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Just got off the train in Stourbridge in the West Midlands and we're here to meet an artist called Dan Whitehouse who made this extraordinary project called Voices from the Cones all about the glass industry which was incredibly prevalent around here until very very recently and we're not only going to hear his amazing songs but we're also going to see the places where the glass was made and I might even have a go at doing it myself.
Dan, good morning.Lovely to see you.
Lovely to see you too.Thanks for coming down to Starbridge to do this.
Oh, it's wonderful.And you're dressed all in white.
Welcome to the glass age.
We're getting in the spirit straight away.And where have you brought us to?
We're here at the Ruskin Glass Centre, home of the Glasshouse College.But you know, on this site, they've been making glass for over 400 years due to the abundance of raw materials needed for glassmaking.
So what sort of raw materials are there in this area?
Clay, limestone, red clay in particular.It was the French Huguenots that came over, fleeing persecution in the native France, initially were drawn to this area.And ever since then, they've been making glass on site.
The last glass factory closed in 1999, but now the site has been reimagined
and glass is used as education and there are lots of individual artisan glass makers continuing local traditions of etching and blowing whilst pushing the boundaries with their creativity.
And what was it that drew you to this industry and this story when you started to think about making an album?
Well a wonderful man called Alan Aylesmore saw me performing about 10 years ago supporting Eddie Reader. He was drawn to my music and invited me to come and play in the cafe here after hours sometimes to have little folk concerts.
So we did that a few times and it was fun and I enjoyed the energy around here to sense the community right from day one.But then an opportunity arose.
They'd amassed this wonderful all-history archive of interview footage largely with former glassworkers. And Alan and his team, Lorraine Kenny, had this idea that they wanted to retell those stories, but try and reach a different audience.
And they commissioned a fantastic storyteller, John Edgar, and myself.I'd never met John before, but we were brought together by Alan and Lorraine and invited to have access to the oral history archive.
and try and write a theatre show and a series of songs about the glass community in Stourbridge, the rich history of glass making in Stourbridge, called Voices from the Cones, so-called of course due to the iconic cone-shaped fiery furnaces that once adorned the Stourbridge landscape.
And John Edgar wrote this wonderful script and we performed it as a theatre show. That was just before COVID, when the whole world changed, right?Yeah.
And my world changed personally, because in that year, 2019, my son, who was five years old, moved to live in Japan with his Japanese mother.
That was what provoked me to write The Glass Age, my own reflection on how we've adopted the glass screens of our communication devices almost as part of the family.I was spending so much time communicating with my son via the glass screen.
But let's bring it back to the cones, which would have dotted around all over here, would they?What would the cones have been like?
Starridge landscape was adorned with these cone-shaped fiery furnaces.I'll take you to one, the red cone, later on today.
Yeah, that'd be great.And they were just all over the place.All over.Because there was so much productivity going on here.
Black country's where we mech things, that's what we say.
Where you mech things.And I think you're going to sing us a song about the apprentices who came to learn the glass trade and one of their artefacts.Tell us the background to that song.
Well, glass making is a craft that takes years of patience and perseverance to acquire.Young apprentices were encouraged to go out to the canal bank and pick a stick.
Rather like in Harry Potter, when a young wizard is deemed ready and they're sent to Ollivander's, the wand shop, and it's said the wand will choose its owner, the elders would say, you'll know it when you see it.
And so they picked this stick, random stick, from the canal bank.They'd used this stick throughout their entire career for etching and engraving.And what started out as a stick would become something they refer to only as their wand.
Alan's got a stick.Alan's here.Is that a genuine apprentice's stick, Alan?That's the one he's talking about, yeah.
People get buried with their stick, right?It's so personal.
So I'm now holding a wand or a stick.And who did this belong to?
Andrew Cope.Right.And when was he operating here?Well, he's actually still here.That on there, when he did that was 1976.
And he's got an A on it to show that it's his.Yeah.It's been carved with some engravings on the side, hasn't it, in the wood.And it looks like he's done a lot of work.Yeah.
So this is where he holds it and you can see it's worn away. Yeah, and then what does he do with the stick?Well, he rests on it to sharpen the wheel, and you can't put a mark on the glass until you've sharpened your wheel.
