Bright new music for the Fading Sun festival
 
Some bands are happy to follow musical trends. Others are determined to set themselves apart from the crowd. 40 Shillings On The Drum is very much in the latter category, as keyboard player Seb Cole explains. “We want to take a new stance on rock music or folk music and give it a new direction.”
 
The band is heading into Lewes – familiar territory for former Sussex Downs College student Seb – as part of the Fading Sun festival at The Dorset Inn on 8th, 9th and 10th September. It’s the fourth year for the free festival, which aims to raise money for the St Peter & St James Hospice, the Starfish Youth Music project and Cliffe Bonfire Society.
 
Although the band’s music is available online, with its latest video receiving more than 25,000 views on Facebook, it’s recently produced a physical EP as well. “I think people prefer something a bit more tangible, something you can hold, look at and put in your car”, Seb says. “There's something nicer about having CDs and vinyl, even though it's less convenient.”
 
I ask Seb about the way the band recorded its songs. “Nothing's put in or created afterwards”, he reveals. “It's all been people in the studio, recording take after take to get the right one. I'm very much one for ‘if you're not able to play it live to an audience then you shouldn't be adding it in to your music’.”
 
As well as playing keyboards and singing backing vocals, Seb also co-writes songs for the band with vocalist Daniel Scully. “Sometimes Dan will have written a set of lyrics but he’ll also have in mind the way that the song would go and the melody of his vocal”. This, Seb tells me, is unusual for a lyricist who doesn’t play an instrument. “It means that you can write song after song very quickly. And every now and then, I'll send Dan a piece of music that I've written specifically for the group and he will put words to it in a more conventional manner.”
 
“We write about where we live, people we know, the experiences that we've had as a group, both good and bad. A lot of the time it's inspiration from the normal day-to-day of what young musicians and bands are going through. Always fighting an uphill battle.”
 
There’s even a hint of battle in the band’s name. Dan borrowed it from a version of the folk song ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’, which was rewritten by John Tams for the TV drama series Sharpe. “Before my time”, admits Seb. “Dan suggested it - and we were all perfectly happy with that as soon as it was mentioned. It really stands out as being something different.” As does the band.
 
40 Shillings On The Drum is at The Dorset Inn in the evening of Saturday 9th. 40shillingsonthedrum.uk
 
First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 132 September 2017

Richard Neal, Captain of Southover Ringers

I’ve been captain since March last year. I decide what the band is going to ring and I organise the ringing according to the abilities of those present. Generally we rotate the captaincy; I have had two other three-year periods as the captain.
 
I learned to ring at Ripe when I was 11, so that's 44 years I've been ringing. Bell ringing is very safe. It isn’t true that ringers commonly get lifted off the ground by the bell rope. In all my time I've only ever seen one person go airborne.
 
We've got roughly 25 ringers at the moment, which probably means we are one of the three strongest towers in Sussex for membership. Our oldest ringers are in their eighties and our youngest ringer is about 11.
 
Monday night is the learners’ practice when we use our simulator: it lets you practise the technique but the sound is generated by a computer inside the belfry. Tuesday night is a more advanced practice on the 'open' bells.
 
We ring from 9.30 until 10 on a Sunday morning and from 6 until 6.30 in the evening. Sometimes we do longer pieces called ‘quarter peals’ on a Sunday evening. These take about 45 minutes. We send details of these performances to a magazine called 'The Ringing World', where they are published for other ringers to see and admire.
 
The art of bell ringing is to try and get a rhythmical, evenly-spaced sound from the bells. This is complicated to achieve because each bell is a different size, so it swings at a different rate… and a number of bells have something called 'odd struckness', which means the clapper doesn't swing evenly. A ringer will constantly attempt to compensate for these variables.
 
Here, we've got ten bells. The largest – our tenor bell – weighs over 17 hundredweight [885kg]. The normal number of bells is either six or eight, so we're lucky to have ten.
 
In the late 1500s and the early 1600s, a lot of church bells in England were fitted with a complete wheel on the bell. The bell rope wraps around that wheel, which enables you to turn the bell through 360 degrees and to control the speed of the bell. With a lot of practice, the band can learn to ring mathematical patterns that change the order of the bells. This technique is known as ‘change ringing’: each sequence by all the bells in the pattern is a single ‘change’. It's a very English art.
 
