Writer Trevor Locke

Tag: Leicester

  • Local Music

    Promoting Local Music Events

    22nd October 2021

    by Carol Leeming and Trevor Locke

    Today, 22nd September 2021, Carol Leeming posted a comment on her Facebook feed: ‘Now I am really looking at how local music, musicians are promoted & supported in LESTA’.

    Carol’s post was about how local musicians can promote and advertise their shows to attract an audience. A subject of the utmost importance both now and in the past. It is an activity that has never been easy and following the Coronavirus lockdown, this has become even more difficult. As more and and more venues begin to open and more and more shows are put on, it is more important than ever to let music fans know what is going on. Carol’s post attracted a lost of interest and comments. Trevor’s comments, made while composing this article, are shown in italics.

    To Carol’s comment, Grant Decker, a local musician, responded by saying, ‘I think an event similar to Simon Says/Summer Sundae is vital for Leicester bands to gain confidence on bigger stages and to gain exposure playing with larger acts. Be lovely to have something like that in Leicester again to give local acts that confidence.’

    Simons Says and Summer Sundae were weekend festivals that took place at the De Montfort Hall. They attracted a national following as well as large numbers of local music fans. These were events of national prestige. Apart from putting on big name acts, they also provided a platform for local artists. They were an important part of the music scene in our city both to fans and to local bands and artists. Local bands saw a performance at these events as a significant step in the right direction.

    Carol Leeming replied, ‘Yes I completely agree Grant. I am finding out about promotion in Leicester (after a long period) as I have a gig coming soon in Leicester. I too wish we had a big platform as you suggest but also I posted a video on my timeline from 2009 when I worked on Oxjam in the city centre – it was great the support all the music bands artists had with venues and promoters working together would be great to see more of that in these strange times… as well for me its about our Leicester City Council, the Leicester Mercury, Cool as Leicester, Bid Leicester and other organisations getting behind bigging up Leicester music scene to promote Leicester music musicians. Bands venues far more and importantly more culturally diverse music musicians bands, as we are such a diverse city you would not think so looking at all the print online media about music in Leicester – it is very white and only certain genres types of music!’

    The problem is that even when there were big events, like Summer Sundae Weekender, it was not always possible for local artists to get on them. Organisers of large festivals could be very selective about who to take on their line-ups. Wanting a platform is one thing; being able to get a ready-made one is another. Oxjam attracted local music fans but few came from outside the local area (because there were Oxjam events all over the country.) Demand for performance slots at Oxjam was very high. Despite the large number of stages, some artists were disappointed. Leicester has always been blessed with very large numbers of bands, groups, singers and rappers.

    Luke Broughton, a musician and singer, came back on this: ‘Carol Leeming it is very homogenous in places. In my experience it is often quite a fractured scene where people often want to protect what they perceive they have rather than collaborating to grow it. Programming can be very repetitive. Open Mics are cornered by very few people doing the same things putting on their friends. There are things I get asked to do that other people don’t. On the other hand there are things I never get asked to do that the same people always get asked to do. E.g. Despite being a prominent mixed race musician in the city I’ve never been asked to play the Cosmopolitan Carnival. Is that because my genre is unexpected of my ethnicity? There are lots of conversations to be had. I’m up for having them!’

    Luke was right in saying that our local music scene is fractured. It is split up into genres and styles and gigs and concerts. These in turn attract only those people who follow those genres. That has cultural consequences in that some groups of people fail to attend certain types of music events, because they do not reflect their interests. Stages offering a diverse line-up might succeed in addressing this issue. But there are those music fans who dislike ‘diversity’ in music because their tastes are very limited. The Cosmopolitan Carnival attempted to provide a highly diverse mix of music and art-forms but its appeal was limited even though it had many strengths. It was a free festival held in the city centre and thus exposed members of the public to performances they would otherwise not have experienced. It had many good points but also some bad points. This event was fairly well publicised both online and physically, with some assistance from the Council for some years that it ran. Nearly all the musical acts on stage were local rather than of national significance with only a very few exceptions. It did however provide a platform for new and rising local artists. Cosmopolitan was an important part of the city’s summer arts programme – and continues to be to this day.

    Carol Leeming expressed her views. ‘Luke Broughton. Yes you have made some very important points and I agree; that’s why I posted the Oxjam video because the music was so diverse widening and folks working together plus I remember working also as a programme on BBC Music Live Festival in Leicester 2000s that was also very culturally diverse and fantastic of course.’

    The BBC (Radio’s) support for local music has been very patchy over the years. A few presenters did manage to feature the music of local artists on their programmes. In this respect the work of presenter Herdle White was exceptional. But today, there is little on the local channels that consistently represents Leicester’s talent, unlike Nottingham which has a whole Freeview channel in which its local talent and arts is represented. Other parts of the BBC have sometimes promoted the work of Leicester musicians, such as the programme BBC Introducing. Broadcast media has generally been very bad at presenting the work of new and rising local musicians and singers because they think that people will not have heard of them – a ‘catch 22’ situation if ever there was one!

    Luke Broughton picked up this remark by saying, ‘Carol Leeming I think diversity is important of course. Not as a tokenisation but as to provide a true reflection of the cultural mix of the city. I’m sure you’re aware that both Leonie and I have made this a priority in any programmes we have put together. Her Ceremony events strive to include a range of genres, artists of multiple genders and ethnicities. Our first Avant Garden event was put together with this ethos central to it. We are still seeing Main Stream festival line-ups being dominated predominantly by the Middle Aged white patriarchy. This can only be challenged at grass roots level up in order for a different looking kind of bill to become normalised. Would be good to talk with you about this some time.’

    Leicester is one of the UK’s most culturally diverse cities. Its artistic offering is unique, although there are many characteristics of the Nottingham arts scene that are similar; the same could also be said for Birmingham. One problem that has dogged Leicester over the years is its proximity to Nottingham and Birmingham. In some ways, Leicester has failed to make its voice heard in the arts and music industries. Today the digital media and even some broadcast media supports diversity in the arts more than ever before (though probably still not enough.) The drawback with this is it tends to court popularity more than what is avant-garde. The established media has been dominated by white men, traditionally, but this is changing now that people from diverse backgrounds are gaining entry to it more than ever before. As the cultural makeup of the UK’s population changes, the traditional offering of white-middle-aged entertainment will not do. It is not what audiences crave any more.

    Musician Stan’ley’ Samuel commented, ‘Luke Broughton it wasn’t always like this. We seem to have gone backwards. That said I’m up for helping to change the mindset because Leicester has and has always had a wealth of amazing talent.’

    They have a point about festivals being dominated by middle-aged white people. Oxjam Leicester was perhaps the exception to this because it was run by young women, in its later years. Music In Leicester magazine is probably regarded as being run by white, middle-aged males. Which it is. It has not succeeded in attracting women into its editorial ranks. As my ‘legacy’ (that of my musical enterprise) it does in fact represent a legacy of failure in that regard. The current editor has tried hard to utilise women reviewers but for whatever reason has not met with a great deal of success. Some ethnically diverse writers have made contributions but they are in the minority. The challenge facing the magazine is for the white male writers to understand what readers want to see. The magazine must also appreciate the diversity of its readership.

    Carol Leeming agreed, saying, ‘Great Stan! Count me in. We have boss talent really and truly I’m interested also the communications to build audiences i.e. the promotion online offline, print, broadcast media and the development partnerships between musicians promoters and venues e.g. the Cookie now Called Big Difference e.g. is re-opening with Comedy and booking Live bands we need to see where we can make the win/wins.’

    The whole of the arts is in a state of flux as far as media is concerned. There is still a demand for real-world, face-to-face shows but online and digital command a lot of attention. Use of the Internet continues to increase, but there is still a lump of people who refuse the Internet and expect the world to continue as it was in their parent’s day. Sadly, that lump will eventually die out. Very soon, the whole population will be connected to the Internet and paper-based will no longer be of any real value other than to nostalgia enthusiasts and historians. Hence, comments about the value of posters are time-limited. We are very close to digital promotion being the default. Nearly all of the live music events I have attended in recent months have been booked through online ticketing. No paper has been harmed in the production of these events.

    Stan’ley’ Samuel said, ‘Everybody knows from back in the day when Multiplex ran The Abbey Park Festival Archive how Leicester used to roll. In my experience when the Council gets involved it’s the beginning of the end.’

    Under the captaincy of Sir Peter Soulsby, the local authority has had a very poor out-turn. The arts and music have been largely ignored on his watch. But would other political parties have done better? Where is the evidence? The Council has supported history far more than the arts and entertainment. Tourism is seen by them as being a higher revenue-earner for the city. This contrasts strongly with comparable cities whose arts and music offerings far outstrip anything available in Leicester. Tourism earnings might not be the sole determinant of the value of the arts but they are seen as being important to local economies. Musicians are not paid a living wage. Venues are over-taxed. Festivals are being priced out of the market. Arts are not regarded as being economically viable. This will change only if the voting public – the electorate – realises that there is more to life than trade and commerce. Man cannot live on bread alone. Artists and musicians have done a great deal to help and support people who are homeless, living in poverty, alone and alienated, discriminated against and victimised, made to feel unwelcome in their own communities. The benefits of all this are enormous to personal well-being and community stability. That is something that politicians would do well to appreciate.

