Friday, January 22, 2010

The Imagined Village

The last time I saw The Imagined Village was at the Big Chill, either last year or the year before (sorry I can't remember which!). Then they had Sheila Chandra with them and they've also featured Billy Bragg. Now they've slimmed the line-up down a bit but there's still a fair few of them on stage.
I photographed them last night at Birmingham Town Hall for Brum Live and they were great!
There should be a review up there soon.
For now, here's a few pics.


Not many uprights in the bass player collection so this is a nice rarity.




Their sound is somewhere between ancient English folk and Indian/world music, oh with a bit of Electronica thrown in for good measure. Many of the songs are re-workings or arrangements of songs I normally would steer well clear of! That's testament to how good they are at it. I even bought their CD. :-)

Monday, January 18, 2010

2010

A bit late I know but the New Year has been on hold somewhat so far because of all that snowy stuff. It was very nice and the Malverns particularly looked amazing but closed schools and messy roads meant not much got done!
I have managed to get a few portraits in though and a job at Malvern Library for their Festival of Learning so it's not been completely dead. Tonight the John Masefield evening classes start again too - a week late.
This term is a short one and I'll be getting the students to think about the upcoming exhibition at the Weaver's Gallery in Ledbury - advertised on my Facebook page. We ran this last year, organised brilliantly by Jeanette McCulloch, and it was such a success that it's on again from March 22nd - 28th this year. It will feature work from my photography students (different work to last year!) as well as pieces from the Botanical Illustration and Silver Jewellery classes.
We're also taking the Unsung Heroes exhibition to Malvern Library in May - I'll post details later - so it's already turning into a busy 2010. My Spring workshops will run on a number of Sundays from Feb 7th until May too - get in touch directly or via Facebook if you want to attend one. Details on the main website.
So just a little update for now. Looking forward to getting the classes started again tonight.
See you soon!