#piers haslam

[northcountryprimitive]

Long Pike Hollow: The Other Side of Piers Haslam

Originally published at North Country Primitive in June 2016

Here at North Country Primitive, we were already aware of Piers Haslam as an up and coming interpreter of traditional English folk song. Although not yet out of his teens, he has already been developing a burgeoning reputation as a performer who understands that folk music is not a genteel parlour game, but a raw and unfettered force of nature - in the right hands. Rightly, he has been compared less with his contemporaries than with the great guitar-slinging British folkies  of the 1960s and 70s.  What we didn't know, or at least until he sent us the self-released album by his alter ego, Long Pike  Hollow, is that he is also a talented fingerstyle guitarist with a deep love of all things American Primitive. We decided it was time we investigated further...

You're starting to develop quite a reputation as a purveyor of English traditional folk song. So what gives with this veering off into the murky world of American Primitive guitar? Is it a long held interest you wanted to explore further? A scratching of an itch that traditional song can't satisfy?

Oh indeed yes, it is a long held interest. I mean, the first music I ever created was solo instrumentals, when I was about 13. I was very aware of American primitive/instrumental guitar music from an early age, mainly just from a handful of John Fahey and Bert Jansch tracks, and I immediately saw the joy one can find working in that form when I picked up playing the guitar.  And certainly yes, there is a strong and very distinct satisfaction to playing your own music and having people listen and enjoy.  Trad folk is a wonderful world, where arranging and reinterpreting are highly respected arts, rightly so, but in the end you are doing covers,  and personally I rather fancied letting out a more wildly creative force. Is Long Pike Hollow a side project? A one-off? The way forward? When someone goes to see Piers Haslam  folk singer  in concert, does Long Pike Hollow sneak a few tunes into his repertoire? Or is there a strict division of labour? No, my LPH direction is certainly not ephemeral. It really is a thing I've wanted to do for an awful long time, and I thing I think I'll always do, whether anyone is listening or not! But no, there isn't really a strict division... I would be highly unlikely to sing a folk song at an LPH gig, but I always slip a few of my own into a folky set. Part of the joy of an LPH gig is the novelty of not singing at all... well, a novelty to someone who's been singing most of their performing life. Long Pike Hollow is a great name for the project. Is there a meaning behind it or do you just like how the words sit together? It's named after a landscape feature in the beautiful Shropshire hills, which I'm blessed to have spent a lot of time in. It's a wonderful place, and I just saw the name on a map and thought it was extremely catchy and satisfyingly meaningless. Who are your key influences as a guitarist? And can you tell me what got you started and how long you've been playing? Key influences are John Fahey, William Tyler and Richard Thompson, all of whom I started seriously studying videos and recordings of a few years back. I began playing when I was about 10, so eight years ago. I strummed 60s pop songs until I was 13, when I began writing a few tunes. Nick Harper was a very huge influence at this point, and his album Instrumental was my first full length exposure to solo guitar music. But folk music also came to the fore at this time from my love of Liege & Lief, so I began singing folk songs and playing guitar along with them. The folk music was a fantastic area to go to and it has brought me much joy, but it did stop me almost entirely from instrumental experimentation for quite a while. What is the balance between composition and improvisation in the Long Pike Hollow material? Well most of my songs spring off from a long session of improvising, but when it comes to performing it depends. All of them do have a very set structure, but most have a few places I deliberately leave more blank, so I can come up with something fresh on the night.

Can you see a time where you bring together your interest in traditional folk and your interest in fingerstyle guitar (other than accompanying yourself on guitar when you sing folk songs)? I'm thinking of stuff like extemporisations and improvisations based on traditional songs and tunes, much as some of the US guitarists have done with, for example, Appalachian fiddle tunes...

