Tour: ‘THE CUT’ – a canal tour summer 2014

28 July      LONDON, London Canal Museum
31 July       STAINES, Riverside Amphitheatre
1 Aug          MARLOW, All Saint’s Church
2 Aug         READING , Rising Sun Arts Centre
4 Aug         OXFORD, Holywell Music Room
5 Aug         BRAZIERS PARK, Braziers Park
10 Aug       PEWSEY, The Crown Inn
11 Aug        DEVIZES, Devizes Wharf
14 Aug       BATH, Bath Folk Festival
16 Aug       BRISTOL, Arnolfini

A canal and river tour from London to Bristol

This summer, with support from Sound and Music, the UK’s leading experimental folk trio Dead Rat Orchestra will undertake an innovative tour across the canals of Southern England. The 273-mile odyssey will take them from London to Bristol and a triumphant finale at the Arnolfini.

Launching from London’s Canal Museum with a set of songs inspired by the stories and the traditions of these ageing industrial arteries, the trio will travel exclusively by waterway as they cross the country via Oxford, performing as they go. The Cut is, however, much more than a series of concerts along the canal route. On a physical level it’s an adventure into a way of life as the trio will eat, sleep and live on the canal, navigating the waterways themselves (no cosy hotels on this tour), but most importantly it is a creative adventure. Meticulously researched, the project has, and continues to, unearth some truly exciting material that has been hidden away, unseen, for decades. Along the way they discovered a version of Scarborough Fair, penned in Cecil Sharp’s own hand, which has more than likely not been performed for 100 years; found an amateur song collector along the Kennet and Avon Canal route, whose private collection is unsurpassed and trawled the Lucy Broadwood Archive, housed at the Surrey History Centre, revealing material that even surprised its archivist.

Exploring the changing associations of the canal by rekindling its songs and sounds, and through the creation of new ones, Dead Rat Orchestra will seek to explore and engage with the heritage of the canals both past and present. As a trio renowned for its vivid performances and an experimental approach to folk and roots, The Cut could be described as a month long site specific performance, where the musical works performed will evolve through their interaction with the communities and surroundings encountered.