Check out the current issue 74 of Shindig! magazine for a feature by Adam Scovell on the music of the classic folk horror films WitchfinderGeneral and The Blood on Satan’s Claw. The article is an abriged extract from an essay to be published in the next upcoming book from FHR/ Wyrd Harvest Press, Harvest Hymns covering the music of folk horror.
The book will be a mixture of articles, album reviews and interviews from the likes of Maddy Prior, John Cameron, Jim Jupp, Jonny Trunk, Sharon Kraus, Jim Moon, Rennie Sparks, Drew Mullholland and many more, and we hope to have it available early in the New Year. As a teaser here’s all the albums reviewed in the book:
Shindig! magazine, devoted to "the most far-out ’60s sounds through country-rock and folk to soul and electronic experimentation", has long championed folk horror worthy music and related films and TV. You’ll have to hurry to pick up a copy of this issue in the shops though, the next issue is going to be available on the 4th of January.
Shindig! subscriptions and back issues if you miss this one are available here:
Well apart from Mark Almond and Michael Morpurgo looks like Queen Liz got her gongs wrong again …soooo in Honour of service to Folk Horror Revival, folk horror and nearby grazing fields, we present our New Year Horrors list …
Welcome to The Order of Double Denim
Arise Sirs and Dames … –
Mike Heron of The Incredible String Band
Adam Scovell
Elaine Edmunds of Decadent Drawing
Adam Nevill
Reece Shearsmith
Julianne Regan
Matt Wingett
Mark Goodall director of Holy Terrors
Grey Malkin
Scott Lyall
Paul Guernsey
Robert Curran (Dr Bob)
Sara Dennis
Ashley Thorpe director of Borley Rectory
Candia McKormack of Inkubus Sukkubus
John Linwood Grant
Rebecca Denniff
Kt Mehers of the Folk Horror Revival Emporium
George Firth
George Cromack
Sally-Anne Huxtable
Steve Cannell of the Midnight Mugs
Andrew Pattenden of Hare and Tabor
Bob Fischer
Kit Lewis
Neil Snowdon
Murdo Eason
Christopher Josiffe & Gef the talking mongoose
Andy Roberts
Tim Turnbull
Phil Breach
Chris Lambert of the Black Meadow
Stephen Brotherstone & Dave Lawrence – Scarred for Life
Pongo the Skunk
Also Big Thanks to All FHR Admins, Jonas Hasall, Dan Hunt, Cat Irving, Louse Mitchell, The Mother of Crows, Leásungspell: A Fool’s Tale, La Rosa Hotel, Summerhall, Sharron Kraus, English Heretic, Pye Corner Audio, Esk Audio Ltd, The Soulless Party, The Psychogeographical Commission, Ian Rankin, Ghost Box, Folklore Tapes, The Whitby Bookshop, The Flash Mummer’s Play, Mackie, The Met Lounge & Ballroom, Pagan Dawn magazine, Shindig magazine, Fortean Times, The Hepworth Wakefield, Lintons Printers and to Erin Christina Sorrey again for putting up with my varied woes and bursts of enthusiasm for Folk Horror Revival again over the year.
In Memoriam ~ Rick Parfitt. John Hurt. Richard Adams of Watership Down. Geoffrey Bayldon / The Crowman / Catweazle. George A. Romero. Miguel Ferra. Carol Lee Scott / Grotbags. Adam West / Batman. Peter Sallis. Michael Bond. John Noakes. Deborah Watling. Hywel Benett . Brent Briscoe. Keith Chegwin. Rodney Bewes. Michael Parkes. Leo Baxendale. Jonathan Demme. Warren Frost. Fats Domino. Chris Cornell. Malcolm Young. The Log Lady. Zephyr 🖤
And all others who have passed into the Choir Invisible. R.I.P
A final reminder that the Hark: Alternative Yule Art Exhibition at the Stuart Duckett Design Store in Whitby runs until 2nd January 2018
Last chance to see this collective of great art in the beautiful coastal town of Whitby this season.
Features such talents as ~
Jeffrey Knopf
Julia Jeffrey – Stonemaiden Art
Marc Beattie
Decadent Drawing
Eolith Designs
Erin Sorrey – Glass Coffin
Charlotte Pettifer
Jennifer Weston
Andy Paciorek
Maria Silmon
Drawing in Dark
John Chadwick
Angela Chalmers
Patricia Shaw
& more (apologies to those not named – rush to get this final hark posted)
Over the festive period, to be found at Stuart Duckett Design Store, Bar, Gallery and Record Lounge in Whitby, is a rather fine assemblage of dark seasonal art on exhibit. Over the next few days (Yuletide festivities withstanding) we will showcase some of the marvelous artists on show. But go see the work for yourself, they also do some damn fine coffee.
Erin Sorrey is a Canadian poet and artist. She attended The Ottawa School of Art, and works in a variety of medium.
She is inspired by the ocean, the ethereal shadows, the romance in the depraved, the beauty in the abyss, and her own lunacy.
