We’re very happy to be visiting Sidmouth again this year. We’ll be doing five events:
NORTHUMBRIAN TUNES SESSION
Tuesday 4th August, 8.00-10.30 pm, Royal York and Faulkner
We’ll play tunes from the Northumbrian repertoire in G and D, so bring your own instruments and join us. You can play by ear or download the session tune booklet here. Best to download in advance – the internet connection is very unpredictable!
‘THE SHEPHERDS’ BOOK LAUNCH
Wednesday 5th August, 11.30-12.30. Arts Centre.
This new book, edited by Kathryn Tickell and Alistair Anderson with members of Camus, presents the music of Archie Dagg, Willy Taylor and Will Atkinson. Taylor and Atkinson played with Joe Hutton as ‘The Shepherds’ at clubs and festivals across the country, including Sidmouth, and were important early influences on Kathryn Tickell and Alistair Anderson. Kathryn is playing at the festival this year, and will join us for this event if she can. Bring your own instruments to play a selection of the tunes with us with us (in G and D). All welcome.
Download a selection from the book to play in the session. Best to download in advance – the internet connection in very unpredictable!
CAMUS IN CONCERT
Thursday 6th August, 3.00-5.30 pm, with The Furrow Collective. Harbour Hotel, Connaught Suite.
We’ll be playing a 50 minute set from our current repertoire, featuring Northumbrian and other tunes, traditional songs and songs by Brian and Andrew.
Here’s a set of slipjigs from our set at Kennaway House in 2024.
TRY THE PIPES
Friday 7th August, 9.30-11.00, Guide HQ.
We’ll have beginners’ practice sets so you can try them in 20 minute slots (we can manage around 20 people all told, so apologies in advance to anyone who can’t get in). We’ll demonstrate the pipes, talk about them and answer questions, and then you can have a go! The “school pipes” we use were designed by Mike Nelson, who made Kathryn Tickell’s pipes. Anyone interested in the design of the school pipes can look at the design documents on Mike’s website.
TALK ON CHILDREN’S GAMES
Friday 7th August, 1.15-2.45 pm, Arts Centre.
TALK BY ANDREW BURN ON CHILDREN’S STREET AND PLAYGROUND GAMES: FROM THE OPIES TO THE DIGITAL PLAYGROUND. Andrew is Emeritus Professor of Media at UCL, and has led two large research projects on this subject along with colleagues who’ll be well-known to folk fans: Julia Bishop and Steve Roud, editors of the New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Steve is of course well-known for his famous Index.
Here’s a British Library video from one of our projects, in which Michael Rosen presents our research on the topic of Playing with Things.