Filming in lockdown

So after all the practice and stress of learning to lip synch, figuring out clothes and make up, finalising scripts, finishing writing a song and getting it recorded etc etc etc filming day arrived.

It was interesting filming in lockdown, keeping distance and masking up as much as possible although obviously Csilla and I couldn't do that and sing or speak so we were mindful of having a good space between us for our scenes together and with the magic of cameras angles can be found to make the gaps look smaller.   She and Alistair the director are a couple, the two cameramen are in a work bubble and Tom, who was doing sound, and I are together of course, so it made things a lot easier and we all brought our own food and flasks for refreshments.  

We started the day filming all our conversations and links.   On stage we tell our individual stories as links and then link to either a poem or a song.  And I do quite an extensive interview section with Csilla to hear about the actual mechanics of how she escaped from behind the Iron Curtain - it's a fascinating story.   Maybe because we've always looked for humour here, the bits about my growing up on the border are often the funniest parts.

That took nearly 4 hours and after a break for a very quick lunch we went on to filming one of our joint pieces and then all my songs done using the the same staging set up and then finished with a new set up for Csilla to do all her poems today. 

Here Csilla is acting the Clown - she wrote a poem about dressing up as a Clown to cheer up her parents and I set it to music.  This was fun to do.  

Lining up shots

Checking out the smoke machine for Dreaming a song I wrote when we first started travelling to Germany and getting out of the enclosed feeling of Northern Ireland and realising that it was ok for people to talk about sensitive subjects like politics and religion and ask each other their name without the answer having hidden meanings. 

Creating a mood - I managed not to choke on the smoke but the film part looks brilliant on this. 

The director Alistair and Csilla setting up Europa

Cameramen Ryan and John lining things up

The famous clapboard - always wondered how they worked.  It gives a sound so that things can be lined up in the editing suite - without it, sometimes it's hard to make the pictures exactly match the mouth that we're seeing.  So this was our 19th scene of the day, take 3.   (Thankfully we managed to nail most pieces in 2 or 3 takes, even in pieces like this where we both perform separately).   

Csilla preparing for Europa a poem she wrote after the bombings in London in 2007 where she wonders if Europe wasn't held together by the Berlin Wall.   We do it like a Greek tragedy - I sing the chorus and she speaks the verse.  It was the hardest to figure out how to film and was the last of the day so we were both pretty wrecked but I think we managed to get it. 

It was a long day but very enjoyable once we got into the swing of things.   Sadly I don't have any pics of our conversation bits or of Csilla's work today - I've been busy doing my zoom classes but this will give you a feel for it and I'll keep you posted when the film is totally ready for viewing.  Tom was in the background doing sound and it was him took the photos of me but managed to avoid the camera himself.  He's now going to be doing the edit in the next week or so.  

This time last year - our last live gig

Can you believe it's a full year since lockdown began.  I remember reading avidly accounts from China where people were relating how they coped with 7 weeks lockdown and I remember thinking, how will we do that.   Then it was announced that we'd have to shield for 12 weeks.   My mother was convinced she'd be dead.   We were all in such a panic - trying to get mum used to using an iPad or phone to no avail.  And I nearly had a meltdown in a supermarket when people were standing right on top of me!  So stressful.   

And here we are a full year on.  

We had our last concerts as part of the Emigrant Woman's Tour - Csilla and myself - on International Women's Day (belated greetings for yesterday by the way, to all my lovely women blogger friends ) and then one more on the 13th where by that stage nobody had the nerve to come out.  Our final date of the tour for the 14th was cancelled along with the St Patrick's Day gigs.   

Now to mark the year and to wrap up the project, we are filming the show tomorrow.  It's been a frantic week or so here - frantic by lockdown standards anyway - how are we getting so tired when we're doing next to nothing - but we've finished writing a song and have it recorded now - final tweaks this morning.   

Today is my final day of practising to lip synch all the songs and we've all the dialogue rehearsed, clothes organised and are more or less set to go into an empty pub that was absolutely freezing when we went to check out locations on Saturday - so I think I'll be bringing a blanket as well.  And we all have to bring our own food, cups, glasses everything.   It'll be interesting to see how this works with social distancing etc.   We have five different sets in the one room.   

It's been good having a deadline to work to, and it's been great getting back into the studio.   I sang a song about growing up in the country last year for the show but it never felt finished - so that was the main job of the week to finish rewriting it.  The Stories that Lived in the Woods.   

