Newsletter

5th May 2017

QUARTER OF QUAKER MEETINGS SAY NO TO FOSSIL FUELS

More than a quarter of Quaker meetings in Britain have made a commitment to no longer invest in the fossil fuel industry. Quakers in Britain today announced 19 more divestment commitments.

This announcement comes at the beginning of the ten-day Global Divestment Mobilisation when people around the world will be calling on churches, councils, universities and workplaces to cut their ties with the fossil fuel industry. They will be drawing attention to the impact fossil fuels are having on the planet and people.

Quakers in Britain are motivated by faith to cherish the earth for future generations and to speak out against climate injustice that causes huge inequalities across the world. In 2011 they made a commitment to take action to become a low-carbon, sustainable community.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Quakers from around Britain will be climbing Pendle Hill in Lancashire to hold a 'meeting for worship for witness' to protest against fracking, both locally and around the world. Pendle Hill is in an area licensed for fracking. It is also a significant place for Quakers. In 1652, George Fox climbed Pendle Hill and had a vision of “great many people to be gathered'. He founded the Quaker Church.

Two years after making a commitment to going 'Fossil Free' Huddersfield Quaker Meeting has cleaned its investments of fossil fuel companies. Huddersfield Quaker Meeting member Chayley Collis comments: "The process of divesting the meeting's investments was relatively easy, if a little time-consuming, We were surprised that many of the investments that we had thought were ethical were not already fossil free. We would encourage other churches and faith groups to divest from fossil fuels and help send a signal that fossil fuels are no longer an ethical investment."

Fracking will damage the climate, the countryside and our water supply and therefore our food. We are asking for it to be banned.

May 2017

LINCOLNSHIRE HERITAGE WEEK 7TH-10TH SEPTEMBER

Exhibition on the theme of Equality at Brant Broughton Meeting House.

The Meeting House will be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with drinks and CAKE!!! available.

A chance to look round our beautiful old meeting House and gardens.

May 2017

CONCERT WITH SINGER SONGWRITER PETE MORTON

Saturday 9th September 7.30pm

‘Not only impressive…but a revelation’ The Guardian

A part of Lincolnshire Heritage Week

Collection on behalf of Newark Emmaus Trust

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‘Game of Life’ from Pete Morton –

another trip along his travels through this life

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Certain writers and singers of folk songs have that combination of lyrical perspicacity and clear-sighted delivery that set them apart from all others, the idiosyncratic Pete Morton is one of those. His songs provoke thought, stimulate inspiration and prompt revelation. That’s because he delivers messages and explores themes that everyone can relate to and does it in a way that demands nothing more than turning your ear to his perfectly placed lyrics.

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Listen to albums like the inimitable ‘The Frappin’ and Ramblin Pete Morton’ and powerful ‘The Land of Time’ it’s easy to understand what I mean. With his latest album ‘Game of Life’, Morton has joined with Full House to release fresh recordings of some of his best-known songs, and the outcome, will in my opinion rapidly become regarded as a classic of English folk. The album ranges through the anticipated and much-loved gamut of Morton’s acid-sharp observations, gently sarcastic opinions and contemplative reflections …  from ‘Another Train’ and the bucolic ‘Shepherd’s Song’ through the keenly discerned ‘Related To Me’and ‘Shores of Italy’ to the tender ‘Luckiest Man’ and the pin-point accuracy of ‘Two Brothers’.

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‘Game of Life’ is another absorbing album in Morton’s considerable output, there’s not a moment when your attention wanders and each song takes you on another trip along travels through this life. Take the journey and you’ll love every twist and turn along the way. This time there’s also the extra musical sparkle added by his collaboration with Full House, which is evident throughout and lends much to Morton’s compositions.

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Find Pete Morton here: www.petemorton.com and Full House here: www.facebook.com/fullhousefolk

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Review: Tim Carroll

THE FOLK DIARY

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PETE MORTON  “The Land of Time”  Fellside FECD269
The albums and live performances of Pete Morton often leave this reviewer reaching for superlatives. In his appearances he is mesmerising and engaging; his albums demonstrate the great skill that he has in making melodies and lyrics and the frequency of his releases show him to be a prolific writer of finely honed, distinguished songs. It does not seem long since the release of The Frappin’ and Ramblin’ Pete Morton yet here is again with another bunch of great compositions.