    Carol Leeming continued the thread, ‘Stan’ley’ Samuel Yes Stan.. what I really meant the LCC should promote us more online and in print on broadcast media not necessarily onstage although why we can’t have an annual city music festival for LESTA featuring local music I don’t know- instead of digging up all these roads!’

    Most road works are funded by central government or the County Council. Local authorities cannot vire funds from one budget to another, willy nilly. But, where there is a will there is a way. If the Council wants to support arts festivals it will find a way. If the will to do this is not there then little or nothing will happen. The whole business of local government funding is deeply flawed and decades out of date. Only national legislation will change anything. The present system through which local government is funded – the Barnett formula – was obsolete years ago. Cities need a whole new strategy for funding the arts, music and the night-time economy. It currently needs a mixed economy of private and public backing. Now we have left the EU, vast quantities of money have stopped flowing into local infrastructure, culture and the arts. Cities are forced to spend huge amount of cash pursuing European prizes they might or might not win. Leicester was denied its claim to European City of Culture and a lot of money was wasted competing for it.

    Gaz Birtles, a prominent local musician and promoter, joined in, saying, ‘We need free poster pillars all around LEICESTER for everyone to poster their events. LEICESTER looks like a cultural desert out on the streets. No sign of anything happening anywhere. But the council obviously deem it to unsightly. Bring back postering!

    This idea has been put forward before. Music in Leicester’s editor Kevin Gaughan got involved in this very idea some years back but nothing came of it because the council has not interested. Our local authority has done almost nothing to support its live music scene. Postering is not the answer. A much more inclusive and multi-layered approach is required. One attempt was made to produce a paper-based booklet that brought together all venues, all music events and all gigs in one place. It worked for the very short time that it was operated (by a commercial enterprise.) Putting up posters tends to focus exclusively on one show, at one time, in one place. It therefore has to be repeated extensively and most promoters do not have the funds to do this. Plus the fact that the more posters that are displayed the less people become aware of any one of them. It is a very inefficient use of resources. With very few exceptions, posters alone have failed to sell tickets or put bums on seats to any great extent. Many years ago the local paper used to list music events. This stopped when the Leicester Mercury ceased to be produced locally and its production was moved away from the city.

    Andrea Kenny, a local singer and musician said, ‘I found this a bit when I was out putting up posters yesterday… not many places seem to have them since Covid also’

    Covid has devastated live entertainment and also the ability to publicise it in the real world. In the post-Covid era, we have to adopt a new approach to the promotion of live arts. Online is the answer. As I have already argued, paper-based publicity is on the way out. Too few people are left for whom paper is the only way and they will not fill the venues. There are several places on the Internet where gigs in Leicester are listed and anyone can look at them.

    I talked to Andrea Kenny about her comments; she told me: ‘Promoting an event is hard fucking work… I have felt this keenly over the last month with the event I am putting on (the one Carol Leeming is also performing at). I agree with all of the sentiments already expressed but I believe there is something else to add and I would say this with a caveat in place that I am also guilty of the very thing I’m about to express.. and upon the realisation will aim to change this. Acts and artists could go along way to to help promote and re share other acts events/nights… I don’t know why there isn’t more support or this isn’t done more.. maybe people think it will draw attention away from them or their night or fan base?? The fact is if everyone cross promoted everyone else it would create a culture of musical camaraderie and community and it all helps doesn’t it?! As promoters and bands and artists we shouldn’t have to feel like we are flogging a dead horse just to get our name out there or our event some attention! Let’s all support each other a bit more… I’m not saying this is everyone as I know some bands do help promote other bands but .. we shouldn’t have to ask or beg.. can you please share this?! If you see an event re post it on your page! Share the love share your fan base! Create a community! That’s what I’m gonna do from now on!’

    Kevin Hewick, a celebrated doyen of the Leicester music scene, added, ‘Gaz Birtles I find it pretty hopeless now for flyering and posters. There are few places you can. put anything up… And the city has never looked more barren, bleak, dark, and (as I found last night walking from. Charles Street to Regent Road for the Regent Jazz Pianorama event) menacing. I know that’s not unique to Leicester but… Even the councils beloved ‘Cultural Quarter’ is lonely and forlorn looking.’

    Kevin is right. I have not seen the council produce anything like a ‘COVID recovery plan.’ * The lockdown has devastated the cultural life of the city centre. The council has not yet begun to do anything to get the city out of this situation. Politicians might even consider this to be premature; there being no guarantee that the lockdown will not be repeated in the future. The city centre is, as Kevin suggests, bleak but the Council has largely abandoned the plans it laid down around twenty years ago to revitalise the night-time economy. Late night transport is largely non-existent around here; there are no police officers on the streets. Public transport often stops running early in the evening. More daytime events might work these days but will not be the only solution to attracting audiences. The night-time economy is still important but not as all-important as it used to be.

    • LCC did produce one post-COVID document – https://www.leicester.gov.uk/media/1zdbxyrl/3912-lcc-covid-19-re-opening-city-plan-brochure.pdf (June 2020.) There was no mention in this of music or the arts.

    Kevin Hewick responded by saying, ‘I often feel much warmth and connection between Leicester musicians. We are quite supportive of each other but so often we play to ourselves, to other creatives. The wider audience is hard to find. I seem to tick a lot of seemingly negative boxes – white, male and rather old now lol but I totally agree about diversity and cultural mix, in a city like Leicester we should be attaining that but there’s not as much crossover as I wish there was.’

    Cultural diversity has always played a key role in the development of Leicester’s music scene. It is one of the city’s great strengths. As our population changes, so too must our offering of arts, music and entertainments. Sadly, and I regret having to say this, many of those who run our small live music venues will have to retire before there can be a sea-change in the programming. For years and years, venues have given us the same-old, same-old. Outside the world is different to what it used to be when they started in business. A new, younger generation of venue managers and event promoters might see things differently. In my view, we need to gather new blood together and work out how best to attract new audiences for new experiences.

    Joe Doyle, a musician, said, ‘Radio & press. We could certainly do with more journalism promoting and exposing local artists to new audiences.’

    I agree. Leicester has only one magazine specialising in music. There used to two or even three, some years ago. I ran a highly successful website that promoted new bands to the UK generally. That went down the pan and was never replaced. BBC Introducing has promoted some new Leicester acts to the national level but is far too over-focused on Nottingham. What Leicester needs is a website that can promote its local music artists to a national audience.

    Kevin Hewick, responded by saying, ‘Joe Doyle Things like The Mercury and the BBC don’t seem to reach out so they? Musicians and events are quite visible but they seem to have no curiosity about it, it has to come to them. And then when they do give coverage it’s the facile “City Band Hits Right Note” type stuff.’

    The Leicester Mercury is dead. Newspapers are redundant. Is this about local media reaching out? Or is it about national media reaching in? I have written before about the lack of interest in Leicester taken by the national music industry. Why has this always been the case? Our offering of local talent stands firm against Nottingham, Coventry and Birmingham. But we are overlooked. Why? Carol Leeming agreed with Joe and Kevin.


    Conclusion


    This thread on Facebook was and is important. The right issues are being discussed. Many of the comments have been discussed before but that does not mean they were ever resolved or that they have ceased to be crucial in the post-COVID situation. The success of our local music scene depends on people talking and raising concerns. But people who have the power to make changes need to listen. Our city has to recover from the pandemic. Our music industry needs to get back on its feet in a world that has changed dramatically over the past two years. Paper-based advertising still has a role to play but it has declined dramatically in recent years and will continued to decline as a method of attracting audiences. Today, the arts scene is dominated by social media. The question is, how effective is this is in selling tickets to gigs and shows? It can only be effective if promoters and venues are offering the kind of events that people want to buy into. Who those people are has changed in recent years. That is where the focus of change needs to be, in my opinion.

    Carol Leeming, MBE, FRSA, is a multi-award-winning poet, writer, director, performer and vocal and dialogue coach. Trevor Locke writes for Music in Leicester magazine.

    This article was previously published on my old blog.

  • LMH5

    LMH5

    Leicester’s Music History series. 2010 and 2011.

    archive page
    This is a placeholder for the article that was here dated Thursday 11th June 2020.
    It was about about the history of live music in Leicester.
    This text has now been stored to an offline archive. Copies of the original article are available from the author of this blog.

  • Leicester Music History The Series

    This is an archive page.

