In loving memory of our co-founder, Darren Beech (4/08/1967 to 25/03/2021)

KEEPING IT LIVE: Retford Book Festival – Tom Kitching and Marit Fäit

Keeping It Live is the title of a set of occasional reviews based on, err… , live music.  So why Retford Book Festival on the folking.com webpages?

Retford is a small town in Nottinghamshire and June saw its first ever book festival. Amongst those who were – do you say talking or performing for a book festival? – were Tom Kitching and Marit Fält. Tom’s latest book is called Where There’s Brass and is, as he puts it, “a love letter to the waterways, and a rallying cry for what they can be in the future”.

The book documents six months on a traditional narrow boat built in 1937, mostly living in the London waterways community. Kitching began the evening by telling us of making the journey from Manchester to London on the boat, to a twelve-day deadline (“the closest I’ll get to when canals were the means of transporting goods”)  and then told us of experiences in different parts of London’s contemporary waterways, “a floating slum at worst, a bohemian, alternative, vibrant community at best”.

The style was an intermingling of story/book reading followed by music. It was a steady, fascinating and entertaining pattern which made for a rather splendid evening. That brings us to Marit Fäit, to Tom’s ‘other life’ as a musician and a reminder that, as well as in concerts and folk clubs, we can see folk music live in a multitude of settings: village fetes, the back room of your local, busking on the street, around your kitchen table with some mates – and, of course, at a book festival.

The setting was the Methodist church, a large church – carved wood, high ceilings and textile flooring and on the benches combining to create a remarkably rich acoustic sound that a mate who is an audio-genius raved about the quality of. The music was acoustic – essentially, violin, cittern, mandolin and mandola – Kitching’s gregarious front-of-house style supported by Fäit’s ability to sit calmly whilst enriching Kitching’s words by the very slightest of smiles playing on her face at well-timed intervals.

…and some splendid music … with some splendid tales. To give an example: Kitching talked about the inability of the English to recognise the value of their own traditional music, even though they value Irish music – and the consequent result that English musicians play lots of English tunes in pub sessions with ‘The Wild Rover’ thrown in for everyone to sing along with. The session is thereby enjoyed by all attending, the pub is happy to have sold its beer and “the musicians have played the English tunes they love”.

I’ll not repeat other tales, just give a hint to try and attract you by suggesting there’s both seriousness (the contrast between the lo-materialism of the boat life on the waterways and “nipping off to the shop for a £6.00 loaf of bread”),  humorous seriousness (nightsoil blowback which ruptured the non-return valve) and straightforward humour (a ransom note for a duck).

Keep Music Live – wherever you find it – and thanks both to Retford Book Festival for bending boundaries and to Tom Kitching and Marit Fäit for some great music and a cracking evening.

Mike Wistow

Artists’ website: http://www.tomkitching.co.uk

‘In-Store Bakery’ – live: