People taking Part in the Next Reasonable Cause

The Kindling Trust
Our aim is to work towards a just and ecologically sustainable society, by establishing a practical working example of the world we want, right here in the North West of England. kindling.org.uk

The wonderful Messner's myspace page.
www.myspace.com/messnermusic


Greg Keeffe is an academic and designer who originally trained as an engineer and has 25 years experience in sustainability, energy use and its impact on the design of built form and urban space. He currently holds the prestigious Downing Chair of Su...stainable Architecture at the Leeds School of Architecture. Previously he was the Head of Design at the Manchester School of Architecture, and founder of thebioclimatic architecture labs.

http://www.gregkeeffe.co.uk/GREGKEEFFE/Intro.html


Esther Swift

Esther Swift is now a graduate of the Royal
Northern College of Music, after studying under
Eira Lynn Jones. As well as being involved in many
orchestras within college, . . Being of Scottish heritage, Esther is
heavily influenced by folk music and as well as being a member of Twelfth Day
folk duo, who recently performed in the prestigious Glasgow folk festival 'Celtic
connections', and Toulouse folk festival, she writes and arranges many of her
own tunes and songs. Twelfth Day have just released their debut album
Northern Quarter in June and are touring across the UK this summer to promote
it. Esther has also experimented with Jazz, Pop and World music and
embraces any new ideas with open arms. She has recently composed a harp
quartet called “Clouds” which has 5 movements and features lots of
improvisation and a poem, sung by Esther, written by her father, Robert Swift.

http://www.myspace.com/twelfthdayduo

Next Night: Tuesday 23rd of November

A Reasonable Cause, Kro Bar, Tuesday, November 23rd
In this months "A Reasonable Cause" we have some very exciting contributors.
We have music from Esther Swift the extremely talented harpist from the folk group Twelfth Day, who will be doing a solo set. Then we have the unique electronic-acoustic sounds of Messner.
We have a video from the Manchester based food organisation, The Kindling Trust entitled " Sustainable Food" Greg Keeffe who holds the Downing Chair of Sustainable Architecture at Leeds School of Architecture will be giving a talk on Carbon Neutral cities. There will of course be drawing, glitter, jigsaws and silly videos. We hope to see you there

First Night

I have to thank everyone who came and watched, played, and talked. It was great to see the idea come to life, and I have learnt so much for the next one.
It was an interesting process putting on the night, getting the P.A,projector and making sure everyone was there on time. We had a few dodgy moments where we thought we mightn't get the projector off the wall from where we were kindly borrowing it, but Tholly being a manly man worked out a way.
We watched Louise Palmers film Zabbaleen which is a wonderful film ; shows the suffering of these people but also with out in anyway belittling them. The way the main character gets on with his life really inspires you to do the best you can, and if you can't recycle after this film you never will.
John ainsworth came along and sang with his 12 string guitar. He has a style reminiscent of Jeff Buckley but is completely unique in his own way. He dealt with a wee bit of distortion, wonderfully, as well. He deserves to be huge. Here is a link to his my space.

Marc Hudson of Manchester Climate Fortnightly came along and helped give the night its own special feel. He talked to us about Manchester and what is doing or not doing to combat climate change. Broke us up into small groups and got us to come up with ideas that we have been implementing with climate change in mind, and any suggestions questions we might have. In the little time we had I learnt some new things, how glass gets blasted at such hot temperatures that doesn't matter if it is contaminated when recycled,and got to hear somw new ideas. As a friend of mine said afterwards it was like school but we had a beer,and I wanted to know as I didn't know these things before. It was nice to have these issues in a positive chilled out light where it is completely normal and interesting to be talking about them. None of us are perfect but it makes you want to try harder.
Sophie Rosa played a piece by the New Zealand composer Gareth Farr called Lake Wakatipu. She was awesome.
Then it was the turn of the Tawse boys I can't really review them as I was up there strumming, but we had a lot of fun and will be performing and recording a lot more over the next few months.
Thanks to everyone for coming and all those who didn't hopefully see you at the next one.
Ben
P.s Check you haven't bought a fitted sheet when you are using it as a screen for a projector

Previews of some of the line up

Here are some quick bios for two of the guest we have coming a week on Wednesday:

Marc Hudson started Manchester Climate Fortnightly in June 2008. It has tried to keep people informed about what is - and isn't happening - in Manchester around climate change. It reports on the Council, campaigning groups and other events and issues. It tries to be funny, with mixed success.

You can find out more about the work Mark does on his
blog

Louise directed and produced Zabbaleen in 2006 as her degree film at Bournemouth University. The film won the National RTS (Royal Television Society) award for best student factual film, as well as the best documentary and grand jury prize at Exposure film festival in Manchester. Since leaving Bournemouth with a First Class degree, Louise has gone on to work as a freelance Researcher and now Associate Producer on a wide variety of television and film documentaries for broadcasters such as the BBC, Channel 4 and National Geographic. Last year Louise worked on a BBC Storyville series entitled 'Barbados at the Races' which aired early this year on BBC4, and she is currently working on a BBC3 film about 'Superbrands.'

Sophie Rosa is 22 and began to play the violin when she was four. She has studied with Wen Zhou Li since she was twelve at Chetham’s School of Music and currently at the RNCM at postgraduate level. Sophie has successfully participated in several competitions such as the Strings F inal of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006, semi-final of Wieniawski International Violin Competition 2003, Michael Hill Violin Competition 2009 and Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition 2010. Sophie won first prize in the Lions European Music Competition, Cannes and recently travelled to Sydney where she won second prize in the Lions Global Music Competition. She has also performed in Wigmore Hall, London and has performed for HRH Princess Margaret and HRH Prince Charles.

Sophie was a recent recipient of the prestigious RNCM Gold Medal Award and was awarded the MBF Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award and Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Award this year.

First Night Coming Soon

I welcome you all to the first night of A Reasonable Cause. An event that is a mixture of music, short film, and a wee talk about something worthwhile, but mainly It is about having fun.

In the first night we have the awesome guitarist John Ainsworth, have a listen on his myspace . The multi prize winning violinist Sophie Rosa, playing a modern piece by a New Zealand chap. My band Tawse a mixture of the best of these Islands. Stewart Wilson/Scotland on Bass, Owen Williams/ Wales on Drums Tholly Mason/ England Guitar Vocals, Ben Cashell/Ireland Guitar/ Vocals.

We will also be showing a short film by Louise Palmer about the Zabaleen, a community of 50,000 60,000 people who live in Cairo’s main rubbish dump, which won the Grand jury prize in the 2006 Cornerhouse Exposures festival. Marc Hudson of Manchester Climate Change Fortnightly will be coming to talk about Climate Change and what Manchester is doing to combat it.

We will be decorating the room as the night goes on with prizes for some of the most creative pictures to be displayed. There will be silly films in between the acts and  hopefully good craic will be had by all.

Ben