    30th January 2020

    This page gives the background to my series about Leicester’s music history. It also lists all the articles published in the series.

    My plan is to post one instalment per month during 2020.

    There is a photo gallery associated with this series.

    Available articles

    Instalment 1 covering the years 2000 to 2002.

    Instalment 2 looking at the rise of the Internet and the years 2003 and 2004.

    Instalment 3 2005 to 2006 and the rise of the Facebook Generation.

    Instalment 4 Leicester’s music history, 2007 to 2009.

    Instalment 5 2010 to 2011.

    This is the background to my series of articles about the History of Music in Leicester. By Leicester, I refer not only to the city but also to the county of Leicestershire.

    My plan is to publish a series of articles, on a regular basis, in this my blog and each one will be linked to from my column in Music in Leicester magazine.

    I have chosen to publish my series on my own blog – writertrevorlocke.com – because I want to give myself free rein to narrate my personal experience of live music without compromising the magazine’s editorial policy. I should say, therefore, that any views expressed in this blog are entirely my own and do not represent those of the editor of Music in Leicester.

    Music in Leicester magazine holds a series of article about Leicester’s music history, these being:

    Introduction to the series. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/goingtogigs/

    What is it about gigs? http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/gong-to-gigs-round-1/

    Who puts on gigs. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/gig-organisation/

    Bands from the noughties. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round3/

    The golden age of Indie. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/going-to-gigs-5/

    Metal, punk, ska and Reggae. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round-6/

    The rise of the festivals. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round-7/

    Sing me a song. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/singers-leicester/

    Bands in the year 2008. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/gigs2008/

    Battles of the bands. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round10/

    Music and the Internet. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round11/

    It’s all about roots. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/rock-roots/

    Leicester’s greatest hits. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/greatest-hits/

    Music of the middle ages. http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round14/

    What did the Romans ever play for us? http://www.musicinleicester.co.uk/round15/

    Synopsis

    In this series of articles, I narrate the history of music as it has been played – over the centuries – in Leicester and its environs. The series will not be set out in chronological order. The average reader would find this approach tedious, I think. Instead, I begin with the earliest period of music experience, the years 2000 to 2002. Subsequent articles will look at the music of the past, in order to uncover the roots of music. Some of the articles will delve back a long way into the history of our city in order to examine those roots.

    For those readers who are not from Leicester, let me explain that Leicester a city in the Midlands; in it, we find two thousands years of continuous human habitation. Wherever you find humans you find music. My task is to show what kind of music is to be heard today in the city in the modern age and also to suggest what our ancestors would have heard going as far back in time as the evidence will allow.

    Some articles, which will look at specific aspects of the local music scene, will deserve individual coverage in their own right. These specific articles will include descriptions of particular venues and music acts, bands and singers that have played a remarkable part in the history of the area’s music.

    All the articles forming part of this series will be gathered together on this page.

    Photographs

    My archives contain a very large number of photos that have been taken over the years. These will be gathered together in a special photo gallery so that they can be browsed together as a collection. The link to this gallery will be placed on this page as soon as it is available.

    Related articles

    This blog already has a number of articles which are pertinent to this series. Some of them are listed below:

    History of Music in Leicester.

    Local music – does it matter?

    Music posts on this site.

    What makes a good Band?

    What makes a good gig?

    The economics of local live music.

    Arts in Leicester magazine online archive. Gong to gigs round 11.

    © I have copyrighted all my writings.

  • Leicester Music History 1

    Leicester’s Music History 1

    2000 to 2002

    30th January 2020

    By Trevor Locke

    My involvement in rock music started in 2001. I know that because that was the year I went to the Reading Festival, August Bank Holiday, 24th to 26th. I still have the wristband that I bought to get in and the hoody I purchased, when I was there, on which were printed all the names of all the acts billed as appearing at the festival. That event ignited my interest in rock music.

    For the first time in my life, I watched rock bands play live and listened to music the like of which I had never heard before. Prior to 2001, I never went to gigs or knew anything about rock, punk or metal bands. The only music I knew was what I heard on the radio or saw on the television on programmes such as Top Of The Pops. In fact, it was not until the following year that I went to The Shed for the very first time, on 27th November. I continued to go to The Shed on a very frequent basis from then on and also went to all of the other music venues in Leicester including The Attik.

    I say this in order to explain the limitations of my personal history of music in Leicester. Anything prior to 2002 is historical information I have gleaned from documentary sources and not from my personal experience. My historical account of Leicester’s music covers the years from 2002 to 2013. The reasons for this are explained in other instalments of this series. My narrative ends in 2013 because that is when Music in Leicester magazine was launched and anything published about the years 2013 to the present day is still available online; nothing was ever taken down. All the old material is still available through searches on the site.

    Instalment 1

    Instalment 2

    Photogallery to this series

  • Regent Jazz, a history

    History of Regent Jazz Leicester

    Monday 8th July 2019

    Regent Jazz is the name given to the live music concerts that take place at Leicester’s Regent Sports and Social Club. This article is about how the concerts started and have developed to the present time.

    Regent Jazz concert,  25th June 2019

    How it started

    Jazz concerts were held, originally, at Leicester University’s Piazza restaurant, when the sessions were known as ‘Jazz at the Piazza.’ These started in 2003. Andrew Sime and Steve Harris were involved at this time. These performances were held on a monthly basis. There were several problems with this location; the main one being it was not available after six o’clock in the evening. When the restaurant was refurbished, in October 2009, the Jazz sessions were brought to an end and it became necessary to find new premises for the concerts.

    Initially, the sessions moved to the Richard Attenborough Centre. They stayed there for six months until September 2009. A variety of operational issues then led to new premises being sought. That is when it was suggested that the session might move to the social club in Regent Road (not far from the RA Centre.)

    The development of Regent Jazz falls into three phases: 2009 to 2012, 2012 to 2016 and 2016 to 2019. In the first phase, 2009 to 2012, Andrew Sime was running the show pretty much on his own. When the committee was formed, Andrew became its chair. When he stood down, after six years, the position of chairman was filled by Barry Dufour.

    After leaving the RA Centre, on September 2009, the concerts moved to ‘a back room at a clubhouse’ as Andrew Sime put it. This was the Regent Club, in Regent Road. Concerts began at 8 p.m. After the first three years, the Regent Club decided that enough people were attending to allow them to hire a chef and begin to offer a food menu. Audiences responded well to this and numbers increased.

    A committee was formed to coordinate the arrangements for the Jazz evenings. At first, this group comprised leaders of the bands that were involved. Richard Everitt, Ned Newitt and Jim Bailey were on the committee, at this time. This resulted in the creation of what was called ‘Modern Jazz Jam.’ These sessions were run by Richard Everitt. They took place on the second Tuesday of each month. On the last Tuesday of each month, Andrew Sime put on sessions made up of local and regional musicians with guest appearances by musicians of national importance.

    The autumn/winter programme of Regent Jazz saw a show held on 29th September 2009, with Richard Everitt leading a concert of tunes with the Pete Houtman trio. This was the first of a series of sessions labelled ‘Jazz at The Regent.’

    Andrew Sime took care of marketing in the early days. Richard Everitt was also involved. Others involved included Nick Hislam, Graham Dent, Peter Houtman and Paula Robinson. Steve Harris continued to take the entry fees on the door and was also on the committee. Andy Kirkland took over the work of marketing the concerts. In those days there was no formal structure or membership system. Concerts were open to the public. The committee was an informal group who met to organise the sessions and coordinate the bookings of bands and artists. It was not until much later on that a constitution was adopted. There has never been a membership system for the jazz concerts; it is, today, possible to subscribe to the membership of the Regent Sports and Social Club and this attracts a discount on Jazz concert entry fees.

    In the early days of jazz concerts at the Regent Club, it was Steve Harris who took the entrance money on the door. He was also responsible for laying out the tables and chairs in the concert hall. He continues to do this to this day.

    On 27th October 2009, the Nick Hislam Quartet played with trumpet star Dave Speedy. This was followed by a performance by the Jim Bailey Quartet on 24th November. Part of that programme included modern jazz jam sessions on 13th October and then on the second Tuesday of every month.

    On Tuesday 25th January 2010, Regent Jazz Sessions, held a special event at the Regent Sports and Social Club. The concert was given by the Brian Humpherson Quartet, with Andy Kirkland on double bass, Brian on the keyboard, Barry Harvey on tenor sax and clarinet and Andrew Sime on drums. Concerts then became weekly, throughout the year except in August, when the musicians went on holiday.

    In October 2011, weekly Jazz sessions were being held at the Regent Sports Club, on Tuesday evenings. Concerts, forming part of that programme, included Citizens of Swing, lead by Ned Newitt and his band, (which were held on the third Tuesday of the month), modern Jazz Jam sessions (held on the third Tuesday of the month), Paula Robinson and her Jazz friends and special guests Emily Heath with the Maurice Moore Quartet. Richard Everitt also put on Jam sessions on the second Tuesday of the month. 2011 also saw the introduction of Paula’s Christmas Jazz party in which five or six local bands played at a free session, attracting seventy or more attendees.

