Ukulele Lads At My Pad!

What a treat to have 5 wonderful Ukulele lads from Swansea Ukulele Group at my pad tonight ... 

 

 

 

 

I first met the lads at the film shoot I organised with The Tin Shed Experience in Laugharne (See earlier blog) Since then Rob and Ollie have taken part in The Gwilli train Filming with me ...

We ran through the songs from Fusion Inspire that the lads will be learning to perform live with me in January and February 2012

 

After a quick cuppa

 

 

We cracked on with a bit of tuition

 

 

A listen to the full tracks

 

And playing along with a learning backing track

 

They'll be back now in Nov/Dec for a rehearsal ...

 

Turns out Will with the cool tattooes also plays guitar and went to university to do Popular Music. He said he's well up for learning some of the guitar parts too, which would be very cool indeed!

 

 

 

Thank lads! A pleasure to have you on board Dafydd's Journey!

 

Aside:  Got to say, it's not a usual occurence for me to invite 5 men to my house for a jam! But what fun ...  although I have to admit,

 at times ...

 I did feel a bit like 'Miss' lol! :)

 

 

Mutual Inspiration of Artists: Dafydd's back story

 

 

Photo from The Tin Shed Experience

 

I'm back in the studio today and preparing for a visit from 5 members of the Swansea Ukulele Group who will be learning some of the songs from the production to perform live on the tour which starts in January 2013.

 

But somethings is playing on my mind ...

 

 

 

When professional actor Simon Morgan Thomas came to do the film shoot in St.David's he asked me for the back story of the character Dafydd.

 

He wanted to get inside the character's life .. and I immediately gave him a back story that I didn't know was in my head!

 

Simon kindly wrote to me after the shoot to say it he had found it 'an inspirational day' .. and yes, it was,  (mutually so thanks Simon) as he has inspired me to think about Dafydd the person in a much wider context ...

 

Dafydd is married to his childhood sweetheart, Bethan ... she is a comely rounded woman, wearing a floral knee length dress, her faded redded blonde hair is worn loosely up, with fine and curled whisps forever falling; her cheeks round and ruddy, her shoes worn and flat.

 

She smiles without frown and loves to bake. She wears  an apron, contrasting floral to her dress.

 

 

 

Her kitchen is like the one in the Dylan Thomas Birth house but with a big old pine table in the middle, that use to be her grandmother's.

 

They have a son ... possibly Ollie from the Tin Shed and Gwilli train shoot ... he loves the outdoors. They have chickens and a barn with a cow and Ollie milks Daisy for breakfast early in the mornings.

 

 

 

They can see the sea in the distance from their upstairs windows (or maybe they live in the little white cottage on the front of Llangrannog which is always boarded up with window shutters these days) and Ollie gazes from his bedroom at the waves, watching the boats dance, much in the way Dylan Thomas watched the boats from the hidden window in his bedroom ... (see earlier blog)

 

On the morning before Guinivere and the Mermaids bring the floods, Dafydd kisses Bethan goodbye on her cheek making her blush as she does regularly ... she is busy steeping dried fruit in cold tea ready for her Bara Brith ...

 

'Hwyl fawr BB Cariad.'

'Goodbye Sweetheart BB.'

 

Aside: Dafydd's knick name for her is  Bara Brith Bethan ... 'BB'

 

 

He walks, as he always does, to his little fishing boat to make his catch of the day, winding down the narrow pathway in the hills .. like the one at Morfa Isaf leading to the beach where we will film the dancers in October ...

 

 

His little boat is a large coracle painted over the bitumen, faded blue and dirty white and his nets were passed to him from his father who was also a fisherman in West Wales.

 

He is a quiet man who keeps himself to himself  but still everyone knows him and him them, such as it is in a village where you have lived all your life ...

 

So all this had formulated in my mind without me knowing or expressing it and now ...

 

Now I must decide whether or not this back story features in the production? Whether to hint at it or make it explicit as an introduction ...

 

I will reflect on this when I go on writing retreat next weekend and keep ya posted ...

 

Ukulele Shed Heads!

 

What an AMAZING afternoon we all had at

The Tin Shed Experience in Laugharne.

30 people turned up in total.

Some from ukulele courses, some from Swansea Ukulele Group ...

and some I have never met before!

Mostly everyone came dressed in the outfits!

They looked absolutely fabulous.

There were points when I thought to myself that I couldn't believe that we were all there.

I had drawn a picture in my head that I could see as a projection in the production and now here we were, in The Tin Shed Experience 1940's Museum, all strumming my song, Mr Blueface.

Mr Blueface is about the Dylan Thomas Trail and how I keep seeming to bump into him ...

It was genuinely moving to see so many people playing my song, that I haven't even finished recording yet!

I sung it live in draft, so that they at least had an idea of the melody.

Then everyone went for it!

Rob and Ollie are father and son.

When I caught eye of them playing football before we started filming, I almost cried.

They look so beautiful together.

In the group filming I was very gentle with them. I didn't want to shine the bright head lamps on them, but once we got into the tin cottage I could sense that Ollie was more comfortable, so I started gentley directing them.

Everyone was brilliant, but I have to say that the folks from Swansea Ukulele Group looked the business and I would seriously consider asking 4 or 5 of the lads if they would be up for perfroming with my for the production. We shall see!

Seimon Pugh Jones took the stills shoot for me, which I thought was so incredibley kind because I would never have been cheeky enough to ask when they were already kind enough to let me bring everyone.

Our 'arrangement' for the use of the venue is a barter. I like these. They gave me the venue and I have agreed to help organise their line up for a live music event next year.

I think in the old days when bartering like this was how people got by, it brought people closer together and actually fosters a real sense of community.

All of these stills here (except the Father & Son playing footie) on this post are from Seimon's shoot.

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous.

You can book a shoot too!

It's how the Tin Shed manages to stay afloat without outside funding the photo shoots and venue hire enables this team of passionate people to bring their collection the community.

Think about it, where better to have a Retirement Party or an Anniversay Celebration, a Themed Wedding or a Divorce Shin dig!

The Deputy Mayor and Mayoress on their days off, happen to be ukulele players and lovers of folk music, they run a Folk Train from Llanelli to Ammanford on a regular basis which ends up humming and strumming in the pub!

Why not have a look on my facebook to link up with them.

BIG THANKYOU to Meinir Min Evans. It is becasue she held out a reaching  hand of friendship that I visited The Tin Shed Experience in the first place just a few weeks ago!

Also, thank you Min for your beautiful cakes and serving up afternoon tea for everyone.

The Tin Shed Experience is an authentic 1940's family team. Matthew on Marketing and Communications, Andrew owns the buildings, Seimon the Collection, everyone pitches in ... all the families, girlfriends, children. Just like it would have been way back then!

I am definitely a SHED HEAD!!