In September 2016 Chris T-T gave a presentation at the Dots 2016 conference in Brighton, organised by Brilliant Noise, on his project with CommonAs, ‘A Ballad for Southwell’, and his experience of the the Creative Fellowship we invited him to undertake at The Workhouse, Southwell. Here is a video of the presentation recorded by Brilliant Noise:
On 14 October Chris T-T performed the completed works from his Creative Fellowship live in the historic Committee Room of the Workhouse, Southwell. He sang 13 songs created during the fellowship, several with lyrics co-written by volunteers and staff from the Workhouse. The works included songs based on the stories of past residents at the Workhouse, researched by volunteers, others inspired by the testimony of those remembering the property in the the twentieth century, before it closed, and some exploring the contemporary relevance on the site.
Here are a couple of excerpts – Chris’s opening song ‘Oakum part 1’ sung a cappella, and ‘Knock it Down Tomorrow’, referring to comments made in aural history testimonies held in the archive at The Workhouse.
We had a brilliant day at The Workhouse, Southwell, on Saturday, when Chris T-T performed works in progress from the project, A Ballad for Southwell, for Heritage Open Day. A huge thanks go out to Chris T-T and all The Workhouse staff and volunteers for making it happen. Here are a couple of video snippets from the day.
At the beginning of July we shot some video footage of Chris T-T at The Workhouse, Southwell, as he played through work in progress for A Ballad of Southwell and we began creating audio recordings for The Workhouse’s new Audio Visitor Guide, to be launched at the end of the month. Chris performed the works on the beautiful harmonium in the Workhouse Committee room and on his guitar in the former Workhouse Infirmary building, Firbeck House, to great acoustic effect.
In June we attended the Re-imaging Challenging Histories Conference in Cardiff. Jim Grevatte and Sam Ball from The workhouse gave a presentation on the Re-imaging The Workhouse project, of which Chris T-T’s residency, ‘A Ballad for Southwell’, organised by CommonAs is part. Following their presentation Chris T-T spoke about his research and working with volunteers, and performed some works in progress to conference delegates.
