It were grand ( the programme , that is ). Though there was some doubt in the introduction on the correct pronounciation of her name.
Also not too much Sting, even if he is a Geordie.
No sign of legendary tattoo.
Suggest tattoo may be a myth, or, at least, a tattoo on a myth.
i saw most of that programme. it was great to see those young kids learning tunes by ear. i wish there had been some encouragement towards folk music at my school.
I caught it halfway through. Great music and much kudos to Kathryn for what they're doing at Folkworks. By the way can someone tell me if Julian Sutton and Dezi Donnelly were separated at birth?
A great programme!
And what do our purists have to say about the inclusion of saxaphones and clarinets etc. in the line up? - or about the arrangements? I thought both added considerably to the music. Would you welcome such carryings on in your sesssion?
For those Londoners - an appalling beginning to the review in the Evening Standard, don't know what the guy was on, he managed to calm down by the end, though he was severely underimpressed by Alistair Anderson. You don't mention Captain Pugwash with reference to a musician of that calibre !
I thoroughly enjoyed the programme, its music, and its teaching (we have a similar Irish traditional music teaching school here in Bristol).
I was lucky to get to post this discussion. My wife drew my attention to the programme while we were having tea, less than two hours before it was due on air. This precipitated a frantic dash mid-meal upstairs to the computer to compose the post (and to check that someone hadn't already posted).
A superb example of the sort of music programme we need more of on the TV.
Pete, I wouldn't say Victor Lewis Smith knows a great deal about music so I would take his comments about Alistair Anderson with a pinch of salt. Sometimes he's quite witty but he does recycle old jokes for cheap laughs on occasion.
I did think that overall he got the point of the programme - to showcase Northumbria and the burgeoning musical talent in that region. He was positively gushing about Kathryn Tickell, quite dismissive of Sting (possibly with good reason; waxing lyrical about Northumbria when you've lived in Wiltshire for years is a bit odd to say the least) and he did say that if more programmes like this were made, people would develop a taste for folk music. Like you, I was horrified with the first few paragraphs but happy with the final verdict.
Yes, they were appaling first paragraphs though.
Did he really try to learn the smallpipes ? My flabber is ghasted.
Also I am curious - Ms Tickell, I remember, was feted when very young, but these were some years ago now. Has she had a make-over or is there a portrait hidden in her attic ? Or do people just stay young for longer these days ? What was in that tattooists' needle, perhaps ?
I know of a record store in Holland where the Kathryn Tickell cd's are filed under Celtic.The owner refused to believe me when I told him she was English and played mostly English music.There was a fuss a few years ago when she played at the Inter Celtic festival at Lorient.The organisers said that Norhumbria was an honorary Celtic nation,but I disagreed.Opinions?
Well when I lived there many moons ago I used to pop down the local stone circle for a quick chant with my druid mates, and then we'd grab the nearest animal and sacrifice it, and only then would we take out our instruments and play amongst the swirling mists until our mums called us in for tea.
We were just wannabes though. We knew the real Celts were 'cross the other side of the Tweed. O! If only I had been born in my aunt's house 20 miles up the road I could have called myself a true Celt. I would have had the warrior blood of Braveheart himself! I would have the music coursing through my veins from birth. Oh if only!
From what I've heard of Northumbrian music there certainly seems to be a strong celtic thread in it (not surprising, bearing in mind that Scotland is so close), with perhaps English and even Scandinavian influences. If you define "English" music as that played in the south, then Northumbrian music certainly isn't that sort of English music. I'd say that Northumbrian . music is basically celtic and very much its own thing.
Whether the people of Northumbria are a celtic nation is a different question that I don't feel competent to go into, except to suggest that there is probably a mix of Scottish and Scandinavian in there somewhere.
I once saw a reference somewhere to the effect that the people of Cumbria (to the west) are basically celtic and had their own celtic language, now extinct, but possibly related to Scottish Gaelic and Manx.
So much more that could have been shown, where were the sessions and the traditional Northumbrian tunes? They talked about Willy Taylor, Will Atkinson and Joe Hutton, but we didn't see them.
Don'y forget Dave Richardson (Boys of the Lough) is Northumbrian too.....
Good programme, especially (for me) Kathryn's rousing reel "The Homecoming" played by the band. The two Willys and Joe Hutton died a while back, though a clip wouldn't have gone amiss. I think the emphasis was on what's happening now. Ethnicity? The North-East is a patch of historically quite diverse places. Place-names indicate Scandinavians settled in numbers in south Co. Durham but not further north. There's certainly no gradual merging with Scotland - the border (fixed in the 11th. century) is very, very definite - England one side, Scotland the other. The Industrial Revolution brought people into Co. Durham and Tyne/Wear/Tees-side from all over, including Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall, whose descendants remain. (cont. below)
Northumberland, though, is different. Except in its south-east corner the county was not industrialised and stayed rural: it provided no reason for large numbers of people to go there. I assume the ancestry of very many people there is either Romano-Celtic or Anglo-Saxon, or both. North Northumberland was conquered by determined AS warriors in the 6th. and 7th.centuries: they might have ruled over the locals as a new upper caste,enforcing a language change, or they might have killed or driven them out. (Relevant early texts like Gildas or Bede emphasise the mutual hate and contempt that existed between the two peoples, and that massacres of the British were carried out by the AS. Recent DNA samples have been held to indicate the peoples didn't interbreed.)
