in the thick of it...

last post

2009-10-30T09:32:00.003Z

today is my last day as Director of the Lichfield Festival, and I wanted to put up a brief last post to thank you all for reading this over the last seventeen months, for engaging with it every now and then, and for supporting the Lichfield Festival from where ever you are. From next week I will be pursuing a Clore Fellowship fulltime and from 16 November my successor Fiona Stuart will be in post. Please do keep an eye out on this blog, as it is bound to continue in some way...

travelling picture show ends its journey

2009-10-14T18:29:00.001+01:00

Just heard from the good folk at 7inch Cinema, who screened film at last July's Festival, that the animation workshops that started here on our final day and have continued throughout the West Midlands over recent months, have finally been completed and the 'chain-film' The Magic Box will be premiered at a Gala Finale of the Travelling Picture Show will take place on Sunday 25 October at 6pm at The Electric in Birmingham. The evening will also include pianist Paul Shallcross accompanying two comedy classics: Buster Keaton wrestles with a flatpack house in One Week (1920) and Laurel and Hardy are persistent salesmen in Big Business (1929).

literature day after

2009-10-12T10:43:00.002+01:00

still picking through the weekend to work out just how successful an event it was, but with a string of happy authors, pretty healthy book sales (the David Aaronovitch book sold out), and (so far) really nice and encouraging words from the visit authors, its just the money that we have yet to measure sucess by. I realise that our audience figures are helped by an event for children that was attended by over 400 people, but even an initial tally suggest that attendances were up by over 730 (which is like 125% increase on last year - nice). While thanks go to all the professional authors who visited this year, I would also like to name and thank all of the local authors and poets who came to speak at our inaugural Open Mic event - Elizabeth Leaper, Janet Jenkins, Sally Hayter, Paul Higgs, Mostyn Harris, Jan Green, Michael Pearson, Anthony Webster, Sue Maxwell, Matthew Powell, Philip Hall, Wendy Wilson, and Gary Longdon.

literature day two

2009-10-09T09:59:00.005+01:00

it is with a certain shock that I find myself at the start of day two of this year's lichfield literature without having posted about it for nearly three weeks. Better late than never I suppose. It feels a little like its crept up on us all, and our slightly unexpected full house for our first event with Ian Stewart last night (freshly 'retired' and on the day his book was officially released) excitedly reminded us of what it is we actually do. It is often too easy to get caught up with planning and budgets, that we forget that it is about allowing, in this case, authors (artists) to engage directly with their readers (audiences), and vice versa.
This morning then, with a triple espresso drunk from my favourite Very Hungry Caterpiller mug in recognition of today's four sold out puppet shows marking the book's 40th birthday, and with a long day stretching ahead of the team culminating in (another) sold out event with Kate Adie, I wanted to briefly draw attention to the gentle Lichfield thread. Our second event last night was David Charles Manners speaking about and reading from his latest book. David went to school in Lichfield, and spoke with eloquence and a wonderfully poetic turn of phrase about his years here and about the extraordinary work that he has been doing in the Bengal Himalaya for the last sixteen years. Tomorrow at noon we welcome ten local poets and authors who will be reading their unpublished work at our Open Mic event (this is free - come along). Then Frances Wilson, also from Lichfield, will be finally speaking about her Dorothy Wordsworth book after having to pull out last year due to illness. Tomorrow evening ends with David Nokes discussing Lichfield's Samuel Johnson. Finally, on Sunday, we welcome back Matthew Yeo, another born and bred Lichfeldian, who will be talking about the the history of the bookshop (!). Of course there are other wee connections throughout the weekend, but it is great to have so many authors from here returning to speak here.

new festival director

2009-09-29T16:16:00.008+01:00

it has just been announced publicly, but at the start of November Fiona Stuart will become only the fifth Lichfield Festival Director in 28 years. To quote from the press release Fiona is

currently director of the Chorlton Arts Festival and also community outreach manager for the Royal Northern College of Music.

She replaces Richard Hawley, director since 2004, who has accepted a fellowship with the Clore Leadership Programme, and leaves Lichfield at the end of October.

Fiona said: “I am delighted to have been offered the post of Festival Director of The Lichfield Festival. The Festival has helped to place Lichfield on the map as a centre for wide-ranging and innovative arts and has an important place in enriching the life of the local community. I am excited about getting to know this community and also about working within such a strong, established team.

“With a successful 28-year history behind it, the Festival has established itself as a forward-thinking and groundbreaking arts organisation, and I look forward to building on the success of Richard Hawley and his predecessors in bringing together the best in local, national and international arts.”
As director of the Chorlton Arts Festival, Fiona was responsible for planning, promoting and delivering one of the largest festivals in Greater Manchester, and over three years was able to double the size of the festival and treble its audience figures.

