Stacey's Blog

(or…a tale of albino emus..bluegreen glitter… and missing trousers…) Hard to believe the Devon and Cornwall bits of the tour are over : ( it’s all gone too fast! It’s such a treat (and so much more fun) to all travel together in one van – thanks to Jon our lovely new stage manager/lighting specialist and rally driver – off roading a speciality! Many thanks to everyone for the very high quality banter on the long long journey to the south west… We got to Truro and did a great little radio interview…then went on further down to the depths of the South West for some gorgeous Cornwall adventures.. These included a lovely story walk down to the sea in Perranporth..and hearing actual Cornish spoken (and sung! ) it was so special to hear Cornish..it is very very close to Welsh...definitely a close cousin.. Lovely cornish gigs…and story walk. Lynne and i sang lovely harmonizy type things – very lush! Thanks to Jon for actually offering to carry Brandon down the beach (my big accordion has been named Brandon by Lynne and Mike..but is way too heavy to carry over rocks past surfers and onto the sand…) The workshops have been great too..some magic children..they really got well into the story and wrote some amazing songs (many thanks to the lovely teachers..Mr Pleasance you are a legend!) Berrynarbour in North Devon was fun too..i have never seen so many miniature flowerpot men … Then it was on to our last evening gig in Devon..a lovely little memorial hall…and very kind hosts (again with the kindness of the hosts.!..they have all been great) It’s been wonderful seeing the children from our workshops (song / story / art) coming to the gigs…they listen in such a different way once we’ve met and made a song / story / art together… Then we came to the last story walk (Heddon’s Mouth) just a great time…lovely locations in the trees…by the river and then by the crashing waves at the end of the story…it really was a big old slice of drama…telling the story of the wild boar rushing over the cliff…by an ACTUAL cliff! … seriously took my breath away.. What felt very special for all of us (i’ll ask Mike and Lynne later..but i think they will agree!) was the feeling of bring a story home to one of its locations…deep and lovely work! Many thanks to our fab team: Naomi (our glorious leader) Amanda – second in command and maker of the finest crumble (as well as supplying me with greenblue glitter and clever limericks..) Zen – Jon (aka little white bearcub) – stunning driving..set putting up..off roading and (as previously mentioned) quality banter Mike – splendid story remembering-ness he is the god of lists…fair play – also does a very fine Simon Sharma impression! Lynne for her silver vocals and swirly diva dancing (nice new skirt by the way) and me (Stacey) for probably talking too much on all the journeys..sorry about that..it always happens when i get too happy to contain myself! i am a very very lucky musician to be doing this work with all these lovely chicks! diolch o galon cariads (that’s welsh for ta very much my lovelies!) xxxx p.s you may be wondering why i haven’t mentioned the trousers…as they feature in the title…trousers did figure in our story as mike forgot his…but we got back and collected them and all was well..sorry mike for bringing that up! p.p.s re: the albino emus…yes they do exist..i saw them for real and so did mike! Can’t wait for the next gigs..they are this coming weekend! hooray! xxx