Yes, I can see that. I suppose I've done that quite a lot with Norwegian folk tunes, which are a great love of mine for their peculiar beauty and simplicity. But in all, yes, I think it's a wonderful thing to do, and I have no qualms with bringing in folk elements to my instrumental music. I mean, so much of my playing is informed by American and English folk music, and by Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Central Asian traditional forms. Moving to the trad folk side of things, where do you see yourself sitting in terms of the folk scene? It's my contention that too much of the younger end of the UK trad scene is a little too polished, prissy and polite for its own good and  musically, at least - could do with a night or two out on the tiles with the Cosmic Dead. I don't see much of the grit or soul of the best of the folk performers of the 70s. And there's not enough guitar. Do you see yourself as part of the lineage of British folk guitarists - the Carthys, the Nic Joneses, the Jansch and Renbourns, the Michael Chapmans? Can you see a rawer, rougher-edged take on traditional folk re-emerging, and if so, would you align yourself with that? After all, when you listen to field recordings of traditional singers, its pretty wild, rough and ready stuff... Oh yes, I agree. A thing that really attracted me to traditional music was how rough and very subversive it can be. I always gravitate towards the stranger songs, the side of stuff people rarely sing. So I love old war songs, political broadsides... it's just a side of the whole rich musical past one practically never sees. But when it comes to folk music, and singing folk songs, I feel more in line with John Kirkpatrick, despite a huge influence from Martin Carthy and others mentioned. I think there's a real edgy aspect to what John Kirkpatrick does, and I feel like I want to bring that out into the fore with my folky stuff. And in terms of guitar accompanying my singing, I like to keep it to a minimum, because for me in English song one needs to let the voice shine through any kind of accompaniment, and I do often sing unaccompanied. So I think I do align myself with that, really. But that singing emphasis is obviously only a part of my folky ethos - when it comes to LPH I will happily mess around instrumentally. What are you listening to at the moment? Any recommendations, old or new? Well! It may not be entirely on topic, but I'm listening to an awful lot of dub reggae and early dancehall at the moment. But something I'd love to recommend to any lovers of American primitive or whatever is Chinese guqin music, a tradition I find to be highly kindred. Beautiful meditative simplicity, most of the tunes being many hundreds of years old. There's an album called The Pure Sound of Mountain and Water by Shuishan Yu that I'd recommend in particular. Have you got a particular guitar you would save first in the face of a natural disaster? I think, rather amusingly, I'm not really attached to any of my guitars! Apart from the one I learnt to play on, an Argos purchase. The one I perform with was £200, and it's really the only guitar I have that is okay to play. What's in store for you next? Music composed for the electric guitar... Anything I should have asked but I didn't? Yes - what inspires you to compose your songs, artistically and musically? My answer: most do start from some kind of inspiration, a place, a person, an idea... and if not then they very soon take on meaning. But musically I try my very best to do something really unusual, that's what I'm so often striving for. American primitive guitar as it comes down to us from Fahey and Basho etc is such a wonderful gift, and I'm determined to keep it fresh and evolve the form further. In the future I want to create music that sounds radically different to anything ever heard before... that's an ultimate goal.

https://longpikehollow.bandcamp.com/

#long pike hollow #piers haslam #american primitive #traditional folk

[joealwyndaily]

EXCLUSIVE: In-demand young talents Emma Mackey (Sex Education), Joe Alwyn (The Favourite), Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) and Emily Beecham (Cruella) will star in Emily, Golden Globe-nominated actress Frances O’Connor’s (Mansfield Park) directorial debut about the early life of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë.

Mackey, star of Netflix smash Sex Education and Fox’s upcoming Death On The Nile, will star as Emily. Harriet and The Favourite actor Alwyn will play Brontë’s conflicted lover. Whitehead, well known for Dunkirk and Emmy-winner Bandersnatch, plays Branwell Brontë, Emily’s inspiring but self-destructive brother, and Cannes 2019’s Best Actress winner Emily Beecham (Little Joe) completes the quartet as sibling writer Charlotte Brontë.

Embankment will handle world sales on the project, which is slated to shoot in Yorkshire, UK, in Q1, 2021. The firm will be selling from now and during the upcoming Cannes virtual market.

From a self-penned script, O’Connor imagines the transformative, exhilarating, and uplifting journey to womanhood of a rebel and a misfit, one of the world’s most famous, enigmatic, and provocative writers who died too soon at the age of 30.

Double Golden Globe-nominee O’Connor is known for her roles in Mansfield Park, Bedazzled, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Madame Bovary and The Conjuring 2.

Producers are Harry Potter producer David Barron, Piers Tempest and Jo Bamford’s Tempo Productions (The Wife) with Robert Connolly and Robert Patterson of Arenamedia (Paper Planes).

O’Connor said: “Emily Brontë’s work and words are full of passion, feeling, violence, and fierce intelligence. In creating an imagined life for Emily, she will live again for our audience. Her story is about a young woman daring to form herself, to embrace her true nature, despite the consequences. Emily is, in fact, a love letter to women today, especially young women, a calling to them to challenge themselves to connect with their authentic voice and potential. I am so excited to work with such a thrilling, talented, young cast; luminous, intelligent, and spirited.”

