Welcome to my new website. I hope you find it interesting, enjoyable and informative.
This page is the one which changes most often to keep you up to date with the latest news so please visit often!
Added July 2010
My book
Folk Tales from Derbyshire is now available – see the shop page. I'm very
pleased with the way it has come out, I hope you will be too.
Also in the shop I've reduced a couple of older CDs – my False Waters and
Popeluc's Blue Dor. You can now buy them for a mere £5 each!
The thinking behind that is that they are both very good CDs (many people
have said False Waters is their favourite and I am very proud of what we did
on Blue Dor) but they are both 15 years old now so sales have dried to a trickle.
Perhaps, at the reduced price, more people will take a risk.
If you haven't got them why not give it a try!
Added May 2010
I had quite a quiet start
to the year—which was an advantage when you consider the weather! But there
were some good events. My one-man show at Strutts Centre in Belper for National
Storytelling Week kept up the recent tradition of full houses as did the evening
show at New Brewery Arts in Cirencester. That was part of the 4th Facts &
Fiction Annual Storytelling Workshop. Chloë (of the Midnight Storytellers)
and I spent a good day leading an interesting and interested group of storytellers
through various tasks and finished off, as usual, with the evening show. I’d
been a bit worried about Cirencester as it isn’t a million miles from Stroud
where I’d done the previous workshop, and there is no established storytelling
scene there, but it all worked out and NBA were a pleasure to work with. The
only worry about the evening performance was ‘would we fit them all in’? A
good number of people had booked in advance but they kept on turning up at
the door too. In the end it was just right and we all enjoyed ourselves.
I also did a couple of schools in Leicestershire and a couple of good days
in Bradford working on a scheme called Leap into Books which involved a whole
raft of storytellers—Chloë (again) Bob Pegg, Pete Chand, Taffy Thomas
etc. And they put us up in a top hotel—a far cry from the days of sleeping
on people’s floors! (I’ll be writing a longer piece for F&F about this.)
May started, as it has for the past few years, with a day at Weald Primary
School near Sevenoaks in Kent. Keith Kendrick and I spend the morning teaching
some dances which are then performed to the parents in the afternoon. Every
year so far the weather has been beautiful and we’ve been able to do it on
the classic village green. This year the weather kept up the tradition - that
afternoon was the only time in a week or so when that would have possible!.
FACTS & FICTION:
F&F is “the world’s only independent storytelling magazine”. (It was me
who said that and by it I mean that there are newsletters of storytelling
organisations but, as far as I know, no other commercially produced, unsponsored
magazines around. I’ve been editing it now for 11 years which is well over
half its life and it’s stronger than it’s ever been.) F&F comes out quarterly
and deals with all aspects of oral storytelling, occasionally including song
and folklore and even film and drama. Have a look at the ‘New! Improved!’
web site (www.factsandfiction.co.uk ) for a taster and details about subscribing.
KEEPING IN TOUCH:
Details of all my gigs and other news are/or will be on the gig page and I’ll
send out reminders to people in the relevant areas nearer the time. If you
want any other info please don’t be scared to ask!
I’ve also joined Facebook. Everyone seemed to have a FB page so I thought
there must be advantages to it but I’m not really that sure. It’s a good way
of wasting a bit more time! But if you are a Facebooker and want to be my
friend please ask! (and I've put up some old pictures you might find interesting.)
Added Dec 2009
The last update was back
in the summer when I was looking forward to going to Wadebridge Folk Festival
in Cornwall which turned out very well. It was a really friendly little event,
the kind of festival I like. Tenterden Festival also went well—but then it
always does! At both I did a good mix of song and story. I’m pleased to say
that people seem increasingly willing to try the mixture. In the past ‘purists’
have been scared of mixing the two forms but they seem so naturally related
that I can’t understand why! Cambridge Storytellers also invited me to do
some of each and, again, it went well.
Two things which went ridiculously well were both nearer to home—in fact both
at Cromford. Keith Kendrick and I have done a programme of Derbyshire songs
and stories for the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site for the past 5 or 6
years and it’s always been OK, but this year people flooded in and we had
them sitting on tables round the outside, almost hanging from the rafters—the
proverbial shoe-horn job. Forewarned is forearmed as they say, so a couple
of weeks later for Christmas With Alison Uttley, the show Joyce Varty and
I do every year, we made sure that everyone had booked in advance and even
turned a few away! But it was still full.
