‘World class stuff’ for Thame Town Music Festival 2018

THE founder of the Thame Town Music Festival, John Littler, has been talking to Thame Town Councillor about how a Simple Minds album he bought 35 years-ago, gave him the inspiration to organise his own music festival in Thame.

John attended Thame Town Council’s meeting on Tuesday (24/04) to bring the council up-to-date with the arrangements so far, for a Thame Town Music Festival and Convention, in June, 2018. No report could do justice to John’s eloquent presentation, so here it is in full:

“A town centre filled with joyous people”

“IN 1982 I bought the recently released album: “Live in the City of Light” by grandiose Scottish stadium fillers, Simple Minds. Not particularly inspiring to me musically but visually a critical inspiration. The inside of the gatefold sleeve, (remember them?), showed a photograph of the Glasgow pomp pop merchants playing to an entire town in Locarno Switzerland; a town centre filled with joyous people bathed in an orange glow as the sun set, communally watching world class artists perform in their own town.

“A mere 35 years later I achieved my version of that night. On July 7, last year we had 8,000 visitors see 58 acts in eight venues all over Thame. We had our free, multi-genre festival that brought the people of Thame out of their homes and into the community and bought people from outside our community into Thame.

“It was a success. Three of the high street business had the best trading day in their history; we had no security incidents, two minor medical calls, no official complaints, we started and finished on time and, like the well bought up children we all are, we cleared up after ourselves.

“Thame is an ambitious town”

“So, for 2018. What’s next? Well, Thame is a growing town, and I believe Thame is an ambitious town; ambitious for a quality of life that aspires not only to a choice of restaurants, not only to a high street where the shops are not all hairdressers and seemingly most importantly, not only where the streets are pot-hole free. No. Ambitious for a cultural life. To be a great place to live. To do our part, we are expanding and aiming higher. We are offering more and going for high quality.

“Our festival is adding three more elements; a classical concert and a songwriter’s competition on the Friday evening, and a music convention to join the main festival on Saturday, July 14. The classical concert will be in St. Mary’s Church with a programme that will take us from Bach to Broadway via Chopin, Rachmaninov, Puccini to Gershwin, Cole Porter and more. I’m thrilled that the we have managed to get renowned soprano, Ann MacKay, who was trained by Schwarzkopf and sung all over the world – Sydney opera house, Royal Albert Hall and now St. Mary’s Thame!

“World class stuff”

“With Ann will be Jack Gibbons, a phenomenal pianist and the world’s leading interpreter of Gershwin. He plays Carnegie Hall and is flying in from the US. This is world class stuff!

“Also, on Friday, in the Barns Centre, we will have our songwriter’s competition final. We have invited songwriters to submit original songs. We have a panel of industry experts who will select the 10 best to come and perform their song and talk about it in front of a live audience. The winner will get to play on the main stage on Saturday and receive significant financial and career support from sponsor, Christopher Ward limited. Can we find the next Ed Sheeran in Thame?

“The third new bit. On Saturday we have added a music industry convention. Again, in the Barns Centre we have Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music presenter, rock star in his own right and leading advocate of new music. Tom is hosting the convention aimed at helping career musicians understand and navigate the music business. Tom will be hosting panels including Martyn Ware of the Human League and Heaven 17, record producers John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses) and George Shilling ((Steve Winwood, Teenage Fanclub) and also we have artist managers, agents and promoters from the music business. There’s also going to be workshops on song-writing, social media and getting radio play. It’s aimed at people who want help in moving their musical ambitions forward and ‘Saddo’s’ like me who just find the whole world of music and creativity fascinating. I’ll go just to hear the stories and anecdotes.

Eight venues, Main stage, stalls and bars – all for FREE!

“And of course, Saturday is also Thame Town Music Festival day: Again eight venues, a main stage in front of the town Hall, stall holders and bars. And again the festival will be FREE.  Our headliner, this year is Dr Feelgood, the legendary Rhythm and Blues band. We have had over 250 applications to play. We should be able to give 60 of them the opportunity.”

John concluded: ” So, undoubtedly, we are going to throw a huge party in Thame on Saturday, July 14, but it is a party with a purpose. In the same way that an 18-year-old boy in Sheffield was inspired by a photograph on an album sleeve, if we manage to inspire even only one person to follow their music dreams, understand the value of community and be proud of Thame then we will have done our job.”

Visit the Thame Town Music Festival website HERE