Lockdown Streaming List

Lockdown Streaming List

Hello strange folk, We hope you're all well and staying indoors. To follow up on our Lockdown Reading List we posted a few weeks a go we've put together a Lockdown Streaming List. Below is a mixture of videos (old and new) that we find particularly interesting in one way or another.

We hope it passes some time

The Future of Things Past - Woodfilm for Channel Four (1986)

The Future of things past was a Two-part documentary about the customs and traditions of Britain. Directed by Elizabeth Wood. Wassailing, BurryMan, Cheese rolling, Tar Barrel Parade, Apple Trees & Shotguns, Haxy Hood, Hare Pie Scramble, Sailors Hobby Horse, Padstow Mayday, Penny Hedge, Beating the Bounds, Garland day, Turning the Devils Stone, Barrel Rollers. For those of you that are new to British Folklore and Customs then this is a good starting point.

The Modern Antiquarian - Julian Cope (2000)

A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain is a guide book written by Julian Cope, published in 1998. It is written as a travelogue of British megalithic sites, including Stonehenge and Avebury. Types of artifacts catalogued include stone circles, hillforts and barrows. This documentary was based on said book.If this sparks some interest on this topic and you want to take it further you could take a look at The Modern Antiquarian website, a community-based project with over 1300 contributors that invites the user to add their own knowledge & experiences of the ancient sites of the UK & Ireland.

The Sun and the Serpent - Hamish Miller & Paul Broadhurst (1991)

'The Sun and the Serpent' was a book published about the discovery of the St Michael Line, a ley line that runs from the far west in cornwall to the east in Norfolk linking up a series of ancient sacred sites. This film, which is a 'recreation' of Miller and Broadhurst's original project. There's an interesting interview with Paul Broadhurst about this and other interesting subjects on the Art Cornwall Blog.

Sound of the Suburbs Cornwall - John Peel (1999)

Channel 4 TV series aired in 1999 that featured radio legend John Peel meeting local musicians in different parts of the UK. In this particular epsisode he hangs out with Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert in the Gwennap Pit.

For the Love of Subterranea - Jon Ronson (1997)

Jon Ronson sits down and talks to a group of 'out there' Subterrania enthusiasts, Victorian sewers and corpses are some of the topics of discussion.

Shirley Collins - The British Masters (2017)

As mentioned in our previous post Shirley Collins is one of the most important figures in British Folk music. This video is a recent interview with her from VICE's British Masters series. The series is brilliant, not only because of the incredible line-up of guests they've managed to corral, but because the interviews are conducted by music writer, founder of The Quietus and personal HERESY hero John Doran, whose research, manner, and genuine passion for the subjects he approaches are honest, insightful and funny in balanced measure. The Shirley interview is a joy, and I imagine it a difficult task to watch it and avoid falling a little in love with her. Other episodes in the series worth a mention, although most are pretty brilliant, are John Liden, Roots Manuva, Tricky, Stuart Braithwaite, and a batshit crazy interview with the late Mark E Smith.

The Smudging Ritual - Richard Dawson Tour Portrait 2015 (2016)

Following on from important folk music makers, the next video is a portrait of Richard Dawson's 2015 tour. Dawson is one of our favourite musicians and this video helped to cement him as one of our favourite people too. We first came across his work, as I imagine a lot of others did, after hearing his modern folk-like telling of a school trip in his song The Vile Stuff. His music makes us re-evaluate our perception of what folklore can be, an approach that we make our best efforts to follow as well. I couldn't help but add a second Dawson clip, not only because it is an absolutely incredible performance of his song Ghost of a Tree, but because it was filmed and performed in one of HERESY's favourite pubs in the whole of England, a special and important place to us, The Bell Inn, Bath.

The Sound Of Progress - Pop Music according to Foetus, Coil, Current 93 & Test Dept (1988)

David Tibet is another musical figure that we have taken inspiration from over the last few years. As we have delved into the world of neo-folk Tibet is repeatedly established as a pillar of the genre. Although his work output is sometimes intimidatingly prolific, interviews with him are scarce. The two we have linked are quite in contrast with one another. The first is a short film made about his work as a visual artist, following an exhibition in the US. While some of the people who are asked to chime in about his work are a bit cringey, the moments with him, and his artworks, are great. The second link is a Dutch video made about four groups from the industrial music scene (that later spawned neo-folk), Coil, Current 93, Test Dept., and Foetus (or 'Scraping Foetus off the Wheel' which was its form at the time of the film). Tibet makes an appearance with some pretty bleak and fierce conclusions about the state of the Western world.

Finally it felt apt to include some video about another HERESY hero and champion of folklore, Simon Costin. Costin provides a rather incredible link between the worlds of fashion and folklore. As set-designer, amongst other things, he worked very closely with Alexander McQueen for a number of years, and remained his friend until his death. The scope of his professional career is remarkable, but on top of that he is also the founder of the museum of British Folklore and the director of the museum of witchcraft and magic. We have been lucky enough to have been involved with a couple of his projects in the past, and he is both sweet and humble. The first video is an interview with him by SHOWstudio, and the second is a quite tense interview he conducted with the co-founder of Alexandrian Wicca, Maxine Sanders. There is also a really nice lecture of his here, if you don't mind not seeing the slides and quite dicey camera work.