Someone who attended that one wrote:
“It was one of the most enjoyable events I have attended for a very long time,
my soulfed and enriched.I loved hearing you sing and would like to know which,
if any of your cd's contain the songs you sang on the night, or songs like
it. On returning home I took a closer look at your website and particularly
at your magazine, I hope to be able to attend more of your events and hear
you sing again, as well as learn more about storytelling. Honestly, I cannot
overstate the contribution that this event has made to my life at the moment
and how important it was to connect with a lovely group of people and be in
such an atmosphere. I was reminded of the rich, deep cultural heritage of
this country, which sometimes feels so lost these days, the evening touched
my heart. Thank-you. Please keep up the good work.”
That kind of reaction makes it all worthwhile!
Amongst those successes there must have been some run of the mill performances
but nothing that really didn’t work—or if there was I’ve blotted it out!
COMING UP…
I often find the 1st quarter of a year is quite quiet and that’s true of 2010
so if any of you want to book me I’ll be very pleased! I have some small local
things and a few schools. I’ll be doing a one-man show for National Storytelling
Week (5th Feb at Strutts Centre in Belper) and then there is the 4th Facts
& Fiction Annual Storytelling Workshop. This time it’s at New Brewery
Arts in Cirencester and my co-host will be Chloë (of the Midnight Storytellers.)
That’s on 27th Feb. We’ve already sold half the workshop places, so that looks
good, and there is a performance in the evening. All the details are on the
F&F website.
FURTHER AHEAD
In the summer my DERBYSHIRE FOLK TALES book should be published by The History
Press and for the first time for over a decade I’ll be doing BROADSTAIRS FOLK
FESTIVAL. All the details will be on my web site so have a look every now
and again.
CDs
All the albums are still available to buy on the Shop page here and you can
get downloads of a few from CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/petecastle2)
and what seems like 1000 other sites! My thinking when I signed the contract
was that it might get my stuff to people who didn’t know me and it obviously
does but does it lead anywhere...? Some downloads seem to earn me 1 cent per
track!
I discovered an online radio station called Last.fm (I think) on which someone
going under the pseudonym of Fat Fingers voted my When That I Was a Little
Tiny Boy from Poor Old Horse one of his favourite tracks ever. He had several
more of mine on his favourites list too. Very gratifying.
And there is another internet site which is selling my two early 1980s vinyl
LPs. - Rambling Robin and Punks Delight - for £16 each! Is there a market?
Do they sell any? I doubt it. But I have a few left here 'just in case' and
I'd willingly let you have one for a couple of quid to cover postage! Just
email me.
Added June 2009
This has been a difficult
year. Since before Christmas my mother was very ill with several stays in
hospital. This meant I had to rush
down to Kent at short notice on several occasions to see her and to support
my brother Alan (of Tenterden Folk Festival fame!) She died on 6th May. I
managed to see her the evening before which was good.
She particularly asked Alan and I to pass on her thanks to all the folkies
she’s met over the years—all the people who’ve been so friendly to her when
she answered the phone to them or when they saw her at events in the past.
It sometimes surprised me how on the ball she was about the folk scene. She
wasn’t so fond of storytelling—unless it was me, of course! Singing Life of
a Man, at her request, unaccompanied, at her funeral was a difficult one!
All that meant that I managed to get to all my gigs (even if I wasn’t 100%
on the ball) but neglected a lot of the behind the scenes work—the publicity,
the chasing future work etc, hence the slack summer and autumn you’ll see
on my gig list. I’m now back down to it though. Nose to the grind stone!
The situation has been made worse by the financial melt down. Earlier in the
year I smugly said that I hadn’t noticed a fall off. Well, now I have. All
the gigs which are financed by local authorities seem to have disappeared
including some I’ve done for years. So no Rufford Park, or Donnington-le-Heath
this year. I was hoping to do the Coastal Park at Folkestone again, I really
enjoyed that last year, and several smaller, community festivals. Still I’m
getting quite a few folk clubs and there’s a nice folk festival in the offing
and I’m still doing the storytelling gigs and schools and so on, so we won’t
starve!
Keep your eye on my gig list and I’ll try to remind you of gigs in your area.
If you’d like to be added to my email list just ask.
Added January 2009
ANOTHER NEW CD!
