Salons

In September 2019, Rosanna introduced the tales of ordinary but extraordinary residents of Hastings in a series of moving and original personal poems  https://smart-heritage.co.uk/. In this Salon Rosanna has re-visited them to see how ordinary life has changed for them under the extraordinary lockdown. She asks what things have helped them through – nature, colour, community, connection, being of service, food, music, song, dance? Original interviewees include The Lightning Lady, Batwoman of Hastings and The Hunger Brothers, Pete and James Robinson, who have done amazing food delivery work both before and during Covid-19. Rosanna’s guests are trans poet Alice Denny and colourful creative Robbie C. Stedman.

View the video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/Qb-tpjWqbNM. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

In September 2019, Rosanna introduced the tales of ordinary but extraordinary residents of Hastings in a series of moving and original personal poems  https://smart-heritage.co.uk/. In this Salon Rosanna has re-visited them to see how ordinary life has changed for them under the extraordinary lockdown. She asks what things have helped them through – nature, colour, community, connection, being of service, food, music, song, dance? Original interviewees include The Lightning Lady, Batwoman of Hastings and The Hunger Brothers, Pete and James Robinson, who have done amazing food delivery work both before and during Covid-19. Rosanna’s guests are trans poet Alice Denny and colourful creative Robbie C. Stedman.

View the video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/Qb-tpjWqbNM. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

In this Salon Rosanna introduces ideas for her new musical Rock On, Rock Fair, exploring the history, myth and mystery of Hastings’ Fairs and Festivities. Rock Fair ran in Hastings from medieval times until the 1860s, when it was banned for its bawdiness. Rosanna and guests explored the rich tradition of fairgrounds, folksongs and folk celebration through history to contemporary times. 

Some of the questions Rosanna asks are: What is the function of the Fair or the Carnivalesque? How do fairs and festivities leap boundaries, break rules and transport us into other worlds? What happens when the world is turned upside down? Where do myth and history meet? How do current festivities like Jack in the Green conjure the same celebratory spirit as Rock Fair? Could Rock Fair ever return? 

Rosanna’s guests are Julie Gidlow, Dr Clair Le Couteur of ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors, Keith Leech and Heather Agar-Leech of Jack in the Green, Chris Hare of History People UK, and Steve Roud, folk culture historian and creator of the Roud Folksong index.

View the video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/L6UrrUnftpU. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

In this Salon Rosanna introduces ideas for her new musical Rock On, Rock Fair, exploring the history, myth and mystery of Hastings’ Fairs and Festivities. Rock Fair ran in Hastings from medieval times until the 1860s, when it was banned for its bawdiness. Rosanna and guests explore the rich tradition of fairgrounds, folksongs and folk celebration through history to contemporary times. 

Some of the questions Rosanna asks are: What is the function of the Fair or the Carnivalesque? How do fairs and festivities leap boundaries, break rules and transport us into other worlds? What happens when the world is turned upside down? Where do myth and history meet? How do current festivities like Jack in the Green conjure the same celebratory spirit as Rock Fair? Could Rock Fair ever return? 

Rosanna’s guests are Julie Gidlow, Dr Clair Le Couteur of ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors, Keith Leech and Heather Agar-Leech of Jack in the Green, Chris Hare of History People UK, and Steve Roud, folk culture historian and creator of the Roud Folksong index.

View the video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/L6UrrUnftpU. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

This is a second Salon opening up themes that Rosanna is exploring for her new work, Rock On, Rock Fair. Fairs have inspired a deliciously diverse tradition of folksongs – from bawdy ballads to the gentle romance of The Hiring Fair, to the mysterious herbal coding of Scarborough Fair. Like travelling fairs and associated gypsy and traveller culture, folksongs often up sticks and shift scenery, lyric, melody and meaning.