And fingers crossed, next week when the Executive announce the first dates to open up lockdown, we might at least be able to meet a few people in the garden.   And Spring is inviting us outside again.   Woohoo :) 

Waiting for the call

We're in the middle of our run of performances of the Emigrant Woman and Border Stories and waiting from day to day to see if they're going to be cancelled while trying not to panic.

Because of Csilla's story of her escaping from behind the Iron Curtain and the extra play we've added in about homelessness which she also wrote, the Q&A after both the shows in Derry and in Rostrevor were very interesting and informative. One of the pieces we do is called Love in Paris - it's a poem of Csilla's that I have turned into a song and it describes her meeting a stranger when she and her boyfriend finally arrived in Paris after a week sleeping rough to get through the green borders from Yugoslavia to Italy and then over the Alps to get from Italy into France (as teenagers they thoguht that now they were in the free west they didn't need a passport!).   Anyway, the stranger in Paris looks after them and helps them find the right address.   But we were all shocked to hear in the Q&A a French friend of mine saying that nowadays to do that in Paris would be an arrestable offence ... for the householder!   Isn't that the most crazy thing ... What is happening to humanity.  

Today's audience are all school children (if the school isn't closed before we get there) - it will be interesting to hear their take on the different stories. 

BBC Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle tomorrow

Csilla and I will be on the Eve Blair Show on Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle on Saturday next at 1pm talking about our Emigrant Woman's Tale shows in Derrry and Armagh the following week.

If you have time have a quick listen in.

After our first show of the revived Emigrant Woman's Tale in Dundalk

Simple Pleasures

Trains! 

I love them! 

This week I've been up in Belfast 3 times and for the first time I've had  a chance to use my new free pass on the train - we don't have a great train service here in Northern Ireland, except for the satellite towns around Belfast and the main connection between Dublin and Belfast which thankfully runs through our local town of Newry and is really good. 

Tom and I headed up to #OutPut Belfast - a day long music business conference on Thursday and it was such a pleasure to sit on the Enterprise, have a cuppa, chat through stuff and feel like you were citified for a day with no worries of parking and traffic.  The conference was quite good, although full of wide eyed youngsters - we both felt a bit jaded along with the other few old hats whom we met there.  It also felt very London centric so I was delighted to hear our Arts Officer talking on one of the panels about our unique sound over here.   There's a fantastic new music scene which I'm really out of touch with as it doesn't really impact on our music at all, but some great bands to watch out for and hopefully another Snow Patrol or Soak or Ro will turn up out of here. 

Then back again on Friday with Csilla to pre-record an interview about The Emigrant Woman's Tale for the BBC.  We're bring the show to Derry on 6th March and then Armagh on 14th so this radio programme will go out on the 29th February - a lovely piece done down the line with Eve Blair, the presenter in the studio in the North West and us playing and singing in Belfast.  There's a piano backing that I wrote for one of Csilla's poems - Sub Rosa, which is written directly about her experience of crossing the Green Border past the Iron Curtain from Yugoslavia into Italy - however I don't play piano that much anymore and we're doing these shows only with guitar - so my nerves were a bit on edge yesterday having to remember that the studio piano is not like my old monstronsity in the house that needs the life hammered out of it to get a decent sound.   But a few takes did the job. 

I love the feeling of walking in the city - there's an energy which doesn't live in country villages and I easily reach my steps target for the day and come home with a smile on my face even after dragging the heavy guitar case around.  Having grown up in the country I've always preferred cities but city born hubby much preferred to get out and into a small town.  I think the train pass will be used more frequently in the coming months.  Love it :)

St Brigid's Day

image from RTE programme mentioned below

The blessings of Brigid to you today on this first day of Spring - it's Imbolc.   I still haven't got a new Brigid's Cross for this year but hopefully someone today will give me one.

If you're interested in the old traditions, here's a lovely piece from RTE about St Brigid and the Coming of Spring which is still a very important day here. 

And a mention to the Brigid of Faughart Festival across the lough from here in Co. Louth - which is always very thoughtfully curated.   Faughart outside Dundalk is one of the main shrines to Brigid  on the island - they celebrate her both as Goddess and Saint.


Back to the more mundane - when a technical company tells you that it'll only take a couple of clicks of a button to do something I should know by now that their definition of a couple is way way way off the mark!!