Harry Potter, Cinderella and The Legend Of Tarzan producer Barron commented, “We are going to produce a movie of significant ambition – for audiences to enjoy and celebrate the scale of Emily Bronte’s own magnificent imagination.”

Embankment’s Tim Haslam added: “We really admire Frances’ expertise for combining highly refreshing and emotional storytelling with detailed research and nuanced observation and we celebrate her as a new voice of cinema”.

Mackey is represented by Kate Staddon at Curtis Brown Group and PJ Shapiro and Julian Zajfen at Ziffren Brittenham. Alwyn is represented by Independent Talent Group, CAA and Peikoff Mahan Popkin. Whitehead is represented by Curtis Brown Group, United Talent Agency and Peikoff Mahan Popkin. Beecham is represented by Troika, Seven Summits Management and ICM.

#joe alwyn #news #emily bronte film #omg what i can't process #emily

[legendsofracing]

Ron Haslamn, #5 Honda NS500, leads the pack in a rainy British Grand Prix in 1986.

#Ron Haslam #Honda #Honda NS500 #British Grand Prix #1986 #motorcycles #MotoGP #moto gp #motorcycle grand prix #Grand Prix motorcycle racing #500cc #Silverstone #Didier de Radigues #Pier-Francesco Chili #Roger Burnett #Boet van Dulmen #Simon Buckmaster #Rob McElnea

[wetlandfieldguide]

pier (overcast) // #wetlands #urbanecology #nature #environment #sydney #summer #australia #naturephotography #urbanphotography #wildoz #frogpond #sydneyolympicpark #haslamspier #homrbushbay #westernsydney #sydneylocal (at Haslams Creek)

#frogpond #nature #summer #wildoz #naturephotography #wetlands #urbanphotography #sydneyolympicpark #haslamspier #sydneylocal #environment #australia #urbanecology #sydney #homrbushbay #westernsydney

[totallyupintheair]

One minute at Haslam's Pier, Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales, Australia from Darren Woolley on Vimeo.

[vintagechiquevinylfreak]

Tracklist:

Anthony Child - Remember a Time When You Weren’t Sure Which Way Was North [Frequency Domain]

Jonathan Fitoussi and Clemens Hourriere - Instants Ephemeres [Versatile]

Aleksi Perala - UK74R1406100 [Colundi]

Octo Octa - Pitch Black [100% Silk]

Terrence Dixon - Bonus Coverage [Out Electronic]

Rrose - unreleased

Gunnar Haslam - Broadcast [The Bunker New York]

Rrose - unreleased

Neel - Sciara [Spazio]

Fjäder - The Real Does Not Die

Antenes - The Track of a Storm [L.I.E.S.]

Antigone - Walking Distance [Token]

Rrose - Nest of Queens [Eaux]

Robert Hood - Pattern 8 [Dekmantel]

Svreca - Warszawa [UMS]

Christian Piers - Strain [17 Steps]

Anthony Parasole - Explode [Dekmantel]

Shifted - Gauze [Drifting Over]

Svreca - Instituto Para El Futuro [Reclaim Your City]

Invite - Mercer [Propoganda Moscow]

Terrence Dixon - In Orbit [Out Electronic]

Bookworms - What Are You

Mixed With

Pessimist - Spirals [Blackest Ever Black]

Rrose - The Ends of Weather [Eaux]

#Rrose #podcast #techno #Eaux

[estuarysongwritingproject]

Interview with MG Boulter on the Estuary Song experience

We meet MG Boulter, supporter of Leigh Folk Festival, part of the festival's Estuary Songwriting Project, and co-curator of the Harbour Song & Sundown Arts stage at this year's festival. We catch up with him on the Estuary Songwriting Project to find out what it was really like being in a 'Big Brother house' style situation with 7 other musicians in their week-long residency at Chalkwell Hall.

Q: You spent a week writing music inspired by the Thames Estuary. This stretch of water that has provided so much cultural inspiration over the years from Joseph Conrad and Constable all the way through to the likes of Dr Feelgood. Why do you think that is? A: The Thames Estuary is large-scale nature and I think that has a lot to do with it. For artists, that big nature brings out those age-old human questions of what are we actually doing on this planet. So the Thames is a stimulant in that respect. The landscape is diverse throughout the year and can be quiet, picturesque, desolate, industrial and so on. All these facets have been and are still being explored by artists of all genres. Q: How did you find the experience of collaborating with other musicians to write new material? A: At first I was a little apprehensive because although I knew a lot of the musicians who were part of the project I had never collaborated with them in song writing. Looking back I can gladly say it was fantastic and I liked working with the different approaches each of them had. I collaborated significantly with three of the other artists and learnt a lot from that process.  

