Arts Fest Round Up Part 3: Everything Else

A short one today, and the last one of the Arts Festival Round Up 2012. Alongside the Oddfellows photography and the Alrewas Radio, I also had a very busy week bobbing about here and there. For radio purposes, I tried to pop into as many workshops as I could, but unfortunately I didn't even scratch the surface.

On the Saturday had a quick look at the street market, after helping to set up an Art exhibition from the Alrewas Show, and it all looked really fantastic. The whole village was out in force! I have to say though, the most striking thing about Saturday was the knitting which had suddenly sprouted across the village. I noticed on my paper round, and believe me, at that time in the morning it is slightly disconcerting when you are great with a multicoloured array of knitted penguins, bow ties, bunting and poppies, before you have even got past the front of the shops!

Another thing I also really enjoyed was the unveiling of the 101 oddfellows on the front of the village hall. Once again the village was out in force to celebrate this, and it was great to see the end result of the project I had been working on!

On the monday I was playing with fellow members of a county run jazz orchestra called BYJO (Burton Youth Jazz Orchestra) which was a great experience and I enjoyed very much I also enjoyed listening to everybody else who was performing on that occasion, especially Adam Wright Jazz, Sam Garrett and the Barbershop Quartet who once again put out an absolutely pitch perfect performance (did you see what I did there?)

As well as that commitment musically I did a couple of lunch time concerts in the Methodist Church which were great. A fantastic showcase of some of the classical talent within the village, right from people of the young age of 8. It was really inspiring to see how much musical talent there really is in the village. 

The final thing which I was involved with is the Graffiti Art Project, ran by the village's very one Jeff Jacks, as well as Fiona Reeve, Sue Williams and Paula Stanley, to name but a few of the faces I saw about over the workshops. The idea was to refresh an area of the bridge by the canal that was previously covered in dirt to something to last as a legacy to do with the Olympics of 2012. This was a great project to get involved with, not least because we ended up painting ourselves more than the walls, as well as the various people who came to admire whilst walking their dogs, and the vast range of artistic styles which you can see of all the different young people from the village who gt involved.

I couldn't talk about the arts festival without summing up the Party In The Park.It really was fantastic. I think it finished to night on exactly the right note and left people feeling truly inspired by the talent and abilities of the people of the village (not the Village People you must understand). With outstanding performances from local bands and artists such as Toxic Crocodiles, The Signs and Sam Garrett, as well as Twisted Cigarette, The Ample Band, Shy Heights and the 20 years standing The Hoovers, it was a great night of fantastic entertainment and there was a really pleasant atmosphere which overtook the playing fields that evening. 

I am very much looking forward to the next Alrewas Arts Festival, with so much more to come alongside the fantastic things which we have seen this year. I am also very excited as to what might be happening in the future in terms of the radio and also the Oddfellows Photography group and also a mini Arts Festival in the autumn next year. I am not sure of any details about that, all I know is Jim seems to have some big and amazing plans up his sleeve, and as usual they are going to be spectacular. So I will try and keep you updated with Arts Fest News, as well as the website which is www.alrewas-artsfest.co.uk which is definitey the place to go to check out what is coming up and what is happening with stuff in the future.

once again, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next. I've been Tom Peach

@peachy146

Arts Fest Round Up Part 2: Alrewas Radio

So, as well as the 101 Oddfellows photography project, I was also involved with another new project to this year's Arts Rest, known as Alrewas Radio. This was an internet radio station which we ran for the whole week, getting over 800 unique listeners over the days which we broadcasting for and we covered all the exciting Arts Fest action including workshops, performances, concerts, and we even spoke first hand to: Pete Ralley, doing the videos and website for the festival and also the coordinator of the Lottery Funded Alrewas Archives project; Jeff Jacks, a resident artist and organiser of the Graffiti Art project, as well as running several workshops on wibbly wobbly crafts; Paula Dumulo, who is the main organiser of the whole event, working tirelessly for the many weeks before and throughout the festival week itself to make sure everything run smoothly for the Arts Festival; and finally Jim Ralley, the man behind the legend, the father of Alrewas Radio. 

So Jim first came up with this idea after attending the Manchester Arts Festival where there was an internet radio station which covered the festival. Now this was a trigger for him to put an idea to the committee, and before long, Mr Richardson, friend and fellow blogger, came to me with an email containing all the details for what was to be a truly fantastic, exhausting and all consuming project for the Arts Festival Week.

So that was basically how it came about. We would be lying if we said we knew what we were doing, or even how it would work, but we were both excited and apprehensive as to the potential f this project. We spent many a Maths lesson chatting about how it would work, how it would be run, who would be presenting, wha we would be talking about. There were lengthily discussions on the group page on Facebook, between us, other people who wanted to get involved and between Jim who we were talking with about the technical side of things.