Andy Paciorek is a graphic artist, drawn mainly to the worlds of myth, folklore, symbolism, decadence, curiosa, anomaly, dark romanticism and otherworldly experience. He is fascinated both by the beautiful and the grotesque and the twilight threshold consciousness where these boundaries blur. The mist-gates, edges and liminal zones where nature borders supernature and daydreams and nightmares cross paths are of great inspiration.
Over the festive period, to be found, at both Stuart Duckett Design Store, Bar, Gallery and Record Lounge and Rusty Shears in Whitby, is a rather fine assemblage of dark seasonal art on exhibit. Over the next few days (Yuletide festivities withstanding) we will showcase some of the marvelous artists on show. But go see the work for yourself, both venues do great coffee and Rusty Shears has gin & cakes and Stuart Duckett has vinyl and also a glam rock art exhibition on show too. ☺
Involved in both the curation and exhibiting her own damn fine fine art is Elaine Edmunds of Decadent Drawing
After a long career as a senior practitioner in NHS mental health Elaine relocated to Whitby at the end of 2010 to focus on developing arts practice.
Her interest in themes relating to Folk Horror started in early life with a happy childhood experience of Hammer House of Horror, Pan and Fontana books, and Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
Her enlightened parents also allowed her to read Man Myth and Magic as a comic. As a social psychiatrist she has always been interested in social anthropology and comparative folklore.
Decadent Drawing was started by Elaine and husband Laurence Mitchell in 2013.
Decadent Drawing bring an alternative approach to the experience of art. Formed at the beginning of 2013 partly as a response to the limitations of art education. They started with monthly themed life drawing sessions which quickly developed into multi-media events including music, film, drama, photography and creative writing but still with a focus on presenting opportunities to draw.
Since February 2015 they have been concentrating on larger events such as Whitby Krampus Run and the Dark Arts series of exhibitions.
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Also exhibiting is Eolith Designs. Though perhaps most noted for sculptural work, Eoilth is exhibiting and selling 3d prints at Whitby this season.
Eolith: from the Greek eos, meaning dawn, and lithos, meaning stone.
Eolith Designs’ sculptures take their inspiration from the dawn and dusk of civilisations; from real and imagined histories, and the world of myth and legend. Bringing together things that were, things that could have been, and things that may be …
Rusty Shears: 4 Silver St, Whitby YO21 3BU
Stuart Duckett Design Studio, Bar & Gallery: 1 Mulgrave Pl, Whitby YO21 3EU
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
Folk Horror Revival are delighted to round off the Winter Ghosts event with a double bill of eerie films with a Whitby connection.
Firstly we will be screening Michael J. Smith and Maxy Bianco’s chillingly beautiful short film Stranger on the Shore.
“Stranger on the Shore is a new cycle of video-poems by Michael Smith and Maxy Neil Bianco, looking at the bohemian eccentricity of Hastings, the dockside desolation of the Thames Estuary, and the spooky enchantment of Whitby. The films feature an original soundtrack by Andrew Weatherall & Nina Walsh.”
“It’s different by the sea. A bit strange even. Just as the coast lies at the ends of England geographically, it’s also at the edges of our society and the margins of our culture, a place of transgression, eccentricity, colour and romance. Stranger on the Shore is a cycle of video-poems exploring these liminal spaces; this film looks specifically at the spooky enchantment of Whitby, the most romantic evocation of the old idea that it’s grim up North.”
Following this, presented by director Mark Goodall will be the film-
Arthur Machen was a dark fiction writer who has been unfairly overlooked but who inspires fanaticism by those who know his work. Much more than just Britain’s answer to HP Lovecraft, America’s 20th century master of the macabre, Machen was the writer who constantly saw fantasy and horror in the everyday landscape of Victorian England.
Filmed in Whitby, Goodall’s hauntingly atmospheric movie, finally brings to the screen some of the eerily beautiful tales of this great imaginative writer.
Join us at Winter Ghosts – Tickets and full line up – Here
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
Folk Horror Revival are happy to announce that headlining the music sessions of Winter Ghosts will be Inkubus Sukkubus
Inkubus Sukkubus formed in the summer of 1989, when Candia Ridley and Tony McKormack met at college in Gloucestershire, studying graphic design and photography. They soon discovered they shared interests in witchcraft, magick and folklore, as well as similar tastes in music. The band went on to tour extensively, including Russia, USA, Australia, Mexico, Scandinavia and Europe, and have to date released 22 albums, their latest being ‘Belas Knap: Tales of Witchcraft and Wonder, vol 2’.
Having grown up watching with delight, through barely parted fingers, British films such as Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man, folk horror has both shaped them as individuals as well as inspiring the music they create. They will be joined by like-minded friends to perform an acoustic set of some of their more dark folkloric songs for Winter Ghosts.
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
As part of the Winter Ghosts event at Whitby, there will be a session of book readings at the Rusty Shears Gin Cafe from 11am to 1pm on Saturday 16th December.
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
Two Bobs from the Boro region will bring marvelous stuff to Winter Ghosts.