So to conclude the above - find out if anyone's done a major survey of blood groups or whatever in Northumberland: it might establish whether
people there are descended from the Romano-Brits, like the Welsh; from the Anglo-Saxons; or from both,or neither. As far as I know, the jury's still out on this one.
Re. the DNA reference in above entry, they were samples from England (don't know where) that were held to be overwhelmingly Germanic in their affinities, with little or no Celtic element, thus leading the researcher(s) to conclude that the Anglo-Saxons married only their own kind, outbred the natives and effectively squeezed them out.But I'll add a disclaimer - archaeo-science can err, through a variety of factors.
...And I've read of some other sample purporting to show that the English population is predominantly Celtic in its background, slightly less so in the north and east than elsewhere! Really, what is one to believe?
Meanwhile, if the sunlight on obscure streams and Kathryn Tickell's hair left you itching to explore Northumberland, get an alternative take on the place from Tom Sharpe's burlesque novel "The Throwback". As I remember, a grasping Home Counties widow or divorcee latches onto a crusty Northumbrian squire who hales her off to his ruined tower in the sticks, where her experiences are grotesque and bizarre. The book's take on Northumberland is alarmingly plausible.!
Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Tonight, on British TV's Channel Five at 7.15pm, Kathryn Tickell explores the musical heritage of the North East in a 45 minute programme.
# Posted on March 14th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
When will we see Kathryn Tickell's tattoo?
# Posted on March 14th 2006 by Johannes J
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
It were grand ( the programme , that is ). Though there was some doubt in the introduction on the correct pronounciation of her name.
Also not too much Sting, even if he is a Geordie.
No sign of legendary tattoo.
Suggest tattoo may be a myth, or, at least, a tattoo on a myth.
# Posted on March 14th 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
...Myth Tickell - ath in Enthemble Myth-tickell?
# Posted on March 14th 2006 by ragaman
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
i saw most of that programme. it was great to see those young kids learning tunes by ear. i wish there had been some encouragement towards folk music at my school.
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by flisstle
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
I caught it halfway through. Great music and much kudos to Kathryn for what they're doing at Folkworks. By the way can someone tell me if Julian Sutton and Dezi Donnelly were separated at birth?
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Trevor -
I don't suppose you taped it, did you? I was planning to, but got distracted by family matters before I remembered to set the timer. Doh!
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by Wurzel
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Maybe it is a tattoo of Northumbria?
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
I'll pay someone to send me a copy to Australia.
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by Dow
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
A great programme!
And what do our purists have to say about the inclusion of saxaphones and clarinets etc. in the line up? - or about the arrangements? I thought both added considerably to the music. Would you welcome such carryings on in your sesssion?
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by MPM
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
A friend of mine has a map of Australia which not many people see ....... its on the inside of his underpants!!
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by geoffwright
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
How do you know, Geoff?
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by showaddydadito
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
For those Londoners - an appalling beginning to the review in the Evening Standard, don't know what the guy was on, he managed to calm down by the end, though he was severely underimpressed by Alistair Anderson. You don't mention Captain Pugwash with reference to a musician of that calibre !
# Posted on March 15th 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
I thoroughly enjoyed the programme, its music, and its teaching (we have a similar Irish traditional music teaching school here in Bristol).
I was lucky to get to post this discussion. My wife drew my attention to the programme while we were having tea, less than two hours before it was due on air. This precipitated a frantic dash mid-meal upstairs to the computer to compose the post (and to check that someone hadn't already posted).
A superb example of the sort of music programme we need more of on the TV.
# Posted on March 16th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Pete, I wouldn't say Victor Lewis Smith knows a great deal about music so I would take his comments about Alistair Anderson with a pinch of salt. Sometimes he's quite witty but he does recycle old jokes for cheap laughs on occasion.
I did think that overall he got the point of the programme - to showcase Northumbria and the burgeoning musical talent in that region. He was positively gushing about Kathryn Tickell, quite dismissive of Sting (possibly with good reason; waxing lyrical about Northumbria when you've lived in Wiltshire for years is a bit odd to say the least) and he did say that if more programmes like this were made, people would develop a taste for folk music. Like you, I was horrified with the first few paragraphs but happy with the final verdict.
# Posted on March 16th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Yes, they were appaling first paragraphs though.
Did he really try to learn the smallpipes ? My flabber is ghasted.
