National Anthems. An evening with Alex Marshall & Rhodri Marsden

Tuesday May 24^th – 7.00pm-9.00pm

A Celebration of National Anthems

With Alex Marshall and Rhodri Marsden

 

There are a couple of hundred songs that are sung by millions across the world each day, that school children know by heart and sports fans belt out perfectly even after eight beers. And they aren’t pop songs – they are national anthems.

 

In his brilliant new book Republic or Death, Alex Marshall brings the incredible stories of the world’s national anthems to life. Taking in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas North and South, he embarks on an adventure that includes cycling the route along which French revolutionaries marched as they first sang La Marseillaise; entering a competition for the best singer of the Star-Spangled Banner; and attempting to bribe his way to an audience with the king of Nepal in order to uncover the story behind the only national anthem written on a Casio keyboard.

The book will be available at the shop for £8.99 and Alex will doubtlessly be happy to sign copies for you.

Alex will be joined by the multitalented and charming Rhodri Marsden.

Rhodri is currently in no less than three bands. Scritti Politti, Prescott and everybody’s favourite TV theme tribute band Dream Themes. In 2014 he talked (and played) at The Boring Conference, highlighting the similarities between 198 of the World’s national anthems. It went down a storm. And for one night only Rhodri will be recreating this momentous event right here at the Big Green Bookshop.

This is a FREE event, but please let us know if you plan on coming along, as I have a feeling it will be VERY popular.

Don’t miss it!

Judy Dyble - Book Launch. Friday May 13th.

Friday May 13^th – 7.00pm

Launch Party for ‘An Accidental Musician’, Judy Dyble’s Autobiography.

Please join us for Judy’s glorious return to the Bookshop (Judy will be performing too!)

 

The original female singer for Fairport Convention, Judy left the band after their first album, aged 19 (replaced by Sandy Denny).

 

Judy's boyfriend at the time, Ian McDonald answered an ad in Melody Maker and joined Giles, Giles and Fripp, the forerunner of King Crimson. Judy joined this band, but left when her relationship with McDonald ended.

She then teamed up with ex-Them singer Jackie McAuley to form Trader Horne, but in 1973, Judy left the music business when she married DJ Simon Stable (Count Simon De La Bedoyere). Simon died in 1994, and apart from the odd appearance at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival, Judy didn’t perform again for many years.

 

 In 2003, she restarted her musical career and produced several albums to great critical acclaim. 2015's 3-CD anthology sold out immediately and was well reviewed in Prog magazine, amongst others.

 

Judy’s autobiography, written with journalist and author Dave Thompson captures Judy’s extraordinary story perfectly.

Please come along to help celebrate with Judy. As an added bonus she’ll be joined by Alistair Murphy, Jeremy Salmon to (as she put it) “sing a bit” too!

The book will be available on the night and Judy will be very happy to sign copies for you.

This is a FREE event, but judging by her last appearance at the bookshop, it will be VERY busy, so please make sure you get here early. 

Taking Crowdfunding to Another Level

Well, blimey. 

As many of you already know, about two weeks ago we were robbed. About £600 was stolen from behind the counter by a sneaky opportunist thief, as Tim was helping someone choose some books.

It was a bit of a sickener. It was a huge sickener. 

Having heard news of the robbery, Sam Jordison, co-director of the brilliant Galley Beggar Press, decided to start a Crowdfunder to see if it would help us get some of the money we'd lost back.

Then something amazing happened. People all over the world started donating money. The original target that Sam set was reached and passed in a matter of hours. And it kept on coming.

As I type this, over £5500 has been raised. And not only that, the messages of support and the wonderful things that so many people have said about the Bookshop have blown us away.

I wrote about my feelings in The Guardian HERE, and Tim and I are still in total shock at the response.

Thank you isn't a big enough word on this occasion. Imagine it typed in a font size of around 48250. It still isn't big enough.

We've been discussing how we can best make use of the money raised, so I thought I'd share some of them with you.

• We've recently introduced something called The School Reward Scheme. Essentially, every book you buy from us, 10% of that money will go to the school or nursery of your choice to spend on books for their library. So, we're going to give 10% of the money that's raised and split it between 5 local schools/nurseries that we feel could really do with it. 

• It's going to help us pay off some of the big old bills. This one particularly springs to mind. 
•  

• We've been researching funding options to help finance Big Green Education, our not-for-profit company, which aims to promote the love of reading in schools. This boost will allow us to work more closely with the local schools, hopefully leading to more Patrons of Reading being put in place.                                                                                                                                              
• Some of the bookcases in the shop are getting a little battered, so we're can hopefully replace these for shiny new ones from Ikea.                                                                                                          
• We are commissioning a statue of Sam to have in the window of the shop*

There's so much more we can do too. Essentially, this extra money will give us a bit of breathing space, something many small businesses like us very rarely get. You lot have given us this breathing space and it means the world.

We will, of course, be throwing a big "Thank You" party, of which you are all invited.

Meanwhile, if you have  a minute or more free might I suggest you go over to Galley Beggar Press website and have a look at all the amazing stuff they've got over there.





*this isn't true. Sorry Sam.