‘Live at the Minack’ DVD out 30 Nov 2009
November 3, 2009
Back in May this year, Seth played an amazing sell-out show at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall. Set on the cliff edge, the Minack Theatre is a beautiful and unique outdoor amphitheatre – a truly fitting venue for Seth’s story telling lyrics and foot stomping performances.
The magical show was captured for Seth’s first live DVD – released on 30th November. ‘Live at the Minack’ features songs from his three hit albums Kitty Jay, Freedom Fields and Poor Man’s Heaven, and perfectly captures this amazing venue in all its glory. The DVD will be available from 30th November.
Keep an eye on the Twitter feed for pre-order links.
Autumn/Winter UK Tour Starts Tonight
November 3, 2009
After a warm-up gig in Chesterfield on Saturday Seth’s UK tour starts with a vengeance tonight in Cambridge and takes in cities across the UK in November and December culminating with a night at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire.
We’re promised yet more new songs on this tour, after which Seth is heading into the studio to finalised the new album which is set to be released in Spring 2010.
If you haven’t got your tickets already, get them now by clicking one of the links below. Support on the tour comes from 6 Day Riot.
Autumn/Winter 09 Tour Dates
Tue 3 Nov Cambridge Junction
Tickets: 01223 511511 | www.junction.co.uk
Wed 4 Nov Aylesbury Civic Centre
Tickets: 01296 486009 | gigantic.com | ticketweb.co.uk
Thu 5 Nov Norwich Waterfront
Tickets: 01603 508050 | www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Thu 6 Nov Brighton Corn Exchange
Tickets: 02072 879482 | www.bigwheeltickets.com
Fri 7 Nov Poole Lighthouse
Tickets: 02072 879482 | www.bigwheeltickets.com
Sat 8 Nov Falmouth Pavillions
Tickets: 02072 879482 | www.bigwheeltickets.com
Tue 10 Nov Warwick University, The Copper Rooms
Tickets: 02476 572777 | www.seetickets.com
Wed 11 Nov Nottingham Rock City
Tickets: ticketmaster.co.uk | gigantic.com
Thu 12 Nov Edinburgh HMV Picture House
Tickets: www.ticketweb.com
Fri 13 Nov Manchester Academy 2
Tickets: 01618 32111 | www.seetickets.com
Sat 14 Nov Salisbury City Hall
Tickets: 01722 434434 | gigantic.com | ticketweb.co.uk
Mon 7 Dec Exeter University Great Hall
Tickets: 01392 263518 | www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Tue 8 Dec Oxford Town Hall
Tickets: gigantic.com | ticketmaster.co.uk
Wed 9 Dec Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
Tickets: gigantic.com | ticketmaster.co.uk
Thu 10 Dec Cheltenham Town Hall
Tickets: gigantic.com | www.ticketweb.co.uk
Fri 11 Dec Bristol 02 Academy
Tickets: gigantic.com | www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Sat 12 Dec London 02 Shepherds Bush Empire
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Watch: Solomon Browne Live at Shrewsbury Folk 09
November 3, 2009
Top quality official festival video of Seth’s live performance on the main stage at Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2009.
Watch: Cormac Byrne on-stage with Seth at Cropredy 09
August 21, 2009
A nostalgic moment for long-time fans, as Cormac Byrne joins Seth on-stage for a classic performance of ‘Lady of the Sea’ at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2009. Cormac, with his dazzling bodhran playing, was Seth’s original percussionist. Before he left the regular band this pairing of fiddle and bodhran for the high-energy Lady of the Sea was a staple of the live set. Cormac last toured with the band in Autumn 2007.
Cormac now devotes most of his time to his own band, celtic folk trio Uiscedwr (www.uiscedwr.com).
Other good videos (all on YouTube) from Cropredy – with its big stage, huge crowd, and massive light show – include this good quality recording of set-opener The Storm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Ktkv4pQKs) and I have a soft spot for this one of set closer Race to be King (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnN2k3Kr3C8) – despite the shakey camera – perfectly capturing the wild atmosphere of the night.
Last minute addition to Beautiful Days line-up
August 20, 2009
Seth is a last minute addition to the Leveller’s Beautiful Days festival this weekend, after Friday’s scheduled Big Top headliner, Richard Thompson, broke a finger.