About a week before the radio was due to begin, a brand new Arts Council grant-funded Macbook and a fantastic radio mic arrived at my house. The next thing  I did was to march  round to James' with all this gear and we spent an excited day unwrapping and setting up, installing software and transferring music. James was ecstatic about the whole thing. I have to say though, I was a little more nervous about how it would all work.

This was at the point which Joe Ralley, Jim's brother was brought on board. The day before the whole ting kicked off I was round at their house, setting up this kit to actually broadcast stuff. Now I have to say I can work my way round a PC like I can the back of my hand, but a Macbook to me is like an Alien. The differences between the 2 are't all that great, but they are enough to confuse a lowly little Windows guy like me! I learnt more about Apple in that 1 afternoon than I have ever done in my whole life, and I still don't understand how it all works.

So we had it all working, there was great excitement in the house as there was a shout from the dining room to say: "We can here you on the radio!" So it was all set to go. I left with confidence and the next day, turned up at the hall for 9 'o' clock, thinking an hour would be plenty of time to set up and be ready to go at 10. As everyone knows, tech never works when you want it to, and that morning, it definitely didn't want to. It took us the best part of 2 hours, along with 2 different broadcasting programs to get it to work, and eventually we were on. James had missed the whole of the opening show, and we were having issues with popping on the mic, the music being too loud while the voice was too quiet, and the mic cutting out. But we were live! And how good did it feel? Incredible! We had finally done it. All the hard work appeared to have payed off.

So throughout the week we played over 400 different tunes, broadcasting for 56 hours and racking up, as I said earlier, over 800 unique listeners. It was a great week, with about 15 different young people involved with the presenting and producing in the end, we got an overwhelming positive response from the people of the village and the wider community in which we sit in. I am still getting great feedback now, and nagging off people to continue with it.

Which leads me to a nice way to conclude this one. After discussions with Pete, Paula, Jim, Joe and James, we have decided as a group that we are going to do the radio every 2 weeks, on a Sunday. There is still a lot to decide on, and yes time is short, but we will have it up and running as a regular schedule in not very long at all, with all the hosting and presenting done by village people for the people of the village. So please stay up to date with all thing Radio from this blog, the twitter which is: @AlrewasRadio, the hashtag #AlrewasRadio and on the facebook page: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio.

Thanks for reading. To find out more about the festival ad my involvement within it, the please check out my last installment of the Arts Fest Round Up.

I've been Tom Peach.

@peachy146

Alrewas Arts Fest Round Up: 101 Oddfellows

So here we are, over a week on from the Alrewas Arts Fest. When you walked around the village in the couple of days that proceeeded it, you felt this sense of shell-shock, almost eery peace and tranquility throughout the village. The positivity that was left by it, the sense of unity and community spirit was incredibly noticeable.

So right from the build up to the festival there was a great energy that embraced village. This was even evident on the internet with various emails and excited tweets from Paula and the team. The festival was set to be the best and most exciting yet, embracing more of the village than ever before.

One thing I did learn from the festival was about it's origins. This being the 4th Festival, held every 2 years (I am told for the reason that it is unbelievably hard work to put together bi-annually, let alone annually, which I can very much believe and sympathise with) it was spawned out of an arts committee idea in 2006 and has grown and grown every year to become what it is now.

I have fond memories of the event on past occasions. I remember doing a film workshop with Pete Ralley with my Grandad, whereby we drove around in his Ford Mondeo (coincidently held together with masking tape at the time) filming the village, before returning back to the village hall to add effects like blowing people up and creating fireworks in the church. I can also remember past Party In The Parks, where we took our camping chairs, ate burgers and enjoyed some of the fantastic music produced by the wonderful local musicians that really are an asset to the village.

However I feel this festival has been the most involving for me, not least because it has been the most recent, but because I feel like I have played more of a role in  the activities, workshops and projects which have gone on. I suppose this all started back in March some time when I bumped into Paula outside the shops. I was asked if I would like to take some pictures of some oddfellows, and in my usual way, agreed without really knowing what I was letting myself in for. It turns out, after attending are really interesting training day with Paula, Jim and a lady called Alison who is a photographer for Kerrang, where we ate lots of chips, drank lots of tea and most importantly learned how to take a decent portrait photograph, that we would be attempting to photograph 101 people of different ages from the village of Alrewas.

