Blyth Power : News Page

Looks like it’s full ahead on the last and greatest part of the fabulous trilogy. You remember – the one that started years ago with On the Viking Station… Well, if you haven’t been listening then it’s a major artistic concept involving three inter-linked CD releases with complimentary artwork and an overall sense of unity and identity hitherto missing in the band’s recorded output. Yes we had our moments, but they were patchy in scattered about. The intention with Land, Sea & Sky is to show what Blyth Power can be when they don’t **** about.
Thus, three weeks in August are booked at Trinity heights, and with Mr. Fred Purser again at the helm Blyth Power will record the crucial keystone to the project.
Which is actually as pompous as it sounds. Fortunately the recording won’t be. Track list is: Heart of Me, Fleurs du Mal, 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.
You can order the CD from us now, and we’ll send them out as soon as possible. We expect to have them in mid-August, and the more we sell in advance, the less interest we have to pay on enormous loans, so the more chance there is of not losing all of our shirt, and the greater the likelihood of producing T-shirts etc. to accompany the release. Official CD launch will be at Lumb Farm on Ashes weekend, but don’t feel you need to wait.

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.

We don’t have a price yet, as this will be calculated once the page count is set, but at 190,000 words it is not a slim volume. Watch this space for price, 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. 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…

Ashes to Ashes

Yes of course we’ll be seeing you all at the Ashes at Lumb Farm in August! Dates are 28th – 30th, and it’s going to be a super weekend, with a galaxy of stars, and we’ve even hired a stage as well. Remember, this is your one chance in the year to have Mr. Porter clean up a toilet cubicle after you, so if for no other reason than to sample our wonderful Joseph Porterloos, you know you have to come. Tickets are available now at £15 for the weekend including camping. Under 16s are free, and full details of the host of talent etc. etc. are now up on the Ashes pages. See you there.

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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