Subject: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: GUEST,Linda Kelly Date: 17 Nov 01 - 05:01 AM A brilliant opportunity coming up to see a fantastic new play - a collaboration between Kate Bramley (Bad Pennies) and the foremost folk singer/songwriter around today, Jez Lowe. There are new songs and this will I am sure be launched into folk history -be there! Fighting the Tide: spring tour 2002 Fri 18th/ Sat 19th Jan Trinity Arts Centre, Tunbridge Wells 01892 678678 Tue 22nd Jan Auden Theatre, Greshams School, Holt 01263 713444 Fri 1st Feb Pateley Bridge Theatre 01423 711188 Sat 2nd Feb Pocklington Arts Centre 01759 301547 Thu 7th Chapel Square Arts, Halifax 01422 349422 Fri 8th Feb Mumford Theatre, Cambridge 01223 352932 Sat 16th Feb Angel Theatre, Rendlesham 01394 461538 Tues 12th Mar Darlington Arts Centre 01325 483271 Wed 13th Mar The Hawth, Crawley 01293 552941 Fri 15th Mar TBC Theatre Royal, Margate 01843 293397 Sat 16th Mar Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis 01297 442138 Wed 20th Mar TBC Doncaster Civic Theatre 01302 735600 Fri 22nd Mar Stanley Civic Theatre, Co Durham 01207 218899 Sat 23rd Mar Trinity Arts, Gainsborough 01427 810298 25th-30th Mar (No show Good Friday) Hull Truck Theatre 01482 323638 - If anyone wants more details please contact me.
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Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: John Routledge Date: 17 Nov 01 - 06:37 AM Thank you for low key introduction Linda. Looks even better than you think it will be. Will try and make it. Cheers John |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Noreen Date: 17 Nov 01 - 07:07 AM Looks even better than you think it will be ...what? I'll be in touch, Ickle. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Charley Noble Date: 17 Nov 01 - 09:49 AM Wish we could be across the waters! |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: John Routledge Date: 17 Nov 01 - 12:44 PM I too will enjoy it immensely. Cheers John |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Linda Kelly Date: 18 Nov 01 - 06:35 AM John -I don't do low key!!!!. Have a feeling that this is going to be huge so as much support as possible is needed. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: GUEST,Dita (at work) Date: 19 Nov 01 - 05:12 AM No Scottish dates ? love, john. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: GUEST,Sam Pirt Date: 19 Nov 01 - 12:49 PM This is going to be BIG and I am so looking forward to seeing it. Cheers, Sam |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Linda Kelly Date: 23 Mar 02 - 04:30 AM Don't forget Fighting the Tide hits Hull on Monday -saw Kate Bramley and Jez at Cottingham on Wednesday -the best song in the set -'Trawl & Tickle' came from Fighting the Tide -CD's are available at the theatre but not on general sale -so take the opportunity and cone for the day - visit The Deep!!! |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Willa Date: 23 Mar 02 - 09:47 AM From the Hull Daily Mail
HULL Truck Theatre's creative writer, Kate Bramley, is taking her innovative company Bad Apple on the road. Her latest production, entitled Fighting The Tide, is a musical featuring original folk songs by the acclaimed singer and songwriter Jez Lowe.
The story follows the characters on their rocky journey, tracing their way through the industrial history of the trawling business.
Fighting the Tide
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Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Charley Noble Date: 23 Mar 02 - 11:54 AM Wish I was within range.:-( |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Matthew Edwards Date: 27 Mar 02 - 08:54 PM Kate Bramley returned to Hull Truck Theatre this week with her BadApple Theatre Company production of her own musical play 'Fighting The Tide'. The play is on until 30th March 2002 at Hull Truck (contact 01482 323638), and the performance on home ground represents the culmination of an exhausting two months of touring.
The play is the product of a collaborative partnership between Kate Bramley as dramatist and Jez Lowe as lyricist. Jez has composed ten new songs for the play, and they work well as part of the drama, sometimes giving a heightened expression of the dialogue, while at other times acting as a chorus-like commentary on the action of the play.
The play combines elements of social realism based on Kate's local knowledge of the Hull trawling community with fantastical components of mythology and science fiction. The simple but expressive set, designed by Ruth Paton, allows this combination to flow comfortably. The centrepiece is the boat, Northern Drift, (built by Kate's father John Bramley) in and around which all the drama occurs. In a future afflicted by global warming, the play opens in an indeterminate Northern English town which has been reduced by flooding to a small hamlet. The postman, Simon Peter, played by Paul Parris, no longer has any letters to deliver while Eddom Saul, known as Oddjob, tries to fix TV sets in a world where there are no broadcasts any more. The exchanges between the two of them as they try to comprehend the fact that the world has changed and left them stranded produces some lovely absurdist dialogue. Simon's pregnant wife, played by Isobel Pravda in her first professional role, brings a sense of rootedness in contrast to the adventurous longings of the men. So, when Simon's only letter turns out to be his dismissal from the Post Office and a boat arrives out of nowhere she resigns herself to the fact that he and Oddjob must go and adventure.
Their adventures mingle fantasy with realism, ending in disaster. Eddom Saul, played very ably by Brendan Fleming, returns as the unwelcome survivor to tell Simon's wife that she is a widow but still passes on to her son the romance of the sea.
