NEXT PERFORMANCES
MIDDLETON, MANCHESTER - OCTOBER 17th - OLD SCHOOL ROOMS TICKETS HERE SOLD OUT
MANCHESTER FOLK FESTIVAL - MARCH 20th - HALLE ST MICHAEL’S TICKETS HERE
Peter’s Field is a new work, consisting of 15 original songs and a spoken narrative, commemorating the Peterloo Massacre. On 16th August 1819, 60,000 working people came from all over Lancashire to attend a mass meeting in Manchester advocating parliamentary reform and to hear the famous radical speaker Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt. The magistrates sent in the yeomanry cavalry and 15th Hussars to disperse the unarmed crowd and aid the arrest of the speakers. At least 18 people were killed and hundreds injured in the scenes that followed. Women were deliberately targeted and many of the victims recognised their assailants.
The songs and narrative draw from the hundreds of eyewitness accounts.
Peter’s Field was premiered at FolkEast Festival in Suffolk on the 205th anniversary of Peterloo, on 16th August 2024 featuring Eliza Carthy, Sam Carter and Sean Cooney
The piece will be recorded in the autumn of 2024 with more details shortly on future performances
Social media reactions to the premiere
“It was amazing and left me in tears”
“what a wonderful and inspirational performance…we were totally mesmerised by your brilliant account of this tragic story; and historic event beautifully told in words, songs and music. Absolutley fantastic!”
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