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Newent Orchestral
Society
This project is set up to promote Newent's musical heritage. Sponsored by the Newent Orchestra, it promotes such diverse celebrities as record producer, Joe Meek, and composer, Rutland Boughton. Project Diary Update, 22/02/10: Floral display organised over the summer. Members of both Meek and Boughton families will attend May concert. The "Boughton Quartet" formed to present chamber music. Memorabilia items to be loaned for exhibition. Newent website promoting the project. Ledbury Reporter has published information. Update, 01/02/10: Market House booked 1, 2, 3 May, in centre of Newent to publicise the project and concert. Phil Harding, local violin/viola/cello maker and reparer has offered support. Update, 29/01/10: Heritage concert, 15 May, 2010. Exhibition at the Newent Library booked prior to concert. Animated film of Boughton's opera, "The Immortal Hour" to be shown. Original orchestral tribute to Joe Meek will have first performance in May. An extensive archive history of the orchestra has been collated. Currently approaching sponsors and other interested parties. Promotional information being prepared. Open day at Memorial Hall booked. Feature article published in The Forester. For more background information about the heritage project, click HERE. Newent's Celebrities Newent is a small market town on the edge of the Three Choirs Festival Triangle. It is the birthplace of Joe Meek and the final home of Rutland Boughton (died 50 years ago this year), both major figures in their respective music genres, who suffered and sank when their eccentric lifestyles alienated fans and the establishment, and their musical achievments were eclipsed by personal torments.
Joe Meek (1929-1967), recent subject of a major biopic with Kevin Spacey, Con O'Neill and Ralph Little, was a pioneer of modern pop music and his protégés ranged from Chas of "Chas and Dave", to Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Welsh superstar, Tom Jones, to jazz innovator, Humphrey Littleton. His Telstar-type production techniques were hugely innovative and successful but he descended into a morass of madness and ended up blasting his landlady with a shotgun, then shooting himself, not living to reap the benefits of his pioneering work. History of the Newent Orchestra The orchestra was formed in 1940 by Clem Thurston, who ran a grocery business in Newent. He was supported by others, including the Rev. C.J.K. Burnell and his family, who were virtually a small orchestra in themselves. Viola player, Carline Crampton, joined the company and became the Newent Orchestra's first conductor. The orchestra has been rehearsing and presenting concerts since this time - a remarkable achievement for the product of such a relatively small community. Carline Crampton was the orchestra's conductor for 48 years, handing the baton over to Adrian Courteny for a period and then to the present conductor, George Taylor, in 1992. The orchestra is fortunate to own an extensive collection of music scores, many of these being old and of historic interest. Exploring this musical treasure trove is always a pleasure at rehearsals and the collection provides much of the music for creating original and entertaining concert programmes.
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Music Heritage Project
Rutland Boughton
(1878-1960) founded a colony of artists and the first Glastonbury Festival, an English
"Bayreuth", prior to the First World War, supported by Sir Edward Elgar and Sir
Granville Bantock. Boughton, in his time, was as popular as his contemporary,
Vaughan Williams, and holds the record for the longest continuously running West End
opera, "The Immortal Hour", an Arthurian saga. However, his allegiance
with the communist party, which extended to him welcoming Paul Robeson to Newent, a
love-hate relationship with music critic, George Bernard Shaw, and his reputedly immoral
lifestyle and abrasive manner, contributed to a complete fall from grace and popularity.
