book tickets

The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books, and will be playing in independent bookshops and at literary festivals around the UK between June and July 2012, supported by Vintage Books (Random House) .

 

The band began as a collaboration with Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, in Bath (Independent Bookshop of the Year 2008 & 2011) as part of a plan to help Mr B’s rejuvenate its traditional ‘author evenings’. The band would read the forthcoming author’s book in advance and write two songs based upon it, to be performed at the start of the evening. Their performances are inextricably linked to the books themselves, as the members of the band take it in turns to describe where the inspiration for each song came from.

 

After the first season the band recorded and released their first CD, Travels From Your Armchair.  Despite only being available in the bookshop itself, word soon spread and they were picked up by radio DJ Tom Robinson who played them on his national Introducing show on BBC 6Music.

 

More recently the band had a 10-minute feature on Kirsty Lang’s culture show, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, and the band appeared on BBC 1 as part of a news feature on Britain’s independent bookshops.

 

Since then they have completed 23 author events, and written 46 songs inspired by 26 diverse books, from Andrew Miller’s 'Pure' (2011 Costa Novel of the Year) to China Mieville’s acclaimed science-fiction novel 'Embassytown' and from Edmund De Waal’s multi-award winning 'The Hare with Amber Eyes' to 'Death and the Penguin' by the master of post-Commmunist Ukrainian satire, Andrey Kurkov.

 

The band is made up of three British musician/songwriters, Ben Please, Poppy Pitt and Beth Porter. They struck up a friendship whilst playing with their respective bands at UK music festivals in 2010, and decided to collaborate after Mr B’s proposed the idea in late 2010

 

Beth has played with Peter Gabriel and currently tours with Eliza Carthy. She has also recorded for Newton Faulkner, The Unthanks, and Maximo Park. Ben is part of indie-folk band Urusen, who have recently recorded an album at Peter Gabriel’s Realworld Studio with platinum-selling producer Steve Osborne (KT Tunstall, The Happy Mondays, U2, Doves). Poppy Pitt is an artist and sculptor, and tours with her own band, Poppy and Friends. The Bookshop Band also produce music for films, most recently with Ben writing, and Beth involved in recording, the orchestral score for a short animation called 'The Eagleman Stag', which won the 2011 BAFTA for Best Short Animation.

 

The Bookshop Band's website is www.thebookshopband.co.uk . Their songs are available on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/thebookshopband/albums

 

Rig-a-jig are a four-piece Celtic ceilidh band based in Penzance. 

 

They play Irish, Cornish, Scottish, English and other European folk tunes. With Dave on guitar and clarinet, Caroline on fiddle, John on melodeon and Len on octave mandolin, they make a very nice sound indeed! They can provide music to brighten the atmosphere at any event.

 

Their website is www.rig-a-jig.co.uk/ .

You may like to contact CRBO with your access requirements before placing your order.

Sorry ! Online booking for this event is closed now. Contact the venue direct, they may have some tickets available, and mention that you wanted to book Online !

 

The hub of the Festival will be The Acorn Theatre, in the centre of Penzance, where many of the events will be held.   Other venues nearby include The Morrab Library and Penlee Coach House.

 

This is probably the friendliest and most inclusive literary festival in the country.  Come and meet a galaxy of prize-winning and up-and-coming authors, poets and playwrights, from West Cornwall and 'up-country' too.

 

The Standard  Event price is about £2.00 per event, so it is a genuine community festival offering fascinating talks, lively discussions, stimulating workshops and entertaining performances.

 

A Concession price of  about £1.00 per event is available for Under18s, Students and Benefits

 

Tickets are available on this website and the NT Welcome to West Cornwall Centre, Station Approach, Penzance, St Ives TIC, The Guildhall, Street-an-Pol, St Ives and other CRBO local box offices through Cornwall.