    The second phase: 2012 to 2016

    A concert was held on Tuesday 24th April 2012, billed as ‘The Three Double Basses!’ Each of the three musicians played twenty-minute sets with a small group and featured the work of one Jazz composer. The three double bass players then played together in new arrangements written for them by Geoff Cook. The three bass players were Paula Robinson, Geoff Cook and Andy Kirkland. Other musicians taking part that night included Peter Houtman, Andrew Sime, Richard Everitt, Dave Anderson, David Williams, Nick Hislam and Jim Bailey. The flyer for the concert noted that food was available. The title ‘Regent Jazz’ was first used in 2013, the same year in which a committee was formed to organise the programme.

    A summer Jazz Party started in June or July of 2012. At around this time, Andy Kirkland organised an annual charity night. He also began to put on theme nights, including, for example, Hollywood and Broadway jazz which celebrated the music of George Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald and the Three Double Basses. A charity night was held on Tuesday 22nd May 2018, billed as Charity Night for Bloodwise, to raise funds for blood cancer research. The concert’s programme included six bands.

    The music of Duke Ellington featured in a concert given at a Regent Jazz concert on Tuesday 4th March 2014. That marked forty years since the Duke’s death in 1974. The programme featured a guest appearance by singer Mellow Baku. Instrumentalists performing that night included Andy Kirkland, Paula Robinson, Peter Houtman and Andrew Sime. The flyer also printed the website address for Regent Jazz and, by that time, pages had also been created on Facebook and Twitter

    During the Leicester Comedy Festival, in 2014 and 2015, jazz was performed in the bar area of the Regent Sports and Social Club. In October 2014, Regent Jazz celebrated its first five years by hosting the twenty-piece Dave Speedy Big Band. The formation of the modern jazz jam sessions leads to several bands being formed by musicians who played at those concerts.

    A few international artists have appeared at Regent Jazz, over the years. Since 2015, artists that played at the concerts have included, among others, American saxophonist Greg Abate, Alan Skidmore, Amy Roberts, John Hallam, Peter Churchill, Maurice Moore, Paul Dufour and Dick Peace.

    Phase three: 2016 to 2019.

    In 2016, there was a concert billed as ‘Dougie Wright plays & Sings’, held on 23rd February. Drummer Dougie Wright played the drums and sang (at the same time). He was a top London session drummer and recorded with Cilla Black, Adam Faith, Paul Jones, Alvin Stardust, Jeff Beck, the John Barry Seven and many others, the flyer explained. Others performing that evening included Graham Taylor, Barry Harvey and Andy Kirkland.

    The programme for 2016 shows there was a double bill that included Salty & The Condiments and the Susen Mauser Sextet. Later that month, The Silver Song Five played the music of Horace Silver, the composer. September finished with a concert given by Chris Conway’s Happy Landings Trio and Quartet. In December, Paula organised another of her Christmas parties with Django All The Way, the Cool Jazz Trio, The Jamms Band, The Not So Big Band, Peter Houtman trio and The Afro City Swingers.

    The music of George Gershwin was celebrated at a Regent Jazz concert on Tuesday 23rd May 2017. The programme featured six bands, nineteen musicians and a range of well-known Gershwin titles. The concert was a fund-raiser in support of Bloodwise (a charity concerned with beating blood cancer.)

    In 2017, the programme for Tuesday 3rd October included a range of tunes specially selected for this night at Regent Jazz. At this concert, saxophonist Alan Skidmore performed, supported by other musicians, including Peter Houtman on piano, Richard Everitt on baritone sax, Paula Robinson on Double Bass and Andrew Sime on drums. Alan Skidmore has played with many well-known acts, as, for example, Georgie Fame, Stan Tracy, Eric Clapton, Charlie Watts and Van Morrison.

    Singing songs by Sinatra and Nat King Cole, and others of that style, Birmingham vocalist Roy Forbes performed on 24th October 2017. With him were Barry Speirs (Keyboard), Nick Hislam (Sax), Simon Morley (Drums) and Andy Kirkland (double bass.)

    A concert held on 22nd May 2018 celebrated the Jazz of Hollywood and Broadway. Another charity night to raise funds for Bloodwise, this programme featured six bands. The autumn season of 2018 kicked off with a set by the four Regent regulars. Peter Houtman (Keyboard), Richard Everitt (Sax), Andy Kirkland (Double Bass), and Andrew Sime (Drums.) Their set included numbers from the classic American songbook and, for part of the concert, was augmented by top Leicester tenor Andy Nicholls. By September 2018, The Modern Jazz Jam night has become firmly established. These shows enabled a wide range of musicians to perform in various combinations.

    The KGB Jazz band performed on the 18th June 2018 in a programme of swing, Latin and standards in addition to the band’s own compositions. Vocals were supplied by singer Gemma Lakin. The Great American Songbook was the theme of the concert held on 23rd October 2018. On stage, for that show, were Mike Kemp, vocalist Kat Pagett, Double Bass player Andy Kirkland and drummer Stu Graham. The week after, there was a concert given by Swing Gitan who performed music inspired by Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.

    2019 continued to provide audiences with enjoyable shows. The Swinging Bass Band played on 19th February with vocalist Roy Forbes. On stage that night were Roy Forbes (Vocals), Neil Hunter (Keyboard), Steve Liptrot (Saxophones), Andy Richardson (Drums) and Andy Kirkland (Double Bass.)

    On 18th June, The Dave Collinson Quartet performed with Alex Hewins. They were accompanied by Barry Speirs (Keyboard), Andy Kirkland (Double Bass ) and Stu Graham (drums.) Dave Collinson has been composing and leading a band for many years. Alex Hewins studied at Trinity Laban College in London, has played with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and Leicester’s Bardi Orchestra.

    Today Regent Jazz is a flourishing part of Leicester’s music scene. Bands can hire rehearsal rooms at the club. The Regenerates, for example, meets there every Thursday lunchtime. Other bands often hire time at the club to prepare for their gigs. Regent Jazz now has over one hundred semi-professional musicians, most of which are very experienced but also including those who are starting out. Some of those new artists appear at the free-entry showcase concerts that are held on the second Tuesday of each month.

    The 10th Anniversary of Regent Jazz will be celebrated at a special concert featuring new and recent players as well as musicians from the early days of Regent Jazz. Details of this free event are available from the Regent Jazz website.

    The building

    The building, in which Regent Jazz holds its concerts, used to be the sports and social club of EMGAS. That was in 1969 when EMGAS had its offices in nearby De Montfort Street. The building itself was designed by the well-known Victorian architect Henry Goddard (1813 to 1899.) It was originally the home of Leicester-born John Flower (1793 to 1861), a landscape and architectural artist. At that time, the address was Upper Regent Street. Later, Regent Street was re-named Regent Road. In 1904, the substantial building, at 102 Regent Road, was extended and split into two properties, half becoming what is today the Regent Sports and Social Club.

    In preparing this article I gratefully acknowledge the help of Steve Harris, Barry Dufour and Andrew Sime. This is the long version of the article, intended to act as the source for other, briefer, resumes of the history.

  • Dating the past

    Dating the Past.

    When was 1066?

    27th April 2017

    The battle of Hastings took place on 14th October 1066. Just saying that seems to imbue the date with the quality of being an incontestable fact. I will go on to show that dating the past is not always as simple as it might seem.

    But first. Let us recall some things that are known about the battle – which actually took place near the bay of Pevensey, in what is today the county of East Sussex. The battle was fought between the king of England Harold Godwinson and William, Duke of Normandy. A few days earlier Harold had won a battle against invading Danes under the leadership of Harald Sigurdsson of Norway, known as Hardrada. This was the battle of Stamford Bridge. Harald was killed, along with Earl Tostig Godwinson, brother of the English king in a conflict that saw Harold Godwinson victorious.

    William of Normandy’s fleet of ships landed at the bay of Pevensey, which is between the modern-day towns of Eastbourne and Hastings. During the battle, Harold’s younger brother Gyrth Godwinson and his other brother Leofwine were killed. The battle was fought close to the place now called Battle – about eight miles from modern-day Hastings; an abbey was erected to mark the conflict near the site where it had traditionally been said to have been fought. The town of Hastings was first mentioned in the late 8th century when it was known as Hastingas. Clearly there was a settlement there during Anglo-Saxon times. Battle Abbey was built in 1095.

    The earliest account of the battle is found in the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio, written in the 11th century. Only a copy of it, from the early 12th century, still survives.

    Following the battle at Pevensey, where Harold Godwinson was killed, the English nobles surrendered to William at Berkhamstead in December, after which William rode into London and was crowned, at Westminster Abbey, on Christmas day.