At the Royal Northern College of Music she has been part of a team devising and delivering community events, providing participation opportunities for over 2,500 young people. As part of this programme, Fiona produced West Side Story, the largest project ever undertaken by the outreach department and designed to give talented children from deprived areas the opportunity to work alongside professional directors, choreographers, musicians and theatre crew.

Nick Sedgwick, Chairman of the Lichfield Festival’s board of directors, said: “We selected Fiona from a strong field of candidates from around the country for her special combination of qualities and experience. Her work at Chorlton and at the RNCM involves the whole community and she will quickly bring those skills to bear in Lichfield. “

shortlisted

2009-09-11T14:32:00.006+01:00

earlier today we found out that the Lichfield Festival and our long-term Principal Partner BMW Plant Hams Hall have been shortlisted in the Sustained Partnership category for this year's Jaguar Land Rover Awards for Arts & Business. All shortlists will be announced in The Birmingham Post next week, and winners will be announced at Birmingham Town Hall on 15 October.

as a sneaky wee peek for those that read this blog, the lichfield literature brochure can be found here although it has yet to go up on the festival website...

and, as at close of play today, I will be out of the office for the next two weeks doing this here.

lichfield literature

2009-09-10T16:34:00.005+01:00

This morning the last seven tickets for Katie Adie were grabbed, which means we've sold out within a week, and we've just added another Very Hungry Caterpillar show due to demand, so over 60% of the available seats have already been booked over the four performances.

Other authors speaking include David Aaronovitch on the role of conspiracy theories in modern history; historical novelist Barbara Ewing; Lawrence Goldman, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; crime crime writers Sophie Hannah and Peter Robinson in a Lichfield Library double bill; Tobias Hill discussing his latest novel The Hidden; historian Robert Hutchinson on the Dukes of Norfolk; Andrew Lambert on Captain John Franklin's doomed expedition (perfect, I think, for a city that honours doomed captains); Stephen Lyttelton discusses collating his father's last writings, David Charles Manners speaks about the impact of India on his life, David Nokes speaks his new biography of Samuel Johnson as a nod to the tercentenary, mathematician Ian Stewart, explorer Sara Wheeler on the arctic, Frances Wilson on Dorothy Wordsworth; and Matthew Yeo on the history of the book.
We are also holding an Open Mic event for local authors to come and share their writings.

Tickets will probably go on sale on Tuesday, but keep an eye on the festival website to be certain.

should I be resisting twitter?

2009-09-08T17:12:00.006+01:00

many months ago I grabbed @lichfieldfest as a twitter name, knowing full well that sending minute by minute updates from my mobile during the festival, while simultaneously running a blogsite, doing my job and looking after a six month old puppy just wouldn't happen. since then, and while I have yet to issue a single update via twitter, we've amassed 38 followers (I realise 'amassed' may not be the most appropriate word).
I've gradually updated the site every now and then (just worked out how to get my logo up today), but I just can't get beyond thinking that twitter as a vehicle of communication for a festival like Lichfield's just isn't the best way forward. The flipside of that argument, which I readily acknowledge, is that a festival like ours should use every possible way to communicate with as big an audience as possible.

On a quick trawl through similar festivals, it seems to be only significantly bigger ones that utilise twitter to any great effect, although @spitsmusic and @eastneukfest seem to be valiantly proving that statement to be incorrect:

@cheltfestivals
@edintfest
@bbcproms
@mifestival
@brightfest
@harrogatefest

The nearby Birmingham Book Festival (@bhambookfest) also seems to be puttings theirs to good use.

adie on sale

2009-09-03T13:42:00.005+01:00

tickets for the Lichfield Literary Dinner with Kate Adie as guest speaker went on sale at 9am this morning, and by noon half of the available seats had already sold. Go Kate! We may need to revisit this to see whether we can fit in a few more people than we were planning...
Having just returned from leave, I am belatedly at the final stages of scheduling the Lichfield Literature programme. While we'll be in a position to announce next week the full line up of speakers, one other event that we are already spreading the word about is a puppet show to mark the 40th anniversary of Eric Carle's masterpiece The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which continues our programming of events for families and young children. There will be three performances on Friday 9 October at Wade Street Church.

AAS0910

2009-08-19T18:04:00.012+01:00

The new brochure for the Abbotsholme Arts Society has finally landed. While the website has yet to be updated, and the information has been available since before the Festival (ie, I could have easily listed it all here before now), below are scans of the full brochure detailing this season's events. For those that care about such things, the colour is Pantone 209 and is actually the last of a sequence of colours I chose back in 2005 leading up to this season.
This year's artists include Alina Ibragimova and Cedric Tiberghien performing the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas over three concerts, Stephen Hough with a programme linked to the year, the Schubert Ensemble, the Jerusalem Quartet, the inimitable Spiers & Boden doing an acoustic set, and the 2009 Gordon Clark Scholar Linda Barlund. Tickets for all events are available by calling the number detailed under General Information below.

death of an institution?

