We are keeping a diary of the project as we go along so you can get a flavour of what we are up to.
We have had two fantastic screenings and Q&As of the film this month, one with our archive partners in Camden and one in Westminster. We showed the film followed by really interesting discussions with our audience and our panel which included Skaila Kanga, Clem Cattini, Ray Russell and Paul Clarvis. Thanks to everyone who attended these events which really brought the heritage to life.
For those of you who could not make either of the two screenings so far we have another special screening of the film along with a Q&A on Thursday 7th September at 6pm. The Q&A will be with Clem Cattini, Skaila Kanga and Paul Clarvis.
The event will be at Camden Local Studies Centre, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA.
For those of you who could not make the premier we have another special screening of the film along with a Q&A on Thursday 7th September at 6pm. The Q&A will be with Clem Cattini, Skaila Kanga and Ray Russell.
The event will be at The City of Westminster Archives, 10 St Ann’s Street, London SW1P 2DE.
The screening is free but you will need to book your ticket on Eventbrite..
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/music-makers-screening-and-qa-tickets-694816062547?aff=oddtdtcreator
You can also phone 020 7641 5180, or email archives@westminster.gov.uk
We had a wonderful evening at Kings Place for the premiere of the film. Over 200 people came along to watch the film and the Q&A. It was a joyful evening but also very sad as we had received the news in the morning that Mo Foster had died that morning. Mo was a wonderful man and without him the project would never have happened. We made the evening a celebration of Mo and of all of the musicians involved in the project. After the film we had a Q&A with Clem Cattini, Ralph Salmins and Skaila Kanga as well as one of our volunteers Rhona Levine. They began with memories of Mo and then took questions from the audience. Many thanks to eveyone one who came along to a memorable evening. Watch this space for news of further screenings. Go to the film page for a link to the film which is now online.
We took a rough cut of the documentary film to show our group of volunteers. We have also shown it to some of the musicians involved and others who know nothing about the subject. We had a very good discussion and will go and do a final edit based on all of this feedback ready for the launch in July
We arranged to go and film a studio session at the famous RAK Studios in St Johns Wood. Both Ray Russell and Mo Foster were playing along with several other experienced musicians. It was a fascinating day watching the music come come to life. Thanks to Ian Palmer and also to RAK for hosting us. Thanks to: Johnny Thirkell - Trumpet. Simon Willescroft- Tenor Saxophone. Ray Russell - Guitar. Jim Watson - Electric Piano. Mo Foster - Electric Bass. Ian Palmer - Drums. Photos from the session below.
Over these days we conducted fascinating interviews with 23 people, all with extensive experience of session work, but also one fixer. The interviews were absolutely brilliant bringing to life the history of session recording work in London. The audio from all of these interviews will soon be available to listen to on this website and we are going to get busy editing them for the documentary film part of the project.
A few photos below. Top is Richard Bailey then Jacky Shave, Ray Russell, Ralph Salmins and finally Anna Noakes.
With a very good grounding in the history of the industry we started the training in oral history skills. It was a very busy two days that covered technical skills in oral history recording, the ethical issues of oral history, and then the skills of conducting interviews. We then worked as a team to work out what issues and themes to explore in the interviews before devising questions for the oral history interviews.
The group went on a visit to Air Lynhurst, a magnificent studio based in Hampstead. Studio Manager Alison Burton gave us a guided tour and talk about the history of their work which illuminated the talks we had on the 20th Feb. Mo Foster joined us too to tell us some more stories about his work both at Air Lynhurst as well as at the many other studios in London.
We had a very good first day of training based at The City of Westminster Local Studies Centre in Victoria. A great team of volunteers with all sorts of skills, backgrounds and interests have joined us for a day or talks and discussion to introduce us to the industry. Mo Foster, renowned bass player and author of "17 Watts: The Birth of British Rock Guitar" gave a great introductory talk about the history of session work in London. Mo talked about the development of the session scene in London which in the 1970s had around 96 studios with musicians frequently recording for 12 hours a day on varied work that included pops tracks, TV, film, jingles and library music. In the afternoon he was joined by Ralph Salmons and Greg Bones, both with lots of experience of session work in London. This was an opportunity for our team to ask lots of questions about various aspects of the work. It was a very interesting day.
Below are Sav Kyriacou from digital-works (left), Ralph Salmins, Mo Foster and Greg Bones.