Tickets for the festival are sold out.
More winter tour dates
June 3, 2009
The winter tour is filling out with eight additional dates announced. See the gigs page for the complete list of Winter 2009 tour dates known so far.
New dates:
Tue 3 Nov Cambridge Junction
Tickets: 01223 511511 | www.junction.co.uk
Wed 4 Nov Aylesbury Civic Centre
Tickets: 01296 486009 | gigantic.com | ticketweb.co.uk
Thu 6 Nov Brighton Corn Exchange
Tickets: 02072 879482 | www.bigwheeltickets.com
Fri 7 Nov Poole Lighthouse
Tickets: 02072 879482 | www.bigwheeltickets.com
Sat 8 Nov Falmouth Pavillions
Tickets: 02072 879482 | www.bigwheeltickets.com
Tue 10 Nov Warwick University, The Copper Rooms
Tickets: 02476 572777 | www.seetickets.com
Thu 12 Nov Edinburgh HMV Picture House
Tickets: www.ticketweb.com
Tue 8 Dec Oxford Town Hall
Tickets: gigantic.com | ticketmaster.co.uk
See the gigs page for the complete list of Seth Lakeman Winter 2009 tour dates.
See also: Tickets on sale for UK Tour, Nov/Dec 2009, and other gig news, 1 June 2009 »
See also: More winter tour dates, 3 June 2009 »
Tickets go on sale for a number of dates on Seth Lakeman’s winter 2009 UK tour this morning, Mon 1 June.
Dates so far include:
Thu 5 Nov Norwich Waterfront
Tickets: 01603 508050 | www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Wed 11 Nov Nottingham Rock City
Tickets: ticketmaster.co.uk | gigantic.com
Thu 12 Nov Edinburgh HMV Picture House
Tickets: www.ticketweb.com
Fri 13 Nov Manchester Academy 2
Tickets: 01618 32111 | www.seetickets.com
Sat 14 Nov Salisbury City Hall
Tickets: 01722 434434 | gigantic.com | ticketweb.co.uk
Mon 7 Dec Exeter University Great Hall
Tickets: 01392 263518 | www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Wed 9 Dec Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
Tickets: gigantic.com | ticketmaster.co.uk
Thu 10 Dec Cheltenham Town Hall
Tickets: gigantic.com | www.ticketweb.co.uk
Fri 11 Dec Bristol 02 Academy
Tickets: gigantic.com | www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Sat 12 Dec London 02 Shepherds Bush Empire
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.co.uk
See the gigs page » for details and more dates as they are announced.
Tickets are also on sale for two dates in Swansea and Cardiff in late September.
European Tour, October 2009
Prior to the UK dates Seth will be touring mainland Europe and Scandinavia, with a number of dates in the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark during October 2009. See the gigs page » for details.
Summer Festival News
Seth has been officially added to the line-up for Glastonbury and V Festival. He’ll play Glasto’s Avalon stage on Sunday 28 June, and V Festival (location TBC) on Sun 23 Aug.
Seth is also appearing at a number of smaller festivals, including Brecon Jazz Festival (Fri 7 Aug) and the first Harvest at Jimmy’s, at Jimmy’s Farm of TV fame in Suffolk on Sun 13 Sep. There’ll also be a unique opportunity to catch Seth playing completely solo, without his usual band, at local Devon festival, Chagstock, on the edge of Dartmoor on Fri 17 July .
Full list of summer 09 festival appearances on – you guessed it – the gigs page »
Support Acts for May 2009 Tour
May 12, 2009
Update 21 May: Benji Kirkpatrick played support at Minack Theatre on Tue 20 May, but for the rest of the tour will be playing as part of the main band and not as a support act. There will, apparently, be no support act for most of the dates except Bath and possibly Barnstaple.
Sorry for the confusion. I still thoroughly recommend Benji’s solo album though ;-)
Benji Kirkpatrick will play support for all bar two dates on Seth’s forthcoming UK tour, which kicks off in Birmingham this Sunday, 17 May at the Minack Theatre on Tue 19 May. Support for Birmingham on 17 May will be from Megson and Nancy Elizabeth, with local band Inu appearing at Bath on 3 June.