And the stick itself was a measure of his progress towards an apprentice.What is he now?He's a tutor, and he's on site today.
That's fantastic.Well, thank you for sharing his stick with us.And Dan, you wrote the song, Picking Up Sticks, which needs a piano.Is there a piano nearby?
I'll take you to the piano.
Let me talk with the authority of substance.Let the glass lead this debate tonight.Here's a piece of metal, son.Wanna make a noise.
Now slice through these dreams before you Trust the shears, know the glass Show respect for your master Skills to you he'll pass Go out and find your one
Getting from the canal back You'll know it when you see it You'll know it when you see it Picking up sticks Picking up sticks Picking up sticks See a break now in the clouds Sunlight passing through Witness the glory rising
The lathe may be my instrument But it's my heart that plays the tune Let me draw this melody On glass for you The lathe may be my instrument It's my heart that plays the tune.Let me draw this melody on glass for you.
Hello Lorraine, is this your domain?
Yeah, so I'm the Heritage Outreach Manager here at Glasshouse College.
What was this building used for?
So you stood in the original factory from the Webb Corbett glass days and we stood directly under two glass furnaces.Each of the furnaces had 10 clay pots in them.
Would have been a very hot sweaty place down here and a busy place with lots of workers on site as well.This particular part of the factory was called the caves because it was dark and warm.
Right, so what can we see in this room?
So we have a lot of the original equipment and the glass that was made here on site.We've got a video which was recorded while the factory was still open so it gives a real visual of how much work was involved and how hot the job would have been.
Looks as though they're chipping away at the side of the pot there.Is that what they're doing?What's going on there?
So pot setting was a job that took place on a Friday afternoon.It was paid us over time so people could stay on to be part of the pot setting team.
And it involved basically removing one clay pot from the furnace and replacing it ready for work the following week.
Why did they have to do that?
Partly it was about the quality of the glass that was coming out of them.So over time, clay can chip off the inside of the pot and end up being incorporated into the glass.So you'd end up with glass you couldn't sell, considered as seconds.
And also from a maintenance point of view, because over time, if the pot was to split in the furnace, the molten glass flows to places you don't need it to be.
And was it a big job to change one of the pots over?
Yeah, it took a team of eight or ten men.
But they're chipping away at the side of this brickwork here and it looks like there's intense heat.
They're removing the front off the furnace, they're removing the brickwork so that they're able to take the old clay pot out and replace it with a new one.
It's very warm and you'll see that they're not working slowly either because while they're focusing their efforts on one of the pots, nine other pots in the furnace are slowly cooling down.
So the idea is to get the job done as quickly as possible to keep the heat in all the other nine pots constant.
Crikey, that must have been some job.Do you still get people who used to do this work coming into the museum here?
Yeah, we're very lucky to have lots of visitors who come to the museum who worked here or have family connections here and it's out of those stories that the Voices of the Cones project was born.
Who was the very first person to pick up a handful of sand, let it run through their fingers while looking across at the limestone, the shells, and say to themselves, I could make something beautiful and transparent and forever moving with this?
Hello.You must be Roger.Nice to see you.And I think you're going to show me how to do glassblowing.
Yeah, we'll have a go, yeah.
And have you been in the glass business for many years?
46 years.So did you work in the glass industry when it was thriving here?
Yeah, I worked up the road as sewer crystals.
Hard work.Very hard work.
Because you need to get the glass to a high temperature.And what's your advice to me as a complete and utter novice about how to do this?
Just follow my instructions and you'll be alright.
I'll do that.Have you done this before, Dan?I've done it.I made a vase.You made a vase?Your turn today.And did it go well?
Yes, it's in use this morning, it's got flowers in it.
Oh, that's hopeful then, isn't it?I hope I'm not going to make a complete fool of myself.Thank you very much for having us, Roger.We go in now then to, what, is this your workshop?
This is a furnace.This is where the glass is.It's just like a big pool of glass inside.
You can hear the heat.That is the sound of some intense heat coming out of there as you slide and open the door and then slide it closed again.
And then these are the irons.You've got the solid ones.These are called bit irons.And then you've got these with the hole.That's a blowing iron.
