In November 2018, a collective of brilliant and respected musicians and singers are taking to the road to tell the moving story of Britain’s forced child migrants.
The concert, presented as a series of songs, narration, slides, audio and film clips, premiered at last year’s Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, where it was described as “without doubt the most memorable concert of the festival.”
The songs in this concert were recently heard as part of a major BBC Radio 2 dramatisation of Michael Morpurgo’s book Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, which deals with the same subject. The radio drama, including the music, starred Toby Jones and Jason Donovan and reached an estimated audience of 6 million listeners.
Forced child migration is a little known and dark part of the history of Britain. More than 100,000 children from Britain were sent overseas (to places including Australia and Canada) with the promise of finding a better life. Some did find the happy lives they longed for; many others found only hardship, abuse and loneliness The Ballads of Child Migration is a tribute to those children, some of whom were sent abroad as recently as 1970.
After each concert there will be a short Q&A session where members of the audience can ask questions of the performers and other experts about child migration.
This tour is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and is produced by 7digital – the digital music and radio services company that also produced the BBC Radio version of Alone on a Wide Wide Sea.
Barbara Dickinson will be narrating with help from an award winning mix of folk musicians including Chris While & Julie Matthews, John McCusker, Boo Hewerdine, Jez Lowe and The Bad Pennies, O’Hooley & Tidow, Andy Seward, Mike McGoldrick and Andy Cutting
“A poignant and powerful history lesson with an impressive cast” – The Guardian
Tour dates as follows:
November 2018
Tuesday 13th – Saint James Church, Clerkenwell, London
Wednesday 14th – Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Thursday 15th – The Albert Hall, Nottingham
Friday 16th – Floral Hall, Southport
Tickets available from http://www.ticketline.co.uk / 0844 888 9991 from Friday 8th June (For Gulbenkian – http://www.thegulbenkian.co.uk / 01227 831 493)