    My interest in this event was kindled by watching the series on BBC2 television: 1066 – a year to conquer England.

    So how certain can we be that dates given in historical accounts are accurate? Clearly, medieval writers know dates and could record any date on which an event took place. Our problem is in counting backwards and saying that an event took place x or y hundred years ago.

    This problem stems from changes to the calendar that has been used over time. The calendar we use today, at least in the West, is the Gregorian Calendar which was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century, in October 1582. That calendar was introduced because errors were discovered in the previous calendar – the Julian – which was based on an even earlier one – the Roman calendar. The Julian calendar introduced a very small correction to the length of the year. Not all European countries adopted the Gregorian calendar straight away – Greece did not adopt it until 1923. The Gregorian calendar was used to calculate the date of Easter, a very important festival for the Christian church. According to Wikipedia, ‘Since the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the difference between Gregorian and Julian calendar dates has increased by three days every four centuries.’ This article goes on to explain variations between the two calendars in some detail. A table shows that the differences in days can vary between 10 and 14 days.

    Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. The Wikipedia article (see below for references) provides an example of the problems that can occur when dating important events: ‘So, for example, the Parliamentary record lists the execution of Charles I on 30 January as occurring in 1648 (as the year did not end until 24 March), although later histories adjust the start of the year to 1 January and record the execution as occurring in 1649.

    So, when the scribes – who wrote about the Battle that took place in Southern England – gave the date as 14th October 1066, they would have been using the Julian calender.

    Even today, various other calendars exist. The Islamic faith has its own calendar, which differs from that of the Christian church. There is a calendar for the Chinese which is based astronomical observations of the sun’s longitude and the phases of the moon.

    Going back to the Norman invasion, how long did it take them, to fully conquer the whole country? In particular, when did they take over Leicester? William died in 1087. That marked a milestone in Norman Britain. He was succeeded by his third son, William who was crowned William II in 1087. He has become known as ‘William Rufus.’ The years of William’s reign were marked by sporadic insurgencies and the odd rebellion and by threats of invasion from mainland Europe. There was an uprising by the Northumbrians who captured Durham and lay siege to York. The 21 years of William’s rule were peppered with revolts and uprisings. After conquering England, William ousted the old aristocracy replacing it with his system of Earls and nobles. Although the Normans introduced a powerful aristocracy to the country they preserved some of the established Anglo-Saxon posts and positions of the local administrations, much as the Roman had done several centuries earlier. Just as Roman rule did not extend fully into Scotland, so too the Normans failed to subdue the Scottish tribes. Other English towns also fell under the Roman yoke.

    When did the Normans take over Leicester?

    Robert de Beaumont was created the 1st Earl of Leicester (born sometime between 1040 and 1050, died 5 June 1118). He was a close associate of William. He fought at Hastings. He had four descendants all of whom were called Robert and they all became Earl of Leicester. Leicester castle was built around 1070 under the governorship of Hugh de Grandmesnil. It was constructed on the site of a much earlier Roman fortification. The castle still exists today and the mound of the Motte can be visited. It had remained in continuous use since it began though for several years it fell into a state of poor repair. The great hall was given a brick frontage in the style of Queen Anne. Before the coming of the Normans, Leicester had been a thriving Anglo-Saxon town. The town was mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, when it was called Ledecestre. It was described as a small walled town surrounded by farms, fields and agricultural plots. There were four gates in the walls. William’s army had taken over nearly the whole of England prior to his being crowed, in London, on Christmas day 1066. Before the times of the Anglo-Saxons, the town was an important centre for the Romans, when it was called Ratae Corieltauvorum.

    References

    Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest: the battle of Hastings and the fall of Anglo-Saxon England, 2012. Random House.

    Difference between Gregorian and Julian calendar dates, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar#Difference_between_Gregorian_and_Julian_calendar_dates

    Dating the past, article in Science Learning Hub, https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1478-dating-the-past-introduction

    Dating the past, chapter 4, in Archaeology an introduction, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2002, https://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/kevin.greene/wintro/chap4.htm

    Chronological dating in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_dating

    Dating the Past: An Introduction to Geochronology. FREDERICK E. ZEUNER. (xx, 495 pp.,
    103 figures, 24 plates, $8.00. Third revised edition. Methuen & Co., Ltd., London
    and Longmans, Green & Co., Inc., New York, 1952.)

  • Music History

    29th August 2014

    archive page logo

    The History of Music in Leicester

    For most of this year, I have been writing a book that is about music in Leicester; the first volume of this covers the years 2006 to 2013.  So far I have made first drafts of the chapters on the years 2006 to 2011. I am now working on the chapter for 2012.

    The material for these chapters is being drawn from the articles and reviews of bands, singers, festivals and music events that took place in Leicester and Leicestershire and which were published in the Arts in Leicester magazine.  When Arts in Leicester website was revamped, pretty much all the music content was taken off-line and stored in an archive. It is that archive material that I am now editing into a book, which I hope to publish next year.

    When it becomes available, the book will offer a detailed day by day account of live music and the happenings on the Leicester music scene.

    The book, which has the working title – The History of Music in Leicester – will also have a volume that covers the music history of the city from Roman times up to the present day.

  • Local music: does it matter?

    Trevor Locke asks if local music really matters

    If you watch the television you might choose to watch a programme about rock music in the 70s or 80s. If music is your thing, there is no shortage of programmes in which famous musicians are interviewed and clips of bands and singers playing songs of the time are shown. These programmes are very interesting and informative but they are all about the big bands that made it into the charts.

    What is largely neglected by both the media and by historians is music at the local level. It is assumed, most probably, that anything about live music in one town or city will be of interest only those who live there. Unless of course it is about Liverpool and the Beatles or possibly even Sheffield and the Arctic Monkeys or Manchester during the days of the Hacienda. These are subjects worthy of programmes or books because, in the opinion of their producers and authors, they have had an impact and influence on the national music scene.

    I want to argue that music at the local level is both fascinating and important, in its own right. I would say that, wouldn’t I? After all, I have spent over ten years of my life writing about the music of Leicester for the magazine I created and now am compiling all that work into one enormous book on the subject.

    Given that I am engaged in writing about local history, why is it that historians largely ignore music when they analyse and discuss the life of local communities? Local history has established itself as being an area of study that is credible and interesting, as much as the history of the nation as a whole. Local history of any kind is not just of interest to people who live in the area; those who research and write about local history like to consult works by others who are engaged in similar projects. Local history is a legitimate branch of learning in its own right. The life of any nation is not just about kings, politicians and battles. No understanding of a nation is possible without an awareness of the culture and life of people whose daily lives creates that nation. We cannot understand England without understanding the ordinary common folk who comprise it.

    People who write about local history often focus on the areas of human activity that have been established in the accounts of the nation as a whole: commerce, industry and economics, politics, transport (trains and roads), women, race, battles and armies, etc. You do sometimes get studies of art or culture at the local level and that, by and large, concerns itself with pictorial art and sculpture. That stance on local history is often bolstered by the view that something at local level is of national importance. That take on history pivots around the assumption that something must have that magical national significance to justify it and give it credibility. Who arbitrates what is of national significance?

    My interest is in music; my two great passions in life are music and history. So, writing about the history of music would be completely natural for me. The shelves of libraries are well stocked with books about periods of musical history, accounts of specific bands, studies of specific genres and so on. If, like me, you want to read about music in a town or city, you will have to search extensively to find anything. The shibboleth about local needing to be national haunts music and art history as much as anything other aspect of life at the level of street and town.

    This situation needs to change. Historians and musicologists alike need to recognise that music has always been an important part of the life of any local community. If you want to understand what daily life was like in the past, as now, you have to look at the music that the people in a community were listening to. Art is about painting and statues, but it is also about music – and not just classical music. There are endless books about the great classical composers but almost nothing about the work of the countless men and women who have made music, composed and invented it throughout the ages at the local level. History is organised around notoriety. It is the legacy of how academia has been organised since Greek and Roman times that only the great artists and composers are worthy of study because they have defined the cultural landscape of The West, Europe, England … well of course that is true but I want to see credibility given to the study of the art and culture of common people, everyday country folk, the people, the masses, what ever you want to call them – the people whose lives come and go but leave little behind them. Historians tend to work with what is stored on library shelves. What gets on to library shelves is arbitrated by the shibboleth of national significance.

    Archaeologists however are much more likely to unearth the remains of everyday life. Modern approaches to history are becoming increasingly concerned to reveal what life was like in the streets of a village, town or city. We can have a fairly detailed view of what happened in the streets of a Roman town, how food was produced and distributed, how people were housed, the tools they worked with, what people ate, how they dressed and cooked, how they were entertained and, to my mind, what music they listened to.

