Well, what a year it’s been! In such strange times we thought it worth documenting a year that has very much not gone to plan…
2020 began full of promise, hope and expectation.
BBC Spotlight took up the Kolar’s Gold story and before long we found ourselves being filmed for a feature, and then in the Spotlight studio feeling sick with nerves as we prepared to perform live on TV for the first time.
Following the TV and radio appearances we headed down to the Burrell Theater in Truro for our Kolar’s Gold launch party. Looking back at photos of the magical night in a packed theater it seems a lifetime ago.
In February we also met to record our second album, and were in contact with the BBC about a very exciting prospect for national TV…
In March we hesitated over our trip to London to perform at Kernow In The City…the news was telling us there were now 20 cases of this new virus in London…but 20 cases is nothing to worry about…right?
Kernow in The City proved to be our final gig of 2020.
By the end of March we were in lockdown, some of us figuring out how to do homeschool, some furloughed, some working from home, in Neal’s case in bed with Covid 19.
We had been delighted with the media coverage of Kolar’ Gold and the radio play it had received, but as spring brought with it hope, also came the realisation that our musical plans were likely to be put on hold for some time. A new album can’t be released or produced with no gigs to fund it!
With no chance of meeting in person we looked for new ways to keep the music going. We released a single ‘Pencarrow’, held a virtual listening party in the summer (thanks to all those who came!), recorded a series of live videos for Festival Interceltique (Lorient) and North Cornwall Book Festival. Tom, Rich and Laura even dusted off the Kolar’s Gold project for a presentation with the Bangalore International Centre.
But with a years worth of gigs cancelled, and unable to meet as a band, what did we do instead? As we’ve been separated for most of the year we thought we’d share our personal experiences of 2020 with you. We will hopefully see you before too long and look forward to (the later part!) of 2021 with hope of better times to come x
Tom-
In spring 2020, as the country struggled to adjust to the first lockdown, I phoned my dad to see how he was getting on.
'Your Uncle's just dropped round some homebrew gear,' He said, 'So at least I'll have plenty to drink.'
This seemed very sensible, so I decided to follow suit. With many of my regular nerdy outlets closed off to me by the pandemic, I was free to invest much of my time and energy into learning how to brew beer from scratch. The first 250 pints all went down the drain, but having made bold promises to my wife about the long-term economic benefits of investing in brewing equipment, I was obliged to persevere.
Meanwhile, a red-legged Partridge made her nest in our small garden. We watched the 12 chicks hatch, keeping warm underneath their mother, until one evening she upped and left them to their fate. We arrived home late one memorable summer evening to the pitiful cries of distraught chicks racing around our garden looking for her in vain. Several of them, deprived of her vital warmth, already lay crumpled and lifeless on our lawn. We rigged up an artificial nest in a corner of our raised bed, using the electric heat mat intended to keep my fermenting beer warm, and managed to keep four of the survivors alive long enough for them to fledge. Shortly before Christmas, I spotted four juvenile red-legged partridges trotting across the field behind our house - I like to think they were our former house guests!
As these momentous events unfolded, I managed to finally find the time to pin down an album's worth of song fragments that had flitted in and out of my head over the proceeding decade, and am looking forward to recording them properly in the new year.
These have been my bright moments in a pretty dismal year, which unfortunately seems set to cast its shadow over the first bit of 2021. For now, I will gratefully head out to my newly converted garage/microbrewery, pop open a bottle of 'The Pale Partridge' (ABV 3.8%), and look forward to the lengthening days with their promise of time spent once again making music with friends.
Laura
Lockdown was an interesting experience for me. My usual background anxiety melted away, but with it went all creativity. My flute sat untouched in its box, my piano gained an ever thickening layer of dust. My time was filled with home schooling and entertaining two lively boys. Ten years of teaching experience proved useless when it came to high school maths! My husband moved out in isolation as he worked the NHS frontline, whilst my mum taught us the names of flowers in the hedgerows.
Daily exercise (freedom!) became an obsession and Joe Wicks my hero as I squatted and lunged my way through lockdown. The biggest lockdown revelation was that despite its awful reputation, Bodmin and its countryside is actually the jewel in Cornwall’s crown (and I’ll argue with anyone who says otherwise 😉).
As lockdown lifted creativity returned and in the summer I wrote my first novel. It may never see the light of day, but if nothing else it proved that my brain still worked after months of watching Spooks and every Scandi Noir series on Netflix!
Summer provided a brief opportunity to see family and the band, the two things I have missed most this year.
Autumn felt busy, as boys returned to school and I began a Covid proof job teaching Chinese children English online and remembered what music is by teaching it at a local school.
Overall, my 2020 can be summed up with-quality family time, a deeper appreciation of nature and spending the past 6 months dressed in wellies and waterproof trousers.
Rich-
I was fortunate to work on and complete a fantastic piece of work for a new children’s theatre show Percy Pengelly and the Wibble Wobble for Cousin Jack’s Theatre group. Myself and the all round creative wonder woman that is Sian Pilley worked frantically and perhaps manically at times to create a Cornish inspired big top soundtrack which was recorded in just two days by the wonderful Josh Best Shaw. We finished recording on March the 11th. Unfortunately the world had other plans so the show is lying in wait, ready to cheer the families of Cornwall up again!
