordering will also offer you the chance to read
the unedited version which is 95000 words longer, and will be sent
as a document by email in addition to the book.
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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