    Delving into the history of music can be very difficult; the further back we go the harder it becomes to find remains because music just happens and unless people at the time wrote about it, nothing survives from music-making, apart from a few instruments or fragments of them that happened to be preserved in the earth. Such investigations become easier in recorded history when we can find manuscripts, writings, music scores, accounts of concerts or festivals to give us an idea of what people listened to. With the advent of film, recordings and the Internet, there is now a huge amount of material to work with if we want to write accounts of the musical culture of today or recent times.

    At the local level however material about music is ephemeral and volatile. Vast quantities of videos, tracks and gig flyers flood through the pages of social media but few people see all this as being grist to the mill of historical research. Like many with an interest in music, I spend many hours of every day on Facebook, Twitter or websites watching what is going on, mainly in my own locality but also at national level. As a music journalist, my task is to watch, record and annotate musical culture in my local area.

    The present is what is happening now. What happened yesterday is history.

    Music, in my view, is an integral part of local history, just as much as food, buildings, clothing, work, politics, trade or anything else that forms an understanding of the life and experience of a community. This is not a perspective that I see in the output of the majority of local historians. Local history, I would argue, is the poorer for its lack of recognition of the significance of music to accounts of what happened at the local level in the lives of everyday people.

    Anthropologists, who went out to study and research the life of tribes, cultures and peoples in foreign countries often recorded and noted the music that they made. They, like archaeologists, got down to the nitty gritty of everyday life and they found music in every social group they visited. Anywhere in the world. Whether it was part of religion or ritual, part of social gatherings or the transmission of culture and collective memory, or the expression of collective identity, musical activity was found everywhere that anthropologists went. From the Trobriand Islands to the high mountains of the Incas, anthropologists went to see people living their ordinary everyday lives and to record what they saw, whatever it was, and they all saw music being made.

    Academically, local history shares many interests and sources with anthropology and archaeology. It is therefore somewhat odd that local historians have neglected music as much as they have in their understandings of the life of local peoples. Researching the history of music in an area can be challenging and difficult because of the dearth of source material with which to work. The further back in time that one wishes to go the less there is to work with and the harder it is to unearth. Yet, the more fascinating and informative it becomes. Music is an activity that tells us a lot about the people who make it and those that listened to it or took part in it, through religion, ritual, dance, social gatherings or just plain old entertainment. Music is a key definer of social identity; what music you like marks you out as a person. The gigs you go to are part of your social identity. The kind of music that is found in a community defines much about its culture, belief systems and cohesive tissues. The lyrics of songs are capsules of what people believe, celebrate and remember. The status given to music makers tell us something about the way a community is organised. This is as true at the local level as it is at that of the nation state.

    Even when not focussing specifically on music, local history is incomplete unless it has tried to account for the everyday life of a community and that must, I argue, include how people were entertained, fed, clothed, educated and how they socialised. Music should be a topic that is always included in accounts of life at the local level. Without an account of a people’s music, the picture is inherently incomplete.

    Trevor Locke

    9th August 2014.

     

    About this article

    It might appear that I have assumed that no one has ever written about local music. I know that not to be the case because I have found studies in my own area of Leicester and have searched for and read material relating to other towns and cities in the UK, both in the form of books and articles on the Internet. The present article forms a précis for a more substantial article that I have planned. I offer it at this stage to see if I can evoke some comments or even make contact with like-minded individuals who share both my agenda and my interest in this topic.

  • History of Leicester part 1

    20th June 2014

    Part 1 of our series of articles on the history of Leicester

    The History of Leicester

    2000 years of continuous habitation

    Leicester’s pre-history

    By Trevor Locke

    The relationship between people and the buildings they occupy has always been a fascinating topic of research and debate. From the time when men ‘lived in caves’, to the times when they built their homes from mud and dung through to today’s gleaming spires of steel and glass, buildings have shaped the lives of the people who lived and worked in them.

    Humans have lived and died in Leicestershire for many thousands of years. More and more evidence is coming to light about the pre-history of our local area. Humans have left traces of their existence in the area we now call Leicestershire, since they first arrived in the area, probably after the end of the last ice age.

    Before and after the Ice Ages

    Evidence of man’s presence in our country can be dated back to before the Anglian ice age, around 500,000 years BC. Our knowledge of pre-historic Britain has developed considerably in recent years with new finds from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods being unearthed.

    Hundreds of artefacts have been gathered from sites around Leicestershire, giving us some insights into the life of people before they began to construct buildings, when they were primarily hunter-gatherers, living off what the land could provide for them.

    The start of houses

    After the end of the ice age, around 10,000 to 8,000 BC, humans began to form settlements. It was in the Mesolithic era that permanent dwellings began to be erected.

    In the bronze age, people began to build homes, plant crops and tend cattle, sheep and pigs. They built round houses that were constructed from local materials.

    One of the first homes to be discovered in the UK was built in the Bronze age, in 4,000 BC. The round house was made of wood and probably had a roof made of thatch or turf. It was discovered in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, at Flag Fen, by the television archaeological programme Time Team (Series 7, Episode 9). It was set in a landscape of fields and track ways. Based on what the dig discovered, a re-construction of the roundhouse was made. It was a significant find; it suggested that people were beginning to form a settled way of live, based on farming. This was around 1,500 BC. They established fields with boundaries and kept animals to provide them with meat. Settling in one place allowed people to spend more time on the creation of artefacts, including jewellery and tools and many of these have been discovered in burials. The dead were buried close to the places where people lived.

    The new discoveries at Star Carr in Yorkshire threw new light some of the very earliest evidence of buildings. Hunter-gatherers are believed to have created permanent settlements in which ceremonial and economic activities took place.

    As the ice melted, sea levels rose and the low-lying bridge of land that connected ‘Britain’ to the European continent was flood and created the islands we know as the British Isles, around about 6,500 BC (or BCE – before the common era.)

    Man was active here at a time when our country was still connected to the mainland of continental Europe. The first humans arrived here about 25,000 years ago. In that time, between ice ages, Britain was connected to Europe by an area called Doggerland. People were able to walk here from Europe, prior to the time when the land became an Island separated by the English Channel.

    The very first buildings

    The people who lived after the end of the Ice Age were predominantly hunter-gatherers who lived a largely nomadic life-style. People chose the sites for their settlements carefully, based on the needs of the community – for access to water for drinking, washing and fishing – to avoid water (by choosing higher ground that would not get flooded) and where they could grow crops and tend animals.

    Being on higher ground they could also command a view of the surrounding land, enabling them to keep an eye out for intruders or groups that might attack their settlements.

    New discoveries have overturned the belief that the construction of domestic buildings in Britain did not begin until around the time of the Iron age, 5,000 years ago.  It was common for people to build round houses in this country; in other parts of Iron Age Europe, people lived in rectangular houses [British Museum.]

    In fact one structure was discovered in North Yorkshire that dates back to the Stone Age, 8,500 years BC (the Star Carr site.) Archaeologists believe that they might have found one of the first ‘houses’ to have been constructed in the British Isles.

    The Star Carr site

    Tombs (barrows) were constructed in the Megalithic period; the burial of the dead preceded the wide-scale construction of permanent domestic structures.

    Stone Henge, in Wiltshire, is thought to have been constructed about 2400 and 2200 BC. A roundhouse was discovered in Orkney that is thought to have been constructed about 700 BC. There is some evidence that suggests that the earliest prehistoric groups lived a nomadic existence, sheltering in tents made from animal skins. In Neolithic times people began to erect long houses as early as 5,000 to 6,000 BC (on mainland Europe.)

    It was during the Bronze age that pottery began to appear. Vessels have been found that were decorated with distinctive groove patterns dating back to 3000 BC. This beaker period goes back to the end of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age periods. The first figurative art appeared in the late Neolithic period.

    In the bronze and iron ages, people built their houses from the materials they found around them – trees, straw or reeds or turf for roofing, mud or clay to fill in the holes and cracks.
    Apart from houses for people to live in, enclosures were also constructed for animals, such as cows and sheep, and these could have formed an integral part of the early settlements.
    When these buildings were abandoned, they rotted back into the earth, leaving only tell-tales signs (such as post-holes) as to how they had been constructed.

    There were no sewers; people dug pits into which they put their refuse and broken pots and other unwanted materials.  Archaeologists discovered a lot about the life-styled of Iron and Bronze age people from the rubbish they left behind.

    The dead were often buried close to human habitations (indeed, sometimes even inside them.) How people dealt with the dead changed over time, customs changing from burial to cremation but other practices have also been discovered.

    It was not until the (much later Roman times) that people began to use stone in construction. Early houses were invariably round; it was the Romans who brought the idea of square or rectangular buildings to this part of the country. There is evidence that some rectangular houses were built before the Romans but it  is the round floor plan that is the most common.

    Early houses were built without plans being drawn. There were no architects, quantity surveyors and probably no people who specialised as builders. Knowledge of how to construct buildings was handed down from one generation to another. What materials to use and how to put them together was part of a group’s traditions. People would probably have known how to fell trees, which trees to cut, what materials were available in the woods or from the swamp areas or from river banks.