OYSTER GIRLS & HOVELLING BOYS folk songs from Kent vol.3 We've had this planned for a while but it all came together in a rush so we released it earlier than planned. It's a continuation of what we did on The Keys of Canterbury and Apples, Cherries, Hops & Women with the same core performers plus some new ones. If I can say it myself it has come out very well. Have a look at the dedicated page in the shop... No reviews yet.
POOR OLD HORSE is still going well. If you haven't bought it yet you should!
There's a great review Dai Woosnam wrote for Living Tradition, but they didn't use it which is very annoying! at: http://www.icogitate.com/~celticfolkmusic/uk-PeteCastle.htm
WHAT
ELSE HAS HAPPENED…
Last year was really busy—all aspects of my work both song and stories and
all over the place. At times it was too busy! The summer was a mixture of
really nice events like an open-air performance in the Coastal Park in Folkestone
which was surprisingly good and soon after a bandstand performance here in
Belper and others which were adversely affected by the weather—Supersonic
Festival in Leics was almost blown away and one of my regular annual sessions
at Rufford Park had to move into a marquee which spoiled the atmosphere. More
recently Tenterden festival and the associated schools performances were good.
The opinion is that the festival was the best yet which can’t be bad. As Doug
Eunson & Sarah Matthews were also on the bill we were able to do some
of the material from my Poor Old Horse CD live.
I’ve been having a determined effort to get more folk club work. It used to
be my mainstay but, over the last few years, I’ve sort-of drifted out of it.
That’s partly because clubs have closed or changed organiser or they aren’t
booking as many guests as they used to, and they don’t pay a great deal compared
to other things either. I enjoy them though and I’m pleased to say I’m getting
more in the diary again now. Recently I did two which I hadn’t been to for
over 20 years! Bury St Edmunds and Guisborough and there are more coming up,
keep your eye on the gig list.
I had a major computer crash in the autumn—it caught fire! So I’ve had to
spend a lot of time getting a new one sorted out. Luckily I didn’t lose too
much important data but there were annoying things like all my old emails
disappeared and when I imported my email addresses onto the new one they all
went into one folder rather than the carefully sorted ones they’d been in
before! So if you suddenly receive a strange one that isn’t relevant it’s
because I’ve put you in the wrong box! Sorry!
COMING
UP…
Things continue with a good selection of work. Between now and the spring
I’ll be doing several more Northants Village Hall shows and one at the Richard
Attenborough Centre in Leicester (tbc) plus some more ‘talks’ and schools
+ Grimsby Folk Club. In May there is the Polka Theatre in London which looks
a bit special! It’s a children’s theatre and I’m doing some storytelling there.
Talking of which there is the 3rd ANNUAL FACTS & FICTION STORYTELLING
WORKSHOP on 21st March at the Cotswold Playhouse in Stroud, Glos.
I’m running it this time with Cassandra Wye who comes at storytelling from
a very different starting place to me—dance and circus—so it should be stimulating.
It’s a great venue too and I’m looking forward to that. (Details are on the
workshop page of the Facts & Fiction website www.factsandfiction.co.uk
)
Added July 2008
It’s summer, it’s finally
got hot, although by the time you read this it may have got cold again! and
it’s the season for festivals and outdoor gigs of various kinds. It’s also
one of the busy periods when it’s difficult to fit everything in.
So what’s the news? Well, nothing earth-shattering! Work has been going well
with a lot more coming in for later on. My new CD—POOR OLD HORSE—has been
well received and is getting good reviews (I’ll add one below.) This time
last year I was getting ready to go to the USA but nothing like that is on
the cards at the moment although I have put some toes in the water about going
to Scotland next year and had a few nibbles! (It will be the first time I’ve
been up there for ages.)
WHAT'S HAPPENED…
I’ve had a good selection of gigs of all kinds: small local ‘community’ groups;
schools of various kinds in various places—I’ll pick out May Day at Weald
Primary in Kent. Last year it was a glorious day, playing and dancing on the
village green in beautiful weather and this time it was the same. They’ve
already booked us (Keith Kendrick and I) to do the same again next year, on
condition that we provide the same weather! I’ve done some good folk clubs—Oldham,
Weymouth etc and some storytelling venues.
The 2nd Facts & Fiction Storytelling Workshop which I did with Simon Heywood
at Birdsedge Village Hall in Yorkshire went well after a slow start—by which
I mean that people didn’t book up until the last minute. I also did two ’guest
spots’ with the Flying Donkey storytellers locally.