Right.So that's the iron and you put a glass on one end of it and then you blow through the other.You shape it and blow it.So what are we going to do?
So first, You'll need a pair of glasses and sleeves.Thank you.Just to go on your wrists.Yeah.Stop me from burning them.Yeah.Yeah.Right.So I'll show you how to make one and then you can have a go.
Oh, wow.So there's a display cabinet here, which has got all sorts of exquisite examples of work.But there's one particular bit of work you wanted to show to us.What is that?
Yeah, so there's a really beautiful claret jug and wine goblet which was blown by Malcolm Andrews, the last apprentice who worked here at the factory, and exquisitely engraved by Andy Cope, who was based here during the factory days, one of the last members of staff to leave the factory.
someone who we owe a huge debt to because he actually saved a lot of the artefacts that we've got here in the museum.
He knew that over time they'd be really significant but as they were clearing the factory site they brought in industrial shredders and machinery was broken but he kept it safe so it could be put here in the displays in the museum.
But the piece links two different generations of glass makers with Malcolm Andrews being of the older generation
Andy Cope being the next generation and Andy's now actually our glass engraving tutor here at Glasshouse so that expertise and skills being passed on further.
I think we've just seen his stick, didn't we, Dan?Yeah.So what impact did that piece of work have on you?
Well, I interviewed Malcolm as part of the research for Voices from the Cones, and I was just really moved by this whole concept of him being the last apprentice.
Because that seemed to be such a key and integral part, you know, the relationships behind the glass.And that was a big creative motivator for me.
When you first went in there, it was all inspiring. You've got the heat, you've got the clattering of all the equipment, the tools, the furnace, the sound of the furnace blaring away there.Right after that, I never wanted to do anything else.
I always need to find an emotional connection.I think naturally that's what my spirit's looking for, as a way into a new piece.
In the fields of opportunity You could choose your trade Glass cutting was the one for me Working as a team all day
But that piece that Lorraine showed is fantastic because it brings two of the last standing together, you know.
And it's an exquisite piece of work, isn't it?Really delicate, really tall and slim.Beautifully engraved, isn't it?It's really gorgeous.Yes, it's a beautiful piece.
Four hundred years on this land And we haven't finished yet Voices from the coast, we never, never will forget.
Right, now you've got to stand here.Yeah.Keep the oil turning and blow.Hard?At first.Just keep it moving.Go on, it's coming.Keep blowing. Go on, a bit more.Okay.So I'm going to reheat it.When I bring it back to you, you've got to use the newspaper.
So I've got a pad of wet newspaper in my right hand here.It's quite dark coloured because I think it's been burnt by the glass before.And Roger's bringing the hot glass back to me and I'm nervously going to put my hand underneath it with that.Yeah?
Yeah, just keep it moving.
And that's shaping it, is it, Roger?Yeah.OK, that's enough.Yeah.Right.I'm going to read now.Yeah.If you stand on the steps.Yeah.
So I'm standing up on two steps here, with the mould down below me, waiting for Roger to bring the iron and the glass over, and then we're going to drop the glass into the mould from above.Okay.Okay, now blow.Blow down here?Yeah, blow.
You're too old. Stop.Now nice and gentle, now blow again, but gentle.Okay, sit in the chair now.
Dan, where are we going now, up these stairs?I want to introduce you to Vic.Vic Bamforth, artisan glassmaker.He's the kind of beating heart of the community here, of these glassmakers working from seed to table.
That's what they call it in the Ruskin Method, because we're here at Ruskin Mill Trust. It was really Vic, you know, when I was on site researching this project, Voices from the Cones, meeting Vic was a sort of revelation.
I felt a great kinship with Vic because in a way our creative process is running parallel.I mean obviously it's completely different, he's working. with glass vases engraving and etching and I'm writing songs but it just felt like a connection there.
And there's a particular piece that I think he's going to show us, isn't there?
That's right, yeah.It was five years ago when I came down to conduct interviews with some of the former glassworkers and he brought out this vase.
It's engraved with words, slogans, from the placards of the 1910 Cradley Heath chainmaker's strike that was led by Mary MacArthur, a group of women fighting for equal rights and equal pay, many of whom were glassworkers and on little more than kind of starvation wages at the time.
