Funds for Hospice
This month, Graeme's widow, Mrs Annie Miles, has handed over the sum of £520 to Teesside Hospice, Middlesbrough, where Graeme spent his last weeks This is a fantastic amount, raised through the sales of Graeme's songbooks and CDs sold through the website and at concerts. It also goes to show that Graeme's work is still loved, appreciated and sung everywhere. Purchases of his songs in the last few months have included copies of Dark December which was sung at Christmas last year by a London choir and The Hedger which was taken up by the national hedgers' association. Copies of his songs also went to the USA.
Graeme Miles Bursary Concert
A highly successful concert took place in the handsome gothic Middlesbrough Town Hall on Friday. February 12th, 2016, to raise money for the Graeme Miles Bursary which is administered by the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
Artists taking part included many friends and admirers of Graeme's work - Mike Nicholson, Martyn Wyndham-Read, Robin Dale, The Young 'Uns and The Wilsons. MC was Kevin Hall. The Rachel Hamer Band were this year's recipients of the award and also sang, as well as The Unthanks, who help to administer the bursary and who organised the concert. A similar one took place the following night at Band in the Wall, Manchester, with the same artists taking part. Present at both was Graeme's widow Annie.
Graeme Miles Bursary Award
The Graeme Miles website is delighted to announce that the Newcastle-based Rachel Hamer Band is this year's recipient of The Graeme Miles Bursary Award made by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). This is the second memorial bursary, worth £1,200, to be given. Money is raised through fund-raising concerts. The band will use the money to record its first album.
Dark December and The Green Man
Great to know that the Rose & Crown Singers, named after the pub in Walthamstow, performed Graeme's winter song Dark December on 20th of that month. I bet it sounded fabulous being sung by a choir.
Some other news: Graeme's song When The Green Man Walks The Forest was due to be inserted in the 2015 winter edition of the National Hedgelaying Society (www.hedgelaying.org.uk). Member Derrick Hale, who requested the song, said: 'I have known, enjoyed and been emotionally stirred by Graeme Miles songs for many years. You might like to know that my family know Graeme Miles's songs too and my very young grandsons one day thought of their own seasonal countryside figures, prompted by the Green Man song.'
Sea Coal
The Graeme Miles official website is both tickled pink and highly delighted with the announcement that Camerons' Brewery of Hartlepool has brought out a special festival ale for this year's Hartlepool Folk Festival which takes place on Headland between the 16th and 18th of October.
The traditional milk stout has been named Sea Coal and is brewed using chocolate and crystal malts to give it a distinctive, coal-black colour.