A ‘peal’ consists of at least 5,000 unique changes and takes about three hours to ring. Peals aren't always successful: if a ringer makes a mistake in the pattern and you don't achieve unique changes, you have to stop.
 
Bell ringing exercises the brain and the body together. You ring as a team and everyone is equal in that team, men and women, young and old. You never stop learning.
 
As told to Mark Bridge

TRINITY church, Southover High Street, Lewes

A version of this article was first published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 127 April 2017.
 

Bob Trotter, volunteer bicycle fixer
 
You’ll find us outside the Nutty Wizard every Saturday morning, at the junction of Cliffe High Street and South Street. From March we’re there from 9.30am until 12.30pm.
 
Dr Bike is a group of cycle enthusiasts who want to help local people to use their bikes more. We offer friendly help to cyclists who have fairly basic bikes that are in need of first aid. Most bikes go wrong because they haven’t been maintained: cables seize up through lack of oil, brake blocks wear out, gears go out of adjustment or tyres go flat. We can even sometimes unbuckle a wheel but that depends on the state of the spokes. Higher-end bikes or those needing more complicated repairs are better served by Lewes’s two Cycle Shack outlets.
 
At the moment there are around eight Dr Bikers in total, usually with three or four volunteers on duty each week. The service began in 1991, shortly after the first Lewes Green Wheels Day to encourage the use of sustainable transport. Pete Barnes and Chris Franks were the two original ‘doctors’. They were based outside Fitzroy House, the old library building opposite Boots, which is where Chris lived at the time. By 2014 Chris had moved away and the Farmers Market was being held on the precinct twice a month, so we moved our surgery to the Nutty Wizard building.
 
I've been told the Nutty Wizard was originally a public toilet before it was converted. It now hosts a youth club, book swaps days, language lessons, an occasional cafe and much more. Dr Bike helps support all this with any extra money we’re given.
 
We only charge trade prices for the parts we supply. Customers can make a donation for our labour, which pays for our insurance, tools and rent.
 
Our most important piece of kit is the work stand, which holds a bike up in the air so the wheels can rotate. It means we can fix gears, brakes and punctures without getting a bad back. We've got a well-stocked tool box, puncture repair kits, cable inners and outers, brake blocks and, most importantly, lots of good oil.
 
I started volunteering in November 2013. I’d previously worked in the fire service with one of the other Dr Bikers but now I am a cycle trainer for East Sussex County Council, teaching Bikeability; a road-based version of the old Cycling Proficiency Test.
 
Whatever your views on global warming and green travel, cycling will make you fitter and is more fun – especially when you can pedal past traffic jams on our ever-expanding cycle route network. I often find I can actually get somewhere quicker by bike than by driving, so it's win-win. If the only thing preventing you from cycling more is a poorly bike, then maybe it's time to take it to the doctors!
 
As told to Mark Bridge
 
drbikelewes.com | facebook.com/drbikelewes

A version of this feature was first published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 126 March 2017.
 

Lots of people sign up for online courses but don't finish them, for all kinds of good reasons. They might be unfamiliar with digital learning, or they struggle with motivation. The idea of the University of Us is to get local people together to support and motivate each other, with the help of a facilitator.
 
At the moment I've got a group that's studying 'Start Writing Fiction'. When we meet, we talk about anything they've found difficult, and I explain what's coming up next week and how they can get the most enjoyment out of it.
 
The upcoming courses that I'm thinking of are a short course on using online tools, perhaps looking at social media skills, while another is about preparing students to go to university. And I’m also looking for a course on food production, sustainability and horticulture.
 
People can tell me their interests by using the contact form on the University of Us web page. When I’ve found an online course that looks good, I'll give them the instructions for signing up. The online courses are free or low cost; the University of Us fees depend on the length of the course, but are usually between £50 and £100.
 
I worked for the Open University for over 15 years and have an MA in Online and Distance Education, so I'm pretty good at spotting the courses that’ll work well. It’s all about helping people to enjoy learning.
 
universityofus.co.uk /  info@universityofus.co.uk
 
Interview by Mark Bridge. First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 126 March 2017.
 