Benji Kirkpatrick:
Support at Minack Theatre, Tue 19 May
Band member all other tour dates
Photo © Hugo Morris
Perhaps best known as founder member of Bellowhead and Faustus, committments to which have left little time for his own solo career, Benji is a gifted player of guitar, bouzouki and banjo as well as a singer/songwriter. A long-time collaborator with Seth Lakeman, they toured as a duo and as a trio with Oysterband’s Jon Jones in Seth’s pre-Mercury Music Prize days, and Benji has guested on most of Lakeman’s albums, with Seth returning the favour on Benji’s 2008 solo album, Boomerang.
Where Bellowhead and Faustus deliver new takes on traditional material, Benji’s solo work sees him follow in the footsteps of Nick Drake and Richard Thompson with original, self-penned contemporary songs which reflect his traditional roots but are never purely "folk". Boomerang struggled to achieve the exposure it deserved after Benji’s committments to Bellowhead and Faustus left little time to tour with it. Still, he’s recently managed to pack in a few solo dates with fellow former Seth Lakeman band member Cormac Byrne (bodhran) and Sam Norman (double bass).
After playing support at Minack Theatre on 19 May as a solo artist, Benji will be joining Seth’s regular band of Sean Lakeman (guitar), Ben Nicholls (double bass) and Simon Lea (percussion) for the rest of the tour.
Benji Kirkpatrick Links
Website | MySpace
Boomerang: Amazon | iTunes | Spotify
Here’s Benji – joined by Seth Lakeman on fiddle, and Megson’s Su Hanna – at one of his few solo dates of 2008:
Megson & Nancy Elizabeth:
Birmingham Symphony Hall, Sun 17 May
Support at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall will be provided by folk duo Megson, and singer Nancy Elizabeth.
Megson are highly rated folk duo Stu Hanna and Debbie Hanna-Palmer. They have released three albums since coming together in 2004, including 2008’s critically acclaimed Take Yourself a Wife, which earned 4-star reviews from The Guardian and Songlines magazine.
In the incestuous world that is folk music, Stu Hanna of was producer on Benji Kirkpatrick’s album, Boomerang.
Megson Links
Website | MySpace | Last.fm
Take Yourself a Wife: Amazon | iTunes
Nancy Elizabeth is a contemporary singer/songwriter from Manchester, with a vaguely Dido-esque vocal style that contrasts to the strong folk vein of the other support acts for the tour. Her most recent solo album is 2007’s Battle and Victory, but she also appears in more recent collaborations on James Yorkston’s When the Haar Rolls In and with Susumu Yokota on mother.
Nancy Elizabeth Links
Website | MySpace
Inu:
Komedia Bath, Wed 3 June
Members of local Bath folk act, Inu, will be support at Komedia on 3 June. Marick Baxter (Flutes and Whistles)
Louise Baxter (Guitar and Vocals) and Beth Porter (Cello) play strong, fairly straight renditions of Irish traditional music (and none the worse for it). They have a new album out, The Thousand Mile Journey, which you can buy from their website.
Updated 12 May with extra photos from Philip Ryalls and Jeremy LLewellyn-Jones.
“it was pretty stadium. I wanted to crowd surf but I thought the girls at the front wouldn’t catch me” - Jim Moray
The long-awaited round-up of press coverage, photos and video from last weekend’s gig on Trafalgar Square is here. A bit light on the former, but plenty of the latter for you.
Press Coverage
The gig didn’t get much press, but there were short write-ups in The London Paper (including a few photos), various bits in The Guardian and over on The Telegraph Emma Hartley interviewed Damian Barber from the Demon Barbers.
Photos & Video
 Photo © Garry Knight |
 Photo © Caroline Voaden |
The fans unsurprisingly came through where the mainsteam media feared to tread. Lots of photos with some great shots from Caroline Voaden (flickr), Karen Armstrong (flickr), High Eight (flickr), and Helen Fenner (photobucket).
Plus these late-breaking extras from Philip Ryalls and Jeremy LLewellyn-Jones – a couple of the professional photographers who were in attendance.
There was also some surprisingly good-quality video shot from the crowd:
Full highlights, with Seth performing Blood Upon Copper
(and Sean rocking out in his fabulous red shoes)
Seth Lakeman: Kitty Jay and Poor Man’s Heaven
More video
More slightly-more-iffy video of Solomon Browne, King and Country, and Riflemen of War
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Interview and Gig Review from What’s On South West
April 7, 2009
What’s On South West caught up with Seth before the Plymouth gig for one of the few interviews from the recent mini-tour.
