Melting Vinyl: Bringing the cream of live music to Brighton.

Melting Vinyl and the Quarterhouse presents:
SALT: Festival of the Sea and Environment.
Three Acres And A Cow, A History Of Land Rights And Protest In Folk Song And Story

Telling the history of land, housing and food in Britain is always a multi-stranded narrative. On one side we have the history of enclosure, privatisation and the dispossession of land based communities; on the other we have the vibrant histories of struggle and resistance that emerged when people rose up and confronted the loss of their lands, cultures and ways of life.

These multiple histories go largely undocumented in the literature of the times, often expressed simply as a hanging here and an uprising there, yet in the music and stories of the people they take on a different life.

‘Three Acres And A Cow’ connects the Norman Conquest and Peasants’ Revolt with Brexit, fracking and our housing crisis via the Enclosures, English Civil War, Irish Land League and Industrial Revolution, drawing a compelling narrative through the radical people’s history of England in folk song, story and poem.

Part TED talk, part history lecture, part folk club sing-a-long, part poetry slam, part storytelling session… Come and share in these tales as they have been shared for generations.

Rachel Rose Reid
Rachel Rose Reid is a Kohenet Hebrew Priestess. As a writer, storyteller & performance artist she has performed at the Southbank Centre, Nuyorican Poets Café (NY), Latitude Festival and The Barbican; received commissions from BBC Radio 3, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Billy Bragg and collaborated with the Roundhouse Experimental Choir and Dizraeli & the Small Gods.

She also creates rituals allowing people to share and make stories, often connecting urban-dwelling participants with folk customs. The Lonely Planet blog named her community ritual ‘The Willesden Green Wassail’ as “one of the UK’s most inspirational winter events”.

“Reid’s a consummate performer and remains very much one to watch.” The Independent
“A contemporary storyteller of immense skill and breathless conviction.” The Times

Robin Grey
Robin is a Buddhist, social historian, folk musician and land rights campaigner based in Sheffield.

He has composed five albums of thoughtfully literate, gently-experimental folk music which have been streamed over 4m times, winning him fans as far away as Brazil, Korea and Russia. His music has ended up in a cult Korea gay movie, a French TV comedy series and other suitably random locations. With his live show Robin has graced the boards of Cecil Sharpe House, The Union Chapel amongst many others.

“Robin has a lovely fresh approach to the folk genre. A honeyed yet clear voice and his lyrics are arresting. A real treasure.” The Londonist

Quotes
“The history lesson I’ve always wanted. Thank you for a very entertaining/life changing Saturday evening. I’ll be looking at the land and listening to folk songs in a very different way”- Emily

“Thank you for being a highlight of my festival… Fun, enlightening and empowering; at times I was joining in with the songs and at other times I was moved to tears.” – Eliot