Taken from her latest album No Summer (one of our Top 100 Folk Music albums of 2020), we have a special video premiere from Cinder Well for the album’s final track From Behind the Curtain. A collaboration with filmmaker Jordan Carroll, the video was filmed at The Abbeydale Picture House in Sheffield, and like her album, holds a magic all of its own which is beautifully captured here as Amelia Baker is accompanied by Jim Ghedi and DBH, all of whom have also featured on Folk Radio UK.
Amelia Baker of Cinder Well:
The Abbeydale Picture House opened its doors on December 20th, 1920. Familiarly, it was built during the years that the Spanish Flu was in effect across the world. We are releasing this video a century later as part of the theatres 100th anniversary, in a different time, in a different pandemic. I imagine the uncertainty and lack of direction as the theatre was being built, and the subsequent joy when people gathered inside, sitting closely watching black and white reels with live piano music, wearing wool waistcoats and Sunday’s finest.
Originally we had planned for the ‘No Summer’ album release show at the Abbeydale Picture House in July. When COVID-19 changed all of our plans, I worked in collaboration with filmmaker Jordan Carroll to perform in the theatre in a different way – to create a special experience that one wouldn’t have during a normal event. The aim was to showcase the building in its old beauty, the cold rooms and dark hallways, the bright peeling wallpaper – and the possibility.
Jordan Carroll:
It was important for me to film the Picture House in a variety of styles, as the building is of a certain age and carries a lot of history here in Sheffield.
Not only was it a cinema throughout several generations, it was also a smoky snooker house for a while. These days it’s a music venue, office space and it even hosts weddings. So it will have seen many set ups and installations through the years.
I wanted to capture that variety by utilising different spaces and different tones. In some spaces we kept it small, simple and moody using natural lighting and tighter angles. In others we tried to bring a bit of grandiosity back to the building, using wider shots lit with bright colours.
Credits: Amelia Baker on vocals & guitar, Jim Ghedi on harmonium & vocals, DBH on fiddle, vocals. Film by Jordan Carroll, Live sound by Sam Staton & Lucia Raes at Prime Tiger, Mixing and mastering by Nich Wilbur. Thank you to Mark Riddington, CADS, and Free Dirt Records
Help Relaunch The Historic Abbeydale Picture House as a community arts venue- https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/abbeydalepicturehouse
New LP ‘No Summer’ available here: https://lnk.to/nosummer
Photo Credit: Jim Ghedi