On the subject of Village Halls—the shows I’ve done for Northants Rural Touring
have gone well. I’ve got one more to do and then they are in the process of
booking another set for the winter.
A surprisingly good gig was at the North Mill here in Belper. It was part
of a nationwide scheme to get people into museums by putting on music and
so on. A very successful evening with a full house.
Last time I mentioned that Down In Yon Forest (from False Waters) was played
on Woman’s Hour and also that False Waters is available for MP3 download (as
is Poor Old Horse now) I don’t know whether there is a link between those
two facts but 6-times more people have downloaded Down In Yon Forest than
any other track!
The only real down of the past few months was that I was ill with a horrible
flu-y throat infection for several weeks in March/April. I couldn’t get rid
of it. Luckily it didn’t result in the loss of too much work but I coughed
and croaked my way through a couple of gigs.
FACTS & FICTION storytelling magazine, which I edit (and which also includes
odd bits about song and customs) goes from strength to strength. The May edition
featured an interview with Robin Williamson, storyteller and musician and
original member of the Incredible String Band (aka Spaghetti or the Inedible
Thin Strand!) He’s a very nice chap and has proved to be a great salesman
for the mag. plugging it at his gigs and creating a lot of sales!
COMING UP: (I’ll send out some detailed reminders nearer the time to those
in the relevant areas) Rotherham and Stockport Libraries, in the open-air
theatre in the Coastal Park in Folkestone, at Belper River Gardens, Glebefest
in Leicestershire, Rufford Park in Notts and then we’re into the autumn and
our annual trip to Tenterden Folk Festival and related schools workshop. Doug
and Sarah (as featured on Poor Old Horse) are also doing Tenterden so I hope
we can re-create some of that live.
At which point I’ll put in the review by David Kidman in Stirrings:
PETE CASTLE,
POOR OLD HORSE: Steel Carpet MATSO26
The self-styled 'storyteller who sings half his stories' returns with a typically
convivial programme of mainly songs with a couple of short stories and a dance
instrumental thrown in. Pete's latterly celebrated 30 years as a folk professional,
and he's achieved this longevity through a combination of genuine talent,
integrity and sheer hard work, reliably ploughing his own steady furrow where
tradition is the starting-point for his own musical exploration rather than
a constraint on his imagination. Although the true extent of Pete's prowess
and the full measure of his easygoing nature necessarily comes through best
in live performance, his CDs have always been a source of delight and have
satisfied enough to be returned to more often than you might think.
1995's False Waters was a hard act to follow, but Poor Old Horse will probably
come to be reckoned the finest, partly because it conveys an extra degree
of as-live immediacy in its performances. Aside from Pete's own pleasing and
gently accomplished guitar work, the dextrous and vital musical accompaniment
is provided by Doug Eunson (melodeon), Sarah Matthews (fiddle, viola) and
Edmund Hunt (whistle, Northumbrian pipes) with Doug, Sarah and Pete's wife
Sue on backing vocals.
As far as choice of material is concerned, most of the nine songs here are
ones that Pete’s been aware of for a long while even if he’s not sung them
himself—he turns to them with enthusiasm, finding (or creating from different
or disparate sources) credible performing versions, with the end result that
the songs 'come back fresh and strong'. Several of the songs come from Kent
(where Pete was born and brought up) or Derbyshire (his home for the past
20 years), but whatever their geographical origins they tend to have as connecting
thread what Pete refers to as the underlying 'lingua franca' of symbolism
which exists within all true folk songs.
Pete can be relied upon to turn in well-considered and thoroughly amenable
renditions of his chosen material. and the pick of the current bunch are probably
the less-often-heard transportation song 'Virginia', the bawdy 'Firelock Stile'
(from the repertoire of Harry Cox) and 'Poor Sally Sits a-Weeping' (aka 'Once
I Had a Sweetheart'). And, as we all know by now, Pete's a perennially genial
and quietly captivating storyteller, supremely confident in his art. No surprises
then I suppose. but just a thoroughly dependable (and replayable) set.
ADDED FEBRUARY 2008
Happy New Year!
The
BIG NEWS is that my new CD—POOR OLD HORSE—is now available!
