Free workshop focused on uncovering history and sharing stories through music and creative writing.
Biography: Daniel Astles is a musician, songwriter and performer who also specialises in community music workshops.
As a performing artist Astles has been described as ‘gorgeous, lilting indie’ by the NME. As well as having been supported by the PRS Foundation Momentum funding, and recently signing a Publishing Deal with Sentric Music and Starwood Management (Michael Kiwanuka and The Kooks) as well as being signed to London Label 7476 (Matt Maltese, Mathilda Mann). He has also performed with artists such as Bill Ryder Jonea and The Mysterines.
Workshop Details
The Session will last around 2 Hours with a small break in the middle. It will cover the things below.
– Open Discussion about Birkenhead’s Working Class history, see if anyone has any stories they have to add to ones already gathered.
– Discussion about songwriting – what is in a good song, what makes a song special. What is everyone’s favourite song?
– Songs about places – how do they effect how people view the places? How do they add to the story of the place? Eg Penny Lane, Empire State of Mind etc.
– Using cut out fragments of previous stories gathered as well as their own words, start individually writing poems and verses about Birkenhead’s working class history.
Dan will aim to combine bits of everyone’s stories and songs, whilst starting to write song and encouraging people to sing.
Crafting the song into something with a structure, verses and chorus etc. Getting everyone involved in this songwriting process.
BREAK
Finish song together, practice it a few times and aim to have a phone recording of it by the end.
Final discussion – if someone heard this song and hadn’t been to Birkenhead, what would they think of the place?
This a Convenience Gallery Project. It is part of Historic England’s Everyday Heritage Grants: Celebrating Working Class Histories. The new grant scheme was launched by Historic England earlier this year to support community-led projects and further the nation’s collective understanding of the past.