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The Reviews

Blazin Fiddles

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley: Dickens at 200

Edward Seckerson Supports the Critics

How To Be a Critic...

It's simple. Come to a Festival event and write a review of your experience.

Young Festival Critics is an exciting scheme enabling young people, who have a passion for the arts and writing to explore new experiences while building their writing and CV skills.

We will ask the critics to focus on writing meaningful observations looking at the relationship between the performing arts and reviewing. The Festival offers a world class programme of events to cover. The scheme enables young people to not only experience new work, but also attend some of the Festivals amazing venues around Berkshire.

The reviews can be anything from a tweet to a video diary and anyone between the age of 16 and 30 can apply to be a YOUNG CRITIC. We will provide our YOUNG CRITICS with a reviewer's pack and tips on how to write a review as well as feature the best ones on this website.

Education is an important part of the Newbury Festival. We have worked hard to develop our young people's programme, which is present in many elements of the festival, from the educational programme, our master classes, the schools programme, the Piano Competition and Young Artists Lunchtime series.

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Saturday 12th

Blazin’ Fiddles 7.30pm Jazz and World

Saturday 12th May at the Corn Exchange, Newbury

The Blazin’ Fiddles were a group composed of six members, four main fiddlers, an acoustic guitarist and a key board player. At first I was a bit reluctant to go along to this event, however, it would be a huge misjudgement not to. As soon as the fast paced music begun the atmosphere instantly exploded with excitement.

It was not just the music that kept me interested, between each piece one of the musicians would tell a story, usually comical, about the music they were about to play. This allowed the audience to instantly engage with the philosophies and history behind the music, therefore giving their music a much greater meaning.

Matthew Gorvin 25

Blazin’ Fiddles 7.30pm Jazz and World
Saturday 12th May at the Corn Exchange, Newbury

Before attending the show I took the title ‘Blazin’ Fiddles’ quite literally and I was curious to find out how they were going to play violins that seemed to be on fire, was this some clever technical effect? As soon as the first piece started it was immediately obvious where the name ‘Blazin’ Fiddles’ came from. The exhilarating music and catchy tunes played with enthusiasm and passion set the whole room and audience ‘ablaze’. It was hard to resist tapping along with your foot and clapping in time. In fact the whole of the balcony shook with the enthralled audience tapping/clapping/bopping along.

The music transported you to Scotland itself. In between pieces there was a mix of quaint stories of Scotland and humour which helped set the scene for the Scottish reels and marches played.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening which was much appreciated by all present.

Catherine Gorvin 29

Blazin’ Fiddles (Folk)

Saturday 12th May 2012, Corn Exchange, Newbury

“More! More!” they cried, feet pounding up and down in a plea for more music. It had been a great concert (as anticipated, being the last night of their tour) and the audience hadn’t had enough yet!

Two hours earlier the 400 seat auditorium was buzzing with anticipation and full to the brim with excited faces. To rapturous applause, the six members of Blazin’ Fiddles strolled on stage (a fashionable five minutes late) and positioned themselves in a simple set up with the four fiddlers at the front and the guitar and piano behind.

After a brief, but delightful exchange with a very responsive audience the music began.  One of the lovely aspects of a folk gig is the little anecdotes that accompany the tunes and through these, each of the fiddlers was able to shed some light on their lives over the Scottish border. The audience particularly liked Iain’s story about the potato-hoarding rats, and what a lovely tune he came up with to reflect the devious rodents!

All the fiddlers gave the audience the chance to get to know their individual characters and style. What was so special about this particular performance was the energy and drive coming from both the performers and the audience-a group not to be missed should they come to Newbury again!

Heather Ryall, 22 

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley: Dickens at 200 (Talks and Education)

14th May 2012, 3pm, Shaw House, Newbury

“Dickens at 200: An Illustrated Talk”, which took place in the delightful and somehow rather appropriate location of Shaw House, delved into this very question: why this writer remains world-renowned, despite his debt-ridden family and his unremarkable roots. Who better qualified to speak on such a topic than his great, great, great granddaughter, Lucinda Dickens Hawksley – (“author, art historian and public speaker”). If there was any doubt that this really was a descendant of the infamous author it was soon put to rest: her enthusiasm for the subject was evident and her large, round blue eyes which looked remarkably similar to those of Catherine Hogarth, Dickens’ wife!

So why does Dickens’ work remain so popular, even today? Hawksley’s argument is that his eccentric character and his keen eye for detail enabled him to observe what others might have missed. For example, roles as both a solicitor’s clerk and a court reporter put him into daily contact with all sorts of people. A melting pot of languages, cultures and social classes that made up 19th century London. The largest city in the world, became immortalised in Dickens’ characters and settings. For him, London represented adventure and new possibilities (think of Pip in ‘Great Expectations’), but also a sense of trepidation (it is thought that David Copperfield’s journey to London mirrored Dickens’ own experience as a 12 year old) and danger (one advertisement in the back of a Victorian novel is for a collar of inch-long spikes to be worn under one’s cravat in case of strangulation!).

Overall, the lecture provided a brilliant insight into the author’s life and I feel extremely privileged to have heard one of his ancestors speak on a subject so dear to her. It proved that he is an endlessly fascinating figure and encouraged me to delve into more of his books.

Honor Bulmer, 19

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