And one of the placards was just three simple words, Rouse ye women.That inspired the song.
Sounds like a key for a song, doesn't it?Let's go in and meet Vic.
All these The doors here are all different studios of different glass artists.
So it's a real sense of community, you know, on this site where they've been making glass for over 400 years.And they're still doing it?They're still doing it.
And look at the work in Vic's window here.Beautiful colours. Amazing.Hello Vic.Good morning.What a wonderful, wonderful place this is.We're surrounded by your work.
It's my little sanctuary, I think.
I think it's more like an Aladdin's cave.
Aladdin caves are a good expression, yeah.
Beautiful shapes and colours.
Yeah, there's a variety of colour.
How long have you been working with glass?
And what brought you to working with glass?
I did a bit of studying glass as a hobbyist and enrolled on an evening class.A year later, me and my brother came up here to do a full-time course.That was in 2001.
And is it a very difficult art to learn?
I think it's a continual thing, really.It's not easy, but I found it very seductive and addictive.
Do you want to pick out a couple of pieces that you're particularly happy about having made?
My best ones have gone.I've sold them to people who... They're out in the world?Yeah, but Dan knows all about the Chainmakers' Strike.
Yes, he's mentioned that already.Can you show us that vase?
Yeah, yeah, of course I can.I think for me it's a very important piece.It's travelled a bit, you know, different countries.
Yeah, exhibitions.Yeah, Germany and Sweden.
The Chainmakers' Strike was what was at the heart of it.And what are the images that you've put on here?
It's the banner for the Federation of Women Workers, and this quest to increase the paltry wages of the women chainmakers, spearheaded by Mary Reid MacArthur.
Whose name is at the top there on the bars.
Mary Reid MacArthur, absolutely.
So she was the leader of the strike, was she?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.And she just galvanised people all around the world to contribute, you know, financially.
And it says, lay down your hammers.Yeah, yeah.Which was the call to action, presumably, when they wanted to go on strike.
And it says, two and a half D per hour.
Penny, you know, pennies.We're all familiar with that.
Two and a half pennies per hour must have been their wages, was it?
Yeah.For making this shed of tin, we get a penny.
Right.So they were paid by the yard, were they?Yeah, yeah.And you've put that on there as well.And then what are these images on the back here?What's this red building?
The Workers' Institute, which was in Cradley Heath, the donations enabled this to be built.And as it says, it's the Workers' Institute, fondly known as the Stute.
And then you've got a chain, obviously, there.Several images of chains, in fact, because that's the work that they were doing.
Chain making was big in the Black Country, wasn't it? I've written another song about a famous chain maker from the black country called George Lovett, who was known as the Briley Hill Giant.
He was over seven foot tall, three and a half foot wide, and he weighed 60 stone when he died.
And he was a striker.What, he was part of the strike?No, that was his role in making chain.
Ah, sorry.And that means what?You hammer the links together?
Yeah, so he was really good at it with his extra weight and power.
Right. But the women were at the heart of this strike, weren't they?
1910, the Cradle Heath Chainmaker Strike was led by Mary MacArthur and the women were right at the heart of it.
And what effect did it have on you, Dan, when you saw Vic's vase?
Well, the song wrote itself.I mean, most of the songs on Voices from the Cones are pulled from interview footage, archive interview footage, all histories.
And within those interviews, the former glassworker speaks so poetically and eloquently about one another, about the glass community, about
the details of their craft and their patience and perseverance that they put into learning the craft and then passing it on to apprentices and so forth.A lot of the lines in the songs are directly taken from interviews.
But with this vase, it was like the placards, the slogans were just singing to me, beaming out from the glass.
Black by day.Red by night. Black by day Red by night Around the sweltering furnace We unite down your hammer Sing our song To fight, to struggle, to right the wrong
In cradley heath They bed their teeth Mary MacArthur, the chainmaker's strike That was the beginning, there's no end in sight Equal pay For equal work Hear our voice These are our rights
Rousy women Rousy women Black by day Red by night Black by day Red by night around the swelter and furnace we unite down your hammer and sing a song to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong Rousing women
Rousy women Rousy women Rousy women
That was absolutely fantastic, Dan.Thank you very much indeed.And to see you sing that next to Vic there, cradling the vase in his hands there, it was really moving, I must say.Did the women succeed?
Did the strike actually get them better paying conditions?Yes?
There is a statue of Mary MacArthur in Cradley Heath to remember the fantastic work that she and all the other women did.Protest work, we must continue to speak out.That's why I wrote the song, that's why I sang the song today.
Just expanding the hole at the top. by applying gentle pressure from the jacks or the tongs.That's it, keep rolling, keep rolling.It's the rolling that's the important part of this, I think.And then trying not to get it off centre.Keep it moving.
And also you can feel the heat from the glass.Okay, tool's out.Let's have a look.That's okay.
We made a vase.That's all right.
What do you think?Marks out of ten for that one. Six and a half.It's a bit crooked at the top, isn't it?But Roger, it's been absolutely amazing.You're going to put it in the... Yeah, in the layer.
I don't think they'll be putting it on sale in Harrods.Thank you so much.And I really appreciate not just the time that you've given us, but the skill that you've taught me.So thank you very much indeed.It's OK.Thank you, Roger.
All sorts of things were made here.
Some of the workers would have worked on production that involved making lots and lots of different pieces of work and they were paid on piecework and there were others who did more of the one-off commemorative pieces and we've got examples of both of those on show here.
I'm obviously hoping that in the future I'll be able to make one of those commemorative pieces but I don't think I'm quite ready yet.According to Roger I got six and a half.
I met a world famous glass maker called Sam Herman and I asked him which was the favourite piece of glass he'd ever made and he confidently told me his favourite was his first because you only ever make your first piece of glass once.
So I'm sure it's very precious, your first piece of glass.
Definitely, yes.To me at least.
The lathe may be my instrument but it's my heart that plays the tune. Let me draw this melody on glass for you.
So we've walked round the corner from the college now and come down by the canal which presumably was a part of the industry too wasn't it?It is and it's still part of the college.
That barge there belongs to the college.Students get to go out and experience life on the canals. And what we're going to show you now is a building that's got a loading bay that loads directly onto the water.
So you can see the functionality of the canal and how it was an integral part of the industry in the Black Country.
So they've been bringing the raw materials by boat and then taking away their finished product.
That's right.The canal's the motorway.
And we are under a bridge.I love going under a bridge.It makes the sound very different.And then look, there's a duck.What is it? It's a moorhen, and look at the lilies on the surface of the canal too.
It is lovely down here, isn't it?It's lovely to hear the ring road fading into the distance.
And you very quickly feel that you're going into some sort of more rural kind of atmosphere, don't you?Even though there are buildings on either side of the canal.Just because of the peaceful water and the birds.
You know, in the landlocked black country, this is as close as we can get to the water, the canals often. But it's so essential, isn't it?I've got memories of... My granddad's house used to back onto the canal, Smesto Brook in Wolverhampton.
I'd be pegging down there and, you know, running about in the fields.And people used to try and jump the cut, didn't they?They called it the cut, the canal.
So, tell me more about your childhood, because I'm interested in what role music played when you were growing up.Did you have any music in the house?
Tons of music, tons of records.My dad was a DJ and they had aspirations to set up life in California when I was a little boy.
We lived out there for two years and I learned to walk out there and the sort of sounds of the west coast you know like that's Jackson Brown who was a huge influence on me and still is.
Yeah and so that must have been quite an interesting shift to go from Wolverhampton to the west coast of California.
How did you feel about it?
Well, I was very young and you're good at acceptance when you're that age, aren't you?Things are the way they are.
And then did you come back when you were quite young?
Yeah, I came back when my little sister was born, when I was about four years old and then did my schooling in Wolverhampton.
And so what kind of music did your dad play as a DJ?
My dad loves 60s pop music, and he loves all the sounds of the West Coast.I remember dancing on the sofas to the Beatles, to the Rolling Stones, those early Beatles records.It's basically R&B, isn't it?
They took me to see Chuck Berry play at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton.I was 10 years old.He was 66, Chuck Berry, still doing his scissor kicks.
Amazing, that must have been an amazing night out.
Yeah, I'm still there.Part of me is still there in that gig, you know.It was fantastic.
Must have had a huge impact on you.And when did you first pick up a musical instrument?
My first piano teacher was a wonderful woman called Jill Pugh, who stays with me as well.I was six years old.I was very lucky.Jill was keen for me to go through the grades, which I reluctantly did.
We brokered a deal where I bought a book of Rolling Stones songs. and we used to do like half the lesson was learning to play the stones and half the lesson was doing the grades.Right, how many grades did you get through?
Got up to number five and then
That's where I bailed out as well.And what about performing in public?When did you start doing that?
When I was about 12, I joined a band, remarkably with two other people, Rebecca Downs, fantastic singer, and Adam Dunn, incredible guitarist, who are both still full-time professional musicians.
That's amazing, isn't it?
Yeah.And we're all doing our own thing now. Yeah, we had a band we were called Oblivion.Used to practice at youth club at school.
What sort of music were you playing?
Blues rock sort of thing.It was grunge, it was big.Pearl jam.I think Adam was in Megadeth.
So how did you refine your own musical style?When did that start to grow and develop?
I was drawn from the beginning to writing.I knew I wanted to express myself and learning the guitar was a vehicle to do that with.You know, a song's a great vehicle for a message, isn't it?Whether it's a story song, protest song, love song.
I kind of moved from playing guitar in bands to writing and releasing my own work. At the age of 17, I was really lucky.You might remember in the late 90s, in the back of the NME, people would put ads and stuff for auditions.
I left school at 16, but I didn't have a lot going on, and I started to reply to the ads and audition, and I got in this band, Naomi's backing band.
Naomi was signed to Gut Records at the time, which were having a lot of success with the Tom Jones Reload album. She'd written this incredible album.
I auditioned and got in her band and we went down to London and had this incredible whirlwind of the three years which I describe as my kind of rock and roll apprenticeship.It was a real baptism of fire.
It's like 17 years old, thrown out on stage supporting Bon Jovi at the Shepherd's Bush Empire and sort of lots of touring and lots of antics after that. It was a really good experience.
I was able to be a fly on the wall because it wasn't my name on the tickets, you know.But I got to observe the whole process of writing, recording and releasing an album.Did you like it?I learnt a lot from that process.
I was enthralled by the whole process, I loved every minute of it and I'll always be grateful to Naomi for that experience.
Yeah, so where are we now?
So this is the Dialed Glassworks and I thought it'd be interesting for you to see just how integral the canal was to the production line here.
Because the doors actually open directly from the works onto the canal.You couldn't get much closer, could you?That's the loading bay, isn't it?And you can see the fenders there where they would have tied up the barges.
And it's looking a bit dilapidated now, isn't it, as a building?But it looks like there's still something going on in there.Lights on.That's right.
and apart from one or two people walking down the towpath I think it's quite a good place to have a song.The canal's very peaceful and it would be lovely to hear one of your songs.What would you like to sing for us?
I'd like to sing Campfire from my album The Glass Age. It is peaceful down here, isn't it?I found peace out in Japan during the pandemic by watching the morning sunrise out there.
So you were in Japan during the lockdown, were you?
That's right, yeah.I went out to visit my son on January the 9th, and we all know what happened next in the world in 2020.And so I found myself on a bit of a deep dive within Japanese culture.
I actually spent a total of 18 months out there under strict lockdown.
Had you lived there before?
No, I'd visited.I'd developed this new morning routine where I'd take a walk down at Tokyo Bay and it was there that I discovered a group of people that would congregate at dawn and sing daily to the morning sun.
Now, some four or five years later, they've invited me to join them when I'm out there.I sing with them and we sing and we do our daily exercises.
So just describe the scene to me.So you'd be going for a walk And you'd come across this group of people, what, standing by the edge of the water?
When I discovered them, they were standing with good social distancing, literally facing the rising sun.
It's 6.30am and as the sun's rising, one chap, the leader in his 80s, he's got this portable synthesizer and he would play the key of the song and then they'd
all joining in chorus, and I started to make, surreptitiously at first, making little field recordings.I was just fascinated by their practice.
