Contemporary Music

The Imagined Village

featuring Billy Bragg, Chris Wood, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Sheila Chandra and Simon Emmerson and film contributions from John Copper and Benjamin Zephaniah

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Butterworth Hall

NEW: Pre-concert talk in the Conference Room at 6.30pm



Gathering together an array of brilliant and challenging voices, and setting them in a musical framework that honours the past while updating it with breathtaking confidence, The Imagined Village is arguably the most ambitious re-invention of the English folk tradition since Fairport Convention' Liege and Lief.

Billy Bragg, Sheila Chandra, Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy revisit the songs collected by 19th Century folk historian Cecil Sharpe. Dhol drums and Sitar mix with drum and bass and dub through a stellar band that includes members of the Afrocelt Sound System, Transglobal Underground, The Bays and The Dhol Foundation, bringing tradition bang up to date.

"The only thing you can do to harm folk music is to not play it" Martin Carthy

"The birth of something new and exciting" The Telegraph

"A swirling English Cheildah stitched together by electric guitar, and Indian drums and angry lyrics about current rural life has righteous fire" The Independent

"A gloriously theatrical Benjamin Zephaniah appearing on screen to retell the story of Tam Lyn while perfectly in sync with an adventurous musical setting" The Guardian

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£19.50 (£16.50)