Morag's 2020 pandemic blog.
22 April 2020
What can I say? I hope that you are well and are staying safe.
I hope that we will be able to open again soon and that we can all share more wonderful evenings of great live music at Rosslyn Court again . (But not too soon, we have to keep safe.)
Until then, please check this page regularly as everything is in flux.
Looking forward to getting back to normal.
5th June 2020
Given that it looks like live music will be in lockdown for quite a time yet, we are experimenting with other formats. On Wednesday 17th we will be live-streaming a concert by JAKL.
24th June 2020
Our live-stream with JAKL was a huge success. Great thanks to Shaun of PrickImage for some great camerawork and to Hughie Gavin (JAKL) for a stunning performance and of course to the large number of people who watched, sent comments and made donations. We have made a commitment to all musicians playing for us that we will do all we can to get them a reasonable fee as times are hard for performers and your donations are a great help in this. Next live-stream will be popular "Men of Kent" Bob Kenward and Steve Moreham on Wednesday July 1st at 7.30. There will be a raffle, beer deliveries and who knows what else!
07 July 2020
Our second live-stream. The good news was that Bob Kenward and Steve Moreham played a great set. The bad news was that through no fault of our own our internet connection went flaky, so some of it got lost in transmission. Nevertheless, you can view what we successfully broadcast. Thanks again so much for your generous donations which we passed onto the artists. We have responded to the internet problems by engaging two extra providers - one via a new feed and the other via a 4G network link - so hopefully we will be able to avoid any further disruption. We certainly hope so as we have two more great gigs coming up.
Next Wednesday 15th we have Jon Beetham - here's his description of what to expect! "Jon Beetham is a musician, of sorts, who is more accustomed to encouraging, facilitating and coercing others in the direction of music rather than committing his own musical atrocities. Nevertheless, once a year he dusts off his musical toys and directs some of his favourite songs, drones and ditties in the direction of the general public. You lucky people." Then on Saturday 18th we have Lizzy Hardingham, a South-East based folk musician and songstress who is paving her way as a rising star on the UK folk scene with songs that sing straight to the heart. Her powerful yet pure voice twinned with her impressive writing skills meld together to create beautifully delivered folk music. After storming the UK folk club and festival scene, including Cambridge Folk Festival in 2019, she is proving herself as a powerful singer. Also a big thank you to Phil, Roger and Sandra for volunteering to be our new camera crew and to Matt of ChazoChanza for training us all up!
23 July 2020
Great things since my last post. We had two fantastic live streams. Jon Beetham and Lizzy Hardingham. Check them out if you missed them - both were brilliant. We also have a good AV crew working with us so hopefully the quality of the streams will get better and better and our new Internet links seem to be holding up well. Saturday 25 July 7.30-8.30pm Anna Westin - a great friend of ours and a beautiful singer, songwriter and philosopher (!).We really hope you will be joining us and we very much welcome donations - remember all the money we get goes directly to the artists to help them through these hard times. We are also pleased to be talking with Marc Eden/David Sanger and Sally Ironmonger/Brian Carter and hope to be setting up live streams with them in August.
6 August 2020
A marvellous evening with Fran and Flora. Very touching music beautifully presented; lovely to see two musicians who had not performed since to lockdown slipping into the groove again.
13 August 2020
Great things happening here. We are putting on extra streams to fill the space left by Broadstairs Folk Week. A fantastic performance by Sally Ironmonger and Brian Carter last night. Today at 6.30 we have John and Di Cullen performing using harmony, guitar, bouzouki and bowed psaltery - John and Di are well worth seeing. At 8.00 after them we have Josh Flowers - Josh is a songwriter based in Ramsgate whose work aims to blend the mundane with the absurd, melancholy with humour. Finally, at 7.30 this Friday 14th we round off our Broadstairs Week set with Helen North. She gave a blinding performance at Rosslyn Court last year. She sings beautifully, writes great songs and she is very funny!
19 August 2020
A great series of concerts to celebrate Broadstairs Folk Week! And now live music venues have just been told they can open again. Therefore our next shows with David Sanger, Nigel Feist and Dave Ferra and Jez Hellard and the Dukella Orchestra will, in addition to being live streamed, have a very small well-shielded audience! We will let you know how it goes.
21 September 2020
We are up and running as a live venue again. You can either watch us for free on YouTube (donations very welcome-every penny goes to the performer) or join us in person in our Covid-secure studio. Thanks to all our crew, to Thanet Council and the Music Venue Trust for their generous support - we couldn't have done it without you! We are aware new restrictions might be introduced any day, but we aim to carry on staging and broadcasting live acoustic music in a safe environment as long as it is allowed. We have a great programme set up from now to Christmas.
4 November 2020
Sadly back to live-streaming only as the Government reimpose the lockdown. We will do all we can to keep broadcasting live music and supporting musicians - please help where you can with donations all of which go to the artists.
5 December 2020. The lockdown ends, but Kent is immediately raised to tier 3 so no change. Don't worry though, we will continue to book outstanding artists to live-stream and to help you all through these dark days.
19 December 2020. A gloomy double whammy this week - first Thanet is elevated to tier 4, then the proposed Christmas relaxation is cancelled for us in the South East. However, we do have the ever popular JAKL performing tonight to help you stave off the gloom.
22 December 2020. So that's it for 2020. Not the year we were expecting at all. Instead of building our presence as a live acoustic venue and a b&b, we have been a food distribution centre, a broadcasting studio and for a few glorious weeks in the autumn a shielded, Covid-secure venue - one of the few still running as far as we can gather. We owe a huge vote of thanks to all those who have supported us - Thanet Council, The Music Venues Trust, all the great performers who have turned out and performed in our Perspex box, our viewers who have tuned in and supported the artists with donations. Special thanks to Roger and Sandra, Jon, Phil, Jax and Una who have helped us keep the show on the road, and to Chris and Jeff who have rigged up screening, extraction and all manner of other technical things at short notice. Next year we also have the Arts Council on our side too with some very helpful financial support, so we look forward to meeting again in 2021 and keeping music live! Have the best Christmas and New Year that you can in the circumstance, stay safe and join us in 2021 when we have another load of great artists booked for you.
Morag xx