The interview chats about the inspiration behind the Brand! New! Songs! which gripped audiences at the recent gigs, and throws in a few festival rumours (Glasto, V Festival, Ireland’s Electric Picnic ??) for good measure.
Interview (including audio version)
‘Seth Lakeman returns to Plymouth for intimate show’
Clare Robinson, What’s On South West, March 2009
Review:
Seth Lakeman at The White Rabbit, Plymouth, 24 Mar 09
Clare Robinson, What’s On South West, March 2009
With thanks to @stokes_the_fire via the TwitterFeed for the heads-up
Folk Day at Trafalgar Square and Other Gigs
March 18, 2009
Update 10 April: Full line-up announced »
London’s Trafalgar Square will be the scene for a special FREE open air folk concert on Sat 25 April to mark St George’s Day. Seth heads up a bill of contemporary English roots and folk artists including Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray, Bishi, and Kathryn Tickell. The afternoon gig is expected to run from 12.30 – 6pm and is being organised by the Major of London. Details at www.london.gov.uk/gla/events
March club gigs
There’s only one week to go before the March club gigs with their promise of Brand! New! Songs! The Leicester (28th) and Swindon (26th) gigs are sold out but tickets may still available by phone for Horsham (27th). Tickets still available online or by phone for Plymouth (24th) and Yeovil (28th).
Full booking details on the Gigs page »
Other new dates
Since the last post there have also been a few dates added to the end of the May tour in Warrington (29 May), Perth (30th) and a standing gig in Bath (3 Jun). There is still no confirmed date for the Minack Theatre gig in Cornwall.
Filling out the typically busy festival season Seth has been confirmed as one of the headliners for the Trowbridge Village Pump Festival in Wiltshire on 23-26 July.
As ever keep an eye on the Twitter Feed for breaking news.
Seth Lakeman will be performing alongside fellow folk stars Kate Rusby, Eliza Carthy and Fairport Convention at the Teenage Cancer Trust’s first ever folk night at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 March 2009.
More information on the Gigs page or from http://concertsfortct.com/
Festival News
Seth is confirmed at three more summer festivals. He’s on the Friday night bill at Fairport Convention’s own Cropredy festival in Oxfordshire on 13-15 August. Also on the bill that night is Richard Thompson, frequently cited by Seth as a major influence on his own song-writing. Seth previously played Cropedy in 2007.
Seth returns to the National Forest Folk Festival in Leicestershire for the second year running on Fri 3 July, and will also play the Stokes Bay Festival in Portsmouth on Mon 1 Aug.
May Tour
Tickets for all dates on the May tour are now on sale, including Birmingham Symphony Hall.
In addition to the dates already announced Seth will be playing Minack Theatre in Cornwall – the dramatic location for the videos for Crimson Dawn and The Hurlers – sometime in May. Date to be confirmed.
Full info on all the May tour dates and other festival appearances are on the Gigs page on this site.
New Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/SethLakemanNews
Finally a quick bit of site news. We’ve set up a Twitter feed for those quick news updates and tidbits of info which don’t warrant a full post here. "Tweets", as they’re known, will be displayed in the sidebar as Quick Updates or you can follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SethLakemanNews
May 2009 tour dates announced
February 9, 2009
The full list of May 2009 tour dates has been announced via the Forum and MySpace. There are eight dates in total around England and Wales, generally at smaller, more intimate venues. Several dates Most are definitely seated rather than standing gigs.
On the festival front Seth is confirmed for the lineup at the Bromyard Folk Festival on 11-13 September, which also offers you the chance to catch Folk Awards nemesis, The Demon Barber Roadshow, in action.
Full details, venue and ticket sales links on the Gigs page »
Seth ’steals the show’ at Midem 2009
January 23, 2009
“Seth Lakeman nearly stole the show from Jamie Cullum at the “British at Midem” concert with a rousing set, proving that his violin-driven folk can translate internationally.” – ‘The future of the music industry’, The Independent, Fri 23 Jan 2009
Midem is the annual gathering of the international music industry in Cannes France. Seth performed alongside General Fiasco, Patrick Wolf, and Jamie Cullum on Monday night.
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