FRIENDS ALREADY BEGIN TO GATHER...

Rupert's Blog is seven years old on January 7th but I'm holding off celebrations to March to accommodate all the strange folk he keep turning up round here wanting a piece of the inaction.

INTERACTIVE BLOG?

Click on press in the picture (don't press Press) and put your ear to your laptop or tower. Listen. Distant bagpipes? X Factor rehearsals?

No, the inner workings of cyberspace, taking you to places you'd not imagnined (and wished you'd not imagined).

Who says blogging isn't interactive?

POET LAUREATE BEATEN UP IN OAKLAND

I've just heard that the former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass and his wife have been beaten up by police at Occupy Oakland.

The Occupy Movement is present in over 1,000 cities globally. Oakland and New York Occupy protestors have been beaten up, pepper sprayed and variously roughed up as literally hundreds have been arrested for opposing Capitalism's neoliberalism - the notion that the market is God.

It is excellent that Church of England Bishops have come out publicly against the British coalition's programme of austerity - cutting the jobs of nurses, teachers and public servants to line the pockets of city billionaires. This is what Occupy groups oppose around the  world: the utter inequality of capitalist neoliberalism.

***
Since writing this I see the Bishop of Norwich is one of those afore mentioned bishops, quoted in the Evening News today. Many Norwich churches are busy feeding those on benefits facing rising fuel costs on top of high food costs, hence it is entirely right that all religious leaders stands up for those their calling defends.

MARTIN LAURANCE LIFE STUDIES

Martin Laurance is one of the region's best contemporary landscape paintings. His early life studies can be viewed and purchased on Rupert's eBay Gallery Shop.

HOLES IN THE SKY, GATHERING

Watercolour, November 2012

I WANTED TO FIND SOME COLOUR...

But the snow kept falling.

Watercolour, November 2011

OCCUPY NORWICH

Occupy Norwich is going strong. Each week they have a series of meetings and talks. This Sunday 20th Nov at 1pm - Occupation Norwich, Hay Hill - Paul Wellings discusses the role of the media. Should be good.

INSIDE SOME SHOPS IT IS SNOWING

REG WEBB TRIO AT MILESTONES' DECEMBER 4TH GIG

ANOTHER ECLECTIC MIX FROM SINGER REG WEBB AT MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

The next concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 4 December heralds the return of a long time club favourite with a new band - The Reg Webb Trio.


Reg Webb is one of the most respected figures on the East Anglian music scene who makes no apology for his eclectic mixture of styles and influences.


A charismatic and intensely soulful singer and keyboard player, Reg Webb is an accomplished musician and one of the most popular singers to appear at Milestones over the last fifteen years, fusing anything from standards by Duke Ellington, the modernism of Herbie Hancock to the grooves of Stevie Wonder or Steely Dan.


"We call it jazz because people need a label. We'd rather just call it music," says Reg, "When we say the music is accessible, we don't mean that it's watered-down elevator music."

He has worked with established names as diverse as John McLaughlin, Shirley Bassey, Lenny Kravitz, Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Pass, Art Farmer and Roland Kirk, but it is with his own simmering mix of modern jazz - standards, blues and full blooded electric fusion - that he enjoys himself the most.


As well as Reg's adventurous keyboard work and wonderfully expressive voice, reminiscent of a cross between Stevie Wonder and the classic jazz vocalists, the trio also features young bassist Marty Prior and Reg’s long-time sparring partner from The 3 B's, Andrew Dowding on drums.


The trio’s genuinely exciting music contains all the elements of a great improvising group - a constant supply of fresh ideas, shifting rhythms and a sense of bluesy urgency to hold everyone's attention.


The trio will be performing standards and originals, a number of songs from Reg's CD with The 3 B's, 'Blind, Black and Breathless', and one or two newer pieces.

The band’s full line-up features Reg Webb (vocals/keyboards), Marty Prior (bass) and Andrew Dowding (drums).

Listen to the music of Reg Webb by visiting http://www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk

All Milestones gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm.

Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).

'WINTER WARMER' FOLK WEEKEND, SEAGULL THEATRE, LOWESTOFT

Dec 10th/11th
Seagull Theatre
Morton Road, Lowestoft

MARTIN CARTHY, JOHN and MARIO, RICHARD GRIANGER, HORSES BRAWL, SKIP & FRIENDS


Workshops, Singarounds/Sessions, Winter Market


Over the weekend of December 10th and 11th - a mini festival at the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft, in what is hoped will be the first of ongoing events to bring more folk and roots music to the area.

Sat 10th
1pm – Winter Market opens with vintage, arts and crafts stalls
2pm – open singaround/session: bring your instrument/voice and join in (it doesn’t just have to be a folk song)


7.30 – Concert with John Ward and Mario Price, Richard Grainger, Skip and Friends
(also folk in the foyer with the Waveney folk club)


Sun 11th
1pm – Winter Market
2pm – open singaround/session
2pm – bodhran, violin, melodeon, whistle workshops


7.30- Concert with Martin Carthy and Horses Brawl
(also folk in the foyer)


Various tickets available; full weekend (which includes a workshop), 2 concert, or 1 concert and workshop only.

For all info visit http://www.broadroots.co.uk/
 Tickets available from The Seagull Theatre 01502 589726 http://www.theseagull.co.uk/


Martin Carthy MBE
`Arguably the greatest English folk song performer, writer, collector and editor of them all' - Q Magazine

A music Legend for 40 years, a major influence on Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and inventor of an entire Guitar style.....what more can we say?


Richard Grainger
Highly engaging singer/songwriter from Teesside regularly touring in Canada, USA, New Zealand.
Also a playwright who’s ‘Eye of the Wind’ was made for the BBC with David Attenborough.

Horses Brawl
Norfolk based group Horses Brawl (Laura Cannell – fiddle & recorders and André Bosman – guitars & Indian harmonium)
unearth fragments of medieval melodies and weave them together with elements
of European folk music into mesmerizing and spellbinding new pieces.

“Virtuoso Magpie Musicians”  THE TIMES

Skip & Friends
Three excellent East Anglian musicians who bring together a wealth of experience and a range of musical tastes, taking a fresh look at songs and tunes that have become firm favourites.
Melodeon, Whistle and Guitar


John Ward & Mario Price
Bringing their highly eclectic style back to The Seagull. Original and traditional songs on a variety of instruments, played with passion and subtlety. Acclaimed and enjoyed all over the country and beyond
‘Excellent’ – Folk Roots

IF WINTER COMES...

Can Spring be far behind?

BEHIND THE TIMES

With this latest work I've gone round. Lots more coming up.