Greg Blackman

Known as “The Satsuma Of Soul” due to his love of orange clothing, Greg Blackman is a UK singer-songwriter whose soulful voice, witty spirit, and social awareness who began by collaborating with artists including Dutty Moonshine Big Band, Utah Saints, Daz I Kue, Featurecast, and Lack of Afro.

His rich, versatile delivery has drawn praise from across the industry: Rag ’N’ Bone Man called him “so sick — get to know!”, Craig Charles described him as “fast becoming one of the best in the business,” and Jamie Cullum declared his song Save Me “should be permanently playlisted” on BBC Radio 2.

Greg’s music has reached wide audiences on BBC Radio, MTV, and 6 Music, while his live performance with Dutty Moonshine at WOMAD has been archived in the British Library as culturally significant.

https://linktr.ee/MrGregBlackman

 

Tickets

£ 15 (incl £1.08 booking fee)

Last entry 8 pm

 

 

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Come for the atmosphere, the music, the conviviality. Picnics welcome, but we also have a small cafe-bar for snacks and liquid refreshments.

Gates open from 7pm if you’d like to explore our gorgeous gardens before the music starts around 7.45pm

Tickets available in advance and on the door up until 7:30pm

Remember- we are totally outdoors with nature – Cardies, hats and blankets might keep your body comfy while the warmth of the music warms your soul.

More info about tonight’s musicians

This week’s music is, as ever, hosted and curated by John Mostyn.

Katie Stevens Katie is a multi-instrumentalist from Birmingham UK. After her classical training at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Katie followed her interest of instrumental folk music traditions through seminars, self study, private lessons and travel. She now plays in many bands and ensembles in the Midlands and South West which span a divergent range of styles such as balkan, Bulgarian, Klezmer, Irish, Brazilian and Arabic. As well as the clarinet, saxophone and flute, Katie also plays Irish whistle and flute, Bulgarian kaval and Arabic ney. She regularly tours the UK with a large range of different acts playing at arts centres, on the festival circuit and a number of rural touring schemes. Sam Slater Sam is a musician, composer and producer, playing guitars and the Arabic Oud for a number of eclectic jazz, world and roots music projects, alongside long-standing touring and writing with the critically acclaimed gypsy jazz, flamenco and contemporary classical instrumental band TG Collective, and Anglo-Polish singer songwriter Katy Carr. He has performed worldwide, from the mountains of Bulgaria and castles of Spain, to the many festivals and concert halls of the UK, and car parks of southern Serbia!Sam also directs the jazz-inspired Birmingham record label and artist development indie, Stoney Lane Records, and live producers/programmers Mubu Music.He has played on live sessions from BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends to Poland’s Trójka Radio, with his music featured on television from NBC and ESPN to the BBC, ITV and CBeebies! In 2020, he won Best Crime/Investigative Track from the American PMA Mark Awards for his co-composed string quartet, A Curious Voyage.

Vo Fletcher – resident musician In a long and varied career Vocalist/Guitarist Vo Fletcher has played, recorded and toured with: Nigel Kennedy, Fairport Convention, the Ric Sanders Group, Rik Mayall, Tuxedo Bay, Touch & Go, The Albion Morris Band, Catherine Howe and Brent Ford & The Nylons to name but a few. He used to be a presenter on Channel 5 but he’s alright now.

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The second in our regular summer evening outdoor acoustic sessions in the Melon Ground area of the 10acre historic Garden.

Come for the atmosphere, the music, the conviviality. Picnics welcome, but we also have a small cafe bar for snacks and liquid refreshments

Gates open from 7pm if you’d like to explore our gorgeous gardens before the music starts around 7.45pm

Tickets available in advance and (limited ) on the door

Remember- we are totally outdoors with nature – Cardies, hats and blankets might keep your body comfy while the warmth of the music warms your soul.

This week’s music is, as ever, hosted and curated by John Mostyn

Vo Fletcher

“In a long and varied career Vocalist/Guitarist Vo Fletcher has played, recorded and toured with: Nigel Kennedy, Fairport Convention, the Ric Sanders Group, Rik Mayall, Tuxedo Bay, Touch & Go, The Albion Morris Band, Catherine Howe and Brent Ford & The Nylons to name but a few. He used to be a presenter on Channel 5 but he’s alright now. “

Ric Sanders

“The violin was Ric’s first love and he took up the instrument as a youngster. His first professional engagement was in 1972, touring Europe with Stomu Yamashta’s Red Buddah Theatre. During the mid-1970s Ric was in demand as a jazz soloist and worked with, among others, Michael Garrick, Johnny Patrick and legendary jazz pianist Jaques Dieval. In the late 1970s, Ric pursued both his folk and jazz interests as a member of, respectively, The Albion Band and Soft Machine. He toured and recorded with both bands. With The Albion Band, Ric performed at the National Theatre.In 1980, Ric and Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge formed Second Vision. They recorded an album and toured extensively. Ric next teamed up with guitarist Vo Fletcher in music education projects: the duo supported a Musicians Union initiative in schools and recorded for BBC television. Since 1985, Ric has played full-time with Fairport Convention but has continued to take an active interest in jazz and other musical forms. He has collaborated with June Tabor, Andrew Cronshaw and Martin Simpson among others and also recorded solo albums and a violin tuitional introduced by Jools Holland. His session credits include Roy Harper, Jethro Tull, Strawbs, Pentangle, Gerry Rafferty, Loudon Wainwright III, Robert Plant, The Fureys, and Ashley Hutchings among many others. As well as Fairport Convention, Ric has his own trio, The Ric Sanders Trio, with Vo Fletcher and Mike Gregory. The group performs a wide repertoire of jazz and good time blues”

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As a lot of our musical friends are desperately missing somewhere to play, we thought it would be nice for them, and us, if we shared our space with them and you as where better to hear some lovely music than in the safety of a gorgeous outdoor space?

