Comus, Shirley Collins along with Stephanie Hladowksi & C Joynes are performing at London’s Islington Assembly Hall this month on 21st September. Then event which is being organised by Miles of Smiles promises to be one of a kind.
Comus
The music of Comus music is described as a wild synthesis of British Folk’s visionary extremities (Incredible String Band, Pentangle, Mr Fox et al) and the transatlantic progressive tendency (King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Holy Modal Rounders), they link folk’s bloodthirsty seasonal/pagan undercurrents to the spiritual questing of Blake and Milton; they also strongly recall the nightmare pastoralism of contemporaneous films like ‘The Wicker Man’, ‘Witchfinder General’ and ‘Blood on Satan’s Claw’. Ultimately, Comus occupy a unique and disorienting liminal space between village green and witches grotto, pulpit and stone circle, maypole and gallows.
They will be performing their 1971 debut album ‘Fist Utterance’ in its entirety.
Shirley Collins
Shirley Collins should need no introduction. As the Queen of English Folk demonstrated in The Tale of the Poor Murdered Woman, a show produced for Folk Radio UK, she is not just one of the most gifted post-war English Folk singers but also a stirring speaker and ceaseless champion of the music’s history and traditions. For this very special occasion she will deliver, alongside actor Pip Barnes, a rare (and newly updated) performance of ‘I’m a Romany Rai’, her tale of southern England’s Gypsy singers and songs.
Stephanie Hladowski and C Joynes
The duo Stephanie Hladowski and guitarist C Joynes joined forces in 2011 and went on to release one of the most memorable albums of 2012: The Wild Wild Berry via Bo’Weavil Recordings. I saw them perform at Sidmouth Folk Festival this year and I can’t recommend them enough…they are a must see, as demonstrated by this Harmonic Rooms video:
Get in there quick as there are not many tickets left. Buy your tickets here