But I found a deeper respect for the son, for the moment, for each new day, and how each new day is a new beginning.You know, it wasn't an easy time for me, it wasn't an easy time for anyone, was it?
There was a lot of readjustment within my personal life with my son, you know, adjusting to a new language, a new school.
And also you must have felt incredibly isolated in not just as we were locked down in our homes in the UK, but you were locked down in a different culture.
That's right.I was in a place called Minato Mirai, which translates as future port.This place, Matthew, it's a brand new town.It's only about 20 years old.It's built on marshland.And so it's a dense cluster of high rise glass and concrete.
And it can feel quite claustrophobic at times, were it not for being the fresh sea air, you know, being right on the water there at Tokyo Bay.
We all spend so long now, don't we, sort of communicating and working through the glass screens of our devices.It's easy to forget that inside we're 60% water. You know, in order to flourish, we need to find that balance in life.
And that's the central theme to my record, The Glass Age.
And this song, Campfire, which you might sing here, what's the background to that?
So in this song, I'm likening the rising sun to that of a campfire, you know.We all share the same sun.But on tour, Whenever I'm playing campfire here in the UK, I'm imagining the sun rising out in Japan just because of the time difference.
It kind of checks out.Normally I'm on stage around 8 or 9 p.m.And I'm imagining my son waking up and the words of this song I always dedicate to him.
When you change the way you look at things what's the things you look at start to change through the flame of this gentle blaze everything is rearranged the love we share glows like a campfire the embers crackle and we hum along
We share the heat, the light and the simple songs And all our troubles are long gone A minute's silence every morning Pay our respects to the great force awakening, rising above us with the heat that penetrates your skin and fuels your chest.
We do not surrender.There was never combat.She comes in peace.We are one.
The love we share glows like a campfire The embers crackle and we hum along We share the heat, the light and the simple songs And all our troubles are The love we share glows like a campfire
The embers crackle and we hum along We share the heat, the light and the simple songs And all our troubles are long gone All our troubles are long gone
Such a moving song to hear you sing here by the canal and the heron that just flew over gave it an added poignancy, but it must get a wonderful reaction from audiences when you play it, doesn't it?Do you feel the emotions coming back from audiences?
There's been some nights where that's been really powerful and it's like a little indoor firework display, an invisible one.
Yeah.It's really uplifting and moving at the same time, I have to say.Thank you for listening, Matthew.No, it's a pleasure.It's a pleasure.Shall we walk on down the canal and see if we can find a cone?Let's go and search for that cone.Let's do it.
I'm just wondering, Dan, if you think of yourself as a folk musician, because obviously this is folk on foot, but what you've talked about so far is quite a lot of different kinds of music coming into your life.
Do you think of yourself as a folk musician?
No, but I think I write folk songs, story songs.I'm from the black country and home of heavy metal.I'm a rock musician, first and foremost.You know, rock music inspired me to pick up the guitar and that's sort of the mould I was cut from.
But the Voices from the Cones project feels like folk music to me.It feels like you're creating a contemporary kind of folk song about the working people of this area that didn't exist before.
I hear what you're saying.Thank you for framing it in that way.If that's what's happened and if that's what I've created then I'm really pleased.It's good to be useful.
I think as a songwriter I wrote about my own heartache and I did a lot of navel gazing for a long number of years and being invited to write about the community and for my writing to serve a purpose is absolutely fantastic.
It's good to be useful. And I'm interested in how inspiration struck.So when you were exposed to the audio diaries, if you like, or the interviews with all those glassworkers, what was it that you found in those interviews that led on to the songs?
The little bits, the human connection, you know, you're making me think of Rose Bowl.There was this story of Joan Plant, who was scared of thunder.And whenever it was thunder and lightning, they'd let her go inside this huge safe.
She was one of the workers, was she?
Yes.And she told a story about just how well looked after she felt.And when she went off to have her first maternity, to have her first baby, they gave her this ornate rose bowl, which she treasured.
That stuff's important, how companies treat their employees and the sense of community and all that stuff.I think sometimes that's what we're missing in modern society.
In addition to what we've talked about, about how the craft of glassmaking gave people a sense of purpose and allowed for their creative flair and so forth. Also just that notion of being looked after by your employer.