 

I love oriental rugs, especially the old ones. They are works of art, in my opinion, but it’s a dying art. Large-scale production in Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan has stopped; these were the main countries. In a couple of decades, no-one will be making traditional hand-made rugs.
 
Old rugs are always the best. People made them to use themselves, with hand-spun wool, with vegetable dyes and with good workmanship. They’re strong and they last for a very long time.
 
Kilim is the Turkish word for a flat rug created by two types of thread: warp and weft. The warp is stretched on a loom, like a frame, and designs are created by weaving different colours of weft. Halı is the Turkish word for pile rugs; they’re created by warp and weft and also with knots to add depth.
 
I’ve worked with rugs since 1976. I was studying journalism in Turkey and started helping a rug company with their export business. In this profession, we say "once you get the dust of a rug into your lungs, it is addictive".
 
When I came to the UK, I immediately opened a shop in Brighton. In 2007 I moved my business to Newhaven, where I was already doing repairs and cleaning. Now I mainly work with the trade, although I still sell directly to local customers.
 
I buy stock that I can repair and clean. Experience is my advantage. I do every aspect of the business myself.
 
01273 517744 / kalkantrading.co.uk

Interview by Mark Bridge. First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 123 December 2016.

LewesLight isn’t exactly what I thought. Although the name offers a clue, anyone who imagines it’s a celebration of floodlit local landmarks is missing the point. “We're all about context and people”, lighting designer Graham Festenstein tells me, “not simply an engineering exercise”. And he’d rather I didn’t use the f-word. “As designers, we don’t particularly like the term ‘floodlight’. It does what it implies. That’s the old-fashioned way. We’re generally working to enhance the nature of what’s there – the colours, the materials – not to distort them.”
 
Unlike some similar international events, LewesLight isn’t just about creating something artistic. “It’s very site-specific”, Graham explains, “looking at the context of the space”. This year the festival is focussed on history, with a theme described as ‘The darker side of Lewes life’. It promises to go beyond familiar local events. “The idea is to investigate less well-known stories and those that have a more scandalous or darker undertone.”
 
The day-to-day management of the LewesLight festival is handled by three people: Graham Festenstein, Phil Rose from Sussex Downs College, who’s the festival’s Community Coordinator, and history consultant Edwina Livesey. They’re part of an organising committee that’s worked to ensure almost everyone involved has a local connection, including the lighting designers and artists who have been invited to take part. There’s been financial support from Lewes Town Council and a few other sponsors, although much of the assistance arrives in the form of equipment loans from architectural lighting manufacturers and suppliers. “The lighting companies tend to help us by providing us with equipment”, Graham says, “and they also provide personnel to help us put it in and get it all working properly.”
 
There’s a strong educational link to this year’s event. LewesLight has partnered with the local Sussex Downs College campus, working closely with Production Arts, Digital Arts, History, Tourism and Marketing students. It’s also developing STEM workshops (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) with local schools, supported by Sussex University. In addition, LewesLight is promoting energy-efficient lighting and explaining the importance of ‘dark skies’. All of last year’s event only generated the same amount of electricity as half a football match under floodlights, Graham tells me, which demonstrates the effectiveness of LED lights.
 
In fact, the 2016 electricity bill could be one of the few aspects of LewesLight that’s largely unchanged from last year’s festival. Participating locations will be better advertised, there’ll be clearer maps and the guided tours will contain more information. There’ll be different venues as well: Graham tells me I shouldn’t assume it’ll be all the ‘old favourites’ illuminated this month. “We're not doing all the same sites. There's always going to be a little bit of overlap but, if we do overlap, we'll have a different designer.”
 
 LewesLight starts on Monday 10th, with installations around the town on the evenings of Friday 14th, Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th. leweslight.uk

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 121 October 2016

Most school buildings aren’t renowned for their architecture. In fact, a recent report from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) said “too many” school buildings were “dangerous and dilapidated, poorly built and wasteful”, pointing out that “good school design can reduce running and maintenance costs, in some cases by more than several times a teacher’s average salary a year”.
 
