Relax. Slow Down. Chill Out. Let the cool vibeflow of existence smooth you out - it's Friday night and this is an Arts Venue - this the After The Mill Performers Night in Preston. A new music night in Preston which happens next on Friday November the 15th.
From 9pm, every second Friday in the month, songwriters, singers, poets, guitarists are all invited to perform to a listening audience at the intimate arts venue Korova Arts & Cafe Bar, off Fishergate Hill in the centre of Preston (literally round the corner from the Cafe Nero, down a side street, St Wilfrid Street, Preston).
The first After The Mill night was held on Friday 13th September and the acts included poets Michael Neary and Dean Fraser, songwriters Florian Maier and James Christy, guitarist/singer Simon Greenhalgh, Mike Kneafsey of Sweeney Astray who hosts the evening, and the excellent accordion and guitar duo of Alan and Janet Burns.
It was a busy, bustling night with the opening performances of the Tringe Arts Festival taking place upstairs , we played amid much ebb and flow of gallivanting human traffic doing their Friday night arty thing with bottles of Hobgoblin or pots of loose Korova tea. They (Tringe Performers) did rob the good speakers which left us all singing and speaking through one monitor attached to a 32 input mixing desk and playing through my acoustic Marshall amp. However it all seemed to add to the makeshift atmosphere of a work in progress, the rawness of something new just beginning to surface in the town's cultural hub.
We didn't mind.
Our first night simply moved from being a private poetry performance, to a busy gig with a focused appreciative crowd, to a social gathering, restaurant style, with candle lit tables and a backdrop of live accordion and guitar - French, Italian, any style you like. A special thanks must go out to Alan and Janet Burns who provided the sounds for this last part of the night with a certain panache. They added a heady red wine musical topping to the whole affair. It was much appreciated.
The venue which hosts the After the Mill Music Nights is the Korova Arts Cafe &Bar, off Fishergate Hill in Preston. Korova is fast becoming the arts alternative venue of central Preston with poetry, art, performance, comedy and live music events taking place continually weekend after weekend. It seems to be taking on a role as a liberal minded meeting house of the creative folk and discerning listeners of Preston. And aren't we relieved and grateful for its existence already?
But that's not the point. The point of After The Mill is this...
This night is NOT intended to add to the mad dash workaholic insanity of everyday consumerism, whether online or off, it's intended as an opportunity to slow down. The chance to think, stop still and be in the place you're in.
In today's social climate, we have become the post-industrial fodder on the shopping shelves of employment. Encouraged to package ourselves privately as a human product on the social networking market of existence and promote ourselves as economically useful in everyday conversation at high speed. We move too fast. We are the headless chickens of cultural history.
. The mills haven't exactly closed either, the rich and powerful elites that run our lives and manipulate our view of reality through the use of mass media, have simply turned to slave labour in poorer countries to make enormous profits instead. OUR English mills may have closed but the sweatshops have opened up in other countries.
And since our mills have closed we simply scurry around for the economic scraps off the billionaire's tables - in a mad panic for scarce space and opportunity in a crowded consumer world. A nation of hairdressers, property dealers, call centre salestalkers and abstract marketing conceptualists convinced we're in a liberated lifestyle paradise.And I personally wouldn't think of us as having evolved socially or politically. We're not beyond the rich-poor divide of old - it's the same set up as always under a different name with different technology - 21st Century Victoria.
So we still need a break. We still need the After The Mill freedom and recreation to mingle, mix, share ideas and share good humoured hanging out.
. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/dec/05/income-inequality-growing-faster-uk
Incidentally the views in this article are my views (Mike Kneafsey) and not the views or intention of the venue. Apart from the bit about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. That's not a view. That's a fact.
Friday November the 15th. After The Mill open performers night at Korova Arts Cafe & Bar from 9pm.
And if you can't wait that long come along to the Songwriters Circle at the Moor Brook pub on North Road and show the world your new works. That's on Tuesday November 5th from 9pm.
Oh and one last thing - please bring your cameras and film/photograph the performers - I personally don't own much expensive technology and I'm relying on you!
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