    Tools were relatively primitive; saws and hammers were rare but some kinds of tools must have been used to shape wood or to cut reeds to the desired length. Examples of bronze age axes have been found – the adze was used to work wood and had a bronze head attached to a handle made of wood. Ditches were often dug around the outskirts of houses or settlements and implements must have been used for this.

    Tools used by farmers have been found, dating to the iron age. These were used to harvest crops. Axes have been found dating to this period. ‘The main frame of roundhouse would have been made of upright timbers, which were interwoven with coppiced wood – usually hazel, oak, ash or pollarded willow – to make wattle walls. This was then covered with a daub made from clay, soil, straw and animal manure that would weatherproof the house. The roof was constructed from large timbers and densely thatched’ [BBC history.]

    Buildings and art

    For centuries buildings have reflected the cultural and artistic values of each generation. We see the ornate carvings and elaborate stonework of the Gothic era, the middle ages and the Victorians and marvel at the embellishments that adorn some of our notable public buildings and monuments. How do we recognise and appreciate the message that modern and contemporary buildings gives us? Today’s architects look for beauty in simplicity. Buildings are designed to be machines for living and working. Functionality determines their layout and external appearance. There is no evidence that Bronze or Iron age huts were decorated in any way; the ornamentation of buildings probably did not start until the Romans radically changed the way buildings were constructed.

    When we look back at the Leicester of our forebears, much of which we can still see on our streets, we can glimpse the lives they used to lead. Buildings in our city centre suggest a past of wealth and prosperity, economic and commercial success and the desire of the powerful and successful to aggrandize their social status.
    Leicester is a place that has seen human habitation since before the Romans arrived and has always been a major point on cross-country routes. There are indications of settlements on the banks of the Soar in the Iron age. If this is correct then Leicester is a place that has seen over two thousand years of continuous human habitation.

    As we look through the buildings that stand as milestones in the history of Leicester/shire, we can see them telling us about the history of England. From the Roman invasion, through to the Wars of the Roses, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, The Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of Modernism, these epochs reflect changing attitudes to art and culture as well as being a testament to the political and social currents of their times.

    We can tell a lot from the rubbish tips and cess pits of our ancestors. One wonders if future archaeologists will be digging in the land-fill sites of today’s world for clues to the life of everyday people.
    The excavation of the past is often about buildings and artefacts – the things that people have left behind them in the earth. A lot is also learned from the burial of the dead; if you want to understand the life of people in the past, grave yards are a good place to start.
    If we want to understand the artistry of the past, we have to understand the social context in which artisans worked and in which people consumed and used their products and creations. It is only through painstakingly collating and piecing together a mass of evidence, that we can develop a picture of the earliest inhabitants of the area we now know as Leicester.

    Prior to the Iron Age, humans were largely nomadic hunter gatherers. The only evidence we can find are their stone tools, left behind as they moved from place to place, together with indications of how they disposed of their dead.

    From around 50 B.C. a settlement developed along the east bank of the Soar and this can be seen as the origin of modern Leicester, argues Malcolm Elliot. The Iron Age and the era of Roman settlement saw the earliest formation of Leicester. In the year 2000, an open-air ritual site was discovered in Hallaton in East Leicestershire.

    It was one of the most important discoveries in recent years from the Iron Age and Early Roman Britain. Over 5,000 Iron age and Roman coins were found on the site. Most were made locally and issued in about 20 to 50 AD. These coins were probably made by members of the Corieltavi tribe.

    The Romans in Leicester

    Prior to the Roman Invasion of A.D. 43, the settlement on the banks of the Soar seems to have become an important centre for the Coritani tribe (Corieltavi or Corieltavauri.) They would have had trading connections with south-east Britain and beyond, perhaps extended into other parts of Europe. Excavations have revealed pottery from France, Italy and southern Spain. The Coritani ranged across what is now Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and parts of South Yorkshire. They were a collection of like-minded people who shared the same outlook and social practices.

    Whilst it is likely that they had a settlement on the banks of the Soar, this was not their principal centre. Ratae Coritanorum was the capital town(civitas) of the tribe, lying on the route from London to Lincoln.
    The Roman settlement is thought to have been a rectangular area, surrounded with perimeter fortifications in which there were four gates. There is doubt about whether the river side of the enclosure was walled, like the rest. The Romans frequently established their forts on (then) pre-existing Iron age or Bronze age sites. Beneath the remains of Roman forts is it common to find much earlier  archaeology.

    The Fosse Way was an important Roman Road linking the fortresses of Exeter and Lincoln. This passed near to Ratae Corieltauvorum. Following the Roman invasion, the Fosse Way marked the western frontier of the Roman area. The current A46 follows the path of the Fosse Way between Lincoln and Leicester. Nearing the city its route is now marked by Melton Road and Belgrave Road. It would have terminated roughly at the position of Clock Tower and continued along the line of the present Narborough Road.

    As the invading legions pushed northwards, it is thought they would have crossed the Soar near to the present West Bridge.  Early in the second century, the town was being built up using a grid pattern. It was around 125 to 130 A.D. that the forum, basilica and baths were constructed, the ruins of which can now been seen at the Jewry Wall site. Substantial town houses were also built, having central heating, floors of fine mosaics and painted walls. This signifies that Ratae was an important seat of government and continued to be so right into the fourth century.

    As the great Roman buildings fell into ruin, their stone was used to build new structures, such as the church of St. Nicholas. The regular pattern of the Roman streets began to be overlaid by the buildings of later centuries as ground level rose several feet above what would have the level of the original Roman town.

    Leicester – 2000 years of diversity

    Discovery of pagan burials from Roman times in Leicester
    A fascinating documentary on Channel Four TV tonight (1st May 2013) throws new light on Roman life in fourth century Britain. In the series Stories from the Dark Earth, archaeologist Julian Richards looked at the pagans of Roman Britain. What stood out for me was his depiction of Romano-British society as being ethnically and culturally diverse. He looked in particular at two burials: a wealthy man from Roman Winchester and a lavishly appointed grave of a woman in the heart of London. The Winchester man had received a pagan burial. He was someone who had been born and bred locally. The wealthy woman found in London, however, had come to this country from Rome itself. Artefacts found in the grave site suggest that she might have been a follower of the cult of Bacchus.
    In his narrative to the programme, Richards suggests that those who inhabited major Roman towns, such as Venta Belgarum (Winchester) and Londinium (London), were not just a mixture of indigenous peoples and Romans from Italy, but a much more ethnically diverse community of people who had arrived in this country from a very wide range of European origins and, in all likely, from other parts of the Roman Empire including the Middle East and North Africa.
    By the time of the decline of the Roman Empire in Britain, from the fourth century onwards, many indigenous inhabitants had become Romanised, so that their way of life, religious beliefs and culture characterised them as Roman.

    If this was the case in towns like Winchester and London, then we might surmise that this would also have been the case in Leicester. There is evidence that suggests that larger Roman towns and settlements were cosmopolitan places in which we would have found people from all over the empire.

    The presence of people from North Africa in British Towns is well documented. Dr Simon James has commented: Before Roman times ‘Britain’ was just a geographical entity, and had no political meaning, and no single cultural identity. [The Peoples of Britain]
    Arguably this remained generally true until the 17th century, when James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy.

    The British Isles have always been the home to people who have moved here from other parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle and Far East, ever since the time when the first settlers walked into our land when it was still joined to the European landmass, prior to the formation of the English Channel.

    From the decline of the Roman empire to the Norman invasion of 1066, the area was dominated by the Anglo-Saxons, people descended from the Germanic tribes of Europe.  Evidence from the archaeology of the rest of the UK suggests that the Roman army was made up of people from many areas of Europe, North Africa and Middle and Far Eastern places, such as Syria and parts of what is now Turkey.

    Walking around what we now call Leicester (back in the times of the Romans), you would have seen a variety of faces: white, brown and black skins and witnessed an astonishing melting pot of ethnic and cultural mixes.

    The Dark Ages

    After the Romans had gone, The Saxons came. 1,400 years ago the country was invaded by people from the area of Europe now called Germany. This period is sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages. So little is known about this period that it appears to be a dark hole in the history of the British Isles. The archaeology is so frustratingly difficult that you might as well call it The Dark Stainages; The Saxons left so little behind, that much of the evidence comes from stains in the earth. Painstakingly scraping through layers of soil, dark patches appear where post holes were made, or red patches where fires once burned. There was however, pottery. One of the most important excavations took place in Leicestershire in 2008 when Time Team came to Knave Hill and Tony Robinson lead the team in digging up part of a hill South West of Leicester.

    People walking in the fields found pieces of pottery and noted down exactly where they had been found. This gave the diggers a clue to where they should put in their trenches – where there was the highest concentration of pottery finds.