The themes from previous albums return; there are songs about members of his family – One Hundred Years Ago about his grandfather, My Bloomsbury Boy about his son – and the ‘Fraps’ or folk-raps with their high speed delivery of many words in Poverty Frap and Slave To The Game and others that show his on-going interest in history, politics and poets. Pete is well supported on this album by his accompanists; outstanding amongst these are the accordion and harmonica contributions from Chris Parkinson. (VS)

THE LAND OF TIME   5 stars in R2 (Rock’n’Reel) Magazine

The Morning Star

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Pete Morton’s The Land of Time (Fellside Recordings) is an ambitious and inventive record from a man not shy of ripping up the folk rulebook and using it for confetti.  Standouts are Poverty Frap and
Slave to the Game, which pinch the choruses from a Lancashire mill lament and the old sailor-tricksprostitutestory London Town, and use them to rail against the plight of Bangladeshi sweatshop workers and the evils of the global sex trafficking trade.

FATEA

Pete Morton

Album: The Land Of Time
Label: Fellside
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.petemorton.com/

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I am so glad that I got to review “The Land Of Time”, the new album by Pete Morton. I have followed Pete’s career since I first saw him at the Bothy Folk Club in about 1987. His music and approach immediately struck me as fresh, innovative and original and I still have that opinion, some twenty eight years later. For me, Pete is one of the best songwriters that the British folk scene has ever produced [and he also one of the nicest people you could wish to meet].

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Pete is probably best known for writing “Another Train” but that is just the very tip of the iceberg. His fifteen [at the last count] albums are crammed full of equally great songs and this latest album “The Land Of Time” is no exception. In fact, it’s a cracking album from start to finish.

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The thing about Pete’s songs is that they are full of humanity and compassion ; he is no dispassionate observer of the human condition, he lives it. One minute he can be railing against injustice in the world but at the next moment can melt your heart with a tender ballad. Both sides are evident on this new album.

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Pete’s previous album was called “The Frappin’ And Ramblin’ Pete Morton”. Frappin’ is an invention of Pete’s where he takes a traditional chorus song and adds verses in a talking blues style rap. There are two examples of frappin’ on the new album.

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The first is “Poverty Frap” on which Pete takes the industrial folk song “Poverty Knock” [which is about working conditions in cloth mills in the North of England in about 1900] and brilliantly transforms it into a rap about working conditions in the sweatshops of Bangladesh in the present day.

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The other frap here is “Slave To The Game” which is based on the broadside “Up To The Rigs Of London Town”[which came from the repertoire of Harry Cox and was collected in 1924]. Pete brings this up to date with a chilling condemnation of human trafficking in the underworld of modern-day London. A lovely tune hides a dark message.

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A very different view of London is taken in “Bloomsbury Boy”, a gorgeous ballad about a love that supersedes everything else. Equally beautiful is the title track, “The Land Of Time”, a tender song to and about his son, which I found extremely moving in the way it describes the love of a parent for his or her child.

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Staying with family matters, Pete’s song “One Hundred Years Ago” tells how his great grandfather was wounded in battle in the muddy fields of the Somme during the First World War and was saved by the enemy, who could have left him dying. Pete reflects on how this act of kindness gave life to three more generations. An inspirational story, beautifully told by a master of his craft.

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Only a gifted songwriter like Pete could encapsulate 200, 000 years of the history on mankind in a five minute song, but this is what Pete does in “All The Life Before”, a beautifully eloquent meditation on the evolution of humankind.

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By way of contrast, in “Old Boston Town”, Pete manages to combine a rant/rap about the iniquities of the arms trade with a good old-fashioned singalong chorus [“Me and me good horse will never turn round, I’m coming preaching to Old Boston Town”].

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The album ends with “Oh What Little Lives We Lead”, which starts somewhat pessimistically by listing the failures and insignificance of mankind but finishes on an optimistic note by proclaiming “Oh What Mighty Lives We Lead”.

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Thus far, I have been concentrating [justifiably, I think] on Pete’s song writing rather than the musical accompaniment. I will now rectify this by saying that the playing on this album is absolutely superb. Pete and his producer Paul Adams have assembled a fabulous group of musicians who provide a wonderful accompaniment to Pete’s guitar and vocals. The players are:

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Jon Brindley [guitar]; Chris Parkinson [melodeon, accordion, harmonica, piano, chorus vocals]; Ciaran Algar [fiddle, bouzouki, banjo, mandolin, chorus vocals];James Budden [double bass, bass harmony vocals] and Linda Adams [harmony vocals].

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In conclusion, all I can say is that this is a wonderful album by a master songwriter and I unreservedly recommend it. Album of the year? You bet!

Peter Cowley

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