The Rolling On Project
We are visiting all the acoustic music sessions and venues in the UK we can find over the next few years (242 as at July 2024) for a book and film celebrating the movement we are all part of and checking out the health of community based folk-roots music making in the UK.
Our own local, the Plough and Fleece Community Pub in Horningsea, Cambridge has echoed with the sound of stories and songs since the mid 1700’s and it’s this unbroken tradition that led the session regulars to write the lyric for ‘Rolling On’ opposite and this song provides the focal point for the project, sharing that and other songs with like minded musicians, music lovers, promoters, venues and sessions whilst soaking up the fabulous live acoustic music on offer in every corner of the UK.
Rolling On has been contributing to the Access Folk research project lead by Faye Hield at Sheffield University. This fascinating 5 year project is looking at ways on of increasing participation and community representation in the world of folk singing.
The first Access Folk Symposium took place on the 24th-25th February 2023 with a wide range of guest speakers (including us), workshops, singarounds and a ceilidh plus guest appearances from the Unthanks, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, George Samson and many others from the folk world.
‘Rolling On’ and the Milkmaid Folk Club Songwriting award 2017
Our Rolling On song won the Bury St Edmunds based folk club songwriting competition and here’s MFC’s John Bosley presenting the prize to Tony Phillips
We record the local punters belting out the chorus and then patch them in with the ultimate idea of creating the world record for the most number of people singing on a single track. Here’s Rolling On with around 500 people singing the chorus…
Check out the Get Involved page and see below for the latest mix with over 500 people joining in. As at December 2021, we are up to 1794 punters from 98 different venues! We are adding details of all of the places (and the lovely people) we have visited on the places page as we go and a big thanks to all of the folks who have taken part so far.
We will be using the book page to serialise the first draft of the book and and the stories page for anyone that just wants to relate their own individual story about their own experiences in sessions, singarounds and clubs. So – feel free to email your recordings, pics, blurb and website links over to us and we’ll add it all to the mix.
Hope to see you in your local soon….
Tony, Peter, Andrew and Ali – your Rolling On team
Thanks to Sue Marchant at BBC Radio Cambridge for the Rolling On interview.