Also I am curious - Ms Tickell, I remember, was feted when very young, but these were some years ago now. Has she had a make-over or is there a portrait hidden in her attic ? Or do people just stay young for longer these days ? What was in that tattooists' needle, perhaps ?
# Posted on March 16th 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
I know of a record store in Holland where the Kathryn Tickell cd's are filed under Celtic.The owner refused to believe me when I told him she was English and played mostly English music.There was a fuss a few years ago when she played at the Inter Celtic festival at Lorient.The organisers said that Norhumbria was an honorary Celtic nation,but I disagreed.Opinions?
# Posted on March 18th 2006 by dafydd
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Well when I lived there many moons ago I used to pop down the local stone circle for a quick chant with my druid mates, and then we'd grab the nearest animal and sacrifice it, and only then would we take out our instruments and play amongst the swirling mists until our mums called us in for tea.
# Posted on March 18th 2006 by Dow
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
We were just wannabes though. We knew the real Celts were 'cross the other side of the Tweed. O! If only I had been born in my aunt's house 20 miles up the road I could have called myself a true Celt. I would have had the warrior blood of Braveheart himself! I would have the music coursing through my veins from birth. Oh if only!
# Posted on March 18th 2006 by Dow
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
From what I've heard of Northumbrian music there certainly seems to be a strong celtic thread in it (not surprising, bearing in mind that Scotland is so close), with perhaps English and even Scandinavian influences. If you define "English" music as that played in the south, then Northumbrian music certainly isn't that sort of English music. I'd say that Northumbrian . music is basically celtic and very much its own thing.
Whether the people of Northumbria are a celtic nation is a different question that I don't feel competent to go into, except to suggest that there is probably a mix of Scottish and Scandinavian in there somewhere.
I once saw a reference somewhere to the effect that the people of Cumbria (to the west) are basically celtic and had their own celtic language, now extinct, but possibly related to Scottish Gaelic and Manx.
# Posted on March 18th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
So much more that could have been shown, where were the sessions and the traditional Northumbrian tunes? They talked about Willy Taylor, Will Atkinson and Joe Hutton, but we didn't see them.
Don'y forget Dave Richardson (Boys of the Lough) is Northumbrian too.....
# Posted on March 25th 2006 by mehere
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Good programme, especially (for me) Kathryn's rousing reel "The Homecoming" played by the band. The two Willys and Joe Hutton died a while back, though a clip wouldn't have gone amiss. I think the emphasis was on what's happening now. Ethnicity? The North-East is a patch of historically quite diverse places. Place-names indicate Scandinavians settled in numbers in south Co. Durham but not further north. There's certainly no gradual merging with Scotland - the border (fixed in the 11th. century) is very, very definite - England one side, Scotland the other. The Industrial Revolution brought people into Co. Durham and Tyne/Wear/Tees-side from all over, including Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall, whose descendants remain. (cont. below)
# Posted on July 27th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
Northumberland, though, is different. Except in its south-east corner the county was not industrialised and stayed rural: it provided no reason for large numbers of people to go there. I assume the ancestry of very many people there is either Romano-Celtic or Anglo-Saxon, or both. North Northumberland was conquered by determined AS warriors in the 6th. and 7th.centuries: they might have ruled over the locals as a new upper caste,enforcing a language change, or they might have killed or driven them out. (Relevant early texts like Gildas or Bede emphasise the mutual hate and contempt that existed between the two peoples, and that massacres of the British were carried out by the AS. Recent DNA samples have been held to indicate the peoples didn't interbreed.)
# Posted on July 27th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
So to conclude the above - find out if anyone's done a major survey of blood groups or whatever in Northumberland: it might establish whether
people there are descended from the Romano-Brits, like the Welsh; from the Anglo-Saxons; or from both,or neither. As far as I know, the jury's still out on this one.
Re. the DNA reference in above entry, they were samples from England (don't know where) that were held to be overwhelmingly Germanic in their affinities, with little or no Celtic element, thus leading the researcher(s) to conclude that the Anglo-Saxons married only their own kind, outbred the natives and effectively squeezed them out.But I'll add a disclaimer - archaeo-science can err, through a variety of factors.
# Posted on July 27th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Kathryn Tickell's Northumbria
...And I've read of some other sample purporting to show that the English population is predominantly Celtic in its background, slightly less so in the north and east than elsewhere! Really, what is one to believe?
Meanwhile, if the sunlight on obscure streams and Kathryn Tickell's hair left you itching to explore Northumberland, get an alternative take on the place from Tom Sharpe's burlesque novel "The Throwback". As I remember, a grasping Home Counties widow or divorcee latches onto a crusty Northumbrian squire who hales her off to his ruined tower in the sticks, where her experiences are grotesque and bizarre. The book's take on Northumberland is alarmingly plausible.!
# Posted on July 28th 2006 by nicholas