You know, the glassworkers generally were treated well.On the site where we just was at one point, there were sort of tennis courts and other recreational activities for the glassworkers, you know.
With the sort of gig economy that we've got now, I think Life's really hard for people.
You don't have that same sense of relationship between employee and employer, where the employer is benevolent and they might expect you to work for them the whole life.That doesn't happen so much now, does it?That's right.
So when you're listening to those interviews, you must have got a sense of the pride that people took in the work that they did and a sense of the connections that they made with each other.
Yeah, and the mischief and the fun that they have.One thing that I haven't told you about yet was friggery.You know, there was a sort of black market.For example, there was a musical instrument that caught my attention.
It actually got its own song on the record, Flip-Flop, where a very thin membrane of glass would be blown.A very dangerous instrument to play, putting glass in your mouth.And it creates this kind of popping flip-flop sound.
You can hear it on the record on the Flip-Flop song. And on their lunch breaks or in a quiet hour and stuff, people would make glass swans, glass hammers, all kinds of things and then sell them down the pub and stuff.
And it was like their way of expressing themselves and as well as making a few quid on the side.A few extra bob, yeah.
Oh, that's wonderful.And what about the apprentices?I was hearing that they had some kind of initiation rite for the apprentices.There was.I was told that they'd hang them up.What, from the loading apparatus?That's right.
It's really high, isn't it?Or they'd put them in a barrel and throw them in the canal.
What, to see if they survived, and then if they survived, they were all part of the team?That's right.I suppose.Well, it takes all sorts, doesn't it?It's not all benevolent, is it? Now the Cone's just round here.We've come to quite a busy road now.
So, shall we head round there?Because I'm desperate to see a Cone.I want to see the Cone.After all this talk of Cones, we need to see one. You might just hear we're going past a lock.You can hear the water pouring past the lock on the canal.
So when you'd finished writing Voices from the Cones, did you do a performance for the glassworkers?
We had some wonderful shows just before
lockdown where a lot of the former glassworkers and their families attended and we had images on stage, video and images in the background and you see people standing up and saying, oh that's my granddad, look that's it, seeing that immediate connection as we were retelling the stories and then it lives on today, you know, I'm touring this show now that brings the two glass related albums together, A Night of Glass and
Often at the gigs, people will approach me afterwards and tell me of their relative or friend that lived in the Black Country or in the Starbridge area and was involved in the glass industry.
There's a legacy and I'm really pleased to have been able to crystallise some of the stories in song.
We're looking at a cone, which is an incredible brick structure stretching up into the sky.You'd see loads of these around here, presumably, in the past.
Yeah, the Starbridge landscape was adorned with glass cones, just like this one.This is the Red House glass cone.Malcolm Andrews, the last apprentice, told me it was his job to pop down the hill to the pub and collect the beer for the elders.
One day, he was accused of drinking bits out of the beer, because when he lined up the bottles on the wall, they weren't all level.But he explained, the wall's uneven, it's really hard for it, and that was just what he was given.
But he thought, I'm going to get my own back here.And he started to take a little sip, just to even him out, and making sure he got his full of beer.
And so that's what's reflected in your song?Free beer.
And as a young lad, we were sent down the road to the pig or the fish for the beer.I carry it back up and put it down to one of the seniors said, son, get in. You've been drinking out of that?"I said, I have.He said, you have.
And the next time he sent me down to the pub I lined up them bottles on the wall and I had a sip from this and a sip from that.A little bit of foam before the beer goes flat.A sip from this and a sip from that.Pots set in, such a sweaty task.
Free workers beer.There's common sense in that. till the health and safety with my free bed
The crowd has gathered to offer a free beer, I think.Thank you very much.
Dan, it's been amazing to hear all these stories and these songs and to see these wonderful sights and to experience, above all, to experience the glass floating, I have to say.
But what a great day and what a great thing you've done by bringing us here.Thank you very much indeed.
My pleasure.I can't wait to see what you made.Me neither.
I think it's going to arrive in the post.Let's hope the Royal Mail delivers it carefully.Thank you so much for coming to Stourbridge.It's been a pleasure.It's been wonderful.
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