Now in normal times we’d organise well ahead as so many people have busy lives and full diaries but let’s face it right now not many of us have social engagements or much else come to that in our diaries. This might give us a rare chance to programme at quite short notice in order to give us all the best shot with England’s unpredictable weather right now.

So what are we thinking? 

Well, be prepared at just a week’s notice to be invited to some Summer Evening Musical Soirees across a range of musical styles, we’re thinking some Classical, Folk and Americana, Mellow Jazz, Acoustic Reggae, Light Opera and more. All to be enjoyed with safe distancing, good company and you’re most welcome to bring your own picnic or refreshments so no hanging around at a bar or such.

So signup for our newsletter or check back here under events to be sure to see what we’re up to.

Stay safe everyone and look forward to seeing you soon

<John Mostyn,  Business Development Manager (jobshare)>

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As steals the morn upon the night
And melts the shades away:
So Truth does Fancy’s charm dissolve
And rising Reason puts to flight
The fumes that did the mind involve
Restoring intellectual day.

Written and first performed in February 1740. So cold that February, apparently, that the theatre owners had to reassure their audience that there would be fires and blankets – just like here in the Gardens!

Another beautiful song that I’m sure must have been performed in the tranquil rural retreat of the Gardens.

G.F Handel’s oratorio:  L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (“The Cheerful, the Thoughtful, and the Moderate Man”) .  Based on poems by Milton and Shakespeare’s verses from the Tempest

The pictures here are not our Gardens, but just imagine!

Mark Padmore – tenor Lucy Crowe – soprano The English Concert,  Conductor – Andrew Manze Label: Harmonia Mundi, from the Album: “As Steals the Morn (Handel Arias & Scenes for tenor)”.

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This May we had planned a 35th Anniversary celebratory romp through our history, this was to include some wonderful young musicians from Birmingham Conservatoire playing music from the times when the Gardens were at their peak in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

The small building at the end of the Holly Walk is known variously as the Music Room and the Summer House. Scholars from the Gardens, our sister site Weston Park and from the Conservatoire even have records of music manuscripts and what music parties were held.

We like to continue the tradition of having all kinds of music played outdoors on our site….

Today, let’s just celebrate the Spring and imagine this somewhere under our apple trees in the Orchards..

This piece is from the Fairie Queen by Purcell, which premiered in 1692 in London at the Dorset Gardens Theatre.

The music was written as part of a ‘Restoration spectacular’, a ‘masque’ or semi opera.  Effectively it was a blockbuster show full of fancy costumes, amazing stage effects, music, songs and ballet all wrapped round Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream…

This short song is near the end of the Masque – the Queen and King of the Fairies – Titania and Oberon are in celebratory mood and are singing praises of the seasons..

Thus the ever Grateful Spring,
Does her yearly Tribute bring;
All your Sweets before him lay,
Then round his Altar, Sing and Play

Who knows,  Bridgeman family members, keen musicians, may at the time have purchased the manuscript of some of these airs and played them here, in Castle Bromwich.

It may not be everyone’s favourite choice of music.. but let’s hope we can all be grateful to Spring… I’m sure Titania and Oberon are already in the Gardens ..

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Let’s hope, when all this is over…. we can continue to play host to everyone’s creative spark – whatever age you are.

Here are one or two pictures from a variety of activities and residencies.

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Watch out: vegetable flutes may be involved :-)))

Later at  3.30pm K’antu will enchant us with a concert of early music  in our 17th century Gardens

Normal entry prices apply

Discounted entry for members

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Although we are certainly not on the grand scale of Versailles or the Royal Palaces, our ‘wilderness’ areas, boxed beds and topiary are all part of that formality and dramatic approach.

We’re all the more pleased therefore, to be able to host both theatrical and musical productions in the Gardens. This year we have the Crescent Theatre celebrating Jane Austen’s anniversary with a charming rendering of Sense and Sensibility. During the school holidays Dogs don’t do Ballet (Little Blue Monster theatre) will be visiting causing exciting mayhem for the little’uns.. definitely not to be missed.

In September, on the same day as our  Heritage Open Day tours, we are lucky to have local Gilbert and Sullivan aficianadoes the Birmingham Savoyards mixing drama with music.

Music too is becoming more of a regular feature here (hoorah!). The 40s weekend had us rocking. last weekend we were smooth and mellow with the West Midlands Light Orchestra and Devon Harrison. The Central England Concert Band come in August.

In between times we have the soloists accompanying our pop-up tea and music events, various entertainments during Apple Day and Advent and we’re still holding out for an amazingly talented group who can play 17th century music with vegetables! No they can’t .. yes the can, they’re K’antu.

We are an open air site, so wind and rain are always hazards here… but, as they say, our skin is waterproof and the show… must go on.

Check out our Events calendar on this site and make sure you secure your tickets for our theatrical and  musical offerings. Not only will you have a great time, you will be helping us keep the Gardens open for more years to come.

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To put the ‘cherry on the cake’ of your afternoon experience we are also offering aspiring local musicians a chance to entertain our visitors while they chill and chomp on their cupcakes. We may not have a bandstand.. but we’ll have handpicked buskers to bathe your ears.
Good prices, good food and good company ..

Usual Garden entry prices
PS – We are still offering music slots – contact us if you are interested in knowing more
(Sun May 21st, Sat June 17th , Sat. July 8th & Sun July 23rd)

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