The stories, music, and sounds of 18 months busking around England.Tom spent 18 months busking around England, getting to know his own country better. Busking was a means to an end, how he was to pay his way, but it soon turned into something more. The busker has a privileged view of the land, anonymous and unthreatening. People opened up, acts of kindness sustained him. He discovered an England more varied, rich, heartbreaking, and hopeful than he could have known. An England so broad it defied easy categorisation. This led to a book and an album, both titled 'Seasons of Change'. The podcast features readings from the book, recorded at the Guide Bridge Theatre, in late 2019, and music from the accompanying album, (There is also some music from an earlier solo album, ‘Interloper') as well as a few field recordings of the sounds he encountered.The realisation of the project was supported by a grant from the Arts Council, and the album was part funded by a bursary from the EFDSS.Buy the book and album here; http://www.tomkitching.co.uk/shop/
In Penzance, Tom encounters a mysterious busker from another age completely. An entertaining morning on the streets of Retford evolves into a study of Remembrance and our relationship with the poppy and all things past. In the Somerset countryside, Tom learns to see the night with fresh eyes, with the aid of a flatulent horse.Also featuring a chorus of bakery oven alarms and a giant cling film dispenser.Book and album available at http://www.tomkitching.co.uk/shop/CreditsTom Kitching - Storyteller and fiddle/mandolin. Author and recorder of the field recordings, except for the bakery ovens, recorded by Jon Loomes.Marit Fält - Mandola, Cittern.Jude Rees - English Border BagpipesMichelle Holding - AnnouncerJon Loomes - Producer and engineerPeter Crowther - Live engineer
The journey around England continues to throw up diverse experiences, both humorous and haunting. In Norwich, Tom gets into a volume battle with a training shoe shop. In London, the juxtaposition of gargantuan wealth and abject poverty is starkly played out in the wintery gloom by St Pauls' Cathedral, whilst Brighton teaches a few home truths about busking and perhaps life more generally. Meanwhile, a letter arrives from Ann Summers..Book and album available at http://www.tomkitching.co.uk/shop/CreditsTom Kitching - Storyteller and fiddle/mandolin. Author and recorder of the field recordings.Marit Fält - Mandola, Cittern.Jude Rees - English Border BagpipesMichelle Holding - AnnouncerJon Loomes - Producer and engineerPeter Crowther - Live engineer
As Tom's busking journey around England continues, he encounters devastating poverty on the streets of Bolton, listens to the song of the wild butcher's stall, and has another brush with the supernatural in a nightclub in Carlisle. Book and CD available at http://www.tomkitching.co.uk/shop/CreditsTom Kitching - Storyteller and fiddle/mandolin. Author and recorder of the field recordings.Marit Fält - Mandola, Cittern.Jude Rees - English Border BagpipesFreya Rae - FluteJim Molyneux - PercussionMichelle Holding - AnnouncerJon Loomes - Producer and engineerPeter Crowther - Live engineer
The journey through England begins, starting in a wet and weary Berwick-Upon-Tweed, a town whose nationality is still uncertain and unimportant.In Darlington, Tom encounters a busker whose performance cannot be explained purely by earthly powers, and in Erpingham, (Norfolk) he finds a society whose unwritten and unspoken constitution can only be described as anarchy in its truest form.You will hear a Pacer train arriving and departing Redcar central station, the iconic sound of the now condemned British Leyland bus on rails drawing away with the evening commuter train to Saltburn.Book and CD available at http://www.tomkitching.co.uk/shop/CreditsTom Kitching - Storyteller and fiddle/mandolin. Author and recorder of the field recordings.Marit Fält - Mandola, Cittern.Jude Rees - English Border BagpipesFreya Rae - FluteJim Molyneux - PercussionMichelle Holding - AnnouncerJon Loomes - Producer and engineerPeter Crowther - Live engineer
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