Leasungspell: A Fool’s Tale at the Metropole Ballroom, Whitby 17th December
An epic poem set to live music and recorded sound effects performed by Bob Beagrie, Sara Dennis, Kev Howard, Peter Lagan and S.J.. Forth, recounting the journey of Brother Oswin’s from the monetary of Herutea at Hartlepool to Whitby in the year 657 AD. Oswin’s carries secret letters from St Hild and must keep to the wee wegs as he traverses the wildoren, haunted by the ancient spirits of the land and his own grim ghosts. The piece brings the Wyrd of the dark ages to life in a strange language that is uncannily familiar.
Bob Beagrie will also be reciting poetry with Jane Burn from their book This Game of Strangers earlier in the day on 17th December at the Rusty Shears book readings.
Also appearing at the Metropole will be Bob Fischer, who will invoke a strange and sinister familiar figure from the past to bring us some eeriness to shiver our timbers.
Bob Fischer is an experienced writer and broadcaster specialising in an eclectic blend of popular culture and folklore. His debut book Wiffle Lever To Full! (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) was an offbeat travelogue of British science-fiction and cult TV conventions (‘A joyous, irreverent celebration of Britain’s secret love of the bizarre’ – Gay Times) and, in more recent years, he has written for the Fortean Times magazine, covering such diverse subjects as the hauntology movement, the books of Alan Garner, and the folklore and mythology of the North Yorkshire moors. This latter subject also formed the basis of his radio documentary Worms, Witches and Boggarts, broadcast on BBC Tees in 2014. He continues to broadcast regularly for BBC Tees, and is currently using his love of Northern folklore as the inspiration for his first novel, Juddwick. It’s a work in progress… but that’s what they all say, isn’t it?
For tickets and full line up information – Winter Ghosts
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
Appearing at the Whitby Met as part of the Winter Ghosts event, Folk Horror Revival
are pleased to present the sinister, seasonal sounds of Equestrian Vortex featuring Melmoth the Wanderer
Born from their mutual love of classic 1970s and 80s horror cinema this duo construct soundtracks to horror movies that were never made. Hailing from the dankest, seediest corners of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the Equestrian Vortex are here to take us into the darkest recesses of the minds of H.P. Lovecraft, Dario Argento, Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, Fabio Frizzi, John Carpenter, Lucio Fulci, Jess Franco, Jose Larraz, Jorge Grau and Jean Rollin. They are an occult celebration of the hidden practices of magick and the supernatural, using their love of vintage analogue synthesizers to inspire their paeans to the darker side of culture.
Darren Charles is curator of Unearthing Forgotten Horrors, a radio show with the intent of reviving interest in classic horror movie soundtracks, wyrd psychedelia, freaky folk, and anything that doesn’t fit into the mainstream musical landscape. He has been a member of the Folk Horror Revival admin team from the group’s humble beginnings and has recently completed an MA in History from Newcastle University with a focus on 17th century witchcraft trials in England and Scotland. Darren is currently working on several projects for Folk Horror Revival, and has spoken at Cambridge University, The British Museum, Summerhall, Edinburgh and The Hepworth, Wakefield on the subject of Folk Horror. Antony Wealls has been producing music since his late teens under various guises and genres. He is currently involved in collaborative projects The Equestrian Vortex and The Mortlake Bookclub, he also produces solo material as Time Destroys All Things.
Integrating with The Equestrian Vortex will be Melmoth the Wanderer evoking a spirit of Jamesian ghosts of Christmas
`Shadow master and guardian of the weird and wayward’…`remixer supremo and visionary seer of the sonic pastures that lurk beyond the imagination.’ Melmoth wanders the outer reaches of The Field Bazaar collecting sounds, snatches of spoken word and music that seems as old as the timeworn paths he treads. When the burden of these sounds becomes too much for our devout and religious miscreant he visits the bedlamites, the insomniacs and those truly alone offering his audio harvest as comfort from the silence.
The Melmoth the Wanderer mixes are the result of these nocturnal visits to their creator Jim Peters – a self-confessed Audio Relic Hunter locked into the sounds of the night, the light and the half-light.
Melmoth is honored to be counted as one of The Mortlake Bookclub and has also mixed and remixed for The Hare and the Moon, The Soulless Party, Zeuk, Sproatly Smith and many other artists on the Reverb Worship label.
Visuals for the performance will be provided by Adam Scovell, author, filmmaker and creator of the Celluloid Wickerman blog
Adam Scovell is a writer and filmmaker from The Wirral, currently based in London. He is studying for a PhD in film music and transcendental style at the University of Liverpool and Goldsmiths. He has produced film and art criticism for more than 20 digital and print publications including The Times and The Guardian, runs the Blog North Awards-nominated website Celluloid Wicker Man, and has had film work screened at FACT, The Everyman Playhouse, Hackney Picturehouse and Manchester Art Gallery. In 2015, he worked with Robert Macfarlane on an adaptation of his Sunday Times bestseller, Holloway. At present he is filming a number of projects on super-8 film including a collaboration with Iain Sinclair, and has published a book on folk horror for Auteur Publishing.
Folk Horror Revival & Urban Wyrd Project ⨘ 