Q: The project is dedicated to Jack Forbes, the late folk musician who was a local stalwart of the folk community. How do you think the folk tradition will be carried on to new generations? A: I knew Jack and he was always welcoming and supportive of what I was doing. I don’t consider myself a folk musician in the traditional sense but folk to me is the interpretation of human experience and story so I see modern folk music and its progression as musicians cataloguing and telling tale of our times now. Q: The Isle of Grain power station chimney was demolished during your songwriting week and as a group you watched it, which resulted in you writing a song about it. How was that as an experience? A: It was an incredibly fun and spontaneous experience. We watched the chimney fall and then myself and Lucy Farrell got back to Chalkwell Hall and went straight to work on a song that ended up as ‘Explosion Day’. We sat on a bench in Chalkwell Park with the grounds staff cutting hedges all about us. I was obsessed with calling it ‘Execution Day’ but Lucy thankfully steered me in a less gloomy direction. Lucy would play a chord and then I would suggest the next one and then we muddled through the lyrics swapping lines and ideas. It was liberating to just throw ideas against the metaphorical wall and get the song complete.  

MG Boulter appears alongside Alasdair Roberts, Lucy Farrell, Hazel Askew, Roshi Nasehi, Nick Pynn, Kate Waterfield and Piers Haslam on Friday 23 June at Wesley Methodist Church for the final performance of the suite of Estuary Songwriting Project songs. Tickets are available at http://music.leighfolkfestival.com/merch/estuary-songwriting-project-concert-tickets

[vanessastrbek]

Sydney Olympic Park, fountain, sunset

A sunset view of the Northern Water Feature beside Haslam Pier at Sydney Olympic Park, in the western suburb of Homebush Bay.

Linked to: Skywatch Friday.

source https://sydney-city.blogspot.com/2020/09/sydney-olympic-park-fountain-sunset.html

[estuarysongwritingproject]

Listen now to ‘Tilbury Jack’

▶ Tilbury Jack - The Estuary Song Writing Project by Leigh Folk Festival         

This preview track is one of the many fruits of a LFF Arts Council England funded project, featuring Hazel Askew, M.G. Boulter, Lucy Farrell, Piers Haslam, Roshi Nasehi, Nick Pynn, Alasdair Roberts, and Kate Waterfield. Previously unreleased. Recorded by John Hannon at No Studios, October 2016.

https://soundcloud.com/user-799639862/tilbury-jack

Hear more at our gig at Cecil Sharp House on 22 March: https://cecilsharphouse.org/csh-venue-hire/our-spaces/21-shared/shared-events/3966-the-estuary-songwriting-project

[estuarysongwritingproject]

Upcoming gig at Cecil Sharp House

Here at Leigh Folk Festival HQ we're really excited that our Estuary Songwriting Project is going to be showcased at Cecil Sharp House in London - an iconic venue in the folk world. (We popped in for a coffee recently and it gave us a thrill to see us listed in the programme!) Our artists - Alasdair Roberts, Nick Pynn, MG Boulter, Lucy Farrell, Roshi Nasehi, Kate Waterfield, Hazel Askew and Piers Haslam - are performing in March and you can buy your tickets here: http://cecilsharphouse.org/component/content/article/21-shared/shared-events/3966-the-estuary-songwriting-project 

#Cecil Sharp House #folk gigs #folk uk #alasdair roberts #Leigh Folk Festival #estuary songwriting project

[estuarysongwritingproject]

Who’s involved? #2 - Piers Haslam

PIERS HASLAM is an 18-year old London based guitarist/singer who has been attending folk festivals since he was small.  His songs reflect a love of traditional folk as well as modern popular music.  Another Leigh Folk Festival regular, his big influences include Martin Carthy, Alasdair Roberts, Nick Harper and many others.  In addition to guitar, Piers plays mandolin, piano and melodeon.  Piers also performs under the name ‘Long Pike Hollow’.

#estuary songwriting #piers haslam #leigh folk festival #estuary festival #thames estuary