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NEW NEWS
SANDS OF TIME PROJECT IN SCHOOLS & CD INFORMATION	In association with the Greensand Trust, Life & Times are working in schools in the early part of this month, introducing the children to our songs about Leighton Buzzard’s sand industry as part of the Sands Of Time oral history project. Through the project, the children will be encouraged to take an interest in their local heritage and be introduced to the project’s Virtual Museum website that is to be launched in early March. The URL will be www.thesandmuseum.org. On March 8^th we will be at Dovery Down Lower School in the early afternoon. On March 19^th we will be at Leighton Middle School in the early morning and late afternoon. Other schools are in negotiation with The Greensand Trust for workshops too. The songs produced for the project are: THE ENGINE BOY (B. Goodman) The story in this song is taken directly from oral history transcripts produced for the Sands of Time project. It tells of the daily routines of the engine boy (Ray Gurney b.1941) and his comrades. Ray was employed on the narrow gauge railway that transported sand from the pits to the end of the line where it was loaded onto goods trains on the old Luton, Dunstable and Welwyn Junction branch line. DOBBING (G. Meek) Dobbers are the men who worked in the sand pits, shovelling sand all day. This song tells of the hard work, the poor pay, the method of extraction, the typical dobber’s ‘uniform’ the various colours of sand to be found in and around Leighton Buzzard and some of the pits from which the sand was extracted. SAND (G. Meek) In one particular oral history transcript, Mrs. Vera Shales (b. 1915?) tells about her husband’s work as a dobber. Working past his retirement, he would regularly come home from work bringing with him volumes of sand that had accumulated in his pockets, turn-ups etc. It was always a big job for her to empty out the sand before she would be able to wash his clothes in the large copper every washday (Monday) ready for a new week’s work The songs were recorded in early February at Unit Studios, Letchworth, where we recorded our CD WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT just over a year before. Two of the songs will be able to be heard at the Virtual Museum website: www.thesandmuseum.org. You can also hear Sand and The Engine Boy at www.myspace.com/broadsidesrevisited See our Special Projects webpage for more details. See also our Recordings page where you can order your copy of the CD Sands Of Time (Wixamtree Recordings WIXD104). CDs and sheet music are to become part of the project’s school packages to be delivered to local schools in Leighton Buzzard. We are also performing at an event to mark the culmination of the project at the end of March. It is expected that there will be around 100 people connected in some way with the project in attendance. The National Sound Archive at the British Library now has a copy of the CD of the songs too.
CHELTENHAM FOLK FESTIVAL REPORT	We had a great time at The Cheltenham Folk Festival. The concert spot in the club room on Friday went well. The debut performance of the new song for the Greensand Trust's Sand Of Time project, Sand, was well received. Hear it on our Myspace profile together with The Engine Boy www.myspace.com/broadsidesrevisited We had an excellent full house (100+) for WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT on Saturday morning despite the early start. They were a great audience and they seemed to enjoy the show very much. Whilst at the festival, we had an enquiry about a possible appearance at Fishguard Folk Festival (possibly next year) and it looks like, even at this late date, there is a slim possibility of something at this year's Sidmouth Festival.
NATIONAL WATERWAYS MUSEUM	The National Waterways Museum in Gloucester has decided to take copies of the WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT CD for sale in their shop. They would also like to play the CD to customers as they browse. In addition, they are talking about having us perform the show at the museum although this will not now be until 2011 as their programme of events for 2010 is now complete. Apparently someone from the museum saw the show at Cheltenham Folk Festival and in a subsequent e-mail, he described it as brilliant and witty.
FACEBOOK EXPOSURE FOR WORKING BOATS MUSIC?	One of our Facebook contacts is someone with canal connections who wishes to put onto his Facebook group’s page a short video including an interview and possibly some of our music. If this all goes ahead, he will let you know where to find it if at all possible. The Save Our Waterways group on Facebook is here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=173872492699&ref=nf
HERITAGE LIBRARY COLLECTION	Bedford’s Heritage Library Collection now has copies of our CDs WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT CHARIVARI MARSTON VALE SANDS OF TIME Compilation CD of other local material
BARRY’S SONGS WEB PAGE	Life & Times’ main website now has links in the list at the top right of the page to a new web page listing and describing Barry’s songs. Find it here.