It contains 10 traditional songs and two short stories. (Well, 9 traditional
songs and one with a trad tune and words by Shakespeare!) Helping out on it
are Doug Eunson (melodeon) and Sarah Matthews (fiddle/viola) who are a well
known local duo plus a whistle/pipe player - Edmund Hunt, and Sue doing some
backing vocals. We recorded it in two days in early January, doing it as ‘live’
as possible, and it all went well. I think it captured the tension of a live
performance. Titles are: Poor Old Horse; Nightingales Sing; The Female Servingman;
Like Meat Loves Salt [story]; In Sheffield Park; Barbara Allen; Firelock Stile;
Virginia; Poor Sally Sits A-Weeping; The Opera Reel; The Storytelling Stone
[story]; When That I Was a Little Tiny Boy.
I’m usually a bit worried about a new album and don’t know whether it’s any
good or not until I’ve started getting feedback but I’m pretty confident about
this one. You’ll like it!
If you go to the SHOP page you can find out a lot more
about it, hear a snippet and even buy it!
WHAT ELSE?
Work has been pouring in since Christmas, I don’t know why! And a lot of it for quite soon rather than later in the year. All aspects, singing, storytelling, clubs, schools… that’s good. All the details are on the Gig List. I hope to see you at some of them.
OTHER NEWS
I was quite surprised
to realise that Poor Old Horse is my first album for almost 5 years! Last
year with nothing new to plug sales were pretty random—a few of each of all
the previous ones but strangely, one of the biggest sellers was FALSE WATERS
from 1995. That was partly because I took a batch to the USA but, independently
of that, it did well and got a lot of recognition that it didn't really get
when it first came out. Perhaps it was ahead of its time?
In December It even got a play on Woman's Hour! They were doing a piece about
growing cob nuts in Kent so... (and now you're expecting me to say they played
one of the tracks from the two Kent CDs - perhaps even the Nutting Girl? but
that's far too obvious...) no, they played bits of Down in Yon Forest - the
Castleton Carol from Derbyshire! Why, I can’t imagine but I won’t argue!
If you haven’t got False Waters it is still available as are lots of others...
There's a nice book called The Folk Handbook - working with songs from the
English tradition. (pub Backbeat Books ISBN 9 780879 309015 £19.95)
It’s nothing to do with me and it’s only by chance that I have it but it contains
several 'essays' about folk music and a lot of songs. For each song there
are notes and examples of where you can hear it. Adieu to Old England recommends
Shirley Collins, Harry Cox (who I got it from) and my False Waters CD! A nice
surprise.
Plans are well underway for a third album of Kentish Folk Songs. Some of the
'usual suspects' will be involved - myself, Andy Turner, Bob Kenward; but
also Marion Button, whose singing I really like, possibly the Millen Family
and more.
On that subject someone recently wrote to me: "It seems a pity that in
Kent you can't get Kentish folk songs in general music shops etc, you can
get everyone else’s but not ours. Still I am glad that I found your web site
and was able to get the exact thing that I wanted. Thank you again."
A satisfied customer!
I've been thinking for a long while that we should do another Derbyshire one
and that now seems distinctly possible, but not until next year. The Derby
Ram is definitely Steel Carpet’s biggest seller.
FACTS & FICTION the UK’s only storytelling magazine, which I edit (and which also includes odd bits about song and customs) goes from strength to strength. Feb’s edition concentrated on Scottish Traveller storyteller and singer Duncan Williamson who died just before Christmas, and the next one will feature one of my earliest folk influences—Robin Williamson. I was greatly influenced by the Incredible String Band in my early years of folk music and then, by sheer chance followed the same path as Robin and started including storytelling. What we do now doesn’t really sound the same but we’ve got there by following similar routes.
ADDED NOVEMBER 2007
NEWS
The new
CD is happening! I've been rehearsing with Doug Eunson (melodeon) and Sarah
Matthews (fiddle/viola) who are a well known local duo plus a whistle/pipe
player - Edmund Hunt and we will be recording straight after Christmas. The
new album will (probably) be called POOR OLD HORSE and will contain material
from Derbyshire and Kent plus a few other places in between and even a song
by William Shakespeare! I'm very pleased with the noises we're making and
think you will be too. I'll keep you posted...
If you're in Northamptonshire I may well crop up at a venue near you because
I've been recruited by Northants Touring Arts to do their circuit of village
halls and other small venues, which I'm looking forward to. The first one
is in March, I think...