Rosanna has been collaborating with ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors and psychedelic folk duo Rokurokubi to explore sounds of the fair and songs inspired by fairgrounds and their attractions. This includes adapting traditional folksong Copshawholme Fair, examining the mysterious meaning of Horn Fair and exploring the rhythms of rattling rides. Historical fairs often culminated with folk dancing through the night and we will discuss the circling rhythms and shapes of various Turning Wheels – both the spin of the fairground rides and the seasons. There will be an optional Fair song-writing exercise which audiences can do at home. 

View the video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/ea7XfKXzHgs. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

This is a second Salon opening up themes that Rosanna is exploring for her new work, Rock On, Rock Fair. Fairs have inspired a deliciously diverse tradition of folksongs – from bawdy ballads to the gentle romance of The Hiring Fair, to the mysterious herbal coding of Scarborough Fair. Like travelling fairs and associated gypsy and traveller culture, folksongs often up sticks and shift scenery, lyric, melody and meaning.

Rosanna has been collaborating with ‘broken folk’ duo Lunatraktors and psychedelic folk duo Rokurokubi to explore sounds of the fair and songs inspired by fairgrounds and their attractions. This includes adapting traditional folksong Copshawholme Fair, examining the mysterious meaning of Horn Fair and exploring the rhythms of rattling rides. Historical fairs often culminated with folk dancing through the night and we will discuss the circling rhythms and shapes of various Turning Wheels – both the spin of the fairground rides and the seasons. There will be an optional Fair song-writing exercise which audiences can do at home. 

View a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/ea7XfKXzHgs. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

Mary Hooper asks ‘could anyone imagine this?’

Disaster or opportunity, Covid-19 has changed things suddenly and in ways we never expected. What will happen to the businesses in one small area of Hastings which have been integral to making the Trinity Triangle the place it is? Can they re-open as they were, or can they reinvent the status quo offering a different way of doing things, and where does the ‘creative’ fit into the making of the new landscape?

Mary’s guests are the proprietors of the cafés and shops, the business levy payers and agents of the Trinity Triangle, imagining the future, welcoming new and old clients into what brave new world?

View a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/BCa40jyF41s. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

Mary Hooper asks ‘could anyone imagine this?’

Disaster or opportunity, Covid-19 has changed things suddenly and in ways we never expected. What will happen to the businesses in one small area of Hastings which have been integral to making the Trinity Triangle the place it is? Can they re-open as they were, or can they reinvent the status quo offering a different way of doing things, and where does the ‘creative’ fit into the making of the new landscape?

Mary’s guests are the proprietors of the cafés and shops, the business levy payers and agents of the Trinity Triangle, imagining the future, welcoming new and old clients into what brave new world?

View a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/BCa40jyF41s. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

Musician and composer, Debbie Warren, and historical researcher, Julie Gidlow, open up the suite of songs that Chris Thorpe-Tracey composed during his residency in Hastings this year. Chris delved into Hastings’ politics of the early 1800s and has pointed us to a rich seam of material that we’ve developed further. Chris’s songs can be found here: https://maercstapa.bandcamp.com/releases. See A Derelict Chorale page for more about Chris.

Debbie has worked in all fields of music during her career from West End theatre to conducting at the Royal Albert Hall. She regularly works as a musical director and has a large catalogue of choral arrangements. Julie has worked as Lead Researcher for MSL since 2014 and worked with Chris on the research for A Derelict Chorale. She has extensive experience of social history, government and politics, local and family history as well as research for publication.

Debbie has selected five from the ten songs Chris has written and with Julie will be exploring, through Chris’s words and music, the history and the drama of a time when the America Ground got its name, when Excise Men chased down and killed ‘free traders’, when squatters made homes from half boats or untangled rope along the Ropewalk.

For the first time you can hear The Murder of Captain Aldridge, Doin’ the Rope-Walk Tangle, Eight Acres, The Battling Breeds and Eviction.

You can view a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/9C3YEW_qkuE. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

Musician and composer, Debbie Warren, and historical researcher, Julie Gidlow, open up the suite of songs that Chris Thorpe-Tracey composed during his residency in Hastings this year. Chris delved into Hastings’ politics of the early 1800s and has pointed us to a rich seam of material that we’ve developed further. Chris’s songs can be found here: https://maercstapa.bandcamp.com/releases. See A Derelict Chorale page for more about Chris.