Flying the flag for efficiency is Ringmer Community College, which won ‘Best Green Business’ at this year’s Lewes District Business Awards. The prize has been added to a collection that also includes an Ashden Award (known to many as a ‘Green Oscar’), a National Teaching Award for work on sustainability, an Energy Institute Award, a CPRE Countryside Award and an invitation to Clarence House by HRH The Prince of Wales.
 
Ringmer County Secondary School, as it was originally called, opened its doors in 1958. “It was built by Ringmer Building Works, which was quite a large local company”, explains Stephen Green, the college’s Environmental Coordinator. “The site was given to the County Council by the Christie family from Glyndebourne, so it was very much a village effort.” And its design was acclaimed from the very beginning, winning a 1959 Civic Trust award with judges commending the “well considered planning, careful handling of form and excellent choice of materials”. But, as Stephen points out, energy wasn’t a major concern because it was relatively cheap.
 
When the head teacher started looking more closely at environmental issues around ten years ago, Stephen – a former Environmental Health Officer who’d moved into teaching – proposed a scheme that empowered the students. “We’re committed to giving every child at Ringmer an insight into the environmental issues that will influence their lives.” Nominated ‘eco reps’ were asked to audit energy efficiency and propose changes, which led to cost savings. Next came an investigation into renewable energy sources, with eight kilowatts of solar panels fitted to the roof. This was followed by the installation of a small wind turbine for more electricity and then a new biomass boiler that generates heat from locally-produced wood.
 
An innovative Sixth Form building opened in 2008, featuring exterior solar blinds, passive ventilation systems and ground source heat pumps. (Falling student numbers mean there’ll be no new Sixth Form admissions this month, so the building is now being utilised by other students.) In addition, there have been eco-improvements to the old classrooms. “We borrowed about £35,000 to insulate the walls and the roof spaces… and got a payback on that within four or five years".
 
Today, Ringmer Community College produces about 60%-70% of its heating energy through the biomass boiler, Stephen tells us, and generates 15%-18% of electricity on site. An extra 30kW solar panel installation is now being planned. “We've managed to demonstrate to students and staff that you can use a 60-year-old building in a way that saves money and improves the environment. Anyone can make a difference.”
 
 First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 120 September 2016

“Where’s home?”, I ask baritone Christopher Purves as we sit in the gardens at Glyndebourne. He’s taking a break from rehearsals for The Cunning Little Vixen, an opera that weaves love stories around a forester and a fox. “Apparently it’s in Oxford”, he laughs. “I’ll be back home Saturday afternoon and then back here on Sunday evening, very late. So I get a day and a half at home, which is not enough but that’s just the way it goes. We’re relatively used to it.” These days Christopher sings his way around the world, staying in temporary accommodation when performing in Europe, the United States and Australia. “When the kids were small I would not go abroad, just because I thought ‘this is ludicrous, not being able to see them at all’. I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to ruin my life so completely.”
 
It’s now 20 years since Christopher first came to Glyndebourne as an understudy before returning to perform in 2007, 2009 and – in a ‘truly fearsome and mesmerising performance’, according to Opera Today – the title role in Handel’s Saul last year. “It’s a wonderful thing to have your so-called art appreciated to such an extent”, he admits. “It was the best fun I’ve ever had.”
 
Christopher Purves has been singing since childhood. “I'm the youngest of four boys in the family. I think I had to fight for attention.” As a youngster, he was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge. In his 20s, he spent several years as part of doo-wop band Harvey and the Wallbangers before heading into opera. But where does the acting come from? “I’ve got no idea”, he tells me. “If you talk to anyone and ask them what they're doing, they'll try and explain it to you in ways you can understand. I think opera is precisely that. We're given scenarios that are rather weird and we have to explain them. It's an extreme version of talking.”
 
His role as the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen is “quite a soulful man”, Christopher says. “He's not sad, he's not desperately happy, but he's normal. I think a lot of people can understand where his life is going. It’s very touchingly human.” And the internationally-travelled singer who portrays him is equally down-to-earth. “I love being at home. It's an extraordinary thing but it's true. I can take my dog for a walk, I can cook an evening meal, I can spend time talking to my sons – my daughter is away at the moment – you know, just normal life that people take for granted. For me it's such a blessing. But I still enjoy the buzz; I still enjoy the excitement of starting up a new rehearsal period for a new opera. So, I think while that excitement still exists, I will carry on.”
 