Well to say 101 is an understatement. In the end we took 214 different people's photographs, each sent on their way with a very fetching badge stating "I Gave My Face To 101 Oddfellows" on it, as well as the promise of their face being projected big style onto the side of the church. I have to say at this point, while we had completely exhausted ourselves over the 2 days we took the photos, we still didn't really know exactly what would be happening to them.

No more than 2 months later, cycling back from my paper round one day, there was the front of the village hall (named Oddfellows Hall, just so you can make that link) covered from top to bottom with the faces of the village. I have to say it did give a little bit of a fright, not least because it was still only 7 in the morning and my eyes were still a little blurry. 

So that was it until the Saturday of the festival, when the protective tarporline was ripped off, and the project was revealed to the whole of the village which seemed to have gathered itself outside of the hall, blocking the road, footpaths, and anything else which tried to spoil the fun of that opening day of the festival. Jim, however, in his usual way, didn't think this was quite enough. And also, Jim, being Jim, decided he wanted to get out his prized Macbook and iPad and show off his fancy tech. So on the Tuesday night, it was to the church, where we were treated to a fantastic display of lights, eerie music from Maya Whatton, and Jim's fancy projection mapping thingy-ma-bob which I still don't fully understand! I have to say it was absolutely brilliant!

Getting involved with this project was great fun. It gave us an opportunity to learn new skills (when I say us, I should probably mention Katie Greensmith at this point who probably has more to claim than I do for the actually photos themselves) and put them into practice to be part of an incredibly awe-inspiring project which we have a lot to thank Paula, Jim and everybody else who helped with that. 

Thanks for reading!

To find out what else happened in this years festival, please read on to the next few posts!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146!

My Life and Works

So now we are back into the swing of a new schoo year, with plenty going on in my life to actually talk about, I thought I would take this time to update you on my life so far.

So I started out in Bedfordshire is a little 2 up 2 down in a place called Sandy, while my Dad was working for a major seed treatment company and my Mum as a nursery nurse at a local primary school. Nothing really exciting I suppose, when you look back, and I moved away when I was about 18 months old. From what I can gather from my folks, I lived with my grandparents for about 6 months before moving to where we now call home. Alrewas. Named after the Alder Swamp that it used to be and occupied from pre-roman times by the Alderwashee Tribe, it has been a settlement on the Trent for many thousands of years.

Now occupied by a bunch of 21st Century Middle Classs families with 4x4s to get off their drives, as well as a large population of retired folk who make their place in the bungalow estates on the one side of village, it is scattered with some of the most beautiful half timbered thatched cottages and buildings in the county. It is also home to a mill, and a mill stream, which have now been converted into housing for rich people with fancy gates on the driveway. A standard village you may say. I know there is a village stereo-type almost of a village community, but in Alrewas this is overwhelmingly so. Made extremely evident by the 3 things which I have involved myself with most: the papershop where I work; The scouts group which I have grwon through and now help to organise; and the Alrewas Arts Festival, which has just completely taken over the village for the past week, leaving it in a slight state of shock.

Firstly the paper shop. This is where I spend the majority of my time. I seem to be there more than I am at my actual house. I have done a paper round for the shop for about 4 and a half years now, which has helped to fund several things including 2 new saxaphones, a new laptop and various trips to the cinema and even more sweets and chocolate. I ahd only been doing it for about a year when I was asked to go in early on a saturday morning to help out with marking the papers up, which for legal reasons I can't disclose how early, but it meant going to be even earlier on a friday night, labelling me as the idiot who went to bed when he got in from school!

At christmas last year, after about 9 months of nagging the shop keeper, I was given a position working behind the tills and helping out in the shop in an evening and at weekends. I have to say I think I bagged one of the ebst jobs in the world. A 3 minute walk from my house, reasonable hours and unbelievable flexibility with hours and days working, I could not have asked for more. I went for an interview at a pottary place in the village but got refused that job on the basis that I was already doing too much, which I have to say I still hold as a grudge, but never mind!

So when I got this job, I was asked which nights I really couldn't night. My busiest night, for many reasons is a thursday. Not important I know but basically this is when I have all of my scouts commintments. I progressed though from a Cub Scout to a Scout from the age of 8 and when I had reached 14 I was no longer able to attend scouts and left at a quandry as to what to do. In the end I have managed to get a place as a young leader supervising the Beavers, which is the youngest age band on a thursday evening, which I thouroughly enjoy. Yes it  has been pointed out to me that I am a sad person for doing this, but I can now pass on all the knowledge I gained through actually being one of them! I have to say for what it is worth, it is generally great experience of interacting with people and being able to share your knowledge as well as listen to other people's is one of the greatest skills anyone can hold.