During the first lockdown I managed to take part in a couple of online gigs. One was organised by the wonderful artist ‘Hannah’ which meant we were in touch properly for the first time since 2013 we think. From this, we have now remotely collaborated on her song Earth Prayer – a reflective song on what is important in life and it has aired on BBC introducing.
Not being very technically savvy means I really do appreciate all my friends who do know what they are doing. This year, remotely, between lockdowns or with strict Covid precautions in place I have managed to release two singles with Brother Sea, a very strange masked gig at St Endellion church and multiple remote isolation videos. It has felt very empowering to still work on creative projects and to release these as something positive amongst the year that was.
I would normally spend most of December down in Mousehole with Cousin Jack’s Theatre group performing the magical tale of The Mousehole Cat to thousands of children. This obviously couldn’t happen in the same way this year so Cousin Jack’s decided to go ‘drive in!’ The weather tried it’s best to dampen spirits but we managed to perform three sell out performances at Trelissick Gardens to cars full of families able to see some top quality theatre which we take huge amounts of satisfaction from. The show was also beamed into peoples homes and we had thousands of watchers from the UK, USA, Australia and the Netherlands enjoying this Christmas tale!
At the beginning of September this year, amid the extraordinary events that 2020 has given us, I was welcomed into the College of Bards at Lys Kernow (County Hall) in Truro. The Cornish Gorsedh is an organisation which works to protect and celebrate Cornish history, culture and the achievements of those whose work has been recognised as promoting Cornwall as a Celtic nation. My bardic name ‘Kaner Drollys’ translates to ‘Singer of Stories’and it is the incredible stories from Cornwall’s past that inspires me to write and perform music.
I am looking forward to 2021 as it can only get better surely!? I am currently working on my own song and tune book (with the amazing help of Neal from the band) and am also researching and transcribing 19th century manuscripts from Breage composer Thomas Trethewey so there is plenty to look forward to!
Neal-
After two weekends in London (Kernow in the city and a family wedding) I spent 5 days on Lundy Island leading a residential singing thing. We sang in the church, in the pub and at the top of the old lighthouse, which has the most amazing acoustics. Another trip is planned for 2022.
I started with Covid symptoms on Lundy and returned to mainland just as lockdown was imposed.
4 weeks of cough, tiredness and lack of sense of taste and smell made life rather boring, and relief was obtained through sitting in the garden cabin and watching Pointless and House of Games each evening. As energy returned I started writing more songs both for performance and for my singing groups. The jobs around the house almost got finished (are they ever?).
I embraced zoom as a medium for continuing my Jolly Good Singing events. Although appreciated by the participants it soon became apparent that we could not sing together on line so the punters were doing karaoke to my solo voice! As lockdown was lifted I arranged further outside singing events and that restored hope and offered encouragement.
The threat of food shortages spurred me to grow veg for the first time in decades. The new potatoes, garlic and blackcurrents were amazing. The chard.... not so much. Lots of it but not sure I like it.
I have missed playing music and the regular folk and acoustic sessions but Gill and I have been involved in a Sunday evening folk sing around. This has kept us performing together and learning new songs.
I am hoping that as the vaccine is rolled out we see a reduction in the effect of covid on the NHS and a return to performing and singing together.
Richard-
The start of 2020 got off to an otherwise positive and optimistic start - Kolar’s Gold was in the very final stages of production and it was beginning to sound like a truly epic bit of work. A few gigs here and there and then the February half-term holiday arrived. I was useless to Kat (my wife) and the boys for the first few days as all I could think about was a couple of days rehearsal with the band then a truly epic album launch. I was enjoying prepping and fettling the technology we employed, daydreaming about the performance, essentially living the dream!
When the rehearsals arrived there was a lot of excitement about what turned up to be the TV slot! That was an awesome experience - performing live on TV is not something everyone gets to do. Seeing behind the scenes was fascinating, as was the experience of the immense pressure of playing a hastily re-worked arrangement of one of the album tracks. Nothing compares however to the huge sense of relief when we watched it back and realised that the countless mistakes we thought we made turned out to be very minor in the playback! We stopped at a very ‘local’ pub on the way back and talked about how fortunate and blessed we were.
We had no idea just how fortunate.
The album launch was immense - as we played the final transition in Treasure, the rush of… well… I’m not sure what to call it other than ‘arrival’ was deep and tangible. So many once in a lifetime experiences crammed into about 4 days. We felt so alive!
The news cycle turned to this mysterious virus and the government insisting that pluck and grit would do as a response. So we did a gig in London, which turned out to be the last one for a while… it turns out that pluck and grit works fine at Eton, but in the real world, competence is required!
Gigs and rehearsals dried up and I started running my classes online. I discovered that I’m not meant to sit and stare at a screen all day… so I took to my bike and started enjoying the ridiculously beautiful landscape I get to call home.
I wish I was able to play with the band. I wish I was able to teach in front of my classes again. And I wish Gavin Williamson would go back to selling fireplaces. Here’s to 2021 anyway - the only way is up!