Glyndebourne Festival 2016 runs until late August. The Cunning Little Vixen opens on Sunday 12 June. glyndebourne.com

First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 117 June 2016

My phone rings. “Hiya Mark, it’s Ruarri Joseph”. He pronounces his first name to rhyme with ‘brewery’, which deals with my first worry. “How’s it going, man?” Truth is I’m slightly star-struck, with a copy of Ruarri’s 2007 debut CD Tales of Grime and Grit in my collection.
 
That first album prompted many favourable comparisons, although Ruarri is cautious about being pigeonholed. “I think somebody once said ‘Dylan, had he grown up in Newquay’ [that was NME], which you can only take as a compliment, but any Dylan fans are going to give you a listen and go ‘what are you on about?’ Similarly, with Atlantic Records, they tried to sell me as the 'British Jack Johnson', presumably because I live near the beach. But again, no disrespect to Jack Johnson, that's not who I am. You're almost turning people away. If they're going to listen to you because of that, then they're going to be disappointed."
 
After his first CD, Ruarri Joseph decided that a contract with a major record label wasn’t right for him, so he recorded his next album independently. "I read somewhere once that I left Atlantic over a dispute because of creative differences. I think that's the story people have tried to paint. I don't recall that being the way it happened.” In 2009 there was a third studio album and in 2012 a fourth, Brother, which was a tribute to his friend Matt Upsher, who died in a surfing accident. I ask how his songwriting has evolved over the past decade. "I went through a time of being very pragmatic around it, certainly with the last solo record, poring over the lyrics and poring over how it came across. It wasn't an album that was for me; I wanted it to tick the right boxes for everybody that knew Matt."
 
The intensity of Brother, combined with its popularity, led to what was billed as the Ruarri Joseph Farewell Tour last year. “I felt like I needed a break from those songs. I'd sung them so many times over the course of three years and I didn't want them to lose meaning”, he tells me.
 
So Ruarri Joseph the solo artist is gone… and Ruarri Joseph the person has adopted a new identity. It’s William the Conqueror who’s currently touring the UK and will be visiting Union Music Store on Record Store Day this month. But is William the man or the band? "I like the ambiguity", Ruarri/William tells me. "Sometimes it's appropriate for it to be me and sometimes it's appropriate for it to be the band. That's just the way it happened. When I first started performing, I was William because I was doing it on my own, but then other people joined."
 
The name was chosen initially so that Ruarri could perform ‘secret’ gigs of new material whilst also touring under his real name. “William the Conqueror seemed like a name that was pretty far away from Ruarri Joseph and wouldn't raise any suspicions that it was me.” It’s not the kind of name I’d have expected a modest chap like Ruarri Joseph to have chosen, I suggest. "There you go. I was right." Since being chosen, the name has taken on more significance. "I realised that Ruarri Joseph had only been putting albums out since he had become a dad. I thought it would be cool to write about my life before that, about my childhood and growing up. William the Conqueror was the kind of name I probably would have given myself as a kid; that insane confidence that you can do anything, go anywhere, the world is your oyster.”
 
As William the Conqueror, Ruarri Joseph is finding songwriting much easier than he did under his real name. “In becoming William, it was a case of letting go and almost subconsciously writing the songs; having something in your mind and just seeing where the guitar takes you or seeing where the pen takes you.” He’s already written enough material for a trilogy of albums. “Maybe one way of looking at it would be that my eight years of being a solo artist have been like a kind of training or a PhD. I feel like I've found my voice since becoming William. The songwriting process makes much more sense to me now; it's like a faucet that's opened up. The energy that you have when you're young, when you first start, it's certainly something I've enjoyed trying to tap into again."
 