There are some loose ends to the play but the exciting prospect is that Kate and Jez have begun to develop a dramatic/lyrical partnership which could prove extremely significant. The songs from the play are available on a limited edition CD, sung by Jez and Kate with a contribution from Simon Haworth, and are well worth the listening. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 27 Mar 02 - 10:27 PM I have always admired Jez for his inspiring lyrics but I do not like his attitude to the north east in the least -he seems to always reject the spirited heritage of the region and ridicule it. "if i had another penny" I reject his pessimism when it is directed against the geordie who lived in different times. The golden age when wealth rushed up and down the tyne as never before for all. But they got over their low points with songs. Songs are not for pulling us down but for overcomming. In this regard he is not within the tradition he claims. This is the world of the past but not to be ridiculed. Jez holds out little hope in most of his lyrics. He rsents not knowing the songs of the region. But has little grief over it..."I saw dillon playing slide guitar with a newcastle brown ale bottle..." I agree that the local depression is a steep deterrent to anyting pleasant but Jez does not use music to uplift and raise the spirits as is the tradition of the north east in music. Instead he generally uses it to further hammer in the depression. Whistlads hauld yor gobs I'll tell you all an awfull story...whist lads I'll tell you about put down.. He is of course able and free to do this. I agree that he reflects the times however, music has always had the power to uplift even in the worst of times and as such it has served the region well. Some would say its major purpose. In this way he has generally let the tradition down. Realism yes....using music to raise spirits...not really. More to the opposite. The glory of newcastle and georidie music has always been in its ability to fiercly overcome. Jez takes more often than not the reverse course. What do you think? The same is true recently of the Whiskey Priests. Perhaps depression has gained the upper hand. If so we must still count on our musicians to help us to ovecome. At least in this tradition. Conrad |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:04 PM "What do you think?" I think that's a bit rich coming from somebody who calls himself Peasent! I think it is about realism, Jez paints what he sees, yes sometimes it's a bleak picture, but it's grim up north!:-) Just out of interest, what do you think of L.S Lowry? |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:47 PM I know and admire the depiction of the bleak north east as it is. The Whiskey priests have been doing that too but more from the heart less contrived but with some more upbeat aspects to balance. will look into Lowry. Look into the early Whiskey Priests stuff. they are out of Durham but with strong regional newcastle ties. The later stuff has gone soft.. Conrad |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 28 Mar 02 - 12:00 AM If you like Lowry, I would definetly reccomend a visit to The Lowry Centre (Salford Quays), take some packing up though, the prices in the cafe are bloody ridiculous! (about 2.50 for a butty and a quid for a cuppa tea.john |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 28 Mar 02 - 07:12 AM Will do! As soon as I find that airline ticket....now where did it get to....could of sworn I had one a moment ago.....If anyone finds my air ticket to newcastle please send it to me....:) Wish I was not here but there.... I would go now but I'm afraid that the region is at the top of the list of places my wife would search for me :) Ok now youve got me committed to going out for a case of broon....(the outrageous price of which is a torture to the soul)..... Conrad |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Linda Kelly Date: 29 Mar 02 - 05:20 AM I have always thought of Jez as a storyteller, telling stories mainly about individuals; some real, some invented but with a balance in his work giving us humour and irony but reminding us that the past was in many cases bleak and tragic. I don't feel that his work denigrates the region, but enhances its spirit through his storytelling. My impression of the North East and it's history is that it was a hard life but that the personality and strength of it's people saw them through. I find him uplifting in that respect. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 29 Mar 02 - 05:37 AM That's what i meant! What was the play like? I wanted to go but was working all week. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Desert Dancer Date: 29 Mar 02 - 12:21 PM For those in North America looking for a Jez Lowe fix, he'll be at the Old Songs Festival this year, and catching a few other dates in the northeast U.S., right after in early July.
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Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 29 Mar 02 - 12:31 PM I do love his Irony and it does come from the tradition of the region but it always seems a bit as dark as the coal mostly. Nothing wrong with it and it does convey the current times but in the past when times were aso dificult the tradition produced the uplifting conveyed by the lyrics such as those of the original Byker hill. Reality also is found in the tradition as you can see in any of the disaster songs but writer/singers like Armstrong generally focused upon the bright side which Jez does not too as often. But he is good at what he does and I should try to seek him out sometime. He tends though to frequent expensive remote venues but maybe I can get out to one if I saves my coins.... Conrad |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Murrey Date: 30 Mar 02 - 10:31 AM #1 Peasant You know the old line ---you can please some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time "nough said !!!! Yes you should seek out Jez sometime --- Murrey |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: nutty Date: 30 Mar 02 - 11:30 AM Conrad ...... Jez is a true son of the North-East of England. He has lived through the areas triumphs and disasters and reports them truly in song. The irony and humour in the songs is really amazing (although you may miss this if you are not a northerner). Jez has also been true to his roots and still (so I'm told) helps local singers/musicians to find a place on the folk scene. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 31 Mar 02 - 12:28 PM Lately I have been thinking.....does anyone else find the style of Jez and Susan Vega a bit similar.... ...ok turning off brain now... Conrad |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 31 Mar 02 - 01:15 PM No, I have'nt noticed any similarities. |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: *#1 PEASANT* Date: 31 Mar 02 - 01:23 PM must be my warped mind.... Conrad |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 31 Mar 02 - 01:29 PM Tell you what I have noticed though, similarities is probably the biggest word I have ever written! Did I spell it right? |
Subject: RE: Jez Lowe -Fighting the Tide From: oombanjo Date: 31 Mar 02 - 02:36 PM just a different slant on this - for the uninitiated - 95% of east yorkshire and the north east is unpopulated! hope we will get to see the show. |
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