If you want to see me on TV click on http://www.kenttv.com/programmes.php?PID=99&Title=Smithsonian+Folklife+Festival
where you'll find an interesting film which gives you a flavour of the Smithsonian
Folklife Festival in Washington last summer.
WHAT'S HAPPENED...
The second
half of this year has been really busy, lots of interesting gigs all over
the place. Almost immediately after returning from America I did the Emerge
Festival at Shipley Country Park, just up the road from here, which was like
a minute version of the Folklife Festival - all kinds of music and several
storytellers from various parts of the world.
Sue and I then celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary with a party which
included a bit of a ceilidh. I called and played guitar, Lucy played fiddle
and Chris Orme (of Notts Alliance) played melodeon. It made a nice little
band!
I did repeat gigs (ie I've done them before in previous years) at Rufford
Park near Nottingham, which is fun but hard work because it's storytelling
out of doors; several events at Donington-le-Heath Manor near Coalville in
Leics. and a lot of local community groups. (I'm now finding some of the 'old
people' in these groups are younger than me!) Then came my annual trip to
Tenterden to do the Festival and some schools workshops with Keith Kendrick.
The Festival is always a pleasure - nice and friendly and on a homely scale,
and the continuity of the schools work really pays dividends. I've been in
to Great Chart Primary School for a couple of days every year for at least
10 years now (with Keith recently and with Bing Lyle before that) and the
kids have built up a tremendous repertoire of both songs and dances which
they remember amazingly well. They are really keen and request things they've
done before or which they've seen other groups doing. We then see some of
the same kids at Homewood Secondary mixed in with a lot from other schools
to whom we're something new and strange!
It's always a pleasure to do new events of course: in September I had a very
good trip down to the Arts Festival at Porlock in Somerset - I haven't been
to quite that area before. I was supposed to be sharing an evening with Dick
King-Smith who wrote 'Babe' etc but he was ill so I did the lot. It went very
well. There was also the Sheffield 'Off the Shelf' Literature Festival where
I did a couple of performances for schools in libraries in the daytime and
then an evening show in a pub for adults. That was surprisingly successful
although, because of the layout, I had to use PA which I don't mind for singing
but don't like for storytelling.
I've mentioned before my split personality - having an identity as a singer/storyteller from Derbyshire but delving back into my Kentish roots... well, in between I lived for a while in Bedfordshire and that recently came to the fore again. Earlier on they used my recording of a Bedforshire May Song on a DVD about revelopment in Luton and in October I did two Bedfordshire gigs within a week!
What else... more of the same, plus a Halloween Supper and Ghost Walk at Belton House and the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site Discovery Days... plus rehearsals for my new CD!
COMING UP...
We'll be recording the
new CD after Christmas and it will be out early in the New Year but you'll
hear about that!
Then I've a nice mixture of work of all kinds building up throughout the year
including various things in Northamptonshire. There are some events I'm really
looking forward to but I doubt there will be anything as exciting as the Washington
trip! But you never know... Have a look at the gig list for details.
ADDED JULY 2007
The America trip has been and gone. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I'll bore you all silly talking about it for the forseeable future, I'm sure. I was invited to represent Kent as a musician and storyteller at the SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL which takes place on the National Mall in the centre of Washington DC every year. It's been going for 41 years and, as I did a spot in the opening ceremony, I was the first official English participant in all that time! We worked alongside musicians, storytellers, actors and craftsmen of every sort from Virginia and Senegal and on adjoining sites were others from the Mekong Delta and Northern Ireland. Out of hours we were all in the same hotel so the festival continued! Great music and storytelling; great camaraderie; great weather! The quote to sum it all was - "If the UN distributed music, beer and coffee the world would be a better place!"
Rather than write more here click the SMITHSONIAN FESTIVAL link on the left hand menu for a dedicated page complete with pictures.
Other news: Gigs of every sort have been going well and continue to come in for later in the year and next which is reassuring!
GRASSROOTS the folk and storytelling club I ran in Belper didn't take off and the work needed to keep it ticking over was out of proportion to the success so I've knocked that on the head. You can lead a horse to water etc... I've parted on good terms from the pub owners who asked me to do it in the first place so I'll continue to do the odd one-off event there.
The other
bits of news previously pasted below continue to be true so if you feel like
it please read on...
