Are you Blakespearienced?
I've been to a number of Blake-influenced art shows and shows featuring Blake recently, a man of Resonance FM reads Blake to a music audience, Jerusalem is practically the national anthem, and the idea of Albion has a real currency, Blake is a catalyst for both poets and visual artists. Shakespeare was celebrated with a show at the National Portrait Gallery and the production of all of his plays in one year, and he is a continuing force and influence on poetry and theatre. Our two Williams are really very hot right now.
Blakespeare is a maverick attempt to enrich our understanding of these two figures in their difference and similarity by dragging them home away from the rarefied atmosphere of the church or playhouse and into the bustling coffee shop and wood-panelled pub, setting them to music to give winged voice to the words.
Three inspiring nights of Blakespearean entertainment have taken place now, bigger and better each time, and some fascinating points of departure and interest have been thrown up. You can't properly understand Blake until you've heard him set to a calypso rhythm.
This is a real journey into the heart of our culture, cladding two of its intellectual and poetic pillars in unfeasibly diverse styles and approaches. If you have or know someone who has made settings of Blake or Shake and might like to appear at any future Blakespeare evenings and/or on a compilation, do get in touch.
Flyer for Blakespeare 249
Flyer for Blakespeare Solstice
Flyer for Blakespeare South
Sigh No More - arranged & performed by Billy Wobbledagger & His Two Noble Kinsmen. Live at Blakespeare, The Perseverance 21-06-06
The Sick Rose - arranged & performed by Niall McDevitt & Liza Hayden. Live at Blakespeare, The Perseverance 21-06-06
The Tyger - arranged & performed by Michael Horovitz. Live at Blakespeare, The Perseverance 21-06-06
The Continuing Saga of Billy Blake and Willy the Shake (part one) - written & performed by Jazzman John Clarke. Live at Blakespeare, Moonbow Jakes 04-06-06