2009-08-11T12:45:00.002+01:00

there were rumours floating around, and the website has been down for a little while, but having just had the opportunity to walk past, it really does seem that James Redshaw, Lichfield's independent bookshop has finally died. There is a notice in the window stating that due to the economic downturn, James Redshaw Ltd ceased trading on 30 June 2009. A few years ago it was bought out by S&J Music, a wonderful little music shop, and just over a year ago both shops moved from Dam Street to a larger premise in Bird Street. This was not one of those bookshops in which you could spend a blissful afternoon browsing the shelves and having a sneaky read, but they did pride themselves on being able to track down pretty much anything and get it in very quickly. James Redshaw was also a very strong and loyal supporter of local authors, something that will surely be missed now that they are gone.
Lichfield Festival took over the running of the Lichfield Literary Dinner in 2006, after James Redshaw had been running it incredibly successfully for 30 years. This year's Literary Dinner takes place on Friday 9 October as part of Lichfield Literature and will feature Kate Adie speaking.

dreamfighter mark two

2009-08-06T10:30:00.002+01:00

later on today up in Scotland, Dreamfighter gets its second outing as part of this year's Aberdeen International Youth Festival. Performed twice (5.30 and 7.30), and with the same team as the premiere here in Lichfield (Scottish Ensemble, composer Tim Sutton conducting and Hannah Conway narrating), the choir this time round will be the NYCoS Girls Choir.

still not a plinthian

2009-08-05T13:17:00.004+01:00

I've just checked and I have missed out on a place for One & Other on the Fourth Plinth for the third month in a row, no doubt along with thousands of others. While this in itself is not a problem, missing out does give me the chance to highlight two one-hour slots coming up that have a connection to the Lichfield Festival.
Hannah Spencer, an ex-Festival runner and now Creative Arts graduate will be up sometime in what remains of this week. More about her here.
Stephen Snoddy, Festival Board member and Director of New Art Gallery Walsall will be up 1-2pm Friday 28 August. More about him here.
The chances of getting a place were pretty good when I applied, but since this thing went live at the start of July, the chances of getting a place have been decreasing everyday. We'll see what October holds...

weird

2009-08-04T16:13:00.003+01:00

I have been through something like this on several occasions but it is still a weird experience seeing your job advertised. It went up yesterday providing interested people with three weeks to send in their application.

festival photos

2009-07-22T11:33:00.004+01:00

zipping between rehearsals and performances has been Drew Thompson taking excellent photographs for the Lichfield Festival archives. They can all be seen here. If there are any more that you may come across or even have yourself, get them online with a link in the comments or a lichfieldfestival2009 tag, or even email them into the Festival Office with how you would like them credited. You never know how they might be used beyond the archive...

the day after

2009-07-20T12:07:00.003+01:00

unlike last year when we were using this day to bring everything out, we were already completely out of the cathedral at about 8pm last night. Andy Lovell and Alistair Tucker swung by yesterday evening to take away their unsold works, and the front door bell goes every now and then when people come to collect the pieces they purchased. The whole team is in trying to make sense of our desks (or find it, in my case) and to start to work through exactly how things went as opposed to how we planned for them to go.
Since early this morning scaffolding has been going into the cathedal in readiness for starting to take out the Herkenrode windows for restoration.

day ten.three

2009-07-18T15:20:00.004+01:00

CBSO are finally in and I can hear La Mer being rehearsed as I type. We've discovered that we will have some tickets for sale on the door afterall now that last night's sound desk is gone, which is great. Less great is that the Lady Chapel stage was also taken away immediately after the lunchtime concert by the 2008 Gordon Clark Scholars.
The Gordon Clark Memorial Scholarship Trust supports young musicians, the kick back being that they perform either in Lichfield Festival or at Abbotsholme Arts Society. Charlotte Scott and Christian Elliot were to have been joined by James Baillieu, but due to an old RSI injury being triggered by moving house, Simon Lane stepped in at short notice.
CBSO's Music Director and tonight's conductor Andris Nelsons and I were going to have our pre-concert chat on the Lady Chapel stage. We'll probably make it much more intimate than we otherwise could have with both of us on the flat, and the audience really close.

day ten.two

2009-07-18T11:35:00.003+01:00

CBSO truck still not arrived, but the Close has been shut to traffic since about 10am because of the Festival Dash, the annual sporting event culminating in a race around the cathedral to the 12noon chimes. Pip from 7 Inch Cinema and I welcomed a lovely little audience for Komaneko earlier on.