So far William the Conqueror has just released an EP, while the first full-length album is nearly finished. The band currently consists of drummer Harry Harding and bass player Naomi Holmes, who'd been in Ruarri’s backing band. “We have a nice chemistry when we play. I've enjoyed writing with their strengths in mind.” The EP is available digitally, on CD and on a 10-inch vinyl record as well. “I’m very excited about that, not least because my friend Tony Plant has done the artwork. It's a bit of a dream to have it done. That's a really lovely idea, to think that somebody is going to take a physical copy of your record and go to the trouble of putting it on. That's the way it should be. You want people to listen to it properly."
 
What music is on Ruarri’s turntable at the moment? “I got into Tom Waits around the time of CDs, so I have everything on CD but not on record. JJ Cale on vinyl is a winner every time. Bowie's Blackstar hasn't really been off the turntable since I got that. A phenomenal record. I'm a little bit out of touch. Maybe it's because I have the kids kicking around with their things which don't necessarily please my ears, so I retreat into the things I know I'm going to like."
 
Yet despite his striving for the perfectly-crafted song and the perfectly-produced album, Ruarri remains a big fan of live music. “When I started, playing a gig in a pub where I didn't have to do anything other than turn up made it all about the music. There's no better way to figure out whether a song is working. It's like a comedian trying out a joke. Playing live is absolutely essential to figuring out who you are as an artist.”
 
Which brings me back to my question about who ‘William’ actually is. After 45 minutes on the phone I think I have an answer. As far as I can tell, William the Conqueror is the man Ruarri Joseph didn’t get a chance to be. “I kind-of fell into the music thing accidentally. It was this crazy whirlwind thing and I never really found my feet with it all. This time round I feel like I know what I'm doing and what I want. I’m really enjoying it. The gigs feel really fresh. I've kind-of forgotten the Ruarri Joseph songs.”
 
Record Store Day is on Sat 16 April 2016; live performances by visiting artists at Union Music Store start from midday. unionmusicstore.com

This is an extended version of an interview first published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 115 April 2016
 

Debbie Baker
Pharmacist, St Anne's Pharmacy

The business is run by me and Karen Smillie. We first worked together at another pharmacy in the town: Karen was the manager and I joined as a technician when I was 16. After several years I left to do my pharmacy degree but eventually we got together again and agreed that Lewes needed another pharmacy, so we put the wheels in motion. We’ve just celebrated our tenth anniversary of being in business.
 
Being an independently-owned pharmacy is unusual these days. There's a huge amount of background work, whereas the multiples have a head office that deals with all the red tape and that sort of thing. But they haven't got the flexibility we have. Most of our business is from prescriptions, not over-the-counter sales. It’s different for the multiples because they have a huge retail side.
 
We buy all the drugs. A lot of people don't realise this. So if you go into a pharmacy with your prescription and they've got your medication on the shelf, it's because they've ordered the products and are hoping someone will need them. We can buy thousands of pounds of drugs but it comes out of our pocket. The NHS will only pay us when we've given a patient the medication that’s listed on their prescription.
 
People tend to contemplate New Year's resolutions in January, so it's a good time of year to think about health: diet, exercise and giving up smoking. It’s relatively quiet for us, although the lead-up to Christmas is absolutely manic. Some people get in a panic about having enough medication because we're closed for four days, which causes a horrendous workload.
 
There's a lot we can do to help people manage their medical conditions. Often your pharmacist can help with extra information about your prescription. We also provide a particular service called a Medicine Use Review, where patients can discuss how they're using their medication and what problems they're having. You can come in and have a completely private consultation with a pharmacist.
 
I wish people would keep their medication in its original packaging. The appearance of tablets and packaging can change, which means people can get muddled up and start taking the wrong amounts. And please don't order things you don't need. The NHS pays for the medicine - and if it's not used, the NHS also pays to have it incinerated.
 
Sometimes I cringe when people come in and say "I've got flu". It's very unlikely you'd be able to walk in if you actually had flu. I'm a big fan of those fizzy vitamin tablets like Berocca if you have a cold or you're surrounded by people who have colds. And Difflam Spray for really sore throats. But ask your pharmacist first!
 
As told to Mark Bridge
 
50 Western Road, Lewes  BN7 1RP  01273 474645
 
First published in Viva Lewes magazine issue 112 January 2016