SONGS ON DISPLAY	The John Bunyan PH at Coleman Green in Hertfordshire now has a framed copy of Graeme’s song John Bunyan. The landlord’s son took delivery of the song and, by his reaction and the fact that the pub clearly relishes its John Bunyan connection, it looks like the songs should be on display soon. With walls jam-packed with plates etc., this might mean a little reorganisation but with the song just stood up on the bar, it seemed instantly to attract interest from customers. Across the road from the pub is all that remains of a cottage where John Bunyan once stayed whilst preaching in the area. For some reason the main part of the cottage was demolished in 1877 but the chimney-stack was retained! It has been restored and shored up and now has an information board in front of it to tell the tale of John Bunyan in Hertfordshire. The Old Sun in Harlington, Beds. also has a copy of the same song for display. John Bunyan preached in the village and was arrested there in 1660 and sent to Bedford gaol for 12 years. Hopefully the song will be on display soon.
SESSION AT THE OLD SUN?	Talking of The Old Sun in Harlington, Beds., the landlord would be very keen on having musicians and singers run a folk session/singaround at the pub once a month on a Sunday. If you’re interested, you can contact him (Douglas) at 01525 877330. The pub has 3 regular real ales and one guest ale. He is hoping to expand to 6 handpumps.
CRICK BOAT SHOW	We had an enquiry to perform our canal music (or possibly show) at the Crick Boat Show but, unfortunately, the show is on at the same time as Chippenham Folk Festival where we are booked to perform WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT and our Morris show THE SINGING, DANCING YEAR together with Redbornstoke Morris. Maybe we can play there another year!
	STILL RELEVANT NEWS ITEMS FROM PREVIOUS MONTHS
OLD NEWS
17 LIFE & TIMES SONGS ON THE NET!	On YouTube (images and music): Marston Vale: Click here or here Where The Working Boats Went: Click here The B&MK: Click here All In The Wintertime: Click here Sound files: The B&MK: Click here (go to bottom of page) Wareham Court Leet: Click here Bedfordshire Clanger: Click here (click on ‘The Film’ then on ‘Music’ to find a link at the bottom of the page) 8 Songs at: www.myspace.com.broadsidesrevisited 4 Songs at: www.virb.com/lifeandtimes In addition to this you can find the music manuscript for the song Wareham Court Leet on their website and for Robert Bloomfield’s Jig click here. Also click here to find the words and music for The Far Wastes of Van Diemen’s Land. The words to Until The Cut Runs Dry can be found on page 5 of this document.
SONGS IN PRINT	Graeme’s song More Time, Gentlemen, Please is printed in the winter 2009-10 issue (No.47) of Bedfordshire County Life Magazine. The song is about a curious story regarding the county boundary and a pub in Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire! Whether the story is true is unknown but it’s a good one to use for a song! Graeme’s song Until The Cut Runs Dry (from WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT) is printed in the Jan/Feb/Mar 2010 issue (109) of Unicorn Magazine. Graeme’s tune, Granny’s Hornpipe, is printed in the Jan-Feb issue (No.104) of Shire Folk Magazine. Granny was the Old-Granny-Smoke-A-Pipe of another of Graeme’s songs from which this tune was developed. She reputedly lived to 103, dying in 1930, having spent her life selling haberdashery from door-to-door around Leighton Buzzard.
LIFE & TIMES ON FACEBOOK	Life & Times now have a Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Life-Times/269032322165 Do come along and join as a fan! Graeme also has a Facebook page linked to the Life & Times page.
HEAR SONGS FROM THE SHOW AT MYSPACE	If you go to our Myspace site www.myspace.com/broadsidesrevisited you are now able to hear two of the songs from the show Where The Working Boats Went: The Duke of Bridgewater and Iced In.
CANAL SHOW AT YOUR VILLAGE HALL?	Are you part of a village hall committee responsible, in some part, for community entertainment? Why not book WHERE THE WORKING BOATS WENT for your community? See our Shows page for more details.
VERY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER!!!	It is regrettable that we even have to think about having to state this but Life & Times, regardless of our interest in British traditional music, dance, song and customs, DO NOT support or endorse the BNP or any of its policies. (Apparently the organisation has asked its supporters to embrace traditional British culture).
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