day ten.one

2009-07-18T08:07:00.004+01:00

the team is in waiting for the CBSO truck in readiness for tonight's final concert in the cathedral. Tonight's soloist is Stephen Hough, who performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 at last night's Opening Night of the Proms. Tonight he performs Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.2.

day nine.two

2009-07-17T22:46:00.004+01:00

what a stunning evening we've had here. Joe Stilgoe had everyone in the palm of his hand with a roaring crowd down at the Garrick, and up at the cathedral the evening ended with a standing ovation, not a common occurance at all here in Lichfield. Jon Lord and co were absolutely brilliant, and the audience came from far and wide (I met one person who had driven five hours from Kent and another who had flown in from Copengahen). Many photos were taken at the rehearsal, and many more were taken at the gig, both officially and unofficially, so no doubt footage and image will gradually become available. Would be great if people popped links below. If things went according to plan, the entire evening was also recorded. Not sure what we'll do with it...

Full playlist was
As I Walked Out One Evening
De Profundis
Miles Away
Sarabande
Pictured Within
From The Windmill
The Telemann Experiment
//
Evening Song
Bouree
Air on the Blue String
Unsquare Dance
Soldier of Fortune
Gigue
//encores
Wait a While
The Sun Will Shine Again
Child in Time

day nine.one

2009-07-17T11:48:00.004+01:00

briefly back in the office after a lovely chat with Jon Lord in advance of his performance in Lichfield cathedral tonight. In no way am I an expert in Deep Purple ephemera, so most of the discussion was about approaches to composition and the putting together of tonight's programme. It was also a relatively rare opportunity for punters to ask a few questions directly of the man, and while there were the rather expected questions of whether DP Mark III will ever happen, there were also some nice questions about the potential of a Lord film score and what classical composers he admires. I learned that Jon deeply admires James MacMillan, which is a happy synchronicity as MacMillan was performed last night, and will be imminently at today's lunchtime concert.

day eight.two

2009-07-16T22:29:00.004+01:00

managed to catch the first half of Happiness Patrol's Tales of Terror tonight, which was surprisingly & spine-tinglingly wonderful. Great acting, and riviting performances. Managed to clock Jeremy Hardy, but the box that I use to slip in and out of the theatre was locked when I tried, so all I could do was listen through the door - everyone sounded like they were having a good time. A trudge back to the cathedral through heavy rain to catch some glorious James MacMillan sung by The Sixteen and then back to the office to tidy up som eloose ends for tomorrow... Today is James MacMillan's 50th birthday.

day eight.one

2009-07-16T11:14:00.004+01:00

a beautiful morning here in Lichfield, and as I write Michael Symmons Roberts is giving a wonderfully intimate poetry reading (the first festival poetry reading since 2004), I can hear Robert Quinney practicing for this lunchtime's organ recital, the CBSO are rehearsing Debussy and Ravel in Birmingham in readiness for Saturday night's sold out concert, and a car has just left to meet up with Jon Lord and co for their rehearsal, also happening in Birmingham. And I've just bumped into half the Badke Quartet arriving for what will be a long and busy day, with a rehearsal then performance at St Chad's, and then a late rehearsal joining Jon Lord in readiness for tomorrow night.
For those that are after up to the minute updates as Jon Lord gets tomorrow night ready, you can sign up to his twitter feed here.

day seven.two

2009-07-15T20:24:00.007+01:00

just back from announcing the UOGB for the final Ukulelescope, and ensuring that the Happiness Patrol's Tales of Terror got off to a good start. I am seeing the full show tomorrow evening, but I did manage to pop my head into the conclusion of the rehearsal. It will be very, very good. Like all good storytellers, Happiness Patrol are telling ghost stories with almost no set and props. However, one of those props, used for the final story, is a large coffin, which they apparently dropped off at the box office earlier today, happily coinciding with a bunch of children arriving for more Dreamfighter education performances.

day seven.one

2009-07-15T11:15:00.007+01:00

a huge and mighty congratulations to the Lichfield Festival Chorus for a spectacular second year. They have been working once a fortnight for the last two months learning a full programme of traditional and contemporary Gospel music via the aural tradition led mainly by Celia and Shereece of Black Voices and Colin Anderson, and last night they sang their hearts out. Dressed in the colours of the Festival's sunshine barcode, and aged between 7 and 80, they excelled yet again. Is this really the only intergenerational choir in the UK?
Really great to have all of Black Voices here again after their sell out show in 2006. Thanks too to Peter Daley and Sarah Colman for their valuable roles last night (Sarah of course was here last year with The Passion).
It appears we may have created a moster as well - the word is the legacy will be a Lichfield Gospel Choir that will continue meeting and performing after this year's festival.