We've had our website hosted by an American music company for many years - one who also helps us put our music on iTunes and lots of other pfaffy things that I try mostly to ignore.   But they have been emalgamated into another company and we were assured of a very quick and smooth transition.   To be fair they did give us a good bit of warning but life got in the way of business there for the past few months.

And the couple of clicks???   2 weeks!

So anyway we're up and running by the deadline of this Friday - we've made some changes with more to come -have a look and see what you think. 

An update on The Emigrant Woman's Tale

Tonight's Show in Forkhill

Tonight Csilla and I have another performance of the Emigrant Woman's Tale  - this is part of a women's concert funded by the Peace Programme and the organisers were keen to show another aspect to women here as opposed to simply Catholic and Protestant.
With the story of emigration being so huge on the news and in everyone's minds at the moment it will be interesting to see the response we get this evening.

Csilla Toldy on stage at Newcastle Arts Festival
photo by Alistair Livingstone

We're very very pleased with the response we're getting to this show.  After a couple of performances in July and August we got some great positive feedback.

This review quote from Colum Sands from the BBC - he says:

"In The Emigrant Woman's Tale, Fil Campbell and Csilla Toldy draw on memories of Belleek and Budapest to weave a striking tapestry of song, poetry and spoken word.  They take their audience on a journey that crosses borders on maps and in minds in search of that elusive place that we call home. An inspirational performance that is sometimes humorous, often moving and always thought proving....highly recommended."

Fil Campbell on stage at Newcastle Arts Festival
photo by Alistair Livingstone

And some comments from the audience as they were leaving the last performance  - I should add that this  was before the current emigrant crisis..... I find the variety so interesting - we seem to be touching lots of buttons.  

An older lady who now lives in Scotland and comes originally from our local big town left in tears - it  reminded her of being an emigrant and made her miss home more than ever - (sorry about that).   "Very moving" from a Dutch lady...  "A fascinating story" from a Scottish couple talking about Csilla's escape journey out of Hungary.  "Great to hear some of your old songs again" from some young visitors - "I love the mix of your two accents" from an American  "When you speak and sing together is brilliant" from some English visitors.   I'm pleasantly surprised.

Setting the scene at Newcastle Arts Festival Aug 15

Let's see what tonight brings.

The Emigrant Woman's Tale

Csilla Toldy comes from Hungary and now lives in Rostrevor.   She is a poet and a film maker.

She escaped, or rather left Hungary illegally, when she was just 18 years old.    She and her boyfriend at the time travelled to Yugoslavia by train and then took a bus to the border with Italy (the green borders) and from there spent a day and a night on foot crossing the mountains into Trieste in Italy,   A few more train journeys, afraid to sleep in case they were caught, and finally getting to the border with France to discover that she only had a passport for the Eastern bloc countries, not for the West.   So this time they crossed the Alps on foot to eventually get into France and to Paris a week after leaving home supposedly to go on a holiday.

The Emigrant Woman's Tale is her story told in poetry and song, some of my music to her words and some of my own songs that illustrate what was going on here in my life at the same time.

We will be presenting it in the Book Club in Rostrevor on Saturday 14th March and again in No Alibis bookshop in Belfast on Tuesday 14th April.  Entrance is free.
We've also published a short book to go with it - Csilla's poems, my song lyrics, and memoirs from both of us, plus a CD of her reading some her poems and my songs from the show.  It's all very exciting now that it's coming together.

We don't treat our immigrants well - anywhere in the world I suppose.  And yet we were very badly treated when we were emigrants.

This is the final song of the piece

This Is Home (An Immigrant's Tale)

I had a dream of a place

Far far away o’er the sea

Where streets were pure gold

People opened their doors

And everyone’s free to be free

I left all I knew far behind

Family and friends and my life

With memories dear

Held close to my heart

I faced out and never turned back

So happy was I to be free

Here was a chance to be me

I never once feared

That my hopes wouldn’t be

All that I dreamt they could be

Chorus

Now this is home, home is where I am

Home, home is where I’ll be

Though I’ve travelled many miles

I’m so happy to be here

This is the place I call home

But the people who live in this place

Are not happy seeing my face

They don’t like my accent

My culture, or name

I’m not welcomed, I’m told to go home

What of the times in the past

Their ancestors just like me now

People say “You’re not wanted here”

We are just to be feared

Can’t they remember the hurt?

But this is home, etc..