That is enough for today I think. I can save the summary of the Arts Festival for another post. So TTFN! Thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter: @peachy146

The Posh Schedule To Download

Here is a look at the image for the posh schedule. You will see this about a lot. Please note this is subject to change! As noted today, where we started an hour late due to technical difficulties and also had some issues about midday with the mic, which we have now all resolved. Currently chilling at the Studio with Tom Leedham doing a fantastic job here!

You can listen to the station: http://tinyurl.com/alrewasradio

Follow us on twitter: @AlrewasRadio

Alrewas Radio: Official Timetable

I am proud to present to you, the official timetable for Alrewas Radio, supporting Alrewas Radio 2012! I do also have to make the disclaimer that although we will endeavour to maintain this at all times, it is subject to change!

Firstly, The morning show, where we will be explaining all the day's events and looking back at the previous, then generally warming up for another fantastic arty day.

The second show of the day is with me, Tom, which will involve a lot of lovely music to keep you going until lunch, as well as some chatting and hopefully some special guests, but I better not get you too excited! I will also try to cover all the workshops going on in that morning session as well as keeping it entertaining for the rest of the village.

Interconnecting the afternoon's proceedings are various pre recording sessions involving artists and bands from the local area, including long standing band The Hoovers, who have a very special anniversary this year. more to come about that.

To look out for is the Decades show, which will take you on a musical journey from the 60's right through to the teenies, playing some of the highs (and possibly lows) of those decades. Co presented by Rob Spall, this looks to be a great show.

Also to look out for is the alternative show, for all those who are a fan of alternative music, there will be all sorts to listen to on their, with the 2 incredibly funny and talented Tom and Alex presenting that for you.

Finally make sure you catch the special Last Night Do. I can#t reveal to you what that is yet, but I can assure you it will be fantastic.

Also you can keep up to date with us on twitter @AlrewasRadio and with the hashtag #AlrewasRadio, which I am not entirely sure how that works, but I am assured by people who spend a lot of time on twitter that you can get the important info from there. also for further information please go to the Alrewas Arts Festival website. Have a fantastic festival week and I hope you can also enjoy the beautiful sounds of our voices throughout.

Here is the link for the radio internet stream: http://radio.canstream.co.uk:8032/live.mp3.m3u

I can assure you this link works as I have spent about 2 hours today trying to get it to!

A big thanks to Jim Ralley for making this happen, and James "Womble" Richardson for managing to organise this!

Real Life Minecraft

One of the current garden projects is to extend the chicken run out to accommodate double the amount of chickens. Now because my parents are my parents, they have to do it in a very convoluted way and make it as complicated as possible.

Anyway, in taking up the lawn to make space for the new part of the chicken run, I was tasked with moving the pieces of turf after taking them up so that Dad could patch up areas of the lawn elsewhere where the grass had died. Fair enough.

so I set about this in the usual manor: tea in one hand; spade in the other; and my sister bossing me about, even though she didn't really know what I was doing.

After I had moved a few pieces of turf, my sister from the other end of the garden suddenly pipes up: "Tom, that looks like real life Minecraft!"

Minecraft Huh?

twitter: @peachy146

Project OddFellows Photography

For the Arts Festival within the village, we have being taking part in a project which has been on-going to celebrate the 101st birthday of the village hall. (Don't ask, the hall is called Oddfellows Hall. I think this explains enough)

To commemorate this "spectacular occasion" we have received funding to be able to take a photograph of a person from the village for every year of the 101 years that the village hall has been around for, so we are really pleased to now officially call this project open!

It was a load of hard work for all the people involved, including the marathon of photographing 214 people in 1 weekend, between me and fellow photographer Katie Greensmith, which was a feat in itself. Also a massive thanks to Jim and Paula, as well as Joe and Peter for their support during the whole project and also the contribution to actually sticking up the pictures.

Now neither me or Katie are what one could call professional photographers, but we have really improved or love for the art and also our skill level throughout the project with the inclusion of the workshop which we took part in to learn and deveop the skills which would prime us for the crunch time of actually taking the photos!

Last but not least on this project I would also like to mention the funding which facititated the purchase of the best camera money can buy, the Canon EOS 5D Mark III (OK well maybe not THE best, but certainly up there) which is now in the possession of the village. We are looking to start up some photography clubs and workshops to pass on our skills and passion for this hobby within the near future and are very much welcoming people from the local community, not just the village to get involved. If you would like to find out any more info about this, or would really like to get stuck in with some photography yourself but just don't quite have the knowledge or the skills to do so, then please follow us on twitter for further info.

Our twitter is @OddFellowsPhoto so as I say please follow us to find out loads more about events, workshops, clubs and exhibitons which we will be putting on.

Thanks for reading!