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Networking |
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Where
to find me on Facebook |
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Where
to find me on Myspace |
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Song |
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Song
duo comprising Graeme Meek & |
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The
website for Life & Times’ KS1 & KS2 shows for primary schools. If you
want a new way of looking at history and tradition which involves the
children dressing up and role playing;
singing, music and dance, try this site for details. |
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Life
and Times’ page on the popular Myspace server. 4 tracks from the CD Charivari will play in random order and one is
downloadable. |
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Several
Life & Times songs with slide shows or video. |
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Where
to find Life & Times on Facebook |
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This
canal song website lists several of Graeme’s canal songs with links within the
site to the words and music. |
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Dance |
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E-ceilidh
band founded by |
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Time
of Your Life’s page on the popular Myspace server. Stated in 2007, 4 tracks
from the CD A Select Few will play in random
order and one is downloadable. |
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Archives |
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See Life & Times’ entries in the
British Library Sound Archive. Select Sound Archive then enter life and times
and name
in the search boxes. Charivari seems to be listed in a different way. Go to
the search page again and type in charivari and select title. You will find it
listed there (about No.12 or 13) and the details can be accessed from that
page. |
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Museums |
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Life
and Times’ seek to preserve something of the region’s heritage through music.
The Chiltern Open Air Museum seeks to preserve some of the region’s
buildings, crafts etc. At least one of the buildings reconstructed on the
museum’s site comes from Bedfordshire. |
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A
museum of the Industrial Revolution primarily as seen from
the angle of the iron industry. Coalbrookdale is often
called ‘The Cradle of Industry’ and was the inspiration for Life & Times’
music which appears on the recording ‘Shropshire Iron’ – Fellside
FE071. |
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Luton
Museum, in Wardown Park, published the original
book of songs from ‘Strawplait & Bonelace’ – Fellside FE043. The
staff were very helpful in my initial research and the museum also hosted a
performance to launch the LP of Strawplait & Bonelace in 1985. There is a second site in Stockwood Park at the southern end of the town and this
includes the impressive ‘Mossman Carriage Collection’ that features original
and replica carriages and coaches, many of which have appeared in major films
over the years. |
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Another
important museum of Bedfordshire history where
Life & Times performed in 2001, 2002 & 2003. |
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A
small museum of Dunstable History based in High Street South. |
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Here’s an interesting idea! The town’s museum is all on-line. Give it a try. |
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This
is the virtual museum website developed after the Greensand Trust’s ‘Sands Of
Time’ oral history project about the sand industry of Leighton Buzzard. Two
of my songs can be heard on this website. |
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Conservation |
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The
Forest of Marston Vale is a project to plant a forest for
the community in mid-Bedfordshire on reclaimed brickworks land. They
celebrated their 10th anniversary in
2001 and I wrote the song ‘Marston Vale’ to mark the event.
Beyond the forest itself, the organisation is also running a valuable oral
history project in the locality and provides lectures, entertainment and
exhibitions at the |
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Conservation
for the Greensand Ridge and wider surrounding area. |
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An
organisation that looks after the area of outstanding natural beauty that is
the |
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Films |
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A
site dedicated to Five Feet Films’ short film: ‘The Bedfordshire Clanger’.
The film features by the same name: my song, the tune by |
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Clubs |
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A
club founded in the mid 1960s, Hitchin is one of the longest established
clubs in the country and goes from strength to strength. Life and Times
became resident performers there from the mid 1990s. The club won the 2005 |
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Magazines |
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A
local county magazine which has printed my songs and accompanying articles
since 1999. |
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Ø Discover |
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A
magazine devoted to interesting things about the |
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The
local folk magazine for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire etc. that
has printed large numbers of my songs over the years. |
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This
link takes you straight to the page with the review of Life & Times’ CD
‘Charivari’. |
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This
site runs reviews, is a download site for MP3s, plays music etc. In addition
there is a list of folk performers including myself , Life & Times &
Time of Your Life. |
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Morris |
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This
is the local Morris side based at Ampthill. Their escapades appear in several
Life & Times songs (Toddington Tour, Plough
Monday Song, Ampthill Sunrise, All In The Wintertime) and they perform a
dangerous stick-hurling dance to my tune ‘One Man’s Morris’. This dance is
also performed by Sarum Morris of Salisbury. |
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This
is the local ladies’ morris side with links to
Redbornstoke Morris. They are also based in Ampthill. |
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Recordings |
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Life
& Times recorded two LPs with this successful Cumbrian-based folk label: *
Strawplait & Bonelace
– Fellside FE043 – 1985 *
Shropshire Iron – Fellside FE071 – 1989 |
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Wixamtree
Recordings |
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Life
& Times’ own label, the name is taken from Bedfordshire’s Wixamtree
Hundred. The Life & Times CDs below appear on this label: ·
Charivari – Wixamtree ·
Where The Working Boats Went – Wixamtree (sorry,
no link available at the moment) |
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Other Singers of my Songs |
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John
Kirkpatrick is one of the folk scene’s best known and most revered
performers. Singer and squeeze-box player supreme, he lists among his
credits, membership of Brass Monkey and Steeleye Span. John sang one of my Shropshire Iron songs,
‘The Bridge of Iron’, at the Ironbridge Gorge
Museum in 1999. |
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Carolyn
is a respected singer of songs from the tradition and the traditional idiom and
is the former Education Officer of the EFDSS. She saw one of my songs
displayed on the wall of The |
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Local Radio |
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John
Pilgrim’s |
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Tourism |
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A
site dedicated to interesting places to visit in Bedfordshire, countryside
walks in the county etc. |
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This
is the name for Dunstable Downs Visitor Centre, opened in 2007, which is a
huge glass building with very ‘green’ credentials. Its enormous expanse of
glass ensures spectacular panoramic views of the countryside around
throughout the year. Its café also sells Bedfordshire Clangers! |
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Bibliography |
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For
those interested, this is a list of some of the books I have used in my
research on the subject of Bedfordshire history, legends and customs and
Shropshire history. The list is not exhaustive but just contains those
readily to hand when the page was compiled. A good many others were borrowed
from Bedfordshire libraries. |
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Graeme Meek