    This is what modern archaeology is all about – taking a systematic approach and using well established techniques; It’s not about luck, it’s about methods. Digs are frequently about finding tell-tale traces in the soil – pits and ditches – that tell us that there was human settlement there once and if we are lucky we find pottery shards in them to give us dating evidence.

    At Knave Hill there was excitement when archaeologist Matt Williams found several large pieces of pottery from the late Iron age – the period before the Romans arrived. Both the Romans and the Saxons often settled on sites previously occupied in earlier times, from the Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age.

    Most Saxon buildings were built from timber, they had wooden walls and the roof consisted of thatch. All that rots away after the buildings have been abandoned, leaving only faint traces from which the type and extent of the buildings can be analysed, using a great deal of evidence gathered from many sites across the country.

    Humans settled in certain places according to the nature of the local countryside. These people began to mingle with the people who were already here – the Celts. The very earliest people to colonise our land – after the end of the last ice age – were people who wandered across from the European continent at a time before the British Isles were separated by what is now the Channel. Between around 45 AD and 412 AD, there were the Romans. It was not surprising therefore that evidence of Roman occupation was found on the same site. The Romans often took over Iron Age settlements and the finds helped to prove this.

    Working with the Time Team crew was archaeologist Peter Liddle and a team of volunteers from The Langtons. The Saxons established administrative areas called hundreds. The boundaries of these areas often follow natural contours such as rivers, hills and roads. A study of the local landscape enabled the team to predict where settlements might have been. Rivers were important as a source of water and fish, while higher ridges and hills offered a good place to live to avoid the flooding in the lower-lying river valleys.

    The Romans built roads but these would have often followed earlier courses that had been established in the stone age. Those tracks could have been laid down by the migration of herds of animals.
    The excavations at Knave Hill suggest that  there had been around a 100 people living and farming in a settlement of huts surrounding a central Hall.

    Scientists have plotted the migration of Peoples from Europe, using analysis of DNA. It was suggested that about ten percent of the population were of Saxon and Viking origin. Waves of invaders did not obliterate the indigenous Celtic population but integrated with them. Astonishingly, their DNA can still be found in the people of the 21st century. So, the Dark Ages is perhaps a misnomer. A growing amount of evidence has been dug up to throw light on the people of this time and of course there is the poetry.

    About this article

    This text is taken from the old Arts in Leicestershire web site. It originally formed the commentary to the pages in the Architecture section. The text on this page had been edited a little from the original. We plan to republished the whole of the old magazine’s Architecture Section, as part of the heritage section of our new Arts in Leicester website.

    See also:

    Part 2 – The Romans in Leicester

    The history of the Arts in Leicester Magazine

    News about RichardIII

  • Music Awards

    26th March 2014

    This is an archive post; it is not current; it’s here for the record.

    archive page logo
    This page forms part of out archives

    LEICESTER MUSIC AWARDS

    NB: the idea of the Leicester Music Awards was never followed up and nothing was ever done about it.  This article won an award: Annual Apathy Prize for 2014.

    Should awards be given to celebrate the music of Leicester? This article discusses this question.

    First, some background. Society in general celebrates and honours achievements in many ways. The Queen confers honours in the form of OBEs, MBEs and CBEs. Awards and prizes are given in the world of sports, the arts, films and television, literature, science, engineering and so forth.

    Second, in the world of music, there are several well-known awards, including the Brits, those given by magazines such as NME and Kerrang and others which celebrate popular music generally. ‘The Barclaycard Mercury Prize promotes the best of UK and Irish music and the artists that produce it. This is done primarily through the celebration of the 12 ‘Albums of the Year’.’ Likewise there are awards made to specific genres of music, such as The Urban Music awards which ‘recognise the achievement of urban based artists, producers, club nights, DJ’s , radio stations, record labels and artist from the current Dance/R&B, Hip-hop, Neo Soul, Jazz, and dance music scene.’

    There are awards for classical music, music made by young people, opera, choral music, and so forth. Some awards are given by the big national music industry organisations and some are geared to independent music. The company that manufactures Orange Amps sponsors awards in the world of classic rock as it also does for ‘prog’ music.

    These are all national-level awards. At the local level, there are far fewer examples but a few do stand out.

    The Liverpool Music Awards ‘honours the heroes of the music industry in our city: not only local musicians, but also those behind the scene, who facilitate and inspire others to create and perform on Merseyside. While the scope of the awards provides opportunity to celebrate musical achievements which have gone beyond the borders of our city, at their core the awards are for those who are currently active in Liverpool.’

    In Brighton, the BMA is about ‘Celebrating the best independent music from Brighton and across the region.’

    The Manchester Musical Awards honours the world of musicals.

    In Nottingham, Nusic selects an artist of the month. The Nottingham Music Awards is about ‘Celebrating the vibrant and eclectic Nottingham Music Scene.’ The Nottingham Music Awards – also known as the Notty’s – will look to celebrate the achievements of the great musicians, singers, promoters, managers and others who play a part in what is a boom time for the Nottingham music scene.’

    The giving of awards, prizes and honours is a widespread and long established aspect of human life across all fields of human activity.

    Here in Leicester, Arts in Leicestershire published a Band of the Month to highlight the work of local bands and did this from 2008 to 2012. Later Music in Leicester website continued this by publishing a band of the month. Both also published an annual Gigs of The Year article to recognise outstanding live performances.

    What would be the benefit to Leicester?

    If Leicester was to follow the example set by other local cities and to create its own set of awards for popular music, what might be the benefits?

    My stance on this is that there would be two sets of gains: the national and the local. It is possible that local music-markers would enjoy the recognition of receiving a gong for their endeavours and in particular new bands and rising artists could be given a boost and encouragement from such acknowledgements.

    More importantly, in my view, there would be benefits for the music community as a whole. The existence of awards for music would boost the notoriety of Leicester as a centre of musical excellence. Many people have commented that music is one of Leicester’s “best kept secrets” and that much more needs to be done to gain acknowledgement of our music at national level.

    In principle, such an initiative would confer benefits far beyond the confines of the city. However laudable it might be to recognise and honour musical achievement at the local level, what stands out for me is the celebration of our music at national level.

    There are course a lot of dependent factors in this: not least who is selecting and judging the potential winners. Some of the judges would be local people who have followed the various genres of music in the locality but alongside these should be those who bring a wider perspective – people in the East Midlands region and those who know music at a national level. Local people patting themselves on the back might be good but if there is an equally weighted group of people with a wider take on music, who also have a part in honouring the city’s bands and artists, then this gives the whole thing added credibility.

    Some awards allow music fans to vote on nominated acts but, in my mind, this counts for less than the judgement of music professionals. At national level, it might well be fine for the public to vote in large numbers for a music artist but at local level voting reduces favour to popularity and the size of an act’s following. That can be fair enough for local competitions, although some have argued that this is inherently unfair because there is no necessary equation of musical ability and local popularity.

    If the choice should rest with a panel of industry experts, it is vital that there is a cross-section of backgrounds that reflects the scope of the music scene. If we opt for a generic Music Award (even one that is focussed only on popular music including rock, indie and urban genres and not classical or choral) then the judging panel must draw in those from a wide spread of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

    As with most Awards, there are likely to be categories and prizes that celebrate specific kinds of music-makers, including bands, singers, rappers, instrumentalists and so on. It is possible that certain kinds of music outputs might also be worth honouring, including best recorded tune or song, best lyrics, best music video, best live performance, etc.

    Where general Music Awards are concerned, most would want to honour long-established acts as well as emerging new talent. Some scope also exists to honour the music industry that brings their work into the outside world – venues, promoters, recording studios and so forth.

    What I personally do not approve of is a competition in which music acts have to perform in a series of heats and semi-finals in order to gain an award. It think it is much better that judges base their approvals on performance over a period of time, look at the live gigs, recordings and output of the acts, basing their assessments on what an act has achieved over time and not on a single series of live gigs.

    Is it worth it?

    Any award-making initiative depends, for its success, on a range of factors that must be got right at the very start. Who will be chosen to be the judges is the most important factor, but it is also necessary to factor in elements such as sponsors, backers, financiers, publicists and a plethora of people who can contribute to the whole thing being worthwhile and successful. The kudos of being granted an award might be beneficial in itself but if the awards also confers other forms of value – cash prizes, recording contracts, publicity – then people might see it as being more widely worthwhile.

    The potential down-side of sponsorship is corporate domination; independent awards avoid the kick-backs from big commercial organisations using the process for their own agendas.

    The critical factors are not just who judges but what criteria they use. This has to be transparent. It’s all very well awarding a prize for the ‘best band’ but the value of that is not obvious unless the criteria is very clearly stated.

    The worth of a Leicester awards initiative rests, in my view, on what the music scene as a whole gets out of it. It also has to be an annual process in which its value grows year on year.