Debbie has worked in all fields of music during her career from West End theatre to conducting at the Royal Albert Hall. She regularly works as a musical director and has a large catalogue of choral arrangements. Julie has worked as Lead Researcher for MSL since 2014 and worked with Chris on the research for A Derelict Chorale. She has extensive experience of social history, government and politics, local and family history as well as research for publication.

Debbie has selected five from the ten songs Chris has written and with Julie will be exploring, through Chris’s words and music, the history and the drama of a time when the America Ground got its name, when Excise Men chased down and killed ‘free traders’, when squatters made homes from half boats or untangled rope along the Ropewalk.

For the first time you can hear The Murder of Captain Aldridge, Doin’ the Rope-Walk Tangle, Eight Acres, The Battling Breeds and Eviction.

You can view a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/9C3YEW_qkuE. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

From hand-washing and NHS clapping, to birdsong and Zoom glitches, our sound world at home has truly changed during the Covid-19 Lockdown.

Kevin Grist of SparkedEcho worked with co-creators in Hastings to remotely sample the Lockdown using their phones, resulting in a composition that evolved over time. 

In this Salon, Kevin and his co-creators reflect on collaborating remotely, unpick the work track by track, and show a live demo of the online platform Soundtrap. During the Salon one viewer offers to record the sound of the seagulls on their roof, which is added to a new soundscape created in real time.

You can view a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/TjAxYjVoD8E. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

From hand-washing and NHS clapping, to birdsong and Zoom glitches, our sound world at home has truly changed during the Covid-19 Lockdown.

Kevin Grist of SparkedEcho worked with co-creators in Hastings to remotely sample the Lockdown using their phones, resulting in a composition that evolved over time.

In this Salon, Kevin and his co-creators reflect on collaborating remotely, unpick the work track by track, and show a live demo of the online platform Soundtrap. During the Salon one viewer offers to record the sound of the seagulls on their roof, which is added to a new soundscape created in real time.

You can view a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/TjAxYjVoD8E. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

Drawing from the work of Roy Penfold and researcher Julie Gidlow, artist Mary Hooper offers a visual account of the dramatic storms of 1834 drawn from the Brett chronicle. Less known about than the Great Storms of the thirteenth century that overwhelmed the harbour and began the process of making the Trinity Triangle, the storms of 1834 demonstrated the impact of human activity on the landscape. Reinforcement of the sea defences in St Leonards combined with the action of the sea had calamitous consequences for the thin veneer of ground over what is still a tidal estuary – the America Ground / Trinity Triangle. Mary raises questions about whether planners now investigate or seek to mitigate the consequences of development.  

Also taking part are interviewees Kevin Boorman, Paul Joy, Yasmin Ornsby, Philip Squire, Pete White, Bub White and Peter White.

You can view a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/4AV5yqnBevI. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

Drawing from the work of Roy Penfold and researcher Julie Gidlow, artist Mary Hooper offers a visual account of the dramatic storms of 1834 drawn from the Brett chronicle. Less known about than the Great Storms of the thirteenth century that overwhelmed the harbour and began the process of making the Trinity Triangle, the storms of 1834 demonstrated the impact of human activity on the landscape. Reinforcement of the sea defences in St Leonards combined with the action of the sea had calamitous consequences for the thin veneer of ground over what is still a tidal estuary – the America Ground / Trinity Triangle. Mary raises questions about whether planners now investigate or seek to mitigate the consequences of development.  

Also taking part are interviewees Kevin Boorman, Paul Joy, Yasmin Ornsby, Philip Squire, Pete White, Bub White and Peter White.

You can view a video of the Salon here: https://youtu.be/4AV5yqnBevI. It can also be viewed on Isolation Station Hastings on Thursdays at 7pm.

  Dot Dash is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.