Jul 18: J Willgoose Esq

Last week it was the first PTI Geography Symposium down at the RGS. 

The event organiser John Wilkinson had selected a diverse range of speakers.

One of them was a musician he loved, and coincidentally so do I. I've blogged quite a few times about Public Service Broadcasting here on the blog.

Image Toby Smith - I'm in the blue shirt between them....

Here's an early promotional film, just ahead of the single release of 'Everest' - from 2012. 

It was about this time that I first started listening to them and saw them live for the first time shortly after.

John had persuaded J Willgoose Esq from the band to talk about the influence of people and place on the music that he had produced.

It was great to meet him in person and sit next to him at the evening meal.

We heard about:

• the support that he had from the BFI to use their footage
• the process of turning footage from the 1953 Everest expedition into a song called 'Everest' 
• the changing nature of the band's work over the years - although they 
• the focus on the local and the 'human' and dare I say it the everyday in their work - for example on the 'Every Valley' album they didn't mention Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill, but told stories of families, women and others... 
• the joy of working with James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers
• the importance of connecting with place and people
• the fact that he got some of his guitars from Ely
• that he studied 'A' level Geography

He didn't mention two EPs that I really like on contrasting themes: the building and launch of the Titanic, and a Dutch ice-skating race...

PS: Since then, J Willgoose Esq has posted this interesting piece on Patreon describing the creative process with respect to the use of SUNO... an AI tool I have mentioned before... He also describes the creation of 'Spitfire'.

May 31: J. Willgoose - a geographer's sensibility

A cross posting from my LivingGeography blog.

 

"Yeah, just walk about and try and get a feel for a place rather than have some arbitrary tick list of, you know, things I’ve got to do or my life isn’t complete because…oh well, that doesn’t really work for me. Like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve done New York’. Who’s “done” New York? Nobody’s bloody done New York, don’t be ridiculous."

J Willgoose Esq. on his plans when visiting New York

J Willgoose Esq is the songwriter and guitarist/keyboard player for the band 'Public Service Broadcasting'.

This excellent post outlines the recording of the band's album 'Every Valley' in South Wales - the location for the album's concept and narrative about the growth and decline of the coal industry and its impact on the local communities and the people who make them.

Here's one of the standout songs from the album, which is all excellent.

I was intrigued to see his name appearing on the speaker list for the PTI Geography Symposium which takes place in July.

Music can be seen as an example of "imaginative geographies" in that piece of music.

I am looking forward to the session that will take place on the first day of the Symposium.

Tickets and full details are available here. You also get to hear me speak as well.

Source: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8502b52a-5929-41bd-ae20-9225de4858ff/files/dcz30ps97t

May 5: Music related CPD - John Wilkinson and Miranda Sawyer

I mentioned earlier in the blog that John Wilkinson was a key inspiration in the development of this blog, and he has now developed a new online PTI course which may be of interest.

This online course will explore how Britpop can be used as a lens to examine the socio-economic, political, and cultural landscape of 1990s Britain. It will consider how music reflects identity, lived experience, and sense of place, while addressing the challenge of maintaining academic rigour when using music in Geography.

Participants will learn how to use music as a focused and effective stimulus for discussion, grounded in the cultural zeitgeist of the 1990s, and aligned with the Key Stage 5 Changing Places curriculum.

Aims of the course:

• Apply the nexus of music, sport and politics to explore the socio-economic, political and cultural landscape of 1990s Britain
• Examine how Britpop reflects cultural identity, lived experience, and sense of place

This course is for:

• Teachers delivering Changing Places at Key Stage 5
• Teachers seeking to enrich their teaching of place, identity and cultural geography
• Teachers interested in using cultural material (e.g. music) to deepen geographical thinking

The guest speaker is Miranda Sawyer. Miranda is an English journalist and broadcaster. Besides her features and radio criticism for the ‘Observer’, her writing has appeared in ‘GQ’, ‘Vogue’ and the ‘Guardian’. She is a regular arts critic in print, on television and on radio. She broadcasts on Radio 4 and for The Culture Show (BBC TV) and was the host of the popular podcast, Papercut. She is on the board of Tate Members, the South London Gallery and Sound Women. 

Her latest book, Uncommon People, was published in 2024.

It's a good book. I got it out of the library and a review is forthcoming in a future post.

Book using this link.

Free for PTI Unlimited schools & PTI member departments. Just £20+VAT for non-members.

Mar 19: J Willgoose Esq. and Psychogeography

In early July, the Prince's Teaching Institute is organising a Geography symposium.

It's shaping up to be an excellent couple of days down at the RGS in London (or up depending on where you are based), organised by the PTI with the RGS and GA.

Details and booking list are here.

The programme for the event is beginning to be shared on the website. The event includes overnight accommodation and breakfast and a gala dinner with guest speakers.

Yesterday morning, I checked the updated programme and was very excited to see these two sessions side by side on the draft programme for the event. Obviously there's my session on Everyday Geographies. I've got plenty of ideas to share there, drawing on my Presidential lecture (you'll find lots of related posts on the blog).

But it seems I'm also the 'support act' for J. Willgoose Esq.

If you're not familiar with him, he is the founder, guitarist and songwriter for the most excellent Public Service Broadcasting. 

You will also know if you read the blog regularly that I have posted frequently about them, and also on my World of Music blog.

Their albums tend to focus on one theme: the Race for Space, the decline of Welsh coal or the last flight of Amelia Earhart, as well as an album celebrating Berlin.

And here's their take on Everest - a song which always closes their live shows...

I'm very much looking forward to this session, and acting as 'support act'. I'll also be talking about them in Sheffield at the GA Conference in April.

Finally here's a TED talk that he gave, suggesting that live music should go wrong...