Blyth Power : News Page

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 located in darkest Norfolk. Well, it keeps Mr Cooper happy so you know it makes sense... Please do note that this year the festivities will continue until 11pm on the Sunday evening, with you all very welcome to stay and camp Sunday night too.

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

Exciting news reaches us from our friend and colleague Mr Paul Stapleton, known to many of you as frontman of Ashes favourites Pog. In a departure from his usual comic books comes the launch of a daily comic strip, Latchkey. Anyone wishing to sign up for a daily dose can do so by emailing him here Latchkey

For those of you familiar with The Lovely Brothers we can also report the launch of Zombies in Brighton, a choose your own adventure story set in Brighton. It is intended as the first in a series of books by the rather lovely Lovely Brother Ben, and further details can be found on Facebook here Zombies in Brighton

Limited Run of T-Shirts For The Ashes


FRONT	BACK

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…
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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