Scilly Boys

To the lovely Wirral village of Thornton Hough tonight to meet my dear pal Mel at the Village Club for a fabulous gig by the musical genius that is John Elliott (of the marvellous band The Little Unsaid www.blipfoto.com/entry/2901552163274621279 ) and his friend - musician, poet, cook and wood turner, Piers Lewin.

Piers (left) is a native of St Agnes (pop. approx 85) in the Isles of Scilly.

They’ve know each other since John (a native of Yorkshire) had a job at the island’s pub during his student days, over 20 years ago, which is when they first started making music together.

They’ve just released an album called ‘Lost Songs of Scilly’ which imagines what Scilly’s indigenous music may have sounded like. Sadly, no record of the islands’ traditional songs or tunes survives, although the St Agnes settlement called Maypole suggests that some sort of dance-based May Day rituals did once exist.

The music the two of them have created features Piers on whistles, harmonica and sax, with John on keyboards, guitars, electronic wizardry, percussion and vocals. It’s absolutely magical and weaves samples of the sea, wind and church bells into the overall ambience.

The songs and tunes tell of island life, the environmental threat to islands brought about by climate change (Tuvalu in the Pacific is so endangered that its people have uploaded their entire culture to the Cloud to preserve it for the time when they will all be forced to leave for other shores and become the world’s first digital nation); the ways in which the rest of the world impacts on even the smallest islands (the tune ‘Douro’ refers to the eponymous ship which was wrecked in the Scillies in 1843 carrying a cargo of brass manillas - metal rings used as currency within the transatlantic slave trade); myth (‘Lyonesse’ refers to the ‘lost’ kingdom which some say stretched from Land’s End to the Scillies) and speculation (‘Small Boats’ wonders whether the Christian holy people who travelled to the Isles by coracle back in the so-called Dark Ages were viewed with hostility or welcomed in by the local pagans).

It was great to have a chat with the chaps after the show.

Here’s ‘Lyonesse’ https://youtu.be/ebLaN4vcs2A?si=P2C0lxP8mciJV4zQ