ADDED 5 MAY 2007
I'm off to
USA! I've been invited to represent Kent at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
in Washington DC at the end of June - beginning July. The part of the festival
we'll be involved in is the Roots of Virginia Culture which will mark the
400th anniversary of the founding of the English settlement of Jamestown.
Various people with links to Kentish arts and crafts will be going - about
40 of us I think, although I haven't discovered who the others are yet!
It's a huge honour. The festival is in its 17th year but no English artists
have appeared before. From the preliminary details I've seen I'll be doing
three spots per day for five days with a potential audience of about 1 million
people! I'll be sharing the stage(s) with the best of Appalachian, bluegrass
and blues performers! All a bit intimidating but I'm looking forward to it.
Apologies to the the people I've had to let down in order to go. Thanks. I
hope I can fit you in another time.
For info
re the event see:
http://www.kent.gov.uk/news/apr-07-smithsonian.htm
and http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2007/Virginia/index.html
ADDED APRIL 2007
THE YEAR SO FAR…
I hinted earlier that there were several new
things on the horizon. One I wasn’t anticipating was that I’d be running a
club again. GRASSROOTS at the Queens Head (Chesterfield Rd in Belper—a 2 minute
walk from home!) was born out of a National Storytelling Week gig I put on
there. They have a lot of music at the pub and they asked me if I’d run some
regular events. Grassroots features both folk music and storytelling and,
although it’s early days and we haven’t quite got the audience numbers I’d
like yet, it looks promising. I’m doing it up until the summer and then I’ll
decide whether or not to continue.
If you are in the vicinity the next few dates are:
Friday 20th April FROM THE PEAKS TO THE PUNJAB: Pete Castle and Punjabi storyteller
PETER CHAND combine in a 2-hander which compares and contrasts stories from
their two diverse traditions. The show fits well into Grassroots’ theme:
“If you don’t know the roots from the trunk of the tree
Then you won’t know the branch or what the fruit will be.”
Fri 25th May: SINGERS NIGHT
Fri 22nd June: local musicians Sarah Matthews & Doug Eunson
The day after the ‘Peter Chand’ night (ie Sat 22 April) I’m leading a Storytelling
Walk around Castleton in Derbyshire. It’s a good walk of about 4 miles up
Cave Dale, across the tops and back down Winnats Pass and we’ll be stopping
for various Derbyshire and even Castleton stories. For details of mine, and
other walks see http://www.storytelling.uk.net/walking/
The 1st
Annual Facts & Fiction Storytelling Workshop at The Beacon in Tunbridge
Wells was a great success. A nice group of people spent a good day swapping
stories, networking and being enthused. I’ll be doing it again somewhere else
next year. (There's a longer report if you click the appropriate button on
the left!)
My workshop on ballads at the Society for Storytelling National Gathering
was also very well received.
At both events I picked up new subscribers for Facts & Fiction plus a
lot of praise for the way the magazine is going. Very pleasing. And a couple
of bookings!
After quite a poor year last year work has been coming in well. Quite a few new folk clubs I haven’t done before and interesting things like the Porlock Arts Festival in September. I’m also following up or chasing possible bites from Sheffield, Aberdeen and Washington DC! Keep your eye on my gig list on the web site to see if they happen.
THE BEDFORDSHIRE CONNECTION
In recent
years I’ve alternated between being a singer/storyteller from Derbyshire,
where I’ve lived for the past 20 years, and one from Kent, where I was born—both
useful marketing identities. Before we came to Derbyshire though, we lived
in Luton where I was known as the expert on all things folky from Bedfordshire.
That aspect raised its head again recently when I was asked to submit some
songs for use in a video about regeneration in Luton. It’s only a short film—about
5 mins—and it’s all set to the Buckworth May Song off Mearcstapa. I was amazed
how well it works—the juxtaposition of the old song and new development, the
rural idyll and urban decay, the age of the song against the faces of youth,
are all very poignant. Joanna Callaghan, the artist who put it together said:
The music is a major part of its success, the way that it interacts with the
images and the overall feel of it. It is interesting how it can play off these
very contemporary ideas about regeneration and social change.”
Don't
forget you can buy Mearcstapa and all my other CDs just with the click of
a button on the shop page of this site!
