One of the loveliest of the Alexmas experiments last year was the trying out of music at the Alex with local singer songwriters performing their work. The scale of the Alex perfectly suits these intimate sessions, and we plan to continue these Thursday early evening sessions into 2023. Called 'First Thursdays' (as they are on the first Thursday of the month!) we are expanding into literature (involving local writing groups as well as local poets, comedians, etc). Timing is a gentle 4-8pm with food available at the licensed cafe, plus art available for browsing and buying. We hope it will be a nice thing to do as a treat towards the end of the working week, on the way home or as warm up for a longer evening out.
His Sheep Dip sessions started as house concerts in Princethorpe, but have now relocated to Harbury where they take place in the Village Library. Michael has performed at most of the folk clubs in the Warwickshire area and, with poet Olga Dermott-Bond, wrote the song-cycle from this ground. In six songs and five poems this tells and explores the migration stories of C19 agricultural labourers who left Warwickshire in 1872 for a 'better life' in Brazil. The themes and stories mirror contemporary migration narratives.
This show premiered at Leamington Library just before 1st lockdown and since then has been performed at various folk clubs, Covfolk at the Albany Theatre plus in a number of village halls for various Local History Societies. An earlier song-cycle 'back to the land' was written in response to an exhibition of rural artefacts in Leamington Library and was performed in the exhibition space.
There are no fees for attending First Thursday events but at this one we plan to have a collection for the Turkey-Syria Earthquake Relef fund. You can download a PDF of the poster for this event here.
Future sessions
If you are a local artist who would like to perform original material at the Alex please email artatthealex@gmail.com. If you are a local would-be songwriter you may be interested in this song writing group which meets on Wednesdays in St Andrews.