Special Projects 2010 - 2012 - John Kirkpatrick

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2015 onwards

2015
	UNITED WE STAND! JK acts as musical director for another play by Neil Gore for Townsend Productions. This piece concerns the 1970’s building strike, which led to prison sentences for some of the union leaders, including Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson. John contributes a song or two, and coaches Neil and fellow actor/singer William Fox.
	THE 100 MOST POPULAR BALLADS OF THE 17th CENTURY John takes part in another bout of recording for this massive ongoing project, with The Carnival Band, led by Andy Watts.
	BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS At the ceremony in Cardiff, John is invited to present the award of Musician of the Year – to fiddler Sam Sweeney.
	GALA NIGHT AT THE SWAN THEATRE, WORCESTER At The Swan Theatre, Worcester, John acts as pit orchestra for a whole host of songs and sketches drawn from numerous productions in recent years by the Worcester Repertory Company. Chris Jaeger directs this one-off Gala Night as a birthday celebration for the theatre.
	ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM Townsend Productions stage this Community Project in Leighton Buzzard, bringing together huge numbers of local artists, dancers, actors, and singers, in a show based around the newly discovered Chartist Hymn Book from the 1830s. JK helped with some of the music and provided the title song!
	THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS John acts as Musical Director for the re-run of Townsend Productions’ first touring show, adapted by Neil Gore from the play by Stephen Lowe, based on the classic book by Robert Tressell. JK drills Neil and the other half of the cast, Jonathan Markwood, in singing, playing, and movement.
	HOME FRONT BBC Radio 4 For Radio 4’s drama series highlighting aspects of life during the First World War exactly one hundred years ago, JK and Paul Burgess provide some party background music on concertina and fiddle. The team enjoy the results so much that our boys are asked to record a couple of different versions of the theme tune as well.

2016
	DARE DEVIL RIDES TO JARAMA JK continues in his role as Musical Director for Townsend Productions’ touring plays in Neil Gore’s new piece about Clem Becket, the English motor cycle ace who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. This was a commission from The International Brigade Memorial Trust, as part of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the start of the conflict. JK contributes songs and oversees the music by Neil and cast member David Heywood.
	THE 100 MOST POPULAR BALLADS OF THE 17th CENTURY Further recording sessions with Andy Watts and The Carnival Band take place, with JK as one of the singers. The ballads for this project are quite unexpurgated and often incredibly long. As you can see when they go online in 2018!
	THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER At The Palace of Westminster, as part of a one day conference organized by the academic Angela McShane for the Parliamentary Beer Group and the Parliamentary Music Group, John sings a few songs with Andy Watts and Steno Vitale of the Carnival Band to illustrate how drinking and politics link up! Angela is one of the researchers for the 100 Ballads project to which John and the Carnival Band have been regularly contributing.
	THE RITHERDEN LECTURE John gives the annual Ritherden Lecture to The South West Shropshire Historical and Archaeological Society in Bishop’s Castle. His topic is The Folk Songs of Shropshire, illustrated with photographs and sound recordings. Riots ensue.
	EFDSS FOLK EDUCATORS DAY At a one-off meeting in Birmingham for the Folk Educators section of the EFDSS, John takes part in various group sessions and conducts a workshop on Border Morris Dancing.
	SHROPSHIRE TUNE ARCHIVE As part of an initiative by Shrewsbury Folk Festival, John is asked to compile a list of twenty dance tunes from or associated with Shropshire, to form the beginnings of an online resource for all to see. Eventually there will be a website where you can see the music for the tunes and watch a video of John playing them all.

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