FALSE WATERS is also available from CD Baby ( http://cdbaby.com/cd/petecastle
)
It’s quite an old album but I still do about 50% of the material and it makes
it very accessible for the American market. An added advantage is that it’s
been farmed out to about 36 download companies (inc Apple iTunes which is
one of the few I’ve heard of) but no-one has actually downloaded anything
yet which reinforces my belief that people who like my kind of music prefer
to have the proper album and play the tracks in the order which ‘nature’ (or
I) intended!
DERBYSHIRE SONGS & STORIES
Keith Kendrick and I were very pleased with the response to our concert on that theme for the Derwent Valley World Heritage Site and we would like to take the show ‘on the road’. Obviously it’s of most relevance to local people but I don’t see why we couldn’t do it anywhere… at festivals? So if you know anyone who might be interested please put us in touch.
A NEW CD?
I'm still planning to do one very soon...
FACTS & FICTION
I continue to edit the storytelling magazine Facts & Fiction, which is the only independent storytelling magazine in the UK if not the world! It's based on traditional oral storytelling but covers all other aspects of the art too. Over the years I've been in charge it's developed nicely and I'm very proud of it. It's a lot of work and doesn't make money (just covers its costs) but its stimulating and interesting and opens a few doors. Have a look at the FACTS & FICTION website to get an idea of what it's all about. There's a link on your left.)
A NEW PUBLICATION
“NOT THE MARAMURES TUNE BOOK” by Lucy Castle; is "an exploration of creative and social processes behind community music making, focusing on traditional fiddling, in Maramures, north-western Romania.”
18 pages (A4 landscape), plus title page and front and back covers, on quality paper, and tape-bound; beautiful border drawings and decorations by folk artist Kenton Taylor; 13 photographs (5 colour, 8b/w) including fiddlers, other musicians, and community participation; 8 pages of pictorial analysis based on conventional music notation and adapted to show the way in which the improvisational process can take place – accessible on different levels to those who don’t “read music”, as well as those who do to varying degrees.
Why ‘Not The Maramures Tunebook’? Because looking at the tunes superficially has been done to death!” and this encourages you to look at the tradition behind the tune rather than play by numbers.
Cost £10. Details on Lucy's site (button on your left!)
A LOOK BACK AT 2006:
2006 was a strange year. I had some really good work and good responses but it was a struggle. For some reason I had the ‘big’ gigs and some interesting ones and there were rave reviews and reports about what I did but there weren’t enough of the ordinary, everyday bookings which put the food on the table.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
Open Door Folk Club in Oldham where I hadn’t been before: Crich Tramway Museum Folk Festival—it’s just up the road from home but I hadn’t been there before either! open air storytelling at Rufford Park—the first day it was beautiful weather and a packed amphitheatre, the second day, a few weeks later—the whole place under water and, not surprisingly, almost empty! (but I’m doing that again next summer;) storytelling at Wicksteed was its usual pleasure and was closely followed by an adult event at Biddulph and three days at Nottingham High School (very up market and an eye-opener as to what teenage boys can be like when they’ve got everything going for them!) Folkestone Folk Club was a trip back through time—lots of old friends; and the festival at Filey included a very nice concert. Tenterden Festival and the associated school workshops are always a pleasure and soon after I had a spell of work very near home—two gigs I could walk to in fact! The Derwent Valley World Heritage Site Discovery Day concert which Keith Kendrick and I did at the Unitarian Chapel in Belper was really enjoyable and we are taking it ‘on the road’. We will be doing it at Tenterden Folk festival in October and repeating it at a different venue, possibly in Darley Abbey, for this year's Discovery Days.
Earlier Lucy and I did a show called Minstrels & Maidens at the Y Theatre in Leicester which went well. It’s stories and songs about the life of the wandering minstrel and the women he encounters. (Purely fictional!) We’re hoping to get the opportunity to do that again soon as well.
The Oldham gig led to the internet radio station RADIO BRITFOLK (www.radiobritfolkhome.co.uk/ ) featuring my Outlandish Knight CD as Album of the month on Ali O’Brian’s show.
In July
we did a one-off Popeluc gig at Chelsea Arts Club. For very many reasons,
mainly personal, it marked the end of that collaboration which is ironic coming
at a time when, with Romania now in the E.U. it would all have been much easier.
There are a couple of articles in the Archive.
Pete Castle
Steel Carpet Music and Facts & Fiction: 42 Mill St. Belper, Derbyshire,
DE56 1DT, (
Email steel.carpet@tiscali.co.uk
or phone 01773-822829
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